concerned But the Duty I owe to God in the preservation of the true Liberty of My People will not suffer Me at this time to be silent For how can any free-born Subject of England call Life or any thing he possesseth his own if Power without Right daily make new and abrogate the old Fundamental Law of the Land which I now take to be the present Case Wherefore when I came hither I expected that you would have endeavoured to have satisfied Me concerning these grounds which hinder Me to answer to your pretended Impeachment But since I see that nothing I can say will move you to it though Negatives are not so naturally proved as Affirmatives yet I will shew you the Reason why I am confident you cannot Judge Me nor indeed the meanest man in England For I will not like you without shewing a Reason seek to impose a belief upon My Subjects There is no proceeding just against any man but what is warranted either by God's Laws or the Municipal Laws of the Countrey where he lives Now I am most confident this dayes proceeding cannot be warranted by God's Law for on the contrary the authority of Obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted and strictly commanded both in the Old and new Testament which if denyed I am ready instantly to prove And for the question now in hand there it is said That where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What dost thou Eccl. 8. 4. Then for the Law of this Land I am no less confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an Impeachment can lye against the King they all going in His Name and one of their Maxims is That the King can do no wrong Besides the Law upon which you ground your proceedings must either be old or new if old shew it if new tell what Authority warranted by the Fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave to God and the world to judge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the People of England's Commission could grant your pretended Power I see nothing you can shew for that for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man in the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Plough-man if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so far are you from having it Thus you see that I speak not for My own Right alone as I am your King but also for the true Liberty of all My Subjects which consists not in the power of Government but in living under such Laws such a Government as may give themselves the best assurance of their Lives and propriety of their Goods Nor in this must or do I forget the Privileges of both Houses of Parliament which this days Proceedings do not only violate but likewise occasion the greatest breach of their publick Faith that I believe ever was heard of with which I am far from charging the two Houses for all pretended Crimes laid against Me bear Date long before this late Treaty at Newport in which I having concluded as much as in Me lay and hopefully expecting the Houses agreement thereunto I was suddenly surprized and hurried from thence as a Prisoner upon which account I am against My will brought hither where since I am come I cannot but to My power defend the ancient Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom together with My own just Right Then for any thing I can see the Higher House is totally excluded And for the House of Commons it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting so as if I had no other this were sufficient for Me to protest against the Lawfulness of your pretended Court. Besides all this the Peace of the Kingdom is not the least in My thoughts and what hopes of Settlement is there so long as Power reigns without Rule or Law changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years nor will I say what will fall out in case this Lawless unjust proceeding against Me do go on And believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this Change for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the King My Father and My self until the beginning of these unhappy Troubles and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new And by this time it will be too sensibly evident that the Arms I took up were only to defend the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom against those who have supposed My Power hath totally changed the ancient Government Thus having shewed you briefly the Reasons why I cannot submit to your pretended Authority without violating the Trust which I have from God for the Welfare and Liberty of My People I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince My Judgment shewing Me that I am in an Error and then truly I will answer or that you will withdraw your proceedings This I intended to speak in Westminster-Hall on Monday 22. January but against Reason was hindred to shew My Reasons Westminster-Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. Afternoon O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Seventy one present The King brought in by the Guard looks with a Majestick Countenance upon his pretended Judges and sits down After the second O yes and Silence commanded Cooke began more insolently May it please your Lordship my Lord President this is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any Issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibite a Charge against him containing the Highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England That a King of England trusted to keep the Law that had taken an Oath so to do that had Tribute pay'd him for that end should be guilty of a wicked Design to subvert and destroy our Laws and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defence of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against the Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the People of England that he might speedily be required to make an Answer to the Charge But My Lord in stead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High
Husband for Our Daughter in which the Protestant Religion was Our principal Consideration We conceived We had reason to expect your present thanks and the increase of your future trusts We suppose these Demands by this time to appear such as the Demanders cannot be supposed to have any such real fear of Us as hath been long pretended they are too much in the style not only of Equals but of Conquerours and as little to be intended for removing of Jealousies for which end they are said to be asked and that is not as Merchants ask at first much more then they will take but as most necessary to effect it which if they be God help this poor Kingdom and those who are in the hands of such persons whose Jealousies nothing else will remove which indeed is such a way as if there being differences and suits between two persons whereof one would have from the other several parcels of his ancient Land he should propose to him by way of Accommodation that he would quit to him all those in question with the rest of his Estate as the most necessary and effectual means to remove all those suits and differences But We call God to witness that as for our Subjects sake these Rights are vested in Us so for their sakes as well as for Our own We are resolved not to quit them nor to subvert though in a Parliamentary way the ancient equal happy well-poised and never-enough-commended Constitution of the Government of this Kingdom nor to make Our Self of a King of England a Duke of Venice and this of a Kingdom a Republick There being three kinds of Government amongst men absolute Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy and all these having their particular conveniences and inconveniences the experience and wisdom of your Ancestors hath so moulded this out of a mixture of these as to give to this Kingdom as far as humane Prudence can provide the conveniences of all three without the inconveniences of any one as long as the Balance hangs even between the three Estates and they run joyntly on in their proper Chanel begetting Verdure and Fertility in the Meadows on both sides and the overflowing of either on either side raises no Deluge or Inundation The ill of absolute Monarchy is Tyranny the ill of Aristocracy is Faction and Division the ills of Democracy are Tumults Violence and Licentiousness The good of Monarchy is the uniting a Nation under one Head to resist Invasion from abroad and Insurrection at home the good of Aristocracy is the Conjunction of Counsel in the ablest Persons of a State for the publick benefit the good of Democracy is Liberty and the Courage and Industry which Liberty begets In this Kingdom the Laws are joyntly made by a King by a House of Peers and by a House of Commons chosen by the People all having free Votes and particular Privileges The Government according to these Laws is trusted to the King power of Treaties of War and Peace of making Peers of chusing Officers and Counsellours for State Judges for Law Commanders for Forts and Castles giving Commissions for raising men to make War abroad or to prevent or provide against Invasions or Insurrections at home benefit of Confiscations power of Pardoning and some more of the like kind are placed in the King And this kind of regulated Monarchy having this power to preserve that Authority without which it would be disabled to preserve the Laws in their force and the Subjects in their Liberties and Proprieties is intended to draw to Him such a Respect and Relation from the Great ones as may hinder the ills of Division and Faction and such a Fear and Reverence from the People as may hinder Tumults Violence and Licentiousness Again that the Prince may not make use of this high and perpetual Pow'r to the hurt of those for whose good He hath it and make use of the name of publick Necessity for the gain of His private Favourites and Followers to the detriment of His People the House of Commons an excellent Conserver of Liberty but never intended for any SHARE in GOVERNMENT or the chusing of them that should GOVERN is solely intrusted with the first Propositions concerning the Levies of Monies which is the sinews as well of Peace as War and the impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanced by any surreptitiously-gotten Command of the King have violated that Law which He is bound when He knows it to protect and to the protection of which they were bound to advise Him at least not to serve Him in the contrary And the Lords being trusted with a Judicatory power are an excellent Screen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any Incroachments of the other and by just Judgments to preserve that Law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the Three For the better enabling them in this beyond the Examples of any of Our Ancestors We were willingly contented to oblige Our Self bouth to call a Parliament every three years and not to dissolve it in fifty days and for the present Exigent the better to raise Money and avoid the pressure no less grievous to Us then them Our People must have suffered by a longer continuance of so vast a Charge as two great Armies and for their greater certainty of having sufficient time to remedy the inconveniences arisen during so long an absence of Parliaments and for the punishment of the Causers and Ministers of them We yielded up Our Right of dissolving this Parliament expecting an extraordinary moderation from it in gratitude for so unexampled a Grace and little looking that any Malignant Party should have been encouraged or enabled to have perswaded them first to countenance the Injustices and Indignities We have endured and then by a new way of Satisfaction for what was taken from Us to demand of Us at once to confirm what was so taken and to give up almost all the rest Since therefore the Power Legally placed in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the power of Tyranny and without the Power which is now asked from Us We shall not be able to discharge that Trust which is the End of Monarchy since this would be a total Subversion of the Fundamental Laws and that excellent Constitution of this Kingdom which hath made this Nation so many years both Famous and Happy to a great degree of Envy since to the power of Punishing which is already in your hands according to Law if the power of Preferring be added We shall have nothing left for Us but to look on since the incroaching of one of these Estates upon the power of the other is unhappy in the effects both to them and all the rest since this power of at most a joynt-Government in Us with Our Counsellors or rather Our Guardians will return Us to the worst kind of Minority and make Us despicable both at home and abroad
County of Surrey directed to the House of Peers concluded with this close That they should be in duty obliged to mantain their Lordships so far as they should be united with the House of Commons in their just and pious proceedings sufficiently intimating that if they joyned not with the House of Commons they then meant as much as others had plainly professed About the same time a Citizen saying at the Bar of the House of Commons That they heard there were Lords who refused to consent and concur with them and that they would gladly know their names or words to that effect a Petition in the name of many thousand poor People in and about the City of London was directed to the House of Commons taking notice of a malignant Faction that made abortive all their good motions which tended to the Peace and Tranquillity of this Kingdom desiring that those noble Worthies of the House of Peers who concurred with them in their happy Votes might be earnestly desired to joyn with that Honourable House and to sit and Vote together as one entire body and professing that unless some speedy remedy were taken for the removing all such Obstructions as hindred the happy progress of their great Endeavours their Petitioners should not rest in quietness but should be forced to lay hold on the next remedy which was at hand to remove the disturbers of the Peace and Want and necessity breaking the bounds of Modesty not to leave any means unessayed for their relief lastly adding that the cry of the poor and needy was that such Persons who were the obstacles of their Peace and the hinderers of the happy proceedings of this Parliament might be forthwith publickly declared whose removal they conceived would put a period to those Distractions And this Petition was brought up to the House of Lords by the House of Commons at a Conference And after the same day Master Hollis a Member of the House of Commons in a Message from that House pressed the Lords at their Bar to joyn with the House of Commons in their desire about the Militia and farther with many other expressions of like nature desired in words to this effect That if that desire of the House of Commons were not assented unto those Lords who were willing to concur would find some means to make themselves known that it might be known who were against them and they might make it known to those that sent them After which Petition so strangely framed countenanced and seconded many Lords thereupon withdrawing themselves the Vote in order to the Militia twice before rejected was then passed After these and other unparliamentary Actions many things rejected and settled upon solemn debate were again after many Threats and Menaces resumed altered and determined contrary to the Custom and Laws of Parliament And so many of us withdrew our selves from thence where we could not Sit Speak and Vote with Honour Freedom and Safety and are now kept from thence for our Duty and Loyalty to our Sovereign And though some of us Sate and continued there long after this hoping that we might have been able to have prevented the growth and progress of farther Mischief yet since the Privilege of Parliament is so substantial and entire a Right that as the Invasion of the Liberties of either House is an injury to the other and the whole Kingdom so the Violence and Assaults upon any of our fellow-Members for expressing their opinions in matters of debate were instances to us what we were to look for when we should be known to dissent from what was expected and under that consideration every one of our just Liberties suffered violation Many of us for these and other reasons after His Majesty Himself was by many Indignities and Force driven from Westminster have been contrary to the Right and Freedom of Parliament Voted out of the House without committing any Crime and some of us without hearing or so much as being summoned to be heard and so our Countries for which we were and are trusted have been without any Proxies or Persons trusted on their behalf An Army hath been raised without and against His Majesty's Consent and a Protestation enjoyned to live and die with the Earl of Essex their General of that Army and a Member now amongst us refusing to take that Protestation was told That if he left not the Town speedily he should be committed to the Tower or knocked on the head by the Souldiers All Persons even the Members of both Houses have been and now are forced or injoyned to contribute for the maintenance and support of that Army A trayterous Covenant is since taken by the Members who remain and imposed upon the Kingdom That they will to their power assist the Forces raised and continued by both Houses of Parliament against the Forces raised by the King with many other Clauses directly contrary to their Allegiance and another for the alteration of the Covenant of the Church established by Law and such Members as have refused according to their Duty and Conscience to take those Covenants have been imprisoned or expelled so as they have suffered none to reside with them but those who are engaged with them in their desperate courses The whole Power and Authority of both Houses is delegated against the Law and nature of Parliament to a close Committee which assumes and usurps the Power of King Lords and Commons disposes of the Persons Liberties and Estates of us and our fellow-Subjects without so much as communicating their Resolutions to those that sit in the Houses And when an Order hath been reported to be confirmed by them it hath been only put to the Question no debates being suffered it having been said in the House where the Commons sit to those who have excepted against such an Order when presented That they were only to Vote not to dispute and thereupon all Argument and contradiction hath been taken away And to shew how impossible it is to contain themselves within any bond of civility and humanity when they have forfeited their Allegiance after the attempt in a most barbarous manner to murther the Queens Majesty at Her landing at Burlington by making many great shot at the house where She lodged for Her repose after a long Voyage by Sea where by God's blessing it was disappointed they impeached Her of High Treason for assisting the King Her Husband and the Kingdom in their greatest necessities All Petitions and Addresses for Peace have been with great Art and Vehemence discountenanced and suppressed whilst others for Sedition and Discord have with no less industry and passion been promoted And when the Members of the House of Commons in August last had agreed upon a long and solemn debate to joyn with the Lords in sending Propositions of Peace to His Majesty the next day printed Papers were scattered in the Streets and fix'd upon the publick places both in the City and Suburbs requiring all Persons
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
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
nor lavished on ambitious designs from all which destructions of Treasure no King was more free was but just sufficient for ordinary and necessary Expences of State and Majesty And though it was most just for Him to expect the Peoples Contribution to their own Safety who were never richer than now nor had they ever more Security for their Riches than they now had by his Concessions of Liberty yet knowing how powerful the Faction alwaies was to disturb the Counsels of Parliament He feared that from their Proceedings the common Enemies would be incouraged as formerly to higher Insolencies and the envious Demagogues would contemn their own safety to ruine His Honour He also accounted it a great unhappiness to be necessitated to maintain His State by extraordinary waies and therefore refused to renew Privie Seals and Loans the use of which He debarred Himself of in granting the Petition of Right Therefore consults His Atturney-General Noy whether the Prerogative had yet any thing left to save an unwilling people Noy acquaints Him with Ancient Precedents of raising a Tax upon the Nation for setting forth a Navie in case of danger and assures Him of the Legality of the way in proceeding by Writs to that effect Which Counsel being embraced there were Writs directed to the several Counties for such a Contribution that in the whole might build furnish and maintain Forty Seven Ships for the safety of the Kingdom And by these the King soon secured and calmed the Seas but the Faction endeavoured to raise a Tempest at Land They complained of Invasions on their Spiritual Liberties An. 1635 because the Bishops endeavoured in these years to reduce the Ceremonies of the Church to their primitive Observance of which a long Prosperity had made men negligent and time had done that to the Spiritual Body which it doth to the Natural dayly amassed those Corruptions which at length will stand in need of cure Therefore when they took this proper Method of reforming a corrupted State in bringing things back to their Original Institution both His Majesty and they were defamed with designs of Popery This Tax of Ship-money was pretended a breach to their Civil Liberties and contrary to Law because not laid by a Parliament Therefore those who sought the People's favour to alter the present Government by seeming the singular Patrons of their Rights An. 1636 refused to pay the Tax and stood it out to a Trial at Law The Just Prince declined not the Tryal and permitted Monarchy and Liberty to plead at the same Bar. All the Judges of the Land did justifie by their Subscriptions that it was legal for the King to levy such a Tax and their Subscriptions were enrolled in all the Courts of Westminster-Hall And when it came to be argued in the Exchequer-Chamber ten of them absolutely declared for it only two Crook and Hutton openly dissented from that Opinion to which they had formerly subscribed not without the ignominy of Levity unbeseeming their places And as the King was thus victorious in the Law so was He at Sea and having curbed the Pirates He also reduced the Hollanders to a precarious use of His Seas Amidst all these Difficulties and Calumnies the King hitherto had so governed that sober men could not pray for nor Heaven grant in Mercy to a People any greater Happiness than what His Reign did afford The British Empire never more flourished with Magnificent Edifices the Trade of the Nation had brought the Wealth of the Indies home to our doors Learning and all good Sciences were so cherished that they grew to Admiration and many Arts of the Ancients buried and forgotten by time were revived again No Subjects under the Sun richer and which was the effect of that none prouder Security increased the Husband-mans stock and Justice preserved his Life none being condemned as to Life but by the lawful Verdict of those of an equal Condition the Jury of his Peers The poor might Reverence but needed not Fear the Great and the Great though he might despise yet could not injure his more obscure Neighbour And all things were so administred that they seemed to conspire to the Publick good except that they made our Happiness too much the cause of all Civil Commotions and brought our Felicity to that height that by the necessity of Humane Nature which hath placed all things in motion it must necessarily decline And God provoked by our sins did no longer restrain and obstruct the arts and fury of some wicked men who contemning their present certain enjoyments hoped for more wicked acquisitions in publick Troubles to overwhelm every part of the King's Dominions with a Deluge of Blood and Misery and to commence that War which as it was horrid with much slaughter so it was memorable with the Experiences of His Majesties Vertues Confusions like Winds from every Coast at once assaulting and trying His Righteous Soul The first Storm arose from the North and the flame first broke out in Scotland where those Lords who feared they should lose their spoils of Religion and Majesty took all occasions to hasten the publick Misery which at last most heavily lay upon their Country the hands they had strengthned and instructed to fight against their Prince laying a more unsupportable slavery upon them then their most impious Slanders could form in the imaginations of the credulous that they might fear from the King by calumniating the King's Government raising fears of Tyranny and Idolatry forming and spreading seditious Libels The Author or at least the Abettor of one of which was found to be the Lord Balmerino a Traitor by Nature being the Son of one who had before merited Death for his Treasons to King James yet found that mercy from him as the Son now did from King Charles to have his Life and Estate continued after condemnation Yet this perfidious man interpreted the King's Clemencie for his own Vertue and he that had dared such a Crime could not be changed by the Pardon of it and as if he had rather received an Injury than Life he was the most active in the approaching Rebellion For the Rabble An. 1637 that delights in Tumults were fitted by this and other Boutefeus for any occasion of contemning the King's Authority though His designs that were thus displeasing to the Noblefs were evidently for the benefit of the Populacy and at last took fire from the Liturgie something differing from ours lest a full consent might argue a dependency upon the Church of England which some Scotish Bishops had composed and presented to the King for the use of their Church which the King who was desirous that those who were united under His Command might not be divided in Worship confirmed and appointed to be first read July 13. at Edinburgh a City always pregnant with suspicions and false rumours But it was entertained with all the instruments of Fury that were present to a debauched multitude for they flung Cudgels and Sticks at
also was abolished under pretence of a Spiritual Liberty for it was accused of putting a restraint upon the Spirit but in truth because it had so frequent Offices for the King To these were added the Covenant the Fetters of the Scotish Slavery this was to bind the whole Nation to the Interest of the Faction and was used as the Water of Jealousie to discover those whom they did suspect Therefore all the Conspirators of what Sect soever whether Independents or Anabaptists though they refused to take it themselves because it did oblige to the Preservation of the King's Person and Authority yet were as eager Imposers of it as the Presbyterians who in simplicity urged it as the Fundamental Constitution of their Empire upon all who they thought would not prostitute their Souls to their Designs or had any thing fit to be made their Spoils And by this onely Engine many thousand Persons and Families were miserably ruined especially of the Clergy To oblige more fastly those that had no patience to expect nor hopes to receive any Reward for their Service against their Prince in the other life and so would not be satisfied with the shews of Religion but sought more solid Encouragements in the Spoils of it the Lands of the Bishops were exposed to Sale and that at such easie Rates as might invite the hazard of the Purchase satiate their boundless Covetousness and engage them in a pertinacious Faith to their Merchants To cement all these distinct Humours in one common Pleasure the Archbishop of Canterbury was prepared for a Sacrifice and about this time began his Tryal which continued a whole Year being when the Houses were at leisure called by several Months and Weeks to answer to his Charge that by his frequent Passages as a Prisoner he might give a pleasant Diversion to the Rabble who are delighted with the Ruines and Misfortunes of Great Persons and by their Injuries and Reproaches he might be reduced to such a weakness of Spirit as was not competent with the defence of his Cause But his Cause and his Conscience were impregnable and he overthrew their Slanders though he could not their Power By these Arts and Ways was the Winter spent to prepare for the Attempts of the following Summer An. 1644 wherein though the Parliaments Forces encreased by the Scotish Succours had the Success over several bodies of the Royallists yet that small Number that followed the King's Person and were guided by His own Counsels and Example obtained two great Victories For His Majesty having once more provided for the Safety of the Queen in sending Her to Excester there to lay down the burden of Her Love and from thence to seek for Shelter in France taken contrary to their hopes His last Farewel of Her and left Oxford strengthned against the Siege which the Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller threatned that Place with He with a small Party draws out intending to form His Counsels according to the future Occurrences This made the Enemy divide and Essex was designed to reduce the West But Waller with whom usually went Sir Arthur Hasilrigge a Person fitter to raise Seditious Tumults than manage Armies was to hunt the King upon the Mountains of Wales towards which He seemed to direct His Course But hearing of the Resolutions of these two jealous Generals He wheels about to Oxford and from thence drew the greatest strength of that Garrison and with that falling upon Waller at Cropredy-bridge obtained a great Victory which would have been more prejudicial to the Enemy had not the Tenderness of His Subjects Blood restrained Him from prosecuting His Success to a greater Slaughter But contenting Himself to have diverted Injuries from His own Breast He only used this Victory for an advantage to Peace which in a Letter from Evesham July 4. He moves the Parliament unto But the unquiet Criminals rendred it vain and fruitless and represented to the People their yet prevailing Forces in the North and their Army in the West which had now taken in some considerable places to their obedience Therefore to remove their Confidence in Essex's power the King follows him and so closely pursues him that He drove him up into Cornwall and there did as it were besiege him During which He sent a Letter to him which was seconded by another from the Lords and Gentlemen in His Army to sollicite His endeavours for the Peace and Quiet of the bleeding and wasted Kingdom But it met not its desired effect Because that Earl either valued not that solid Glory of being the happy Author of a Nation 's Settlement or feared that his past Actions had wholly despoiled him of hopes of Security in a return to Obedience or knew that his Authority was not so great to put an issue to those Crimes which he had led others to commit For every inconsiderable person may be powerful at Disturbances but to form Peace requires much Wisdom and great Vertues Which last was generally believed for he had found and complained that his Credit declined with the Faction that they were distrustful lest their own Arts might teach him to have no faith to them because he often sollicited them to a composing of the Kingdoms Distractions Therefore making no return to those Letters he provided for his own safety in a Cock-boat and ignominiously deserted his Army of which the Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made their escape but the Commanders of the Foot did capitulate for their Lives and left their Arms Cannon Baggage and Ammunition to the Disposal of the King The speedy and prudent acquisition of these two Victories shewed the King had those Abilities that might have inserted Him in the Catalogue of the Bravest Commanders and had not want of Success in His following Enterprises clouded the Glory of this Summer He had been as eminent among the Masters of War as He was among the Sons of Peace the Honour of which last He most eagerly thirsted as rendring Him most like that Majesty He did represent Therefore after this Victory by a Letter from Tavestock Sept. 8. He re-inforces that from Evesham for an Accord with the Parliament being not transported from His Lenity by the Violence with which Victory uses to hurry humane breasts to an insolence But He knew that Peace though it is profitable to the Conquered yet it is glorious for the Conquerour To busie His Army while He expected their Answer and formed an Association in the Western Counties He sits down before Plymouth but finding this Message had an equal reception with the former and that the Faction intended not to sacrifice their ill-acquired Power and usurped Interests to the publick Tranquillity He rises from thence and marches towards London from whence were by this time in the way to meet Him Essex and Waller recruited and joyned with the Earl of Manchester's Forces that were now returned from their Northern Services And at Newbery both sides joyn in an eager
there were Twenty Dissenters blush to assume the Authority of managing the weightiest affairs of the English Empire to alter and change the Government to expose His Majesty to a violent Murder and to overthrow the Ancient Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom For being wholly devoted to the service of the Army they communicated counsels with them and whatsoever was resolved at the Council of War passed into a Law by the Votes of this Infamous remnant of the House of Commons who now served the Souldiers in hopes of part of the Spoil and a precarious Greatness which being acquired by so much Wickedness could not be lasting In order therefore to the Army's design they revive those Votes of No Addresses to the King which had at first but surreptitiously and by base practices passed and had been afterwards repealed by a full House Those Votes of a Treaty with the King and of the Satisfactoriness of His Concessions with scorn they rased out of the Journal-Book And then proceeded to Vote 1. That the People under God are the Original of all Just Power 2. That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being chosen by and representing the People have the Supreme Authority of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons of England assembled in Parliament by which they understood themselves hath the force of a Law 4. That all the People of this Nation are concluded thereby although the Consent and Concurrence of the King and House of Peers be not had thereunto 5. That to raise Arms against the People's Representative or Parliament and to make War upon them is High Treason 6. That the King Himself took Arms against the Parliament and on that account is guilty of the blood shed throughout the Civil War and that He ought to expiate the crime with His own blood Those that were less affected with the common Fears and Miseries could not temper their mirth and scorn at such ridiculous Usurpers that thought to adjust their Crimes by their own Votes that in one breath would adorn the People with the Spoils of Monarchy and in the next rob the People to invest themselves And it is said that even Cromwell who intended to ruine our Liberty was ashamed and scorned their so ready Slavery and afterwards did swear at the Table of an Independent Lord that he knew them to be Rascals and he would so serve them Others of more melancholy Complexions considering the baseness of these servile Tyrants and the humours of their barbarous masters the Souldiers all whose inhumanities they were to establish by a Law and that Power gotten by Wickedness cannot be used with the Modesty that is sit for just Magistrates justly feared that as under the King they had enjoyed the height of Liberty so under these men they were to be overwhelmed in the depth of Slavery and that these Votes which overturned the very Foundation of our Laws could not be designed but for some horrid Impiety and our lasting Bondage which came so to pass For in their next Consultations they constitute a Tribunal to sentence their Sovereign which afterwards they used as a Shambles for the most Loyal and Gallantest of the Nobless and People of the most abject Subjects and to procure a Reverence to the Vilest of men they give it the specious name of The High Court of Justice For which they appoint 150 Judges that the Number might seem to represent the whole Multitude of the most violent and heady of all the Faction To whom they give a power of citing hearing judging and punishing CHARLES STUART King of England To make up this Number they had named six Peers of the Upper House and the twelve Judges of the Land But the greatest part were Officers of the Army who having confederated against His Majesty and publickly required His Blood could not without a contempt to the light of Reason be appointed His Judges and Members of the Lower House who were most violent against Monarchy and indeed all Government wherein themselves had no share The rest were Persons pick'd out of the City of London and Suburbs thereof who they imagined would be most obsequious to their Lusts Those that surveyed the List and knew the men deemed them most unfit for a Trust of Justice and proper Instruments for any wicked undertaking for of these Judges one or two were Coblers others Brewers one a Goldsmith and many of them Mechanicks Such among them as were descended of ancient Families were Men of so mean worth that they were only like the Statues of their Ancestors had nothing but their Names to make them knownunto the World Some of them were Spend-thrifts Bankrupts such as could be neither safe nor free unless the Kingdom were in Bondage and most notorious Adulterers whose every Member was infamous with its proper Vice Vain and Atheistical in their Discourse Cowardly and Base in Spirit Bloody and Cruel in their Counsels and those Parts that cannot honestly be named were most dishonest One of them was accused of a Rape Another had published a Book of Blasphemies against the Trinity of the Deity Some of them could not hope to get impunity for their Oppressions of the Country and Expilations of the publick Treasure but by their ministry to this Murther Others could not promise themselves an advancement of their abject or declining Fortune but by this Iniquity Yet all these by the Faction were inrolled in the Register of Saints though fitter to standas Malefactors at the Bar than to sit upon Seats of Judgment And notwithstanding their diligent search for such a Number of Men who would not blush at nor fear any guilt some of those whom they had named in abhorrencie of the Impiety refused to sit and some that did yet met there in hopes of disturbing their Counsels All this while the House of Peers were not consulted and it was commonly supposed that most of them terrified with those Preparations against the King the only defence of the Nobless against the Popular Envie would absent themselves from that House except four or five that were the Darlings of the Faction and they deemed the Names and Compliance of those few were enough to give credit and Authority to their bloody Act. But in them they were disappointed also for some of the Peers did constantly meet and on that day wherein the Bill for Trial of the King was carried up to that House there were Seventeen then present a greater Number than usual who all Unanimously even the Democratick Lords not dissenting did reject the Bill as Dangerous and Illegal This so highly provoked the Fury of the Faction that they meditated a severe revenge and for the present blotted out those Peers whose Names they had before put into their Ordinance to make the Court more splendid After this they did also rase out the names of the Judges of the Land for they being privately consulted concerning these Proceedings against the King
an adjoyning Scaffold where she stood she cried out with a loud Voice but not without danger that It was a Lye not the Tenth part of the People were guilty of such a Crime but all was done by the Machinations of that Traytor Cromwell But the King after the Charge was read with a Countenance full of Majesty and Gravity demands by what Authority they proceeded with Him thus contrary to the Publick Faith and what Law they had to try Him that was an absolute Sovereign Bradshaw replying that of the Parliament His Majesty shewed the detestable Falsehood in pretending to what they had not and if they had it yet it could not justifie these Practices To which Reply when they could not answer they force Him back to the place of His Captivity The Magnanimity of the King in this Days Contest with these inhumane Butchers did much satisfie the People and they were glad while they thought not of His Danger that He wanted not either Speech or Courage against so powerful Enemies that He had spoken nothing unworthy of Himself and had preserved the Fame of His. Vertues even in so great Adversities For He seemed to triumph over their Fortune whose Arms He was now subject to The Parricides sought to break his Spirit by making His appearances frequent before such contemptible Judges and often exposing Him to the contempt of the Armed Rabble therefore four days they torture Him with the Impudence and Reproaches of their Infamous Sollicitor and President But He still refused to own their Authority which they could not prove lawful and so excellently demonstrated their abominable Impiety that He made Colonel Downes one of their Court to boggle at and disturb their Proceedings They therefore at last proceeded to take away that Life which was not to be separated from Conscience and Honour and pronounced their Sentence of Death upon their Lawful and Just Sovereign Jan. 27. not suffering Him to speak after the Decree of their Villany but hurrying Him back to the place of His Restraint At His departure He was exposed to all the Insolencies and Indignities that a phanatick and base Rabble instigated by Peters and other Instructors of Villany could invent and commit And He suffer'd many things so conformable to Christ His King as did alleviate the sense of them in Him and also instruct Him to a correspondent Patience and Charity When the barbarous Souldiers cried out at His departure Justice Justice Execution Execution as those deceived Jews did once to their KING Crucisie Him Crucifie Him this Prince in imitation of that most Holy King pitied their blind fury and said Poor Souls for a piece of Money they would do as much for their Commanders As He passed along some in defiance spit upon His Garments and one or two as it was reported by an Officer of theirs who was one of their Court and praised it as an evidence of his Souldiers Gallantry while others were stupefied with their prodigious baseness polluted His Majestick Countenance with their unclean spittle the Good King reflecting on His great Exemplar and Master wiped it off saying My Saviour suffer'd far more than this for me Into His very Face they blowed their stinking Tobacco which they knew was very distasteful to Him and in the way where He was to go just at His Feet they flung down pieces of their nasty Pipes And as they had devested themselves of all Humanity so were they impatient and furious if any one shewed Reverence or Pity to Him as He passed For no honest Spirit could be so forgetful of humane fruilty as not to be troubled at such a sight to see a Great and Just King the rightful Lord of three flourishing Kingdoms now forced from His Throne and led captive through the Streets Such as pull'd off their Hats or bowed to Him they beat with their Fists and Weapons and knock'd down one dead but for crying out God be merciful unto Him When they had brought Him to His Chamber even there they suffered Him not to rest but thrusting in and smoaking their filthy Tobacco they permitted Him no Privacy to Prayer and Meditation Thus through variety of Tortures did the King pass this Day and by His Patience wearied His Tormentors nothing unworthy His former greatness of Fortune and Mind by all these Affronts was extorted from Him though Indignities and Injuries are unusual to Princes and these were such as might have forced Passion from the best-tempered meekness had it not been strengthned with assistance from Heaven In the Evening the Conspirators were acquainted by a Member of the Army of the King's desire that seeing His Death was nigh it might be permitted him to see His Children and to receive the Sacrament and that Doctor Juxon then Lord Bishop of London now Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be admitted to pray with Him in His private Chamber The first they did not scruple at the Children in their power being but two the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Glocester and they very young The second they did not readily grant Some would have had Peters to undertake that Employment for which the Bishop was sent for But he declined it with some Scoffs as knowing that the King hated the Offices of such an unhallowed Buffoon So that at last they permitted the Bishop's access to the King to whom his eminent Integrity had made him dear For with so wonderful a Prudence and uprightness he had managed the envious Office of the Treasury that that accusing age especially of Church-men found not matter for any Impeachment nor ground for the least Reproach The next day being Sunday the King was removed to St. James's where the Bishop of London read Divine Service and preached before Him in private on these words In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel While the King and the Bishop at this time and also at other times were performing the Divine Service the rude Souldiers often rushed in and disturbed their Offices with vulgar and base Scoffs vain and frivolous Questions The Commanders likewise and other impertinent Anabaptists did interrupt His Meditations who came to tempt and try Him and provoke Him to some unnecessary disputations But He maintained His own Cause with so irrefragable Arguments that He put some to silence the petulancy of others He neglected and with a modest contempt dissembled their Scoffs and Reproaches In the narrow space of this one Day and under so continued Affronts and Disturbances the King whose whole Soul was totally composed to Religion applied Himself as much as was possible to the Reading Holy Scriptures to Prayer Confession of Sins Supplications for the forgiveness of his Enemies the receiving the Eucharist holy Conferences and all the Offices of Piety so under the utmost Malice and Hatred of men He laboured for the Mercy of God and to fit Himself for His last victory over Death While the King thus spent this day
the Ministers in the several Churches in London and in those parts of the Kingdom where His danger was known were very earnest in their Prayers to God for His Diliverance and Spiritual Assistance Some of them in their Sermons declared the horrour of that sin that was about to be committed detested the Impiety of the Parricides and denounced the heavy Judgments which such a sinful Nation polluted with their Prince's blood were to expect The Congregations were dissolved into Tears Some bewailed the sad Condition of the King as the effect of the Sins of the Nation Others cursed their damnable Credulity of the Slanders of that Just man and the promises of Liberty by their Impostors And another sort wept because their Fears did prognosticate those Miseries which the Issue of His blood would let in upon them And every one found matter of grief fear and indignation in the loss of so Excellent a Prince All countenances were full of sadness and astonishment there was no Tumults nor any Quiet every one listning and hearkning either as impatient to know the greatness of their Misery or greedy to receive some hopes of Comfort in their Sovereign's Safety otherwise there was a stilness like that which too strong Passions effect and might be thought a Stupidity rather than a Calmness The next day being Jan. 29. the King was permitted the sight of His Children His conference and words with them was taken in writing and communicated to the World by the Lady Elizabeth His Daughter a Lady of most eminent Endowments who though born in the supremest Fortune yet lived in continual Tears the passages of her Life being spent in beholding the Ruines of her Family and the Murther of her dear Father whom she not long survived but died in that Confinement to which they had cheated His Majesty in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight While these things were done in publick the Conspirators meet in private in a Committee to appoint every one their part in this Tragedy determine what Gestures they were to affect what Words they were to use as also for the manner place and time of the Murther In which Consultations both now and before the Sentence each one according to the bloodiness of his temperament or servilely to flatter Cromwell by their Cruelty to Him that did obstruct his Ambition did propose several ways either of contempt or hatred in killing their sentenced yet anointed Sovereign Some would have His Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their Curelty might out-last His Death Others would have Him hanged as they punished Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Vote that He should suffer in His Royal Habiliments with His Crown and in His Robes that it might be a Triumph of the Peoples power over Kings At last they think it sufficient that He should lose His Head by the stroak of an Ax on a Scaffold near White-Hall Gates before the Banqueting-House that so from thence where He used to sit on His Throne and shew the Splendour of Majesty He might pass to His Grave there parting with the Ensigns of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where He had before used them as the Ornaments of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their Malice ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected or were informed that as the King had not owned their Authority so He would not submit to their Execution not willingly stoop to the Block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron Staples and Rings that by them with Cords they might draw Him down if He would not comply But His prudent Meekness prevented this Inhumanity and He died disowning their Authority though He could not escape their Power In the midst of these Preparations they cause some Souldiers to offer to His Majesty certain Articles and Conditions to which if He would subscribe they promise Life and the continuance of a precarious Empire either out of a Terrour and Fear of the consequents of their Impieties for the confidence of contriving great Crimes is often turned into a sollicitude when they come to be acted or out of Design to ruine His Conscience and Honour together with His mortal Life if He should consent But when one or two of them had been read to Him He refused to hear any more saying I will suffer a thousand deaths ere I will so prostitute my Honour or betray the Liberties of my People Thus mindful of Justice He would not deface the Splendor of His former Vertues with a too impotent desire of Life At last that Fatal Day Jan. 30. approached and that morning a little before His Death the Conspirators ordered some of their Ministers viz. Marshall Nye Caryl Salway and Dell to pray with Him as they said in order to His passage out of this Life but when these sent to let Him know the end of their coming He returned answer that He was busie they sent a second time and He replied that He was at His Devotions they importunately sent a third time and my Lord of London then desiring to know what answer he should give to satisfie them His Majesty then as unconcerned in their Ministery said My Lord you may give them what answer you please but I am resolved that they who have so often and so causelesly prayed against Me shall not in this My Agony pray with Me they may pray for Me if they please Therefore the King arming Himself with His own Devotions in the Offices of the Church of England in them found an unexpected Comfort for the Gospel for that Day being the History of the Passion of our Saviour did by that Example strengthen the King to follow Jesus and to take up His Cross and His Majesty was thankful for that Pattern Being thus confirmed by the Blood for He took the Sacrament that Morning and Sufferings of His LORD whose Vicegerent He was together with His own Innocency against the Terrors of Death He was brought from St James's through the Park to White-Hall walking very fast and with as chearful a Countenance as if He were going to Hunting a Recreation He was much pleased with often advising His slow guards to move faster adding I now go before you to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude than I formerly have led My Souldiers for an Earthly Diadem And being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in White-Hall and so into the Cabinet-Chamber where He continued some time in Devotion while they were fitting the Theatre of His Murther While these things were acting the Lord Fairfax who had always forborn any publick appearance in the practices of this Murther had taken up as is credibly reported some Resolutions either in abhorrency of the Crime or by the Solicitations of others with his own Regiment though none else should follow him to hinder the
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
time appoint whereof the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be imployed and directed from time to time during the said space of ten years in such manner as shall be agreed upon and appointed by both Houses of Parliament and that no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Officers of the said City shall be drawn forth or compelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free consent That an Act be passed for granting and confirming the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Non-user Mis-user or Abuser And that during the said ten years the Tower of London may be in the government of the City of London and the Chief Officer and Governour from time to time during the said space to be nominated and removeable by the Common Council as are desired in your Propositions His Majesty having thus far expressed His consent for the present satisfaction and security of His two Houses of Parliament and those that have adhered unto them touching your four first Propositions and other the particulars before specified as to all the rest of your Propositions delivered to Him at Hampton-Court not referring to those heads and to that of the Court of Wards since delivered as also to the remaining Propositions concerning Ireland His Majesty desires only when He shall come to Westminster personally to advise with His two Houses and to deliver His Opinion and the reasons of it which being done He will leave the whole matter of those remaining Propositions to the determination of His two Houses which shall prevail with Him for His consent accordingly And His Majesty doth for His Own particular only propose that He may have liberty to repair forthwith to Westminster and be restored to a condition of absolute Freedom and Safety a thing which He shall never deny to any of His Subjects and to the possession of His Lands and Revenues and that an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity may pass to extend to all persons for all matters relating to the late unhappy Differences which being agreed by His two Houses of Parliament His Majesty will be ready to make these His Concessions binding by giving them the Force of Laws by His Royal assent HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATIONS I. His MAJESTIES DECLARATION After the Votes of no further Address Carisbrook Jan. 18. MDCXLVII To all My People of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for My self No I will speak and that to all My People which I would have rather done by the way of My two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publick Order neither to make Addresses to or receive Messages from Me. And who but you can be judge of the differences betwixt Me and My two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the Happiness or feel the Misery of good or ill Government and we all pretend who should run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have been in this long time and whether My Actions have more tended to the Publick or My own particular good For whosoever will look upon Me barely as I am a Man without that liberty which the meanest of My Subjects enjoys of going whither and conversing with whom I will as a Husband and Father without the comfort of My Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect My distressed Subjects must conclude Me not onely void of all Natural Affection but also to want common understanding if I should not most cheerfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side do but consider the form and draught of the Bills lately presented unto Me and as they are the Conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same Spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all My sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerful influence on this Message For though I was ready to grant the substance and comply with what they seem to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding My Conscience and Honour and betraying the Trust reposed in Me by abandoning My People to the Arbitrary and Unlimited Power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land or Sea Forces without distinction of quality or limitation for Money-Taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard-of a Condition were it for a Treaty to grant beforehand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectual were that Debate like to prove wherein the most potent Party had nothing of moment left to ask and the other nothing more to give so consequently how hopeless of mutual compliance without which a settlement is impossible Besides if after My Concessions the two Houses should insist on those things from which I cannot depart how desperate would the condition of these Kingdoms be when the most proper and approved remedy should become ineffectual Being therefore fully resolved that I could neither in Conscience Honour or Prudence pass those four Bills I onely endeavoured to make the Reasons and Justice of my Denial appear to all the World as they do to me intending to give as little dis-satisfaction to the two Houses of Parliament without betraying My own Cause as the matter would bear I was desirous to give My Answer of the 28 th of December last to the Commissioners sealed as I had done others heretofore and sometimes at the desire of the Commissioners chiefly because when My Messages or Answers were publickly known before they were read in the Houses prejudicial interpretations were forced on them much differing and sometimes contrary to My meaning For example My Answer from Hampton-Court was accused of dividing the two Nations because I promised to give satisfaction to the Scots in all things concerning that Kingdom And this last suffers in a contrary sense by making Me intend to interest Scotland in the Laws of this Kingdom than which nothing was nor is further from my thoughts because I took notice of the Scots Commissioners protesting against the Bills and Propositions as contrary to the Interests and Engagements of the two Kingdomes Indeed if I had not mentioned their dissent an Objection not without some probability might have been made against Me both in respect the Scots are much concern'd in the Bill for the Militia and in several other Propositions and My silence might with some Justice have seemed to approve of it But the Commissioners refusing to receive My Answer sealed I upon the engagement of their and the Governor's Honour that no other use should be made or notice taken of it than as if it had
not been seen read and delivered it open unto them whereupon what hath since passed either by the Governour in discharging most of My Servants redoubling the Guards and restraining Me of My former Liberty and all this as himself confess'd merely out of his own dislike of My Answer notwithstanding his beforesaid Engagement or afterwards by the two Houses as the Governour affirms in confining Me within the Circuit of this Castle I appeal to God and the World whether My said Answer deserved the reply of such proceedings besides the unlawfulness for Subjects to imprison their King That by the permission of Almighty God I am reduced to this sad condition as I no way repine so I am not without hope but that the same God will in due time convert these Afflictions into My advantage In the mean time I am confident to bear these crosses with Patience and a great Equality of Mind But by what means or occasion I am come to this Relapse in My Affairs I am utterly to seek especially when I consider that I have sacrificed to My two Houses of Parliament for the Peace of the Kingdome all but what is much more dear to Me than My life My Conscience and Honour desiring nothing more than to perform it in the most proper and natural way a Personal Treaty But that which makes Me most at a loss is the remembring My signal compliance with the Army and their Interests and of what importance My compliance was to them and their often-repeated Professions and Engagements for My just Rights in general at Newmarket and S. Albans and their particular explanation of those Generals by their voted and re-voted Proposals which I had reason to understand should be the utmost extremity would be expected from Me and that in some things therein I should be eased herein appealing to the Consciences of some of the chiefest Officers in the Army if what I have said be not punctually true and how I have failed of their expectations or My professions to them I challenge them and the whole World to produce the least colour of Reason And now I would know what it is that is desired Is it Peace I have shewed the way being both willing and desirous to perform My part in it which is a just compliance with all chief Interests Is it Plenty and Happiness They are the inseparable effects of Peace Is it Security I who wish that all Men would forgive and forget like Me have offered the Militia for My time Is it Liberty of Conscience He who wants it is most ready to give it Is it the right administration of Justice Officers of trust are committed to the choice of My two Houses of Parliament Is it frequent Parliaments I have legally fully concurr'd therewith Is it the Arrears of the Army Upon a settlement they will certainly be payed with much ease but before there will be found much difficulty if not impossibility in it Thus all the World cannot but see my reall and unwearied endeavours for Peace the which by the grace of God I shall neither repent Me of nor ever be slackned in notwithstanding My past present or future sufferings but if I may not be heard let every one judge who it is that obstructs the good I would or might do What is it that Men are afraid to hear from Me It cannot be Reason at least none will declare themselves so unreasonable as to confess it and it can less be impertinent or unreasonable Discourses for thereby peradventure I might more justifie this My Restraint than the causers themselves can do so that of all wonders yet this is the greatest to Me. But it may be easily gathered how those men intend to govern who have used Me thus And if it be My hard Fate to fall together with the Liberty of this Kingdom I shall not blush for My self but much lament the future Miseries of My People the which I shall still pray to God to avert whatever becomes of Me. CHARLES R. II. An Answer to a Pamphlet entitled A Declaration of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled expressing their Reasons and Grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no farther Address or Application to be made to the KING Published by His Majestie 's appointment I Believe that it was never heard of until now that heavy Imputations were laid on any man I speak not now of Kings which I confess makes the case yet more strange and unjust and He not permitted to see much less to answer them but so it is now with the King which does though silently yet subject Him to as great an Imputation as there is any in the said Declaration for those who know no better may think that He cannot because He does not answer it Wherefore I hold it my Duty knowing these things better than every ordinary man to do my best that the King should not be injured by the Ignorance of His People and albeit I lying under Persecution for My Conscience and love to Regal Authority have not the means in every thing to make full Probations yet I am confident in all the most material Points so to make the truth of the King's Innocency appear that I shall satisfie any impartial judicious Reader What the Issue of former Addresses to the King hath been is most certainly known to all the World but where the fault rests whereby Peace hath not ensued bare Asseverations without Proofs cannot I am sure satisfie any judicious Reader And indeed it seems to me that the Penner of these seeks more to take the ears of the ignorant Multitude with big words and bold Assertions than to satisfie Rational men with real proofs or true Arguments For at the very first he begs the Question taking it for granted that the King could ease the Sighs and Groans dry the Tears and stanch the Blood of His distressed Subjects Alas Is it He that keeps Armies on foot when there is none to oppose Is it He that will not lay down Excise Taxations and Free-quarterings But it is He indeed who was so far from Power even at that time being far worse since that in most things He wanted the Liberty of any free-born man It is He who never refused to ease His People of their Grievances witness more Acts of Grace passed in His Reign than to speak within my compass in any five Kings or Queens Times that ever were before Him Moreover it is He who to settle the present unhappy Distractions and as the best means to it to obtain a Personal Treaty hath offered so much that to say truth during His own time He hath left Himself little more than the Title of a King as it plainly appears by His Message from the Isle of Wight concerning the Militia and chusing the Officers of State and Privy-Counsellours besides other points of Compliance which it is needless here to mention Good God! are these Offers unfit for them to receive Have they
tendred such Propositions that might occasion the World to judge that they have yielded up not only their Wills and Affections but their Reasons also and Judgments for obtaining a true Peace or good Accommodation It is true that if they can shew what reasonably they could have asked more or wherein the King's Offers were deficient either in Point of Security or by with-holding from any His Subjects a jot of their just Priviledges then they said somewhat to challenge Belief But bare Asseverations even against what a Man sees will not get credit with any but such who abandon their Judgments to an implicite Faith nor can the Determinations of all the Parliaments in the World make a thing Just or Necessary if it be not so of it self And can it be imagined that any who were ever acquainted with the Passages at the Treaties of Oxford and Vxbridge will believe though it be said that the Propositions tendred at Newcastle were the same in effect which had been presented to the King before in the midst of all His strength and Forces Indeed methinks such gross slips as these should at least make a man be wary how to believe such things for which He sees no Proofs And yet it should seem that a man must either take their words for good payment or remain unsatisfied for a little after it is said that the Kings strange unexpected and conditional Answers or Denials might justly have made them consider some other course for setling the Kingdom in Peace and Safety without any farther Application but never shewn wherein the strangeness of His Answers or Denials consists And I should think that those Reasons upon which the laying by of a King's Authority is grounded for it is no less ought to be particularly mentioned for the Worlds satisfaction and not involved in general big words for it thereby seems that it is their force of Arms more than that of Reason which they trust to for procuring of obedience to their Determinations or belief to what they say Otherways can it be imagined that their saying that their last Propositions were so qualified that where it might stand with the publick Safety the wonted Scruples and Objections were prevented or removed can give satisfaction to any rational man who hath seen all their former Propositions for it is most evident that their Demands have always encreased with their good Fortune And for their great Condescension to a Personal Treaty which under favour can scarcely be called so for the King though He had granted what was desired was not to come either to or near London but to stay in the Isle of Wight and there to Treat with Commissioners upon signing the Four Bills surely they incurred therein but little danger for it is most evident that they contain the very substance of the most essential parts of their Demands which being once granted the King would neither have had power to deny nor any thing left worth the refusing for after He had confessed that He had taken up Arms to invade the Liberty of His People whereas it was only for the Defence of His own Rights and had likewise condemned all those who had faithfully served Him of Rebellion and that He had totally devested Himself His Heirs and Successors for ever of the power of the Sword whereby the Protection of His Subjects which is one of the most essential and necessary Rights belonging to Regal Authority is totally torn away from the Crown and that by a silent Confession He had done Himself and Successors an irreparable prejudice concerning the great Seal I speak not of the other two Bills neither of which are of little importance what was there more for Him to grant worth the insisting upon after such Concessions or indeed what power was left Him to deny any thing So that the King's necessity of giving the Answer He did for it was no absolute Refusal is most evident unless He had resolved to have lived in quiet without Honour and to have given His People Peace without Safety by abandoning them to an arbitrary and unlimited power of the two Houses for ever concerning the levying of Land or Sea-Forces without stinting of numbers or distinction of persons and for Payments to levy such summes of Monies in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint And now I cannot but ask is this the Militia that the King contends for or did ever any King of England pretend to or seek for such a Power surely no but this is a new Militia and take heed lest this should prove like the Roman Praetorian Cohorts that what they did in chusing and changing Emperours these do not to this Government by moulding and altering it according to their Fancies Now my eagerness to clear this Point concerning the four Bills had almost made me forget a most material Question I wonder much wherein the Danger consists of a Personal Treaty with the King ever since He was last at Newcastle Surely He cannot bring Forces along with Him to awe His two Houses of Parliament and it is as well known that He hath not Money to raise an Army and truly there is as little fear that the Eloquence of His Tongue should work Miracles but on the contrary if He were so ill a man as you describe Him to be whatsoever He shall say or write must more prejudice Him than You for let Him never flatter Himself it must be clear not doubtful Reason that can prevail against that great visible prevailing Power which now opposes Him nor do I say it will but certainly less cannot do it Where is then the Danger Believe it Reason will hardly maintain those who are afraid of her After this it is said that they had cause enough to remember that the King sometimes denied to receive their humble Petitions but they neither tell where nor when which I am most confident they cannot but I am certain that the King hath sent divers Messages of Peace to them unto which He hath yet had no Answer namely His last from Oxford of the 15. January 1645. and all the rest since As for the Fight at Brainford whosoever will read the Collection of the Declarations in print upon that subject will clearly find that the King hath more reason to complain that they under colour of Treaty sought to environ Him with their Forces than they for what He then did and His retreat was neither for Fear nor with Shame for the appearing of the Enemy made Him retard not hasten His orders for retiring which divers hours before their appearing He had given which He did without any loss at all but on the contrary retreated with more Arms eleven Colours and fifteen pieces of Ordnance beside good store of Ammunition than He had before And for Cruelty there was not a drop of Blood shed but in the heat of the Fight for I saw above five hundred Prisoners who only promising
come to Thee until I shall send some whom I may trust by word of mouth it being too much trouble to Us both to set them down in paper Copy to My Wife 22. Jan. 1644. XXIII To the QUEEN OXFORD Jan. 30. MDCXLIV V. Dear Heart SUnday last I received three Letters from Thee one a Duplicate of the 30. Decemb. another of the 6. Jan. and the last of the 14. Jan. and even now one Petit is come with a Duplicate of the last wherein as I infinitely joy in the expressions of Thy confident love of Me so I must extreamly wonder that any who pretend to be a friend to Our Cause for I believe Thou wouldst not mention any information from the other side can invent such lyes that Thou hast had ill offices done to Me by any or that Thy care for My assistance hath been the least suspected it being so far from truth that the just contrary is true For I protest to God I never heard Thee spoken of but with the greatest expressions of estimation for Thy love to Me and particularly for Thy diligent care for My assistance But I am confident that it is a branch of that root of knavery which I am now digging at and of this I have more than a bare suspicion And indeed if I were to find fault with Thee it should be for not taking so much care of Thine Own health as of My assistance at least not giving Me so often account of it as I desire these three last making no mention of Thy self Now as for the Treaty which begins this day I desire Thee to be confident that I shall never make a Peace by abandoning My Friends nor such a one as will not stand with My Honour and Safety Of which I will say no more because knowing Thy Love I am sure Thou must believe Me and make others likewise confident of Me. I send Thee herewith My Directions to My Commissioners But how I came to them My self without any others Digby will tell Thee with all the News as well concerning Military as Cabalistical matters At this time I will say no more but that I shall in all things only not answering for words truly shew My self to be eternally Thine The Portugal Agent hath made Me two Propositions first concerning the release of his Master's Brother for which I shall have 50000 l. if I can procure his liberty from the King of Spain the other is for a Marriage betwixt My Son Charles and his Master's Eldest Daughter For the first I have freely undertaken to do what I can and for the other I will give such an Answer as shall signifie nothing I desire Thee not to give too much credit to Sabran's Relations nor much countenance to the Irish Agents in Paris the particular reasons Thou shalt have by Pooly whom I intend for My next Messenger In the last place I recommend to Thee the care of Jersey and Gernsey it being impossible for us here to do much though we were rich being weak at Sea To My Wife 30. Jan. 1644. 5. by Legge Directions for My Uxbridge Commissioners First concerning Religion In this the Government of the Church as I suppose will be the chief question wherein two things are to be considered Conscience and Policy For the first I must declare unto you that I cannot yield to the change of the Government by Bishops not only as I fully concur with the most general opinion of Christians in all Ages as being the best but likewise I hold My self particularly bound by the Oath I took at My Coronation not to alter the Government of this Church from what I found it And as for the Churches Patrimony I cannot suffer any diminution or alienation of it it being without peradventure Sacriledge and likewise contrary to My Coronation Oath But whatsoever shall be offered for rectifying of abuses if any have crept in or yet for the ease of tender Consciences so that it endamage not the foundation I am content to hear and will be ready to give a gracious Answer thereunto For the second As the King's duty is to protect the Church so it is the Churches to assist the King in the maintenance of His just Authority Wherefore My Predecessors have been always careful and especially since the Reformation to keep the dependency of the Clergy entirely upon the Crown without which it will scarcely sit fast upon the King's Head Therefore you must do nothing to change or lessen this necessary dependency Next concerning the Militia After Conscience this is certainly the fittest subject for a King's Quarrel for without it the Kingly Power is but a shadow and therefore upon no means to be quitted but to be maintained according to the ancient known Laws of the Land Yet because to attain to this so much wished Peace by all good men it is in a manner necessary that sufficient and real security be given for the performance of what shall be agreed upon I permit you either by leaving strong Towns or other Military force in the Rebels possession until Articles be performed to give such assurance for performance of Conditions as you shall judge necessary for to conclude a Peace Provided always that ye take at least as great care by sufficient security that Conditions be performed to Me and to make sure that the Peace once setled all things shall return into their ancient Chanels Thirdly for Ireland I confess they have very specious popular Arguments to press this point the gaining of no Article more conducing to their ends than this and I have as much reason both in Honour and Policy to take care how to answer this as any All the world knows the eminent inevitable necessity which caused Me to make the Irish Cessation and there remain yet as strong reasons for the concluding of that Peace Wherefore ye must consent to nothing to hinder Me therein until a clear way be shewn Me how My Protestant Subjects there may probably at least defend themselves and that I shall have no more need to defend My Conscience and Crown from the injuries of this Rebellion Oxford Feb. 1644. Memorials for Secretary Nicholas concerning the Treaty at Uxbridge I. For Religion and Church-Government I will not go one jot further than what is offered by you already II. And so for the Militia more than what ye have allowed by Me but even in that you must observe that I must have free nomination of the full half as if the total number Scots and all be thirty I will name fifteen Yet if they I mean the English Rebels will be so base as to admit of ten Scots to twenty English I am contented to name five Scots and ten English and so proportionably to any number that shall be agreed upon III. As for gaining of particular persons besides security I give you power to promise them rewards for performed services not sparing to engage for places so they be not of great trust
upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newbury aforesaid and upon or about the eighth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester and also upon the fourteenth day of the same month in the same year at Naseby-field in the County of Northampton At which several times and places or most of them and at many other places in this Land at several other times within the years aforementioned and in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred forty and six he the said Charles Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free People of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions Parties and Infurrections within this Land by Invasions from Forein Parts endeavoured and procured by him and by many other evil ways and means he the said Charles Stuart hath not only maintained and carried on the said War both by Land and Sea during the years before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said War against the Parliament and good People of this Nation in this present year one thousand six hundred forty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surry Sussex Middlesex and many other places in England and Wales and also by Sea and particularly he the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by him or his Agents corrupted to the betraying of their Trust and revolting from the Parliament have had entertainment and Commission for the continuing and renewing of War and Hostility against the said Parliament and People as aforesaid By which cruel and unnatural Wars by him the said Charles Stuart levied continued and renewed as aforesaid much innocent blood of the Free People of this Nation hath been spilt many Families have been undone the publick Treasury wasted and exhausted Trade obstructed and miserably decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the Land spoiled some of them even to Desolation And for further prosecution of his said evil Designs he the said Charles Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Foreiners and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked Designs Wars and evil Practices of him the said Charles Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the Personal Interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to himself and his Family against the Publick Interest Common Right Liberty Justice and Peace of the People of this Nation by and for whom he was intrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the Occasioner Author and Contriver of the said unnatural cruel and bloody Wars and therein guilty of all the Treasons Murders Rapines Burnings Spoils Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said Wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by Protestation saving on the behalf of the People of England the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against the said Charles Stuart and also of replying to the Answers which the said Charles Stuart shall make to the Premisses or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so exhibited doth for the said Treasons and Crimes on the behalf of the said People of England impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and a publick and implacable Enemy to the Commonwealth of England and pray that the said Charles Stuart King of England may be put to answer all and every the Premisses that such Proceedings Examinations Tryals Sentence and Judgment may be thereupon had as shall be agreeable to Justice His Majesty with His wonted Patience heard all these Slanders and Reproaches sitting in the Chair and looking sometimes on the pretended Court sometimes up to the Galleries and rising again turned about to behold the Guards and Spectators then he sate down with a Majestick and unmoved countenance and sometimes smiling especially at those words Tyrant Traitor and the like Also the silver head of His Staff happened to fall off at which He wondred and seeing none to take it up He stooped for it Himself The Charge being read Bradshaw began Sir you have now heard your Charge read containing such matters as appear in it you find that in the close of it it is prayed to the Court in the behalf of the Commons of England that you answer to your Charge The Court expects your Answer KING I would know by what Power I am called hither I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight how I came there is a longer story than I think is fit at this time for Me to speak of but there I entred into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publick Faith as it 's possible to be had of any People in the World I treated there with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen and treated honestly and uprightly I cannot say but they did very nobly with Me we were upon a conclusion of the Treaty Now I would know by what Authority I mean lawful there are many unlawful Authorities in the world Thieves and Robbers by the high-ways but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence and carried from place to place and I know not what And when I know by what lawful Authority I shall answer Remember I am your King your lawful King and what sins you bring upon your heads and the Judgment of God upon this Land Think well upon it I say think well upon it before you go further from one sin to a greater Therefore let Me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I shall not be unwilling to answer In the mean time I shall not betray My Trust I have a Trust committed to Me by God by old and lawful Descent I will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful Authority Therefore resolve Me that and you shall hear more of Me. Bradshaw If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither you would have known by what Authority which Authority requires you in the name of the People of England of which you are elected King to answer KING No Sir I deny that Bradshaw If you acknowledge not the Authority of the Court they must proceed KING I do tell them so England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for near these thousand years therefore let Me know by what Authority I am called
hither I do stand more for the Liberty of My People than any here that come to be My pretended Judges and therefore let Me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will answer it otherwise I will not answer it Bradshaw Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of Answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this Condition You have been told of it twice or thrice KING Here is a Gentleman Lieutenant Colonel Cobbet ask him if he did not bring Me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court. I will stand as much for the Privilege of the House of Commons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to His Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the Publick Faith of the World Let Me see a Legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer Bradshaw Sir you have propounded a Question and have been answered Seeing you will not answer the Court will consider how to proceed In the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this be all the Answer you will give or no. KING Sir I desire that you would give Me and all the World satisfaction in this Let Me tell you It is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that Duty I owe to God and My Countrey and I will do it to the last breath of My body And therefore you shall do well to satisfie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot answer it There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you Power to account Satisfie Me in that and I will answer otherwise I betray My Trust and the Liberties of the People and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow That it is as great a Sin to withstand Lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any otherways unlawful Authority And therefore satisfie God and Me and all the World in that and you shall receive My Answer I am not afraid of the Bill Bradshaw The Court expects you should give them a final Answer Their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next If you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon God's Authority and the Kingdoms and that Peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Justice and that 's our present Work KING For Answer let Me tell you you have shewn no Lawful Authority to satisfie any reasonable man Bradshaw That 's in your apprehension we are satisfied that are your Judges KING 'T is not My apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it Bradshaw The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded So commanding the Guard to take Him away His Majesty only replied Well Sir And at His going down pointing with His Staff toward the Ax He said I do not fear that As He went down the stairs the People in the Hall cried out God save the King notwithstanding some were there set by the Faction to lead the clamour for Justice O yes being called they adjourn Westminster-Hall Monday Jan. 22. Afternoon SVnday being spent in Fasting and Preaching according to their manner of making Religion a pretence and prologue to their Villanies on Monday afternoon they came again into the Hall and after Silence commanded called over their Court where Seventy persons being present answered to their Names His Majesty being brought in the People gave a shout Command given to the Captain of their Guard to fetch and take into his custody those who make any Disturbance Then their Solicitor Cook began May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibite and give into this Court a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar whereof I do accuse him in the name of the People of England and the Charge was read unto him and his Answer required My Lord he was not then pleased to give an Answer but in stead of answering did there dispute the Authority of this High Court My humble motion to this High Court in behalf of the Kingdom of England is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a Positive Answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse to do that the matter of Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to Justice Bradshaw Sir you may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither and you heard a Charge read against you containing a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against this Realm of England you heard likewise that it was prayed in the behalf of the People that you should give an Answer to that Charge that thereupon such proceedings might be had as should be agreeable to Justice you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court and knew not by what Authority you were brought hither you did divers time propound your Questions and were as often answer'd That it was by the Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament that did think fit to call you to account for those high and capital Misdemeanours wherewith you were then charged Since that the Court hath taken into consideration what you then said they are fully satisfied with their own Authority and they hold it fit you should stand satisfied with it too and they do require it that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge that is exhibited against you They do expect you should either confess or deny it If you deny it is offered in the behalf of the Kingdom to be made good against you Their Authority they do avow to the whole World that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied in and you are to rest satisfied with it and therefore you are to lose no more time but to give a positive Answer thereunto KING When I was here last 't is very true I made that Question and if it were only My own particular Case I would have satisfied My self with the Protestation I made the last time I was here against the Legality of this Court and that a King cannot be tried by any superior Jurisdiction on Earth But it is not My Case alone it is the Freedom and the Liberty of the People of England and do you pretend what
you will I stand more for their Liberties For if Power without Law may make Laws may alter the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I do not know what Subject he is in England that can be sure of his Life or any thing that he calls his own Therefore when that I came here I did expect particular Reasons to know by what Law what Authority you did proceed against Me here and therefore I am a little to seek what to say to you in this particular because the Affirmative is to be proved the Negative often is very hard to do But since I cannot perswade you to do it I shall tell you My Reasons as short as I can My Reasons why in Conscience and the Duty I owe to God first and My People next for the preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates I conceive I cannot answer this till I be satisfied of the Legality of it All proceedings against any man whatsoever Bradshaw Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that what you do is not agreeable to the proceedings of any Court of Justice You are about to enter into Argument and Dispute concerning the Authority of this Court before whom you appear as a Prisoner and are charged as an high Delinquent If you take upon you to dispute the Authority of the Court we may not do it nor will any Court give way unto it you are to submit unto it you are to give a punctual and direct Answer whether you will answer your Charge or no and what you Answer is KING Sir by your favour I do not know the Forms of Law I do know Law and Reason though I am no Lawyer profess'd but I know as much Law as any Gentleman in England and therefore under favour I do plead for the Liberties of the People of England more than you do and therefore if I should impose a belief upon any man without Reasons given for it it were unreasonable but I must tell you that that Reason that I have as thus informed I cannot yield unto it Bradshaw Sir I must interrupt you you may not be permitted You speak of Law and Reason it is fit there should be Law and Reason and there is both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament it is the Reason of the Kingdom and they are these too that have given that Law according to which you should have ruled and reigned Sir you are not to dispute our Authority you are told it again by the Court Sir it will be taken notice of that you stand in contempt of the Court and your Contempt will be recorded accordingly KING I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent but by any Law that ever I heard of all men Delinquents or what you will let Me tell you they may put in Demurrers against any proceeding as Legal and I do demand that and demand to be heard with My Reasons If you deny that you deny Reason Bradshaw Sir you have offered something to the Court I shall speak something unto you the sense of the Court. Sir neither you nor any man are permitted to dispute that point you are concluded you may not demurr to the Jurisdiction of the Court if you do I must let you know that they over-rule your Demurrer They sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them KING I deny that shew Me one Precedent Bradshaw Sir you ought not to interrupt while the Court is speaking to you This point is not to be debated by you neither will the Court permit you to do it If you offer it by way of Demurrer to the Jurisdiction of the Court they have considered of their Jurisdiction they do affirm their own Jurisdiction KING I say Sir by your favour that the Commons of England was never a Court of Judicature I would know how they came to be so Bradshaw Sir you are not to be permitted to go on in that speech and these discourses Then the Clerk of the Court read Charles Stuart King of England you have been accused on the behalf of the People of England of High Treason and other High Crimes the Court have determined that you ought to answer the same KING I will answer the same so soon as I know by what Authority you do this Bradshaw If this be all that you will say then Gentlemen you that brought the Prisoner hither take charge of him back again KING I do require that I may give in My Reasons why I do not answer and give Me time for that Bradshaw Sir 't is not for Prisoners to require KING Prisoners Sir I am not an ordinary Prisoner Bradshaw The Court hath considered of their Jurisdiction and they have already affirmed their Jurisdiction If you will not answer we shall give order to record your Default KING You never heard My Reasons yet Bradshaw Sir your Reasons are not to be heard against the Highest Jurisdiction KING Shew Me that Jurisdiction where Reason is not to be heard Bradshaw Sir we shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought you will know more of the pleasure of the Court and it may be their final Determination KING Shew Me where ever the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature of that kind Bradshaw Serjeant take away the Prisoner KING Well Sir remember that the King is not suffered to give in His Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of all His Subjects Bradshaw Sir you are not to have liberty to use this language How great a Friend you have been to the Laws and Liberties of the People let all England and the World judge KING Sir under favour it was the Liberty Freedom and Laws of the Subject that ever I took defended My self with Arms I never took up Armes against the People but for the Laws Bradshaw The Command of the Court must be obeyed No Answer will be given to the Charge KING Well Sir Then Bradshaw ordered the Default to be recorded and the Contempt of the Court and that no Answer would be given to the Charge The King was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cotton's house The Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber on Tuesday at twelve of Clock and from thence they intend to adjourn to Westminster-Hall at which time all persons concerned are to give their attendance His Majesty not being suffered to deliver His Reasons against the Jurisdiction of their pretended Court by word of mouth thought fit to leave them in writing to the more impartial judgment of Posterity as followeth HAving already made My Protestations not only against the Illegality of this pretended Court but also That no Earthly Power can justly call Me who am your King in question as a Delinquent I would not any more open My mouth upon this occasion more than to referr My self to what I have spoken were I in this Case alone
Court Your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive Answer either by denying or confession of it But my Lord he was then pleased for to demur to the Jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then over-rule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of Justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgment against him My Lord I might press your Lordship upon the whole that according to the known rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable Plea guilty or not guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryal that as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the Prisoner at the Bar has done But besides my Lord I shall humbly press your Lordship upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom they have declared That it is notorious that the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clear as Crystal and as the Sun that shines at noon day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the People of England's behalf several Witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confess it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the Cry whereof is very great for Justice and Judgment and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgment be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar. Bradshaw went on in the same strain Sir you have heard what is moved by the Counsel on the behalf of the Kingdom against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what dilatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands You were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolution upon them You were told over and over again that the Court did affirm their own Jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of Obedience nor did you acknowledge any authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court that they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withal and that they might in Justice if they pleased and according to the rules of Justice take advantage of these delays and proceed to pronounce Judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of Persons you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not Bradshaw Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a nature against you your work was that you ought to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court and to answer to your Charge Sir if you answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to answer to your Charge when you have once answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their Commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the matter that is charged upon you KING For the Charge I value it not a rush It is the Liberty of the People of England that I stand for For Me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an Example to all the People of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it You spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon Me by God to the maintenance of the Liberties of My People the same Obligation you spake of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to My People to defend as much as in Me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore until that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Charge If you will give Me time I will shew you My Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted He said By your favour you ought not to interrupt Me. How I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was in a Treaty upon the Publick Faith of the Kingdom that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Bradshaw Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. KING By your favour Sir Bradshaw Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into those discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court The Court craves it not of you but once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty KING Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of Confession or Denial of the Charge KING Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the People of England of the clearness of My Proceeding not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to Me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their
of War And Justice stands a Prisoner at the Bar. This Scene was like the Passion-Tragedy His Saviour's Person none could Act but He. Behold what Scribes were here what Pharisees What Bands of Souldiers what false Witnesses Here was a Priest and that a Chief one who Durst strike at God and His Vicegerent too Here Bradshaw Pilate there This makes them twain Pilate for Fear Bradshaw condemn'd for Gain Wretch couldst not thou be rich till Charles was dead Thou might'st have took the Crown yet spar'd the Head Th' hast justifi'd that Roman Judge He stood And washt in Water thou hast dipt in Blood And where 's the Slaughter-House White-hall must be Lately His Palace now His Calvary Great CHARLES is this Thy dying-place And where Thou wer 't our KING art Thou our MARTYR there Thence thence Thy Soul took flight and there will we Not cease to Mourn where Thou didst cease to Be. And thus blest Soul He 's gone a Star whose fall As no Eclipse proves Oecumenical That Wretch had skill to sin whose Hand did know How to behead three Kingdoms at one blow England hath lost the Influence of her KING No wonder that so backward was her Spring O dismal Day but yet how quickly gone It must be short Our SUN went down at Noon And now ye Senators is this the Thing So oft declar'd is this your Glorious King Did you by Oaths your God and Country mock Pretend a Crown and yet prepare a Block Did you that swore you 'd Mount CHARLES higher yet Intend the Scaffold for His Olivet Was this Hail Master Did you bow the knee That you might murther Him with Loyalty Alas two Deaths what Cruelty was this The Axe design'd you might have spar'd the Kiss London didst thou Thy Prince's Life betray What could Thy Sables vent no other way Or else didst thou bemoan His Cross then ah Why would'st thou be the cursed Golgotha Thou once hadst Men Plate Arms a Treasury To bind thy KING and hast thou none to free Dull beast thou should'st before thy Head did fall Have had at least thy Spirits Animal Did You Ye Nobles envy CHARLES His Crown Jove being fal'n the Puny-gods must down Your Raies of Honour are eclip'st in Night The Sun is set from whence You drew your Light Religion Veils her self and Mourns that she Is forc'd to own such horrid Villany The Church and State do shake that Building must Expect to fall whose Prop is turn'd to Dust But cease from Tears-CHARLES is most blest of men A God on Earth more than a Saint in Heav'n THE END A COLLECTION OF DECLARATIONS TREATIES AND OTHER Principal Passages concerning the DIFFERENCES BETWIXT King Charles I. AND HIS TWO HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT Clearly Manifesting The Justice of His Cause His Sincerity in Religion His Constant Endeavours for Peace Bona agere mala pati Regium est LONDON Printed MDCLXXXVII THE PREFACE TO THE NOBILITY and GENTRY OF ENGLAND I Might call this Collection A Complete Body of English Politicks as comprehending both the Duty and the Interest of all true English-men and those largely set forth in some of the most excellent Discourses that were ever written in this kind Which for their own sakes might claim some better respect from the present Age than to be cast aside as out-dated Pamphlets or at the best confusedly scattered like the Leaves of Sibylla without any care of conserving and transmitting them to Posterity The sad Experience of so many years hath taught this Nation to their cost how miserable even the greatest Subjects make themselves by incroaching upon that Soveraignty which alone can protect them from the Injuries and the Scorn of their Inferiours Here you will discover the Arts the Means and the Degrees by which those Mischiefs were attempted and atchieved Which whensoever you see repeated you will know the Plot is as well against your Privilege and the Liberty of your Countrey as the Prerogative of your Prince Indeed If it were as easie to root out the remembrance of the ill Examples as it is to remit the punishment of the Crimes by Acts of Grace and Pardon and Oblivion it were perhaps no Imprudence to let those Mischiefs sleep with their Authors and leave their Memories buried in the Ruines they have made But since many that are content to take the utmost advantage of a Pardon are yet too good to acknowledge they ever stood in need of any since most will remember only What hath been done and few trouble themselves to inquire How or Why it cannot be thought impertinent together with the Actions to represent also the true Causes that have produced such Effects and the Circumstances that attended them which may remain as Marks to warn Posterity of those Errors which have cost the present Age so dear This is here done not from the private phancies or observations of any one Person or Party but from the Publick and Authentick Writings of Both digested in such order that the Reader may compare what both sides had to say for themselves and thereby discern whose Designs and what Counsels tended most to the Peace and Welfare of the Nation A study most proper for those Ranks of men whom the Favour of Princes hath raised above the Common Multitude to this one End that they may assist Them in the administration of Their Government and in keeping Peace and good order in their Countries To have Collected all that passed in these great Contests would have been the Work of many Volumes But the most material and most necessary to carry on the Series of Times and Things which in a manner comprehend the Sum or at least shew the Result of all the rest are here disposed according to their most natural order of time under these few heads I. His Majesties Declarations concerning His Proceedings in His Four first Parliaments p. 217. II. Declarations and Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His Majesty and His Fifth Parliament p. 241. III. Declarations and Paper concerning the Treaty of Peace at Oxford MDCXLII III. p. 325. IV. A Declaration concerning the Cessation in Ireland Also Declarations and Passages of the Parliament at Oxford p. 401. V. Papers and Passages concerning the Treaty of Peace at Vxbridge p. 437. VI. Messages Propositions and Treaties for Peace With divers Resolutions and Declarations thereupon MDCXLV VI. VII VIII p. 547. HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATIONS CONCERNING HIS PROCEEDINGS IN HIS FOUR FIRST PARLIAMENTS A Declaration of the true Causes which moved His MAJESTY to Assemble and after inforced Him to Dissolve the First and Second Meetings in Parliament THE King 's most Excellent Majesty since His happy access to the Imperial Crown of this Realm having by His Royal Authority summoned and assembled two several Parliaments the first whereof was in August last by adjournment held at Oxford and there dissolved and the other begun in February last and continued until the fifteenth day of this present month of June and then to the unspeakable grief
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
chuse and to remove none till they appear to Us to have otherwise behaved themselves or shall be evicted by Legal proceedings to have done so But this Demand as unreasonable as it is is but one link of a great Chain and but the first round of that Ladder by which Our Just Ancient Regal Power is endeavoured to be fetched down to the ground For it appears plainly that it is not with the Persons now chosen but with Our chusing that you are displeased For you demand That the persons put in the places and imployments of those who shall be removed may be approved by both Houses which is so far as to some it may at the first sight appear from being less then the power of nomination that of two things of which We will never grant either We would sooner be content that you should nominate and We approve than you approve and we nominate the meer nomination being so far from being any thing that if We could do no more We would never take the pains to do that when We should only hazard those whom We esteemed to the scorn of a refusal if they happened not to be agreeable not only to the Judgment but to the Passion Interest or Humour of the present major part of either House Not to speak now of the great factions animosities and divisions which this power would introduce in both Houses between both Houses and in the several Countries for the choice of persons to be sent to that place where that power was and between the persons that were so chosen Neither is this strange Potion prescribed to Us only for once for the cure of a present pressing desperate disease but for a Diet to Us and Our Postetity It is demanded That Our Counsellors all Chief Officers both of Law and State Commanders of Forts and Castles and all Peers hereafter made as to voting without which how little is the rest be approved of that is chosen by them from time to time and rather then it should ever be left to the Crown to whom it onely doth and shall belong if any place fall void in the intermission of Parliament the major part of the approved Council is to approve them Neither is it only demanded that We should quit the Power and Right our Predecessors have had of appointing Persons in these places but for Counsellors We are to be restrained as well in the Number as in the Persons and a power must be annext to these places which their Predecessors had not And indeed if this power were past to them it were not fit We should be trusted to chuse those who were to be trusted as much as We. It is demanded That such matters as concern the publick and are proper for the High Court of Parliament Which is Our Great and Supreme Council may be debated resolved and transacted only in Parliament and not elsewhere and such as presume to do any thing to the contrary shall be reserved to the Censure and Judgment of the Parliament and such other matters of State as are proper for Our Privy Council shall be debated and concluded by such of Our Nobility though indeed if being made by Us they may not vote without the Consent of both Houses We are rather to call them your Nobility and others as shall be from time to time chosen for that place by approbation of both Houses of Parliament and that no publick Act concerning the affairs of the Kingdom which are proper for Our Privy Council may be esteemed of any validity as proceeding from the Royal Authority unless it be done by the Advice and Consent of the major part of Our Council attested under their hands Which Demands are of that nature that to grant them were in effect at once to depose both Our Self and Our Posterity These being past We may be waited on bare-headed We may have our hand kist the style of Majesty continued to Us and the Kings Authority declared by both Houses of Parliament may be still the style of your Commands We may have Swords and Maces carried before Us and please Our Self with the sight of a Crown and Scepter and yet even these Twigs would not long flourish when the Stock upon which they grew were dead but as to true and real Power We should remain but the outside but the Picture but the Sign of a King We were ever willing that Our Parliament should debate resolve and transact such matters as are proper for them as far as they are proper for them and We heartily wish that they would be as careful not to extend their Debates and Resolutions beyond what is proper to them that multitudes of things punishable and Causes determinable by the ordinary Judicatures may not be entertained in Parliament and so cause a long chargeable fruitless attendance of Our People and by degrees draw to you as well all the Causes as all the faults of Westminster-Hall and divert your proper Business That the course of Law be no ways diverted much less disturbed as was actually done by the stop of the proceedings against a Riot in Southwark by Order of the House of Commons in a time so riotous and tumultuous as much increased the danger of Popular Insolencies by such a countenance to Riots and discountenance of Law That you descend not to the leisure of recommending Lecturers to Churches nor ascend to the Legislative Power by commanding the Law not having yet commanded it that they whom you recommend be received although neither the Parson nor Bishop do approve of them and that the Refusers according to the course so much formerly complained of to have been used at the Council Table be not sent for to attend to shew cause at least that you would consider Conveniency if not Law and recommend none but who are well known to you to be Orthodox Learned and Moderate or at least such as have taken Orders and are not notorious depravers of the Book of Common-Prayer a care which appeareth by the Discourses Sermons and Persons of some recommended by you not to have been hitherto taken and it highly concerns both you in duty and the Commonwealth in the consequences that it should have been taken That neither one Estate transact what is proper for two nor two what is proper for three and consequently that contrary to Our declared will Our Forts may not be seized Our Arms may not be removed Our Moneys may not be stop'd Our legal Directions may not be countermanded by you nor We desired to countermand them Our Self nor such entrances made upon a real War against Us upon pretence of an imaginary War against you and a Chimoera of Necessity So far do you pass beyond your limits whilst you seem by your Demand to be strangely streightned within them At least we could have wish'd you would have expressed what matters you meant as fit to be transacted only in Parliament and what you meant by only in Parliament You
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
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
Parliament as to prevail with the major part remaining of both Houses how much soever that major part be the smaller in comparison of the whole to suffer that name whose Reverence by all means We desire to preserve to be so soyl'd as to be prefixed to a Paper of this unsufferable nature that tends not only to the Destruction of Our Person but to the Dissolution of this Government and of all Society If at least this Declaration which We rather see cause to hope it hath not have so much as been seen in the Houses and be not the single work of the same Omnipotent Committee to which is devolved the whole power of the Parliament and which as We understand is trusted without acquainting the Houses to break up any Man's House and take away the Arms and Mony intended to defend and feed him if they shall see cause to suspect that he meant to assist his Sovereign with them and may well be as fully and implicitly trusted to Declare as to Act whatsoever they please And though We doubt not but to their utmost they will continue that injury to Us and that violation of the Subjects Liberty and of publick Right to vex and imprison those who shall publish any of Our Answers to their Declarations and indeed whilst they affirm against all Truth and command against all Law it concerns them to take care that nothing be heard but what they say yet Our comfort is that Our Intentions and the Duty of Our Subjects are so well and so generally known to Our People that We cannot fear from whomsoever it come and though no Answer came out with it that either what is there said should be believed or what is there commanded should be obeyed Who knows not that Our Commissions for Horse and Foot were not granted out till not only our Prerogative but Our Propriety Our Goods Arms Towns Militia and Negative Voice were taken from Us and all the Kingdom commanded to be in Arms and invited to bring in Horse Plate and Mony to frame an Army against Our Command and Proclamation and till Horse were raised and mustered accordingly and then with no intention nor hath any Action in any of Our Ministers given the least suspicion of such an Intention by them to compel Our Subjects to submit to Our Commissions of Array or make use of them against the Parliament but to regain Hull held out in Rebellion against Us and to suppress all such as without Our Authority and against Our Commands should raise Forces in this Our Kingdom and levy War against Us under pretence of any Order or Ordinance of one or both Houses And such traitorous Assemblies and Marches have been the only lawful and necessary Occasions of our good Subjects which have not been so much as interrupted by any Troops of Ours And what is affirmed of the spoiling and killing them as they were so travelling under our Protection and according to Law is a most malicious Affirmation as well without truth as without instance invented at once to make Our Troops terrible and Us odious to Our People What care have We taken that by this means the power of the Sword should not come into the hands of Papists who have by Our Proclamation strictly charged that no Papist should presume to list himself either as Officer or Soldier in this Our Army having directed how he should be discovered if he did presume and suffer if he were discovered What care have We taken to avoid Combustion and Civil War offering to lay down Our Arms when they shall have lay'd down their in whom it was Treason to take them up and restored Us those things which could not without Treason as well as Injustice be forced away and kept from Us Our Arms Ships Town c. And when We might meet both Our Houses in a safe and secure place to debate freely of all the Differences in a Parliamentary way And by whose Influences these Propositions were rejected and whether the Proposer or Rejecters were most careful to avoid this Ruine and Desolation of the Kingdom We leave all the World to judge and whether they who divert the Men and Mony collected for the relief of Distressed Ireland to raise Forces against their Prince who asks them nothing but what is Legal nor will deny them any thing that is do not joyn with the Popish and Jesuitical Faction in the bloody Massacre of many Thousand Protestants in that miserable Kingdom We propose likewise to every Man's judgment whether the declaring those to be Traitors who execute Our Commission of Array issued in so many Kings Reigns agreed upon by Parliament and there yielded to by the King to be settled as now it is as a matter of great grace and since that time which was in the 5 Hen. IV. in no Parliament complained of whilst Our good Subjects are vexed and imprisoned not only for resisting but for humbly petitioning so as may seem but to insinuate something against their most illegal Commands concerning the Militia To which power of commanding no Title can be made by any Statute or any Precedent nor can We ever find by search nor obtain to be told what those Fundamental Laws are by which it is pretended so deep those Foundations are laid beyond all means of discovery and the declaring that those who raise Men by virtue of Our Command and Commission the only Legal way traitorously and rebelliously levy War against the King and ordaining it to be lawful for all Our Subjects by force of Arms to resist them and their Accomplices and the raising of Forces by Authority of Parliament that is by the remaining part of both Houses never in the most outragious times before attempted and commanding several persons whom they call Lieutenants to lead and giving them power to transport from one County to another the Forces of several of Our Counties against them and to kill and slay all such as by force shall oppose them Our Self not excepted commanding all Our Officers and Subjects to be assisting to them and undertaking to secure them for so doing by the Power and Authority of Parliament which is first to allow and next to command and then to pardon Treason be not to have already subverted as much as in them lies the Liberty of the Subject the Law of the Land and altered the Ancient Government of the Kingdom leaving Our Subjects without all Rule to walk by when the most clear Laws cannot direct and secure them and they see all those Ancient bounds passed over which were ever as much known to be the Duty of both Houses to observe as it was evident that there were and that it was necessary that there should be Two Houses of Parliament and at once behold the Law which is to defend and protect the Subject and Us Who are to protect and defend the Law need Defence and Protection We doubt not therefore but all Our good Subjects will come in
direction of the House of Commons till this Parliament it being the first appeal to the People and of a dangerous consequence to Parliaments themselves But as in other things neither Our Desires or Commands have been considered without giving Us leisure to answer either the one or the other special direction is given for the printing that Remonstrance and equal care taken for the publishing it in all places and parts of the Kingdom Having taken this care for the shaking and perplexing the minds of all men the next work was to get such a Power into their hands as might govern and dispose of those Affections To this purpose they had from the beginning of the Parliament by reason of some complaints against the immoderate exercise of the authority of the Lieutenants and their Deputies in raising Coat and Conduct-money and some excesses in them had several debates in the diminution of the Office it self but still grounded upon the illegal Pressures used by them and upon some words in the Commission it self which though of long usage in very happy days were conceived not agreeable to the Law but they were so far from supposing the Office it self or Commission to be illegal that both Houses of Parliament had recommended two Lords to Us and desired Our Commission to make them Lords Lieutenants of Yorkshire and Dorsetshire the only end seeming then to be that good and approved men should be in those imployments and trusts But at last they resolved against the Office it self and would think of some other way to provide for the safety of the Kingdom in that point and in this they had a double end First to fright all persons Members of both Houses who had been Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants to comply with them in their Votes lest they should be called in question for the execution of those Offices a Stratagem they had found to engage many persons to their Opinions as Sheriffs for the collecting Ship-money and all other persons who in truth were or might be made obnoxious to their Power then that by unsettling that whole business of the Militia throughout the Kingdom they might the more easily bring in their own power of governing it as they have since endeavoured to do And thereupon they presumed to bring in such a Bill into the House of Commons to place a General at Land and an Admiral at Sea by Act of Parliament with such Power and Authority over the Lives and Fortunes of all Our Subjects as should be liable to no control nor to be questioned by any Superintendent hand with a pre-pardon for whatsoever they should do under colour of those Offices either of which Officers should have been a much greater Man than Our Self and commanded in Our Kingdom above Us the matter of which Bill to shew their Design is since digested into their new Generals Commission and the pretended Ordinance to the Earl of Warwick And all this was then pretended to be a matter of absolute Necessity for the Preservation of Us and Our Kingdom but at that time it could procure no other credit than to be suffered to rest in the House as an evidence of the liberty might be used in the preferring of Bills They had by this time taken all the licence at their private Cabals to undervalue and vilifie Our Person and Our Power and in publick to give way and countenance to any Scandals upon Us. Letters from the Mayor of Plymouth that the Rebels in Ireland call themselves The Queen's Army and pretend the King's Authority for what they do and store of such Discourses upon such Evidence is every week printed in the Journals of the House which without doubt must be of great authority with Our People who must conceive such Informations to be not only fully and clearly proved but to be accepted and published upon very weighty reasons above the consideration of Our Honour and Safety And now they were to examine what notable credit their Remonstrance and their other general Infusions had got with the People and how ready they would be upon any occasions to venture themselves at their direction They had made themselves so terrible in the House of Commons that by their Threats and their Promises of Places and Preferments to several Men and by the absence of many they had gotten the major part But in the House of Lords their power was not the same that must be wrought another way yet there they had used all means to prevail upon the hopes and fears of such who they thought might that way be dealt with witness among many other things of the same nature that insolent Speech of Mr. Pym to the Earl of Dover That if he looked for any Preferment he must comply with them in their ways and not hope to have it by serving Vs. Shortly after their coming together upon the Recess a new Bill was preferred in the House of Commons for the taking away of the Votes of Bishops out of the House of Peers which being once rejected before ought not by the Course and Order of Parliament to have been admitted again the same Session but that was easily over-ruled and in the House of Commons it did pass many good Man the more willingly concurring therein upon hope that that Bill being once consented to the Fury of that Faction which with so great Violence pursued an absolute Destruction of the Ecclesiastical Government would be abated or that Rage being discerned they would lose that strength which supported them But the Lords quickly found that the Ring-leaders of that Faction had not Ingenuity enough to be compounded with and therefore with them it was not like to find so easie a passage Now their resort was to the People whom upon several occasions they had trained down to Westminster in great multitudes with Swords and Clubs and had often sent for them when any debate was like to be carried against them in either House the particulars whereof We are ready to prove Every Man will conceive We were in a great streight to find Our Self so much disappointed of that return the consciousness of Our own Merit and the many glorious Professions made by both Houses bade Us to expect We saw the Laws absolutely trampled under feet and a Design laid to ruin the Government of the Kingdom and to destroy Us and Our Posterity We saw this Design carried by a few Men whose Hatred and Malice to Our Person We found implacable and their Contempt of Us and Our Authority so visible and notorious that they forbore not to express it in their mention of Us in all companies We saw their Power and Interest to be so great that they were able to mis-lead very many honest Men and to countenance their actions under the name of both Houses of Parliament We were resolved that nothing they should do within those walls should provoke Us till time and the experience good Men should have of them should discover their purposes
a yielding and submission we know not what is left to Treat upon These things are too apparent to every ordinary understanding And yet we are not forward to apprehend the Scorn of that Letter or take it for a Denial of a Treaty but being still sollicitous for that happy Peace which alone could redeem this Kingdom from Ruine we resolved to try another way and for avoiding Delay or Cavil about Names or Titles or descants upon words to forbear writing and humbly besought His Majesty to send Messengers with Instructions to desire a Treaty for Peace Who was pleased to name Mr. Richard Fanshaw and Mr. Thomas Offly Gentlemen of clear Repute and Integrity and to avoid their danger in repairing to Westminster at our desire commanded the Earl of Forth His General to write to theirs for a safe Conduct for those two Messengers for such is our Condition at present that a free-born Subject sent upon the Kings Message cannot but with such leave repair to London or Westminster without danger of his Life The Letter for the safe Conduct was as followeth My Lord I Cannot so willingly write to you in any business as in that of Peace the Endeavour thereof being the principal Duty of those who are trusted in places of our Commands especially when the Blood that is spilt is of persons under the same Allegiance of the same Country and Religion His Majesty continuing constant in His pious and fervent desires of a happy end to these bloody Distractions I do hereby desire your Lordship to send me a safe Conduct to and from Westminster for Mr. Richard Fanshaw and Mr. Tho Offly to be sent by His Majesty concerning a Treaty for Peace I rest Your Lordships humble Servant Forth To this was returned a Letter directed to the Earl of Forth in these words viz. My Lord YOV shew your Nobleness in declaring your willingness to write to me in any business as of that of Peace and I joyn with you in the same opinion that it ought to be a principal Duty of those who are trusted in places of our Command and therefore whensoever I shall receive any directions to those who have intrusted me I shall use my best endeavours and when you shall send for a safe Conduct for those Gentlemen mentioned in your Letter from His Majesty to the Houses of Parliament I shall with all cheerfulness shew my willingness to further any way that may produce that Happiness that all honest Men pray for which is a true understanding between His Majesty and His faithful and only Council the Parliament Your Lordships humble Servant Essex Essex-House 19. Feb. 1643. That this doth neither grant a safe Conduct nor give any direct Answer to the Earl of Forth 's Request every ordinary Eye may see and yet such Requests amongst Generals are rarely denied and we may easily thereby discern how fearful they at Westminster are lest the poor distressed People of this Kingdom should by the advantage of a Treaty and free debate of the present Difference see how grossly they had been deceived and misled and so obtain an end of their Miseries for otherwise who could have believed that when these Differences arose and were continued for want of a free Convention in Parliament and that a main end of the Treaty was to resolve how we according to Our Duty and the Trust reposed in us by our Countries might with them freely debate and advise His Majesty in those things that concerned the maintenance of our Religion Parliament-Privileges the Kings Rights and the Subjects Liberty and Property that this Letter should tell us that the Party we are to Treat withal is the Kings only Council excluding all others not only our selves called by the same Authority to Council as they were but His Privy-Council also and Council at Law so that we could have no hopes of a Treaty unless we should first agree that they are the Parliament and the Kings only Council whereby they that are parties would bccome the only Judges of all things in question which would be a Submission and not a Treaty Having received these frivolous delays which we might have interpreted absolute denials of any Treaty of Peace we yet resolved not to give over our endeavours for that which so much concerned the good of our Country and the welfare of all Professors of the true Protestant Religion but by our humble and earnest desires to his Majesty prevailed with Him to write His Royal Letters and once more desire a Treaty for Peace though it had been so often formerly rejected and to avoid all colour of Exception to direct it To the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Westminster which was done and enclosed in a Letter from the Earl of Forth to their General A Copy of both which Letters hereafter follows My Lord I Have received your Letter of the 19 th of this Month which according to my Duty I shewed to His Majesty Who observing in it your expressions concerning Peace that whensoever you shall receive any directions to those that have entrusted you you shall use your best endeavours is graciously pleased to send this enclosed which is desired may be delivered according to the directions Directed to the Earl of Essex Subscribed by the Earl of Forth C. R. OVT of Our most tender and pious sense of the sad and bleeding condition of this Our Kingdom and Our unwearied desires to apply all Remedies which by the blessing of Almighty God may recover it from an utter Ruine by the Advice of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford We do propound and desire That a convenient number of fit Person may be appointed and authorized by you to meet with all convenient speed at such Place as you shall nominate with an equal number of fit Persons whom We shall appoint and authorize to Treat of the ways and means to settle the present Distractions of this Our Kingdom and to procure a happy Peace and particularly how all the Members of both Houses may securely meet in a full and free Convention of Parliament there to Treat consult and agree upon such things as may conduce to the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion with due consideration to all just and reasonable ease of tender Consciences to the settling and maintaining of Our just Rights and Privileges of the Rights and Privileges of Parliament the Laws of the Land the Liberty and Property of the Subject and all other Expedients that may conduce to that blessed end of a firm and lasting Peace both in Church and State and a perfect understanding betwixt Vs and Our People wherein no Endeavours or Concurrence of Ours shall be wanting And God direct your hearts in the ways of Peace Given at Our Court at Oxford the third day of March 1643. Superscribed To the Lords and Commons of Parliament Assembled at Westminster We now appeal to all the World what could more have been done
take in those of another Kingdom to their Resolutions who are not bound by our Laws But what violation soever they make of the Laws they are forward to put the King in mind of His Duty and therefore tell Him That He is sworn to maintain the Laws as they are sworn to their Allegiance to Him these Obligations being reciprocal It is true in some sense that the Oath of the King and Subjects is reciprocal that is each is bound to perform what they swear the King as well as the Subjects but he that will well weigh their Letter and make one part have connexion with the other and examine that part of their Covenant whereby they swear they will defend the Kings Person and Authority no further or otherwise than in preservation of their Religion and Liberties may easily find another construction viz. That the Subjects Allegiance is no longer due than the King performs His Duty nay no longer than He in their opinion observes His Duty whereof they themselves must be Judges and if He fail in His Duty they may take up Arms against Him A Principle which as it is utterly destructive to all Government so we believe they themselves dare not plainly avow it lest as they now make use of it against the King so the People finding their failure of Duty and breach of Trust should hereafter practise it by taking up Arms against them and so shake of that yoak of Tyranny imposed by their fellow Subjects which lies so heavy upon them It were well as they still press upon the King maintenance of the Laws they would also know that their Obligation to observe the same is reciprocal and while they here resolve to defend and preserve the full Power of this Parliament which in their sense can be no other than the Power they have exercised this Parliament they would take notice that they are therein so far from observation of the Laws that they desperately resolve an utter subversion of them For what can more tend to the destruction of the Laws than to usurp a Power to themselves without the King and against His will to raise Arms to attribute to their Orders or pretended Ordinances the power of Laws and Statutes to inforce Contributions Loans and Taxes of all sorts from the Subject to imprison without cause shewed and then prohibit Writs of Habeas Corpus for their enlargement to lay Excises upon all Commodities to command and dispose of the Lives and Estates of the free-born Subjects of this Kingdom at their pleasure to impose Tonnage and Poundage contrary to the Law declared in the late Act for Tonnage and Poundage and all this done and justified as by a legal civil Power founded and inherent in them All which are manifest breaches of the Petition of Right and Magna Charta the great Evidence of the Liberties of England which Charter by express words binds them and us though assembled in Parliament as well as the King And though it be not now as heretofore it hath been taken by solemn Oath on the Peoples part as well as on the Kings nor a Curse as heretofore pronounced on the Violators yet they having taken a Protestation to maintain the Laws and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject and inclusively that Charter let them take heed whilst they make use of this their pretended Power to the destruction of the Law lest a Curse fall upon them and upon their Posterity God knoweth and it is too certain a truth that our selves and many other good Subjects in this Kindom even under the Power of the Kings Army have suffered exceedingly in Liberty and Estates during this present Rebellion by many heavy Charges the sad consideration whereof makes our hearts bleed because we can see no way for relief so long as this unnatural Rebellion continues But as these things were first practised by them and thereby necessitated upon the Kings Army so it was never yet pretended that they were done by virtue of a Law but either by Consent or by the unhappy and unavoidable exigences of War and to expire with the present Rebellion which God in mercy hasten For our parts we have the inward comfort of our own Consciences witnessing with us that we have improved all opportunities and advantages for the restoring of this Kingdom to its former Peace and we must witness for His Majesty His most hearty desires thereof And though both His Majesty and our endeavours therein have been made frustrate yet God in his great goodness hath raised up our spirits not to desert our Religion our King our Laws our Lives the Liberties of us English free-born Subjects and by God's assistance and His Majesty's concurrence we do resolve to unite our selves as one Man and cheerfully adventure our Lives and Estates for the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion of the Church of England of which we profess our selves to be for the defence of the Kings Person and Rights of His Crown for the regaining and maintaining the Rights and Privileges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects Person and Property of his Estate according to the known Laws of the Land to repel those of the Stotish Nation that have in a warlike manner entred this Realm and to reduce the Subjects thereof now in Rebellion to the Kings Obedience And we doubt not but the same God will enlighten the eyes of the poor deceived People of this Land like true-hearted honest English-Men to joyn unanimously with us in so just and pious a work And the God of Heaven prosper us according to the goodness of the Cause we have in hand The Names of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford who did subscribe the Letter to the Earl of Essex dated January 27. 1643. CHARLES P. YORK CUMBERLAND Ed. Littleton C. S. Fra. Cottington D. Richmond M. Hartford E. Lindsey E. Dorset E. Shrewsbury E. Bath E. Southampton E. Leicester E. Northampton E. Devonshire E. Carlisle E. Bristol E. Berkshire E. Cleveland E. Rivers E. Dover E. Peterburgh E. Kingston E. Newport E. Portland V. Conway L. Digby L. Mowbray and Maltravers L. Wentworth L. Cromwell L. Rich. L. Paget L. Chandois L. Howard of Charleton L. Lovelace L. Savile L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Percy L. Wilmott L. Leigh L. Hatton L. Jermyn L. Carrington JOhn Fettiplace Esq Sir Alex. Denton Sir John Packington Sir Tho. Smith F. Gamul Esq Jo. Harris Esq Joseph Jane Esq Rich. Edgcombe Esq Jonathan Rashleigh Esq G. Fane Esq P. Edgcombe Esq Will. Glanvill Esq Sir Ro. Holborne Sir Ra. Sydenham Fra. Godolphin Esq Geo. Parry D. of Law Amb. Manaton Esq Ri. Vivian Esq Jo. Polewheele Esq John Arundell Esq Tho. Lower Esq Sir Edw. Hide Will. Allestree Esq Sir Geo. Stonehouse Ed. Seymour Esq Peter Sainthill Esq Sir Will. Poole Roger Matthew Esq Ri. Arundell Esq Ro. Walker Esq Giles Strangwaies Esq Sir John Strangwaies Sir Tho. Hele. Sir Ger. Naper Sam. Turner
lastly after having lived so many years in the most glorious and most unblemished Church of Christendom the total defacing and pulling down the whole Fabrick of it censuring and reproaching the Doctrine and destroying the Discipline and as if we were cast ashore in some uninhabited Climate where the Elements of Christianity were not known the calling without the least shadow or colour of Law or Lawful Authority against His Majesty's express Consent manifestly against the Statute of 25 th year of King Henry the Eighth an assembly of Divines composed of some Noblemen Gentlemen and Ministers all under the style of Godly and Learned Divines most of which are not otherwise known than by their Schism and Separation from that Church in which they were born and to which they have subscribed and these Men now must new-make and mould the Religion by which we must all be saved God in his good time we hope will vindicate his own Cause and repair the breaches which have been lately made For the Laws of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject so speciously urged and pretended to be the end of those who have disturbed our Peace we need say little every place and every person is an ample evidence and testimony of the bold and avowed violation of either The Charter of our Liberties Magna Charta so industriously and Religiously preserved by our Ancestors and above Thirty several times confirmed in Parliament that Rampire and Bulwark of all the precious Privileges and Immunities which the Subjects of this Kingdom could boast of and which distinguishes them from all the Subjects of Christendom is levelled and trampled under foot scorned despised and superseded by Votes and Orders Men of all sorts Clergy and Laity imprisoned without the least charge that by the Law is called a Crime and their Estates are sequestred by Persons of whom the Law can take no notice Committees made by Committees Rob Banish and Imprison the Lords and Commons of England Men committed by Persons of no Authority for no cause to Prison have by Habeas Corpus the good old Remedy and Security for our Liberty been brought to the Kings Bench and by command of those who first committed them remanded and Commands given to the Judges that they should grant no Habeas Corpus which they were sworn to grant to any Persons committed by them or by those to whom they grant Authority to commit which themselves have not Power to do Neither can we pass over the motion made by Mr. Rigby a Member of the House of Commons to transport those Lords and Gentlemen who were Prisoners and by them accounted Malignants to be sold as Slaves to Argiers or sent to the new Plantation in the West Indies urged the second time with much earnestness because the Proposer had contracted with two Merchants to that purpose the which though it took no effect at that time may awaken those who have observed so many things to pass and be ordered long after they have been once or twice denied and rejected And who sees the new and inhumane way of imprisoning Persons of Quality under Decks on Ship-board by which cruel usage many of our Country-men have been murthered may have reason to fear they may be hereafter carried a longer voyage than is yet avowed The twentieth part of our Estates is at once taken and if we are not willing to obey that Order the other Nineteen are taken from us as Malignants a term unknown and undefined and yet crime enough to forfeit our Lives and all that we have Our fellow-Subjects have been executed in cold blood for doing that which by the Laws of God and Man they were bound to do and after their Murther their Estates seized and their Wives and Children exposed to Misery and Famine Laws made and Penalties imposed by Laws this Parliament are suspended dispensed withal and those things done by Order against which those Laws were made And that there may be no face of Justice over the Land the Judges are prohibited to ride their Circuits for the administration of that Justice which the King owes His People and they are bound to execute And after all this and after the merciless shedding so much English Blood after the expending so much Money much of which was given for relief of our poor Protestant Brethren of Ireland and diverted for the improving the Distractions at home after the transportation of such vast sums of Money and great Treasure into Foreign parts to the unspeakable impoverishing this Poor Kingdom to make our Misery lasting and our Confusion compleat a Foreign Enemy is invited and brought into the Bowels of this Kingdom to drink our blood to divide our Possession to give us new Laws and to Rule over us And the better to make way to those horrid Impositions by confounding and making void all civil Rights and Proprieties and the better preparing the Kingdom to be shared by Strangers a New Great Seal the special Ensign of Monarchy and the only way by which Justice is derived and distributed to the People is counterfeited and used albeit it be by the express letter of the Statute of the 25 th year of King Edward the Third declared to be High Treason Having now made this clear plain Narration to the Kingdom the truth and particulars whereof are known to most Men that when Posterity shall find our names in the Records of these times as Members trusted by our Country in that great Council by whose Authority and Power the present Alteration and Distraction seems to be wrought it may likewise see how far we have been and are from consenting to these desperate and fatal Innovations we cannot rest satisfied without Declaring and Publishing to all our fellow-Subjects and to the whole World that all our Intentions and Actions have been are and shall be directed to the defence of His Majesty's Person and just Rights the preservation of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom established by Law That as we do with all humility to God Almighty and as a great Blessing from him acknowledge His Majesty's happy and Religious Reign and Government over this Kingdom and especially the excellent Laws and Statutes made in His time and particularly those in this Parliament so we do with all duty and submission Declare That His Majesty is the only Supream Governour of this Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal That His Natural Person is not to be divided from His Kingly Office but that our natural Allegiance and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy do bind us and all His other Subjects to Loyalty and Allegiance to His Natural Person That His Majesty's Negative Voice without which Monarchy is dissolved is an inherent Right of His Crown and that no Orders of one or both Houses of Parliament without His Majesty's express Consent can make a Law to bind the Subjects either in their Property or Liberty That we do from our Souls abhor
have therein received from His Majesty we conceive it not proper for us to communicate to your Lordships nor have we any warrant so to do Their Reply 17. Feb. VVE again desire of your Lordships to know whether you be limited by any Instructions or Directions what to grant or deny unto us concerning the Militia and that we may have a sight of such Instructions or Directions and which we conceive your Lordships in Justice and Reason cannot deny seeing by your Papers and Debates your insisted that it was just and reasonable for us to let you know whether we had any power by our Instructions to consent to a limitation of Time which we did accordingly And your Lordships seventh Paper this day delivered gives no Answer or satisfaction to our former Demand herein The King's Commissioners Answer 17. Feb. VVE conceive it was just and reasonable for us to demand of your Lordships whether you had power by your Instructions to consent to a limitation of Time concerning the Militia because the Time is left indefinite and not expressed in the Propositions And your Lordships Commission which gives you power to Treat relating to Instructions they are thereby part of your Power and yet your Lordships to that our Demand have given no other Answer than That by your Instructions you were to insist to have the Time unlimited but have not answered whether you had power to consent to a limitation of Time And we desire your Lordships to remember that formerly upon our desire to see your Instructions that thereby we might see what Power was granted to you by your Paper of the last of January your Lordships did answer it was that for which you had no warrant and it appearing to your Lordships that our Commission hath no reference to Instructions we conceive that your Lordships cannot expect any other Answer than we have already given to your Lordships Demand touching any Instructions or Directions to us what to deny or consent to grant in the Militia assuring your Lordships that we shall not deny but willingly consent to grant whatsoever shall be therein requisite for a full security for observing the Articles of the Treaty or otherwise agreeable to Justice or Reason Touching the Power which should be given to the Commissioners for the Militia The King's Commissioners Paper 14. Feb. VVE desire to know what Authority the Commissioners nominated by the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland are to have in the Militia of this Kingdom and what influence the Orders and Advice from the Estates of the Parliament there shall have upon this Kingdom and how far the same is to be consented or submitted to here Their Answer 14. Feb. YOur Lordships Desire expressed in your second Paper this day may be fully satisfied by the Propositions concerning the Militia where the Authority of the Commissioners to be nominated is clearly expressed both in cases of several and of joynt concernment of the Kingdoms and if upon perusal thereof any Doubts shall occur to your Lordships we are ready by Conference to clear the same The King's Commissioners Paper 15. Feb. VVE do not conceive that the Authority of the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and in both Kingdoms is clearly expressed in your Lordships Propositions and therefore we desire to be informed whether your Lordships intend that the Commissioners of Scotland shall have any Power in the setling of all Forces by Sea and Land in this Kingdom and what Authority they shall have Their Paper 15. Feb. WE do conceive that the Authority of the Commissions of both Kingdoms and in both Kingdoms is clearly expressed in our Propositions by which it doth appear how they are to act as several or as joynt Commissioners And if your Lordships shall propound any Objections against our Propositions concerning the Militia of both Kingdoms we are ready upon Conference to give your Lordships satisfaction The King's Commissioners Paper 15. Feb. WE desire to know whether in that part of the Proposition wherein the Commissioners of both Kingdoms are appointed to meet as a joynt Committee and to receive Instructions in the Intervals of Parliament from the Commissioners for the preservation of the publick Peace your Lordships mean the Commissioners to be nominated according to these Propositions or the Commissioners intended by the Act of Pacification or what other Commissioners and what Jurisdiction you intend the said Commissioners of both Kingdoms shall have by the power given them to hear and determine all differences that may occasion the breach of the Articles of the Peace according to the Treaty and by what Law they shall proceed to hear and determine the same Their Answer 15. Feb. WE intend that the Commissioners are to be nominated according to the Propositions and are to proceed in such manner as is therein expressed and if your Lordships shall make any Objections hereupon we are ready by Conference to give you satisfaction Their further Answer 15. Feb. FOR further answer to your Lorships second Paper we conceive that the matter of the Jurisdiction to be exercised by the Commissioners is expressed in the Proposition and for the manner of exercising that Jurisdiction and by what Law they shall proceed to hear and determine the same are to be settled by the two Houses of the Parliament of England and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively The King's Commissioners Paper 15. Feb. VVE desire to receive a perfect and full Answer from your Lordships to our first and * second Papers delivered by us this morning to your Lordships and whether your Lordships intend that the Commissioners of Scotland shall have any Power and Authority in the settling of all Forces by Sea and Land in this Kingdom and what Authority they shall have and whether the Advice 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 these Propositions otherwise than as the said Advice 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 Peace and by what Law or Rule they shall proceed try and judge in the hearing and determining the same And it is most necessary for us to desire satisfaction from your Lordships to these particulars in writing since the Answer we shall give to your Lordships upon so much of your Propositions will very much depend upon our clear understanding your Lordships in these particulars it being agreed between us that nothing shall be binding or taken as agreed upon but what shall be in writing on either part Their Answer 17. Feb. VVE conceive there is a full Answer already given by us in several Papers of the 14. of this instant to the former parts of your Paper delivered in on the 15. day and to
no Answer to us whether any Commission be now on foot or other Authority given by his Majesty for any Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland other then that which determines in March next nor to our desire that no Cessation of Arms or Peace in Ireland may be Treated upon or concluded without consent of both Houses of the Parliament of England nor do we understand why your Lordships should delay your Answer herein till the Peace in England be concluded since it hath been so clearly manifested to your Lordships by the true meaning of the Act passed by His Majesty this Parliament that His Majesty can make no Peace nor Cessation without the Consent of the two Houses and that your Lordships satisfactory Answer to this and our other Demands concerning Ireland will much conduce to the settling the Peace of this Kingdom We therefore again desire your Lordships full and clear Answer to the particulars expressed in our sixth and seventh Papers yesterday delivered to your Lordships The King's Commissioners Answer 20. Febr. VVE do not hold our selves any ways obliged to answer your Lordships Demand whether any Commission be on foot or other Authority from His Majesty for a Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland that Question not arising upon any Propositions on His Majesties part yet for your Lordships satisfaction we do again assure you we do not know there is any Peace or Cessation made there other than that which determines in March next But what Commission the Marquess of Ormond as Lievtenant of Ireland or General of the Forces there hath to that purpose we do not know and therefore cannot inform your Lordships And as to the other particulars in that Paper we do refer our selves to the Answers formerly given in to your Lordships Demands touching that Subject with this that we do conceive it to be most clear that His Majesty is in no wise restrained by express words or by the meaning of any Act made this Parliament from making a Peace or Cessation in Ireland without the consent of the two Houses Their Paper 19. Feb. THere being but three days left to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion the Militia and for Ireland and for that your Lordships have given no satisfactory Answers to our Demands concerning them we therefore now desire to confer with your Lordships how to dispose of the three days yet remaining that we may receive your Lordships full and clear Answers thereunto The King's Commissioners Answer 19. February VVE see no cause why your Lordships should think our Answers upon the Propositions for Religion and the Militia were not satisfactory And for that of Ireland we have received many Papers from your Lordships concerning that business besides the Propositions themselves to all which we doubt not to give a full and clear Answer to your Lordships to morrow being the time assigned and the last day of the Treaty upon that Subject After we shall be ready to confer with your Lordships of disposing the remainder of the time Accordingly after the before-mentioned Demands and Answer thereunto of the 19. of February the King's Commissioners in Answer to theirs of the 18. of February n. 149. delivered in this Paper 20. February VVE have already told your Lordships how far we are from being satisfied by what you have alledged against His Majesties Power to make a Cessation with the Rebels in Ireland neither have your Lordships in any degree answered the important Reasons which induced his Majesty so to do it being very evident that by the Cessation there His Majesties Protestant Subjects have been preserved and subsisted which without it they could not have done the two Houses forbearing to send any relief or supply to them and His Majesty not being able And we desire your Lordships to consider how impossible it was whilst the War continued in England with such fierceness and animosity by Arms to reduce the Kingdom of Ireland to His Majesties Obedience and therefore His Majesty had great reason to preserve that by a Cessation which he could not reduce by a War And we are most confident that the Necessities which are not offered as excuses for but were the real grounds of the Cessation were very visible to all those in that Kingdom whose Advices His Majesty ought in reason to follow and whose Interests were most concerned and would not have given such Advice if any other way could have been found out to preserve them And we have been credibly informed that the Committee sent into Ireland which His Majesty never understood to be sent thither to supply the Necessities but to observe the Actions of His Majesties Ministers there having in their Journey thither signed Warrants in their own names to apprehend the Persons of Peers of this Realm and Persons of His Majesties Privy Council were never discountenanced there for His Majesties directions that Persons who were not of His Privy Council there should not be present at those Councils cannot be interpreted a discountenance to them in any thing they ought to do And we are most assured that His Majesty sent no Message or Letter to divert the course of the Officers subscribing for Land in satisfaction of their Arrears but the Soldiers were meerly discouraged from the same by discerning that for want of Supplies they should not be able to go on with that War And we do assure your Lordships that His Majesty doth not believe that the Sums of Money raised for Ireland which your Lordships do admit to have been made use of by both Houses of Parliament otherwise then was appointed are yet satisfied in any proportion the greatestpart of the Money raised upon the Bill for 400000 l. and of the Moneys raised upon the charitable Collections as well as the Adventurers Moneys being imployed upon the War here and if the same were since satisfied it doth no ways excuse the diverting of them when in the mean time that Kingdom suffered by that diversion and that the fear that other Moneys so raised might likewise be misimployed was a great reason amongst others that made His Majesty not consent to that Bill mentioned by your Lordships And for the Regiments of Horse and Foot which your Lordships in your Paper of the 18. of this Month say were designed for Ireland though they were imployed otherwise because a Commission could not be obtained for the Lord Wharton who was to command those Forces it is well known that those Forces were raised before His Majesties Commission was so much as desired and then the Commission that was desired should have been independent upon His Majesties Lieutenant of that Kingdom and therefore His Majesty had great reason not to consent to such a Commission and so the damages of keeping those six Pinnaces and the 1000 Land-Forces if any such were proceeded not from any default of His Majesty And for the Provisions seized by His Majesties Forces it is notorious that they were seized in the way
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
being to that purpose Fourthly it is agreed That there shall be levied and furnished by the Kingdom of England Ten Troops of sufficient and well armed Horse-men consisting of sixty in a Troop besides the Officers and that there shall be a Commissary General a Serjeant-Major and a Quarter-master appointed over them which shall joyn and remain with the Body of the Scotish Foot and shall receive and obey the Orders and Instructions of the Commanders of the Scotish Army and that there shall be presently advanced the sum of Twelve hundred Pounds sterling for the levying of a Troop of one hundred Horsemen in Scotland besides the Officers to be a Guard to the General of the Scotish Army Fifthly it is agreed That the Commanders and Soldiers of the Scotish Army shall have such Pay respectively as the Commanders and Soldiers of the English Army have according to a List presently agreed upon by the Commissioners of both Kingdoms as also that the Officers of that Army shall have such allowance for their Wagons as is contained in the said List Sixthly it is agreed That the Towns and Castle of Carickfergus and Colrane shall be put into the hands of the Scotish Army to be places for their Magazines and Garrisons and to serve them for Retreat upon occasion and that the Magistrates and Inhabitants thereof shall be ordained to carry themselves to the Commanders of the said Army as is fitting and ordinary in such Cases and that the said Towns and Castle shall remain in the Scots hands until the War shall end or that they shall be discharged of that service Like as the Commissioners for the Kingdom of Scotland do promise in the Publick Faith of that Kingdom to re-deliver the said Towns and Castle to any having Commission from the King and Parliament of England as also the Commissioners for the Kingdom of England do promise in the name and on the Publick Faith of that Kingdom that Payment shall be made to the Kingdom of Scotland and their Army of all dues that shall arise upon this present Treaty and that when the Scotish Army imployed in the service of Ireland shall be discharged they shall be disbanded by Regiments and no lesser proportions and so many of them payed off as shall be disbanded and the residue kept in pay till they be disbanded Seventhly it is agreed That the Towns of Carick fergus and Colrane shall by the Kingdom of England be with all expedition provided with Victuals necessary for Soldiers either in Garrisons or Expeditions according to a List to be agreed on and subscribed by the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and that such quantities thereof as the Scotish Army shall have occasion to use shall be sold unto them and bought by them at the several Prices contained in the aforesaid List and also that the said Towns of Carickfergus and Colrane shall be provided by the Kingdom of England with Powder Ball Match and other Ammunition for the service of the said Army conform to the particular List to be condescended unto by both Commissioners and that Carts and Waggons shall be provided by the Kingdom of England for carrying of Ammunition for the use of the said Army in Marches as also that there shall be Gun-Smiths Carpenters and one or two Enginers appointed to attend the Army and that hand-Mills shall be provided to serve the Companies in Marches Eighthly it is agreed That the Kingdom of England shall deposite two thousand Pounds English Money in the hands of any to be appointed by the Scotish Commissioners to be disbursed upon accompt by warrant of the General of their Army upon Fortifications Intelligences and other Incidents so that there be not above the sum of two thousand Pounds in a year imprested upon these occasions without particular and special Warrant from the Parliament of England as also that there shall be deposited Two thousand and five hundred Pounds English to be disbursed upon Accompt for the providing of a thousand Horses for the Garriage of the Artillery the Baggage and Victual of their Army and for Dragooners upon occasion and likewise that the Scotish Army during the time of the War shall have power to take up such Horses in the Country as be necessary for the uses aforesaid Ninthly it is agreed That the Inhabitants of the Towns and Villages in the Province of Vlster and in any other Province of Ireland where the Scotish Army shall be by it self for the time shall receive Orders from the Scotish Commanders and shall bring in Victuals for Money in an orderly way as shall be directed by them with Provision of Oats Hay and Straw and such other Necessaries and that the Countrey People shall rise and concur with the Scotish Troops when the Commanders thereof shall find it for the good of the Service and shall receive Orders and Directions from the said Commanders of the Scotish Army Tenthly it is agreed That the said Ten thousand Men to be sent out of the Kingdom of Scotland shall go in the way and order of an Army under their own General and subaltern Officers and the Province of Vlster is appointed unto them wherein they shall first prosecute the War as in their Judgment they shall think most expedient for the Honour of the King and Crown of England and that the Commanders of the said Army shall have power to give Conditions to Towns Castles and Persons which shall render and submit themselves as shall be most expedient for the Service according to the course of War Provided no Toleration of the Popish Religion be granted nor any condition made touching or concerning any of the Rebels Lands and that the Commanders of the Scotish Army shall be answerable for their whole deportment and proceedings to His Majesty and the two Houses of the Parliament of England only but shall from time to time give an accompt thereof to His Majesty the two Houses of the Parliament of England and to the chief Governour or Governours of Ireland for the time being That such Towns and Places as shall be recovered from the Rebels by the Scotish Army shall be at the diposing of the Commanders thereof during their abode for that Service in those parts where such Towns and Places are And if it shall be found for the good of the Service that the Scotish Army shall joyn with the Kings Lieutenant of Ireland and his Army in that case the General of the Scotish Army shall only cede to the Kings Lieutenant of Ireland and receive in a free and honourable way Instructions from him or in his absence from the Lord Deputy or any other who shall have the chief Government of that Kingdom for the time by Authority derived from the Crown of England and shall precede all others and that he only shall give Orders to the Officers of his own Army and that the Armies shall have the right and left hand Van and Reare Charge and Retreat successively and shall not mix in
Commissioners should have the Power but for seven years yet We should not have it after those seven years nor at any time unless they and We could agree in it so much would they have gained by this seeming compliance in point of limitation of this Power to a time though not to that time of three years which We proposed But they justifie the Reasonableness of it for whereas Our Commissioners in their Paper to which this of theirs is applied as an Answer tell them that if the time for this Power be unlimited We and Our Posterity shall for ever part with Our peculiar Regall Power of being able to resist Our Enemies or protect Our good Subjects and with that undoubted and never-denied Right of the Crown to make War and Peace or ever more to have Jurisdiction over Our own Navy and Fleet at Sea the Command thereof being also a part of this great Power to be given to these Commissioners they answer plainly They cannot admit of this peculiar Regall Power which Our Commissioners mention to reside in Vs concerning the Militia and to make Peace and War or that it is otherwise to be exercised then by Authority from Vs and both Houses of the Parliament of England and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively We approve of their ingenuity that now at the breaking off of the Treaty they tell Us in plain terms what they mean Though the Common-Law-books and Records of Parliament have mentioned that the sole Power of protecting the Subjects belongs to the King and that He alone hath Power to make Peace and War though it hath been the language of former Parliaments even of the last Parliament and at the beginning of this Parliament That the Power of Peace and War is in the King but if He will have Money from His Subjects to maintain the Wars He must have their Consents and though the universal consent and common Opinion heretofore hath gone accordingly yet they cannot admit thereof as to have been Our Right for the Answer is made to the assertion concerning Our Right And not admitting it it seems their Oaths of Allegeance and Supremacy to defend Our Crown and Dignity and to assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges and Authorities belonging to Us oblige them not And as they do not admit this Power in Right to have been in Us alone for the time past so neither will they admit it for the time to come in Us or Our Successors to be able to resist Our Enemies or protect Our Subjects or to make Peace or War but it must be by Authority from Vs and the two Houses and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively They are to be associated in these Regal Powers and the Scepter and the Sword may in Pictures or Statues but are not in deed to be in the Kings hand alone Upon these grounds We wonder not that they would have the Navy and Fleet at Sea to be put into the hands of their Commissioners for seven years as the Militia for the Land and after the seven years to be commanded in such manner as they and We should agree and not otherwise for the say the Reasons are the same for them as for the Militia by Land It is a principal means they say of their security and We cannot find they think themselves to have any security if We and Our Successors have any Power But if We will part with Our Power wholly unto them We and Our Posterity shall be fully secured by the Affections of Our Subjects that is by the Lords and Commons now at VVestminster who in their sense represent all the People who by themselves during the Parliament or when they shall please to make any Recesses by their Commissioners during the Intervals will free Us from the burthen of the Militia and of Our Navy and so of protecting Our Subjects and will save Us the Charge of Our Navy because it is to be principally maintained by the free gift of the Subject out of Tonnage and Poundage and other Impositions upon Merchandise And having taken this care for Our Security suitable to all their Actions these three years last past they say that for security of those who have been with Vs in the War an Act of Oblivion is desired to be passed whereby all Our Subjects would have been put in one and the same condition and under the same protection with some Exceptions mentioned in the Propositions We are not willing to mention those Exceptions by which not only most of Our best Subjects who have been with Us in the War according to their Duties by express or general terms are excepted but all the Estates of some of them and a great part of the Estates of the rest of them for that very cause because they were with Us in the War are to be forfeited As for securing them by an Act of Oblivion they have less cause to desire it than they who propose it as being more secured by the Conscience of doing their Duties and the protection of the known Common Law of the Land if it might take place than any protection under the two Houses or their Commissioners for the Militia yet we were not unwilling for the security of all Our Subjects to have assented to an Act of Oblivion being willing as much as in Us lies to have made up these Breaches and buried the memory of these unhappy Divisions It was urged by Our Commissioners that according to the literal sense of the Propositions in the Powers given to the Commissioners for the Militia That Sheriffs and Justices of Peace and other legal Ministers could not raise the Posse Comitatus or Forces to suppress Riots without being liable to the interpretation of the Commissioners To this they answer That this is no part of the Militia to be exercised by the Commissioners but in executing of Justice and legal Process nor can be intended to be any disturbance but for the preservation of the Peace We shall admit that to be their meaning but it being by the Propositions made Treason in any who shall levy any Forces without Authority or consent of the Commissioners to the disturbance of the publick Peace it is apparent that the Sheriffs or Justices of Peace if they raise any Forces to suppress any tumultuous Assembly which it is possible some of the Commissioners may countenance or for executing of other legal Acts may not only be liable to the interpretation of being disturbers of the Publick Peace but feel the punishment of it And whereas they say That the Power given by the Propositions to the Commissioners for the Militia of both Kingdoms as a joynt Committee for the hearing and determining Civil Actions and Differences cannot be extended further than preservation of the Articles of the Peace to be made We conceive that a Court being thereby allowed to them for the hearing and determining of Civil matters for the preservation of
with Our Originals and saw the Names of all the Council-subscribers as well as the two Lords Justices some of which Councellors were of principal estimation with themselves and they might also have had Copies of their Names who subscribed if they would have assured Our Commissioners that such of them as should have come into their Quarters should not have been prejudiced by it yet the extremity of Our poor English Subjects inducing that Cessation being so notorious and that attestation thereof undeniable they fall at last to confess and avoid them they say That some who were of the Council when those Letters were written assure them that those Letters were written only to press for Supplies without any intention of inducing a Cessation neither do the Letters contain any mention of a Cessation It is true those Letters do not nor was it alledged they did mention any Cessation but they pressed for Supplies from hence and laid open their Necessities to be such that it was apparent to any Man as We had also private advices from some of the Council there and of credit with those at Westminster that if Supplies failed there was no way for the preservation of Our good Subjects there but by a Cessation And these bleeding Wants of Our Army and good Subjects there so earnestly calling for Relief and this Kingdom being then ingaged in the height of an unnatural War Our selves unable to supply them and no timely supply nor hopes of it coming from the two Houses what course less dishonourable for Us or more for the good and safety of the poor English there could be taken than to admit of a Treaty for a Cessation which was managed by Our publick Ministers of State there and that Cessation assented unto as best for that Kingdom by the chief Officers of the Army and the Lords Justices and Council of Ireland before Our Approbation thereof They say that those Necessities were made by a design of the Popish and Prelatical Party the Prelatical Party must come in upon all turns though none suffered more by the Irish Rebellion nor were less advantaged by the Cessation than those poor Prelates and that at this very time when the Protestants were in such Extremity Provisions sent thither by the Parliament for their Relief were disposed of and afforded to the Rebels The Letters of the Lords Justices and Council tell Us that no Provisions at all were sent by the Parliament and if they had not told it yet this being barely affirmed might as easily be denied unless they had instanced in particular what Provisions were sent and how and when and by whom or to whom they were disposed But they say that at the same time the Officers of the Army and Garrisons pressing for leave to march into the Enemies Countrey to live upon them and save their own stores some could not obtain leave to go and those who were drawn forth had great quantities of Provisions out with them yet were not permitted to go into the Enemies Countrey but kept near Dublin till their Provisions were spent and then commanded back again They might remember at that time wherein they suppose this miscarriage the chief manage of those Affairs was in the hands of such Ministers of State whom they did and do still rely upon but sure those Ministers are not to be blamed if they durst not suffer the Soldier to march far or stay long in the Enemies Countrey when there was but forty Barrels of Powder in all the Store or if they called them back in such case when the Enemy approached Let such as these or what other pretences and excuses soever be made for not relieving Ireland We are sure the chief Impediment to it was their active promoting this Rebellion in England And therefore as they made use of the Supplies both of Men and Money provided for that Kingdom against Us at Edge-hill so from the time of that Battel some Supplies sent before which else perhaps had been also countermanded arriving in Ireland about the time or shortly after that Battel they were so careful of recruiting and supplying their Armies here that though they received much Moneys for Ireland and had at their disposal great store of Our Ammunition neither the one nor the other was ever after afforded to the English Army and Forces or to the Protestants about Dublin though the Cessation was not made till September following As for those Protestants in Munster Connaught and Ulster who they say opposed the Cessation and did and do still subsist they were most of them of Our Scotish Subjects the rest excepting some few wrought upon by private interest or particular solicitation were such who being under their Power were forced for their relief to concur with them against it These indeed as they did not suffer under so great Wants as the English at the time of the Cessation as is well known though it seem to be denied more special Provisions being made for them and for their Garrisons than for the English as doth in great part appear even by the Articles of their Treaty of the sixth of August so they have since subsisted by Supplies sent from the two Houses whereof none were suffered to partake but such as take their new Covenant and doubly break the Bonds of their Obedience and Duty both by taking that dangerous ensnaring Oath prohibited by God and their King and opposing Our Ministers of State there without whose Authority a Cessation being concluded during that Cessation they ought not to have continued a War in that Kingdom We easily believe the Provisions they mention are or may be sent for supply of those Forces as being a means to keep up a Party against Us there and to have a Reserve of an Army ready upon any accidents of War to be drawn hither against Us and being also necessary for the satisfaction of Our Scotish Subjects whom they must please who would not be so forward in their Service without some good assurance such as is the having an Army of theirs kept on foot in Ireland at the charge of this Kingdom and two of Our strongest Towns and Castles there delivered to them Cautionary Towns as We may believe Berwick also is being denied the sight of that Treaty and by the Command of all the English Forces there by the General of the Scots that they shall be well pay'd the Arrears to the Armies in both Kingdoms before they quit their Interest in Ireland If We shall allow Provisions thus imployed to be for the preservation of the English Protestants in Ireland We may believe they have repay'd the 100000. l. taken up of the Adventurers Money and yet thus to re-satisfie this Money admitting it be current satisfaction for the Debt can be no satisfaction or excuse for the former Diversion But since they cannot excuse themselves for this Diversion of the Adventurers Money nor of the other Moneys raised for Ireland nor of the imploying the
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
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
Proclamations and other Proceedings against it to be void An Act concerning Peers lately made and hereafter to be made An Act concerning the Adjournments of both Houses of Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning the Raising settling and maintaining Forces by Sea and by Land within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of VVales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed BE it Enacted by the King's Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England now assembled or hereafter to be assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of November 1647. 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 appoint all Commanders and Officers for the said Forces 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 shall from time to time appoint all Commanders and Officers for the said Forces or remove them as they shall see cause and shall likewise nominate appoint place or displace as they shall see cause all Commanders and Officers within the several Garrisons Forts and Places of strength as shall be within the Kingdoms of England Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and Town of Barwick upon Tweed 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 be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid 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 and 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 disposed or disbanded 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 be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint 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 and also to suppress any Forreign 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 and likewise 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 judg 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 Kingdoms 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 respectively appointed for that purpose And be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid 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 and 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 of any of them nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities before-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 And be it further also Enacted That after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the said 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 of any part of the said Forces or concerning the said Admiralty or 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
That when his Majesty desires a Personal Treaty with them for the settling of a Peace they in Answer propose the very subject matter of the most essential part thereof to be first granted a thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares That neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what may befall him in case his two Houses shall not afford him a Personal Treaty shall make him change his Resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole Peace be concluded Yet then he intends not only to give just and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16. of Novemb. last which he thought would have produced better effects than what he finds in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a Personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace will bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a well-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the Offices both of a Christian and of a King and will patiently wait the good pleasure of Almighty God to incline the hearts of his two Houses to consider their King and to compassionate their fellow-Subjects miseries Given at Carisbrook-Castle in the Isle of Wight Decemb. 28. 1647. A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament with the Resolutions of both Houses concerning the King Together with an Order for Imprisoning the Persons and Sequestring the Estates of any that shall act contrary to this Declaration and Resolutions Die Sabbathi 15. Januarii 1647. THE Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament after many Addresses to his Majesty for the preventing and ending this Unnatural War raised by him against his Parliament and Kingdom having lately sent Four Bills to his Majesty which did contain only matter of Safety and Security to the Parliament and Kingdom referring the composure of all other Differences to a Personal Treaty with his Majesty and having received an absolute Negative do hold themselves obliged to use their uttermost Endeavours speedily to settle the present Government in such a way as may bring the greatest Security to this Kingdom in the enjoyment of the Laws and Liberties thereof and in order thereunto and that the Houses may receive no Delays nor Interruptions in so great and necessary a Work they have taken these Resolutions and passed these Votes following viz. Resolved upon the Question THat the Lords and Commons do Declare That they will make no further Addresses or Applications to the King Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That no Application or Address be made to the King by any person whatsoever without the leave of both Houses Resolved upon the Question by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That the person or persons that shall make breach of this Order shall incur the Penalties of High Treason Resolved upon the Question That the Lords and Commons do Declare That they will receive no more any Message from the King and do enjoyn that no person whatsoever do presume to receive or bring any Message from the King to both or either of the Houses of Parliament or to any other person Joh. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. Die Lunae 17. Januarii 1647. Ordered by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That this Declaration and these Resolutions be forthwith printed and published and that the several Knights of the Shires and Burgesses that serve for the several Towns and places do send Copies of the same to the several Counties and places It is further Ordered That whatsoever person shall act contrary to this Declaration and Resolutions of Parliament or shall incite or encourage others so to do shall upon due proof thereof be Imprisoned and his Estate Sequestred and the Offenders in the premisses after publication hereof shall be within the several Ordinances of Sequestration And all Committees and Commissioners of Sequestrations are hereby authorized and required to take notice hereof and to proceed to Sequestration accordingly Joh. Browne Cleric Parliamentorum H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTIES Declaration in Answer to the Votes of No further Address Carisbrook-Castle 18. Jan. 1647. To all My People of whatsoever Nation Quality or Condition AM I thus laid aside and must I not speak for my self No I will speak and that to all my People which I would have rather done by the way of my two Houses of Parliament but that there is a publick Order neither to make Addresses to or receive Message from me And who but you can be judge of the Differences betwixt me and my two Houses I know none else for I am sure you it is who will enjoy the happiness or feel the misery of good or ill Government and we all pretend who shall run fastest to serve you without having a regard at least in the first place to particular Interests And therefore I desire you to consider the state I am and have been in this long time and whether my actions have more tended to the Publick or my own Particular good For whosoever will look upon upon me barely as I am a Man without that Liberty which the meanest of my Subjects enjoys of going whither and conversing with whom I will as a Husband and Father without the comfort of my Wife and Children or lastly as a King without the least shew of Authority or Power to protect my distressed Subjects must conclude me not onely void of all Natural Affection but also to want common Understanding if I should not most chearfully embrace the readiest way to the settlement of these distracted Kingdoms As also on the other side do but consider the Form and draught of the Bills lately presented unto Me and as they are the Conditions of a Treaty ye will conclude that the same spirit which hath still been able to frustrate all My sincere and constant endeavours for Peace hath had a powerful influence on this Message for though I was ready to grant the Substance and comply with what they seem to desire yet as they had framed it I could not agree thereunto without deeply wounding my Conscience and Honour and betraying the Trust reposed in me by abandoning my People to the Arbitrary and unlimited power of the two Houses for ever for the levying and maintaining of Land or Sea-Forces without distinction of Quality or limitation for Money-Taxes And if I could have passed them in terms how unheard of a Condition were it for a Treaty to grant beforehand the most considerable part of the subject matter How ineffectual were that
reforming both Universities and the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton His Majesty will consent to an Act for the better discovery and speedy conviction of Popish Recusants as is desired in your Propositions and also to an Act for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion As also to an Act for the rrue levying of the Penalties against Papists to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on and as is proposed on His Majesties behalf And also to an Act to prevent the practises of Papists against the State and for putting the Laws in execution and for a stricter course to prevent hearing and saying of Mass But as to the Covenant His Majesty is not yet therein satisfied that He can either sign or swear it or consent to impose it on the Consciences of others nor doth conceive it proper or useful at this time to be insisted on Touching the Militia His Majesty conceives that your Proposition demands a far larger power over the Persons and Estates of His Subjects than hath ever hitherto been warranted by the Laws and Statutes of this Realm yet considering the present Distractions require more and trusting in His two Houses of Parliament that they will make no further use of the Power therein mentioned after the present Distempers setled than shall be agreeable to the Legal exercise thereof in times past or just necessity shall require His Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England now assembled or hereafter to be assembled or such as they shall appoint during the space of ten years shall Arm Train and Discipline or cause to be Armed Trained or Disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernesey and Jersy and the Town of Berwick 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 de 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 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 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 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 Berwick 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 Gernesey and Jersey and the Town of Berwick 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 employ 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 Berwick 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 require 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 any 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 imyloying 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 Wars 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 Garisons and the keeping up mantaining 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 Tonnage 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
noise of my Evil Counsellors was another useful device for those who were impatient any mens counsels but their own should be followed in Church or State who were so eager in giving Me better counsel that they would not give Me leave to take it with Freedom as a Man or Honour as a King making their counsels more like a Drench that must be poured down than a Draught which might be fairly and leisurely drank if I liked it I will not justifie beyond humane errors and frailties My self or my Counsellors They might be subject to some Miscarriages yet such as were far more reparable by second and better thoughts than those enormous Extravagances wherewith some men have now even wildred and almost quite lost both Church and State The event of things at last will make it evident to my Subjects that had I followed the worst counsels that My worst Counsellors ever had the boldness to offer to Me or My self any inclination to use I could not so soon have brought both Church and State in Three flourishing Kingdoms to such a Chaos of Confusions and Hell of Miseries as some have done out of which they cannot or will not in the midst of their many great advantages redeem either Me or my Subjects No men were more willing to complain than I was to redress what I saw in Reason was either done or advised amiss and this I thought I had done even beyond the expectation of moderate men who were sorry to see Me prone even to injure My self out of a Zeal to relieve my Subjects But other mens insatiable desire of Revenge upon Me My Court and My Clergy hath wholly beguiled both Church and State of the benefit of all my either Retractations or Concessions and withal hath deprived all those now so zealous Persecutors both of the comfort and reward of their former pretended Persecutions wherein they so much gloried among the Vulgar and which indeed a truly-humble Christian will so highly prize as rather not to be relieved than be revenged so as to be bereaved of that Crown of Christian Patience which attends humble and injured Sufferers Another artifice used to withdraw My Peoples Affections from Me to their designs was The noise and ostentation of Liberty which men are not more prone to desire than unapt to bear in the Popular sense which is to do what every man liketh best If the divinest Liberty be to will what men should and to do what they so will according to Reason Laws and Religion I envy not my Subjects that Liberty which is all I desire to enjoy My self so far am I from the desire of oppressing theirs Nor were those Lords and Gentlemen which assisted Me so prodigal of their Liberties as with their Lives and Fortunes to help on the enslaving of Themselves and their Posterities As to Civil Immunities none but such as desire to drive on their Ambitious and Covetous Designs over the Ruines of Church and State Prince Peers and People will ever desire greater Freedoms than the Laws allow whose bounds good men count their Ornament and Protection others their Manacles and Oppression Nor is it just any man should expect the Reward and Benefit of the Law who despiseth its Rule and Direction losing justly his Safety while he seeks an unreasonable Liberty Time will best inform my Subjects that those are the best preservers of their true Liberties who allow themselves the least licentiousness against or beyond the Laws They will feel it at last to their cost that it is impossible those men should be really tender of their fellow-Subjects Liberties who have the hardiness to use their King with so severe restraints against all Laws both Divine and Humane under which yet I will rather perish than complain to those who want nothing to compleat their mirth and Triumph but such Musick In point of true Conscientious Tenderness attended with Humility and Meekness not with proud and arrogant activity which seeks to hatch every egg of different opinion to a Faction or Schism I have oft declared how little I desire my Laws and Scepter should intrench on Gods Soveraignty which is the only King of mens Consciences and yet He hath laid such restraints upon men as commands them to be subject for Conscience sake giving no men liberty to break the Law established further than with Meekness and Patience they are content to suffer the Penalties annexed rather than perturb the publick Peace The truth is some mens thirst after Novelties others despair to relieve the necessities of their Fortunes or satisfie their Ambition in Peaceable times distrusting Gods Providence as well as their own Merits were the secret but principal impulsives to these Popular Commotions by which Subjects have been perswaded to expend much of those plentiful Estates they got and enjoyed under My Government in peaceable times which yet must now be blasted with all the odious Reproaches which impotent Malice can invent and My self exposed to all those Contempts which may most diminish the Majesty of a King and encrease the ungrateful insolences of my People For mine Honour I am well assured that as mine Innocency is clear before God in point of any Calumnies they object so My Reputation shall like the Sun after Owls and Bats have had their freedom in the night and darker times rise and recover it self to such a degree of splendor as those feral Birds shall be grieved to behold and unable to bear For never were any Princes more glorious than those whom God hath suffer'd to be tried in the furnace of Afflictions by their injurious Subjects And who knows but the just and merciful God will do Me good for some mens hard false and evil speeches against Me Wherein they speak rather what they wish than what they believe or know Nor can I suffer so much in point of Honour by those rude and scandalous Pamphlets which like fire in great Conflagrations flie up and down to set all places on like flames as those men do who pretending to so much Piety are so forgetful of their duty to God and Me by no way ever vindicating the Majesty of their KING against any of those who contrary to the precept of God and precedent of Angels speak evil of dignities and bring railing accusations against those who are honoured with the name of Gods But 't is no wonder if men not fearing GOD should not Honour their KING They will easily contemn such shadows of God who reverence not that Supreme and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the Glory of Men and Angels is but obscurity yet hath he graven such Characters of Divine Authority and Sacred power upon Kings as none may without sin seek to blot them out Nor shall their black veils be able to hide the shining of My face while God gives Me a heart frequently and humbly to converse with him from whom alone are all the irradiations of true Glory and Majesty Thou O Lord knowest