thereunto Provided always and be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary Legal Power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being Military Officers concerning the Administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers or any of them do levy conduct imploy or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary Command from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons and that if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in Warlike manner or otherwise to the number of Thirty persons and shall not forthwith separate and disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or Command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person and persons not so separating and dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason being first Declared guilty of such Offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall offend herein shall be incapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided also further That the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and imploying the Forces of that City for the Defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the sitting of this present Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act for justifying the Proceedings of Parliament in the late War and for Declaring all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other Proceedings against it to be void WHereas the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament have been necessitated to make and prosecute a War in their just and lawful Defence and thereupon Oaths Declarations and Proclamations have been made against them and their Ordinances and Proceedings and against others for adhering unto them and for executing Offices Places and Charges by Authority derived from them and Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions for the causes aforesaid have been had and made against some of the Members of the Houses of Parliament and other his Majesties good Subjects and Grants have been made of their Lands and Goods Be it therefore Declared and hereby Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same That all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or made against both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any the Members of either of them for the causes aforesaid or against their Ordinances or Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from the said Houses or either of them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions and Grants thereupon made and all other Proceedings for any the causes aforesaid had made done or executed or to be had made done or executed whether the same be done by the King or any Judges Justices Sheriffs Ministers or any others are void and of no effect and are contrary to and against the Laws of the Realm And be it further Enacted and hereby Declared by the Authority aforesaid That all Judges Justices of the Peace Maior Sheriffs Constables and other Officers and Ministers shall take notice hereof and are hereby prohibited and discharged in all time to come from awarding any Writ Process or Summons and from pronouncing or executing any Judgment Sentence or Decree or any way proceeding against or molesting any of the said Members of the two Houses of Parliament or against any of the Subjects of this Kingdom for any the causes aforesaid Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning Peers lately made and hereafter to be made BE it Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That all Honour and Title of Peerage conferred on any since the twentieth day of May 1642. being the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament be and is hereby made and declared Null and Void Be it further Enacted and it is hereby Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Person that shall hereafter be made a Peer or His Heirs shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning the Adjournments of both Houses of Parliament BE it Declared and Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same That when and as often as the Lords and Commons assembled in this present Parliament shall judge it necessary to adjourn both Houses of this present Parliament to any other place of the Kingdom of England than where they now sit or from any place adjourn the same again to the place where they now sit or to any other place within the Kingdom of England that then such their Adjournment and Adjournments to such places and for such time as they shall appoint shall at all times and from time to time be valid and good any Act Statute or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Adjournment or Adjournments to be had or made by reason or colour of this Act shall be deemed adjudged or taken to make end or determine any Session of this present Parliament And they also commanded us to present to Your Majesty these ensuing Propositions Heads of the Propositions 1. That the new Seal be confirmed and the old Great Seal and all things passed under it since May 1642. be made void 2. That Acts be passed for raising Moneys to satisfie Publick Debts 3. That Members of both Houses put from their places by the King be restored 4. That the Cessation in Ireland be made void and the War left to both Houses 5. That an Act of Indemnity be passed 6. That the Court of Wards be taken away and such Tenures turned into common Soccage 7. That the Treaties between the English and Scots be confirmed and Commissioners appointed for Conservation of the Peace between the Kingdoms 8. That the Arrears of the Army be paid out of the Bishops Lands forfeited Estates and Forests 9. That an Act be
The Love of whom the Prince had received by the Eye and She of Him by the Ear. For having formerly received impressions from the relations of His Gallantry when she was told of His passing through Paris She answered as it is reported that if He went to Spain for a Wife He might have had one nearer hand and saved Himself a great part of the labour In the midst of these Preparations for War and Love An. 1625 King James died at Theobalds Sunday March 27. An. 1625. and Prince CHARLES was immediately proclaimed at the Court-Gate King of Great Britain France and Ireland and so throughout all the three Kingdoms with infinite Rejoycings The people expecting all the benefits of the happiest Government under Him whose private and youthful part of Life had been so spent that it had nothing in it to be excused and where the eager Inquisitors for matter of Reproach met with no satisfaction An argument of a solid Vertue that could hold out against all the Vices of Youth that are rendred more impetuous by Flatteries and Plenty which are continually resident in great Courts For had any Debauchery polluted His earlier Days it had been published by those who in scarcity of just Accusations did invent unimaginable Calumnies Nor could it have been hid for in a great Fortune nothing is concealed but Curiosity opens the Closets and Bed-chambers especially of Princes and discovers their closest Retirements exposing all their Actions to Fame and Censure Nor did the King deceive their hopes they being the happiest People under the Sun while he was undisturbed in the administration of Justice His first publick Act was the Celebrating His Father's Funeral whereat He Himself was Chief Mourner contrary to the Practice of His Royal Predecessors and not conformable to the Ceremonies of State Either preferring Piety to an unnatural Grandeur or urged by some secret Decree of Providence that in all the Ruines of His Family He should drink the greatest Draught of Tears or His Spirit presaging the Troubles of the Throne He would hallow the Ascent to it by a Pious Act of Grief When He had pay'd that Debt to His Deceased Father He next provided for Posterity and therefore hastened the coming over of His Dearest Consort whom the Duke of Chevereux had in His Name Espoused at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris and He receiving Her at Dover the next Day after Trinity-Sunday at Canterbury began his Conjugal Embraces A Lady of most excellent Endowments who assumed to Her self nothing in His Good Fortune but the Joy and in His Evil bore an equal share for She reverenced Him not His Greatness Thus having dispatched the Affairs of His Family He applies Himself to those of His Kingdoms which too much Felicity had made unmanageable by a moderate Government And He seemed not so much to ascend a Throne as enter upon a Theatre to wrestle with all the difficulties of a corrupted State whose long Peace had softned almost all the Nobless into Court-pleasures and made the Commons insolent by a great Plenty The Rites and Discipline of Religion had been blotted out by a long and uninterrupted Prosperity and Factions crept from the Church into the Senate which were made use of by those that endeavoured the alteration of Government and the Resolves of that Council were the Dictates of some heady Demagogues who fed the Vulgar with hopes of Novelty under the name of Liberty so that the King could not endure their Vices nor they His Vertues whence came all the Obstructions to His Designs for Glory and the Publick Good The Treasury had been exhausted to satiate the unquiet and greedy Scots and the People were taught not to supply it unless they were bribed with the blood of some Minister of State or some more advantages for Licentiousness Each of these single would have ennobled the Care of an Ordinary Prudence to have weathered out but when all these conspired with the Traiterous Projects of Men of unbounded and unlawful hopes they took from Him His Peace and that which the World calls Happiness but yet they made Him Great and affording Exercises for His most excellent Abilities rendred Him Glorious The different states of these Difficulties when like Clouds they were gathering together and when they descended in showres of Blood divide the King's Reign into two parts The first could not be esteemed days of Peace but an Immunity from Civil War The other was when He was concluded by that Fatal Necessity either to part with His Dignity and expose His Subjects to the Injuries of numerous Tyrants or else to exceed the calmer temper of His peaceful Soul and make use of those necessary Arms whereby he might hope to divert if possible the Ruine of Church and State which He saw in projection In the first part He had no Wars at home but what was in the Houses of Parliament which though their first Institution designed for the production of just Counsels and assistances of Government yet through the just Indignation of Heaven and the practices of some unquiet and seditious Persons became the Wombs wherein were first conceived and formed those monstrous Confusions which destroyed their own Liberty caused our Miseries and the King's Afflictions His first Parliament began June 18. At the opening of which the King acquainted them with the necessity of Supplies for the War with Spain which they importunately had through His Mediation engaged His Father in and made it as Hereditary to Him as the Crown His Eloquence gave powerful Reasons for speedy and large summs of Money did also audit to them the several disbursements relating both to the Army and Navy that He might remove all Jealousies of misimployment and give them notice how well He understood the Office He had newly entred upon and how to be a faithful Steward of the Publick Treasure But the Projectors of the alteration of Government brought into Debate two Petitions one for Religion the other for Grievances formed in King James's time which delayed the Succours and increased the Necessities which at last they answered but with two Subsidies too poor a stock to furnish an Army with yet was kindly accepted in expectation of more at the next Session For the Infection seising upon London the Parliament was adjourned till August when they were to meet at Oxford and at that time He passed such Acts as were presented to Him At the next Session he gave a complying and satisfactory answer to all their Petitions and expected a Retribution in larger Subsidies towards the Spanish War But in stead of these there were high and furious Debates of Grievances consultations to form and publish Remonstrances Accusations of the Duke of Buckingham Which the King esteeming as reproaches of His Government and assaults upon Monarchy dissolves that Assembly hoping to find one of a less cholerick complexion after His Coronation This inauspicious Meeting drew after it another Mischief the miscarriage of the Designs upon Spain For
intentions in His former Messages He doth now declare that if His Personal repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue He will then leave the nomination of the Persons to be intrusted with the Militia wholly to His two Houses with such power and limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by His Majesty's Commissioners at Vxbridge the sixth of February 1644. for the term of seven years as hath been desired to be given immediately after the conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security His Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hac vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admiral Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during life or quam diu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accountable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion His Majesty doth further declare That by the Liberty offered in His Message of the 15 present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom He intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civil Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the total removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree that upon the conclusion of Peace there shall be a general Act of Oblivion and free Pardon past by Act of Parliament in both His Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions His Majesty's Kingdom of Scotland and His Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected His Majesty declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to His Kingdom of Scotland And now His Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed His intentions and desires of making a happy and well-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that Happiness by opposing of so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the World his intention and design can be no other than the total subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at Our Court at Oxon the 29. of January 1645. XXI From OXFORD Feb. 26. MDCXLV VI. For an Answer to the Former For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty needs to make no excuse though He sent no more Messages unto you for He very well knows He ought not to do it if He either stood upon punctilio's of Honour or His Own private Interest the one being already call'd in question by His often sending and the other assuredly prejudg'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offered He having therein departed with many His undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto Him to the preservation of His People His Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delayes and once more desires you to give Him a speedy Answer to His last Message for His Majesty believes it doth very well become Him after this very long delay at last to utter His Impatience since the Goods and Blood of His Subjects crie so much for Peace Given at our Court at Oxford the 26. day of February 1645. XXII From OXFORD Mar. 23. MDCXLV VI. Concerning His Return to the Houses For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. NOtwithstanding the unexpected Silence in stead of Answer to His Majesty's many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to obtain their ends by Force rather than by Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting in His duty to God and in what He oweth to the safety of His people if he should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth that so He may have the Faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that Liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will immediately disband all His Forces and dismantle all His Garrisons and being accompanied with His Royal not His Martial Attendance return to His two Houses of Parliament and there reside with them And for the better security of all His Majesties Subjects He proposeth that He with His said two Houses immediately upon His coming to Westminster will pass an Act of Oblivion and free Pardon and where His Majesty will further do whatsoever they will advise Him for the good and Peace of this Kingdom And as for the Kingdom of Scotland His Majesty hath made no mention of it here in regard of the great loss of time which must now be spent in expecting an answer from thence but declares that immediately upon His coming to Westminster He will apply himself to give them all satisfaction touching that Kingdom If His Majesty could possibly doubt the success of this offer He could use many arguments to perswade them to it but shall only insist on that great One of giving an instant Peace to these afflicted Kingdoms Given at our Court at Oxford the 23. of March 1645. XXIII From SOUTHWELL May 18. MDCXLVI With his further Concessions for the obtaining of Peace For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty having understood from both His Houses of Parliament that it was not safe for Him to come to London whither He had purposed to repair if so He might by their advice to do whatsoever may be best for the good and Peace of these Kingdoms until He shall first give His consent to such Propositions as were to be presented to Him from them and being certainly informed that the Armies were marching so fast up to Oxford as made that no fit place for Treating did resolve to withdraw Himself hither only to secure His Own Person and with no
and still must pursue those ends and undergo that Charge for which it was first granted to the Crown it having been so long and constantly continued to Our Predecessors as that in four several Acts of Parliament for the granting thereof to King Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and Our blessed Father it is in express terms mentioned to have been had and enjoyed by the several Kings named in those Acts time out of mind by authority of Parliament And therefore upon these reasons We held it agreeable to Our Kingly Honour and necessary for the safety and good of Our Kingdom to continue the receipt thereof as so many of Our Predecessors had done Wherefore when a few Merchants being at first but one or two fomented as it is well known by those evil Spirits that would have hatched that undutiful Remonstance began to oppose the payment of Our accustomed duties in the Custom-house We gave order to the Officers of Our Customs to go on notwithstanding that opposition in the receiving of the usual duties and caused those that refused to be warned to attend at the Council-board that by the wisdom and authority of Our Council they might be reduced to obedience and duty where some of them without reverence or respect to the honour and dignity of that presence behaved themselves with such boldness and insolency of speech as was not to be endured by a far meaner Assembly much less to be countenanced by a House of Parliament against the body of Our Privy Council And as in this We did what in honour and reason was fit for the present so Our thoughts were daily intentive upon the re-assembling of Our Parliament with full intention on Our part to take away all ill understanding between Us and Our people whose loves as We desired to continue and preserve so We used Our best endeavours to prepare and facilitate the way to it And to this end having taken a strict and exact survey of Our Government both in the Church and Commonwealth and what things were most fit and necessary to be reformed We found in the first place that much exception had been taken at a book intituled Appello Caesarem or An Appeal to Caesar and published in the year 1625. by Richard Mountague then Batchelour of Divinity and now Bishop of Chichester and because it did open the way to those Schisms and Divisions which have since ensued in the Church We did for remedy and redress thereof and for satisfaction of the Consciences of Our good people not only by Our publick Proclamation call in that Book which ministred matter of offence but to prevent the like danger for hereafter reprinted the Articles of Religion established in the time of Queen Elizabeth of famous memory and by a Declaration before those Articles We did tie and restrain all Opinions to the sense of those Articles that nothing might be left for private fancies and innovation For We call God to record before whom We stand that it is and always hath been Our hearts desire to be found worthy of that Title which We accompt the most glorious in all Our Crown Defender of the Faith neither shall We ever give way to the authorizing of any thing whereby any Innovation may steal or creep into the Church but preserve that unity of Doctrine and Discipline established in the time of Queen Elizabeth whereby the Church of England hath stood and flourished ever since And as We were careful to make up all breaches and rents in Religion at home so did We by Our Proclamation and Commandment for the execution of Laws against Priests and Popish Recusants fortifie all ways and approaches against that foreign Enemy which if it have not succeeded according to Our intention We must lay the fault where it is in the subordinate Officers and Ministers in the Country by whose remissness Jesuites and Priests escape without apprehension and Recusants from those convictions and penalties which the Laws and Our Commandment would have inflicted on them For We do profess that as it is Our duty so it shall be our care to command and direct well but it is the part of others to perform the Ministerial Office And when We have done Our Office We shall account Our Self and all charitable men will accompt Us innocent both to God and Men and those that are negligent We will esteem as culpable both to God and Us and therefore will expect that hereafter they give Us a better accompt And as We have been careful for the setling of Religion and quieting the Church so were We not unmindful of the preservation of the just and ancient Liberties of Our Subjects which We secured to them by Our gracious Answer to the Petition in Parliament having not since that time done any Act whereby to infringe them but Our care is and hereafter shall be to keep them intire and inviolable as We would do Our own Right and Sovereignty having for that purpose enrolled the Petition and Answer in Our Courts of Justice Next to the care of Religion and of Our Subjects Rights We did Our best for the provident and well ordering of that aid and supply which was granted Us the last Session whereof no part hath been wastfully spent nor put to any other use than those for which it was desired and granted as upon payment of Our Fleet and Army wherein Our care hath been such as We chose rather to discontent Our dearest Friends and Allies and Our nearest Servants than to leave Our Souldiers and Mariners unsatisfied whereby any vexation or disquiet might arise to Our people We have also with part of those Moneys begun to supply Our Magazines and stores of Munition and to put Our Navy into a constant form and order Our Fleet likewise is fitting and almost in a readiness whereby the Narrow Seas may be guarded Commerce maintained and Our Kingdom secured from all forein attempts These Acts of Ours might have made this impression in all good minds that We were careful to direct Our counsels and dispose Our actions so as might most conduce to the maintenance of Religion honour of Our Government and safety of Our People But with mischievous men once ill-affected Seu bene seu malè facta premunt and whatsoever once seemed amiss is ever remembred but good endeavours are never regarded Now all these things that were the chief complaints the last Session being by Our Princely care so seriously reformed the Parliament re assembled the twentieth of January last We expecting according to the candor and sincerity of Our own thoughts that men would have framed themselves for the effecting a right understanding between Us and Our people But some few malevolent persons like Empiricks and lewd Artists did strive to make new work and to have some Disease on foot to keep themselves in request and to be imployed and entertained in the Cure And yet to manifest how much offences have been diminished the Committees
they please to call it of the tenth of June will surely believe the Peace of this Kingdom to be extreamly shaken and at least the King himself to be consulted with and privy to these Propositions But We hope that when Our good Subjects shall find that this goodly pretence of the Defence of the King is but a specious bait to seduce weak and inconsiderate men into the highest Acts of Disobedience and Disloyalty against Us and of Violence and Destruction upon the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom they will no longer be captivated by an implicite Reverence to the name of both Houses of Parliament but will carefully examine and consider what number of persons are present and what persons are prevalent in those Consultations and how the Debates are probably managed from whence such horrid and monstrous Conclusions do result and will at least weigh the Reputation Wisdom and Affection of those who are notoriously known out of the very horrour of their Proceedings to have withdrawn themselves or by their skill and violence to be driven from them and their Counsels Whilst their Fears and Jealousies did arise or were infused into the people from Discourses of the Rebels in Ireland of Skippers at Roterdam of Forces from Denmark France or Spain how improbable and ridiculous soever that bundle of Informations appeared to all wise and knowing men it is no wonder if the easiness to deceive and the willingness to be deceived did prevail over many of Our weak Subjects to believe that the Dangers which they did not see might proceed from Causes which they did not understand But for them to declare to all the world That We intend to make War against Our Parliament whilest We sit still complaining to God Almighty of the Injury offered to Us and to the very Being of Parliaments and that We have already begun actually to levy Forces both of Horse and Foot whilest We have only in a Legal way provided a smaller Guard for the security of Our own Person so near a Rebellion at Hull than they have had without lawful Authority above these eight Months upon imaginary and impossible Dangers to impose upon Our peoples Sense as well as Understanding by telling them We are doing that which they see We are not doing and intending that they all know as much as Intentions can be known We are not intending is a boldness agreeable to no power but the Omnipotence of those Votes whose absolute Supremacy hath almost brought Confusion upon King and People and against which no Knowledge in matter of Fact or Consent and Authority in matter of Law they will endure shall be opposed We have upon all occasions with all possible Expressions professed Our fast and unshaken Resolutions for Peace And We do again in the presence of Almighty God Our Maker and Redeemer assure the World that We have no more thought of making a War against Our Parliament than against Our own Children that We will maintain and observe the Acts assented to by Us this Parliament without Violation of which that for the frequent assembling of Parliaments is one and that We have not or shall not have any thought of using any force unless We shall be driven to it for the security of Our Person and for the defence of the Religion Laws and Liberty of the Kingdom and the just Rights and Privileges of Parliament And therefore We hope the Malignant Party who have so much despised Our Person and usurped Our Office shall not by their specious fraudulent insinuations prevail with Our good Subjects to give credit to their wicked Assertions and so to contribute their Power and Assistance for the ruine and destruction of Us and themselves For Our Guard about Our Person which not so much their Example as their Provocation inforced Us to take 't is known it consists of the prime Gentry in Fortune and Reputation of this County and of one Regiment of Our Trained Bands who have been so far from offering any Affronts Injuries or Disturbance to any of Our good Subjects that their principal end is to prevent such and so may be Security can be no Grievance to our People That some ill affected persons or any persons have been employed in other parts to raise Troops under colour of Our Service or have made large or any offers of Reward and Preferment to such as will come in is for ought We know and as We believe an Untruth devised by the Contrivers of this false Rumour We disavow it and are confident there will be no need of such Art or Industry to induce Our loving Subjects when they shall see Us oppressed and their Liberties and Laws confounded and till then We shall not call on them to come in to Us and to assist Us. For the Delinquents whom We are said with a high and forcible hand to protect let them be named and their Delinquency and if We give not satisfaction to Justice when We shall have received satisfaction concerning Sir John Hotham by his legal Trial then let Us be blamed But if the Design be as it is well known to be after We have been driven by force from Our City of London and kept by force from Our Town of Hull to protect all those who are Delinquents against Us and to make all those Delinquents who attend on Us or execute Our lawful Commands We have great reason to be satisfied in the Truth and Justice of such Accusation lest to be Our Servant and to be a Delinquent grow to be terms so convertible that in a short time We be left as naked in Attendance as they would have Us in Power and so compel Us to be waited on only by such whom they shall appoint and allow and in whose presence We should be more miserably alone than in Desolation it self And if the seditious Contrivers and Fomenters of this Scandal upon Us shall have as they have had the power to mis-lead the major part present of either or both Houses to make such Orders and send such Messages and Messengers as they have lately done for the apprehension of the great Earls and Barons of England as if they were Rogues or Felons and whereby Persons of Honour and Quality are made Delinquents merely for attending upon Us and upon Our Summons whilst other men are forbid to come near Us though obliged by the Duty of their Places and Oaths upon Our lawful Commands 't is no wonder if such Messengers are not very well intreated and such Orders not obeyed Neither can there be a surer and a cunninger way found out to render the Authority of both Houses scorned and vilified than to assume to themselves merely upon the Authority of the Name of Parliament a power monstrous to all Understandings and to do Actions and to make Orders evidently and demonstrably contrary to all known Law and Reason as to take up Arms against Us under colour of defending Us to cause Money to be brought in to
Oath upon Our Subjects to execute all the Commands of both Houses They waste and consume the Mony given by Act of Parliament for the discharge of the great Debt of the Kingdom and for the relief of the bleeding Condition of Ireland imploy the Mony brought in by the Adventurers and those Men who are levied by Our Authority and Commission for the preservation of Our miserable Subjects there to serve them in a War against Us whereby all Men may see what reason We had not to consent to a Warrant dormant under pretence of Levies for Ireland which might have furnished them with Men to fight against Us as the same Pretence hath done with all the Arms We had in Our Magazines They commit such of Our Subjects to Prison whom they are pleased to suspect as the Earl of Portland and for no other reason but that they believe them loyal to Us censure and degrade nine Lords at a clap for obeying Our Summons and coming to Us when scarce that number concurred in the Judgment and declared two others Enemies to the Commonwealth taking their Votes from them without so much as summoning them to answer any Charge brought against them They presume to take Tonnage and Poundage by a pretended Ordinance without Our Consent though they have so often pressed it against Us that We took it without theirs and so now dispence with a Praemunire made this Parliament as they have formerly done with Treason Lastly to shew into what hands they intend the Government of this Kingdom shall be put they have reduced the business of the whole Kingdom from both Houses of Parliament into the hands of a few desperate persons who have the power committed to them to act this Tragedy without acquainting the Houses and so have gotten the Authority of King and both Houses of Parliament to destroy all Three make Orders to break up Houses take away Plate and Money because 't is possible the Owners wish it with Us at York send Troops of Horse to make War upon Us in what Counties they please and commit such unheard-of Acts of Oppression and Injustice as no Story can parallel where the least form of Government hath been left that all Our good Subjects may see by what Rules they shall live and what Right they are like to enjoy when these Men have gotten the Sway who in the infancy of their Power and when there is yet left some memory of and reverence to the Laws under which their Fathers lived so happily dare leap over all those known and confessed Principles of Government and Obedience and exercise a Tyranny both over Prince and People more insupportable than Confusion it self And for all this impudent Injustice odious to God and Man what is objected against Us That We will not be advised by Our Parliament In what what one Proposition that is evidently for the ease of Our Subjects have We denied That We have granted many is confessed We will not consent that the Ordinance of the Militia shall be executed and obeyed that is We will not allow that both Houses of Parliament shall make Laws and impose upon the Property and Liberty of Our Subjects Without Our Consent which if We should yield to upon the same pretences of Necessity a word fatal to this Kingdom and the publick good the House of Commons might as well and would quickly come to make Laws without the House of Peers and the common People without either nor are willing that those Men who have discovered all Malice to Our Person and dis-esteem and irreverence of Our Office shall be legally qualified to take up Arms against Us when they shall be thereunto provoked by their Malice or Ambition There can be no new thing said in this Argument We must refer Our good Subjects to Our several Answers Declarations and Proclamations in that point only it will be worth their considering that this extraordinary unheard-of extravagant Power was assumed in a case of peremptory Necessity for the prevention of imminent Danger in the beginning of March how long it was in design before is understood by Sir Arthur Hesilrigge his Bill long preceeding whether any such Danger hath been since discovered and whether unspeakable Calamities have not already and are not like to ensue from that Fountain We wish it were not too apparent And if those Fears and Jealousies which seem to make that Ordinance necessary were indeed real and honest that in truth nothing were desired but putting the Kingdom into a posture that is that all Our Loving Subjects might be provided with Arms and dexterous in the using them if any Invasion or Rebellion should be is not all this Care taken and all this Security provided for by the Commission of Array What honest end can that Ordinance have which is not obtained by the execution of and obedience to that Commission But 't is true the power is not in those hands nor like to be imployed to those uses 't is now intended Who hath not heard these Men say That the alteration they intend and is necessary both in Church and State must be made by blood Are not the Principles by which they live destructive to all Laws and Compacts Is not every thing Necessary they think so and every thing lawful that is in order to that Necessity Sure if Our good Subjects were throughly awake in this business they would think they had much more cause to thank Us for denying this Ordinance than for granting all that We have granted What is there else We do not think Sir John Hotham hath dealt well with Us in keeping Our Town from Us nor do take it kindly that We are robbed of Our Magazine and Munition but think of recovering both by Force because We cannot have them otherwise which will be an actual levying War against Our Parliament This Argument is sufficiently vexed too Our good Subjects will read the Messages Answers Votes and Declarations in this Case and We are sure upon the grounds laid to justifie this Treason no Subject in England hath a House of his own which may not to morrow be given to Sir John Hotham for as long a term as they think fit and he may be sent to morrow to murther Us and be no Traitor and they who shall shut the door against him shall be Delinquents Is there no more Yes We will not submit to those Nineteen dutiful and modest Propositions which have been lately thrown at Us as the necessary means of removing Jealousies and Differences and as the last Complement of all their Scorns and Injuries that Posterity may see to what a tameness We were brought when such things were asked of Us We will not be content that all Our Officers and Ministers of State be they never so faithful to Us so affectionate to their Country never so wise never so honest shall be immediately removed from Us and their places be disgraced and undone and in their rooms these Gentlemen who have
Foreign Power to invade this Kingdom is from having the Countenance Authority and Approbation of the two Houses of Parliament The great Industry and ill Arts used by those who have since been principal Instruments of the present Rebellion to bring in Persons of their Faction into the House of Commons the admitting and receiving such who were neither lawfully chosen nor lawfully returned by their Country and the putting and keeping out others whose Opinions were not liked the reprehending reproaching and imprisoning of Members for speaking freely according to their Consciences in matters in debate the posting and setting up mens Names in publick places and proscribing them as Enemies to their Country who dissented in the Houses in opinion in matters debated and being complained plained of no reparation granted the sitting at unparliamentary hours thereby wearying and tiring many Members from attendance and so in a thin House altering and reversing the resolution taken in a full House the refusing to receive and suppressing Petitions against Persons in favour though in point of Bribery and corruption in Judicatory and the like of other Petitions from whole Counties for the preservation of the Government of the Church as from Notinghamshire and Somerseshire whilst others against it were received with great countenance and approbation from mean unknown People the getting with great labour and Faction several hands to Petitions from Counties and then framing new Petitions at London and annexing the hands formerly gotten in the Country to those Petitions of which they who subscribed their hands know nothing as in the Petition of Buckinghamshire and the setting names in London to Petitions in the name of as if they had been subscribed in remote Counties the usurping of Jurisdictions to supersede Acts of Parliament and to dispense with the breach of Laws in force the suffering undutiful and disloyal language against the Sacred Person of the King without so much as Reprehension and the denying His Majesty's Negative Voice we insist not so much on though very prejudicial and scandalous to the Privileges and Honour of Parliament as on those Acts of Force and Violence which are contrary and destructive to the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament Shortly after His Majesty returned from Scotland there being a very long debate in the House of Commons concerning an unparliamentary Remonstrance to be published to the People of the State of the Kingdom which many of us then thought might prove prejudicial to the Peace thereof Captain Venne then a Member of the House of Commons who had before bragged of having brought down the People upon the two Houses and so drawn Resolutions from them sent Notes in writing under his Hand into the City that the People should come down to Westminster for that the better part of the House was like to be over-powered by the worser part whereupon both at that time and some days after Multitudes of the meanest sort of people with weapons not agreeing with their condition or custom in a manner very contrary and destructive to the Privilege of Parliament filled up the way between both Houses offering Injuries both by words and actions to and laying violent hands upon several Members proclaiming the Names of several of the Peers as evil and rotten-hearted Lords crying out many hours together against the established Laws in a most tumultuous and menacing way This action of Captain Venne's was complained of to the House of Commons and Witnesses offered to prove it a fellow who had assaulted and reproached a Member of the House of Commons in those Tumults was complained of and shewed to the House in the number of those who brought a Petition to the Bar and yet in neither of these cases Justice or so much as an Examination could be obtained Upon a suggestion and pretence of Danger and suit made to His Majesty a Guard was allowed and appointed by Him for the Security of both Houses shortly after this Guard was refused and discharged by themselves and a new Guard appointed by them without His Majesty's Consent thereby to awe all those who concurred not with them A legal Writ issuing out by the direction of the House of Peers under the Great Seal of England to prevent those Tumults which daily infested both Houses the Justices of the Peace for executing that Writ according to their Oaths were imprisoned by the House of Commons A Commission under the Great Seal of England for enquiry after Riots committed in Southwark was likewise superseded by an Order of the House of Commons and when the Lords desired by several Messages that the House of Commons would joyn with them in a Declaration against Tumults they refused or neglected to joyn with them it being said by Mr. Pym in the House of Commons God forbid we should dishearten our Friends who came to assist us And albeit some of the Lords professed that if the People were again drawn down in that tumultuous manner they would no more come to the House and albeit an Order was made that in such a case the House should be presently adjourned yet those Tumults again appearing that Order though urged by several Lords was not suffered to be executed The House of Commons having desired the House of Peers to join with them in desiring His Majesty that the Militia of this Kingdom might be put into such hands as both Houses did confide in and this desire having been put to the Question and carried negatively by much the major part of the Lords it being again resumed at another time contrary to the course of Parliament the debate was begun with a Declaration made by several of those Lords against whom that Question was twice carried by Votes and that by much the major part that whosoever refused in this particular to joyn with the House of Commons were in their opinions enemies to the State words destructive from the Liberty and Freedom of debate During the time that this business of the Militia was in debate that is before it had the approbation and consent of the House of Peers a Petition in a tumultuous manner was delivered to the House of Lords in the name of the Knights Gentlemen Free-holders and others the Inhabitants of the County of Hartford reckoning up the causes of the present Fears Troubles and Distractions and amongst them the want of Compliance in that Honourable House with the House of Commons in entertaining those many good motions and passing those necessary Bills presented to them from that House for the publick good and desiring liberty to protest against all those as Enemies to the publick who refused to joyn with the Honourable Lords whose endeavours were for the publick good and with the House of Commons for the putting the Kingdom into a posture of Safety under the Command of such persons as the Parliament should appoint Several Petitions of the same nature particularly one under the Title of the Knights Gentlemen Free-holders and other Inhabitants of the
the present Rebellion raised in this Kingdom against His Majesty and that all His Majesty's Subjects are bound by their natural Allegiance and the Oaths lawfully taken by them to the utmost of their power to resist and repress the same and particularly the Army now under the Command of the Earl of Essex and all other Armies raised or to be raised without His Majesty's Consent under pretence of the two Houses of Parliament And we do disclaim all Votes Orders and Declarations in countenance or maintenance of the said Armies and Declare That no Oath or Covenant voluntarily taken or inforced doth or can bind or dispense with the breach of those other Oaths formerly and lawfully taken to His Majesty and that all those who aid assist or abett this horrid and odious Rebellion are and ought to be accounted and pursued as Traitors by the known Laws of the Land That we utterly detest and disclaim the Invitation which hath been made to His Majesty's Subjects of Scotland to enter this Kingdom with an Army the same being as much against the Desires as against the Duty of the Lords and Commons of England and all true-hearted English-Men And we do Declare and publish to the World That as any such Invasion or Hostile entry into the Kingdom by the Rebellious Subjects of Scotland is a direct and peremptory breach of the late Act of Pacification between the two Kingdoms so that we and all the Subjects of this Kingdom are bound by our Allegiance and by that very Act to resist and repress such Invasion And whosoever is or shall be abetting aiding or assisting to those of Scotland in their Hostile Invasion of this Kingdom ought to be looked upon as betrayers of their Country and are guilty of High Treason by the known Laws of the Kingdom And that our weak misled and seduced Country-men may no longer pay an implicite regard and reverence to the abused name of Parliament which these guilty Persons usurp to themselves and so submit to those Actions and Commands which two Houses of Parliament never so legally and regularly constituted have not Authority to require or enjoyn and since these Men will not suffer their poor Country to be restored by a Treaty to the benefit of a Parliament which would with Gods blessing easily remove these Miseries and prevent the like for the time to come we must and do declare to the Whole Kingdom That as at no time either or both Houses of Parliament can by any Orders or Ordinances impose upon the People without the Kings Consent so by reason of the want of Freedom and Security for all the Members of Parliament to meet at Westminster and there to Sit Speak and Vote with Freedom and Safety all the Actions Votes Orders Declarations and pretended Ordinances made by those Members who remain still at Westminster are void and of none effect and that as many of the Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster as have at any time consented to the raising of Forces under the Command of the Earl of Essex or to the making and using of the new Great Seal or to the present coming of the Scots into England in a warlike manner have therein broken the Trust reposed in them by their Country and are to be proceeded against as Traitors And yet we are far from dissolving or attempting the dissolution of this Parliament or the violation of any Act made and confirmed by His Majesty's Royal Assent this Parliament which we shall always maintain and defend Acts of Parliament are only in danger to be destroyed by those who undervalue and despise the Authority and Power of Acts of Parliament who therefore deny the Kings Negative Voice and neglect His Concurrence that their own Resolutions may be reputed as Acts of Parliament to the Ruine and Confusion of all Laws and Interest It is our grief in the behalf of the whole Kingdom that since the Parliament is not dissolved the Power thereof should by the Treason and Violence of these Men be so far suspended that the Kingdom should be without the fruit and benefit of a Parliament which cannot be reduced to any Action or Authority till the Freedom and Liberty due to the Members be restored and admitted and they who oppose this must be only looked upon as the Enemies to Parliament In the mean time we neither have nor shall attempt any thing for the Adjourning Dissolving or Proroguing thereof otherwise than as it may stand with the Act in that case provided Lastly we Declare That our endeavours actions and resolutions tend and are directed and shall always be directed to the maintenance of God's true Religion established by Law within this Kingdom to the defence of His Majesty's Sacred Person His Honour and just Rights to the preservation of the Liberty and Property of the Subject settled and evident by the Laws Statutes and Customs of the Realm and the just Freedom Liberty and Privilege of Parliament and that what we shall do for the defence and maintenance of all these proceeds from the Conscience of our Duty to God our King and Country without any private and sinister ends of our own and out of our sincere love to Truth and Peace the which as we have so we shall always labour to procure as the only blessed End of all our Labours And we do therefore conjure all our Country-Men and fellow-Subjects by all those precious obligations of Religion to God Almighty of Loyalty towards their Soveraign of Affection towards one another and of Charity and Compassion towards their bleeding Country to assist and joyn with us in the suppressing those Enemies to Peace who are so much delighted with the Ruine and Confusion they have made that they will not so much as vouchsafe to Treat with us that all specious Pretences might be taken away and the grounds of this bloody Contention clearly stated to the World If these Men with a true sence and remorse of the ill they have done shall yet return to their Duty and Loyalty they shall God willing find us of another temper towards them than they have been towards us And if the Conscience of their Duty shall not draw all our fellow-Subjects and Country-Men to joyn with us in assisting His Majesty we hope that the prudent consideration That 't is impossible to Reason for our miserable Country ever to be restored to Peace and Happiness but by restoring all just and legally-due Power and Authority into His Majesty's hands again will direct them what is fit to be done by them And if any yet shall be so unskilful and to say no worse vulgar-spirited to hope by a Neutrality and odious Indifferency to rest secure in this Storm though we shall not follow the examples of other Men in telling them that their Estates shall be forfeited and taken from them as pernicious and publick Enemies God be thanked the Law is not so supprest but that it proceeds in Attainders and Forfeitures and all Men
which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that His Majesty shall have no loss IX That an Act be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom X. The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fit XI That the King do give His Royal Assent To an Act for the due Observation of the Lords day And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom And to the Bill against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and non-Residency And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton And to an Act in like manner to be agreed upon for the suppression of Interludes and Stage-playes this Act to be perpetual And to an Act for the taking the Accompts of the Kingdom And to an Act to be made for relief of sick and maimed Souldiers and of poor Widows and Children of Soldiers And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament And to an Act or Acts of Parliament for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries and all Wardships Liveries Primer seisins and Ouster le maines and all other charges incident or arising for or by reason of Wardship Livery Primer seisin or Ouster le main And for the taking away of all Tenures by Homage and all Fines Licences Seisures and Pardons for Alienation and all other charges incident thereunto and for turning of all Tenures by Knights service either of His Majesty or others or by Knights service or soccage in Capite of His Majesty into free and common Soccage and that His Majesty will please to accept in recompence hereof 100000 pounds per annum And give Assurance of His consenting in the Parliament of Scotland to an Act ratifying the Acts of Convention of the Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservatory of Peace and the Commissioners for the common Burthens and assembled the 22 day of June 1643. and several times continued since in such manner and with such additions and other Acts as the Estates convened in this present Parliament shall think convenient XII That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the two Kingdom viz. the large Treaties the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the settling of the Garrison of Berwick of the 29. of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6. of August 1642. with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the two Kingdoms in pursuance of the said Treaties XIII That an Act of Parliament be passed to make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament and to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of Parliament to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms and the King to assist and to do no Act to discountenance or molest them therein XIV That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30. of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1. That the Persons who shall expect no Pardon be only these following RUPERT and MAURICE Count Palatines of the Rhene James Earl of Derby John Earl of Bristol William Earl of Newcastle Francis Lord Cottington John Lord Pawlet George Lord Digby Edward Lord Littleton William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Knight Doctor Bramhall Bishop of Dery Sir John Biron Knight William Widdrington Colonel George Goring Henry Jermin Esq Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Francis Doddington M. Endymion Porter Sir George Ratcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Sir John Hotham Captain John Hotham his Son Sir Henr Vaughan Sir Francis Windebanke Sir Richard Greenvile Master Edward Hyde Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddel Junior Colonel ..... Ware Sir John Strangwaies Sir John Culpeper Sir Richard Floyd John Bodvile Esq Mr. David Jenkins Sir George Strode Sir Alexander Carew Marquiss of Huntley Earl of Montross Earl of Niddisdale Earl of Traquaire Earl of Carnewath Viscount of Aubayne Lord Ogilby Lord Rae Lord Harris Lodwick Lindsey sometime Earl of Crawford Patrick Ruthen sometime Earl of Forth James King sometime Lord Ethyn Irving younger of Drunim Gordon younger of Gight Lesly of Auchintoule Sir Robert Spotswood of Dumipace Colonel John Cockram Master John Maxwel sometime pretended Bishop of Ross Master Walter Balcanquall and all such others as being processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed 2. All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or voluntarily assisting against the Parliaments or Estates of either Kingdom 3. All persons who have had any hand in the plotting designing or assisting the Rebellion in Ireland 4. That Humphry Bennet Esq Sir Edward Ford Sir John Penruddock Sir George Vaughan Sir John Weld Sir Robert Lee Sir John Pate John Ackland Edmund Windham Esquires Sir John Fitz-herbert Sir Edward Laurence Sir Ralph Dutton Henry Lingen Esq Sir William Russel of Worcestershire Thomas Lee of Adlington Esq Sir John Girlington Sir Paul Neale Sir William Thorold Sir Edward Hussey Sir Thomas Lyddel Senior Sir Philip Musgrave Sir John Digby of Nottingh Sir Henry Fletcher Sir Richard Minshal Laurence Halsteed John Denham Esquires Sir Edmund Fortescue Peter St. Hill Esq Sir Tho. Tildesly Sir Hen. Griffith Michael Wharton Esq Sir Hen. Spiller Sir George Benion Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Walgrove Sir Edward Bishop Sir Robert Owsly Sir John Maney Lord Cholmely Sir Thomas Aston Sir Lewis Dives Sir Peter Osborn Samuel Thorneton Esq Sir John Lucas John Blomey Esq Sir Thomas Chedle Sir Nicholas Kemish and Hugh Lloyd Esq and all such of the Scotish Nation as have concurred in the Votes at Oxford against the Kingdom of Scotland and their Proceedings or have sworn or subscribed the Declaration against the Convention and Covenant and all such as have assisted the Rebellion in the North or the Invasion in the South of the said Kingdom of Scotland or the late Invasion made there by the Irish and their Adherents and that the
Estates of the Parliament in Scotland or the said Commissioners of that Kingdom whereof they are Subjects and that in those cases of joynt concernment to both Kingdoms the Commissioners to be directed to be there all or such part as aforesaid to act and direct as joynt Commissioners of both Kingdoms 4. To order the War of Ireland according to the Ordinance of the 11 th of April and to order the Militia and conserve the peace of the Kingdom of Ireland XVIII That His Majesty give His assent to what the two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished XIX That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the 21. day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or Vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament and that all Honour and Title conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the 20. day of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Counsel intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared null and void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Patents were passed the great Seal before the 4. of June 1644. XX. That by Act of Parliament the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament or in the Intervals of Parliament by the Commissioners to continue during the pleasure of the said Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament during the pleasure of the said Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament during the pleasure of the aforementioned Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellors of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Judges of both Benches and of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament to continue quamdiu se bene gesserint and in the Intervals of Parliament by the aforementioned Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting The like for the Kingdom of Scotland adding the Justice General and in such manner as the Estates in Parliament there shall think fit XXI That by Act of Parliament the Education of Your Majesty's Children and the Children of Your Heirs and Successors be in the true Protestant Religion and that their Tutors and Governours be of known Integrity and be chosen by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms or in the Intervals of Parliaments by the aforenamed Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Parliaments at their next sitting and that if they be Male they be married to such only as are of the true Protestant Religion if they be Female they may not be marryed but with the advice and consent of both Parliaments or in the Intervals of Parliament by their Commissioners XXII That Your Majesty will give Your Royal Assent to such ways and means as the Parliaments of both Kingdoms shall think fitting for the uniting of the Protestant Princes and for the entire Restitution and Re-establishment of Charles Lodwick Prince Elector Palatine His Heirs and Successors to His Electoral Dignity Rights and Dominions Provided that this extend not to Prince Rupert or Prince Maurice or the Children of either of them who have been the Instruments of so much blood-shed and mischief against both Kingdoms XXIII That by Act of Parliament the concluding of Peace or War with Foreign Princes and States be with advice and consent of both Parliaments or in the Intervals of Parliaments by their Commissioners XXIV That an Act of Oblivion be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively relative to the Qualifications in the Propositions aforesaid concerning the joint Declaration of both Kingdoms with the exception of all Murderers Thieves and other Offenders not having relation to the War XXV That the Members of both Houses of Parliaments or others who have during this Parliament been put out of any Place or Office Pension or Benefit for adhering to the Parliament may either be restored thereunto or otherwise have Recompence for the same upon the humble desire of both Houses of Parliament The like for the Kingdom of Scotland XXVI That the Armies may be Disbanded at such time and in such manner as shall be agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms or such as shall be Authorized by them to that effect XXVII That an Act be passed for the granting and confirming of the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Non-user Mis-user or Abuser That the Militia of the City of London may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Major and Sheriffs for the time being to be three And that the Militia of the Parishes without London and the Liberties within the weekly Bills of Mortality may be under Command of the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council of the said City to be ordered in such manner as shall be agreed on and appointed by both Houses of Parliament That the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City of London and the chief Officer and Governour thereof from time to time be nominated and removable by the Common-Council That the Citizens or Forces of London shall not be drawn out of the City into any other parts of the Kingdom without their own consent and that the drawing of their Forces into other parts of the Kingdom in these distracted times may not be drawn into example for the future And for prevention of Inconveniences which may happen by the long intermission of Common-Councils it is desired that there be an Act that all By-Laws and Ordinances already made or hereafter to be made by the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council assembled touching the calling continuing directing and regulating of the same shall be as effectual in Law to all intents and purposes as if the same were particularly enacted by the Authority of Parliament and that the Lord Major Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council may add to or repeal the said Ordinances from time to time as they shall see cause That such other Propositions as shall be made for the City for their farther Safety Welfare and Government and shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament may be granted and confirmed by Act of Parliament Upon consideration of which Propositions His Majesty sent the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton with this Message of the 13. of December HIS Majesty hath seriously
approbation and consent of the Presbyters or the major part of them That competent maintenance and provision be established by Act of Parliament to such Vicarages as belong to Bishops Deans and Chapters out of the Impropriations and according to the value of those Impropriations of the several Parishes That for the time to come no Man shall be capable of two Parsonages or Vicarages with Cure of Souls That towards the settling of the publick Peace one hundred thousand pounds shall be raised by Act of Parliament out of the Estates of Bishops Deans and Chapters in such manner as shall be thought fit by the King and two Houses of Parliament without the Alienation of any of the said Lands That the Jurisdiction in Causes Testamentary Decimal Matrimonial be settled in such manner as shall seem most convenient by the King and two Houses of Parliament And likewise that one or more Acts of Parliament be passed for regulating of Visitations and against immoderate Fees in Ecclesiastical Courts and the abuses by frivolous Excommunications and all other abuses in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in such manner as shall be agreed upon by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament And if your Lordships shall insist upon any other thing which your Lordships shall think necessary for Reformation we shall very willingly apply our selves to the consideration thereof 13. February FOR the confirmation of the Ordinances concerning the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines and the taking the Covenant we conceive neither of them need be insisted on if the alterations of Church-Government be agreed upon between us and if they be not it will not be reasonable that we consent to those Ordinances And for the Covenant we cannot advise His Majesty to swear and sign the same nor consent that an Act of Parliament should pass for enjoyning the taking thereof by His Majesty's Subjects 13. February VVE do not yet conceive that the Directory for publick Worship delivered to us by your Lordships ought to be enacted or that it is so likely to procure and preserve the Peace of this Kingdom as the Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book already established by Law against which we have not yet received from your Lordships any Objections which Liturgy as the same was compiled by many Learned and Reverend Divines of whom some dyed Martyrs for the Protestant Religion we conceive to be an Excellent Form for the Worship of God and hath been generally so held throughout this Kingdom till within these two or three years at the most And therefore since there are no Inconveniences pretended to arise from the Book of Common-Prayer to which we conceive the Directory is not more liable and since there is nothing commendable in the Directory which is not already in the Book of Common-Prayer we conceive it much better and more conducing to the Peace of this Kingdom still to observe the said Form with such Dispensations as we have expressed in our first Paper now presented to your Lordships and if there shall be any Alterations proposed by your Lordships of such particulars in the Book of Common-Prayer as good men are scrupled at we shall willingly endeavour to give your Lordships satisfaction in those particulars but as yet can make no further or other Answer than we have already done but shall be ready to receive such Objections as your Lordships shall think fit to make against the Book of Common-Prayer and your Reasons for introducing the Directory And for the Proposition concerning Church-Government annexed to your first Paper we have no Information how that Government shall be constituted in particular or what Jurisdiction shall be established or by whom it shall be granted or upon whom it shall depend And therein also we desire further Information from your Lordships 13. February VVE desire to see the Bills for the Observation of the Lord's day for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word which are mentioned in your Lordships Paper of the 11. of Febr. we being very ready to consent to the subject Matter of those Bills We have expressed in our Paper delivered to your Lordships what we conceive fit to be done in the business of Pluralities which will prevent any inconveniences that way And when your Lordships shall give us your Demands concerning Papists and when we shall see the Acts for the regulating and reforming of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton and for the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and the Children of His Heirs and Successors in the true Protestant Religion we shall give your Lordships such Answers as shall be fit being very willing to concur with your Lordships in any good means for the suppressing of Popery and advancement of the Protestant Religion And we are well assured that His Majesty hath taken a pious care for the Education of all His Children in the true Protestant Religion and having already married one of His Children to the satisfaction we conceive of all His good Subjects we are confident in due time His Majesty will so dispose of the rest in Marriage as shall be most for the advancement of Religion and the good and welfare of all His Dominions Their Answer to the First 13. February VVHereas we expected your Lordships resolution for His Majesty's assent unto the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. we find by your Paper given in this Evening that your Lordships are not yet satisfied that the Bill should pass and you are pleased to express several Reasons and Objections against it which were at large answered and cleared at the publick Debate But what was then said by us is now by your Lordships wholly omitted nor may we in writing represent it again unto your Lordships it not being agreeable to the usage of Parliament to deliver Reasons for or against a Bill though we were willing by Conference in the Treaty to satisfy all doubts and remove all scruples which remained with you And so far were we from consenting that Episcopacy hath continued from the Apostles times by continual Succession that the contrary was made evident unto your Lordships and the Unlawfulness of it fully proved And as for that which your Lordships have propounded for uniting and reconciling all differences in the matter of Religion it is a new Proposition which wholly differs from ours is no way satisfactory to our desires nor consisting with that Reformation to which both Kingdoms are obliged by their solemn Covenant therefore we can give no other Answer to it but must insist to desire your Lordships that the Bill may be past and our other Demands concerning Religion granted The King's Commissioners Reply thereunto 13. February VVE conceive that our Answer to your Lordships concerning the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-bishops Bishops c. was so reasonable that it clearly appears thereby that the passing that
the latter part what Jurisdiction the Commissioners shall have who may determine all differences that shall be by breach of the Articles of Peace and by what Law and Rule they shall proceed to hear and determine the same is clearly set down in our further Answer of the 15. of this instant to your second Paper delivered in to us the day before The King's Commissioners Answer thereunto 17. Feb. VVE had great reason to desire a perfect and full Answer from your Lordships to our first and second Papers delivered by us to your Lordships on the 15. of Feb. and we desire your Lordships to consider how difficult a thing it is for us to give your Lordships a satisfactory Answer to your Propositions as they relate to either or both Kingdoms or to the Power of the Commissioners of both Kingdoms as they are to be a joynt Committee to hear and determine all differences according to Instructions from both Houses of Parliament of England or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland before your Lordships are pleased to inform us whether you intend the Commissioners of Scotland shall have any Power or Authority in the settling all Forces by Sea and Land in this Kingdom and what Authority they shall have and whether the Advice Instructions or Orders of the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland shall have any influence upon the affairs of this Kingdom or the Commissioners to be named according to those Propositions otherwise than as the said Advice Instructions or Orders shall be approved and confirmed by the two Houses of Parliament of England and what Jurisdiction you intend the Commissioners shall have who are to determine all differences that may occasion the breach of the Articles of the Peace and by what Law or Rule they shall proceed try and judge in the hearing and determining the same In all which particulars we are very sorry that we can receive no Answers from your Lordships for want whereof we may fail in giving your Lordships so satisfactory Answers to your Propositions as otherwise we might be enabled to do Their Reply 17. Feb. IT is clearly expressed in our Propositions delivered to your Lordships that all Forces by Sea and Land in this Kingdom are to be settled by the two Houses of the Parliament of England and in the Kingdom of Scotland by the Estates of the Parliament there and we conceive that the Advice Instructions or Orders of either Kingdom are to have no influence upon the affairs of the other but such as is and shall be mutually agreed upon by the two Houses of the Parliament of England and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland and for the Jurisdiction of the Commissioners and by what Law or Rule they shall proceed we have given your Lordships a full and clear Answer thereunto in our 5. Paper of the 15. of February The King's Commissioners Paper 17. Feb. IN the twelfth Proposition your Lordships desire an Act to be passed for confirmation of the late Treaty for the settling of the Garrison of Berwick of the 29 of Novem. 1643. which relating to the business of the Militia we hold it necessary to see before we can make our full Answer upon the whole and desire it accordingly of your Lordships Their Answer 17. Feb. AS for what concerns the Act for Confirmation of the late Treaty and for setling the Garrison of Berwick it is not now to be Treated upon but is reserved to its proper time The King's Commissioners Paper 17. Feb. VVE desire to know whether by the joynt Power mentioned in your Lordships Propositions to be given to the Commissioners for both Kingdoms to preserve the Peace between the Kingdoms and the King and every one of them your Lordships do intend any other than Military power for suppressing Forces only which is expressed after in a distinct Clause by it self and if your Lordships do intend any further Power that your Lordships would declare the same in certainty and particular Their Answer 17. Feb. VVE conceive the Power of the Commissioners mentioned in the 17. Proposition is there fully expressed to preserve the Peace betwixt the Kingdoms to prevent the violation of it or any Troubles arising in the Kingdoms by breach of the Articles and to hear and determine all differences which may occasion the same according to the Treaty and to raise Forces to resist Foreign Invasion and suppress intestine Insurrections as is more at large set down in the Proposition to which we refer your Lordships The King's Commissioners Paper 17. Feb. VVE desire to know whether the Commissioners of both Kingdoms meeting as a joynt Committee the Commissioners of each Kingdom shall have a Negative Voice so as nothing can be done without their joynt consent in matters of joynt concernment and how and by whom it shall be decided what are cases of joynt concernment to both Kingdoms Their Answer 17. Feb. IN all matters of joynt concernment the Commissioners of both Kingdoms are to act joyntly and when they shall meet as a joynt Committee upon such matters of joynt concernment the Commissioners of each Kingdom are to have a Negative Voice and in doubtful cases not expressed in the 17. Proposition to be of joynt concernment where the Commissioners cannot agree whether or no they be of joynt concernment they are to represent them to the two Houses of Parliament of England and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively to be by them determined if they be sitting and in the Intervals of Parliament if the cases be such as cannot without prejudice to both or either Kingdom admit of delay we conceive the Commissioners of each Kingdom are to act severally and to be accomptable for it to the two Houses of Parliament of England and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively at their next sitting The King's Commissioners Paper 17. Feb. VVE desire to know whether by the Propositions for settling the Forces in Commissioners to be nominated by both Houses of Parliament such as both Kingdoms may confide in your Lordships do intend that the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland shall approve or except against the Commissioners to be nominated for the Kingdom of England both at present and from time to time as the Commissioners shall dye or be removed or altered Their Answer 17. Feb. VVE conceive it to be plain by the Proposition it self that the Commissioners of both Kingdoms are respectively to be nominated by the Parliaments of either Kingdom and neither Parliament hath power to except against or approve the persons chosen by the other and we are confident there will be no cause of exception but who are chosen by either will be such as both may confide in The King's Commissioners Paper 14. Feb. VVE desire to know whether your Lordships intend by your Proposition concerning the settling of the Admiralty of Scotland by Act of Parliament to alter the inheritance of any person which is
Act of Parliament the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England or in the Intervals of Parliament by the said Commissioners to continue during the pleasure of the said Houses or in the Intervals of Parliament during the pleasure of the said Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting and that the Judges of both Benches and of the Exchequer in Ireland be nominated by both Houses of Parliament to continue quamdiu bene se gesserint and in the Intervals of Parliament by the aforesaid Commissioners to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting Together with these last Propositions they delivered the Treaty of the sixth of August 1642. and the Ordinance of the 11 th of April therein mentioned together with another of the 9 th of March which see in the Appendix N o 7 and 8. The Kings Commissioners Paper 9. February WE desire to know what your Lordships intend or expect by those Words in your first Paper concerning Ireland and His Majesty to assist since you propose to have the prosecution of the War of Ireland to be setled in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms Their Answer 9. Feb. BY the words in our Paper concerning Ireland and His Majesty to assist we conceive is to be understood the giving of His Royal Assent to such Acts of Parliament as shall be presented unto him by both Houses for raising of Moneys from the Subject and for other things necessary to the prosecution of the War in Ireland and to be further aiding by his Power and Countenance in whatsoever shall be requisite for the better carrying on of that War The King's Commissioners Paper 10. Feb. WE conceive that His Majesty had and hath Power to make a Cessation in Ireland and having upon just grounds and for the good and safety of His Protestant Subjects there and for the preservation of that whole Kingdom consented to such a Cessation we desire to be informed by your Lordships how that Cessation can be declared void without a breach of Faith and Honour in His Majesty and we are ready by Conference particularly to inform your Lordships of the Motives which induced His Majesty to consent to that Cessation Their Answer 10. Feb. WE conceive that His Majesty had not Power to make the Cessation in Ireland nor had any just grounds to do the same and therefore we insist as in our former Paper That an Act of Parliament be passed to make void the Cessation of Ireland and conceive that His Majesty is bound in Honour and Justice to consent unto the same and we are ready to confer with your Lordships as is desired and to receive your Lordships full Answer to this and the other particulars expressed in our Paper concerning Ireland After long Debates in Conference which spent the greatest part of the day touching the Motives of that Cessation and the King's Power to make it His Majesties Commissioners delivered in this Paper 10. Feb. WE have received no satisfaction or information in your Lordships Debate to alter our opinion of his Majesties Power to make the Cessation in Ireland and having carefully perused and considered the Statute alledged by your Lordships we cannot find any particular clause in that Statute neither have your Lordships mentioned any though often desired by us so to do whereby His Majesties Power to make a Cessation there is taken away and therefore we are still of opinion that His Majesty had full Power to make and consent to that Cessation And we conceive that we have given your Lordships an account of very just grounds to induce His Majesty to do the same it appearing to His Majesty by the Letters and Advice from the Lords Justices and Council of that Kingdom and of the Officers of His Majesties Army there which we have read to your Lordships and of which Letters and Advices we now give Copies to your Lordships That his Majesties good Protestant Subjects of that Kingdom were in imminent danger to be over-run by the Rebels and His Army to be disbanded for want of necessary Supplies and that there was no such probable way for their Preservation as by making a Cessation Neither have your Lordships given us any satisfying Reasons against the making the said Cessation or made it appear to us that that Kingdom could have been preserved without a Cessation and therefore we cannot apprehend how His Majesty can with Justice and honour declare the same to be void We shall be ready against the next time assigned for the Treaty touching Ireland to give your Lordships a further Answer to your Propositions concerning that Argument the Treaty concerning Ireland of the sixth of August 1642. and the Ordinance of the 11. of April 1644. which we did never see till your Lordships delivered us Copies of them making so great an Alteration in the Government there that we cannot be prepared for the present to make a full Answer to those Propositions Their Answer 10. Feb. IT is very contrary to our expectation to find your Lordships unsatisfied after those Arguments and Reasons alledged by us that His Majesty had not Power to make the Cessation with the Rebels in Ireland and that upon the perusal of the Statute it appears not to you that His Majesty had no Power to make that Cessation it is strange to us your Lordships should forget all the other Arguments used by us from the Common-Law from other Proceedings in Parliament and Circumstances as this case stands on which we still insist and do affirm that His Majesty had no Power to make or consent to that Cessation we do not see any just grounds in the Copies of the Letters given us by your Lordships for His Majesties assenting to the Cessation nor do we know by whom those Letters were written We are therefore still clearly of opinion notwithstanding all your Lordships have alledged that it was unfit for His Majesty to agree unto that Cessation being destructive to His good Subjects and to the Protestant Religion there and only for the advantage of the Popish Rebels to the high Dishonour of God the Disservice of His Majesty and evident prejudice of His three Kingdoms We therefore again desire your Lordships full Answer to what we have delivered to you concerning Ireland The King's Commissioners Paper 10. Feb. WE have given your Lordships our Reasons why we are not satisfied with your Arguments that His Majesty had not Power to make the Cessation and as upon the perusal of the Statute we can find no ground for that Opinion so your Lordships in your whole Debate have not insisted or mentioned one clause in that Statute though often desired which makes it good neither have your Lordships given us any Argument from the Common-Law other than by telling us That it is against the Common-Law
to the Committee of both Kingdoms and in case of Disagreement an Appeal lies to the two Houses of the Parliament of England in whom the power of prosecuting the War is to be settled And we must insist to desire that the Lord Lieutenant and the Judges in that Kingdom may be nominated by the two Houses of Parliament who have by sad experience to the great cost of this Kingdom expence of so much Treasure and Blood the loss of many thousand Lives there and almost of all that whole Kingdom from His Majesties Obedience and an inestimable prejudice to the true Protestant Religion found the ill consequence of a bad choice of Persons for those great places of Trust Therefore for His Majesties Honour the good of His Service the great Advantage it will be to the rest of His Majesties Dominions the great Comfort to all good Christians and even an acceptable Service to God himself for the attaining of so much good and the prevention of so much evil they desire to have the nomination of those great Officers that by a prudent and careful Election they may by providing for the good of that now miserable Kingdom discharge their Duty to God the King and their Countrey And certainly if it be necessary to reduce that Kingdom and that the Parliament of England be a faithful Council to his Majesty and fit to be trusted with the prosecution of that War which his Majesty was once pleased to put into their hands and they faithfully discharged their parts in it notwithstanding many practices to obstruct their proceedings as is set forth in several Declarations of Parliament then we say your Lordships need not think it unreasonable that His Majesty should ingage himself to pass such Acts as shall be presented to him for raising Moneys and other necessaries for that War for if the War be necessary as never War was more that which is necessary for the maintaining of it must be had and the Parliament that doth undertake and manage it must needs know what will be necessary and the People of England who have trusted them with their Purse will never begrudge what they make them lay out upon that occasion Nor need his Majesty fear the Parliament will press more upon the Subject then is fit in proportion to the occasion It is true that heretofore Persons about his Majesty have endeavoured and prevailed too much in possessing him against the Parliament for not giving away the Money of the Subject when his Majesty had desired it but never yet did his Majesty restrain them from it and we hope it will not be thought that this is a fit occasion to begin We are very glad to find that your Lordships are so sensible in your expressions of the Blood and Horrour of that Rebellion and it is without all question in His Majesties Power to do Justice upon it if your Lordships be willing that the Cessation and all Treaties with those bloody and unnatural Rebels be made void and that the prosecution of the War be settled in the two Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms and the King to assist and to do no Act to discountenance or molest them therein This we dare affirm to be more than a probable course for the remedying those mischiefs and preserving the remainder of His Majesties good Subjects there We cannot believe your Lordships will think it fit there can be any Agreement of Peace any respite from Hostility with such Creatures as are not fit to live no more than with Wolves or Tigers or any ravenous Beasts destroyers of mankind And we beseech you do not not think it must depend upon the condition of His Majesties other Kingdoms to revenge or not revenge God's Quarrel upon such perfiduous Enemies to the Gospel of Christ who have imbrued their hands in so much Protestant Blood but consider the Cessation that is made with them is for their advantage and rather a Protection then a Cessation of Acts of Hostility as if it had been all of their own contriving Arms Ammunition and all manner of Commodities may be brought unto them and they may furnish themselves during this Cessation and be assisted and protected in so doing that afterwards they may the better destroy the small remainder of his Majesties Protestant Subjects We beseech your Lordships in the bowels of Christian Charity and Compassion to so many poor Souls who must perish if the strength of that raging Adversary be not broken and in the Name of him who is the Prince of Peace who hates to be at Peace with such shedders of Blood give not your consents to the continuation of this Cessation of War in Ireland and less to the making of any Peace there till Justice have been fully executed upon the Actors of that accursed Rebellion Let not the Judgment of War within this Kingdom which God hath laid upon us for our Sins be encreased by so great a Sin as any Peace or Friendship with them whatsoever becomes of us if we must perish yet let us go to our Graves with that comfort that we have not made Peace with the Enemies of Christ yea even Enemies of mankind declared and unreconciled Enemies to our Religion and Nation let not our War be a hindrance to that War for we are sure that Peace will be a hindrance to our Peace We desire War there as much as we do Peace here for both we are willing to lay out our Estates our Lives and all that is dear unto us in this World and we have made Propositions unto your Lordships for both if you were pleased to agree unto them We can but look up to God Almighty beseech him to encline your hearts and casting our selves on him wait his good time for the return of our Prayers in settling a safe and happy Peace here and giving success to our Endeavours in the prosecution of the War of Ireland It had been used by the Commissioners during the Treaty that when Papers were delivered in of such length and so late at night that present particular Answers could not be given by agreement between themselves to accept the Answers the next day dated as of the day before although they were Treating of another Subject and these two last Papers concerning Ireland being of such great length and delivered about twelve of the clock at night when the Treaty in time was expiring so as no Answer could be given without such consent and agreement therefore the King's Commissioners delivered in this Paper 22. February YOur Lordships cannot expect a particular Answer from us this night to the two long Papers concerning Ireland delivered to us by your Lordships about twelve of the clock this night but since there are many particulars in those Papers to which if they had been before mentioned we could have given your Lordships full satisfaction and for that we presume your Lordships are very willing to
at Our Court at Tavestock the 8 th of September 1644. The Bill for Abolishing Episcopacy VVHereas the Government of the Church of England by Arch-bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons and other Ecclesiastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy hath by long experience been found to be a great impediment to the perfect Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the Civil State and Government of the Kingdom Be it therefore Enacted by the King 's most Excellent Majesty and the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That from and after the fifth day of November in the year of our Lord One Thousand Six Hundred Forty and Three there shall be no Arch-bishop Bishop Chancellor or Commissary of any Arch-Bishop or Bishop nor any Dean Sub-dean Dean and Chapter or Arch deacon nor any Chancellor Chaunter Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor or Sacrist of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church nor any Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicar-Choral Choristers old Vicars or new Vicars of or within any Cathedral or Collegiate Church or any other their Officers within this Church of England or Dominion of Wales and that from and afrer the said fifth day of November the Name Title Dignity Jurisdiction Office and Function of Arch bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Arch-deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-treasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars-Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars and every of them and likewise the having using or exercising of any Power Jurisdiction Office or Authority by reason or colour of any such Name Title Dignity Office or Function within this Realm of England or Dominion of Wales shall thenceforth cease determine and become absolutely void and shall be abolished out of this Realm and the Dominion of Wales any Usage Law or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And that from and after the said fifth day of November no Person or Persons whatsoever by Virtue of any Letters-Patents Commission or other Authority derived from the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors shall use or exercise any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical within this Realm or Dominion of Wales but such and in such manner as shall be appointed and established by Act of Parliament And that all Counties Palatine Mannors Lordships Castles Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Leasues Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be other than Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were of or belonging unto any Arch-bishop Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick or any of them or which they or any of them held or injoyed in right of their said Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick respectively shall by the Authority of Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors and He shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to Him His Heirs and Successors without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that the King's Majesty His Heirs and Successors His and their Lessees Farmers and Tenants shall hold and enjoy the same discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial means to all intents and purposes as any Arch-bishop or Bishop at any time or times within the space of two years last past held or enjoyed or of right ought to have held or enjoyed the same Provided nevertheless and be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid That all Leases Grants Gifts Letters-Patents Conveyances Assurances or Estates whatsoever hereafter to be made by the King's Majesty His Heirs or Successors of any the Mannors Lands Tenements Hereditaments which in or by this Act shall come or be limited or disposed of unto His Majesty His Heirs or Successors other than for the Term of One and Twenty years or Three Lives or some other Term of years determinable upon One Two or Three Lives and not above from the time as any such Lease or Grant shall be made or granted whereupon the accustomed yearly Rent or more shall be reserved and payable yearly during the said Term and whereof any former Lease is in being not to be expired surrendred or ended within three years after the making of any such new Lease shall be utterly void and of none effect to all intents constructions and purposes any clause or words of non obstante to be put in any such Patent Grant Conveyance or Assurance and any Law Usage Custom or any thing in this Act to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And be it further Enacted and Ordained That all Impropriations Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Collations Rights of Patronage and Presentation which now are or lately were belonging unto any Arch-bishop or Bishop Arch-bishoprick or Bishoprick and all Mannors Castles Lordships Granges Messuages Mills Lands Tenements Meadows Pastures Woods Rents Reversions Services Parsonages appropriate Tithes Oblations Obventions Pensions Portions of Tithes Parsonages Vicarages Churches Chappels Advowsons Nominations Rights of Patronage and Presentation Parks Annuities Franchises Liberties Priviledges Immunities Rights Rights of Action and of Entry Interests Titles of Entry Conditions Commons Courts-Leet and Courts-Baron and all other Possessions and Hereditaments whatsoever of what nature or quality soever they be or wheresoever they lie or be which now are or lately were of or belonging to any Sub-dean Dean Dean and Chapter Arch-deacon Chaunter Chancellor Treasurer Sub-treasurer Succentor Sacrist Prebendary Canon Canon-Residentiary Petty-Canon Vicars Choral Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars or any of them or any of the Officers of them or any of them which they held or enjoyed in right of their said Dignities Churches Corporations Offices or Places respectively shall by Authority of this present Parliament be vested adjudged and deemed to be and shall be in the very real and actual possession and seisin of Sir VVilliam Roberts Knight Thomas Atkins Sir John VVollaston John VVarner John Towes Aldermen of the City of London John Packer Esquire Peter Malbourne Esquire and they shall have hold possess and enjoy the same to them their Heirs and Assigns without any Entry or other Act whatsoever and that for themselves their Lessees Farmers and Tenants discharged and acquitted of payment of Tithes as freely and in as large ample and beneficial manner to all intents and purposes as any of the Persons or Corporations whose Offices or Places are taken away by this Act at
considering any thing contained in those Papers or Writings framed by the said Earl and those Commissioners with whom he Treated as he doth absolutely disavow him therein and hath given Commandment to the Lord Lieutenant and the Council there to proceed against the said Earl as one who either out of falseness presumption or folly hath so hazarded the blemishing of his Majesties Reputation with his good Subjects and so impertinently framed those Articles of his own head without the Consent Privity or Directions of his Majesty or the Lord Lieutenant or any of his Majesties Council there But true it is that for the necessary preservation of his Majesties Protestant Subjects in Ireland whose Case was daily represented unto him to be so desperate his Majesty had given Commission to the Lord Lieutenant to Treat and conclude such a Peace there as might be for the safety of that Crown the preservation of the Protestant Religion and no way derogatory to his own Honour and publick Professions But to the end that his Majesties real Intentions in this business of Ireland may be the more clearly understood and to give more ample satisfaction to both Houses of Parliament and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland especially concerning his Majesties not being engaged in any Peace or Agreement there he doth desire if the two Houses shall admit of his Majesties repair to London for a Personal Treaty as was formerly proposed that speedy notice be given thereof to his Majesty and a Pass or safe Conduct with a Blank sent for a Messenger to be immediately dispatched into Ireland to prevent any accident that may happen to hinder his Majesties Resolution of leaving and managing of the business of Ireland wholly to the two Houses and to make no Peace there but with their Consent which in case it shall please God to bless His endeavours in the Treaty with success His Majesty doth hereby engage himself to do And for a further explanation of his Majesties Intentions in his former Messages he doth now Declare That if his Personal repair to London as aforesaid shall be admitted and a Peace thereon shall ensue he will then leave the Nomination of the Persons to be entrusted with the Militia wholly to his two Houses with such Power and Limitations as are expressed in the Paper delivered by his Majesties Commissioners at Vxbridge the 6. of Febr. 1644. for the term of seven years as hath been desired to begin immediately after the Conclusion of the Peace the disbanding of all Forces on both sides and the dismantling of the Garrisons erected since these present Troubles so as at the expiration of the time before mentioned the Power of the Militia shall entirely revert and remain as before And for their further security his Majesty the Peace succeeding will be content that pro hac vice the two Houses shall nominate the Admiral Officers of State and Judges to hold their places during Life or quamdiu se bene gesserint which shall be best liked to be accomptable to none but the King and the two Houses of Parliament As for matter of Religion his Majesty doth further Declare That by the Liberty offered in his Message of the 15. present for the ease of their Consciences who will not communicate in the Service already established by Act of Parliament in this Kingdom he intends that all other Protestants behaving themselves peaceably in and towards the Civil Government shall have the free exercise of their Religion according to their own way And for the total removing of all Fears and Jealousies His Majesty is willing to agree That upon the Conclusion of Peace there shall be a general act of Oblivion and Free Pardon past by Act of Parliament in both his Kingdoms respectively And lest it should be imagined that in the making these Propositions his Majesties Kingdom of Scotland and his Subjects there have been forgotten or neglected his Majesty Declares That what is here mentioned touching the Militia and the naming of Officers of State and Judges shall likewise extend to his Kingdom of Scotland And now his Majesty having so fully and clearly expressed his Intentions and Desires of making a happy and well-grounded Peace if any person shall decline that Happiness by opposing so apparent a way of attaining it he will sufficiently demonstrate to all the World his intention and design can be no other then the total subversion and change of the ancient and happy Government of this Kingdom under which the English Nation hath so long flourished Given at the Court at Oxford the 29. of January 1645. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Oxford Feb. 26. 1641. For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majesty needs to make no excuse though he sent no more Messages unto you for he very well knows he ought not to do it if he either stood upon punctilioes of Honour or his own private Interest the one being already call'd in question by his often sending and the other assuredly prejudic'd if a Peace be concluded from that He hath already offer'd He having therein departed with many of his undoubted Rights But nothing being equally dear unto Him to the preservation of His People His Majesty passeth by many scruples neglects and delays and once more desires you to give Him a speedy Answer to His last Message For His Majesty believes it doth very well become Him after this very long Delay at last to utter His Impatience since that the Goods and Blood of His Subjects cries so much for Peace Given at the Court at Oxford the 26 th of Febr. 1645. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Oxford March 23. 1645-46 For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. NOtwithstanding the unexpected silence instead of Answer to His Majesties many and gracious Messages to both Houses whereby it may appear that they desire to attain their ends by Force rather than Treaty which may justly discourage His Majesty from any more Overtures of that kind yet His Majesty conceives He shall be much wanting to His Duty to God and in what He oweth to the Safety of His People if He should not intend to prevent the great inconveniences that may otherwise hinder a safe and well-grounded Peace His Majesty therefore now proposeth That so He may have the Faith of both Houses of Parliament for the preservation of His Honour Person and Estate and that liberty be given to all those who do and have adhered to His Majesty to go to their own Houses and there to live peaceably enjoying their Estates all Sequestrations being taken off without being compelled to take any Oath not enjoyned by the undoubted Laws of the Kingdom or being put to any other molestation whatsoever He will
Obedience to Our Commands We doubt not of your care in this wherein Our Service and the good of Our Protestant Subjects in Ireland is so much concerned From Newcastle June 11. 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace Sent to His Majesty at Newcastle by the Right Honourable the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery the Earl of Suffolk Members of the House of Peers and Sir VValter Earle Sir John Hippesly Knights Robert Goodwyn Luke Robinson Esquires Members of the House of Commons Die Sabbathi 11. Julii 1646. The Propositions of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for a safe and well-grounded Peace May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland do humbly present unto Your Majesty the humble Desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we do pray Your Majesties Assent and that they and all such Bills as shall be tendred to Your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by Your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively I. WHereas both Houses of the Parliament of England have been necessitated to undertake a War in their just and lawful defence and afterwards both Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in solemn League and Covenant were engaged to prosecute the same That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to be had against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions in any the said Causes and all Grants thereupon made or had or to be made or had be declared null suppressed and forbidden And that this be publickly intimated in all Parish-Churches within His Majesties Dominions and all other places needful II. That His Majesty according to the laudable Example of His Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and sign the late solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the Three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliament respectively with such Penalties as by mutual advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That a Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans and Sub-deans Deans and Chapters Archdeacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Subtreasurers Succentors and Sacrists and all Vicars Choral and Choristers old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate Church and all other their under Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such Alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the Date at Edenburg 29. November 1643. and joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinances concerning the Calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be settled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines VI. Forasmuch as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in matters of Religion that such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after Consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled is or shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VII That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory Worshipping of the Consecrated Host Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errors and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to be a sufficient Conviction of Recusancy VIII An Act of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion IX An Act for the true levy of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that His Majesty shall have no loss X. That an Act be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duely executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the saying or hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom XI The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XII That the King do give His Royal Assent to an Act for the due Observation of the Lords Day And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovations in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God c. And for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom And to the Bill against the enjoying of Pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the Publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other Publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give His Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all Intents and Purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that His Majesty give assurance of His consenting in the
Treason being first declared guilty of such Offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding And he or they that shall offend herein to be incapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and imploying the Forces of that City for the defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the making of the said Act or Proposition to the end that City may be fully assured it is not the intention of the Parliament to take from them any Priviledges or Immunities in raising or disposing of their Forces which they have or might have used or injoyed heretofore The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XIV That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the One and Twentieth day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or Vote in the Parliament of England without Consent of both Houses of Parliament and that all Honour and Title conferred on any without Consent of both Houses of Parliament since the Twentieth of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Counsel intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared null and void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Patents were passed the Great Seal before the fourth of June 1644. XV. That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for Confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the Two Kingdoms viz. the large Treaty the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the settling of the Garrison of Barwick of the 29 th of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6. of August 1642. for the bringing of Ten Thousand Scots into the Province of Vlster in Ireland with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the Two Kingdoms and whereunto they are obliged by the aforesaid Treaties And that Algernon Earl of Northumberland John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery Robert Earl of Essex Theophilus Earl of Lincoln James Earl of Suffolk Robert Earl of Warwick Edward Earl of Manchester Henry Earl of Stamford Francis Lord Dacres Philip Lord Wharton Francis Lord Willoughby Dudly Lord North John Lord Hunsdon William Lord Gray Edward Lord Howard of Escrich Thomas Lord Bruce Ferdinando Lord Fairfax Master Nathaniel Fiennes Sir William Armyne Sir Philip Stapleton Sir Henry Vane senior Master William Pierrepont Sir Edward Aiscough Sir VVilliam Strickland Sir Arthur Hesilrig Sir John Fenwick Sir VVilliam Brereton Sir Thomas VViddrington Master John Toll Master Gilbert Millington Sir VVilliam Constable Sir John VVray Sir Henry Vane junior Master Henry Darley Oliver Saint-John Esquire His Majesties Solicitor General Master Denzill Hollis Master Alexander Rigby Master Cornelius Holland Master Samuel Vassal Master Peregrine Pelham John Glyn Esquire Recorder of London Master Henry Marten Master Alderman Hoyle Master John Blakeston Master Serjeant VVilde Master Richard Barwis Sir Anthony Irby Master Ashurst Master Bellingham and Master Tolson Members of both Houses of the Parliament of England shall be the Commissioners for the Kingdom of England for Conservation of the Peace between the Two Kingdoms to act according to the Powers in that behalf exprest in the Articles of the large Treaty and not otherwise That His Majesty give His Assent to what the Two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished XVI That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30 th day of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1. Qualification That the persons who shall expect no pardon be only these following Rupert and Maurice Count Palatines of the Rhene James Earl of Derby John Earl of Bristol VVilliam Earl of Newcastle Francis Lord Cottington George Lord Digby Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Knight Doctor Bramhall Bishop of Derry Sir William Widdrington Colonel George Goring Henry Jermin Esquire Sir Ralph Hopton Sir John Biron Sir Francis Doddington Sir John Strangwayes Master Endymion Porter Sir George Radcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Henry Vaughan Esquire now called Sir Henry Vaughan Sir Francis Windebanke Sir Richard Greenvile Master Edward Hyde now called Sir Edward Hyde Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddell junior Sir John Culpepper Master Richard Lloyd now called Sir Richard Lloyd Master David Jenkins Sir George Strode George Carteret Esquire now called Sir George Carteret Sir Charles Dallison Knight Richard Lane Esquire now called Sir Richard Lane Sir Edward Nicholas John Ashburnham Esquire Sir Edward Herbert Knight His Majesties Attorney General Earl of Traquaire Lord Harris Lord Rae George Gourdon sometime Marquess of Huntley James Graham sometime Earl of Montross Robert Maxwell late Earl of Nithisdale Robert Dalyell sometime Earl of Carnwarth James Gordon sometime Viscount of Aboyne Lodowick Linsey sometime Earl of Crawford James Ogleby sometime Earl of Airley James Ogleby sometime Lord Ogleby Patrick Ruthen sometime Earl of Forth James King sometime Lord Itham Alester Macdonald Irwing younger of Drunim Gordon younger of Gight Lesley of Auchentoule Colonel John Cockram Graham of Gorthie Master John Maxwell sometime pretended Bishop of Rosse and all such others as being Processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed 2. Qualification All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or voluntarily assisting against the Parliaments or Estates of either Kingdom and by name The Marquess of VVinton Earl of VVorcester Edward Lord Herbert of Ragland Son to the Earl of VVorcester Lord Brudenell Carel Molineaux Esquire Lord Arundel of VVardour Sir Francis Howard Sir John VVinter Sir Charles Smith Sir John Preston Sir Bazill Brook Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven in the Kingdom of Ireland VVilliam Sheldon of Beely Esquire Sir Henry Beddingfield 3. Qualification All persons who have had any hand in the plotting designing or assisting the Rebellion of Ireland except such persons who having only assisted the said Rebellion have rendred themselves or come in to the Parliament of England 4. Qualification That Humfrey Bennet Esquire Sir Edward Ford Sir John Penruddock Sir George Vaughan Sir John Weld Sir Robert Leè Sir John Pate John Ackland Edmund Windham Esquire Sir John Fitz-herbert
of such late Members of either House of Parliament as sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 3. Branch That one full moiety of the Estates of such Persons late Members of either of the Houses of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of Decemb. 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 10. Qualification That a full third part on the value of the Estates of all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil and of all Serjeants Councellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors of the Law Common or Civil and of all Bishops Clergy-men Masters and Fellows of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere and of all Masters of Schools or Hospitals and of Ecclesiastical Persons who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom That a full sixth part on the full value of the Estates of the Persons excepted in the sixth Qualification concerning such as have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof and are disabled according to the said Qualification to be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 11. Qualification That the Persons and Estates of all common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of England who in Lands or Goods be not worth two hundred pounds Sterling and the Persons and Estates of all common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of Scotland who in Lands or Goods be not worth one hundred pounds Sterling be at liberty and discharged 1. Branch This Proposition to stand as to the English and as to the Scots likewise if the Parliament of Scotland or their Commissioners shall so think fit 2. Branch That the first of May last is now the day limited for the persons to come in that are comprised within the former Qualification That an Act be passed whereby the Debts of the Kingdom and the Persons of Delinquents and the value of their Estates may be known and which Act shall appoint in what manner the Confiscations and Proportions before mentioned may be levied and applied to the discharge of the said Engagements The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of Parliament or such as shall have power from them shall think fit XVII That an Act of Parliament be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace or any Articles thereupon with the Rebels without Consent of both Houses of Parliament and to settle the Prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by them and the King to assist and to do no Act to discountenance or molest them therein That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled in the Kingdom of Ireland by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses of the Parliament of England have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines here That the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland and the Presidents of the several Provinces of that Kingdom be nominated by both the Houses of the Parliament of England or in the Intervals of Parliament by such Committees of both Houses of Parliament as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall nominate and appoint for that purpose and that the Chancellour or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Chancellour of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Vice-Treasurer and Treasurers at Wars of the Kingdom of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue quam diu se bene gesserint and in the Intervals of Parliament by the fore-mentioned Committees to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the nomination of the Lords of the Privy Council Lords of Session and Exchequer Officers of State and Justice General in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XVIII That the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof may be in the ordering and government of the Lord Maior Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Maior and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be imployed and directed from time to time in such manner as shall be agreed on and appointed by both Houses of Parliament That no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Forces of the said City shall be drawn forth or cempelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free Consent That an Act be passed for the granting and confirming of the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Non-user Misuser or Abuser That the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City of London and the chief Officer and Governour thereof from time to time be nominated and removeable by the Common-Council And for prevention of inconveniences which may happen by the long intermission of Common-Councils it is desired that there may be an Act that all by-Laws and Ordinances already made or hereafter to be made by the Lord Maior Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council assembled touching the calling continuing directing and regulating the same Common-Councils shall be as effectual in Law to all Intents and Purposes as if the same were particularly Enacted by the Authority of Parliament and that the Lord Maior Aldermen and Commons in Common-Council may add to or repeal the said Ordinances from time to time as they shall see cause That such other Propositions as shall be made for the City for their further Safety Welfare and Government and shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament may be granted and confirmed by Act of Parliament XIX That all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things passed under the Great Seal of England in the custody of the Lords and other Commissioners appointed by both Houses of Parliament for the custody thereof be and by Act of Parliament with the Royal Assent shall be declared and Enacted to be of like full force and effect to all intents and purposes as the same or like Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and
Rumors spread and Informations given which may have induced many to believe that We intend to make War against Our Parliament We Profess before God and Declare to all the World That We always have and do abhor all such Designs and desire all Our Nobility and Commoners who are here upon the place to declare Whether they have not been Witnesses of Our frequent and earnest Declarations and Professions to this purpose whether they see any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget a belief of any such Design and whether they be not fully perswaded that We have no such intention but that all Our Endeavours according to Our many Professions tend to the firm and constant settlement of the true Protestant Religion the just Priviledges of Parliaments the Liberty of the Subject the Law Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom MDCXLVII Aug. 1. The Heads of the Proposals agreed upon by his Excellency Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX and the Council of the Army to be tendred to the Commissioners of Parliament residing with the Army and with them to be treated on by the Commissioners of the Army Containing the particulars of their Desires in pursuance of their former Declarations and Papers in order to the clearing and securing of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and the settling a just and lasting Peace To which are added some further particular Desires for the removing and redressing of divers present pressing Grievances being also comprized in or in necessary pursuance of their Former Representations and Papers appointed to be Treated upon I. THat the things hereafter proposed being provided for by this Parliament a certain period may by Act of Parliament be set for the ending of this Parliament such period to be within a year at most and in the same Act provision to be made for the succession and constitution of Parliaments in future as followeth 1. That Parliaments may Biennially be called and meet at a certain day with such provision for the certainty thereof as in the late Act was made for Triennial Parliaments and what further other provision shall be found needful by the Parliament to reduce it to more certainty And upon the passing of this the said Act for Triennial Parliaments to be repealed 2. Each Biennial Parliament to sit 120. days certain unless adjourned or dissolved sooner by their own Consent afterwards to be adjournable or dissolvable by the King and no Parliament to sit past 240. days from their first meeting or some other limited number of days now to be agreed on upon the expiration whereof each Parliament to dissolve of course if not otherwise dissolved sooner 3. The King upon Advice of the Council of State in the Intervals betwixt Biennial Parliaments to call a Parliament extraordinary provided it meet above seventy days before the next Biennial day and be dissolved at least sixty days before the same so as the course of Biennial Elections may never be interrupted 4. That this Parliament and each succeeding Biennial Parliament at or before adjournment or dissolution thereof may appoint Committees to continue during the Interval for such purposes as are in any of these Proposals referr'd to such Committees 5. That the Elections of the Commons for succeeding Parliaments may be distributed to all Counties or other parts or divisions of the Kingdom according to some Rule of equality or proportion so as all Counties may have a number of Parliament-Members allowed to their choice proportionable to the respective Rates they bear in the common Charges and burthens of the Kingdom according to some other Rule of equality or proportion to render the House of Commons as near as may be an equal Representative of the whole and in order thereunto that a present consideration be had to take off the Elections of Burgesses for poor decayed or inconsiderable Towns and to give some present addition to the number of Parliament-Members for great Counties that have now less than their due proportion to bring all at present as near as may be to such a Rule of proportion as aforesaid 6. That effectual provision be made for future freedom of Elections and certainty of due Returns 7. That the House of Commons alone have the power from time to time to set down further Orders and Rules for the Ends expressed in the Two last preceding Articles so as to reduce the Elections of Members for that House to more and more perfection of Equality in the distribution Freedom in the Election Order in the proceeding thereto and Certainty in the Returns which Orders and Rules in that case to be as Laws 8. That there be a Liberty for entring Dissents in the House of Commons with provision that no Member be censurable for ought said or voted in the House further than to exclusion from that Trust and that onely by the judgment of the House it self 9. That the Judicial Power or power of final Judgment in the Lords and Commons and their power of Exposition and Application of Law without further Appeal may be cleared and that no Officer of Justice Minister of State or other person adjudged by them may be capable of Protection or Pardon from the King without their Advice and Consent 10. That the Right and Liberty of the Commons of England may be cleared and vindicated as to a due Exemption from any Judgment Trial or other Proceeding against them by the House of Peers without the concurring Judgment of the House of Commons as also from any other Judgment Sentence or Proceeding against them other than by their Equals or according to the Law of the Land 11. The same Act to provide that Grand-Jury-men may be chosen by and for several parts or divisions of each County respectively in some equal way and not remain as now at the discretion of an Under-Sheriff to be put on or off and that such Grand-Jury-men for their respective Counties may at each Assize present the Names of persons to be made Justices of Peace from time to time as the County hath need for any to be added to the Commission and at the Summer-Assize to present the Names of Three Persons out of whom the King may prick one to be Sheriff for the next year II. For the future security to Parliaments and the Militia in general in order thereunto that it be provided by Act of Parliament 1. That the power of the Militia by Sea and Land during the space of Ten years next ensuing shall be ordered and disposed by the Lords and Commons assembled and to be assembled in the Parliament or Parliaments of England or by such persons as they shall nominate and appoint for that purpose from time to time during the said space 2. That the said power shall not be ordered disposed or exercised by the King's Majesty that now is or by any person or persons by any Authority derived from Him during the said space or at any time hereafter by His said Majesty without the Advice
and Consent of the said Lords and Commons or of such Committees or Council in the Intervals of Parliament as they shall appoint 3. That during the same space of ten years the said Lords and Commons may by Bill or Ordinance raise and dispose of what Moneys and for what Forces they shall from time to time find necessary as also for payment of the Publick Debts and Damages and for all other the Publick uses of the Kingdom 4. And to the end the temporary Security intended by the three particulars last precedent may be the better assured it may therefore be provided That no Subjects that have been in Hostility against the Parliament in the late War shall be capable of bearing any Office of Power or publick Trust in the Commonwealth during the space of five years without Consent of Parliament or of the Council of State or to sit as Members or Assistants of either House of Parliament until the second Biennial Parliament be past III. For the present form of disposing the Militia in order to the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and the Service of Ireland 1. That there be Commissioners for the Admiralty a Vice-Admiral and Rere-Admiral now to be agreed on with power for the forming regulating appointing of Officers and providing for the Navy and for ordering the same to and in the ordinary Service of the Kingdom and that there be a sufficient provision and establishment for Pay and maintenance thereof 2. That there be a General for Command of the Land-Forces that are to be in pay both in England Ireland and Wales both for Field and Garrison 3. That there be Commissioners in the several Counties for the standing Militia of the respective Counties consisting of Trained Bands and Auxiliaries not in pay with power for the proportioning forming regulating training and disciplining of them 4. That there be a Council of State with power to superintend and direct the several and particular powers of the Militia last mentioned for the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and of Ireland 5. That the same Council may have power as the King 's Privy Council for and in all Forreign Negotiations provided That the making of War or Peace with any other Kingdom or State shall not be without the Advice and Consent of Parliament 6. That the said power of the Council of State be put into the hands of trusty and able persons now to be agreed on and the same persons to continue in that power si bene se gesserint for a certain Term not exceeding seven years 7. That there be a sufficient establishment now provided for the Salary Forces both in England and Ireland the establishment to continue until two Months after the meeting of the first Biennial Parliament IV. That an Act be passed for disposing the great Offices for ten years by the Lords and Commons in Parliament or by such Committees as they shall appoint for that purpose in the Intervals with submission to the Approbation of the next Parliament and after ten years they to nominate three and the King out of that number to appoint one for the succession upon any vacancy V. That an Act be passed for restraining of any Peers made since the 21. day of May 1642. or to be hereafter made from having any power to sit or vote in Parliament without Consent of both Houses VI. That an Act be passed for recalling and making void all Declarations and other Proceedings against the Parliament or against any that have acted by or under their Authority in the late War or in relation to it and that the Ordinances for Indemnity may be confirmed VII That an Act be passed for making void all Grants c. under the Great Seal that was conveyed away from the Parliament since the time that it was so conveyed away except as in the Parliaments Propositions and for making those valid that have been or shall be passed under the Great Seal made by the Authority of both Houses of Parliament VIII That an Act be passed for Confirmation of the Treaties between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and for appointing Conservators of the Peace betwixt them IX That the Ordinance for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries be confirmed by Act of Parliament Provided His Majesties Revenue be not damnified therein nor those that last held Offices in the same left without reparation some other way X. An Act to declare void the Cessation of Ireland c. and to leave the prosecution of that War to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England XI An Act to be passed to take away all Coercive Power Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical Officers whatsoever extending to any Civil Penalties upon any and to repeal all Laws whereby the Civil Magistracy hath been or is bound upon any Ecclesiastical Censure to proceed ex officio unto any Civil Penalties against any persons so censured XII That there be a repeal of all Acts or Clauses in any Act enjoyning the use of the Book of Common Prayer and imposing any Penalties for neglect thereof as also of all Acts or Clauses in any Act imposing any penalty for not coming to Church or for Meetings elsewhere for Prayer or other Religious Duties Exercises or Ordinances and some other provision to be made for discovering of Papists and Popish Recusants and for disabling of them and of all Jusuites or Priests from disturbing the State XIII That the taking of the Covenant be not enforced upon any nor any penalties imposed upon the Refusors whereby men might be constrained to take it against their Judgments or Consciences but all Orders or Ordinances tending to that purpose to be repealed XIV That the things here before proposed being provided for settling and securing the Rights Liberties Peace and Safety of the Kingdom His Majesties Person His Queen and Royal Issue may be restored to a Condition of Safety Honour and Freedom in this Nation without diminution to their Personal Rights or further Limitation to the Exercise of the Regal Power than according to the particulars aforegoing XV. For the matter of Compositions 1. That a less number out of the Persons excepted in the two first Qualifications not exceeding five for the English being nominated particularly by the Parliament who together with the persons in the Irish Rebellion included in the third Qualification may be reserved to the future Judgment of the Parliament as they shall find cause all other excepted persons may be remitted from the Exception and admitted to Composition 2. That the Rates for all future Compositions may be lessened and limitted not to exceed the several proportions hereafter exprest respectively That is to say 1. For all persons formerly excepted not above a third part 2. For the late Members of Parliament under the first Branch of the fourth Qualification in the Propositions a fourth part 3. For other Members of Parliament in the second and third Branches of the
Honour than those who had even forced Him to it like those malignant and damned Spirits who upbraid unhappy Souls with those Crimes and ruines to which they themselves have tempted and betrayed them But the heaviest Censor was Himself for he never left bewailing His Compliance or rather Connivence with this Murder till the issue of his Blood dried up those of His Tears By the other Bill He had as some censured renounced His Crown and granted it to those men who at present exercised so Arbitrary a Power that they wanted nothing but length of time to be reputed Kings and this they now had gotten But the more Speculative concluded it an act of especial Prudence for the King made that an evidence of His sincere intention to oblige His people and overcome the Malice of His Enemies with Benefits which the Faction would have usurped and by the boldness of the attempt ingaged the People to them as the only Patrons of their Liberty And they were furnished with an Example for it by their Confederates in Scotland who indicted an Assembly without the King's leave and continued it against His pleasure and as all imitations of Crimes exceed their first pattern it was conceived these men whose furies were more unjust and so would be more fierce intended to improve that Precedent to the extreamest guilt The Bill was no sooner signed but they hastened the Execution and so much the more eagerly because the King desired in a most passionate Letter delivered by the Prince to the Lords that the Excellent Soul which found so much Injustice on Earth might have the more time to fit it self for the Mercy of Heaven But this favour which became Christians to grant agreed not with the Religion of his Adversaries and therefore the second day after he was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill in his Passage thither he had a sight of the Archbishop of Canterbury whose Prayers and Blessing he with a low Obeisance begged and the most pious Prelate bestowed them with Tears where with a greater presence of mind than he had looked his Enemies in the face did he encounter Death and submitted his neck to the stroke of the Executioner He was a person of a generous Spirit fitted for the noblest enterprises and the most difficult parts of Empire His Counsels were bold yet just and he had a Vigour proper for the Execution of them Of an Eloquence next to that of his Master's masculine and most excellent He was no less affectionate to the Church than to the State and not contented while living to defend the Government and Patrimony of it he commended it also to his Son when he was about to die and charged his abhorrency of Sacriledge His Enemies called the Majesty of his Miene in his Lieutenancy Pride and the undaunted execution of his Office on the contumacious the insolency of his Fortune He was censured for committing that fatal Errour of following the King to London and to the Parliament after the Pacification with the Scots at York and it was thought that if he had gone over to his charge in Ireland he might have secured both himself and that Kingdom for his Majesty's Service But some attributed this Counsel to a necessity of Fate whose first stroke is at the brain of those whom it designs to ruine and brought him to feel the effects of Popular Rage which himself in former Parliaments had used against Government and to find the Experience of his own advices against the Duke of Buckingham Providence teaching us to abhor over-fine Counsels by the mischiefs they bring upon their Authors The Fall of this Great Man so terrified the other Officers of State that the Lord High Treasurer resigned his Staff to the Hands from whence he received it the Lord Cottington forsook the Mastership of the Court of Wards and the Guardian of the Prince returned Him to the King These Lords parting with their Offices like those that scatter their Treasure and Jewels in the way that they might delude the violence of their greedy pursuers But the King was left naked of their faithful Ministery and exposed to the Infusions and Informations of those who were either Complices or Mercenaries to the Faction to whom they discovered his most private Counsels When the Earl of Strafford was dead then did the Parliament begin to think of sending away the Scots who hitherto had much impoverished the Northern Counties and increased the charges of the Nation but now they were voted to receive 300000 l. under the notion of a Brotherly assistance but in truth designed by the Faction as a reward for their Clamours for the Earl's Blood yet were they kept so long till the King had passed away more of His Prerogative in signing the Bills to take away the High-Commission and the Star-Chamber After which spoils of Majesty they disband the English and the Scotch Armies August 6. and on the 10th of that Month the King follows them into Scotland to settle if it were possible that Kingdom But the King still found them as before when he satisfied their greedy appetites then would they offer Him their Lives and Fortunes but when gain or advantage appeared from His Enemies they appeared in their proper nature ungrateful changeable and perfidious whom no favours could oblige nor any thing but Ruine was to be expected by building upon their Love While the King was in Scotland labouring to settle that Nation by granting all that the Covetousness and Ambition of their Leaders pretended was for the Publick good and so aimed at no less than a Miracle by His Benefits to reduce Faith which like Life when it is once departed doth never naturally return into those perfidious breasts the Parliament adjourns and leaves a standing Committee of such as were the Leaders or the Servants of the Faction These prepared new Toils for His Majesties return and by them was the Grand Remonstrance formed in it were reckoned for Grievances all the Complaints of Men that were impatient of Laws and Government the Offences of Courtiers the unpleasing Resolves of Judges the Neglects or Rigours of the Ministers of Justice the undigested Sermons of some Preachers yea the Positions of some Divines in the Schools were all exaggerated to defame the present Government both in Church and State and to magnifie the skill of these State-Physicians that offered Prescripts for all these Distempers Beside more easily to abuse the Vulgar who reckon Misfortunes as Crimes unpleasing accidents were represented as designs of Tyranny and those things which had been reformed were yet mentioned as continued burthens From which the People were assured there could be no deliverance but by the Wisdom and Magnanimity of the Remonstrants To prepare the way for this the most opprobrious parts of it were first whispered among the Populacy that by this seeming suppression men impatient of Secrets might more eagerly divulge them and the danger appear greater by an affected silence Then prodigious Calumnies
at first secretly they whispered and at last publickly imputed that horrid Massacre Which Slanders were coloured by the Arts of the Irish Rebels who to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged that the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them with Auxiliary Forces That they did but maintain His Cause against the Puritans That they had the King's Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent that themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old broad Seal that had been taken from an obsolete Patent out of Farnham Abbey by one Plunckett in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of many That the Scots were in Confederacy with them to beget a Faith of which they abstained from the Lives and Fortunes of those of that Nation among them On the other side to incourage the Natives of their own Party they produce fictitious Letters wherein they were informed from England that the Parliament had passed an Act that all the Irish should be compelled to the Protestant Worship that for the first offence they should forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives Besides they present them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be shaken off that they would have a King of their own Nation and that the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided among the Natives And with these hopes of Spoil and Liberty and Irish were driven to such a Fury that they committed so many horrid and barbarous Acts as scarce ever any Age or People were guilty of In the mean while nothing was done for the relief of the poor English there but only some Votes passed against the Rebels till the King returned to London which was about the end of November where He with the Queen and the Prince were magnificently feasted by the Citizens and the chief of them afterwards by Him at Hampton-Court For he never neglected any honest Arts to gain His Peoples love to which they were naturally prone enough had not His Enemies methods and impulses depraved their Genius But this much troubled the Faction who envied that Reverence to Majesty in others which was not in themselves and they endeavoured to make these loves short and unhappy for they discountenanced the prime advancers of this Honour of the King and were more eager to render Him odious For having gotten a Guard about them they likewise insinuated into the people dangerous apprehensions as the cause of that Guard and every day grew more nice and jealous of their Priviledges and Power The King's advices to more tenderness of His Prerogative or His Advertisements of the scandalous Speeches that were uttered in their House they interpret as encroachments upon their Grandeur and upbraided the King for them in their Petitions to Him But their greatest effort upon Majesty was the Remonstrance after which they took all occasions to magnifie the apprehensions of those Fears which they had falsly pretended to in it This the Faction had before formed and now brought into the House of Commons where it found a strong opposition by those wise men that were tender of the publick Peace and Common Good though those who preferred their Private to the General Interest and every one that was short-sighted and improvident for the future were so fierce for it that the Debates were continued all Night till ten a Clock the next Morning so that many of the more aged and Persons of best Fortunes not accustomed to such watchings were wearied out and many others not daring to provoke the Faction in this their grand Design left the House so that at last they carried it yet but by eleven Votes Which they presented with a Petition to take away the Votes of Bishops in the House of Lords and the Ceremonies in the Church and to remove those Persons from His Trust which they could not confide in yet named none but only accused all under the name of a Malignant Popish Party Which they had no sooner delivered than they caused it to be published in print To which the King answers in another publick Declaration but so much to the Discontent of the Demagogues to find their Methods of Ruine so fully discovered as they were in His Majesties Answer that they had recourse to their former Sovereign Remedy which sober men accounted a Crime and an indignity to Government the Tumults of the Rabble Who in great numbers and much confusion came up to Westminster some crying out against Bishops others belching their fury against the Liturgy and a third Party roaring that the Power of the Militia should be taken out of the King's hands To their Clamours they added rude Affronts to those Lords whom their Leaders had taught them to hate and especially to the Bishops at their going in or coming out of the House and afterwards drawing up to White-Hall they appeared so insolent as it was evident they wanted only some to begin for there were enough to prosecute an assault upon the King in His own Palace The Bishops thus rudely excluded from their Right and Liberty of coming to the Parliament Twelve of them afterwards protest against the Proceedings of it during their so violent Exclusion Which Protestation the Commons presently accused of High Treason and caused their Commitment to the Tower where they continued them till the Bill against their Votes in the Lord's House was past that they might not produce their Reasons for their Rights and against the Injustice offered unto them and then afterwards released them The King also saw it necessary to take a Guard of such Gentlemen as offered their Service for His Safety and to prevent the prophaning of Majesty by the rude fury of the People who used to make their Addresses acceptable at Westminster by offering in their passage some base Affronts at White-Hall But when the terrour of this Guard had reduced them to some less degree of Impudencie they then instructed by their Heads laboured to make it more unsafe to the King by seeking to raise the Rage and Jealousie of the whole City against Him For at Midnight there were cries out in the Street that all People should arise to their defence for the King with His Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their Throats in their Beds Than which though nothing was more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Alarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those nightly fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with Madness The King therefore not alwaies to incourage these Violences with Patience but at last by a course of Justice to take off those whom He had found to be the Authors of these destructive Counsels the grand Movers of these Seditious practices and which was more the Inviters of a Foreign Force the Scotch Army into this Nation commands
command strict Watches to be kept in all suspected places Beacons to be new set up the Sea-marks to be watched and the Navy to be new rigged and fitted for the Sea New Plots were also discovered and strange and unheard-of Counsels to murder the most Eminent Patriots are brought to light A Taylor in a ditch hears some desperate Cavaliers contriving the Death of Mr. Pym. A Plaister also taken from a Plague-sore was sent into the House to the same person that the Infection first seising on a Member of the quickest senses might thence more impetuously diffuse it self upon all the most Grave Senators Such like plots as these and whatsoever could be devised were published to make the Vulgar think those demands of the Faction seem modest their dangers being so great which were very unjust And lest the King should at His coming into the North make use of that Magazine at Hull which at His own Charges He had provided for the Scotch Expedition for His own defence the Faction to secure that and the Town for their future purposes send down Sir John Hotham without any Order or Commission from either House of Parliament to seise on them This man of a fury and impudence equal to their commands when the King petitioned by the Gentlemen of Yorkshire to employ those Arms and that Ammunition for the Safety and Peace of that County where some of the Factious Members of Parliament had begun to form the like Seditions with those of London An. 1642 would have entred Hull April 23. insolently shut the Gates upon Him and would not permit Him though with but twenty Attendants for He offered to leave the Guard of Noblemen and Gentlemen which followed Him without The King thereupon proclaims him Traitor and by Letters complains of the Indignity and requires Satisfaction But the Faction rendred the Act so glorious that the House of Commons by their Votes approved what he had done without their Command and clamoured that the King had done them an injury in proclaiming so innocent a Member Traitor Ordered the Earl of Warwick to whom they had committed the Command of the Navy to land some men out of the Ships at Hull and to transport the Magazine there from thence to London An Order of Assistance was also given to several of their Confidents as a Committee of both Houses to reside at Hull and the Counties of York and Lincoln were commanded to execute their commands Besides they sent a Commission to Hotham to prosecute the Insolencies he had begun and kindle that War which took fire on the whole Nation and in a short space consumed him and his Son who were executed by the Instructors of his Villany For he fell under the same Fate which attends all the Instruments of Great Crimes to be Odious and suspected by those that made use of them Therefore they gave such a power to the Lord Fairfax in Yorkshire as did conclude the diminution and submission of Hotham to his Commands This caused him to reflect with grief and madness upon his first ministery to the Faction which appeared every day more monstrous to his Conscience being now spoiled of that Grandeur that he hoped would have been its reward and awakened by those Desolations in the whole Kingdom which followed it and were but as the Copies of his Original Treason Therefore he thought to expiate his former guilt by surrendring the Town to Him from whom he had detained it But his practices were discovered to the Faction by One whom they had sent thither in pretence to preach the Gospel but in truth secretly to search into the intrigues of his Counsels so that he perished in his design being neither stout nor wise enough in just enterprises nor of a pertinancy sufficient for a prosperous Perfidiousness And although in his Ruine the King observed how great a draught was offered to the highest thirst of Revenge yet He did truly bewail him and indeed he was so much the more to be pitied because his cruel Masters deluded him to a silence of their black Secrets with a false hope of Life till the Ax was upon his Neck So betraying his Soul to a surprise by his Spiritual enemies as his pretended Spiritual Guides had done his Body to them The Insolency of Hotham who acted according to his Instructions and late Commission beginning acts not usual in Peace nor justifiable by Law for he issued out Warrants for the Trained Bands to march into Hull with their Arms where he forced them to leave them and nakedly return to their homes that so they might be obnoxious to his Violence and the practices of the Committee which were sent down into the North to debauch the People in their Loyalty made the King intend His own Security by a Guard which the Gentry and Commonalty of Yorkshire that were witnesses of the Injury offered to their Prince did willingly and readily make up No sooner had the King expressed His intention of such a Guard but the Faction who were watchful of all opportunities of beginning a War and ingaging those that either through Fear or Weakness had hitherto submitted to their Impostures in a more obliging guilt for now the greatest part of the Peers who were of the most ancient Families and noblest Fortunes and a very great number of the House of Commons Persons of just hopes and fair Estates who perceiving the designs of the Disturbers scorned any longer to be their Slaves yet not thinking it safe to provoke the fury of the Vulgar Tumults by a present opposition had withdrawn from the Parliament to follow the King and His Fortune and every day some more were still falling off took this occasion to commence our Miseries and open those Sluces of Blood which polluted the whole Kingdom For upon the first Intelligence of it they filled the House of Commons and the City with Clamours that His Majesty had now taken Arms to the overthrow of them and the Protestant Religion and that they were not any longer to think the Happiness of the Kingdom did depend upon the King or any of the Regal Branches of that Stock that it would argue no want either of Duty or Modesty if they should depose Him By these Harangues they so heated the Parliament that was now more penurious than before in persons of Honour and Conscience to such a degree of Fury that unmindful how they themselves for eight months before upon impossible Fears and improbable Jealousies had taken a Guard they Resolved upon the Question that the King by taking to himself such a Guard did intend to levy War against the Parliament With an equal fury they issue out Commissions into all parts of the Kingdom and appoint certain days for all the Trained Bands to be put into a posture of War sending down some of their Members to see to the execution of these Commands and to seise on the Magazines in the several Counties To all these their violent and unjust
whether by a prosperous Success they could change their Crimes to Vertue Therefore they hastened all they could to raise Horse and Foot to form an Army equal to their Usurpation which was not difficult for them to do for they being Masters of London whose multitudes desirous of Novelty were easily amassed for any enterprise especially when the entring into this Warfare might make the Servant freer than his Master for such was the Licence was indulged to those Youths that would serve the Cause 20000 were sooner gathered that the King could get 500. The City also could afford them more Ordnance than the King could promise to Himself common Muskets and to pay their Souldiers besides the vast summs that were gathered for Ireland which though they by their own Act had decreed should not be used for any other enterprise yet now dispense with their Faith and imploy it to make England as miserable as that Island and the Contributions of the deluded Souls for this War they seized also upon the Revenues of the King Queen Prince and Bishops and plunder the Houses of those Lords and Gentlemen whom they suspected to be Favourers of the King's Cause And in contemplation of these advantages they promised their credulous Party an undoubted Victory and to lead Majesty Captive in Triumph through London within a Month by the Conduct of the Earl of Essex whom they appointed General Thus did they drive that Just and Gracious Prince to seek His Safety by necessary Arms since nothing worse could befall Him after a stout though unhappy Resistance than He was to hope for in a tame Submission to their Violence Therefore though He perfectly abhorred those Sins which are the Consequences of War yet He wanted not Courage to attempt at Victory notwithstanding it seemed almost impossible against so well-appointed an Enemy Therefore with an incredible diligence moving from place to place from York to Nottingham from thence to Shrewsbury and the Confines of Wales by discovering those Abilities with which His Soul was richly fraught unto His deluded Subjects He appeared not only worthy of their Reverence but of their Lives and Fortunes for His Defence and in all places incouraging the Good with His Commendations exciting the fearful by His Example dissembling the Imperfections of His Friends but alwaies praising their Vertues He so prevailed upon those who were not Men of many Times nor by a former Guilt debauch'd to Inhumanity that He had quickly contracted an Army greater than His Enemies expected and which was every day increased by those Lords and Gentlemen who refused to be polluted any longer with the practices of the Faction by sitting among them and being Persons of large Fortunes had raised their Friends and Tenants to succour that Majesty that now laboured under an Eclipse Most Men being moved with Pity and Shame to see their Prince whose former Reign had made them wanton in Plenty to be driven from His own Palaces and concluded under a want of Bread to be necessitated to implore their Aid for the Preservation of His and their Rights So that notwithstanding all the Impostures of the Faction and the Corruptions of the Age there were many great Examples of Loyalty and Vertue Many Noble Persons did almost impoverish themselves to supply the King with Men and Money Some Private Men made their way through numerous dangers to joyn with the fight under His Colours Many great Ladies and vertuous Matrons parted with the Ornaments of their Sex to relieve His wants and some bravely defended their Houses in His Cause when their Lords were otherwhere seeking Honour in His service Both the Universities freely devoted their Plate to succour their Prince the Supreme Patron and Incourager of all Learning and the Queen pawned Her Jewels to provide necessaries for the Safety of Her Husband Which Duty of Hers though it deserved the Honour of all Ages was branded by the Demagogues with the imputation of Treason This sudden and unexpected growth of the Strength of the King after so many years of Slanders and such industrious Plots to make him odious and contemptible raised the admiration of all Men and the fears of the credulous Party who had given up their Faith to the Faction when they represented the King guilty of so much Folly and Vice and some corrupted Citizens had represented Him as a Prodigie of both in a Scene at Guild-Hall in London an Art used by Jesuites to impress more deeply a Calumny that they could not imagine any Person of Prudence or Conscience would appear in His Service and they expected every day when deserted by all as a Monster He should in Chains deliver Himself up to the Commands of the Parliament Some attributed this strange increase in power to the natural Affection of the English to their Lawful Sovereign from whom though the Arts and Impulses of Seditiouc Demagogues may a while estrange and divorce their minds yet their Genius will irresistibly at last force them to their first Love and therefore they urged the saying of that Observing States-man that if the Crown of England were placed but on a Hedge-stake he would be on that side where the Crown was Others referred it to the full evidence of the wickedness of His Adversaries for their Counsels were now discovered and their Ends manifest not to maintain the common Liberty which was equally hateful to them as Tyranny when it was not in their hands but to acquire a Grandeur and Power that might secure and administer to their Lusts and it was now every where published what Mr Hambden answered to one who inquired What he did expect from the King he replied That He should commit Himself and all that is His to our Care Others ascribed it to the fears of ruine to those numerous Families and Myriads of People which the change of Government designed by the Parliament must necessarily effect But this though it argued that Cause exceeding bad by which so great a part of a Community is utterly destroyed without any absolute necessity for preserving the whole yet made but an inconsiderable Addition to the King whose greatest Power was built upon Persons of the Noblest Extract and the fairest Estates in England of which they could not easily suspect to be devested without an absolute overthrow of all the Laws of Right and Wrong which nevertheless was to be feared by their invasions on the King's most undoubted Rights For when Majesty it self is assaulted there can be no security for private Fortunes and those that decline upon design from the paths of Equity will never rest till they come to the Extremity of Injustice as these afterwards did Besides those that imputed the speedy amassing of these Forces to the Equity of the King's Cause His most Powerful Eloquence indesatigable Industry and most Obliging Converse there were another sort that suspending their Judgments till all the Scenes of War were passed resolved all into the Providence of God Who though He were pleased
Him tryed and condemned by their Council of War But the Chiefs thought fit to proceed more artificially in their Crime and when they should get more Authority destroy Him by a Parliamentary way of Justice To bring this about they must proceed to make Him more odious that the People might be patient while they kill Him and undoe them To proceed therefore to their Impiety Cromwell and his Creatures stickle fiercely in the House of Commons and cause the Parliament to send not Conditions of Peace to be treated on but Propositions like Commands that admitted no Dispute which if the King had yielded unto He had despoiled Himself of Majesty and been thought guilty of so much want of Spirit as would conclude an unfitness for Empire besides such a voluntary Diminution would have been equally unsafe as unglorious And if he did not then He was to be esteemed the only Obstacle of the Universal Peace And lest the King should put them to more tedious arts by signing them they themselves to divert Him privately promised to procure more soft Articles and professed to be sorry the Presbyterian Sowreness and Rigour did yet leaven the House which made these Propositions so unpleasant The King could not but perceive the practices of the Army yet being resolved that no Dangers whatsoever should make Him satisfie those unreasonable Demands of the Parliament which granted would have been the heaviest oppression on His Subjects and the greatest injury to His Posterity He could possibly be guilty of For to good Princes the Safety of their People and their own Memory which is built upon the Happiness of Posterity through their Counsels are more pretions than Life and Power and although Providence and the Malice of His Enemies had obstructed His way to Glory by Victories and Success yet He would trace it in the unenvied and unquestionable paths of Constancy and Justice Therefore to make His denial of them advantageous to Himself by a seeming confidence in the Army's proffers thereby to oblige if it were possible those that had no sense either of Faith or Honour or at least to injealous those two Rivals for His Power and commit them the King absolutely rejects the Parliaments Propositions and requires the Demands of the Army as more equal and fit for a Personal Treaty and that the Army also should nominate Commissioners Cromwell and his Complices seemed to be joyful for this Answer of His Majesty which had preferred them before their Competitiors to the Honour of Justice and Moderation in the Eyes of the People but yet secretly did they exasperate the minds of the more short-sighted Commons against the King for this Affront And to the King they profess a shame and trouble upon their Spirits for so they loved to speak that they could not now perform their Promises sometimes they excused themselves by a Reverence to the Parliament at other times by the fierceness of the Adjutators and when by these excuses they had coloured their delayes to some length they began to interpret their sayings otherwise than the King apprehended them to forget what they had assured Him of and at last openly to refuse any performance To all these Perfidies they add other Frauds to beget a fear in Him of the Adjutators and the Levellers who they informed Him meditated His Murder professed they could not for the present moderate their bloody and impetuous Consultations but when they should recover the lost Discipline of their Army then they might easily and speedily satisfie their engagements to Him To give credit to their words the Fury of the Adjutators was blown to a more conspicuous Flame their Papers were published for a change of Government call'd The Case of the Army and The Agreement of the People the animations of Peter's and another of the same Diabolical Spirit saying His Majesty was but a dead Dog were divulged and all were communicated to some Attendants about the King with an Advice from the Chiefs of the Army to escape for His Life for they were unwilling He should be killed while they helplessly look'd on The Fury and Threatnings of Men of such destructive and bloudy Principles who accounted all things lawful that they could do that Providence administring Opportunity did invite and license their Impieties and who imputed all their lusts that had no colour from Justice to the Perswasions of the Holy Spirit were not to be despised nor was the King to abandon His Life if He could without sin preserve it to a longer waiting upon God Therefore with three of His most trusty Attendants in the dark tempestuous and ominous night of Nov. 11. He leaves Hampton-Court some say uncertain where to seek safety others that he intended to take Ship but being disappointed in his Expectation He was at last fatally led into the Power and when He could not escape committed Himself to the Loyalty and Honour of Col. Hammond a Confident of Cromwell's who had been but a little before made Governour of the Isle of Wight for this very purpose and was by him conveyed to Carisbrook Castle the very Pit his Enemies had designed for Him For it was discoursed in the Army above a fortnight before that the King e're long would be in the Isle of Wight and the very night He departed from Hampton-Court the Centinels were withdrawn from their usual Posts on purpose to facilitate His Flight The all-wise God not permitting Him to fly from those greater Trials and more Glorious Acts of Patience He had designed for Him Being here in this false Harbour He minds that business which lay most upon His Heart the Settlement of the Nation He sends Concessions to the Parliament more benign and easie than they could desire or hope together with His Reasons why He could not assent to their Demands and earnestly sollicites them to pity the Languishing Kingdom and come to a Personal Treaty with Him on His Concessions and the Army's Demands But the Conspirators to cut off all hopes of a Treaty take this Occasion to send Four Preliminary Articles which if He would pass as Acts they would treat of the rest These were so unjust that the Scotch Commissioners in the Name of their Kingdom declare against them in publick Writings and following the Messengers of Parliament to the Isle of Wight do in the presence of His Majesty protest against them as contrary to the Religion the Crown and Accords of both Kingdoms The King according to His wonted Wisdom and Greatness of Mind presently returns them an Answer to shew the Injustice of having Him grant the chief things before the Treaty which should be the Subject of it and to give them such an Arbitrary Power to the ruine of all the People This Answer He delivered sealed to their Messengers who desired that they might hear it read and that they might be dealt with as Commissioners not as bare Carriers a greater trust than which their Masters had not committed unto them and promise upon
although they had been all raised to that Dignity and Trust by the Faction yet answered that It was contrary to the known Laws and Customs of England that the King should be brought to Tryal To heal these two wounds which the Lords and Judges had branded their Cause with they use two other Artifices to keep up the Spirits and Concurrence of their Party First they bring from Hertfordshire a Woman some say a Witch who said that God by a Revelation to her did approve of the Armie's Proceedings Which Message from Heaven was well accepted of with thanks as being very seasonable and coming from an humble Spirit A second was the Agreement of the People which was a Module of a Democratical Polity wherein those whose abject Condition had set them at a great distance from Government had their hopes raised to a share of it if they conspired to remove the great Obstruction which was the Person and Life of the King This was presented to the House of Commons by Sr Hardress Waller and sixteen other Officers as a temporary remedy for when they had perpetrated their Impiety they discountenanced and fiercely profecuted those that endeavoured it In confidence of these their Arts and their present Power notwithstanding all these publick Abhorrencies and Detestations by all Persons of Honour and Knowledge they enacted their Bill And for President of this Court they chose one of the Number John Bradshaw A person of an equal Infamy with his new employment a Monster of Impudence and a most fierce Prosecutor of evil purposes Of no repute among those of his own Robe for any Knowledge in the Law but of so virulent and petulant a Language that he knew no measure of modesty in Speaking and was therefore more often bribed to be silent than fee'd to maintain a Client's cause His Vices had made him penurious and those with his penury had seasoned him for any execrable undertaking They also had a Sollicitor of the same metal John Cook A needy Man who by various Arts and many Crimes had sought for a necessary Subsistence yet still so poor that he was forced to seek the shelter of obscure and sordid Corners to avoid the Prison So that vexed with a redious Poverty he was prevailed upon through the hopes of some splendid booties to venture on this employment which at the first mention he did profess to abhorr These were their chief Agents other inferiour Ministers they had equally qualified with these their prime Instruments as Dorislaus a German Bandito who was to draw up the Charge Steel another of their Counsel under pretence of sickness covered his fear of the Event though he did not abhor the wickedness of the Enterprise having before used his Tongue in a cause very unjust and relating to this the Murther of Captain Burleigh The Serjeants Clarks and Cryer were so obscure that the World had never taken notice of them but by their subserviency to this Impiety These were the publick Preparations In private they continually met to contrive the Form of their Proceedings and the Matter of their Accusation Concerning the first they were divided in Opinions Some would have the King first formally degraded and devested of all His Royal habiliments and Ensigns of Majesty and then as a private person exposed to Justice But this seemed to require a longer space of time than would comport with their project which as all horrid acts was to be done in a present fury lest good Counsels might gather strength by their Delay Others rejected this course as too evidently conforming with the Popish procedure against Sovereign Princes and they feared to confirm that common Suspicion that they followed Jesuitical Counsels whose Society it is reported upon the King's offering to give all possible Security against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome at a Council of theirs did decree to use their whole Interest and Power with the Faction to hasten the King's death Which sober Protestants had reason enough to believe because all or most of the Arguments which were used by the Assertors of this Violence on His Majesty were but gleanings from Popish Writers These Considerations cast the Determination on their side who designing a Tyrannical Oligarchy whereby they themselves might have a share in the Government would have the King proceeded against as King that by so shedding His Blood they might extinguish Majesty and with Him murther Monarchy For several of them did confess that indeed He was guilty of no Crime more than that He was their King and because the Excellency of His Parts and Eminent Vertues together with the Rights of His Birth would not suffer Him to be a private Person In their second debate about the Matter of Accusation all willingly embraced the Advice of Harrison who was emulous of the Power of Cromwell and though now his Creature yet afterwards became the Firebrand and Whirlwind of the following Times to blacken Him as much as they could yet found they not wherewith to pollute His Name For their old Scandals which they had amassed in their Declaration for no more Addresses to the King had been so publickly refuted that they could afford no colour for His Murther Therefore they formed their Accusation from that War to which they had necessitated Him And their Charge was that He had levied War against the Parliament that He had appeared in Arms in several places and did there proclaim War and executed it by killing several of the Good People for which they impeached Him as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and an implacable Common Enemy This Charge in the Judgment of Considering Men argued a greater guilt in those that prosecuted it than in Him against whom it was formed for they seemed less sensible of the instability and infirmities of Humane Nature than those that had none but her light to make them generous for such never reproached their conquered Enemies with their Victory but these Men would murther their own Prince against whom they had nothing more to object than the unhappy issues of a War which leaves the Conquered the only Criminal while the names of Justice and Goodness are the spoils of the Conquerour How false those Imputations of Tyranny Treason and Murther were was sufficiently understood by those who considered the peaceful part of the King's Reign wherein it was judged that if in any thing He had declined from the safest arts of Empire it was in the neglect of a just Severity on Seditious Persons whom the Laws had condemned to die And in the War it was known how often his Lenity had clipped the Wings of Victory But it appeared that these Men as they had broken all Rights of Peace so they would also those of Conquest and destroy that which their Arms pretended to save How little Credit their Accusation found appeared by the endeavours of all Parties to preserve the King's Person from Danger and the Nation from the guilt of His Blood For while they
among the Conspirators and both heated and directed their Fury against Him They were as importunate in their Calumnies of Him even after His Death as were the vilest of the Sectaries which they had never done could they have imagined Him to be theirs for His Blood would in their Calendar have out-shamed the Multitude of their fictitious Saints For His sake they continued their hatred to His Family abetted the Usurpations of the following Tyrant by imposing upon the World new Rules of Obedience and Government invented fresh Calumnies for the Son and obstructed by various Methods His return to the Principality because He was Heir as well of the Faith as of the Throne of His Father Although this Honour is not to be denied to many Gallant Persons of that perswasion that their Loyalty was not so corrupted by their Faith to Rome but that they laboured to prevent the Father's Overthrow and to hasten the Son's Restitution He was not satisfied in being Religious as a particular Christian but would be so as a King and endeavoured that Piety might be as Universal as His Empire This He assayed by giving Ornaments and Assistances to the External Exercise and Parts of it which is the proper Province of a Magistrate whose Power reaches but to the Outward man that so carnal minds if they were not brought to an Obedience might yet to a Reverence and if men would not honour yet they should not despise Religion This He did in taking Care for the Place of Worship that Comeliness and Decency should be there conspicuous where the God of Order was to be adored And it was a Royal Undertaking to restore Saint Paul's Church to its primitive strength and give it a beauty as magnificent as its Structure He taught men not to contemn the Dispensers of the Gospel because He had so great an esteem for them admitting some to His nearest Confidence and most Private Counsels as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the greatest Place of Trust as the Bishop of London to the Treasury consulting at once the Emolument of Religion whose Dictates are more powerfully impressed when the Minister is honoured by the Magistrate and the Benefit of the State which wise Princes had before found none to seek more faithfully if any did more prudently than Church-men Though a Voluntary Poverty did much contribute to the lustre and increase of the Church in the Purer times yet a necessitated would have destroyed it in a Corrupt age therefore the King to obstruct all access of Ruine that way secured her Patrimony and recovered as much as He could out of the Jaws of Sacrilege which together with time had devoured a great part of it His endeavours this way were so strong that the Faction in Scotland found no Artifice able to divert them but by kindling the flame of a Civil War the Criminals there seeking to adjust their Sacrilegious Acquisitions by Rebellious practices and to destroy that Church by force which His Majesty would not suffer them to torture with famine In Ireland the Lord Lieutenant Wentworth by His Command and Instructions retrived very great Possessions which the tumults of that Nation had advantaged many greedy Persons to seise upon and would not suffer Sedition to be incouraged with the hopes of Impiety In England He countenanced those just Pleas which Oppressed Incumbents entred against Rapacious Patrons and this way many Curates were put into a Condition of giving Hospitality who before were contemptible in their Ministry because they were so in their Fortune His Enemies knew how Inviolable was the Faith of His Majesty in this and therefore pressed Him with nothing more to obstruct Peace than the Alienation of Church-Lands rather than which He did abandon His Life and parted sooner with His Blood than them He used to say Though I am sensible enough of the Dangers that attend My Care of the Church yet I am resolved to defend it or make it My Tomb-stone alluding to a Story which He would tell of a Generous Captain that said so of a Castle that was committed to his trust He had so perfect a Detestation of that Crime that it is said He scarce ever mentioned Henry VIII without an Abhorrency of His Sacriledge He neglected the Advices of His own Party if they were negligent of the Welfare of the Church Those Concessions He had made in Scotland to the prejudice of the Church there were the subject of His grief and penitential Confessions both before God as appears in His Prayers and men For when the Reverend Dr Morley now Lord Bishop of Winchester whom He had sent for to the Treaty in the Isle of Wight where he employed his diligence and prudence to search into the Intrigues and Reserves of the Commissioners had acquainted Him how the Commissioners were the more pertinacious for the abolishing of Episcopacy here because His Majesty had consented to it in Scotland and withal told Him what Answer he himself had made to them That perchance the King was abused to those Grants by a misinformation that that Act which was made in King James ' s Minority against Bishops was yet unrepealed and that His Concession would but leave them where the Law had The King answered It is true I was told so but whenever you hear that urged again give them this Answer and say that you had it from the King Himself That when I did that in Scotland I sinned against My Conscience and that I have often repented of it and hope that God hath forgiven Me that great Sin and by God's grace for no Consideration in the World will I ever do so again He was careful of Uniformity both because He knew the Power of Just and Lawful Princes consisted in the Union of their Subjects who never are cemented stronger than by a Unity in Religion but Tyrants who measure their greatness by the weakness of their Vassals work that most effectually by caressing Schisms and giving a Licence to different Perswasions as the Usurpers afterwards did Besides He saw there was no greater Impediment to a sincere Piety because that Time and those Parts which might improve Godliness to a growth were all Wasted and Corrupted in Malice and Slanders betwixt the Dissenters about forms He was more tender in preserving the Truths of Christianity than the Rights of His Throne For when the Commissioners of the Two Houses in the Isle of Wight importunately pressed him for a Confirmation of the Lesser Catechism which the Assembly at Westminster had composed and used this motive because it was a small matter He answered Though it seem to you a small thing it is not so to Me I had rather give you one of the Flowers of My Crown than permit your Children to be corrupted in the least point of their Religion Thus though He could not infuse Spiritual Graces into the minds of His Subjects yet He would manage their Reason by Pious Arts and what the Example of a King which through
Reverend Divines whose Names I have here set down may have free liberty to wait upon Me for their discharging of their Duty unto Me according to their Function Holdenby 17. February 1646. CHARLES R. B. London B. Salisbury B. Peterborough D. Shelden Clark of My Closet D. Marsh Dean of York D. Sanderson D. Baily D. Heywood D. Beal D. Fuller D. Hammond D. Taylor XXVIII From HOLDENBY Mar. 6. MDCXLVI VII In pursuance of the former To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster IT being now seventeen days since I wrote to you from hence and not yet receiving any Answer to what I then desired I cannot but now again renew the same unto you And indeed concerning any thing but the necessary duty of a Christian I would not thus at this time trouble you with any of My desires But My being attended with some of My Chaplains whom I esteem and reverence is so necessary for Me even considering My present condition whether it be in relation to My Conscience or a happy settlement of the present Distractions in Religion that I will slight divers kinds of censures rather than not to obtain what I demand nor shall I do you the wrong as in this to doubt the obtaining of My wish it being totally grounded upon Reason For desiring you to consider not thinking it needful to mention the divers reasons which no Christian can be ignorant of for point of Conscience I must assure you that I cannot as I ought take in consideration those alterations in Religion which have and will be offered unto Me without such help as I desire because I can never judge rightly of or be altered in any thing of my Opinion so long as any ordinary way of finding out the truth is denied Me but when this is granted Me I promise you faithfully not to strive for Victory in Argument but to seek and submit to Truth according to that Judgement which God hath given Me always holding it My best and greatest Conquest to give contentment to My two Houses of Parliament in all things which I conceive not to be against My Conscience or Honour not doubting likewise but that you will be ready to satisfie Me in reasonable things as I hope to find in this particular concerning the attendance of My Chaplains upon Me. Holdenby 6. of March 1646. CHARLES R. XXIX From HOLDENBY May 12. MDCXLVII In Answer to their Propositions To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. AS the daily expectation of the coming of the Propositions hath made His Majesty this long time to forbear giving His Answer unto them so the appearance of their sending being no more for any thing He can hear than it was at His first coming hither notwithstanding that the Earl of Lauderdale hath been at London above these ten days whose not coming was said to be the only stop hath caused His Majesty thus to anticipate their coming to Him And yet considering His condition that His Servants are denied access to Him all but very few and those by appointment not His own election and that it is declared a crime for any but the Commissioners or such who are particularly permitted by them to converse with His Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from Him may He not truly say that He is not in case fit to make Concessions or give Answers since He is not master of these ordinary actions which are the undoubted rights of any free-born man how mean soever his birth be And certainly He would still be silent as to this Subject until His condition were much mended did He not prefer such a right understanding betwixt Him and His Parliaments of both Kingdoms which may make a firm and lasting Peace in all His Dominions before any particular of His own or any earthly blessing and therefore His Majesty hath diligently imployed His utmost endeavours for divers months past so to inform His understanding and satisfie His Conscience that He might be able to give such Answers to the Propositions as would be most conformable to His Parliaments but He ingenuously professes that notwithstanding all the pains that He hath taken therein the nature of some of them appears such unto Him that without disclaiming that Reason which God hath given Him to judge by for the good of Him and His People and without putting the greatest violence upon His own Conscience He cannot give His Consent to all of them Yet His Majesty that it may appear to all the world how desirous He is to give full satisfaction hath thought fit hereby to express His readiness to grant what He may and His willingness to receive from them and that Personally if His two Houses at Westminster shall approve thereof such further information in the rest as may best convince His Judgement and satisfie those doubts which are not yet clear unto Him desiring them also to consider that if His Majesty intended to wind Himself out of these Troubles by indirect means were it not easie for Him now readily to consent to what hath or shall be proposed unto Him and afterwards chuse His time to break all alledging that forced Concessions are not to be kept surely He might and not incur a hard censure from indifferent men But Maxims in this kind are not the guides of His Majesty's Actions for He freely and clearly avows that He holds it unlawful for any man and most base in a King to recede from His Promises for having been obtained by force or under restraint Wherefore His Majesty not only rejecting those acts which He esteems unworthy of Him but even passing by that which He might well insist upon a point of Honour in respect of His present condition thus answers the first Proposition That upon His Majesty's coming to London He will heartily joyn in all that shall concern the Honour of His two Kingdoms or the Assembly of the States of Scotland or of the Commissioners or Deputies of either Kingdom particularly in those things which are desired in that Proposition upon confidence that all of them respectively with the same tenderness will look upon those things which concern His Majesty's Honour In answer to all the Propositions concerning Religion His Majesty proposeth That He will confirm the Presbyterial Government the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and the Directory for three years being the time set down by the two Houses so that His Majesty and His Houshold be not hindred from that form of God's Service which they formerly have had And also that a free consultation and debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of His Majesty's nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by His Majesty and the two Houses how the Church shall be
upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land service and shall from time to time during the space of ten years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said spaceof ten years think fit to appoint and that neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any other but such as shall Act by the Authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of ten years exercise any of the powers aforesaid That Monies be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of ten years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of ten years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons or such as they shall appoint during the said space of ten years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or indeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them And after the expiration of the said ten years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission power deputation or authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall without the consent of the said Lords and Commons raise arm train discipline imploy order manage disband or dispose any the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said powers or authorities herein before-mentioned and expressed to be during the space of ten years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any act or any thing concerning the execution of the said powers or authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained And with the same Provisoes for saving the ordinary legal power of Officers of Justice not being Military Officers as is set down in your Propositions and with a Declaration That if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in a warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of high Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall so offend herein to be uncapable of any pardon from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors And likewise that it be provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties c. in raising and imploying the Forces of that City in such sort as is mentioned in the said Proposition With these Provisoes following to be inserted in the said Act. First That none be compelled to serve in the War against their Wills but in case of coming in of strange Enemies into this Kingdom And that the powers above-mentioned as concerning the Land-Forces other than for keeping up and maintenance of Forts and Garrisons and the keeping up maintaining and pay of this present Army so long as it shall be thought fit by both Houses of Parliament be exercised to no other purposes than for the suppressing of Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid or for suppressing of any Foreign Forces which shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms Dominions or places aforesaid And that the Monies be raised by general and equal Taxations saving that Tunnage and Poundage and such Imposts as have been applyed to the Navy be raised as hath been usual And that all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the premisses be made and acted in His Majesties name by Warrant signified by the Lords and Commons or such others as they shall authorize for that purpose If it shall be more satisfactory to His two Houses to have the Militia and powers thereupon depending during the whole time of His Majesty's Reign rather than for the space of ten years His Majesty gives them the election Touching Ireland His Majesty having in the two preceding Propositions given His consent concerning the Church and the Militia there in all things as in England as to all other matters relating to that Kingdom after advice with His two Houses He will leave it to their determination and give His consent accordingly as is herein hereafter expressed Touching publick Debts His Majesty will give His consent to such an Act for raising of Monies by general and equal Taxations for the payment and satisfying the Arrears of the Army publick Debts and engagements of the Kingdom as shall be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and shall be audited and ascertained by them or such persons as they shall appoint within the space of twelve Months after the passing of an Act for the same His Majesty will consent to an Act that during the said space of ten years the Lord Chancellour or Lord Keeper Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports Chancellour of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of England be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue quam diu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by such others as they shall authorize for that purpose His Majesty will consent that the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof during the space of ten years may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in the Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to
am afraid I shall not have so good an Answer as I expect which My Nephew foreseeing hath desired Me for the better countenance of the same to make a Manifesto in My Name which is a thing of great consequence and should I do it alone without the advice of My Parliament it would rather be a scorn than otherwise Therefore I do propose it unto you that if you will advise Me to it I think it were very fit to be published in My Name XXXII To the Scotish Parliament at EDINBURGH Aug. 19. MDCXLI MY Lords and Gentlemen There hath nothing been so displeasing to Me as those unlucky Differences which have happened between Me and My People and nothing that I have more desired than to see this day wherein I hope not only to settle these unhappy mistakings but rightly to know and to be known of My Native Countrey I need not tell you for I think it is well known to most what difficulties I have passed through and overcome to be here at this present Yet this I will say If Love to My Native Countrey had not been a chief motive to this journey other respects might easily have found a shift to do that by a Commission which I am come to perform My self And this considered I cannot doubt of such real testimonies of your affections for the maintenance of that Royal Power which I enjoy after an hundred and eight Descents and which you have professed to maintain and to which your own National Oath doth oblige you that I shall not think any pains ill-bestowed Now the end of My coming is shortly this to perfect whatsoever I have promised and withal to quiet the Distractions which have and may fall out amongst you And this I mind not superficially but fully and chearfully to perform For I assure you that I can do nothing with more chearfulness than to give My People a general satisfaction Wherefore not offering to endear My self unto you in words which indeed is not My way I desire in the first place to settle that which concerns the Religion and just Liberties of this My Native Countrey before I proceed to any other Act. XXXIII To the Lords and Commons after His return out of Scotland at WESTMINSTER Dec. 2. MDCXLI MY Lords and Gentlemen I think it fit after so long absence at this first occasion to speak a few words unto you but it is no ways in answer to Master Speaker's Learned Speech Albeit I have stayed longer than I expected to have done when I went away yet in this I have kept My promise with you that I have made all the hast back again that the setling of My Scotch affairs couldany ways permit In which I have had so good success that I will confidently affirm to you that I have left that Nation a most peaceable and contented People So that although I have a little misreckoned in Time yet I was not deceived in My End But if I have deceived your expectations a little in the time of My return yet I am assured that My expectation is as much and more deceived in the condition wherein I hoped to have found some businesses at My return For since that before My going I setled the Liberties of My Subjects and gave the Law a free and orderly course I expected to have found My People reaping the fruits of these benefits by living in quietness and satisfaction of mind But in stead of this I find them disturbed with Jealousies Frights and Alarms of dangerous designs and plots in consequence of which Guards have been set to defend both Houses I say not this as in doubt that My Subjects affections are any way lessened to Me in this time of My absence for I cannot but remember to My great comfort the joyful reception I had now at My Entry into London but rather as I hope that My presence will easily disperse these fears For I bring as perfect and true affections to My People as ever Prince did or as good Subjects can possibly desire And I am so far from repenting Me of any Act I have done this Session for the good of My People that I protest if it were to do again I would do it and will yet grant what else can be justly desired for satisfaction in point of Liberties or in maintenance of the true Religion that is here established Now I have but one particular to recommend unto you at this time It is Ireland for which though I doubt not your care yet Me thinks the preparations for it go but slowly on The occasion is the fitter for Me now to mention it because of the arrival of two Lords from Scotland who come instructed from My Council there who now by Act of Parliament have full power for that purpose to answer that Demand which it pleased both Houses to make of Me by way of Petition that met Me at Barwick and which the Duke of Richmond sent back by My Command to My Scotch Council Therefore My desire is that both Houses would appoint a select Committee to end this business with these Noblemen I must conclude in telling you that I seek My Peoples Happiness for their flourishing is My greatest glory and their affections My greatest strength XXXIV To the Lords and Commons concerning IRELAND and the Bill for Pressing Souldiers Decemb. 14. MDCXLI MY Lords and Gentlemen The last time I was in this place and the last thing that I recommended unto you was the business of Ireland whereby I was in good hope that I should not have needed again to have put you in mind of that business But still seeing the slow proceedings therein and the dayly Dispatches that I have out of Ireland of the lamentable estate of My Protestant Subjects there I cannot but again earnestly commend the dispatch of that Expedition unto you for it is the chief business that at this time I take to heart and there cannot almost be any business that I can have more care of I might now take up some of your time in expressing My detestation of Rebellions in general and of this in particular But knowing that Deeds and not Declarations must suppress this great insolency I do here in a word offer you whatsoever My power pains or industry can contribute to this good and necessary work of reducing the Irish Nation to their true and wonted obedience And that nothing may be omitted on My part I must here take notice of the Bill for Pressing of Souldiers now depending among you My Lords concerning which I here declare that in case it come so to Me as it may not infringe or diminish My Prerogative I will pass it And further seeing there is a dispute raised I being little beholding to him whosoever at this time began it concerning the bounds of this antient and undoubted Prerogative to avoid further debate at this time I offer that the Bill may pass with a salvo jure both for King and
they alledged by evil Counsellors did raise Forces and by them mastered their Adversaries in that Parliament such as it was for it was held and kept with force how good use soever hath been made of the Precedents therein they procured a special Act of Pardon for their raising of Men and that those Assemblies should not be drawn into example for the time to come And as no Man can levy War or raise Forces without the King so much less against the personal Commands of the King opposed thereunto For by the Statute of the 25. year of King Edward the Third which is but declaratory of the old Law in that point it is Treason to levy War against the King in His Realm Within the construction of which Statute it is true which was said in the late Declaration under the name of both Houses of Parliament of the 26. of May last levying War in some sense against the King's Authority though not intended against His Person is levying War against the King And therefore the raising of Forces though upon pretence of removing of some evil Counsellors from about the Queen hath been adjudged Treason in the Case of the late Earl of Essex in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in divers other Cases And We wish all Our Subjects to consider whether if Men shall be raised contrary to Our Proclamation and against Our Will it be not against Our Authority But it is as true and was never denied but in that Declaration that the raising of Forces against the King's personal Command being no Ideot nor Infant uncapable of understanding to Command being accompanied with His Presence is and is most properly levying of War against the King For if it be a sufficient pretence for raising of Men against the King's Person that it is for the defence of the King's Authority and of His Kingdom though against His express Command and Proclamation the Irish Rebels will have colour for their horrid Rebellion for they say though it be notoriously false it is for the defence of the King's Authority and of His Kingdom And Wat Tyler and Jack Cade and Kett the Tanner wanted not publick Pretences which were perhaps just causes of Complaints though not of raising of Men. And though these persons have gone about subtilly to distinguish betwixt Our Person and Our Authority as if because Our Authority may be where Our Person is not that therefore Our Person may be where Our Authority is not We require all Our good Subjects to take notice of the Law which is in print and full force That their Allegiance is due unto the natural Person of their Prince and not to His Crown or Kingdom distinct from His natural Capacity and that by the Oath of Ligeance at the Common Law which all persons above the age of twelve years are or ought to be sworn unto they are bound to be true and faithful not to the King only as King but to Our Person as King CHARLES and to bear Us truth and faith of Life and Member and earthly Honour and that they shall neither know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to Us that they shall not defend And that when in the time of King Edward the Second Hugh Spencer being discontented with the King caused a Bill to be written wherein was contained amongst other things That Homage and the Oath of Allegiance was more by reason of the King's Crown that is His Kingdom than of His Person and that seeing the King cannot be reformed by suit of Law if the King will not redress and put away that which is ill for the Common People and hurtful to the Crown that the thing ought to be put away by force and that His Lieges be bound to Govern in aid of Him and in default of Him he was condemned for it by two Parliaments and perpetually banished the Kingdom We have made mention of these Cases not so much to clear Our Right that We alone have the power of raising Forces and none of Our Subjects either in Parliament or out of Parliament against Our Will or personal Command which We think no Man that hath the least knowledge in Our Laws and is not led away by private Interests and may speak his mind freely will deny nor was ever questioned in any Parliament before this time as to let them see how dangerous the effect and consequence of raising of Forces without Us may be unto Us and to the Commonwealth under pretence of Defence of both And though We cannot doubt of the Affections of Our good Subjects considering their Interest is involved with Ours and how precious the Peace of the Kingdom is and ought to be unto them and that according to the words of the Statute of the eleventh year of King Henry the Seventh and the eighteenth Chapter by the duty of their Allegiance they are bounden to serve and assist Us at all seasons when need shall require Yet to the end that Our good Subjects may know what their Duty is and what We expect from them and that all others who through Malice or private Interests shall be transported beyond their Duties may be left without excuse We do therefore by this Our Proclamation charge and command all Our Subjects upon their Allegiance and as they tender Our Honour and Safety and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom that they presume not to raise or levy any Horses Horsmen or Arms or any Forces whatsoever by colour of any Authority whatsoever without Our express pleasure signified under Our great Seal other than such as shall be raised levied and imprested by the Order as well of Our Self as of both Houses of Parliament according to an Act made this Sessions intituled An Act for the better raising and levying of Soldiers for the present defence of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by Justices of Peace and otherwise in such manner as is prescribed in the said Act or Contribute or give any Assistance in Money Plate finding of Horses Horsmen or Arms or any other ways to or for any such Preparation Levie or Forces And that such of Our good Subjects who through Ignorance have been mis-led to consent or subscribe to any such Levie Contribution or Assistance forthwith upon publication of this Our Proclamation desist from continuing such their Contribution or Assistance or giving any countenance to any such Levies at their utmost perils And We do likewise streightly charge and command as well all Our Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Balliffs Constables and all other Our Officers whatsoever that they use their utmost endeavours as well for publishing this Our Proclamation as for the suppressing of all Levies or Forces raised or to be raised without or against Our consent as also all other Our loving Subjects that they be attending aiding and assisting Our said Officers and Ministers therein as they and every of them will answer it at their utmost perils Given at Our Court at York
let the woful experience of these last eighteen years judge where in a time of Peace and Plenty the power of issuing out Commissions to compel Loans a power in the King at His pleasure to impose a Charge upon the People to provide Ships without limitation of time or proportion a power in the Council-Board to commit Men and determine business without distinction of persons or causes the power of laying Impositions both upon Forein and Domestick Commodities and many other Acts of Oppressions was under the name and colour of a Legal Right thereunto practised and put in execution against which the Subject had no help of relief but was necessitated to submit and lie under the burthen And when at any time a Parliament was called being the only cure and remedy for these griefs it could no sooner touch upon these sores but it was dashed in pieces by a sudden Dissolution And now that a remedy is provided for that mischief by the Act for continnance of this Parliament it is attempted by the force and power of an Army to effect that which formerly could have been done with more ease and readiness And now they refer it to the censure of any honest Man whether they have not the warrant of Reason and Necessity to demand some security to enjoy that which His Majesty confesseth to be the Peoples right and in reference to that whether their Demand of having the Forts Castles and Shipping to be put into such hands as both Houses shall have cause to confide in was not both moderate and reasonable And touching their Demand and His Majesty's Answer to the Clause concerning the admission of Forces into those Forts Castles and Towns they must still submit it to all indifferent judgments how much Reason and Justice was comprehended in their Demand and how little satisfaction they received therein His Majesty answers That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law should be admitted which they could heartily wish heretofore had or hereafter would be really performed but they desire it may be considered what security this will be to the Kingdom to prevent the raising or bringing in of Forces contrary to law who shall be Judges of the Law when those Forces are once raised and once brought in Surely His Majesty will not acknowledge the two Houses of Parliament to be for His Majesty by several Declarations hath expresly denied them any such Power For contrary to their Declarations fortified with Law and Reason His Majesty published and affirmed the Legality of the Commission of Array and put the same in execution in most parts of the Kingdom hath authorized the Papists of the Kingdom to take Arms to oppose the Parliament and their Proceedings and to rob spoil and deprive the Protestants of this Kingdom of their Estates and lives hath by divers Proclamations and Declarations published the raising of Forces and taking up of Arms by the two Houses of Parliament and such as therein obey their Commands for their own defence and the defence of their Religion and Liberty assaulted by an Army of Papists and their adherents to be Rebellion and Treason and the taking up of Arms by the Papists and their adherents to be acts of Duty and Loyalty and all this urged and pretended to be warranted by the Law of the Land And they do not doubt but by the same Law persons legally impeached and accused in Parliament of high Treason as the Lord Digby Master Percy Master Jermyn Master Oneale and others are by the power of an Army protected from the Justice of the Parliament and yet all this while the People have not only His Majesty's Promise but His Oath to govern and protect them according to the Laws of the Land And now they appeal to the World whether such a general Answer That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law without admitting them so much as to declare their confidence in the persons that are to be entrusted with the Power be just or reasonable What is it otherwise in effect than to make those persons that are the Instruments to violate the Law Judges of that Law which to our sad experience is the woful and miserable present condition of this Kingdom And though by what had hitherto passed they had little cause to suspect such a happy issue to the Treaty as they heartily wished and most earnestly laboured for discovering not the least inclination of compliance to their just Demands but all or most of them answered with a Denial and that not without some sharpness and acrimony yet resolving to be wanting in nothing of their parts they enjoyned their Committee to press on the Proposition for Disbanding and humbly desire His Majesty's positive Answer thereunto which if assented unto by His Majesty would though not wholly take away the cause and perfectly cure the Distractions of this Kingdom yet at least take off the smart and pain under which both Church and State do most miserably languish and so better enable them to endure the expectation of a through Cure The Committee applied themselves to His Majesty accordingly and after some endeavour to protract the debate of this Proposition and desire that it might be deferred to the conclusion of the Treaty and that the time of the Treaty might be enlarged His Majesty being earnestly importuned to a positive and speedy Answer to the end the Kingdom might know what they might trust to His Majesty was pleased to return this Answer That as soon as His Majesty were satisfied in His first Proposition concerning His own Revenue Magazines Ships and Forts secondly as soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. not intending to extend it to the Bishops Votes or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made thirdly as soon as His Majesty and both Houses might be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as formerly assembled about both Houses which security His Majesty explains can be only settled by adjourning the Parliament to some place twenty miles from London His Majesty would consent that both the Armies should be disbanded and come to the Parliament Which in terms plain enough is as much as to say That until both Houses shall consent to those Demands He will not Disband His Army He will continue the War And what Reason or Justice is either in the matter or manner of those demands or what hope or expectation the People can have to see an end of their present Calamities they leave it to themselves to judge His Majesty in the beginning of the Treaty in His Answer to the Propositions of both Houses was pleased to express how unparliamentary it was by Arms to require new Laws but how to apply that to the two Houses of Parliament they must confess they are to seek they never having demanded any new Laws by Arms endeavouring
have said in that Protestation you mention and We thank you for being satisfied with it in which God knows Our Resolution to be so firm and stedfast that We will give any Security under Heaven for the observation of it And as Our greatest desire at this present is to meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament which We are confident would quickly put an end to all these Troubles So when it shall please God to restore that Blessing to Us We shall value and esteem that Council and frequently consult with it and be advised by it as the best means to make both King and People truly happy and We shall then by an Act given wipe out the footsteps of these extraordinary Supplies which nothing but this real visible Necessity which oppresses us all could have compelled Us to make use of and which shall never be mentioned or remembred by Us to the least Prejudice of your Rights and Liberties And in the mean time We shall leave nothing undone for the preservation of particular Contracts and prevention of the disorder and licence of the Souldier which is in Our Power to do no particular Person enduring half that sadness of heart for those Breaches and Pressures which We Our Self do For the prevention and suppression whereof We shall proceed with all Rigour and Severity Lastly as the support and maintenance of the Religion Laws and Privileges of Parliament is as you well know the only Argument of Our defensive Arms so those being secured We shall with all imaginable Joy lay down those Arms And as you have been Our Witnesses and Our Assistants in Our earnest desires of Peace so We promise you We shall not only with the same earnestness always embrace it if it shall be offered but pursue and press it upon the least likelihood of Opportunity And this Our Resolution by God's Blessing shall never be altered by any Advantages or prosperous Success His MAJESTY'S Protestation I DO Promise in the presence of Almighty God and as I hope for his Blessing and Protection That I will to the utmost of My Power defend and maintain the true Reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England and by the Grace of God in the same will live and die I desire to Govern by the known Laws of the Land and that the Liberty and Property of the Subject may be by them preserved with the same care as My own just Rights And if it please God by His blessing upon this Army raised for My necessary defence to preserve Me from this Rebellion I do solemnly and faithfully Promise in the sight of God to maintain the just Privileges and Freedom of Parliament and to govern by the known Laws of the Land to My utmost Power and particularly to observe inviolably the Laws consented to by Me this Parliament In the mean while if this time of War and the great necessity and streights I am now driven to beget any violation of those I hope it shall be imputed by God and Man to the Authors of this War and not to Me Who have so earnestly laboured for the preservation of the Peace of this Kingdom When I willingly fail in these particulars I will expect no Aid or Relief from any Man or Protection from Heaven But in this Resolution I hope for the chearful Assistance of all good Men and am confident of God's Blessing MDCXLIV The Declaration of the most Excellent and Potent Prince CHARLES King of Great Britain sent to the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas CHARLES by the Providence of Almighty God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith To all those who profess the true Reformed Protestant Religion of what Nation degree and condition soever they be to whom this present Declaration shall come Greeting Whereas We are given to understand that many false Rumors and Scandalous Letters are spread up and down amongst the Reformed Churches in Foreign parts by the politick or rather the pernicious industry of some ill-affected Persons that We have an inclination to recede from that Orthodox Religion which We were born baptized and bred in and which We have firmly professed and practised throughout the whole course of Our Life to this moment and that We intend to give way to the introduction and publick Exercise of Popery again in Our Dominions Which Conjecture or rather most detestable Calumny being grounded upon no imaginable foundation hath raised these horrid Tumults and more than barbarous Wars throughout this flourishing Island under pretext of a kind of Reformation which would not only prove incongruous but incompatible with the Fundamental Laws and Government of this Kingdom We desire that the whole Christian World should take notice and rest assured that We never entertained in Our Imagination the least thought to attempt such a thing or to depart a jot from that holy Religion which when we received the Crown and Sceptre of this Kingdom We took a most Solemn and Sacramental Oath to profess and protect Nor doth Our most constant practice and quotidian visible presence in the exercise of this sole Religion with so many Asseverations in the head of Our Armies and the publick Attestation of Our Barons with the circumspection used in the Education of Our Royal Off-spring besides divers other undeniable Arguments only demonstrate this but also that happy Alliance of Marriage We contracted betwixt Our Eldest Daughter and the Illustrious Prince of Orange most clearly confirms the reality of Our Intentions herein by which Nuptial Engagement it appears further that Our endeavours are not only to make a bare Profession thereof in Our Own Dominions but to inlarge and corroborate it abroad as much as lyeth in Our Power This most holy Religion of the Anglicane Church ordain'd by so many Convocations of Learned Divines confirm'd by so many Acts of National Parliaments and strengthned by so many Royal Proclamations together with the Ecclesiastick Discipline and Liturgy thereunto appertaining which Liturgy and Discipline the most eminent of Protestant Authors as well Germans as French as well Danes as Swedes and Switzers as well Belgians as Bohemians do with many Elogies and not without a kind of envy approve and applaud in their publick Writings particularly in the Transactions of the Synod of Dort wherein besides other of Our Divines who afterwards were Prelates one of Our Bishops assisted to whose Dignity all due respects and precedency was given this Religion We say which Our Royal Father of blessed Memory doth publickly assert in that His famous Confession address'd as We also do this Our Protestation to all Christian Princes this this most holy Religion with the Hierarchy and Liturgy thereof We solemny protest that by the help of Almighty God We will endeavour to Our utmost Power and last period of Our Life to keep entire and inviolable and will be careful according to Our duty to Heaven and the tenor of the aforesaid most sacred Oath at Our
already settled by the Laws of that Kingdom Their Answer thereunto 15. February TO your Lordships fourth Paper of the 14. of Feb. it is answered that by our Propositions for settling the Admiralty of Scotland by Act of Parliament it is intended that the Admiralty and Forces at Sea c. shall be settled in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fittest for the safety and security of that Kingdom And as touching the inheritance of any person which is already settled by the Laws of that Kingdom the Estates of Parliament will do that which is agreeable to Justice The King's Commissioners Paper 15. February VVE desire to know whether the Papers delivered to us touching the Militia contain all your Lordships Propositions touching the Militia of England and Scotland and if they do not that your Lordships will deliver the rest that we may make our Answers upon the whole Their Answer 15. Feb. VVHatsoever is contained in the Propositions concerning the Militia of England and Scotland is delivered in to your Lordships except the 23. Proposition and the last Article in the 26. Proposition which are reserved for their proper place After all these passages the King's Commissioners delivered in this Paper in further Answer to their Propositions concerning the Militia 17. Feb. VVE had no purpose in our Answer delivered by us to your Lordships on the sixth day of February to divide our Answers concerning the Militia of the two Kingdoms otherwise than in point of time and till we might receive satisfaction from your Lordships concerning the Powers to be given to the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and the other particulars mentioned in our Papers since delivered to your Lordships wherein we are not as yet satisfied by any Papers delivered by your Lordships to us Our further Answer to those Propositions concerning the Militia is That we are willing and do agree that the like course shall be taken and observed touching the Militia of the Kingdom of Scotland as is offered in our said Paper of the sixth of February and as shall be hereafter agreed on for the Kingdom of England which we conceive to be a full security for the performance and observation of all Articles which shall be agreed upon between us in order to a blessed Peace which we are so desirous may be punctually and exactly observed that we are willing that His Majesty be desired to take a most solemn strict Oath for the full observation thereof and likewise that all persons of any immediate trust by office or attendance on His Majesty and any other whom you shall think fit shall take such Oath for the due observance of the same with such reasonable Penalties as shall be proposed by your Lordships and agreed to by us in which we believe we shall not differ with your Lordships being willing that whosoever shall in the least degree infringe the Agreement which shall be made between us may be looked upon and accounted as most pernicious Enemies to King and Kingdoms And if it shall be thought necessary to make any additional settlement of the Militia with a general reference to the good of the Kingdoms respectively we desire the same may be done after the Peace established by the joynt consent of His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament in England and His Majesty and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively And as we shall desire and endeavour to remove all occasions that may interrupt the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom and a perfect Amity with them and shall not desire any change of or to intermeddle in their Laws or Government or give them cause to apprehend any disturbance or violation of them from this Kingdom so are we obliged with all tenderness to preserve the Honour Dignity and Constitution of this Realm And therefore as we are yet satisfied we cannot consent that any Persons authorized by the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland or any advice from thence shall have any influence upon the Militia of this Kingdom or further interpose in the affairs of this Kingdom than is already provided by the Act of Pacification And we offer to your Lordships considerations whether unless there could be an union of the Laws of both Kingdoms such a mixture of Power as is now proposed and the influence thereof both upon Martial and Civil affairs may not prove very inconvenient and prejudicial to both Kingdoms and give cause of Jealousies to each other to the disturbance of that mutual Amity so much desired But if this intermingling of Power in both Kingdoms shall be further insisted on by your Lordships we propound that the same may be settled as after a Peace established shall be agreed by the joynt consent of His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament of England and of His Majesty and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland and if your Lordships shall insist on any thing further for necessary Security we shall apply our selves to the consideration thereof if we shall have further time so to do according to our desires grounded upon His Majesty's Letter Their Paper 17. Feb. WE do conceive that we have in our former Papers punctually satisfied your Lordships in all you desired to know concerning the Powers of the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and the other particulars mentioned by your Lordships And what your Lordships now offer concerning the Militia of the Kingdom of Scotland that the like course shall be taken in it as is expressed in your Lordships Paper of the 6 th of Feb. to be observed for the Militia of this Kingdom your Lordships may remember that in our Answer to that Paper we told your Lordships it was differing from what we had proposed and unsatisfactory to our just and necessary desires for securing the Peace of the Kingdoms and it cannot be expected that what was so then for the Kingdom of England should now be thought other for the Kingdom of Scotland And though both Kingdoms be now united in the same Cause and labouring under the same Dangers and therefore necessitated to a mutual and reciprocal Assistance of each other had proposed a joynt remedy and security by that Commission desired in our 17 th Proposition we find your Lordships say that as yet you are satisfied you cannot consent unto it To which we answer That we believed we had given your Lordships such convincing Reasons as might have satisfied you and we doubt not but they may if you will recollect your memories concerning them and rightly weight them This being the last day we are to Treat upon this Subject it cannot be expected and as we conceive it is altogether needless to use any more Arguments we do therefore desire your Lordships will be pleased now at the last to give us your full and positive Answer to our Demands as we have often already pressed your Lordships And whereas your Lordships do propound that if we shall further insist upon the
refused to consent to the Bill presented to His Majesty after this for the levying more Money for Ireland justly fearing that the same might be used as the former had been And for the few Cloaths for there were no Moneys intercepted by his Majesties Souldiers in His Majesties Quarters which are said to be intended for Ireland the same were intercepted near Coventry and going thither after that City had refused to receive His Majesty though at the Gates But His Majesty never refused to give any safe Pass through His Quarters for any Goods or Provisions which were intended or prepared for Ireland neither was the same ever desired For the Extracts and Copies of the Letters delivered by us to your Lordships from the Lords Justices and Council of Ireland and the Officers of the Army we have been and are willing that your Lordships should compare them with the Originals but for your having the Names of the Persons who writ the same since there can be no doubt of the truth of our Assertions we conceive it not reasonable to desire the same not knowing what inconvenience any of them since you seem not to like that Advice might incur if at any time they should be found within your Quarters And having now satisfied your Lordships in the matter of the Cessation we shall gladly proceed in the Treaty with your Lordships upon any thing that may be apparently good for His Majesties Protestant Subjects there and the re-setling of that Kingdom in His Majesties Obedience Their Reply 18. Feb. WE do conceive that the Arguments used by us might have fully satisfied your Lordships against His Majesties Power to make a Cessation with the Rebels in Ireland having answered whatsoever your Lordships have hitherto alledged to the contrary and offered if any other Doubts yet remain by Conference to clear them which still we are ready to do and we have heard nothing just or reasonable for that Cessation It will be made evident that the Necessities which by your Lordships were made Excuses for the Cessation were created on purpose to colour the same and we are compelled by your Lordships Paper to let you know that the Committees of Parliament sent into Ireland to endeavour to supply their Necessities were discountenanced by the principal Instruments for that Cessation and when they had taken up 2000 l. upon their personal security for the Army there they were presently after commanded from the Council by a Letter brought thither from His Majesty by the Lord Ormond's Secretary and when the Officers of the Army were contented to subscribe for Land in satisfaction of their Arrears it was declared from His Majesty that He disapproved of such Subscriptions whereby that course was diverted And we do affirm that whatever Sums of money raised for Ireland were made use of by both Houses of Parliament were fully satisfied with advantage and as we are informed before the Bill mentioned in our former Paper was refused by His Majesty And for the Regiments of Horse and Foot mentioned by your Lordships to be raised for Ireland and imployed otherwise by the Houses of Parliament it is true that Forces were so designed and when the Money Arms and other Provisions were all ready and nothing wanting but a Commission from His Majesty for the Lord Wharton who was to command them the same could not be obtained which was the cause those Forces did not go thither and when twelve Ships and six Pinnaces were prepared with a thousand or more Land-Forces for the Service of Ireland and nothing desired but a Commission from His Majesty the Ships lying ready and staying for the same were three Weeks together at three hundred Pound a day charge yet the same was denyed though often desired And where your Lordships seem to imply that the Provision seized by His Majesties Forces were going for Coventry it was made known to His Majesty that the same were for Ireland And your Lordships must needs conceive that the Papers you delivered to us being but Extracts and for that you deny us so to compare them with the Originals as to have the Names of the Persons by whom they were written it is altogether unreasonable for us to give any credit to them it being manifest by this and our former Papers and Debates that the Cessation with the Rebels in Ireland is both unjust and unlawful We therefore insist on our Demands concerning Ireland as apparently good for His Majesties Subjects there and for reducing that Kingdom to His Majesties Obedience Before His Majesties Commissioners gave Answer to this last Paper they being also to answer the rest of the Demands concerning Ireland for their necessary Information touching some Doubts that did arise upon those Demands and the Articles of the Treaty of the 6 th of August concerning Ireland and Ordinances delivered with them the King's Commissioners gave in these several Papers The King's Commissioners First Paper 19. Feb. IN the eighth Article of the Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England dated 29. Novemb. 1643. at Edenburgh delivered to us by your Lordships among the Papers for Ireland and desired by the twelfth Proposition to be confirmed by Act of Parliament It is agreed that no Cessation nor any Pacification or Agreement for Peace whatsoever shall be made by either Kingdom without the mutual advice and consent of both Kingdoms or the Committees in that behalf appointed who are to have full power for the same in case the Houses of the Parliament of England or the Parliament or Convention of Estates in Scotland shall not sit We desire to know whether that Article extend to any Cessation Pacification or Agreement in Ireland Their Answer 19. Feb. WE did in Answer to your Lordships Paper of the first of February upon the Propositions concerning Religion deliver the Treaty of the 29. of November 1643. mentioned by your Lordships and not among the Papers for Ireland to which it hath no relation The King's Commissioners Reply 20. Feb. YOur Lordships did deliver the Treaty of the 29. of November 1643. to us with the Papers concerning Ireland and on the 7. day of this instant February and not upon the first of February upon the Propositions concerning Religion Their Answer 20. Feb. WHen your Lordships peruse your Papers you will rest satisfied with our Answer of the 19. of this instant to your first Paper that day given to us for it will appear appear by your Lordships third Paper of the first of February and our Paper given to your Lordships in answer of it that the Treaty of the date at Edenburgh 29. Novemb. 1643. was delivered to your Lordships on the first of February upon the Proposition of Religion and not upon the third of February with the Papers concerning Ireland The Article of the Treaty of the 29. of November 1643. which occasioned these Papers being by their Papers thus acknowledged not to concern Ireland and so not pertinent to that Subject the Kings
Commissioners insisted no farther The Kings Commissioners Second Paper 19. Feb. BY the thirteenth Proposition it is demanded that an Act be passed to settle the Prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of Parliament of England to be managed by the joynt advices of both Kingdoms We desire to know whether if the two Kingdoms shall not agree in their advice touching that War each have a negative Voice or whether the Scots Commander in chief of the Forces in Ireland may manage that War in such case according to his own discretion Their Answer 19. Feb. IN Answer to your Lordships second Paper the Prosecution of the War of Ireland is to be setled in the two Houses of the Parliament of England but is to be managed by a joynt Committee of both Kingdoms wherein the Committee of each Kingdom hath a negative Voice but in case of disagreement the Houses of Parliament of England may prosecute the War as they shall think fit observing the Treaty of the sixth of August 1642. between the two Houses and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland and the Ordinance of the 11. of April 1644. delivered to your Lordships formerly The Kings Commissioners Third Paper 19. Feb. BY the twentieth Proposition in the Intervals of Parliament the Commissioners for the Militia have power to nominate the Lord Deputy of Ireland and other Officers and Judges there We desire to know whether that Power be limited to the Commissioners of both Kingdoms or only to the Commissioners for England and whether in such cases the Commissioners of Scotland shall vote as single Persons Their Answer 19. Feb. THe power of the Commissioners in the Intervals of Parliament to nominate the Lord Deputy of Ireland and other Officers and Judges there mentioned in the twentieth Proposition being no matters of joynt concernment is to be limited to the Commissioners of the Parliament of England wherein the Commissioners of Scotland are to vote as single Persons The Kings Commissioners Fourth Paper 19. Feb. THe Articles of the Treaty of the sixth of August giving Power to the Lieutenant of Ireland when the Scotish Army shall be joyned with his Army to give Instructions to the Scotish Commander in chief and the Orders of the two Houses of the 9. of March 1644. and the 11. of April 1644. appointing the General of the Scotish Forces in Ireland to command in chief over all the Forces as well British as Scots and both being desired to be Enacted we desire to know whether the Lieutenant of Ireland shall command the Scots Forces or whether the Scotish General shall command all Forces both British and Scots Their Answer 19. Feb. IN Answer to your Lordships fourth Paper we say that the Ordinances of the 9. of March and 11. of April 1644. were made when there was no Lieutenant of Ireland and when a Lieutenant shall be made with the Approbation of both Houses according to our former Demands in the seventeenth and twentieth Propositions it will be a fitting time to give further Answer to your Lordships The Kings Commissioners Reply 20. Feb. VVE desire a full Answer from your Lordships to our fourth Paper delivered to your Lordships yesterday concerning the Power of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the General of the Scots Forces your Lordships having proposed to us that the Articles of the Treaty and the Ordinance of the 11. of April be enacted by His Majesty by one of which the General of the Scots Forces is to receive Instructions for the managing the War there from the Lieutenant of Ireland and by the other which is the later the General of the Scots Forces is to command in chief both the British and Scots Forces by which it seems the Lievtenant of that Kingdom is to have no Power in the prosecution of that War Their Answer 20. Feb. WE do insist upon our former Papers that the prosecution of the War in Ireland is to be settled in both Houses of Parliament and is to be managed by the joynt advice of both Kingdoms as in those Papers is set down and when a Lievtenant of Ireland shall be appointed as is expressed in the Propositions and it shall be necessary for the good of the service that he and the Commander in chief of the Scotish Army joyn the Commander of the Scotish Army shall receive Instructions from the Lord Lievtenant or Deputy or other who shall have the chief Government of the Kingdom for the time according to the Orders which shall be given by the Commissioners of both Kingdoms The King's Commissioners fifth Paper 19. February THe last part of the seventeenth Proposition gives power to the Commissioners for the Militia of both Kingdoms as a joynt Committee to order the War of Ireland according to the Ordinance of the 11. of April and to order the Militia and conserve the Peace of the Kingdom of Ireland and by that of the 11. of April the Earl of Leven being appointed Commander in chief over all the Forces as well British as Scots we desire to know whether he shall be subordinate to those Commissioners for the Militia and be obliged to observe such Orders as he shall receive from them Their Answer 19. Feb. THe Commissioners of the Militia desired by the seventeenth Proposition are to order the War of Ireland according to the Ordinance of the 11. of April and the Earl of Leven being by that Ordinance Commander in chief of the Forces there is obliged to observe such Orders as he shall receive from those Commissioners Their Commissioners likewise the same 19. of Feb. delivered in some Papers of Demands on their part Their Answer 19. Feb. WE desire that no Cessation of Arms or Peace in Ireland may be Treated upon or concluded without consent of both Houses of Parliament of England Another 19. Feb. WE desire to know whether any Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland be consented unto by His Majesty and for what time and whether any Commission be now on foot or other Authority given by His Majesty for that purpose The King's Commissioners Answer to both 20. February TO your Lordships sixth and seventh Papers delivered to us yesterday concerning any Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland your Lordships well know that long after the War begun in this Kingdom and the want of a Supply from hence that a Cessation hath been made with His Majesties consent and we conceive that the same expires in March next and we are confident there is no Peace made there But for the making a Peace or a farther Cessation we can give no farther Answer till we may know whether there may be a blessed Peace made in England since if the miserable Civil Wars shall continue in this Kingdom we cannot conceive it possible for His Majesty by Force to reduce the Kingdom of Ireland or to preserve His Protestant Subjects there without a Peace or Cessation Their Reply 20. Febr. WE conceive your Lordships have given
by Acts of Parliament for that War have been formerly diverted to other uses of which Money 100000 l. at one time was issued out for the payment of the Forces under the Earl of Essex And as to diverting the Forces provided for the reducing of Ireland though we conceived it ought not to be objected to His Majesty considering the Forces under the Command of the Lord Wharton raised for Ireland had been formerly diverted and imployd against Him in the War here in England yet it is evident they were not brought over till after the Cessation when they could no longer subsist there and that there was no present use for them and before those Forces brought over there was an attempt to bring the Scotish Forces in Ireland as likewise divers of the English Officers there into this Kingdom and since the Earl of Leven their General and divers Scotch Forces were actually brought over To the Allegations that many Persons of all sorts have forsaken the Kingdom rather than they would submit to that Cessation we know of none but it is manifest that divers who had left that Kingdom because they would have been famished if they had continued there since that Cessation have returned Touching the Committee sent into Ireland we have already answered they were not discountenanced by His Majesty in what they lawfully might do although they went without His Privity but conceive your Lordships will not insist that they should sit with the Privy-Council there and assume to themselves to advise and interpose as Privy-Councellors And we again deny the Subscriptions of the Officers of the Army was diverted by His Majesty and it is well known that some Officers apprehending upon some speeches that the drift in requiring Subscriptions was to engage the Army against His Majesty in detestation thereof upon those speeches rent the Book of Subscription in pieces For the diversion of the Moneys raised for that War if they had been since repaid the contrary whereof is credibly informed to His Majesty yet that present Diversion might be and we believe was a great means of the future Wants of that Kingdom which induced the Cessation As to the Lord Wharton's Commission we conceive we have already fully satisfied your Lordships the just Reasons thereof For the Letters whereof your Lordships had Copies we conceive that you being thereby satisfied of the Contents and that they came from the Lords Justices and Council there your Lordships need not doubt of the truth of the matter and for the Names of the single Persons subscribing we cannot conceive it is desired for any other purpose than to be made use of against such of them as should come into your Quarters you having not granted though desired that it shall not turn to their Prejudice if we should give in their Names Upon what hath been said it appears that His Majesties English Protestant Subjects in Ireland could not subsist without a Cessation and that the War there cannot be maintained or prosecuted to the subduing of the Rebels there during the continuance of this unnatural War here is evident to any man that shall consider that this Kingdom labouring in a War which imploys all the Force and Wealth at home cannot nor will spare considerable Supplies to send abroad or if it could yet whiles there are mutual Jealousies that there cannot be that concurrence in joynt Advices betwixt the King and the two Houses as will be necessary if that War be prosecuted and that His Majesty cannot condescend or your Lordships in reason expect His Majesty should by His Consent to Acts of Parliament for the managing of that War and raising moneys to that purpose put so great a Power into their hands who during these Troubles may if they will turn that Power against Him and it is apparent that the continuance of the War here must inevitably cause the continuance of the Miseries there and endanger the rending of that Kingdom from this Crown The Kings Commissioners other Paper 20. Feb. VVE do very much wonder that it doth not clearly appear to your Lordships that upon any difference between the Committees of both Kingdoms in the managing the War of Ireland in the manner proposed by your Lordships the War there must stand still or be dissolved for if the Ordinance of the 11th of April be by His Majesties Royal Assent made an Act of Parliament as your Lordships desire all the Forces of that Kingdom both British and Scotish are put under the absolute Command of the Earl of Leven the Scotish General and the managing the War committed wholly to the Committee of both Kingdoms without any reference to the two Houses of the Parliament of England by themselves so that whatsoever your Lordships say of your intentions that the the two Houses of Parliament here shall upon such difference manage the War which yet you say must be observing the Treaty of the 6th of August and the said Ordinance of the 11th of April it is very evident if that Ordinance should be made a Law the War must stand still or be dissolved upon difference of opinion between the Committee of both Kingdoms or else the Earl of Leven must carry on the War according to his discretion for he is in no degree bound to observe the Orders or Directions of the Houses of Parliament in England by themselves Neither doth the asking His Majesties Consent at all alter the Case from what we stated it to your Lordships in our Paper of the 20. of this Instant for we said then and we say still that if His Majesty should consent to what you propose He would devest himself of all his Royal Power in that Kingdom and reserve no Power or Authority in Himself over that War which is most necessary for His Kingly Office to do For your Lordships Expression when there shall be a Lieutenant of Ireland we presume your Lordships cannot but be informed that His Majesty hath made and we doubt not but you acknowledge he hath power to make the Lord Marquess of Ormond His Lieutenant of that Kingdom and who is very well able to manage and carry on that War in such manner as shall be thought necessary for the good of that Kingdom and there is no question but that the naming the Earl of Leven to be General to receive Orders only from the joynt Committee of both Kingdoms doth more take away the Power of the two Houses here than if he were a Native of this Kingdom and to obey the Orders of the two Houses And we conceive it evident that the giving the absolute Command of all Forces both British and Scotish to the Earl of Leven General of the Scotish Forces who is to manage the War according to the Directions of the joynt Committee of both Kingdoms doth not amount to less than to deliver the whole Kingdom of Ireland over into the hands of His Majesties Subjects of the Kingdom of Scotland and therefore we must ask
Parliament of Scotland to an Act acknowledging and ratifying the Acts of the Convention of Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservers of the Peace and the Commissioners of the Common Burthens and assembled the Two and Twentieth day of June 1643. and several times continued since and of the Parliament of the Kingdom since convened XIII That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of July 1646. Arm Train and Discipline or cause to be Armed Trained and Disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and Places aforesaid as in their judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and that neither the King His Heirs or Successors nor any other but such as shall Act by the Authority or Approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of twenty years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years be imployed managed ordered and disposed by the said Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without Authority and Consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any Foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 3. To conjoyn such Forces of the Kingdom of England with the Forces of the Kingdom of Scotland as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of Twenty years judge fit and necessary to resist all Forreign Invasions and to suppress any Forces raised or to be raised against or within either of the said Kingdoms to the disturbance of the Publick Peace of the said Kingdoms or any of them by any Authority under the Great Seal or other Warrant whatsoever without Consent of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively and that no Forces of either Kingdom shall go into or continue in the other Kingdom without the Advice and Desire of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland or such as shall be by them appointed for that purpose And that after the expiration of the said Twenty years neither the King His Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King His Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise arm train discipline imploy order manage disband or dispose any of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of VVales Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities in the precedent Articles mentioned and expressed to be during the said space of Twenty years in the said Lords and Commons nor do any Act or thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained That after the expiration of the said Twenty years in all Cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the Safety of the Kingdom to be concerned and shall thereupon pass any Bill or Bills for the raising arming training disciplining imploying managing ordering or disposing of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any part of the said Forces or concerning the Admiralty and Navy or concerning the levying of Moneys for the raising maintenance or use of the said Forces for Land-service or of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service or of any part of them and if that the Royal Assent to such Bill or Bills shall not be given in the House of Peers within such time after the passing thereof by both Houses of Parliament as the said Houses shall judge fit and convenient that then such Bill or Bills so passed by the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid and to which the Royal Assent shall not be given as is herein before expressed shall nevertheless after declaration of the said Lords and Commons made in that behalf have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto Provided that nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary Legal power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailifs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being military Officers concerning the Administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers nor any of them do levy conduct imploy or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons And if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in warlike manner or otherwise to the Number of Thirty persons and shall not forthwith disband themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person and persons not so disbanding themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High
other things under any Great Seal of England in any time heretofore were or have been and that for time to come the said Great Seal now remaining in custody of the said Commissioners continue and be used for the Great Seal of England and that all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by authority of any other Great Seal since the two and twentieth day of May Anno Dom. 1642. or hereafter to be passed be invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes except such Writs Process and Commissions as being passed under any other Great Seal than the said Great Seal in the Custody of the Commissioners aforesaid on or after the said two and twentieth day of May and before the 28. day of November Anno Dom. 1643. were afterward proceeded upon returned into or put in ure in any the Kings Courts at VVestminster and except the Grant to Master Justice Bacon to be one of the Justices of the Kings Bench and except all Acts and Proceedings by virtue of any such Commissions of Gaol-delivery Assize and Nisi prius or Oyer and Terminer passed under any other Great Seal than the Seal aforesaid in custody of the said Commissioners before the first of October 1642. And that all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or Hereditaments made or passed under the Great Seal of Ireland unto any Person or Persons Bodies Politick or Corporate since the Cessation made in Ireland the fifteenth day of September 1643. shall be null and void and that all Honours and Titles conferred upon any Person or Persons in the said Kingdom of Ireland since the said Cessation shall be null and void His MAJESTIES Answer to the Propositions of both Houses Newcastle Aug. 1. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster CHARLES R. THE Propositions tendered to his Majesty by the Commissioners from the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at VVestminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland to which the Houses of Parliament have taken twice so many Months for deliberation as they have assigned Days for his Majesties Answer do import so great Alterations in Government both in the Church and Kingdom as it is very difficult to return a particular and positive Answer before a full Debate wherein these Propositions and the necessary Explanations true sense and Reasons thereof be rightly weighed and understood and that his Majesty upon a full view of the whole Propositions may know what is left as well as what is taken away and changed In all which he finds upon discourse with the said Commissioners that they are so bound up from any capacity either to give Reasons for the Demands they bring or to give ear to such Desires as his Majesty is to propound as it is impossible for him to give such a present judgment of and Answer to these Propositions whereby he can answer to God that a safe and well-grounded Peace will ensue which is evident to all the World can never be unless the just Power of the Crown as well as the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject with the just Liberty and Priviledges of the Parliament be likewise setled To which end his Majesty desires and proposeth to come to London or any of his Houses thereabouts upon the Publick Faith and security of the two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners That he shall be there with Freedom Honour and Safety where by his Personal Presence he may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt him and his People but also have these Doubts cleared and these Difficulties explained unto him which he now conceives to be destructive to his just Regal Power if he shall give a full Consent to these Propositions as they now stand As likewise that he may make known to them such his reasonable Demands as he is most assured will be very much conducible to that Peace which all good men desire and pray for by the settling of Religion the just Priviledges of Parliament with the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject and his Majesty assures them that as he can never condescend unto what is absolutely destructive to that just Power which by the Laws of God and the Land he is born unto so he will chearfully grant and give his Assent unto all such Bills at the desire of his two Houses or reasonable Demands for Scotland which shall be really for the good and peace of his People not having regard to his own particular much less of any body 's else in respect of the Happiness of these Kingdoms Wherefore his Majesty conjures them as Christians as Subjects and as men who desire to leave a good name behind them that they will so receive and make use of this Answer that all issues of Blood may be stopped and these unhappy Distractions peaceably setled Newcastle August 1. 1646. POST-SCRIPT Upon assurance of a happy Agreement his Majesty will immediately send for the Prince his Son absolutely expecting his perfect Obedience to return into this Kingdom His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Newcastle Dec. 20. 1646. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England assembled at Westminster and to the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland at London CHALLES R. HIS Majesties thoughts being always sincerely bent to the Peace of his Kingdoms was and will be ever desirous to take all ways which might the most clearly make appear the Candor of his Intentions to his People and to this end could find no better way than to propose a Personal free Debate with his two Houses of Parliament upon all the present Differences yet finding very much against his expectations that this Offer was lay'd aside his Majesty bent all his thoughts to make his Intentions fully known by a particular Answer to the Propositions delivered to him in the name of both Kingdoms 24. July last But the more he endeavoured it he more plainly saw that any Answer he could make would be subject to misinformations and mis-constructions which upon his own Paraphrases and Explanations he is most confident will give so good satisfaction as would doubtless cause a happy and lasting Peace Lest therefore that good Intentions may produce ill Effects His Majesty again proposeth and desires again to come to London or any of his Houses thereabouts upon the Publick Faith and Security of his two Houses of Parliament and the Scotch Commissioners that he shall be there with Honour Freedom and Safety where by his Personal Presence he may not only raise a mutual Confidence betwixt him and his People but also have those Doubts cleared and those Difficulties explained to him without which he cannot but with the aforesaid mischievous Inconveniencies give a particular Answer to the Propositions and with which he doubts not but so
to manifest his real Intentions for the setling of Religion the just Priviledges of Parliament with the Freedom and Propriety of the Subject that it shall not be in the power of wicked and malicious men to hinder the establishing of that firm Peace which all honest men desire assuring them that as he will make no other Demands but such as he believes confidently to be just and much conducing to the Tranquility of his People so he will be most willing to condescend to them in whatsoever shall be really for their good and Happiness Not doubting likewise but you will also have a due regard to maintain the just Power of the Crown according to your many Protestations and Professions For certainly except King and People have reciprocal care each of other neither can be happy To conclude 'T is your KING Who desires to be heard the which if refused to a Subject by a King he would be thought a Tyrant for it and for that end which all men profess to desire Wherefore his Majesty conjures you as you desire to shew your selves really what you profess even as you are good Christians and Subjects that you will accept this his Offer which he is confident God will so bless that it will be the readiest means by which these Kingdoms may again become a comfort to their Friends and a terror to their Enemies Newcastle 20. Decemb. 1646. His MAJESTIES Quaeres to the Scots Commissioners upon Thursday the 14. of January 1646-7 IT is a received Opinion by many That Ingagements Acts or Promises of a restrained Person are neither valid nor obligatory How true or false this is I will not now dispute But I am sure if I be not free I am not fit to answer your or any Propositions Wherefore you should first resolve Me in what state I stand as in relation to Freedom before I can give you any other Answer The Reason of this My Question the Governour can best resolve you But if you object the loss of time and urgency of it certainly in one respect it presses none so much as My self which makes Me also think it necessary that I be not to seek what to do when this Garrison shall be surrendred up to demand of you in case I go into Scotland if I shall be there with Honour Freedom and Safety or how Being ready to give you a farther and more particular Answer how soon you shall have resolved these two Quaeres The Scots Commissioners Answer to His MAJESTIES Quaeres Thursday the 14. of Jan. 1646-47 I. TO the First In what state You stand as in relation to Freedom The Parliaments of both Your Kingdoms have given such Orders and Directions as they have thought fittest for the good and safety of Your Majesty and the Kingdoms to the General and Governour II. To Your Majesties Second Quaere of Your going into Scotland we shall humbly desire That we may not now be put to give any Answer But if Your Majesty shall either deny or delay Your Assent to the Propositions we are in that case to represent to Your Majesty the Resolutions of the Parliament of England His MAJESTIES Reply to the Scots Commissioners I Know very well That the General and Governour have received Orders concerning Me but the question is Into what state those Orders put Me as relating to Freedom To which you have either Power to Answer or not If you have then Answer Me otherwise send to those who can And so for my Second Quaere His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses in farther Answer to their Propositions From Holdenby May 12. 1647. For the Speaker of the Lords House pro tempore to be communicated to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. AS the daily expectation of the coming of the Propositions hath made his Majesty this long time to forbear giving his Answer unto them so the appearance of their sending being no more for any thing he can hear than it was at his first coming hither notwithstanding that the Earl of Lauderdale hath been at London above these Ten days whose not coming was said to be the onely stop hath caused his Majesty thus to anticipate their coming to him And yet considering his Condition that his Servants are denied access to him all but very few and those by appointment not his own election and that it is declared a Crime for any but the Commissioners or such who are particularly permitted by them to converse with his Majesty or that any Letters should be given to or received from him may he not truly say That he is not in case fit to make Concessions or give Answers since he is not master of those ordinary Actions which are the undoubted Rights of any free-born man how mean soever his Birth be And certainly he would still be silent as to this Subject until his Condition were much mended did he not prefer such a right understanding betwixt him and his Parliaments of both Kingdoms which may make a firm and lasting Peace in all his Dominions before any particular of his own or any earthly Blessing and therefore his Majesty hath diligently employed his utmost Endeavours for divers months past so to inform his Understanding and to satisfie his Conscience that he might be able to give such Answers to the Propositions as would be most agreeable to his Parliaments but he ingenuously professes that not withstanding all the pains that he hath taken therein the nature of some of them appears such unto him that without disclaiming that Reason which God hath given him to judge by for the good of him and his People and without putting the greatest violence upon his own Conscience he cannot give his Consent to all of them Yet his Majesty that it may appear to all the World how desirous he is to give full satisfaction hath thought fit hereby to express his readiness to grant what he may and his willingness to receive from them and that Personally if his two Houses at VVestminster shall approve thereof such further information in the rest as may best convince his Judgment and satisfie those Doubts which are not yet clear unto him desiring them also to consider That if his Majesty intended to wind himself out of these Troubles by indirect means were it not easie for him now readily to consent to what hath or shall be proposed unto him and afterwards chuse his time to break all alledging That forc'd Concessions are not to be kept Surely he might and not incur a hard Censure from some indifferent men But Maximes in this kind are not the Guides of his Majesties Actions for he freely and clearly avows that he holds it unlawful for any man and most base in a King to recede from his Promises for having been obtained by force or under restraint Wherefore his Majesty not onely rejecting those Acts which he esteems unworthy of him
same Qualification a sixth part 4. For the persons nominated in the said fourth Qualification and those included in the tenth Qualification an eighth part 5. For all others included in the sixth Qualification a tenth part And that real Debts either upon Record or proved by Witnesses be considered and abated in the valuation of their Estates in all the cases aforesaid 3. That those who shall hereafter come to Compound may not have the Covenant put upon them as a Condition without which they may not Compound but in case they shall not willingly take it they may pass their Compositions without it 4. That the Persons and Estates of all English not worth two hundred pounds in Lands or Goods be at liberty and discharged and that the King 's menial Servants that never took up Arms but only attended His Person according to their Offices may be freed from Composition or to pay at most but the proportion of one years Revenue or a twentieth part 5. That in order to the making and perfecting of Compositions at the Rates aforesaid the Rents Revenues and other Dues and Profits of all sequestred Estates whatsoever except the Estates of such persons who shall be continued under exception as before be from henceforth suspended and detained in the hands of the respective Tenants Occupants and others from whom they are due for the space of six months following 6. That the Faith of the Army or other Forces of the Parliament given in Articles upon Surrenders to any of the King's Party may be fully made good and where any breach thereof shall appear to have been made full reparation and satisfaction may be given to the parties injured and the persons offending being found out may be compelled thereto XVI That there may be a general Act of Oblivion to extend unto all except the persons to be continued in exception as before to absolve from all Trespasses Misdemeanors c. done in prosecution of the War and from all trouble or prejudice for or concerning the same after their Compositions past and to restore them to all Priviledges c. belonging to other Subjects provided as in the fourth particular under the second general Head aforegoing concerning Security And whereas there have been of late strong endeavours and practices of a factious and desperate party to embroil this Kingdom in a new War and for that purpose to induce the King the Queen and Prince to declare for the said Party and also to excite and stir up all those of the King 's late Party to appear and engage for the same which Attempts and Designs many of the King's Party out of their desires to avoid further Misery to the Kingdom have contributed their endeavours to prevent as for divers of them we have had particular Assurance we do therefore desire that such of the King's Party who shall appear to have expressed and shall hereafter express that way their good Affections to the Peace and Welfare of the Kingdom and to hinder the imbroiling of the same in a new War may be freed and exempted from Compositions or to pay but one years Revenue or a twentieth part These Particulars aforegoing are the Heads of such Proposals as we have agreed on to tend in order to the settling of the Peace of this Kingdom leaving the Terms of Peace for the Kingdom of Scotland to stand as in the late Propositions of both Kingdoms until that Kingdom shall agree to any alteration Next to the Proposals aforesaid for the present settling of a Peace we shall desire that no time may be lost by the Parliament for dispatch of other things tending to the welfare ease and just satisfaction of the Kingdom and in special manner I. That the just and necessary Liberty of the People to represent their Grievances and Desires by way of Petition may be cleared and vindicated according to the fifth Head in the late Representation or Declaration of the Army sent from St. Albans II. That in pursuance of the same Head of the said Declaration the common Grievances of the People may be speedily considered of and effectually redressed and in particular 1. That the Excise may be taken off from such Commodities whereon the poor people of the Land do ordinarily live and a certain time to be limited for taking off the whole 2. That the Oppressions and Incroachments of Forest Laws may be prevented for future 3. All Monopolies old or new and Restraints to the freedom of Trade to be taken off 4. That a course may be taken and Commissioners appointed to remedy and rectifie the inequality of Rates lying upon several Counties and several parts of each County in respect of others and to settle the proportions for Land rates to more equality throughout the Kingdom in order to which we shall offer some further particulars which we hope may be useful 5. The present unequal troublesome and contentious way of Ministers maintenance by Tithes to be considered of and some Remedy applied 6. That the Rules and Course of Law and the Officers of it may be so reduced and reformed as that all Suits and Questions of Right may be more clear and certain in the issues and not so tedious or chargeable in the proceedings as now in order to which we shall offer some further particulars hereafter 7. That Prisoners for Debt or other * Creditors who have Estates to discharge them may not by embracing Imprisonment or any other ways have advantage to defraud their Creditors but that the Estates of all men may be some way made liable to their Debts as well as Tradesmen are by Commissions of Bankrupt whether they be imprisoned for it or not and that such Prisoners for Debt who have not wherewith to pay or at least do yield up what they have to their Creditors may be freed from Imprisonment or some way provided for so as neither they nor their Families may perish by their Imprisonments 8. Some provision to be made that none may be compelled by Penalties or otherwise to answer unto Questions tending to the accusing of themselves or their nearest Relations in Criminal Causes and no man's life to be taken away under two Witnesses 9. That consideration may be had of all Statutes and the Laws or Customs of Corporations imposing any Oaths either to repeal or else to qualifie and provide against the same so far as they may extend or be construed to the molestation or ensnaring of religious and peaceable people meerly for non-conformity in Religion III. That according to the sixth Head in the Declaration of the Army the large powers given to Committees or Deputy-Lieutenants during the late times of War and Distraction may be speedily taken into consideration to be re-called and made void and that such powers of that nature as shall appear necessary to be continued may be put into a regulated way and left to as little Arbitrariness as the nature and necessity of the things wherein they are conversant
is more than an even lay that they may one day see themselves punished by that way they offended Had this Parliament as it was in its first Election and Constitution sate full and free the Members of both Houses being left to their freedom of Voting as in all Reason Honour and Religion they should have been I doubt not but things would have been so carried as would have given no less content to all good men than they wished or expected For I was resolved to hear Reason in all things and to consent to it so far as I could comprehend it But as Swine are to Gardens and orderly Plantations so are Tumults to Parliaments and Plebeian Concourses to publick Counsels turning all into Disorders and sordid Confusions I am prone sometimes to think that had I called this Parliament to any other place in England as I might opportunely enough have done the sad Consequences in all likelihood with Gods Blessing might have been prevented A Parliament would have been welcom in any place no place afforded such confluence of various and vicious humours as that where it was unhappily convened But we must leave all to God who orders our Disorders and magnifies his Wisdom most when our Follies and miseries are most discovered But thou O Lord art my refuge and defence to Thee I may safely fly who rulest the raging of the Sea and the Madness of the People The floods O Lord the floods are come in upon Me and are ready to overwhelm Me. I look upon My Sins and the Sins of My People which are the tumults of our Souls against Thee O Lord as the just cause of these Popular inundations which Thou permittest to over-bear all the banks of Loyalty Modesty Laws Justice and Religion But Thou that gatheredst the waters into one place and madest the dry land to appear and after didst asswage the Flood which drowned the World by the word of thy power rebuke those Beasts of the People and deliver Me from the Rudeness and strivings of the Multitude Restore we beseech Thee unto us the freedoms of our Councels and Parliaments make us unpassionately to see the light of Reason and Religion and with all order and gravity to follow it as it becomes Men and Christians so shall we praise thy Name who art the God of Order and Counsel What man cannot or will not repress thy Omnipotent Justice can and will O Lord give them that are yet living a timely sense and sorrow for their great sin whom Thou knowest guilty of raising or not suppressing those Disorders Let Shame here and not Suffering hereafter be their Punishment Set bounds to our Passions by Reason to our Errors by Truth to our Seditions by Laws duly executed and to our Schisms by Charity that we may be as thy Jerusalem a City at unity in it self This grant O my God in thy good time for Jesus Christ's sake Amen V. Vpon His MAJESTIES passing the Bill for the Triennial Parliaments and after setling this during the pleasure of the Two Houses THAT the World might be fully confirmed in my purposes at first to contribute what in Justice Reason Honour and Conscience I could to the happy success of this Parliament which had in Me no other design but the general Good of my Kingdoms I willingly passed the BILL for Triennial Parliaments which as gentle and seasonable Physick might if well applied prevent any distempers from getting any head or prevailing especially if the Remedy proved not a Disease beyond all remedy I conceived this Parliament would find work with convenient recesses for the first three years but I did not imagine that some men would thereby have occasioned more work than they found to do by undoing so much as they found well done to their hands Such is some mens activity that they will needs make work rather than want it and chuse to be doing amiss rather than do nothing When that first Act seemed too scanty to satisfie some mens Fears and compass publick Affairs I was perswaded to grant that BILL of Sitting during the pleasure of the Houses which amounted in some mens sense to as much as the perpetuating this Parliament By this Act of highest Confidence I hoped for ever to shut out and lock the door upon all present Jealousies and future Mistakes I confess I did not thereby intend to shut My self out of doors as some men have now requited Me. True it was an Act unparallel'd by any of my Predecessors yet cannot in reason admit of any worse interpretation than this of an extreme Confidence I had that My Subjects would not make ill use of an Act by which I declared so much to trust them as to deny My self in so high a point of my Prerogative For good Subjects will never think it just or fit that My condition should be worse by my bettering theirs Nor indeed would it have been so in the events if some men had known as well with moderation to use as with earnestness to desire advantages of doing good or evil A continual Parliament I thought would but keep the Common-weal in tune by preserving Laws in their due execution and vigor wherein My interest lies more than any mans since by those Laws My Rights as a KING would be preserved no less than My Subjects which is all I desired More than the Law gives Me I would not have and less the meanest Subject should not Some as I have heard gave it out that I soon repented Me of that setling Act and many would needs perswade Me I had cause so to do but I could not easily nor suddenly suspect such ingratitude in men of Honour that the more I granted them the less I should have and enjoy with them I still counted My self undiminished by My largest Concessions if by them I might gain and confirm the love of my People Of which I do not yet despair but that God will still bless Me with increase of it when Men shall have more leisure and less prejudice that so with unpassionate representations they may reflect upon those as I think not more Princely than friendly contributions which I granted towards the perpetuating of their Happiness who are now only miserable in this That some mens ambition will not give them leave to enjoy what I intended for their good Nor do I doubt but that in Gods due time the Loyal and cleared affections of My People will strive to return such retributions of Honour and Love to Me or My Posterity as may fully compensate both the acts of My Confidence and My Sufferings for them which God knows have been neither few nor small nor short occasioned chiefly by a perswasion I had that I could not grant too much or distrust too little to men that being professedly My Subjects pretended singular Piety and Religious strictness The Injury of all Injuries is that which some men will needs load Me withal as if were a wilful and resolved Occasioner of
think in my Conscience to be against thy Glory the good of my Subjects and the discharge of my own duty to Reason and Justice Make Me willing to suffer the greatest Indignities and Injuries they press upon Me rather than commit the least sin against my Conscience Let the just Liberties of my People be as well they may preserved in fair and equal ways without the slavery of my Soul Thou that hast invested Me by thy Favours in the power of a Christian King suffer Me not to subject my Reason to other mens Passions and Designs which to Me seem unreasonable unjust and irreligious So shall I serve Thee in the truth and uprightness of my Heart tho I cannot satisfie these men Though I be driven from among them yet give Me grace to walk always uprightly before Thee Lead Me in the way of Truth and Justice for these I know will bring Me at last to Peace and Happiness with Thee though for these I have much trouble among men This I beg of Thee for my Saviours sake VII Vpon the QUEENS Departure and Absence out of ENGLAND ALthough I have much cause to be troubled at my Wifes departure from Me and out of my Dominions yet not her absence so much as the scandal of that Necessity which drives Her away doth afflict Me That She should be compelled by My own Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for her Safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken up Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another Act of the same Tragedy which was lately begun in Scotland the brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant profession may occasion a further alienation of Mind and divorce of Affections in Her from that Religion which is the only thing wherein We differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practices to be any obstruction to her Judgment since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good Manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firm to their former setled Principles and Laws I am sorry my relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her Danger and Affliction whose Merits would have served her for a protection among the savage Indians while their Rudeness and Barbarity knows not so perfectly to hate all Virtues as some mens Subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate Her for Her self The fault is That She is my Wife All Justice then as well as Affection commands Me to study Her Security who is only in danger for My sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as She may be in safe Harbor This comfort I shall enjoy by Her Safety in the midst of My Personal Dangers that I can perish but half if She be preserved In whose Memory and hopeful Posterity I may yet survive the Malice of My Enemies altho they should be satiated with my Blood I must leave her and Them to the Love and Loyalty of my good Subjects and to his Protection who is able to punish the Faults of Princes and no less severely to revenge the Injuries done to Them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that Safety which the Laws chiefly provide for Princes But common Civility is in vain expected from those that dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion 'T is pity so noble and peaceful a Soul should see much more suffer the Rudeness of those who must make up their want of Justice with Inhumanity and Impudence Her sympathy with Me in my Afflictions will make her Virtues shine with greater lustre as Stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious world that She loves Me not my Fortunes Neither of Us but can easily forgive since We do not much blame the unkindness of the Generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to try both our Patience by the most self-punishing sin the Ingratitude of those who having eaten of our Bread and being enriched with our Bounty have scornfully lift up themselves against Us and those of our own Houshold are become our Enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to fatisfie all obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can less endure to see than to sin against their Benefactors as well as their Soveraigns But even that Policy of my Enemies is so far venial as it was necessary to their designs by scandalous Articles and all irreverent demeanor to seek to drive Her out of my Kingdoms lest by the influence of her Example eminent for Love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject She should have converted to or retained in their Love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The less I may be blest with her company the more I will retire to God and my own Heart whence no Malice can banish Her My Enemies may envy but they can never deprive Me of the enjoyment of her Virtues while I enjoy My self Thou O Lord whose Justice at present sees fit to scatter Vs let thy Mercy in the due time re-unite Vs on Earth if it be thy Will however bring Vs both at last to thy Heavenly Kingdom Preserve Vs from the hands of our despiteful and deadly Enemies and prepare Vs by our Sufferings for thy presence Tho We differ in some things as to Religion which is my greatest temporal Infelicity yet Lord give and accept the sincerity of our Affections which desire to seek to find to embrace every Truth of thine Let both our hearts agree in the Love of thy self and Christ crucified for us Teach Vs both what Thou wouldst have Vs to know in order to thy Glory our publick relations and our Souls eternal good and make Vs careful to do what good We know Let neither Ignorance of what is necessary to be known nor Vnbelief or Disobedience to what We know be our misery or our wilful default Let not this great Scandal of those my Subjects which profess the same Religion with Me be any hindrance to her love of any Truth thou wouldst have Her to learn nor any hardning of Her in any Error Thou wouldst have cleared to Her Let mine and other mens Constancy be an Antidote against the poyson of their Example Let the truth of that Religion I profess be represented to Her Judgment with all the beauties of Humility Loyalty Charity and Peaceableness which are the proper fruits and ornaments of it not
digest it Soveraign Power in Subjects seldom agreeing with the stomacks of fellow-Subjects Yet I have even in this point of the constant Militia sought by satisfying their Fears and importunities both to secure My Friends and overcome Mine Enemies to gain the peace of all by depriving My self of a sole power to help or hurt any yielding the Militia which is My undoubted Right no less than the Crown to be disposed of as the Two Houses shall think fit during My time So willing am I to bury all Jealousies in them of Me and to live above all Jealousies of them as to My self I desire not to be safer than I wish them and My People If I had the sole actual disposing of the Militia I could not protect My People further than they protected Me and themselves so that the use of the Militia is mutual I would but defend My self so far as to be able to defend My good Subjects from those mens violence and fraud who conscious to their own evil merits and designs will needs perswade the World That none but Wolves are fit to be trusted with the custody of the Shepherd and his Flock Miserable experience hath taught My Subjects since Power hath been wrested from Me and employed against Me and them That neither can be safe if both be not in such a way as the Law hath entrusted the publick safety and welfare Yet even this Concession of Mine as to the exercise of the Militia so vast and large is not satisfactory to some men which seem to be Enemies not to Me only but to all Monarchy and are resolved to transmit to Posterity such Jealousies of the Crown as they should never permit it to enjoy its just and necessary Rights in point of Power to which at last all Law is resolved while thereby it is best protected But here Honour and Justice due to My Successors forbid Me to yield to such a total alienation of that Power from them which Civility and Duty no less than Justice and Honour should have forbad them to have asked of Me. For although I can be content to eclipse My own beams to satisfie their fears who think they must needs be scorched or blinded if I should shine in the full lustre of Kingly Power wherewith God and the Laws have invested Me yet I will never consent to put out the Sun of Soveraignty to all Posterity and succeeding Kings whose just recovery of their Rights from unjust Usurpations and Extortions shall never be prejudiced or obstructed by any Act of Mine which indeed would not be more injurious to succeeding Kings than to my Subjects whom I desire to leave in a condition not wholly desperate for the future so as by a Law to be ever subjected to those many factious Distractions which must needs follow the many-headed Hydra of Government which as it makes a shew to the People to have more eyes to foresee so they will find it hath more mouths too which must be satisfied and at best it hath rather a monstrosity than any thing of perfection beyond that of right Monarchy where Counsel may be in many as the Senses but the Supreme Power can be but in One as the Head Haply when men have tried the horrors and malignant influence which will certainly follow my enforced Darkness and Eclipse occasioned by the interposition and shadow of that Body which as the Moon receiveth its chiefest light from Me they will at length more esteem and welcome the restored glory and blessing of the Sun 's light And if at present I may seem by my receding so much from the use of my Right in the Power of the Militia to come short of the discharge of that Trust to which I am sworn for my Peoples protection I conceive those men are guilty of the enforced Perjury if so it may seem who compel Me to take this new and strange way of discharging My Trust by seeming to desert it of protecting My Subjects by exposing My self to Danger or Dishonour for their safety and quiet Which in the conflicts of Civil War and advantages of Power cannot be effected but by some side yielding to which the greatest love of the Publick-Peace and the firmest assurance of God's protection arising from a good Conscience doth more invite Me than can be expected from other mens Fears which arising from the Injustice of their actions tho never so successful yet dare not adventure their Authors upon any other way of safety than that of the Sword and Militia which yet are but weak defences against the stroaks of Divine Vengeance which will overtake or of mens own Consciences which always attend injurious perpetrations For My self I do not think that I can want any thing which providential necessity is pleased to take from Me in order to My Peoples tranquility and God's Glory whose protection is sufficient for Me and he is able by his being with Me abundantly to compensate to Me as he did to Job whatever Honour Power or Liberty the Chaldoeans the Saboeans or the Devil himself can deprive Me of Although they take from Me all defence of Arms and Militia all refuge by Land of Forts and Castles all flight by Sea in My Ships and Navy yea tho they study to rob Me of the Hearts of my Subjects the greatest treasure and best ammunition of a King yet cannot they deprive Me of My own Innocency or God's Mercy nor obstruct My way to Heaven Therefore O My God to Thee I flie for help if Thou wilt be on my side I shall have more with Me than can be against Me. There is none in Heaven or in Earth that I desire in comparison of Thee In the loss of all be Thou more than all to Me. Make hast to succor Me Thou that never failest them that put their trust in Thee Thou seest I have no power to oppose them that come against Me who are encouraged to fight under the pretence of fighting for Me But my eyes are toward Thee Thou needest no help nor shall I if I may have thine if not to conquer yet at least to suffer If Thou delightest not in my safety and prosperity behold here I am willing to be reduced to what Thou wilt have Me whose Judgments oft begin with thy own Children I am content to be nothing that Thou mayest be all Thou hast taught Me That no King can be saved by the multitude of an Host but yet Thou canst save me by the multitude of thy Mercies who art the Lord of Hosts and the Father of Mercies Help Me O Lord who am sore distressed on every side yet be Thou on my side and I shall not fear what man can do unto Me. I will give thy Justice the glory of my distress O let thy Mercy have the glory of my deliverance from them that persecute my Soul By my sins have I fought against Thee and robbed Thee of thy Glory who am thy Subject and justly mayest
great offence of enacting any thing against my Conscience and especially from consenting to Sacrilegious Rapines and spoilings of thy Church If Thou wilt restore Me to a capacity to glorifie Thee in doing good both to the Church and State Then shall my Soul praise Thee and magnifie thy Name before my People Then shall thy Glory be dearer to Me than my Crowns and the advancement of true Religion both in purity and power be my chiefest care Then will I rule My People with Justice and My Kingdoms with Equity To thy more immediate hand shall I ever owe as the rightful Succession so the merciful Restauration of My Kingdoms and the glory of them If Thou wilt bring Me again with Peace Safety and Honour to my chiefest City and My Parliament If Thou wilt again put the Sword of Justice into My hand to punish and protect Then will I make all the world to see and my very Enemies to enjoy the benefit of this Vow and Resolution of Christian Charity which I now make unto Thee O Lord. As I do freely pardon for Christ's sake those that have offended Me in any kind so my hand shall never be against any man to revenge what is past in regard of any particular injury done to Me. We have been mutually punished in our unnatural Divisions for thy sake O Lord and for the love of my Redeemer have I purposed this in my heart That I will use all means in the ways of Amnestie and Indemnity which may most fully remove all Fears and bury all Jealousies in forgetfulness Let thy Mercies be toward Me and Mine as my resolutions of Truth and Peace are toward my People Hear my Prayer O Lord which goeth not out of feigned lips Blessed be God who hath not turned away my Prayer nor taken his Mercy from Me. O my Soul commit thy way to the Lord trust in him and he shall bring it to pass But if Thou wilt not restore Me and Mine what am I that I should charge Thee foolishly Thou O Lord hast given and thou hast taken Blessed be thy Name May my People and thy Church be happy if not by Me yet without Me. XXVI Vpon the Armies Surprizal of the KING at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City WHat part God will have Me now to act or suffer in this new and strange scene of affairs I am not much solicitous some little practice will serve that man who only seeks to represent a part of Honesty and Honour This surprize of Me tells the world that a KING cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears This motion like others of the Times seems eccentrick and irregular yet not well to be resisted or quieted Better swim down such a stream than in vain to strive against it These are but the struglings of those Twins which lately one Womb enclosed the younger striving to prevail against the elder what the Presbyterians have hunted after the Independents now seek to catch for themselves So impossible is to for lines to be drawn from the Center and not to divide from each other so much the wider by how much they go farther from the point of union That the Builders of Babel should from Division fall fall to Confusion is no wonder but for those that pretend to build Jerusalem to divide their tongues and hands is but an ill omen and sounds too like the fury of those Zealots whose intestine bitterness and divisions were the greatest occasion of the last fatal destruction of that City Well may I change My Keepers and Prison but not my captive Condition only with this hope of bettering that those who are so much professed Patrons for the Peoples Liberties cannot be utterly against the Liberty of their KING What they demand for their own Consciences they cannot in reason deny to Mine In this they seem more ingenuous than the Presbyterian Rigor who sometimes complaining of exacting their conformity to Laws are become the greatest Exactors of other mens submission to their novel injunctions before they are stamped with the Authority of Laws which they cannot well have without My Consent 'T is a great argument that the Independents think themselves manumitted from their Rivals service in that they carry on a business of such consequence as the assuming My Person into the Armies custody without any Commission but that of their own Will and Power Such as will thus adventure on a KING must not be thought over-modest or timorous to carry on any design they have a mind to Their next motion menaces and scares both the Two Houses and the City which soon after acting over again that former part of tumultuary motions never questioned punished or repented must now suffer for both and see their former Sin in the glass of the present Terrors and Distractions No man is so blind as not to see herein the hand of Divine Justice they that by Tumults first occasioned the raising of Armies must now be chastened by their own Army for new Tumults So hardly can men be content with one sin but add sin to sin till the latter punish the former Such as were content to see Me and many Members of both Houses driven away by the first unsuppressed Tumults are now forced to fly to an Army or defend themselves against them But who can unfold the riddle of some mens Justice The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as My self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Desertors and outed of their Places in Parliament such as stayed then and enjoyed the benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Parliament-men Now the Fliers from and Forsakers of their Places carry the Parliamentary power along with them complain highly against the Tumults and vindicate themselves by an Army such as remained and kept their stations are looked upon as Abettors of tumultuary insolencies and betrayers of the freedom and honour of Parliament Thus is Power above all Rule Order and Law where men look more to present Advantages than their Consciences and the unchangeable rules of Justice while they are Judges of others they are forced to condemn themselves Now the Plea against Tumults holds good the Authors and Abettors of them are guilty of prodigious Insolencies whenas before they were counted as Friends and necessary Assistants I see Vengeance pursues and overtakes as the Mice and Rats are said to have done a Bishop in Germany them that thought to have escaped and fortified themselves most impregnably against it both by their Multitude and Compliance Whom the Laws cannot God will punish by their own Crimes and hands I cannot but observe this Divine Justice yet with sorrow and pity for I always wished so well to Parliament and City that I was sorry to see them do or suffer any thing unworthy such great and considerable Bodies in this Kingdom I was glad to
to Our Assistance and that this wicked Charge of intending to introduce Propery Idolatry and Arbitrary Government laid by Implication upon Us because We defend Our Selves and would recover Our own will be so far from being a Motive against Us that this intolerable Indignity and damnable Scandal so daily and visibly confuted by all Our Professions and Actions will encrease Our good Subjects zeal towards Us and their Indignation against the Contrivers and they will esteem themselves obliged by the Religion of Almighty God to oppose this War so impiously so treasonably and so groundlesly made upon Us their King and His Anointed We therefore require all Our Commissioners of Array Sheriffs and all Our other Officers and Ministers to raise all the Power and Forces of their several Counties to assist the Marquess of Hartford the Earl of Northampton the Lord Willoughby of Eresby the Lord Dunsmore the Lord Paulet the Lord Seymour Henry Hastings Esquire Sir John Stawell Sir Ralph Hopton John Digby Esquire and all other in the legal and necessary Execution of Our Commissions of Array and in the raising and conducting of such Horse and Foot as shall be raised by Our Commission and by force of Arms to oppose the Earl of Essex the Lord Say and all other that shall raise or conduct any Forces raised by pretence of Authority of both Houses and the Persons of all such Traitors and their Adherents and Accomplices to Arrest and Imprison to the end they may be brought to a fair and legal Tryal by their Peers and according to the law And this We require from them as they tender the Defence of Our Person the true Religion the Law of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the true and just Privileges of Parliament And for so doing they shall be defended and secured by Us and by the Law with whom and with which We doubt not but Our Subjects will sooner chuse to live and dye than with the Earl of Essex and his Adherents MDCXLII August 9. By the King A Proclamation for the suppressing of the present Rebellion under the Command of Robert Earl of Essex And the gracious offer of His Majesty's free Pardon to him and all such of his Adherents as shall within six days after the date hereof lay down their Arms. WHereas now at the last those Seditious and Traitorous Counsels and Consultations which have been long in design and which long since We foresaw have produced such manifest and open effects of Treason and Rebellion against Us that there are already great numbers of Horse and Foot Raised Arraied Mustered and Trained under pretence of Authority of Our two Houses of Parliament without and against Our Consent in and about Our Cities of London and Westminster in a warlike manner and there are many more in Raising with speed and Robert Earl of Essex by the said pretended Authority without Our Consent hath been nominated to be Captain General of those Troops and Forces and forgetting the Duty and Allegiance which he oweth to Us his Sovereign hath taken upon him and accepted that Title and Command of Captain General and in that quality appeareth amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging himself and them in these Traitorous and Rebellious Designs and as it is now notoriously known the said Earl and his Adherents intend speedily to march from thence towards the North where We now reside and in a warlike manner to assail and oppose Us and those who shall attend or assist Us under pretence of defending Our Person and the two Houses of Parliament and prepare traitorously to surprise or besiege Our Town of Portsmouth and to possess themselves thereof with force the same being a Town and Port of great importance in the Western parts of this Kingdom and also to surprise or by force to take and possess themselves of all other Castles Forts and places of strength within this Kingdom and all this to strengthen them and their Party in these their Traitorous and Rebellious Designs all which are not now taken up by Us upon Information of others and by Conjecture but do manifestly appear to the whole World by that insolent and prodigious Commission of Captain General over the whole Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales which in the name of the two Houses of Parliament is granted unto the said Earl but hath indeed been contrived by some few Malignant persons Members of either House whereby they have mentioned to conferr upon him and the said Earl under that colour hath assumed unto himself those Titles and begun to put in execution those Powers and Authorities which are inconsistable with Our Sovereignty all which is so done contrary to all Rules of Religion Laws Allegiance or common Honesty We do now therefore publish and declare by this Our Royal Proclamation That the said publick and notorious Acts and Actions of the said Earl are Acts and Actions of High Treason being a manifest levying of War against his natural Liege Lord and King expresly within the words and meaning of the Statute made in the twenty fifth year of King Edward the Third declaring the same of which in Law there neither is nor can be any doubt and that the said Earl of Essex is a Rebel and Traitour unto Us and to Our Crown and that he and all Colonels Captains and Officers which upon notice hereof shall not immediately quit their Commands under him or any others by the like unlawful and usurped power without and against Us are also guilty of High Treason within that Statute and ought to be adjudged and esteemed and proceeded against as Traitors and Rebels And yet out of Our Grace and Clemency towards such of Our Subjects as have been abused and misled by the said Earl and such others as joyn themselves with him in these desperate Courses and to preserve the Peace of this Kingdom if it be possible and to avoid the shedding of blood We abhorring the name of a Civil War if it can by any good means be avoided do by this Our Royal Proclamation admonish the said Earl and all Our Subjects whom it may concern which are now already joyned or shall joyn themselves to the said Earl in this act of Hostility that forthwith they lay down their Arms as well Horse as Foot and all other preparations for the War and instantly without delay return to their own homes and habitations and there quietly and peaceably imploy and bestow themselves in their proper Vocations and Callings and that hereafter they meddle not or interpose themselves in these or any the like Rebellious and Traitorous Undertakings or Actions Which if the◠do readily and really perform within six days after the date of these presents W◠do hereby promise and undertake in the Word of a King that We will freely extend 〈◊〉 Mercy unto them and grant unto them Our free and full Pardon for all that hath been or shall be committed before that time But if
they shall neglect this Our Grace and Favour now extended unto them and persist in any acts of Hostility against Us or not disband upon notice of this Our Proclamation We shall esteem of them as Rebells and Traitors to Us and to Our Crown and as publick Enemies to the happy Peace of this Kingdom and that from thence We shall proceed against them and deal with them as Rebels and Traitours and by the blessing of God in whom We put Our confidence and by the assistance of Our faithful and good Subjects upon whose Fidelity and Affections We rely We doubt not but We shall so prevail against all their Traitorous Conspiracies and Rebellious Machinations as shall vindicate Our Honour and the Honour of Our Crown preserve Our good and loyal Subjects from their Malice and Fury and restore and settle the Peace of this Kingdom and make the Delinquents so exemplary as shall deterr others from ever attempting the like Insolencies And We hereby require and command all Our Commissioners of Array Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors and all other Our Officers Ministers and loving Subjects that they and every of them in their several places do there best and uttermost endeavours to resist and subdue the said Earl and his Adherents and those who shall assist them or any of them and to apprehend or otherwise to destroy them and every of them that so they may receive condigne punishment for their Disloyalty and that they be ready according to their Duties and Allegiance to assist Us and those Our good Subjects who do adhere unto Us according to Our just Commands in or concerning the Premisses And more particularly We require and command Our Commissioners of Array Lords Lieutenants Deputy-Lieutenants Captains and Officers of Our Trained Bands of or in Our Counties of Southampton Sussex and Surrey that so many of them as to that purpose Colonel Goring shall call to his aid as he shall see cause shall with such Forces as are under their command repair unto Our said Town of Portsmouth to assist the said Colonel George Goring Our Captain and Governour of the said Town for the defence of the said Town and to Oppose Resist and Destroy all those who under the command of the said Earl of Essex or any other shall attempt any Violence against the said Town And We do further require and command Our Right Trusty and Right Well-beloved Couzin and Counsellor William Marquess Hartford that with all speed he raise all the Forces he can within all or any the Counties contained within that Commission We have given unto him whereby he is made Our Lieutenant General of all Our Forces within Our Counties of Devon Cornwal Somerset Dorset Wilts Southampton Gloucester Berks Oxford Hereford Monmouth Radnor Brecknock Glamorgan Carmarthen Pembroke Cardigan Our Cities of Excester Bristol Gloucester Oxford Bath and Wells new Salisbury and Hereford and the Counties of the same the Towns of Pool and Southampton and Haverford-West and the Counties of the same and with the Trained Bands of those Counties and others who shall voluntarily offer their Service to march against the said Earl or any others under his command or under the command of any others not authorized by Us and them to Resist Oppose and Subdue and especially for the defence of the said Town of Portsmouth and for the Isle of Wight in Our County of Southampton as there shall be occasion And We do hereby desire and require Our loyal and loving Subjects of and within the said Counties being of the Trained Bands or voluntary Levies within the said Commission to repair with their Horse and Foot well Armed Arrayed and Furnished to such place or places as the said Marquess shall appoint and that they and all other Our good and loving Subjects within this Realm shall according to such Directions as We shall give to that purpose repair to Us at such place where We shall pitch and set up Our Royal Standard and where We purpose in Our own Person to be present and there and in such places whither We shall conduct them or cause them to be conducted to serve Us for the Defence of Us and of Our Kingdom and of the true Protestant Religion and the known Laws of the Land and the just Liberties of Our Subjects and the just Privileges of Parliament and to suppress the notorious and insolent Rebellion of the said Earl and his Adherents and reduce them to their due Obedience and for re-setling of the happy Peace of this Kingdom And in this time of urgent Necessity which so much importeth the Safety and even the very Subsistence of Us and Our Good People We shall take it as an acceptable Service to Us and much conducing to the Peace of Our Kingdom if Our loving and well-affected Subjects within Our said Counties contained within Our Commission granted to the said Marquess do and will chearfully and voluntarily contribute unto Us and give unto Us such assistance in Money or Plate as they shall think fit by loan or otherwise to be delivered to the hands of the said Marquess or of the Commissioners of Array for those several Counties respectively to be disposed of to this publick use and not otherwise and that Our loving and well-affected Subjects of all other the Counties of this Kingdom will to the same use and not otherwise contribute unto and assist Us in like manner such Contribution and assistance to be paid and delivered to Our use into the hands of Our Commissioners of Array for those other Counties respectively or to such of them as they shall nominate and appoint to that purpose And lastly in all these Our just and necessary Commands We require that ready Obedience from all Our Commissioners Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Constables and other Officers and loving Subjects in their several and respective places which appertaineth to their several Duties as they tender Our Honour and Safety and the Honour Safety Peace and Prosperity of the Church and Kingdom of England and as they will answer their neglects at their uttermost perils Given at Our Court at York the ninth day of August in the eighteenth year of Our Reign 1642. By the KING A Proclamation by His MAJESTY requiring the Aid and Assistance of all His Subjects on the North side Trent and within twenty Miles Southward thereof for the suppressing of the Rebels now marching against Him WHereas divers Persons bearing an inward Hatred and Malice against Our Person and Government and ambitious of Rule and places of Preferment and Command have raised an Army and are now Traitorously and Rebelliously though under the specious pretence of Our Royal Name and Authority and of the defence of Our Person and Parliament marching in battel-array against Us their Liege-Lord and Sovereign contrary to their Duty and Allegiance whereby the common Peace is like to be wholly destroyed and this flourishing Kingdom in danger to perish under the miseries of a Civil War