of an Arbitrary Power of Jurisdiction in a case of Land without any former President wherein if he be justifiable he may as well riding on the High-way determine any mans Estate and added That if my Lord of Strafford insist on this they shall prove it not only in this but in twenty more of this condition on the Reply My Lord of Strafford desiring they might bring their Proofs at once The Manager Answered That they should prove an Act of the same Nature but of a higher strain concerning a Peer of the Realm for he chased such Lions But my Lord of Strafford desiring they might be kept to that within the Charge His Lordship began his Defence in substance as followeth I confess I am Charged with Treason by the Honourable House of Commons and that is my greatest grief for if it were not an Arrow sent out of that Quiver it would not be so heavy as it is but as it comes from them it pierces my heart through not with Guilt yet with Grief that in my Grey hairs I should be mis-understood by the Companions of my Youth with whom I have formerly spent so much time If the Decree be just as it is most just I hope it will go very far in the Case That whereas it is said it was against a Peer Justice excepts not persons and I know no Priviledge Peers have in point of possession of Land above common persons The Act of Parliament read the other day against which it is supposed to be made I conceive it to be the Statute in H. 6. time and desire your Lordships to remember that by the last words the King's Prerogative is saved I have done nothing contrary to the Instructions in King Iames his time nor the Proclamation nor any thing but according to the Power of former Deputies I acknowledge my Answer is mistaken in saying the Cause depended formerly in the Chancery which was not out of cunning but a meer failing of memory I desire my Commission may be read whereby it will appear I had Power to do that for which I am now questioned The Commission was read whereby he had Authority to proceed Secundum consuetudines terrae c. From whence he observed That having so great a Power the receiving of a Petition and giving Relief to a poor body should not be so great a fault being at the most but the exceeding of a Jurisdiction but by no Construction can be made Treason That yet this is no exceeding of a Jurisdiction but was a Power always in the Deputies before his time and warranted To prove it he produced the printed Instructions whereby the Deputy and Council-Table are forbid to meddle with common businesses within Cognizance of ordinary Courts nor alter possession of Land nor make private Orders or Hearings nor make Injunctions for staying Suits in any Civil Cause Which shews that that course was in practise before the Instructions took it away viz. to alter Possessions to grant Injunctions c. To prove by Witnesses that this Power was always exercised by the Deputy in the nature of a Court of Requests in England He offered my Lord Primate of Armagh his Deposition being taken by reason of his sickness by vertue of an Order of their Lordships but for that the Commons had liberty by that Order to cross-examine and yet had no notice thereof or of the Depositions so taken the using of these Depositions was waved after much debate till the next day in the mean time the Commons may cross-examine Henry Dillon asked Whether Petitions have been usually preferred to the Deputies and in how many Governors time he hath known it to be so That these Paper-Petitions have been preferred He Answered His Father had a Lease during his own life and his Wives and the longer liver of them and fifteen years after to his Executors and Administrators which he the said Henry Dillon being come to full age enquired into and looking upon his Fathers Evidences he found a business there depending between Sir Patrick Plaintiff and his Father Defendant before my Lord Chichester in the time of his Government and he found several Orders under my Lord Chichesters Hand in that Cause that he being Executor to Maurice Fitzgerard and having occasion to peruse his Writings to see what Debts were due to him he found among them several Orders of my Lord Grandison's time one Petition of Fitzgerard as well for Debts as for Land That in the time of my Lord Faulkland he observed and hath seen several Orders made by his Lordship and one made on behalf of his Sister Mary Dillon for a Portion paid by his Father and he recovered the portion and received the Money That in the time of my Lord of Corke and Lord of Elyes being Governors there was a Petition preferred against him by my Lord of Longford for a Horse taken by him the said Henry Dillon as Sheriff of the County of Longford pretending it to be a stray and belonging to His Majesty and triable as he conceived in the Exchequer and that he did appear but my Lord of Longford died before Examination Being asked Whether the Causes were before the Deputy alone or the Deputy and Council He Answered That in the time of my Lord Chichester he knows not whether they were before the Deputy alone but he found only my Lord Chichester's Hand to the Orders In my Lord Grandison's time he saw his Hand only but where the Causes depended he knows not But that in my Lord Faulkland's time was only by my Lord-Deputy That of my Lord Corkes and Lord of Elyes he remembers not whether it was before their Lordships and the Council but the way he was called to Answer was by Pursevant before he had notice of the Suit Being asked Whether Examinations were taken He Answered That in the Case of his Sister he conceives there were Examinations taken upon Oath And that in the Cause before my Lord of Corke and Lord of Ely the Attachment was under the Hands of the two Lords Justices alone Being asked on the Managers motion Whether he hath any of those Orders to shew He Answered He knows not whether those in my Lord Chichester's time were delivered to my Lord Dun on composing the Difference or in his Custody Robert Lord Dillon was asked What he heard my Lord Grandison say in maintenance of this Judicature by my Lord-Deputy alone He Answered That he heard my Lord Grandison himself say nothing of it but he heard by others that he pretended to it as a Judicature belōnging to the Sword Being asked what he hath known of the practice of this Court before the Lord Deputy alone before how many Deputies and upon what occasions He Answered That he hath seen divers Orders of Deputies or Petitions singly signed by themselves and no other hand but the Deputies Being asked in how many Deputies times He Answered That he hath seen of my Lord Faulklands
other intent and needed no alteration The Bishop of Raffo would have had more added saying The Oath was so mean he would not come from his house to take it and so my Lord Deputy told him the Oath had been well consider'd of and needs no alteration That he the Bishop then desired a Copy of it to carry to the Gentlemen that were not present and were waiting for them at my Lord Mountgomeries lodging His Lordship was pleased to deny that but would send the Clerk of the Council who should bring the Oath and Read it and bring it back again and he did so After this the next day or that afternoon they were appointed to come to the Council-Board and have the Oath Administred That here they came and my Lord himself was pleased to Administer the Oath to every one of us two by two or three by three And this was the manner of Administring it Being Interrogated Whether they knew the occasion of their being sent for He Answered They knew not for what cause nor heard any thing of it Being Asked If he knew what Scotchmen were those that left the Kingdom because they would not take this Oath He Answered That soon after they were dismissed in May Commissions came into the Countrey to certain Commissioners for Administring the Oath to all of that Nation above the Age of Sixteen and he believes whether by the main Commission or private Instructions he cannot tell That it was ordered it should be Administred both to Men and Women above that Age And they were all called at certain dayes by the Commissioners some were scrupulous and thought in their Consciences they could not take it others that were satisfied in their Consciences did take it and those that did not take it the Commissioners were required to certifie their Names and Places of Residence to my Lord Deputy and Council that they might be proceeded against as Contemners of His Majesties Royal Authority according to the Proclamation and Commission After the Proclamation had called them some did appear and they that did not their names were certified and afterward Pursivants issued to apprehend them that did not appear or them who on appearing did refuse He knows of many that fled away into Scotland and very many that fled up and down in the Country and many were apprehended by the Pursivants and carried up and some he thinks were Censured Being Asked Whether they left their Corn on the Ground and Goods in their Houses He Answered That they did Being Asked Whether any Papists of the Scotish Nation were sent for by Letter or had the Oath tendered He Answered None of them that he could hear and the Oath was not Administred to any of them neither were they called Being Asked If there were not diverse Scotish Papists there He Answered Yes diverse Gentlemen of good Quality and he named some of them viz. Sir William Hamilton c. Being Asked on the Earl of Clares motion Whether the Refusers fled into any part of Scotland He Answered In Truth not to his knowledge but they fled out of the Kingdom of Ireland The Oath was next Read viz. IN. do faithfully Swear Profess and Promise that I will Honor and Obey my Sovereign Lord King CHARLES and will bear Faith and true Allegiance to Him and will defend and maintain His Regal Power and Authority and that I will not bear Arms nor do any Rebellious or Hostile Act against Him or Protest against any His Royal Commands but submit my self in all due obedience hereunto and that I will not enter into any Covenant Oath or Bond of Mutual Defence or Assistance against all sorts of persons whatsoever or into any Oath Covenant or Mutual Defence or Assistance against any person whatsoever by Force without His Majesties Soveraign and Regal Authority And I do renounce all Covenants contrary to what I have Sworn and Promised So help me God in Christ Jesus Whence Mr. Maynard observed from these words That they shall not Protest against any of His Majesties Royal Commands That he believed all men were satisfied that His Majesty never did nor will Command any thing unlawful but what a subordinate Minister may command in His Majesties Name and publish as His Command in Ireland their Lordships have heard enough of and that may make them tender to take the Oath besides the Oath being new it is conceived to be against Law Mr. Maxwell being Sworn and Interrogated In what manner were Gentlemen sent for to Dublin about this matter And what he knew in particular about it He Answered That he was one that received a Letter from my Lord Lieutenant upon that account and that he as well as the rest were required to be all at Dublin at a certain day and being there and my Lord Mountgomery being a little sick and not able to go abroad desired their excuse for a day or two My Lord Deputy was pleased to give Command that all that were writen for might be at my Lord Mountgomeries lodging And at the time appointed my Lord Lieutenant came and at his coming he called them together and showed the Dissenters in Scotland and desired that they would show themselves Faithful and Loyal Subjects to their Master and that it behoved them as their own desire to Petition for it whereupon my Lord Bishop of Down Râ—o and some others of the Clergy being there did second my Lords Speech and told them That as they Rebelliously proceeded in Scotland in that the Scots had taken in hand against the King so they would do well by Petition and by Oath to his Lordship and the Council to shew their willingness towards their Masters Service So my Lord Lieutenant was pleased to take hold of my Lord Downs Speech and my Lord Down desired he might be the drawer of the Petition But my Lord perceiving him a little too vehement told him Smilingly That he would recommend that to the Bishop of Raffo So the Bishop of Raffo was appointed for the drawing up of that Petition The next day they desired to peruse the Petition before it went to my Lord and after they had perus'd it they went in to my Lord Lieutenant with it after he had seen the Petition he mended something in it and among the rest he remembers the Bishop of Raffo told him That my Lord had put in That these that were here should be of no worse condition then the rest of His Majesties Subjects The next day the Petition was Ingrossed and Signed by them and presented to my Lord Lieutenant afterwards there were two Noblemen two Bishops two Gentlemen appointed to go to my Lord concerning the Oath and they desired a Copy of the Oath My Lord Lieutenant sent Sir Paul Davies out to my Lord Mountgomery and it was Read to them all and they were commanded to attend at the Council-Table and my Lord gave them the Oath Sir Hen. Spottewood was offered a further Witness but their Lordships
Asked on M r Whitlocks Motion who were those that took it so chearfully And whether the Bishops were not more chearful then others He Answered That indeed he observed no Reluctancy My Lord of Strafford here added That he speaks it truly to the honor of that Nation be it spoken the Oath was taken with much chearfulness and not any man made scruple in the whole business to his understanding save only Sir Iames Mountgomery but took it with all the readiness in the World This is as true as he lives and he thinks he speaks it for their honor and were he one of the Temporal men in that kind he should be very unwilling to be asked whether the Bishops had been more ready to give Allegiance to His Majesty than himself and he thinks he that asked the question doth them a great deal of prejudice in it Finding them thus prepared he was glad of it and they being willing to prefer such a Petition he went to them and served them with all willingness as he had reason The Petition was cheerfully brought to him to be looked over and to have his opinion how he liked it It was brought him by my Lord Mountgomery Sir Iames Mountgomery's Brother and some others whom he remembers not But these words he remembers particularly in it An offering of their Lives and Fortunes for vindicating the Authority of Regal Power which he said was too general and though they intended it well might be turned too strictly on them and therefore he desired it might be qualified with these words In equal manner and measure with other His Majesties Subjects and the words were put in by him as he is sure my Lord Mountgomery would justifie The Petition was read and the Act of State wherein it is recited being in substance as followeth By the Lord-Deputy and Council WENTWORTH Where we have lately made an Act of Council in these words WHereas divers Lords Spiritual and Temporal Knights and others inhabiting in this Kingdom have lately exhibited a Petition to us in these words following To the Right Honourable the Lord Deputy and Council c. The Humble Petition of c. The Petition recites The horror apprehended by the Petitioners His Majesties Subjects of the Scotish Nation inhabiting in Ireland for the Covenant sworn by some of their Countreymen in Scotland without His Majesties Authority and Consent Their dislike therof and their consideration that the causes of that action may be understood to reflect on the Petitioners though innocent They crave leave to vindicate themselves from so great a Contagion and desire his Lordship to prescribe a way by Oath or otherwise to free themselves from these proceedings to declare their acknowledgement of the Kings Regal Power and their dislike of that Covenant and of all other Covenants entred into c. without His Majesties Regal Authority which they are desirous to manifest by offering their lives and fortunes to vindicate the honor c. of their Sovereign which they are ready to do in equal manner and measure with other His Majesties Subjects c. and divers names were to the said Petition subscribed In consideration of which Petition we cannot but commend the wisdom of the Petitioners which we will not fail humbly to represent to His Majesty and for that we know many of this Kingdom have expressed good affection to His Majesty and His Service and dislike those disorders We hold it fit c. to free them the better from the Crimes and Scandals which their Countrey-men have gone into as also to free them from all prejudice and to approve to the King and to the whole world their Allegiance to him and his Regal Power and the dislike of that unlawful Oath and Covenant We do therefore ordain That all and every person of the Scotch Nation that inhabit or have Estates or any Houses Lands Tenements or Hereditaments within Ireland shall take the Oath herein expressed on the Holy Evangelists on pain of His Majesties High-displeasure The tenor of which Oath follows c. To several seect persons c. Authorizing them to call before them and administer the Oath to every person of the Scotch Nation c. At such time and place c. And such Instructions as shall be in that behalf given by the Deputy and Council c. And to certifie the names of all that take the Oath and if any refuse to certifie their Names Quality and Residences to the Lord Deputy c. And there is a Command that all of the Scotch Nation do appear before the said Commissioners at times by them to be appointed and to take the said Oath before them and that all persons may have due notice we think fit this be published Dated May 1639. To prove a design of seizing the Castle of Knock-Fergus my Lord of Strafford desired Mr. Slingsby might be examined and being Interrogated He Answered That about the time when it was supposed the King was in the Field of Berwick there was an Advertisement from Knock-Fergus that one Trueman had writ a Letter for betraying of the Castle there the party that sent the discovery was to be employed in the Letter and he enformed there were the hands of Twenty that should have subscribed it the Letter was conceived to be voluntarily from Trueman and not sollicited out of Scotland Trueman was sent to Dublin and examined and sent back to be tryed in the Countrey and there he received his Tryal and was Hanged Drawn and Quartered Being asked of what Nation he was He says he doth not know of what Nation but he supposes he was an Englishman For his further justification he saith at the same time there was the like Oath and Proceeding here in England The Copy of which Oath now read being affirmed by Mr. Ralton to be a true Copy 5 Iune 1639. A Copy of an Oath tendered to some of the Scotish Nation resident here in England as it is entred in the Scotish Book being in substance IN Doe faithfully swear profess and promise that I will faithfully obey my Sovereign Lord King CHARLES c. and defend and maintain His Royal Authority and that I will not bear Arms nor do any rebellious Act against him nor profess against any His Royal Commands c. And that I will not enter into any Covenant or Bond c. Of mutual Defence or Assistance against any person c. or into any Covenant Bond of mutual defence or assistance whatsoever without His Majesties Sovereign and Regal Authority And I do renounce and abjure all Covenants contrary to what is here sworn professed and promised And he submits it to their Lordships Wisdom and Justice what offence this had been for a Deputy of Ireland in a time thus conditioned for securing the publique peace of that Kingdom where he serves the Crown upon such apprehensions as these fairly without any constraint or violence offered to endeavour by such a manner of
heard my Lord of Strafford mention the reducing of England by an Irish Army It is true my Lord of Northumberland goes thus far That he hath heard him say something whereby he might conceive there was intended some Course of raising Moneys by extraordinary wayes And that my Lord of Strafford confesses is very true for if it were by borrowing 3 or 400000 l. it is an extraordinary way the Kings Revenue could not serve these occasions there must be other wayes and Loan was one and that fair and honourable and just So then as to this Testimony the Defendant offers to their Lordships that he hath examined my Lord of Northumberland and he knows no such thing He hath examined my Lord Marquiss of Hamilton and his Lordship is pleased to say He remembers no such thing at the Committee of 8. He desired my Lord Treasurer might be Examined to the same Words The L. Treasurer being Asked Whether ever he heard my Lord of Strafford in any private Council or Debate with the King tell him the said words He Answered That he never heard my Lord speak those words of the Irish Army nor any thing like it and he repeated That he never heard his Lordship speak it in the manner proposed nor any thing like it Being Asked on Mr. Maynards motion Whether he ever heard my Lord of Strafford say The King was loose and Absolved from all Government He Answered That he desired time to consider of that He remembers not any such thing but he reserves himself for that Being Asked on the like motion Whether he heard my Lord of Strafford say any thing to that purpose That the Parliament had deserted or forsaken the King He Answered That he remembers not that he heard any such thing Lord Cottington being Asked on my Lord of Straffords motion Whether he heard my Lord of Strafford say such words That the King had an Army in Ireland and he might employ them to reduce this Kingdom He Answered That he hath heard the Question heretofore and is very confident he did never hear him say it in his hearing and that he hath a great deal of Reason to be confident of it Being Asked on Mr. Maynards Motion Whether he heard my Lord of Strafford say That the King was Absolved or Loose from all Rules of Government or words to that effect He Answered That as he takes it he hath been Asked to that Question too and he thinks he never heard the words for it was as he thinks a very absurd Proposition and he should not have heard it with patience Being Asked on the like motion Whether he heard him say The Parliament had forsaken or denyed or deserted the King or words to that effect He Answered That for saying The Parliament had not provided for the King The Parliament was ended and had not provided for the King and That the Parliament had not provided or left the King without Money It is very probable he did say it and he thinks he did so for it was the truth Being Asked Whether he said The Parliament had denyed the King He Answered That what his words were It is a hard matter for him to say That he said The Parliament had denyed or left the King he will not Swear Being Asked on like motion Whether he perswaded the King that he was to be supplyed in extraordinary wayes He Answered That he cannot Swear that neither Where Mr. Maynard observed That my Lord of Strafford himself granted and yet that 's forgotten To which my Lord Cottington Answered That if the Gentlemen would have heard him out he should have given good satisfaction He hath been Examined Whether my Lord of Strafford used these words Extraordinary wayes and he cannot say he did but he hath heard him say The King ought to seek out all due and legal wayes and to employ His Power and Authority and Prerogative Castè Candidè he remembers these words very well For close of his Defence to these words That His Majesty had an Army in Ireland to reduce this Kingdom witnessed by Mr. Treasurer My Lord of Strafford said Mens memories are weak and the best may be mistaken or misremember and may think one man says that which another man says or that a man says that which in truth he did not say as it is in this Case Their Lordships have had all the light that is possible for him the Defendant to give them My Lord of Northumberland being examined on oath sayes he remembers not the words My Lord Marquis Hamilton remembers them not My Lord Treasurer of England remembers neither that nor any thing like it My Lord Cottington remembers no such thing and is well assured he never heard him say any such thing Here are all that are left of the Committee save my Lord of Canterbury and him the Defendant cannot examine otherwise he would Secretary Windebank is a little too far off to be heard at this time and if their Lordships could ask him whether the Defendant ever spake the words on the faith of a Christian and a Gentleman he will take his oath he doth not think nor believe he ever spake them but believes as constantly as possible can be that he never spake them He would be loath to swear he did not it being so long since But when his words shall more particularly and specially be remembred by another man than by himself he must commend that memory that observed what he said so perfectly as to be able to give a better account of them than himself the party that spake the words or any man in the company besides My Lord further insisted That this concerns him very nearly for it would be a grievous charge that is on him by this means though not in the intendment of the Gentleman that urges it who he hopes wishes him well if he should be thought to be an overthrower of the Liberties of the Subject by a foreign Army However it is a single Testimony and no more and that single Testimony without any prejudice to the Testimony cannot rise in Judgement against him Nay he cannot be Indicted nor Arraigned of High Treason for it by the Statutes of 1 E. 6. Ca. 12. the last Proviso of it in these words BE it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Person or Persons after the First day of February next coming shall be Indicted Arraigned Condemned or Convicted of any offence of Treason Petty-Treason or Misprision of Treason or any words before specified after the First day of February for which the said Offender or Speaker shall suffer any pain of Death Imprisonment Loss Forfeiture of Goods Lands or Tenements unless the said Offender or Speaker be accused by two sufficient and lawful Witnesses orshall willingly without violence confess the same And if their Lordships will give leave to consider the first part of the words being fairly and indifferently interpreted and with
dregs of valour sullenness and stubborness which may make them prone to mutinies and discontents But those noble and gallant affections which put men to brave designs and attempts for the preservation or enlargement of a Kingdom they are hardly capable of Shall it be Treason to embase the Kings Coin though but a piece of Twelve-pence or Six-pence and must it not needs be the effect of a greater Treason to embase the Spirits of his Subjects and to set a stamp and character of servitude upon them whereby they shall be disabled to do any thing for the service of the King and Commonwealth The fifth Consideration is this that the exercise of this Arbitrary Government in times of suddain danger by the invasion of an enemy will disable His Majesty to preserve himselfe and His Subjects from that danger This is the only pretence by which the Earl of Strafford and such other mischievous Counsellors would induce His Majesty to make use of it and if it be unfit for such an occasion I know nothing that can be alledged in maintainance of it When War threatens a Kingdom by the coming of a Forreign Enemy it is no time then to discontent the people to make them weary of the present Government and more inclinable to a change The supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain there can be no assurance of them no dependance upon them either for time or proportion And if some Money be gotten in such a way the distractions divisions distempers which this course is apt to produce will be more prejudicial to the publique safety than the Supply can be advantagious to it and of this we have had sufficient experience the last Summer The Sixth That this crime of subverting the Laws and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government is contrary to the Pact and Covenant betwixt the King and his People that which was spoken of before was the legal union of Allegiance and Protection this is a personal union by mutual agreement and stipulation confirmed by Oath on both sides The King and his People are obliged to one another in the nearest relations he is a Father and a Child is called in Law pars patris He is the Husband of the Common-wealth they have the same interests they ara inseparable in their condition be it good or evil he is the Head they are the Body there is such an incorporation as cannot be dissolved without the destruction of both When Justice Thorp in Edward the III. time was by the Parliament condemned to death for Bribery the reason of that Judgement is given because he had broke the Kings Oath not that he had broke his own Oath but he had broken the Kings Oath that solemn and great Obligation which is the security of the whole Kingdom If for a Judge to take a small sum in a private Cause was adjudged capital how much greater was this offence whereby the Earl of Strafford hath broken the Kings Oath in the whole course of his Government in Ireland to the prejudice of so many of His Majesties Subjects in their Lives Liberties and Estates and to the danger of all the rest The Doctrine of the Papists Fides non est servanda cum Haereticis is an abominable Doctrine yet that other Tenet more peculiar to the Jesuits is more pernicious whereby Subjects are discharged from their Oath of Allegiance to their Prince whensoever the Pope pleaseth This may be added to make the third no less mischievous and destructive to humane Society than either of the rest That the King is not bound by that Oath which he hath taken to observe the Laws of the Kingdom but may when he sees cause lay Taxes and Burthens upon them without their consent contrary to the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom This hath been Preached and published by divers And this is that which hath been practised in Ireland by the Earl of Strafford in his Government there and endeavoured to be brought into England by his Counsel here The Seventh is this It is an offence that is contrary to the end of Government The end of Government was to prevent oppressions to limit and restrain the excessive power and violence of great men to open the passages of Justice with indifferency towards all This Arbitrary Power is apt to induce and encourage all kind of insolencies Another end of the Government is to preserve men in their Estates to secure them in their Lives and Liberties but if this design had taken effect and could have been setled in England as it was practised in Ireland no man would have had more certainty in his own then Power would have allowed him but these two have been spoken of before there are two behind more important which have not yet been touched It is the end of Government that Virtue should be cherish'd Vice supprest but where this Arbitrary and unlimited Power is set up a way is open not only for the security but for the advancement and encouragement of evil such men as are apt for the execution and maintenance of this Power are only capable of preferment and others who will not be instruments of any unjust commmands who make a conscience to do nothing against the Laws of the Kingdom and Liberties of the Subject are not only not passable for employment but subject to much jealousie and danger It is the end of Government that all Accidents and Events all Counsels and Designs should be improved to the publique good But this Arbitrary Power is apt to dispose all to the maintainance of it self The wisdome of the Council Table The authority of the Courts of Justice The industry of all the Officers of the Crown have been most carefully exercised in this the Learning of our Divines the Jurisdiction of our Bishops have been moulded and disposed to the same effect which though it were begun before the Earl of Straffords imployment yet it hath been exeedingly furthered and advanced by him Under this colour and pretence of maintaining the King's Power and Prerogative many dangerous practises against the peace and safety of the Kingdom have been undertaken and promoted The increase of Popery and the favours and encouragement of Papists have been and still are a great grievance and danger to the Kingdom The innovation in matters of Religion the Usurpations of the Clergy the manifold burthens and taxations upon the people have been a great cause of our present distempers and disorders and yet those who have been chief furtherers and actors of such mischiefs have had their Credit and Authority from this that they were forward to maintain this power The Earl of Strafford had the first rise of his Greatness from this and in his Apology and Defence as your Lordships have heard this hath had a main part The Royal Power and Majesty of Kings is most Glorious in the Prosperity and happiness of the People the perfection of all things consists in the end
had the fortune to have all the Examinations whereupon they proceeded and looked over them all and now I protest and call God to witness not any way as making to me I found the said Lord to have proceeded as Honourably Justly and Nobly to his understanding as any man could do and yet was decryed as much as any man could be And so I beseech Your Lordships to consider me the Kings Servant and that in the Administration of the Commands and Justice intrusted with me I had occasion to give offence to many and that it hath been the ill fortune of those that have been Governours there when they have left the Government not to be so well reported as otherwise they might be Besides There is nothing in this Charge can possibly amount to Treason admit all to be as it is laid though perhaps to a Misdemeanour That if it be no Treason it will fall to be but Misdemeanour and then I conceive it stands with the Justice and Practice of this Court to allow Councel and Witnesses which I am debarred from by the involving me under the general Charge of Treason and having no further time to prepare then since Friday last That though before I durst not say Your Lordships were bound by Rules of any Judicature but stood to Your own Honour and Nobleness and were a Rule to Your selves and herein I take Your Lordships to witness yet since the Gentlemen at the Barr have prest the rules of other Courts I desire leave to offer That in all ordinary Courts of Judicature that ever I heard of where the Criminal party doth Answer and that Answer is not replyed to nor he admitted to make his proof the Answer of the party is taken and confest from which universal Rule of Justice no man can shew him a transgression And therefore since I cannot be admitted my proofs it being impossible to fetch Witnesses out of Ireland since Friday last my Answer I conceive ought to be admitted and the Charge taken as I confest it not as it is on proof Saving to my self that I said I would go on to give the best Answer I could on a suddain professing That if I had had time I am confident through the mercy and goodness of God and the Innocency of my own heart I should be able to clear my self of Treason the greatest Crime between man and man towards His Majesty and towards his People my heart being innocent of it and never having suggestion or thought but for the Greatness and Honour of His Majesty and the Prosperity and blessed Estate of His People all the days of my life and ever desiring the best things and never satisfied I had done enough but did always desire to do better but also of all other foul Crimes of Injustice or Oppression Errours I may have many perhaps my Tongue hath been too free my Heart perhaps hath lain too near my Tongue but God forbid every word should rise up in Judgment against me If every word that 's spoken amiss should be observ'd who is able to endure it for words spoken ten twelve eight or nine years ago to be brought in Judgment of me is a very heavy Case and I beseech your Lordships to turn the Case inward and to tell me if it be not a hard Case to be put upon such an Examination I shall observe further that words ought to be charged within a certain time by the Proviso in the Stat. in E. 6. time they must be brought in question within 30 days as I take it which Proviso stands good in Law but I go now into a Learning that God knows I have little skill of to this I desire my Councel may in due time be heard to open and Plead In the mean time I desire to say that if popular actions must be concluded within a year or two at the most sure words should be questioned within a less time I shall proceed to maintain the truth of my Answer That Ireland is not governed by the same Laws that England is and for that I shall read a few words in my Lord Cooks Learning which God knows I understand not it is in Calvins Case where the words are So as now the Laws of England became the proper Laws of Ireland And therefore because they have Parliaments holden there whereat they have made divers particular Laws as it appears in the 20 H. 6. 8. and 20. and in Ed. Dyer 360. And for that they retain to this day divers of the ancient Customs the Book of 20 H. 6. holds That Ireland is governed by Laws and Customs separate and divers from the Laws of England Therefore in all things belonging to my Charge that came out of Ireland I hope Your Lordships will take along with you the consideration of the Customs and Practices of that Kingdom and not judge me according to that which hath been the Custom and Practice of the Kingdom of England In the second place I come to the words of Ireland being a conquered Nation The words laid in the Charge being that I should say That Ireland was a conquered Nation and the King might do with them what he pleased And first I should do extreamly ill to the Honour of the English Nation and to the memory of divers of Your Lordships Noble Ancestors if I should not both say and think that Ireland is a conquered Nation when here 's mention made in the Laws and in the Acts of State of English Rebels and Irish Enemies certainly there is something in that for till the Kings of England gave them the advantage and benefit of the Laws of England it is well known they were held Irish Enemies and so termed and stiled in all the Records one shall meet withall in these times And that it was a conquered Nation I have very good Authority in the Statute made 11 Eliz. at the Attainder of that famous Rebel Shan Oneale In one part of which it is said That all the Clergy of the Realm assembled in Armagh at the time of the Conquest c. See the Statute Is it then so much for me to say what 's in the Act and is it not for the Honour of the English Nation to say it and it must be said to the Worlds end for 't is a truth And therefore there is no cause it should be taken so hainously or heard with so much displeasure and if I displease for telling the truth I cannot help it He reads another part of it viz. And therefore it is to be understood that King Hen. 2. the first Conqueror of this Realm c. And so it hath been acknowledged in all stories and times and many an English man hath spent his blood in it whose Posterity will be ashamed to view it other than as a conquered Kingdom Nay I believe many Noble Persons are yet living that have bled for it and will take it ill if it be termed less than a Conquest in them
by them to be appointed to Arrest and Attach the Bodies of all such of the meaner and poorer sort that after Citation shall refuse to appear before them or appearing shall omit or deny to perform and undergo all Lawful Decrees Sentences and Orders issued imposed and given out against them and them so Arrested to Commit and keep in the next Goal till they shall perform such Sentences or put in sufficient Bond to shew some reasons before the Council-Table of such their Contempts c. willing all Justices of the Peace c. in that Diocess to be Aiding c. as they c. Given c. Febr. 16. 1636. Tho. Little Mr. Glyn opened the several parts of the Warrant and offered that it was expresly against Law putting their Lordships in mind of the former words That he would make an Act of State equal to an Act of Parliament But now he is better than his word for he will make an Act of State higher than an Act of Parliament For whereas by the Law no Subject of the Kings in any Ecclesiastical Court may be taken till he be cited and then on disobedience he is Excommunicated and on Excommunication there is a Writ called Capias Excommunicatum by virtue of which he is apprehended Now my Lord of Strafford issues a Warrant to take him if he appear not on Citation breaking through the Law and making no matter of that but he will make a Law that extends to the Liberty of the Subject And if this had never been put in Execution it had been all one to the purpose of the Commons for this shews how being intrusted with the Kings Law in Ireland he discharges that Trust. But for Execution they desired Witnesses might be heard Sir Iames Mountgomery being asked how this Warrant was Executed and the Kings Subjects used under colour of his Authority He Answered That he hath seen several Warrants that have issued under the Hand of the Bishop of Downe's Chancellor sometimes to the Constables sometimes to his own Apparitors with their Assistance for to apprehend the persons under-named That there have sometimes twenty sometimes thirty sometimes more sometimes less names been put in the Warrant That he hath known them executed with great cruelty sometimes wounding beating imprisoning them Being asked on my Lord of Straffords motion how long since he knew any thing done upon that Warrant He Answered Since the time of the Warrant granted and he thinks the Warrant bears date February 1636. till of late much about this time Twelve-month which was the last time he was charged himself to be assistant to the Execution of it That he heard the Bishop of Derry had taken up the Warrants in Sommer last on many and frequent Complaints that had come and had withdrawn it from the Bishop of Downe about Iuly last The Manager closed this Article observing that my Lord of Strafford not only takes this Power but gives it over to others and see how they do execute it over the Kings Subjects Knights and men of Eminency must be called to assist and therefore it was high time to accuse my Lord of Strafford of subverting the Laws of Ireland And so expected his Lordships Answer My Lord of Strafford began his Defence in effect as followeth Such Warrants have been usually granted to the Bishops of Ireland in times of all former Deputies But not satisfied with the convenience thereof I refused to give such Warrants generally as was formerly used Being informed that divers in the Bishoprick of Downe gave not fitting Obedience I gave this Warrant being the only Warrant of this kind that I granted and hearing complaints of the Execution of it I called it in again They have produced only a Copy of the Original Warrant and what words may be omitted that 's in the Original God knows and I think under favour it would not be an Evidence at the Kings-Bench Bar. And this stands with the practice of former Deputies to grant such Warrants of Assistance to the Bishops The Lord Primate of Ireland his Examination read To the 7th Interrogatory That he remembers his immediate Predecessor in the Bishoprick of Meath told him he had a Warrant of Assistance from the then Lord Deputy who was either the Lord Chichester or the Lord Grandison That the Recusants in his Diocess desired it might be so for the saving of those Charges which would come on them by the Writs de Excommunicat ' Capiendo Robert Lord Dillon being asked whether he had known formerly such Warrants to be granted and by whom He Answered He hath heard Writs of Assistance have been granted by former Deputies but he remembers not that ever he saw any Mr. Tho. Little being asked whether this Warrant was granted according to former Presidents He Answered That he hath seen one of the Original Warrants before my Lords coming there and that it was brought to him to draw another by And going to instance in some Copies seen in my Lord of Faulklands Book of Entries The Manager excepted against him for medling with a Book formerly over-ruled Mr. Little proceeds That he hath seen an Original Warrant by which this was drawn and it was under my Lord of Faulkland's hand and this was made according to that pattern Being asked whether my Lord of Strafford did not restrain and give direction to him not to issue any other Warrant of that nature He Answered There was no more made but this though divers required them my Lord forbidding him at all times afterwards My Lord of Strafford offered his humble request to their Lordships that in all things that concern the Irish Charge they will please to remember it was not possible for him to procure any Witnesses in this short time of his Trial having not liberty till Friday was seven night These things being notorious and might have been cleared if he had had time He added That whether this be a true Copy of the Warrant or no I cannot tell but likely enough it is That it was moved for by the Bishop of Downe and Connor to whom for some reasons I was willing to grant it but being afterwards told by Sir George Ratcliffe that he doubted whether it was Legal or no I called it in again and never granted any but this That as appears in the proof I sent to the Bishop of Derry and desired him to call in the Warrant and so he did long before this complaint And thence I infer that it could not argue my intention to break the same Whereas the Gentleman at the Bar said that I had been better than my word for I had said an Act of State should be as good as an Act of Parliament but here I made an Act of State better than an Act of Parliament I observe that he is willing to make me better than my word when it may be for my disadvantage but is willing to make me worse than my word when by
should think fit according to the demerit of the Delinquents and to be kept there until they made submission and then to return and not before And the like Warrants were issued to others and to the Subjects of that Realm who were forced to submit to his illegal Commands and this is charged to be a levying of War against the King and his People Your Lordships may please to remember what a Power my Lord of Strafford had assumed to himself from the Courts of Justice established by Law in taking to himself an Arbitrary Power to determine Causes on Petitions and that without any legal Process And he intended to himself an execution of these Orders in this manner If a Petition was presented First a signification went to the Party that he should satisfie the complaint else shew cause if he did not appear then there went a Messenger or Pursivant on his Affidavit that the Party was not found as well he might not be found then an Attachment after that the Sergeant at Arms. This Sergeant at Arms had always with him a Warrant dormant not a particular Warrant in the Case complained of that whensoever he should have an Order to fetch any man in if once he had made Affidavit he could not be found he was by virtue of that Warrant to repair to the next Garrison and there to take such numbers of Soldiers as he thought fit and quarter them on the House of the Party and this was as ordinarily executed as any powers of Law in legal Cases In the execution of this the Party suffered as much insolencie as is incident to War their Catel taken their Corn thrash'd out their growing Corn cut their Houses burnt and some exiled and forced to leave their Countrey and flie to remote places by reason of their Soldiers insolencies The method propounded is First to prove the Fact then to observe the nature of the offence both from the Stat. of 25. Edw. 3. and also from a particular Stat. in Ireland 18 H. 6. whereby the Offendor in this very case is adjudged to be a Traytor Mr. Savil the Sergeant at Arms produced and sworn and a Copy of his Warrant offered My Lord of Strafford excepted against the reading of the Copy in a Charge of High Treason adding that it concerned him very much he being to be tryed for his Life and Honor since upon this the whole Charge was to be grounded On other things he did not insist so much but submitted to their Lordships pleasure because they said they would consider them in their Judgement but this being the ground and foundation whereupon they intend to charge him with High Treason he besought their Lordships to consider it with that Honor and Goodness and Justice they did in all things Mr. Glyn in Answer alledged that their Lordships had over-ruled it in the Case of the Bishop of Down That suppose a Warrant is offered by force whereby High Treason is committed if a Copy may not be given in evidence then let him that is guilty in such a Case get away the Originals it cleares him of the Treason besides it is no matter of Record and Mr. Maynard observed That if one writes a Letter and therein commands one to commit Treason if the Letter be burnt this man shall not prove the Command if only the Original must make it good Mr. Savill being asked what was become of the Original Warrant He answered it was in Ireland he not expecting any question about this business but this was the Copy of it and under his own hand My Lord of Strafford offered to their Lordships that he that is to swear it to be a true Copy is the man that if a fault be committed is in fault himself as much as any for he is the man that executed this Treason and now he shall swear to the justifying of his own act Mr. Savill being on my Lord of Clares Motion Asked How they came by the Copy He Answered He knew not how it came into their hands But Mr. Palmer added Now he sees it in our hands and he knows it And that this Copy cannot be questioned unless he question what is done already for in this very Case a Copy is allowed to be an Evidence for the Relation it hath to the greatness of the Charge as to my Lord of Strafford and it cannot alter the Justice of the Evidence for if it be an Evidence it is an Evidence in whatsoever the Cause is Mr. Savill being Asked How he came to set his hand to the VVarrant He Answered That in Ianuary last there came to him one VVilliam Somer Secretary to my Lord Rainalaugh and told him Mr. Sergeant Savill you had a Warrant to Quarter Soldiers on one within the Town of Athlone but the parties were Friends and you removed them one of those Soldiers committing Extortion in taking away two Pewter Dishes and is to be Tried at our next sitting and unless the Soldier have a Copy of your Warrant he is like to suffer in it That he thereupon Answered He could not deny it and brought the Original Warrant and being a good Clerk he bad him Copy it out He sayes he desired you to let some of your own Men do it and I will give him for his pains That he the said Mr. Savill did thereupon deliver the Original Warrant to his Servant Edmond Brumingham as he remembers who Copied it out That Mr. Somer came and told him Here is a Copy That he asked Mr. Somer Whether he had examined it Yes indeed saith he it is a true Copy That upon that he the said Mr. Savill delivered this to Mr. Somer under his Hand but did not compare it himself yet is confident it is a True Copy Mr. Maynard observed That they Charged a Treason in an Act That my Lord of Strafford gave Authority to do such a thing not that he gave this Particular Warrant and though they proved no Copy at all yet proving the Command it maintained sufficiently the Charge for a Treason may be a Treason though not put in Execution That they produced not this Copy as necessary to give a precise Copy but to prove that there was such a Command and Authority given and as a farther evidence they shew a Copy taken on such an occasion And Witnesses are here who will clearly Depose That this is the very substance and effect of the Warrant given under my Lord of Straffords hand Here my Lord of Strafford interposed That it was Charged on him in particular That on the 9 th of May in the 12 th year of the King he gave Traiterously Authority to Robert Savill c. But Mr. Palmer insisted That they did not find much on Reading this Warrant but if the Authority was proved it was sufficient And Mr. Pym added That they could not wave any part of the Evidence and therefore prayed it might be read Mr.
nor Horse to lye on Horseback or Foot to lye on the Kings people but on their own cost without consent And if any so do he shall be adjudged as a Traitor Mr. Palmer concluded that this hath been done and how their Lordships have heard that this hath been done by Soldiers that profess hostility brought from Garrisons the places of War in great numbers and indeed the number left indefinitely to the discretion of the Sergeant at Arms in Warlike furniture which is literally true in the case And so he concluded the Article expecting my Lord of Strafford's Defence My Lord of Strafford desired their Lordships would be pleased to give him liberty to look over his Notes and he doubted not but to give their Lordships a very clear satisfaction by the help of Almighty God After a little respite his Lordship began his Defence in substance as followeth And First He desired their Lordships would please to remember that if he proved not all things so clearly and fully the reason was obvious and plain the shortness of his time the Witnesses being to be fetched out of Ireland and he having none but such as come accidentally That the other day he read to their Lordships out of Sir Edward Cook 's Book that the Customs of Ireland are in many things different from the Customs of England That for the things done in Ireland he conceived he was to be judged by the Laws and Customs of Ireland and not by the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom and that his Commission was to execue the place of Deputy according to the Laws and Customs of that Kingdom That what hath been opened to their Lordships to be so extraordinary he must justifie as very ordinary frequent and usually exercised by the Customs of that Kingdom That in all times the Army of Ireland and the Officers and Soldiers of it have been the chief hands in executing all the Justice of the Kingdom and of bringing that due obedience to the Kings authority that 's necessary and fit and due That if they had not been so used he thinks those who know the State of Ireland will acknowledge the King's Writs had never run in Ireland they being all executed by their Power and Assistance First his Lordship undertook to make it appear that in case of bringing in Rebels and Offendors of that nature and forcing them to come in it had been the ordinary practice of the Deputy and Council before his time to Assess Soldiers not only on the party but the kindred of the partys till the party be brought in and yet it is no levying of War for all that And because his Lordship heard much speaking of Rebels and Traitors he desired to represent to their Lordships what they be viz. a company of petit loose fellows that would be here apprehended by a Constable Lord Robert Dillon was called for and my Lord of Strafford desired he might be asked whether it had not been the practice of the Deputy and Council to Assess Soldiers not only on the persons but the Septs and whole kindred of Rebels Here Mr. Palmer interposed that for saving of time if my Lord makes this the Case that Soldiers have been laid upon the Septs of Traitors or Rebels that lye out in Woods and esloigne themselves from the Kings protection whom they call Kernes Outlaws and Rebels they the Committee will admit the usage though it will not justifie the Case being expresly against Law for by a Stat. 22 Eliz. If any lye out as Traitors or Rebels five of the Sept that bears the Surname shall be Fined at the Council-Chamber but not have Soldiers laid on them and against a Statute there can be no Usuage To which my Lord of Strafford answered And these are but ordinary fellows And he desired their Lordships would clearly understand what is meant by Rebels for every petty fellow stealing Sheep and the like if the party be out in action they commonly term such Rebels Robert Lord Dillon being asked whether ordinary fellows in Ireland passed not under the name of Rebels His Lordship Answered That touching this point he hath observed that when a party hath committed some Felony or unjustifiable Act and withdraws himself into the Woods a Proclamation is made for his coming in by such a time to render himselfamenable to the Law and if he then comes not in but keeps out in commmon reputation he is accounted a Traitor or Rebel Sir Arthur Tyrringham being asked whether of his knowledge the Deputies and Council have not frequently Sessed Soldiers on Offenders and Rebels when they could not be brought forth to Justice and what is understood by a Rebel in Ireland He Answered That it hath been the ordinary practice ever since he knew that Kingdom since my Lord of Faulklands being Deputy there and hath been ever practised there both by him and the Justices that came after him That ordinary fellows be commonly reputed Rebels with this observation It is true That every man is not a Rebel at his first going out though he be called so but the course is first to proclaim them and if they be not ameneable to Law they be Rebels and so they may be for Felonies of a very small value To prove that most of the Kings Rents as well Exchequer Rents as Composition Rents have been levied by Soldiers in all the times of my Lord of Cork My Lord of Strafford desired Iohn Conley might be called for who being examined how long since he hath been in Ireland and whether in his time the Rents were not col lected by the Soldiers and Officers of the Army He Answered to the First 15 years To the Second That he remembers it very well that in my Lord Faulklands time it was an ordinary course where the Kings Rents were due to send some Horse and Horsemen and takeup these Rents and lye on them till they were collected and taken up So in my Lord Grandisons time and in all Chichesters time and this is all he cansay Henry Dillon was called And First my Lord of Strafford desired liberty to defend the credit of his Witness as to some exceptions taken to him the other day and offered the occasion of the Order of Council-Board made against him to be only this That he said he heard some such thing said and thereupon was commanded to make an acknowledgement and to this he was invited and perswaded by my Lord Dillon for quietness sake rather than he should be troubled about so small a matter and that being granted he supposed the Gentleman stood upright and was a competent Witness in this or any other cause To which some of the Committee for the Commons answered That they except not against the hearing of him but offer to their Lordships memory his acknowledgement that he spake falsly as a weakening of his memory And then Henry Dillon being asked Whether he knew
from this Statute he shall stand clear abroad and this cannot be brought as to this Case to convince him of Treason And his Lordship did recall one thing in the Lord Dillons testimony which he had formerly omitted That the Assessing of Soldiers was on men being in Rebellion for any unjustifyable Act. And so his Lordship conceived there remains no more for him to do at this time but to answer that objection That this proceeding of his was Treason by 25 Edw. 3. though he had thought Treason had been like Felony in this respect That there must be a felonious intent to make Felony and so to make Treason there must be a Treasonable intent And he said God knows he had no Treasonable intent in all this for if he had a mind to have raised War against the King and his People surely he should never have done it by laying two or three Soldiers on a private man and then taking them off again And is this that levying of War against the King and his People that is meant in the Irish Statute of 25 Edw. 3 The words of which Statute his Lordship read viz. If any man levy War against the King in His Realm or adhere to His enemies c. He appeals to their Lordships desiring them to lay it to themselves and tell him whether 2 or 3 poor Soldiers sent in this manner to bring in a man that will not be lyable to the Kings Justice could by any construction be brought to be a War levied against the King and his People which said he if it be an error he knew it was no Treason for he had thought it had been for the Honor and Authority and Justice of the King and not done as an enemy to him And therefore all laid together though he must needs say Men are dark towards themselves and towards their own Cases and less able to judge than in the Case of other men in truth under favour withall Humility and submission to their Lordships better judgements he cannot believe nor fear but for any thing proved this day against him as he is clear in his heart from all Treasons and treasonable Intentions towards the King and His People so he stands clear from Treason upon this Charge not only in respect of the Irish Statute but likewise the English Statute and he shall beseech their Lordships when it comes to its time they will give his Council leave to urge these things for him who he is sure will be able to do it with far greater reason and strength than himself it being out of his profession Here his Lordship took notice that there was another part of the Charge which he desired to speak to but Mr. Palmer said That was subsequent and not yet come to To which his Lordship Answered That he should do all things without offence only so long as he doth mannerly move any thing for his clearing he hopes he may do it And so the Defence was concluded And then Mr. Palmer replyed in Substance as followeth That their Lordships have heard a very long Defence made by my Lord of Strafford and that he would not apply himself to inforce any thing by circumstances but to represent the truth and to avoid those things offered by way of Answer for most part of that may be confessed and yet avoided Whereas my Lord of Strafford hath made the greatest part of his Defence in matter of Fact from Usage their Lordships may please to consider that there can be no legal Usage contrary to an Act of Parliament made before time of memory as 25 E. 3. in England and 18 H. 6. in Ireland much less can there be Usage for committing of Treason The Usage insisted on is First for Soldiers being Assest on Septs till Rebels and Traitors not apprehendible were brought in and by Rebels his Lordship would have understood not Rebels against the King and State but petit Offenders and Felons and for that did examine Witnesses But the Witnesse says That when such had committed Felony and withdrawn themselves into Woods a Proclamation went out to call them in and if then they came not in they were esteemed Rebels and Soldiers were laid on their Septs which is not to lay Soldiers on Subjects in time of Peace when they will not conform to his private Orders The Stat. 11 Eliz. describes what the laying Soldiers on the Sept was viz. When Outlaws and Rebels lye in the Woods and will not be apprehended with the ordinary Arm of Justic then five of the best of the Sept shall be Fined but not that Soldiers shall be laid on them And this being a Statute and lately made must needs give the Rise to this laying of Soldiers on the Septs by the Council-Board instead of a Fine so this is no justification or excuse it not bringing a full Answer home to the present Case nor is this of right to be justified The next Usage was concerning the Kings Rents which Mr. Conley only extends beyond the time of my Lord of Faulkland he speaks of it in the time of my Lord Grandison and Chichester yet it was no positive Testimony and he was an old man and his Evidence uncertain for those times Besides there was no account given of the certain reason whether by a legal Process or no For there might be due Process awarded and a Writ of Assistance to carry the power of the Countrey and so the thing be done by legal authority and therefore since it cannot be applyed to any rule it must be intended to be an illegal power if at all The rest were all for Rents in the time of my Lord of Faulkland The instructions were produced by my Lord of Strafford himself in time 1628. which was before my Lord of Faulkland went out of that Government And by these instructions there is an Agreement and it is taken to be for the benefit of the people that the Kings Rents should be levied by Soldiers so that for all the time of my Lord of Faulkland and the Justices since it was within the compass of the Instructions and reduced to the consent of the people and the words of the Statute are No Soldiers shall be Assest without consent but this remains charged to be by force and against consent That concerning the Contribution-money in which another Usage is alledged is set forth to be an agreement of the people That because it might not come into the Exchequer to be made a Precedent it should not be levyed by ordinary Process but by Soldiers if it were behind it being assigned for relief and pay of Soldiers and being by consent is out of the present case Sir Arthur Tyrringham speaks of this Use in case of a petit debt of 16 or 20 s. on a Warrant from my Lord Faulkland which is the only Case of Debt prooved but he could not tell whose or what debt it was nor how determined or judged If it were
only excepted as be imployed here c. do hereafter make their personal Residence and not depart for England or other place without privity of Our Deputy any former Letters to the contrary notwithstanding And because We resolve to have this course constantly observed if you shall have notice of any Contemner of this Command Our Will and Pleasure is That you proceed against them in an exemplary way to deterr others And for so doing this shall be your Warrant My Lord of Strafford observed That he might well have hoped that this being required by the Laws of the Land that no man should depart without Licence but it should be penal to him having their own Articles which desire the same thing That by this Proclamation the Power of my Lord of Faulkland was established upon him and the Kings Command for the issuing this Proclamation being justified by the Kings own Letter so that this should not have been laid to him for so great and high a crime as it hath been represented to your Lordships and he trusted that by that time their Lordships thought it not so great a crime as it might at first seem to be That he was not very hasty in issuing the Proclamation he having no interest in it nor nothing to drive him forwards for tho His Majesties Command was bearing date 20 Iune 1634. yet the Proclamation issued not till Sept. 17. 1635. And because all he had said had been turned on him as a crime his Lordship gave this further Answer That there could be no Proclamation made by the Deputy alone he being absolutely restrained by his Commission not to make a Proclamation without the Council therefore he could not be singular in the fault but had the consent of all the Kings Council and for instance in matter of Law the Chief Justices are sitting at the Board to whom all matters of Law are referred and they are answerable for it and are so learned that they could not do things so frequently without good authority and this he offered in excuse of this and all other Proclamations not doubting but it was according to the Laws and Customs of the Land And for further satisfaction that part of his Commission that concerned the Proclamation was read and in this particular he desired leave to offer something more with all Humility that tho none of these were for his justification yet for Reasons of State this Restraint was most necessary for whosoever goes over Deputy while these two great men to term them no worse O Neal and Tir-Connel have Regiments of the most antient Irish Septs serving the King of Spain under their Command it is necessary for him to have an eye upon them for if every one might withdraw himself at pleasure without giving an account it would open all the power and means that possibly can be to distemper that State and certainly if that liberty might be granted he feared it would produce sad events in that Kingdom Moreover if all the Primogeniture and Nobility of that Religion should be suffered to go over to Doway St. Omer and the Jesuites Colledges it was to be feared they should not be so well brought up for the service of the King and Common-wealth as may be desired and therefore it was necessary according to the constitutions of that Kingdom that they shall give an account to the Chief Governor And it was no other than what is practised here in England no man being at liberty to goe hence into France without Licence And certainly said he it is an Account we owe to the King and stands with the Law of nature Pater Familiae may take accompt of his own Houshold and the King being the great Father of the Common-wealth we owe this Accompt to him Therefore he conceived it can be no great offence in him to do this on these grounds and as he recommended the prosperity of that Kingdom and His Majesties affairs there and here to God by his Prayers and good desires so he wishes it might be taken into good consideration that this may be continued as a principal and necessary expedient to give His Majesty that account without which the Governor shall not be able to take just measures of things there His Lordship then observed that something had been observed that was no part of his Charge and therefore presumed their Lordships would not expect an answer to it or conclude him any way in their Judgement guilty of it since the means of giving that satisfaction which otherwise he should have done are now taken away But when they came to be complained of in their proper place he is ready to give such an account as becomes a Just and Innocent man But that which seems to be the foulest of them was that concerning my Lord of Esmond of which he remembred very little but something darkly and if it appeared not as he should say he was extreamly mistaken for what he did not know or remember he would not speak of it confidently and in short the point is this Two men swear that he the Lord of Strafford denied liberty to my Lord of Esmond to come for England Aug. 1638. and that he was kept in Ireland and could not have Licence to come away till April 1639. His Lordship confessed it to be very true and that he remembred my Lord of Esmond desiring to go over was stopped by him a while he being Sergeant Mayor-General of the Army the Army having occasion of motion and that he was sure it was much about the time if his Memory failed him not extreamly but when it came to this time and he had means to produce witnesses he hoped to make this appear besides he was mistaken if he did not very shortly after give him a Licence and that he found not occasion to make use of it and if that was was so all they said was taken away for he afterwards finding it to draw towards winter laid aside the Licence till the Spring at Spring he asked it and had it but in these things not judicially brought against him and to which he could not make certain Answers he hoped he might stand clear and unprejudiced till he may answer positively for himself and then as their Lordships should find him they might judge of him and he should ever most willingly submit to their Judgements and abide it whatever it was And whereas the Witnesse said my Lord of Esmond was hindred because he had no Commission to examine Witnesses my Lord of Strafford said he was able to prove that a Bond was granted him to examine Witnesses And the Witness being accidentally there his Lordship took notice of Gods providence from that and said God Almighty was willing to help and assist him wonderfully in his Trial and that his Goodness to him in this Cause had been a great deal more than he would trouble their Lordships withal at that time but he said he was confident God had
had been Judges and Mr. Wainsford the Master of the Rolls took occasion to speak to my Lord Deputy in his the said Sir Philips hearing and commended him for carrying himself with that caution that he had no way reflected on the Nation but the Faction in that Kingdom and had shunned the words which might reflect on the Nation And so his Lordship concluded his Defence and said he hoped that there was nothing proved that should touch him so deeply as Treason for if the obeying of the Commands of this Case be so great a crime he must confess if it were to do again being not better informed by wiser men tho hereafter he may be better informed and prevent it he should be that Trairor over again and do the self-same thing again and therefore if he had done it out of ignorance he hopes their Lordships will not look on him as having any evil intention or wicked purpose but to serve His Majesty with faithfulness which he hopes will procure an easier judgement from their Lordships than to think of a High Treason in this Article And then Mr. Whitlock made Reply thereunto in substance as followeth That in his Answer to my Lord of Strafford's Defence he shall begin with that which his Lordship was pleased to mention last and also at the beginning That this should not be accounted Treason he knows not the Illegality of it and if it were to be done again he would do it on that Command Whence Mr. Whitlock observed that his slighting or rather justifying of this offence when he is told in this great Presence that it is against Law and will be made good and appear to be against Law is a great aggravation of the offence It is well known that a new Oath cannot be Imposed without Assent in Parliament It is legistativa potestas The Oath of Allegiance is as antient as our allegiance and nothing needed to have been added to that and had it been tendered to them as it might have been by Law this would have performed the Kings Command which under favour went no farther and would have been sufficient security of what was doubted and feared But my Lord of Strafford will go farther the Oath that the Law enjoyns doth not please him he must have a new one framed by himself and published by his Authority thereby to make his Authority equal to an Act of Parliament 'T is indeed believed there were some apprehensions of dangers in Ireland by the great number of the Scots there and a Covenant in Scotland then Sworn but that Covenant is not to be medled withal now The Charge enforced against my Lord of Strafford is not his Care of preventing danger to the Kingdom but that he caused a new and unusual Oath to be Imposed and particularly that they should submit to all the Kings Royal Commands The Committee confess and think no man had ever yet a heart to doubt That the King would command any thing that should be against Law But it hath been sufficiently proved that my Lord of Strafford a Subordinate Minister under the King hath published his own Commands in the Kings Name which are not Justificable nor according to Law And that under favour might be a good cause for the Scots to be tender of taking his Oath knowing that these Commands here were not His Majesties Immediate Commands but the Commands of my Lord of Strafford which they saw many times so unlawful and exorbitant My Lord of Strafford hath produced diverse Witnesses to prove It was Debated on at Council-Board And that the Scots did chearfully take the Oath but in this he hath laboured to disprove his own Answer which is That the Scots came up and desired to have an Oath whereas it appears the Council-Table thought fit to send for them by Letters under his Lordships hand and it was propounded to them to take such an Oath He sayes himself put these words into the Petition In equal manner and measure with other His Majesties Subjects Which showes That my Lord of Strafford himself had the Perusal and Correction of this Petition which is a good Proof that he contrived the Oath The Petition doth only beseech my Lord Deputy That an Oath might be framed to vindicate themselves from the Faction of their Countrymen and the Covenant which they might have done by the Legal Oath the Oath of Allegiance But he put something in above what they desired and that was for submission to all the Kings Royal Commands which may extend to Liberty to Property of Goods and so is a great deal further than His Majesty was pleased to Command by His Letter wherein there was nothing but what was very fit to be commanded by my Lord of Strafford and very fit for him to obey And What if my Lord of Strafford should procure a Letter from His Majesty to do that which is not warrantable by Law the Kings considerations are far above the particular Points of the Municipal Law of this Kingdom He cannot know them but is to be enformed of them by His Ministers Now if my Lord of Strafford shall misinforme Him and desire to have that by His Authority which is not warrantable by Law the fault is my Lord of Straffords and it much aggravates the Crime but the Kings Letter doth not warrant my Lord of Strafford for he hath proceeded further He sayes concerning the Censure of Mr. Stuart That he delivered his Opinion among the rest but their Lordships may remember he went as high as to charge him with Treason It is true the Bishop of Derry conceived it might be Treason And the Primate said The Denial of the former part might be Treason but not the latter but my Lord of Strafford conceived the latter part to be Treason too And therefore surely his Opinion had more harshness and severity then the rest and being his Opinion it was of sufficient weight to carry along with him all the rest and that which was his own Act at the beginning which he Contrived and Treated with the Scotch Lords and Gentlemen That he persues in his Sentence and if others joyn with him in a hard Sentence against Law his fault is not the less but rather the greater to draw others into the same fault His Lordship says little of the Fine that is paid It is true it cannot be proved how much was paid but those that were Fined continued in Prison till very lately for that Fine And whereas he sayes Any taking the Oath might have been Released the next day It is the more Cruelly done to keep them in Prison till they take an Oath who cannot satisfie their Consciences that they may take it My Lord sayes If one refuse the Oath of Allegiance in this Kingdom he shall incur a Premunire and this Sentence was more moderate Indeed if that had been tendered they had incurred the like sentence and that might serve the turn but my Lord must stretch his
for my Lord of Canterbury if they have examined him it was before his Charge and they shall make no use of his examination neither is he a person capable of being a Witness being now charged and in some particulars for conspiring with the Lords at the Bar and therefore they submit it whether it be convenient he should be examined though if they shall urge his Testimony it will be something and likewise their Lordships over-ruled it in Sir George Ratcliff's Case But my Lord of Strafford submitting all to their ordships good pleasure it being his part only to move as his Lordship said and do what their Lordships should in their wisdoms think fit The Lord Steward declared their Lordships pleasure that Sergeant Glanvill and the other Witnesses might be reserved to be heard to morrow viva voce and that the examinations of my Lord of Northumberland and my Lord Keeper might be likewise reserved for my Lord of Canterbury it was observed that he was examined before the Charge and that the Gent. of the Commons-House intend not to make use of his Testimony And so the Committee proceeded to the next Article Mr. Whitlock proceeded putting their Lordships in mind that they had been pleased to take a view of my Lord of Strafford's Courses in Ireland which have manifested his designe to subvert and change the Law and bring in an Arbitrary Government That his execution of that Arbitrary Power upon the persons Estates and Lives of the Kings Subjects there hath been a clear proof of this his designe They shall now proceed to show their Lordships what his designe was in England and Scotland as the same was set forth in the 20th21 22 23 and 24th Articles together with the matters contained in them they being interwoven and depending one upon the other and so are but one business My Lord of Strafford did thereupon offer that he conceived it was agreed they shoul go Article by Article that his Memory is short and his Abilities weak and if three or four be brought together his Memory will not serve him to give them that account that otherwise he should be able to do And since the order of proceeding Article by Article was by consent he besought that course might be persued not giving consent to the alteration of it But Mr. Maynard desired leave to remember their Lordships that they offered to go Article by Article till they came to some that were woven together which might change the course They find much time is lost between Article and Article and there will need no great Consideration of of these being only about words and when my Lord of Strafford stands by way of Defence he may not inform them which way to proceed and they will proceed no way differently from what was formerly proposed My Lord of Strafford humbly appealed to their Lordships Whether the Favour offered him for recollecting his Notes had spent much time and added perhaps if another man had been in his case he would have thought as long a time as he had taken necessary tho a far abler man than himself but this inverts the whole Order agreed on and brings him to a great inconvenience and therefore he desired he might Answer them single in the mannor as was agreed upon To which Mr. Whitlock Answered That if the Articles be not proceeded in together and as having relation to one another they will loose much of the Application Evidence and Proof and he conceives will be more easie to my Lord of Strafford And for the Order mentioned there was under favour no order in it but when my Lord of Strafford made the motion Mr. Whitlock said he took the boldness to inform their Lordships that he should proceed on some of them altogether which my Lord of Strafford did not deny and their Lordships approved of and according to that they desire to proceed Mr. Glyn adding That he never knew before this time a Prisoner at the Barr prescribe a Method to the Evidence especially if he be charged with High Treason and my Lord may afford them the same favour they do him for if he will answer Article by Article he may but as they leave him to his course so they desire to take their course But in that case my Lord of Strafford desired he might have time to Answer till to morrow morning and professed that he should be extream unwilling to offer any thing that became him not in Humility and Modesty or to prescribe a course to any he being in his condition but he trusts he may with Humility and Duty offer to their Lordships consideration these things that may be for his Assistance and Defence without offence to any So the Committee that managed the Evidence for the Commons-House had direction to proceed as they had propounded Mr. Whitlock then proceeded to open the Charge of these Articles which will refer to prove a designe of my Lord of Strafford against Scotland to subvert their Parliament and our Government here and to bring in an Army on us to force us to submit to an Arbitrary Power First they shall apply themselves to prove his designe against Scotland which lies first in the Charge That he advised the King two or three times that the demands made by the Scots in their Parliament were a sufficient ground for a Warr against them notwithstanding that Parliament was indicted by the Kings Royal Authority and they have their liberty to Propound and Treat Your Lordships may remember what my Lord of Strafford said at the sentencing of Stewart in Ireland whereby he expressed his hatred and rancor towards them and his opinion of them at that time being after the pacification made and he continues in the same ill opinion of them and to give the same ill Council That at another time he told His Majesty the demands of the Scots in their Parliament were not matter of Religion but struck at the root of Government and that it was fit to punish them by force That he caused the Ships of the Scots in Ireland to be seized That he procured the Parliament in Ireland to declare their assistance and give supply for a Warr against Scotland and that several times he endeavoured to perswade His Majesty to an offensive Warr against the Scots under which particulars will fall in proof his design against Scotland His design against England was of the same nature which will appear by his words and by his Councils and by some Speeches given out by those that have very near Relation to him and are his creatures who agreed with his own words likewise They shall prove to their Lordships That on a discourse between Sir George Ratcliffe and Sir Robert King concerning the War with the Scots and my Lord of Straffords being engaged in it Sir George Ratcliffe told him We are ingaged in a War with the Scots and we must go on with it
Matter they now desiring his Examinations only to the point of my Lord of Straffords perswading the King to an Offensive War against the Scots The Examination of Algernon Earl of Northumberland taken 5th December 1640. Read To the 16th Interrogatory he saith That the said Lord Lieutenant did after the breach of the last Parliament advise His Majesty To go vigorously on in an Offensive and not Defensive War against the Scots The Lord Bishop of London Lord Treasurer of England Sworn and Interrogated What he knew concerning the Earl of Straffords giving Advice to His Majesty to go on in an Offensive War against the Scots before or after the breach of the last Parliament He Answered That all he remembred of my Lord of Straffords Advice touching a War was That which he gave publickly in Council at the Council-Board for he remembred not any single Advice that he gave at all The Advice given by his Lordship the Deponent at the Council-Board after the Relation made by my Lord the Earl of Traquair to the best of his remembrance was this My Lord Traquair did make a Relation before His Majesty and my Lords of what had passed in the Parliament of Scotland and of many Demands made there whereunto they did desire to have His Majesties consent and approbation His Majesty was pleased to signifie to those Lords That among these Demands there were some of them very prejudicial to that Crown insomuch that He could by no means give way to and consent to them with His Honor and safety and thereupon the Advice or Opinion given was and then was given by my Lord the Earl of Strafford as well as others of my Lords and the Demands being of that nature as they were then informed and the Commissioners as he remembers being then come up or at lest had a Licence to come up It was Resolved upon That in case they should insist upon those Demands that had been so related and would not recede nor alter nor submit otherwise then His Majesty should prepare Himself to reduce them by force this he takes to be my Lord of Straffords Expression and the Substance of what was there delivered Being Asked Whether my Lord of Strafford advised then an Offensive War or a Defensive War He Answered That he did not well remember what kind of War but he thinks it was an Offensive War Being Asked Whether at the Dissolving of the last Parliament my Lord of Strafford did not advise to an Offensive War He Answered That he remembers upon a Meeting afterwards of casting up the Charges and other things there was a discourse of it Whether it was best to have a War as only Defensive the War being then resolved upon or to make an Offensive War that is to enter into Scotland with Force And there were diverse Opinions in 't and he believes my Lord did incline to the Opinion for an Offensive War Being Asked on my Lord of Straffords motion Whether he my Lord of Strafford delivered any Opinion at that time different from the rest of the Lords present He Answered That every man there exprest himself in such sort as he thought fit some in one kind some in another but he did not observe any difference as to the main in the Opinion of any man Being Asked About the time When this was He Answered It was at the Council-Board at that time when my Lord Traquair made his Relation and as he remembers it was about December Being Asked Whether he delivered his Opinion once or twice He Answered The Opinion was delivered but once as he Remembers To the Seizing of the Scotch Ships in Ireland after the Pacification Mr. Nich. Barnewell Sworn and Interrogated What he knew of the stopping of the Scotch Ships in Ireland He Answered That Sir Robert Loftus had a place under my Lord Admiral and had seized on some Scotch Ships and Boates and that others fled away and that Sir George Ratcliff was Angry that he spoke of it in so Publick a Place as to give them occasion to run away but the time he doth not remember and he thinks Sir Robert Loftus was Vice-Admiral of Lemster but he cannot take his Oath that the Warrant was from my Lord of Strafford but Sir Robert told him He had a Warrant And so Mr. Whitlock said They would leave it as to the matter of Scotland and observed the Proofes That when a free Parliament was Convened there by the Kings Authority and had liberty to treat of their Grievances and Demands and when these Demands by way of Narration were declared in my Lord of Straffords hearing though the reasons of them were not then delivered yet my Lord of Strafford gave his Advice to the King That these Demands made in Parliament were a sufficient ground of a War against them even after His Majesty had declared Himself satisfied and would stay to hear the Reasons but that would not satisfie my Lord of Strafford he himself declared it at several times and before himself had heard the Reasons that the Demands made by the Kings Free Parliament were a sufficient ground of a War And if it be so Mr. Whitlock said he he is sure then Parliament or no Parliament no Liberty nor Property can subsist with it My Lord of Strafford hath declared his intention and designe to subvert the Parliament and to subvert the Government of Scotland That he perswaded the King to an offensive War and told the King their Demands were not matter of Religion but struck at the root of Government and that it was fit to punish them by force and on these proofs it is conceived his Designe was manifest After this Mr. Whitlock proceeded to shew also his Design against England and began with the Testimony of my Lord Primate of Ireland The Examination of the Right Reverend Father in God Iames Lord Archbishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland taken 11 Ian. 1640. To the 119 th Interrogatory he saith That in or about April last past in discourse betwixt the Earl of Strafford Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and this Examinant at Dublin in Ireland touching the Levies of Money upon the Subjects by the King he did hear the said Earl of Strafford declare That he did agree with those in England who thought that in case of imminent necessity the King might make use of his Prerogative to levy what he needed save that as his Lordship then further said in his opinion His Majesty was first to try His Parliament and if that supplyed him not then he might make use of His Prerogative as He pleased Himself or words to that effect The Lord Conway being asked what words my Lord of Strafford used when the said Lord Conway Demanded How the Army should be paid in case the Parliament gave not supply His Lordship Answered That he had been formerly examined upon this thing and then gave his Answer and besought their Lordships to give him
Opinion though he seems to Argue against it Is any thing more familiar than for a Man to seem to be of an Opinion to gain a Reason to confirm that Opinion which he is of and contrary to that he seems to defend by this means to get the strength of other Mens Reasons to confirm his own by Again Is any thing more familiar in private Discourse between Man and Man than when one is so far on that side the Line for the other to go as far himself that he may meet the first Man in the midst If a man meet with one that is as far below as himself is above and shall seem to maintain further than his Reason and Belief carries him to bring the other to moderation Shall this be charged on him as a Treason If words spoken to Friends in familiar Discourse spoken in ones Chamber spoken at ones Table spoken in ones Sick-Bed spoken perhaps to gain better Reason to give himself more clear light and judgment by reasoning If these things shall be brought against a man as Treason this under favour takes away the Comfort of all Humane Society By this means we shall be debarred of Speaking the Principal Joy and Comfort of Society with wise and good Men to become wiser and better our lives If these things be strained to take away Life and Honor and all that is desirable it will be a silent World a City will become an Hermitage and Sheep will be found amongst a Crowd and Press of People and no Man shall dare to impart his Solitary Thoughts or Opinion to his Friend and Neighbor but thereby be debarred from consulting with wiser Men then himself whereby he may understand the Law wherewith he ought to be governed But these be but words all the while and if he shall shew that words of a higher nature shall by the Judgment of an English Parliament be thought not to be Treason Why should he think or imagine or fear that their Lordships will make these indiscreet and idle Expressions of his reach so high as his Head and take the Comfort of his Life and Children from him No Statute makes Words Treason and if the Fundamental Law the Common Law of the Land had made them Treason surely the Parliament would never have set a Mulct upon them This Statute is 1 Ed. 6. cap. 12. as followeth BE it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid if any person or persons do compass and imagine by open Preaching express words or saying to depose or deprive the King His Heirs or Successors from His or their Royal Estate or Title or openly publish or say by express words or saying That any other person or persons other then the King His Heirs or Successors of right ought to be c. These be words of higher nature than those charged upon himself and yet the first offence is made but loss of Goods and Imprisonment for the second loss of Lands Goods and Imprisonment the third time is only made Treason He added That their Lordships will never think these words being flym-flam that pass in a negligent manner betwixt Man and Man shall ever be brought to be Treason And whereas 25 E. 3. hath these words When a Man doth Compass or Imagine the death of our Lord the King The very words are mentioned in 1 E. 6. When a man doth compass or imagine by open Preaching c. to Depose the King And the first Statute provides That if a Man shall compass the Death of the King and be not thereof attainted by open Deed it is not Treason And the Statute of H. 4. and 1 Mar. concurr with this and shew That the intent of these was to take away the danger the Subject might incurr if bare words should be brought against him as Treason And it hath been the Wisdom of their Lordships noble Ancestors and this State that they have alwayes endeavoured to conclude the danger that may fall on the Subject by Treason that it might be limited and bounded and that it might be so understood as to be avoided and he hopes we shall never be so improvident as to sharpen this two-edged Sword against our selves and the faces of our Posterity and to let the Lion loose to tear us all in pieces for if way be given to Arbitrary Treason and to the Wits of Men to work upon it to prejudice or question Life it would be very dangerous And he believes That in this Hall there would be Actions of Treason that would fly as familiarly up and down as Actions of Trespass and therefore since by the goodness of our King and the wisdom of our Ancestors we have been thus provided for why we should entangle our selves into the straights they could not endure but endeavoured by all means to free themselves from the dangers that familiarly follow them he cannot see To the First Part of the 23 d Article concerning the last Parliament the Gentlemen have reserved themselves till to morrow and therefore he shall not need to speak to that and so there will remain nothing for him to Answer but the last part of the Act with the next Charge concerning words spoken at the Council-Board or at the Committee for Scotch Affairs viz. That His Majesty having tried the Affections of His People He was loose and absolved from all Rules of Government and was to do every thing that Power would admit and that His Majesty had tried all wayes and was refused and should be acquitted both before God and Man and that he had an Army in Ireland which he might employ to reduce this Kingdom to Obedience Concerning this particular he says he remembers not anything but what Mr. Treasurer is pleased to speak of And whereas Mr. Treasurer as concerning that part said He loves to speak the truth my Lord of Strafford said He doubts not but he doth for that we should all do he is sure of it But Mr. Treasurer has reversed his Testimony in saying that he will not speak to the very words themselves but to these or words to the like effect and if he be not mistaken and to the best of his remembrance That His Majesty having tryed all wayes and being refused in this extream necessity and for the safety of the Kingdom and People He might do c. And that Your Majesty hath an Army in Ireland which You may employ there he said at first And afterwards which You may employ to this Kingdom And he saith he doth not interpret these words but gives the words clearly and plainly as my Lord of Northumberland hath declared and that it was soon after the Dissolution of the last Parliament to his best remembrance and at the Committee of 8 and he thinks my Lord spake them positively or something to that effect Now whereas he calls in to his aid my Lord of Northumberland under favour my Lord of Northumberland declared no such words but absolutely denies in his Examination that he ever
them that set their hands to the Petition did Vote against it He Answered That there were of them that set their hands to the Petition 10 who did vote the retraction of it and he named Sir Francis Worteley Sir Thomas Danby Sir George Wentworth of Wolley as he thinks and Sir Edward Rhodes Sir Edward Rhodes Interrogated Whether the Country did intrust my Lord of Strafford to deliver a Message to His Majesty declaring their consent to a Moneths pay c. He Answer'd That after long debate Whether the Petition should be presented or no it was by plurality of voices declined and waved and it was moved to my Lord that he should present the Requests of the Gentlemen then met or the plurality of them to His Majesty to this purpose That having demanded two Moneths pay the Gentlemen of the Country made that request to my Lord humbly to beseech His Majesty to accept of one Moneths pay which his Lordship did and His Majesty was graciously pleased to accept of it having formerly given them encouragement for the abatement of 4000 men of the Trained Bands after those Troubles were past and if any Gentleman suffered in that Service there should be no benefit taken of his Wardship and when my Lord presented the desire of the Gentlemen to His Majesty He was pleased in stead of taking of 4000 to promise to reduce the Trained-Bands to 6000. Being Asked what number of Gentlemen were in the Hall and Whether that was not the place appointed for the County to Consult about the business He Answered That he thinks that there was 300 at the least of the one and the other and for the place and time it was both the place and time and that was an Exception my Lord of Strafford took but he was not fairly dealt withal that in regard His Majesty gave direction that at such a time and such a place my Lord President by that name His Majesty was pleased to call him and the Gentlemen of the Countrey should consider the business my Lord thought much a Petition should be drawn without his Consent and that the business should be Concluded before the time and from the place of debate Being Asked How many dissented from this Court He Answered He thinks not above 20 if there were so many Being Asked Whether diverse that signed the Petition did not retract it and amongst the rest himself He Answered Diverse did retract it and himself gave his voice for the waving of it but he cannot say he retracted it for his hand was not to the Petition Being Asked Whether my Lord of Strafford had not Commission from the County to offer a full moneths pay of the Trained-Bands He Answered It was the desire of the Country That his Lordship would be pleased to entreat His Majesty to accept of a moneths pay being desired by the King Being Asked Whether they were not willing to pay it in that part of the Country where he lives He Answered That where he served as Deputy-Lieutenant he knows not of one man that Complained or shew'd unwillingness or any difference but only in the proportion between man and man Being Asked Whether my Lord of Strafford did not faithfully relate the Message to the King according to the Commission the Country gave him He Answered That he conceives he did it most faithfully and with great advantage to the Country Sir Tho. Danby being Interrogated to the matter of the Petition and the declining of it the Consenting of a Moneths pay the Cheerfulness in paying of it He Answered That the Petition was delivered That the Money was paid with a great deal of cheerfulness That they were content to come to a Moneths pay That he heard of no man that declared to deny it Being Asked on Mr. Maynards motion Whether any other direction was given for the Message besides the Petition the last clause excepted He Answered That one taken off my Lord was to deliver the Substance of the Petition Being Asked on Mr. Maynards motion Whether there were not two Trained-Soldiers hang'd up for Mutyning for want of Pay Mr. Maynard thence observing That if they had been well paid there had been no want of it He Answered That he cannot Answer to that without some prejudice to himself he being question'd for hanging men by Martial-Law Sir George Wentworth of Wolley being Interrogated Whether he was not present at the Hall where the Petition was spoke of and Whether a moneths pay was not consented to He Answered He was present and the Petition was declined by the Major number there was a great number in the Hall and my Lord delivered it accordingly to the King He was present when he presented all the grievances exprest in the Petition and left out only that part concerning the Parliament Being Asked Whether my Lord of Strafford had authority to acquaint the King There should be a Moneths pay He Answered Yes and the place of Debating was the Common-Hall and diverse that signed the former Petition did retract it and himself was one of them Being Asked Whether the Money was not paid willingly by every man without Force and Constraint He Answered That he was a Collonel and it was paid him very well The next thing my Lord of Strafford observed was concerning a Warrant alleadged to be given out by him for levying of a Fortnights pay to the Two Regiments of Sir William Pennyman and Sir Tho. Danby If in any thing in his Answer he be mistaken he had rather submit it than dispute it and if it please their Lordships to favour him so far he will as near as he can tell every thing that passed and he hopes diverse of their Lordships will remember a great part of it It is very true before this moneth was ended he is sure within it the King Licensed all the Trained-Bands to go home again save the two Regiments one for Richmondshire and the other for Cleaveland which by His Majesties express Command and Council of War were required one to remain at Yaram the other in Richmondshire to preserve them from those of the other side Sir William Pennyman and some others finding that by this means these Regiments continuing in pay fell to be grievous to that part of the Hundred Those two Hundreds or Weapontakes acquainted him the Earl of Strafford with it out of no particular end in the World but that with Equality and Justice in that common misfortune they might all bear the Common Burden Divers of their Lordships being there at Rippon he did humbly present to the King before the Great Council of my Lords at Yorke That he conceived if the whole-Charge of those two Regiments should lie on those two Hundreds it would impoverish and undoe them and therefore he conceived it Justice and Reason that the rest of the County should contribute towards the Charge the benefit being common to all or else they should successively relieve those
there is nothing at all of it that I am to Answer it being wholly done by the Order of Chancery and I having no more to do with it then any man that hears it the Matter that stayes with me in this Article is the alleadged Warrant to Mr. Savill Sergeant at Armes and the Execution of it for that I shall humbly beseech your Lordships I may mind you with all humility that that Warrant is not shewed and I do think that my Lords the Judges do in the Tryals before them observe that Deeds are to prove themselves in ordinary Tryals betwixt Men and Men Now how much more in a Tryal for life and which is more than that though my Misfortune will have me to own it in the Tryal of a Peer The Witnesses my Lords say They have seen such a Warrant But no Witnesse sayes he knowes it and will Swear it to be my Hand and Seal or that I set my Hand or Seal to it for it may be Counterfeited for any thing they know For Mr. Savill upon Oath I thought under Favour he ought not to be admitted against me for he Swears directly to justifie himself for if there be no such Warrant he is answerable for the Fact not I. But my Lords admit there were such a Warrant I humbly conceive I gave your Lordships a very clear and full Answer to it I shewed you and proved it as I conceive that the Sessing of Soldiers hath been a Coercive means used in Ireland alwayes to enforce obedience to the Kings Authority I proved it to have been used to fetch in the Kings Rents of all kinds Contributions Compositions and Exchequer Rents I proved it to have been used to bring in Offenders and Rebels and as my Lord Ranalagh deposes for any Unjustifiable Act. Sir Arthur Terringham for a small Debt which appears not to be the Kings Debt My Lords nothing at all is proved against it but Negatively the Witnesses say they did not know such a thing they had not heard the like and I think none of your Lordships had before this Cause and yet that thing might be too And my Lords I beseech your Lordships How should it be not Treason to Assess Soldiers for the Kings Debts and yet the Assessing of Soldiers on the Contempt of the Kings Authority should be Treason for certainly the Kings Authority is of far more Dignity and more respect is to be had to it then the getting of a few poor Debts and why it should be Treason in one Case and not in another methinks it is very strange My Lords in the next place I conceive that not in any Construction this can be said to be a Levying of War against the King and His People being but the Imployment of two or three Soldiers to procure obedience to His Majesties Government because as I conceive likewise I had Commission to make War as I saw Cause for punishing the Rebels and securing the Publick Peace and therefore How can I be charged with that I have power to do The worst that can be made of it is an absurd execution of a Power but to make it Treason when I had Commission and Liberty so to do methinks that is very hard And it was no absurd execution of a Power under favour neither when I had the Precedent of all the former Deputies and Lieutenants in the Case My Lords it was never Complained of all the while I was there for ought appears to your Lordships so that it seems there was no great Innovation nor Inconvenience for if there were I should have heard of it But the Statute 11 E. 1. ca. 7. sets a penalty upon any Subject that shall Assess without the Deputies Authority Now I do most humbly beseech your Lordships that you would be pleased to remember that and let me know how it should be but Penal in a Common person to do it and yet Treason in a Deputy My Lords I shall likewise humbly mind your Lordships for the Statute or rather two Statutes as I take it whereby I conceive this Statute that made a Treason in Ireland was repealed But howsoever the practice in all time hath gone quite contrary to that Statute and the best Interpretation of Law is the Practice of Law and therefore the Practice having been otherwise it is an Argument very strong and prevalent that the Deputy as Chief Governor was never intended to be Concluded within that Act nor never to be brought in by General Words onely And that this should be a Levying of War against the King within the Statute of 25 E. 3. in England surely I conceive it cannot be for the Burning of Towns the Taking of Forts Killing and Slaying that I conceive to be a Levying of War but this is a strange Levying of War with two or three Soldiers to rest in Peace and Quietness eating on Contemners onely and not Killing and Slaying and all to procure Obedience to the King not in Disobedience to His Command If to lie upon them and eate be High-Treason in this Case What shall become of a great Company of good Fellowes that at this time eate at the Charge of the Country No my Lords This in the Case of a private Man had been but a Forcible Entry or a Ryot at the most if a man had done the same thing Mr. Savil did of his own Authority without the Deputy it had been but a Force and Ryot and How shall this be in my Case High Treason The next Charge in that Case is concerning a Warrant to one Piggot another Sergeant at Armes and the great and crying Miscarriages and Misimployments of such a War if there had been any it was when I as your Lordships may please to remember was out of Ireland and that was the Case of Bern a very Foule Misdemeanor as it proved But my Lords I being out of the Kingdom and no such Warrant shown I conceive I am absolutely dismissed as unto that and have nothing to Answer for it there was nothing done while I was in the Kingdom there is no Warrant of mine shown therefore I conceive I stand clear of that likewise But admit there were such a Warrant the Answer goes to that as to the test and certainly I hope will fully acquit me of this Fifteenth Article as Treason And so I must in humility submit to your Lordships wiser and better Judgments The next Statute Treason is an Intendment or Design or what you will have it for bringing over the Irish Army into this Kingdom to reduce it or to do I know not what nor I think no body else for there is no such thing But my Lords for proofe in this Case you have two offered there and no more under favour at all the first proof is the Fears and Doubts of my Lord Ranalaugh that tells you he Fears such a thing and Doubts such a thing My Lords if Fears and Doubts may be sufficient to Condemn me for Treason
It cannot be for the Honor of the King that His Sacred Authority should be used in the practise of Injustice and Opprssion That His Name should be applyed to patronize such horrid crimes as have been represented in Evidence against the Earl of Strafford and yet how frequently how presumptuously his Commands his Letters have been vouched throughout the course of this Defence Your Lordships have heard when the Judges do Justice it is the Kings Justice and this is for His Honor because He is the fountain of Justice But when they do Injustice the offence is their own but those Officers and Ministers of the King who are most officious in the exercise of this Arbitrary Power they do it commonly for their advantages and when they are questioned for it then they fly to the Kings Interest to His Direction And truly my Lords this is a very unequal distribution for the King that the dishonor of evil courses should be cast upon him and they to have the advantage The prejudice which it brings to him in regard of his profit is no less apparent it deprives him of the most beneficial and most certain Revenue of his Crown that is The voluntary Aids and Supplies of His People His other Revenues consisting of goodly Demeans and great Mannors have by Grants been alienated from the Crown and are now exceedingly diminished and impaired But this Revenue it cannot be sold it cannot be burdened with any Pensions or Annuities but comes intirely to the Crown It is now almost Fifteen years since His Majesty had any Assistance from His People and these illegal wayes of supplying the King were never prest with more Violence and Art then they have been in this time and yet I may upon very good grounds affirm That in the last Fifteen years of Queen Elizabeth She received more by the Bounty and Affection of Her Subjects then hath come to His Majesties Coffers by all the inordinate and rigorous courses which have been taken And as those Supplies were more beneficial in the Receipt of them so were they like in the use and imployment of them Another way of prejudice to His Majesties profit is this Such Arbitrary Courses Exhaust the people and disable them when there shall be occasion to give such plentiful Supplies as otherwise they would do I shall need no other proofe of this then the Irish Government under my Lord of Strafford where the Wealth of the Kingdom is so consumed by those horrible Exactions and Burdens that it is thought the Subsidies lately granted will amount to little more than half the proportion of the last Subsidies The two former wayes are hurtful to the Kings profit in that respect which they call Lucrum Cessans by diminishing his Receipts But there is a third fuller of mischiet and it is in that respect which they call Damnum emergens by increasing his Disbursements such irregular and exorbitant attempts upon the Liberties of the People are apt to produce such miserable Distractions and Distempers as will put the King and Kingdomes to such vast Expences and Losses in a short time as will not be recovered in many years We need not go far to seek a proof of this these two last years will be a sufficient Evidence within which time I assure my self it may be proved that more Treasure hath been wasted more loss sustained by His Majesty and His Subjects then was spent by Queen Elizabeth in all the War of Tyron and in those many brave Attempts against the King of Spain and the Royal Assistance which she gave to France and the Low Countries during all Her Reign As for greatness this Arbitrary Power is apt to hinder and impair it not onely at home but abroad A Kingdom is a Society of men conjoyned under one Government for the Common good The World is a Society of Kingdomes and States The Kings Greatness consists not onely in His Dominion over His Subjects at home but in the Influence which he hath upon States abroad That He should be great even among Kings and by His Wisdom and Authority so to incline and dispose the Affairs of other States and Nations and those great events which fall out in the World as shall be for the good of Mankind and for the Peculiar advantage of His own People This is the most glorious and magnificent greatness to be able to relieve distressed Princes to support his own Friends and Allies to prevent the Ambitious Designs of other Kings and how much this Kingdom hath been impaired in this kind by the late mischievous Counsels your Lordships best know who at a near distance and with a more clear sight do apprehend these publick and great affairs then I can do Yet thus much I dare boldly say that if His Majesty had not with great Wisdom and Goodness forsaken that way wherein the Earl of Strafford had put Him we should within a short time have been brought into that miserable condition as to have been useless to our Friends contemptible to our Enemies and uncapable of undertaking any great Design either at home or abroad A fourth consideration is That this Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power which the Earl of Strafford did exercise in his own Person and to which he did advise His Majesty is inconsistent with the Peace the Wealth the Prosperity of a Nation It is destructive to Justice the Mother of Peace to Industry the spring of Wealth to Valour which is the active Virtue whereby the prosperity of a Nation can only be procured confirmed and enlarged It s not only apt to take away Peace and so intangle the Nation with Wars but doth corrupt Peace and puts such a malignity into it as produceth the effects of War We need seek no other proof of this but the Earl of Straffords Government where the Irish both Nobility and others had as little security of their Persons or Estates in this peaceable time as if the Kingdom had been under the rage and fury of War And as for Industry and Valour who will take pains for that which when he hath gotten is not his own or who fight for that wherein he hath no other interest but such as is subject to the Will of another The antient encouragement to men that were to defend their Countreys was this That they were to hazard their Person pro Aris focis for their Religion and for their Houses But by this Arbitrary way which was practised in Ireland and counselled here no man had any certainty either of Religion or of his House or any thing else to be his own But besides this such Arbitrary courses have an ill operation upon the courage of a Nation by embasing the hearts of the People A servile condition does for the most part beget in men a slavish temper and disposition Those that live so much under the Whip and the Pillory and such servile Engines as were frequently used by the Earl of Strafford they may have the
England If but any one of these Six Considerations hold the Commons conceive that upon the whole matter they had good cause to pass the Bill My Lords For the first of Levying War I shall make bold to read the case to your Lordships before I speak to it It 's thus The Earl did by Warrant under his Hand and Seal give Authority to Robert Savil a Sergeant at Arms and his Deputies to Sesse such numbers of Soldiers Horse and Foot of the Army in Ireland together with an Officer as the Sergeant should think fit upon His Majesties Subjects of Ireland against their Will this Warrant was granted by the Earl to the end to compell the Subjects of Ireland to submit to the unlawful Summons and Orders made by the Earl upon Paper Petitions exhibited to him in case of private interest between party and party this Warrant was executed by Savil and his Deputies by sessing of Soldiers both Horse and Foot upon divers of the Subjects of Ireland against their Wills in warlike manner and at divers times the Soldiers continued upon the parties upon whom they were sessed and wasted their Goods until such time as they had submitted themselves unto those Summons and Orders My Lords This is a Levying War within the Statute of 25th Edw. 3. The words of the Statute are If any man do Levy War against our Lord the King in His Realm this is declared Treason I shall endeavour in this to make clear to your Lordships 1. What shall be a Levying of War in respect of the motive or cause of it 2. What shall be said a Levying of War in respect of the action or thing done 3. And in the third place I shall apply them to the present case It will be granted in this levying of War that Forces may be raised and likewise used in Warlike manner and yet no levying of War within the Statute that is when the Forces are raised and employed upon private ends either of revenge or interest Before this Statute in Edw. the 1. time the Title of a Castle was in difference between the Earls of Hereford and Gloucester for the maintaining of the possession on the one side and gaining of it on the other Forces were raised on either side of many hundred men they marched with Banners displayed one against another In the Parliament in the 20th year of Edward 1. this was adjudged only Trespass and either of the Earls Fined 1000 Marks apiece After the Statute in Hillary Term in the 15th year of Edw. the 3. in the Kings-Bench Rot. 3. Nicholas Huntercome in Warlike manner with 40 men armed amongst other weapons with Guns so antient as appears by that Record they were did much spoil in the Mannor of the Abby of Dorchester in the County of Oxford this was accounted no Treason and so it hath been held by the Judges That if one or more Town-ship upon pretence of saving their Commons do in a forcible and warlike manner throw in inclosures this is only a Riot no Treason The words of the Statute 25 Edw. 3. clear this point that if any man ride Armed openly or secretly with men at Arms against any other to kill and rob or to detain him until he hath made Fine and Ransome for his deliverance this is declared not to be Treason but Felony or Trespass as the Case shall require all the printed Statutes which have it covertly or secret are misprinted for the words in the Parliament Roll as appears in the 17th are Discovertment on Secretement Open or Secretly So that my Lords in this of Levying War the Act is not so much to be considered but as in all other Treasons and Felonies quo animo with what intent and purpose My Lords If the end be considerable in Levying War it may be said that it cannot be a War unless against the King for the words of the Statute are If any man Levy War against the King That these words extend further than to the person of the King appears by the words of the Statute which in the beginning declares it to be Treason to compass and imagine the death of the King and after other Treasons this is to be declared to be Treason to Levy War against the King If Levying of War extend no further than to the Person of the King these words of the Statute are to no purpose for then the first Treason of compassing the Kings death had fully included it before because that he which Levies War against the Person of the King doth necessarily compass his death It 's a War against the King when intended for alteration of the Laws or Government in any part of them or to destroy any of the Great Officers of the Kingdom This is a Levying War against the King 1. Because the King doth protect and maintain the Laws in every part of them and the great Officers to whose care he hath in his own stead delegated the execution of them 2. Because they are the Kings Laws he is the Fountain from whence in their several Channels they are derived to the Subject all our Indictments run thus Trespasses laid to be done Contra pacem Domini Regis the Kings Peace for exorbitant offences though not intended against the King's Person against the King his Crown and Dignity My Lords this construction is made good by divers Authorities of great weight ever since the Statute of 25th of Edw. 3. downwards In R. the 2. time Sir Tho. Talbot conspired the death of the Dukes of Glocester and Lancaster and some other of the Peers for the effecting of it he had caused several People in the County of Chester to be Armed in Warlike manner in Assemblies in the Parliament held in the 17th year of R. 2. N o 20. Sir Thomas Talbot being accused of High Treason for this It 's there declared insomuch as one of them was Lord High Steward of England and the other High Constable that this was done in destruction of the Estates of the Realm and of the Laws of the Kingdom and therefore adjudged Treason and the Judgement sent down into the Kings Bench as appears Easter Term in the 17th year of R. 2. in the Kings Bench Rot. 16th These two Lords had appeared in the 11th of R. 2 in maintainance of the Act of Parliament made in the year before one of them was of the Commissioners appointed by Parliament and one of the Appealors of those who would have overthrown it The Duke of Lancaster likewise was one of the Lords that was to have been Indicted of Treason for endeavouring the maintenance of it and therefore conspiring of their deaths is said to be in destruction of their Laws This there is declared to be Treason that concerned the Person of the King and Common-wealth In that great insurrection of the Villains and meaner People in Richard the II. time they took an Oath Quod Regi Communibus fidelitatem servarent to be true
ad fidem legem Angliae The Irish without the Pale were enemies always either in open act of Hostility or upon Leagues and Hostages given for securing the Peace and therefore as here in England we had our Marches upon the frontiers in Scotland and Wales so were there Marches between the Irish and English Pale where the Inhabitants held their Lands by this tenure to defend the Countrey against the Irish as appears in the close Roll of the Tower in the 20th year of Edw. 3. membrana 15. on the backside and in an Irish Parliament held the 42 year of Edw. 3. it 's declared That the English Pale was almost destroyed by the Irish enemies and that there was no way to prevent the danger but only that the Owners reside upon their Lands for defence and that absence should be a forfeiture This Act of Parliament in a great Council here was affirmed as appears in the close Roll the 22 year of Edw. 3. Membrana 20 dorso Afterwards as appears in the Statute of 28 Hen. 6th in Ireland this Hostility continued between the English Marches and the Irish Enemies who by reason there was no difference between the English Marches and them in their apparel did daily not being known to the English destroy the English within the Pale Therefore it is enacted that every English-man shall have the hair of his upper Lip for distinction sake This hostility continued until the 10th year of Henry the 7th as appears by the Statute of 10 H. 7th and 17th so successively downwards till the making of this very Statute of 11 Eliz. as appears fully in the 9th Chap. Nay immediately before and at the time of the making of this Statute there was not only enmity between those of the Shire-ground that is the English and Irish Pale but open War and acts of hostility as appears by History of no less Authority than that Statute it self for in the first Chapter of that Statute is the Attainder of Shane Oneale who had made open War was slain in open War it 's there declared That he had gotten by force all the North of Ireland for an hundred and twenty miles in length and about a hundred in breadth that he had mastered divers places within the English Pale when the flame of this War by his death immediately before this Statute was spent yet the Firebrands were not all quenched for the Rebellion continued by Iohn Fitz-Gerard called the White Knight and Thomas Gueverford this appears by the Statute of the Thirteenth year of Queen Eliz. in Ireland but two years after this of the Eleventh year of Queen Eliz. where they are attainted of High Treason for levying of War this Eleventh year wherein this Statute was made So that my Lords immediately before and at the time of the making of this Statute there being War between those of the Shire-grounds mentioned in this Statute and the Irish the concluding of War and Acts Offensive and Invasive there mentioned can be intended against no others but the Irish Enemies Again The words of the Statute are No Captain shall assemble the people of the Shire-grounds to conclude of Peace or War Is to presume that those of the Shire-grounds will conclude of War against themselves Nor with the Statute Shall carry those of the Shire-grounds to do any Acts Invasive by the construction which is made on the other side they must be carried to fight against themselves Lastly The words are That as Captain none shall assume the Name or Authority of a Captain or as a Captain shall gather the people together or as a Captain lead them the offence is not in the matter but in the manner If the Acts offensive were against the Kings good Subjects those that were under Command were punishable as well as the Commanders but in respect the Soldiers knew the service to be good in it self being against the enemies and that it was not for them to dispute the Authority of their Commanders the penalty of 100 l. is laid only upon him That as Captain shall assume this Power without Warrant the People commanded are not within this Statute My Lords The Logick wherupon this Argument is framed stands thus because the Statute of the Eleventh year of Queen Elizabeth inflicts a penalty of 100 l. and no more upon any man that as a Captain without Warrant and upon his own head shall conclude of or make War against the King's Enemies Therefore the Statute of the Eighteenth year of Henry the 6th is repealed which makes it Treason to lay Soldiers upon or to levy War against the Kings good People But my Lords Observation hath been made upon other words of this Statute that is that without Licence of the Deputy these things cannot be done this shews that the Deputy is within none of the Statutes My Lords This Argument stands upon the same reason with the former because he hath the ordering of the Army of Ireland for the defence of the people and may give Warrant to the Officers of the Army upon eminent occasions of Invasion to resist or prosecute the Enemy because of the danger that else might ensue forthwith by staying for a Warrant from His Majesty out of England My Lords The Statute of the 10th year of Henry the 7th chap. 17. touched upon for this purpose clears the business in both points for there is declared That none ought to make War upon the Irish Rebels and Enemies without Warrant from the Lieutenant the forfeiture 100 l. as here the Statute is the same with this and might as well have been cited for repealing the Statute of the 18th year of Henry the 6th as this of the 11th year of Queen Elizabeth But if this had been insisted upon it would have expounded the other two clear against him Object My Lords it hath been further said although the Statute be in force and there be a Treason within it yet the Parliament hath no Jurisdiction the Treasons are committed in Ireland therefore not triable here Answ. My Lords Sir Iohn Parrot his Predecessor 24 Edw. was tryed in the Kings Bench for Treason done in Ireland when he was Deputy and Oruche in the 33 year of Queen Elizabeth adjudged here for Treason done in Ireland Object But it will be said these Tryals were after the Statute of the 34th year of Henry the 8th which enacts that Treasons beyond Sea may be tryed in England Answ. My Lords his Predecessor my Lord Gray was tryed and adjudged here in the Kings-Bench that was in Trinity Term in the 33 year of Henry the 8th this was before the making of that Statute Object To this again will we say That it was for Treason by the Laws and Statutes of England that this is not for any thing that 's Treason by the Law of England but an Irish Statute So that the question is only Whether your Lordships here in Parliament have cognizance of an offence made Treason by an Irish Statute
In the four and twentieth Article he mentions That he is charged with being an occasion to break the Parliament and lays hold of that as in the other Articles That it was not proved but declined My Lords when he shall hear the repetition of the Evidence though part of the Article was not particularly insisted upon yet I believe it will appear to your Lordships and the world that he was the occasion of breaking the last Parliament and it is expresly proved by witnesses enough and though he says How should any body think him an occasion of it that did so often advise Parliaments yet I shall shew anon that when he did advise them it was to compass his own Design and Plot without which his ends could not be brought to pass He came from the Four and twentieth Article to the Seven and twentieth and he answers against that Article That when Armies are in the field men cannot walk so peaceably as an Attorney with his Box and Papers in Westminster-Hall I know not what he means but when two Armies are in the field they may raise War against the Kings people as well as the King for his just defence it is the way to make his people terrified with Armies and to avoid them as a Serpent and therefore it is a dangerous aspersion as I conceive With these he concluded except some things that he took by way of artificial insinuation to perswade your Lordships That it was dangerous to raise a Treason that had lain asleep I know not how many hundred years and create a Treason A strange thing indeed it is That a man shall be charged with a Treason for subverting the Law A strange thing that one should be charged with Treason for killing a Justice sitting in the Seat of Justice and yet it should be no Treason to destroy King and Kingdom and people and all all which are destroyed if the Law be subverted And now having touched upon what he hath spoken with your Lordships good favour I shall crave leave to run the course I have propounded with my self and that very briefly that is upon the whole matter to shew how far the Evidence produced on the Commons part doth prove the Charge My Lords That laid to his charge is a design and purpose to subvert the fundamental Laws of two kingdoms and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government not that he did effect it but that he did intend it for if he had done it it had been too late to question it he had left no rule whereby to call him to Tryal but his intention and his endeavour are his charge My Lords How far this is proved if your Lordships be pleased to call to mind the Articles and the Evidences produced on the Commons part your Lordships will find I believe that his Words his Counsels and his Actions do sufficiently prove his endeavouring to destroy In the first Article where my Lord of Strafford hath the first opportunity offered him to put this endeavour in execution that is the first place of eminency amongst his other Places and Commands which I take it was his being made President of the North he is no sooner there but there be instructions procured to enable him to proceed in that Court almost in all Causes for a man can scarce think of a Cause which is not comprehended within the Instructions obtained after his coming thither but I shall put your Lordship in mind of two clauses of the Instructions procured in the Eighth year of this King and after he was President that is the clause of Habeas Corpus and Prohibitions that no man should obtain a Prohibition to stay any Suit that should be commenced before him in the Council of York That if any man should be imprisoned by any Process out of that Court he must have no Habeas Corpus A Prohibition is the only means to vindicate the estate of the Subject if it be questioned without Authority A Habeas Corpus is the only means to vindicate his Liberty if he be detained without Law but these doors must be shut against the Kings Subjects that if either they be questioned or restrained before him there must be no relief How far he could go further I am to seek there being no means for the Subject to relieve himself if he be questioned for his Estate without authority no means to redeem himself if his person be imprisoned without Law And he had so incircled himself about that if the Judges should find the party that returns not the Habeas Corpus according to Law there was a Power and a Warrant by the Instructions to the Barons to discharge the Officers of that Fine And now I refer it to your Lordships judgements Whether this be not to draw an Arbitrary Power to himself For the execution of this Power it is true it is proved to be before the instructions in the eighth year of the King but then it riseth the more in judgement against him for your Lordships have heard how he went into a grave Judges Chamber blaming him for giving way to a Prohibition granting Attachments against one that moved for a Prohibition and though this was done before the Instructions were granted yet the Instructions coming at the heels of it sheweth his disposition and resolution more clearly for he acts it first and then procures this colour to protect it and though he pretends there was no proof yet I must put your Lordships in mind that when these things were in question concerning the apprehension of a Knight by a Sergeant at Arms he kneels to His Majesty That this defect might be supplyed and this jurisdiction maintained else he might goe to his own Cottage And here being the just commencement of his greatness if you look to the second it follows That at the publick Assizes he declared That some were all for Law but they should find the Kings little finger heavier than the loins of the Law He did not say it was so but he infused it as much as he could into the hearts of the Kings people that they should find it so and so he reflects upon the King and upon his people the words are proved And to speak them in such a presence and at such a time before the Judges and Countrey assembled they were so dangerous and so high expressions of an intention to counsel the King or act it himself to exercise an Arbitrary Government above the weight of the Law as possibly could be exprest by words And this is proved by five witnesses and not disproved nor is any colour of disproof offered but only by Sir William Penniman who says he heard other words but not that he heard not these words If he doth he must give me leave not to believe him for five affirmations will weigh down the proof of a thousand negatives He stays not long in England with this power though while he stays you hear how he vexes
appear to a Warrant or for other contempt at Council-Table before himself did it but he offered to prove That formerly Soldiers were sent against Rebels and that after they were declared to be Rebels and that justly too and he proved an use and custom to force men to pay Contribution-money due to the King but that was by consent of the people who granted a Contribution of 20000 l. a year for increase of the Kings Revenue and that it might not be upon Record in the Exchequer and so claimed as due in time to come they consented that Soldiers should be laid upon them that refused it and the word Consent is within the Statute of 18 H. 6. Again did he prove all manner of Rents were levied by Soldiers no such thing but such Rents as were designed for the payment of the Army he proved by Sir Arthur Terringham the laying of Soldiers once for the payment of a fum of Money but Sir Arthur being demanded whether it were the King's Rents or comprehended within the same general Rule he could make no answer thereunto Your Lordships remember he says He did not know it and therefore probably it was the Kings Rents and doubtless it was so But if he had produced Precedents it could not be an authority for Treason that if people did not appear to his Orders he must levy War against the Kings Subjects and for his extenuation of the War that the same was of no great danger there being not above five or six Soldiers laid at a time I would to God the people oppressed by it had cause to undervalue it I am sure four or six Musquetiers are as strong to oppress a man as four thousand so the matter of Fact is strongly and expresly proved Besides though there came not above four or five to a house yet the authority given to the Sergeant was general he might have brought more if he had listed and in truth he brought as many as the Estate of the party would maintain And as to the not producing of the Warrant I have already answered it If it were in the case of a Deed wherein men call for witnesses it were something but God forbid that the Treason should be gone and the Traitor not questionable if his Warrant can be once put out of the way The next Article which is laid to his charge is For issuing out a Proclamation and Warrant of restraint to inhibit the Kings Subjects to come to the Fountain their Sovereign to deliver their complaints of their wrongs and oppressions Your Lordships have heard how he hath exercised his jurisdiction and now he raises a battery to secure and make it safe If he do wrong perhaps the complaint may come to the Gracious Ears of a King who is ready to give relief and therefore he must stop these cries and prevent these means that he may go on without interruption and to that end he makes Propositions here That the Kings Subjects in Ireland should not come over to make complaint against Ministers of State before an address first made to himself It is true he makes a fair pretence and shew for it and had just cause of approbation if he intended what he pretended But as soon as he came into Ireland what use made he of it he ingrosses the proceedings of almost all the Courts of Justice into his own hands and so pre-possesses the King by a colourable proposition and prevents their coming over before they had made their address to himself and then he becomes the wrong doer and issues Proclamations for the hindring of the King's Subjects to seek redress without his leave which is as great a proof of his design and as great an injury to the people governed under a Gracious Prince as a heart can conceive And what his intention was in exhibiting this Proposition it will appear in the sentence of a poor man one David who was censured and most heavily Fined for coming over into England to prosecute complaint against my Lord of Strafford It is true that this was not the cause expressed but this was the truth of the matter Your Lordships remember a clause in the Order at Council-Board whereby is set forth the cause wherefore the party is not sentenced which I never saw in an order before nor should now but that my Lord foresaw there was danger in it that he might be charged in this place for the fact and therefore puts in negatively why the party was not censured Clausula inconsulta inducit suspitionem And how defends he this Article he sayes his predecessors issued Proclamations to hinder the Kings Subjects from going over lest they should joyn with O-Neal and Tirconnell beyond Sea and so it might be dangerous to the State but because they may joyn with Foreigners shall they therefore not come to the King to make just complaint What this argument is I refer to your Lordships judgments Then he pretends a former precedent affirming that the like instructions were given to my Lord of Faulkland but was there any that none should come to their Sovereign to make their just appeal if injured Surely there was never any such Instruction before and I hope never will be again The next Article is the Nineteenth and now when he had so plentifully exercised his Tyranny over the Lives the Liberty and the Estates of the King's Subjects A man would think he could go no further But see a Tyranny exercised beyond that and that is over the Consciences of men hitherto he dealt with the outward man and now he offers violence to the inward man and imposes an Oath upon the Kings Subjects and so exerciseth a Tyranny over the Consciences of men And setting aside the matter of the Oath if he hath authority and power to impose such an Oath as he shall frame he may by the same power impose any Oath to compell Consciences He pretends a Warrant from His Majesty to do it but the Kings Ministers are to serve the King according to Law and I dare be bold to say and we have good reason to thank God for it if any of the Kings Ministers tell him that any Command he gives is against Law there is no doubt but in his Goodness and Piety he will withdraw his Command and not enforce execution and therefore if there were an error the King is free and the Ministers to be justly charged with it But there was no Command from the King to compel and enforce them to take the Oath by the power of the Star-Chamber to commit them to prison to impose heavy Fines and tyrannize over them all which he did in the Case of Steward And now one would have thought he had acted his part when he had acted as much as lay in his own power and yet he goes beyond this he was not content to corrupt all the streams which was not a diverting of the course as he spoke in his answer for he not only
to Sir William Pennyman in pursuance of which he made his Warrant That it was the assent of the Lords of the great Council that this Money should be levied and taking all together whether it fixes it not upon him to be the Author and Instrument it rests in your judgements in point of fact and so I suppose the Seven and twentieth Article rests on him and so I shall conclude the Evidence produced on the behalf of the Commons And now give me leave to put your Lordships in mind of some Evidences offered by my Lord Strafford himself in his Answer and in the passages of his Defence for his clearing and justification but tending directly to his condemnation I will enter upon some passages he mentioned to day and often before When he is charged with invading the Estates of the Peers of the kingdom of Ireland and determining them upon Paper Petitions in an Arbitrary way your Lordships have heard him speak it before and repeat it this day That he did it out of compassion for the more expeditious proceeding on behalfe of the poor against these mighty But then my Lords I beseech you compare some other part of his proceedings Your Lordships remember the business of the Flax which concerns the poor wholly and universally and if compassion had been the rule and direction of his actions towards the poor surely this would have been a just cause to have commiserated them in this case but he exercised his power over them and over them wholly and over them universally and therefore it shews it is not his compassion to the poor nor respect to the rich or mighty that will any way restrain or obstruct his ways to his own Will And thefore you may see what truth there is in his answer by comparing one part of the charge with another when the business of the Flax brought that calamity upon the Kings Subjects that thousands of them perished for lack of Bread and dyed in Ditches Secondly Your Lordships have often heard him use a Rhetorical insinuatian wondring that he should be charged with words and they strained so high as to be made Treason to question his Life and Posterity though the words might be spoken unadvisedly or in discourse or by chance Your Lordships remember the Fifth Article touching his proceedings against my Lord Mountnorris where words were spoken in an ordinary discourse at dinner and slight ones God knows of no consequence at all such as another man would scarce have harkened after and yet my Lord extends them to the taking away of my Lord Mountnorris his life gets a sentence of death against him and that against Law with a high hand in such a manner as I think your Lordships have not heard the like and therefore I beseech you compare one part of his Answer with another and see how ready he is to make use of any thing that may excuse himself and yet when he comes to act his power you see his exercise of it You have heard how he magnifies his Zeal for advancing the Kings Benefit and Revenue and his care of his Service and would shelter and protect himself under it to justify an exorbitant action but if your Lordships call to mind the business of the Customs for Tobacco which in truth were the Kings right and due and a great profit was thereby advanced and he trusted to advance it The King must loose of his former Rents in the case of Custom and received a small Rent in the case of Tobacco my Lord himself in the mean time imbursing such vast sums of Money where is then the discharge of his Trust where is his care to advance the Kings Rents to increase his Revenue Compare that part of his Answer with this and see what credit is to be given to his affirmation My Lords throughout the passages of his discourse he insinuates and never more than this day with the Peers of the Realm magnifying them almost to Idolatry and yet my Lords when he was in his Kingdom in Ireland and had power over them what respect shewed he then to the Peers of the Kingdom when he judged some to death trampled upon others in misery committed them to prison and seized on their Estates where then was the Peerage he now magnifies And to shew it was an insinuation for his own advantage you may remember when there was an unlawful Act to be committed that is the levying of Money in the North What regard had he then to the Peers of the Kingdom when he comes to justify and boulster up High Treason it self under the name and authority of the Great Council where most of the Peers of the Realm then were and so by this time I know what credit your Lordships give to his words spoken when he lies under your Mercy and Power but what do I speak of the Peers of the Kingdom and his using of them My Lords he spared not his Sovereign His Majesty in His whole Defence for being charged with offences of a high nature he justifies those offences under the pretence and under the authority of His Majesty our Gracious King and Sovereign even Murther it self in the Case of Denwit and my Lord Mountnorris Treason it self in the Fifteenth Article by a Command in Ireland and in the Seven and twentieth by a pretended authority from His Majesty in the face of His People he justifies my Lord Mountnorris his sentence by a Letter from His Majesty Denwits Sentence by a Commission from His Majesty and he read three or four clauses to that purpose My Lords my Lord of Strafford doth very well know and if he doth not know it I have a Witness to produce against him which I will not examine but refer it to his own Conscience that is The Petition of Right that the Kings Servants are to serve him according to Law and no otherwise he very well knew if an unlawful act be committed especially to a degree of Treason and Murder the Kings Authority and Warrant produced is no justification at all So then my Lords to mention the Kings name to justify an unlawful act in that way can do him no good and his own understanding knows it may do the King harm if we had not so Gracious a King that no such thing can do harm unto But my Lords to produce the Kings Warrant to justify his actions under his Patent and Command what is it else but so far as in him lies in the face of his people to raise a cloud and exhale a vapour To interpose betwixt the King and his Subjects whereby the splendor of his Glory and Justice cannot be discovered to his people My Lords what is it else when the people make complaint against the Ministers that should execute justice of their oppression and slavery and bondage For the Minister when he is questioned to justify this under the Kings Authority what is it I say but as much as in that Minister lies
to fix this offence to fasten this oppression upon the King himself to make it to be believed that the occasion of these their groans proceeded from His Sacred Majesty yet God be thanked the strength of that Sun is powerful enough to dispel these vapours and to disperse the cloud that he would have raised but in the mean time my Lord is nothing to be excused My Lords he may pretend zeal to the Kings Service and affection to His Honor but give me leave not to believe it since when he is questioned by all the Kings people and in the face of his people and offences laid to his charge which himself now confesses to be against Law he should justify it under the Kings authority that savours not of a good servant I will say no more My Lords he is charged with exercising a tyrannical power over the Kings people and in his Defence your Lordships have often heard and I may not omit it that he shelters himself under the protection of the Kings Prerogative though he be charged with Tyranny of the highest nature that may be see then how foul and malignant an aspect this hath My Lords what is it else but to endeavour as much as in him lies to infuse into the Kings heart an apprehension that His Prerogative is so bottomless a Gulf so unlimited a Power as is not to be comprehended within the rules of Law or within the bounds of Government for else why should he mention the Prerogative when he is charged to exceed the Law What is it else but as far as in him lies to make the people believe for I may not forget the words he hath used by his magnifying of the Prerogative that it hath a special stamp of Divinity on it and that the other part of the Government that God pleases to put into the Kings hands had not that stamp upon it as if any thing done by one was to be justified by authority derived from Heaven but the other not These expressions your Lordships remember and I may not omit to put your Lordships in mind of them and I can expound them no otherwise than as much as in him lies to make the subject believe and apprehend that which is the buckler and defence of his protection to be the two-edged sword of his destruction according to the Doctrine he Preached and that that which is the Sanctuary of their Liberty is the snare and engine of their slavery And thus he hath cast a bone of contention as much as in him lay betwixt King and People to make the Subjects loath that glorious Flower of his Crown by fixing a jealousie in them that it may be a means of their bondage and slavery But there is so much Piety and Goodness in the Kings heart that I hope upon fair understanding there will be no such occasion but no thanks to the party that so much advanced the Prerogative in the case and condition he stands in to justify that which is laid to his Charge of High Treason My Lords I beseech you give me leave there is no greater safety to Kings and People than to have the Throne incircled with good Counsellors and no greater danger to both than to have it encompassed with wicked and dangerous ones and yet I beseech you call to mind how he hath attempted to deprive the Subject of all means to discover this danger by insinuating to your Lordships what a dangerous thing it were if Counsellors should be called in question for giving of Counsel for who then saith he would be a Counsellor where is your safeguard where is the Kings service Is not this as much as in him lies to deprive the people of the means whereby they must make themselves happy and whereby the King must be happy that is by his having good Counsellors about him and yet he infuses that venom that the questioning of Counsellors is dangerous both to King and Peers if it should be brought into example My Lords for many years by-past your Lordships know an evil spirit hath moved amongst us which in truth hath been made the Author and ground of all our distractions and that is necessity and danger this was the bulwarke and the battery that serves to defend all exorbitant actions the ground and foundation of that great invasion of our Liberties and Estates the judgement in the Ship-money and the ground of the Counsel given of late to do any thing and to perswade the King that he was absolved from all rules of Government and yet your Lordships have observed in the course of his defence how often he hath raised this spirit that God be thanked hath been laid to the great comfort of King and Kingdom by your Lordships and all the Commons in Parliament And when he stands under this question and goes about to justify his exorbitant actions how often hath he created this Idol again and therefore I am afraid he discovers too much his own heart in it My Lords I may not omit some other passages in his Defence How he hath cast scandals upon three Nations in this place that is in his first day of Defence when the Irish Remonstrance made by all the Commons of Ireland was produced by the Commons of England he expressed in a passion that things were carried against him by faction and correspondence and if he had time he would make it appear with a strong conspiracy Here is a scandal cast upon the Parliament of Ireland with a reflection on the Commons of England howsoever it is true your Lordships may remember the recantation he made that day which I will not omit desiring not to lay any thing to his charge but what is true but it is the reflection of a scandal that I cannot omit to put your Lordships in mind of and the rather because this Remonstrance presented from the Parliament of Ireland did bear date before my Lord of Strafford was charged here which is very remarkable viz. the 7th of November and therefore though he pretends a correspondence certainly there could be none then for he is not charged here till the Tenth And the same day justifying a Sentence in the Castle-Chamber your Lordships remember he affirmed that unless a strict hand were kept upon the Nation there they would find it hard to prevent perjury one of the most crying sins in Ireland Now to lay an aspersion upon the Subjects of Ireland being under the Government of the same King with us how fit this is to be done by a man in that condition that my Lord of Strafford is I referr to your consideration Another passage I remember whereby in his Defence he fell upon that Nation in answer of which I may not omit to do the service I owe to the Commons for whom I am trusted and that is that talking of an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in reference to some Orders of the Commons-House in Ireland he used words to this purpose You
Majesty continuing still to take the advice of His Great Council the Parliament along with him in the management of the great affairs of the Kingdom The Earl of Strafford understanding that His Majesty had passed the Bill did Humbly Petition the House of Peers SEEing it is the good Will and pleasure of God that your Petitioner is now shortly to pay that Duty which we all owe to our frail Nature he shall in all Christian Patience and Charity conform and submit himself to your Justice in a comfortable assurance of the great hope laid up for us in the Mercy and Merits of our Saviour blessed for ever Only he humbly craves to return your Lordships most Humble thanks for your Noble Compassion towards those Innocent Children whom now with his last blessing he must commit to the protection of Almighty God beseeching your Lordships to finish his pious intentions towards them and desiring that the reward thereof may be fulfilled in you by him that is able to give above all we are able to ask or think Wherein I trust the Honourable House of Commons will afford their Christian Assistance And so beseeching your Lordships Charitably to forgive all his Omissions and Infirmities he doth very heartily and truly recommend your Lordships to the Mercies of Our Heavenly Father and that for his Goodness he may perfect you in every good Work Amen THO. WENTWORTH WHereas the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons in this present Parliament Assembled have in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England Impeached Thomas Earl of Strafford of High Treason for endeavouring to subvert the Antient and Fundamental Laws and Government of His Majesties Realms of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law in the said Kingdoms and for exercising a Tyrannous and exorbitant Power over and against the Laws of the said Kingdoms and the Liberties Estates and Lives of His Majesties Subjects and likewise having by his own Authority Commanded the Laying and Assessing of Soldiers upon His Majesties Subjects in Ireland against their consents to compel them to obey his unlawful Summons and Orders made upon Paper-Petitions in Causes between Party and Party which accordingly was executed upon divers of His Majesties Subjects in a Warlike manner within the said Realm of Ireland and in so doing did Levy War against the Kings Majesty and His Liege People in that Kingdom And also for that he upon the unhappy Dissolution of the last Parliament did slander the House of Commons to His Majesty and did Counsel and Advise His Majesty That he was loose and absolved from the Rule of Government and That he had an Army in Ireland by which he might reduce this Kingdom for which he deserves to undergo the Pains and Forfeitures of High Treason And the said Earl hath been an Incendiary of the Wars between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland all which Offences have been sufficiently proved against the said Earl upon his Impeachment Be it therefore Enacted by the Kings Most Excellent Majesty and by the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same that the said Earl of Strafford for the Heinous Crimes and Offences aforesaid stand and be adjudged and attainted of High-Treason and shall suffer such Pain of Death and incurr the Forfeitures of his Goods and Chattels Lands Tenements and Hereditaments of any Estate of Freehold or Inheritance in the said Kingdoms of England and Ireland which the said Earl or any other to his use or in trust for him have or had the day of the first sitting of this Parliament or at any time since Provided that no Judge or Judges Justice or Justices whatsoever shall adjudge or interpret any act or thing to be Treason nor hear or determin any Treason in any other manner than he or they should or ought to have done before the making of this Act and as if this Act had never been had or made Saving always unto all and singular Persons Bodies Politick and Corporate their Heirs and successors others then the said Earl and his Heirs and such as Claim from by or under him all such Right Title and Interest of in and to all and singular such of the said Lands Tenements and Hereditaments as he they or any of them had before the first day of this present Parliament any thing herein contain'd to the contrary notwithstanding Provided That the passing of this present Act or His Majesties Assent thereunto shall not be any determination of this present Sessions of Parliament But that this present Sessions of Parliament and all Bills and Matters whatsoever depending in Parliament and not fully Enacted or Determined and all Statutes and Acts of Parliament which have their continuance until the end of this present Session of Parliament shall remain continue and be in full force as if this Act had not been The day following the King wrote this Letter to the Lords on the behalf of the Earl of Strafford and sent it by the Prince My Lords I Did yesterday satisfie the Iustice of the Kingdom by passing the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford but Mercy being as inherent and inseparable to a King as Iustice I desire at this time in some measure to shew that likewise by suffering that unfortunate Man to fulfil the Natural Course of his Life in a Close Imprisonment Yet so if ever he make the least offer to escape or offer directly or indirectly to meddle in any sort of publick business especially with me either by Message or Letter it shall cost him his Life without further Process This if it may be done without the Discontentment of my People will be an unspeakable contentment to me to which end as in the first place I by this Letter do earnestly desire your Approbation and to endear it more have chosen him to carry it that of all your house is most dear to me So I desire that by a Conference you will endeavour to give the House of Commons Contentment assuring you that the Exercise of Mercy is no more pleasing to me than to see both Houses of Parliament Consent for my sake that I should moderate the severity of the Law in so important a Case I will not say that your Complying with me in this my intended Mercy shall make me more Willing but certainly 't will make me more Chearful in Granting your Iust Grievances But if no less then his life can satisfie my people I must say Fiat Justitia Thus again recommending the Consideration of my Intention to you I rest Your unalterable and affectionate Friend Charles R. Whitehall 11th of May 1641. If he must dye is were Charity to Reprieve him till Saturday This Letter all Written with the Kings own Hand and delivered by the Hand of the Prince was twice Read in the House and after serious and sad Consideration the
Companies besides Two more which he intended to be raised in the nearest part of Wales Before this Army already raised was dispersed into their several quarters all which were in the Province of Ulster near the Sea in sight of Scotland the Lord-Lieutenant returned into England by His Majesties Command where an Army-Royal was Levied in opposition to the Scotish design leaving an Honourable person Mr. Christopher Wandesford Master of the Rolls Lord-Deputy the Command of General of that Royal Army in England was given to the Earl of Northumberland then Lord-Admiral of England upon whose sickness the Earl of Strafford was made Lieutenant-General who having undertaken the Command of this Army signified by Letter from Dublin to the Archbishop Laud that he durst venture upon peril of his Head to drive the Scots out of England but that he did not hold it proper as the case then stood for him to advise that course but if any of the Lords would advise the King to try his fortune in Battle he doubted not of sending them home in more hast than they came but this severity and indiscretion of his against that Kingdom when things were ripe did much hasten his ruine and destruction as may be seen by the following Impeachment The Charge of the Scotish Commissioners against Thomas Earl of Strafford IN our Declarations we have joyned with Canterbury the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whose Malice hath set all his Wits and Power on work to devise and do mischief against our Kirk and Countrey No other cause of his malice can we conceive but First his Pride and Supercilious disdain of the Kirk of Scotland which in his opinion declared by his Speeches hath not in it almost any thing of a Kirk although the Reformed Kirks and many worthy Divines of England have given ample testimony to the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland Secondly Our open opposition against the dangerous Innovation of Religion intended and very far promoted in all His Majesties Dominions of which he hath shewed himself in his own way no less zealous than Canterbury himself as may appear by advancing of his Chaplain Dr. Bramhal not only to the Bishoprick of Derry but also to be Vicar-General of Ireland a man prompted for exalting of Canterburian Popery and Arminianism that thus himself might have the power of both Swords against all that should maintain the Reformation by his bringing of Dr. Chappel a man of the same Spirit to the University of Dublin for poysoning the Fountains and corrupting the Seminarys of the Kirk Thirdly When the Primate of Ireland did press a new ratification of the Articles of that Kirk in Parliament for barring such Novations in Religion he boldly menaced him with the burning by the hand of the Hangman all of that Confession although confirmed in former Parliaments When he found that the Reformation began in Scotland did stand in his way he left no means unassaied to rub disgrace upon us and our Cause The Pieces printed at Dublin viz. Examen conjurationis Scotianae the Ungirding of the Scotish Armor and the Pamphlet bearing the counterfeit name of Lisimachus Nicanor all three so full of Calumnies Slanders Scurrilâ—ys against our Countrey and Reformation that the Jesuits in their greatest spite could not have said more yet not only the Authors were countenanced and rewarded by him but the Books must bear his Name as the great Patron both of the Work and Workman When the National Oath and Covenant warranted by our general Assemblies was approved by Parliament in the Articles subscribed in the Kings Name by His Majesties High Commissioner and by the Lords of the Privy-Council and commanded to be sworn by His Majesties Subjects of all ranks and particular and plenary information was given unto the Lieutenant by men of such quality as he ought to have believed of the Loyalty of our hearts to the King of the lawfulness of our proceedings and innocency of our Covenant and whole course that he could have no excuse yet his desperate malice made him to bend his Craft and Cruelty his Fraud and Forces against us For first he did craftily call up to Dublin some of our Countreymen both of the Nobility and Gentry living in Ireland shewing them that the King would conceive and account them as Conspirers with the Scots in their rebellious courses except some remedy were provided and for remedy suggesting his own wicked invention to present unto him and his own wicked invention to present unto him and his own wicked Council a Petition which he caused to be framed by the Bishop of Rapho and was seen and corrected by himself wherein they petitioned to have an Oath given them containing a formal renunciation of the Scotish Covenant and a deep assurance ne-never so much as to protest against any of His Majesties Commandments whatsoever No sooner was this Oath thus craftily contrived but in all hast it is sent to such places of the Kingdom where our Countreymen had residence and Men Women and all other persons above the years of Sixteen constrained either presently to take the Oath and thereby renounce their National Covenant as Seditious and Traiterous or with violence and cruelty to be haled to the Jail Fined above the value of their Estates and to be kept close prisoners and so far as we know some are yet kept in prison both Men and Women of good quality for not renouncing that Oath which they had taken 40 years since in the obedience to the King who then lived Besides a cruelty ensued which may paralel the pesecutions of the most unchristian time for weak Women dragged to the Bench to take the Oath dyed in the place both Mother and Child hundreds driven to hide themselves till in the darkness of the night they might escape by Sea into Scotland whether thousands of them did flye being forced to leave Corn Cattle Houses and all they possessed to be a prey to their persecuting enemies the Lieutenants Officers And some Indicted and Declared guilty of High Treason for no other guiltyness but for subscribing our National Oath which was not only impiety and injustice in it self and an utter undoing of His Majestys Subjects but was a weakening of the Scotch Plantation to the prejudice of that Kingdom and His Majesties Service and was a high scandal against the Kings Honor and intolerable abuse to His Majesties Trust and Authority His Majesties Commission which was procured by the Lieutenant bearing no other penalty than a certification of Noting the names of the refusers of the Oath But this his restless Rage and insatiable Cruelty against our Religion and Countrey could not rest here nor be kept within the bounds of Ireland but proceeded further so that by this means a Parliament is called and although by the Six Subsidies granted in Parliament not long before and by the base means which himself and his Officers did use as is contained in a late Remonstrance that Land was extreamly impoverished