proceedings must be either new or old if old shew it if new tell what Authority warranted by the Fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave God and the world to judge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the people of Englands Commission could grant your pretended power I see nothing you can shew for that for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man of the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Ploughman if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so farre are you from having it Thus you see I speak not for my own right alone as I am your King but also for the true Liberty of all my Subjects which consists not in sharing the power of Government but in living under such laws such a Government as may give them the best assurance of their lives and the propriety of their goods And for the House of Commons that the major part of them are detain'd or deterr'd from sitting so as if I had no other this were sufficient for me to protest against the lawfulness of your pretended Court. Besides all this the peace of the Kingdome is not the least in my thoughts and what hopes of settlement are there so long as power rules without Law changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdome hath flourished for many hundred years and believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this change for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the reign of Queen Elizabeth the King my Father and my self untill the beginning of these unhappy troubles and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new These were the Reasons which the King intended to have delivered before sentence but they were utterly rejected by those who knew it was not their business to hear reason in a Court that was erected contrary to reason and therefore they hasten to give judgement which was brief That the King for sundry Crimes and Misdemeanours which he was never guilty of should be put to death During the intervall between his Sentence and Execution the House ordered upon moton that Doctor Iuxon Bishop of London should be permitted to be private with the King in his chamber to preach and administer the Sacrament and other spiritual comforts to him But nevertheless the Masters of the Councill of Warr appointed Iohn Goodwin of Coleman-street the Balaam of the Army to be Superintendent both over the Bishop and the King so that they could hardly speak a word together without being over-heard by the long schismaticall eares of black-mouth'd Iohn And besides all this the Guard of Souldiers that was kept within his chamber what with talking what with clinking the pots and opening and shutting the dores and taking Tobacco a thing very offensive to the Kings nature they kept him waking thereby distempering and amazing him with want of sleep that they might the more easily bring him to their termes Upon the twenty eighth of Ianuary being the last Sabbath the King kept in this life some of the Grandees of the Parliament and Army tender'd to the King a paper book with promise of life and some shadow of regality if he subscrib'd it It contained many particulars destructive to the fundamentall Government Religion Laws and property of the People one among the rest was this That the King should pass an Act of Parliament for keeping on foot the Militia of this Army during the pleasure of the Grandees who should be trusted with that Militia with power to recruit from time to time and continue them to the number of forty thousand Horse and Foot under the same Generall and Officers with power notwithstanding in the Councill of Warr to chuse new Officers and Generals from time to time as occasion shall happen and they think fit and to settle a very great Tax upon the people by a Land rate for an established pay for the Army to be levied and collected by the Army themselves and a Court-Martiall of an exorbitant extent and latitude But his Majesty having read some of the Propositions threw them aside telling them He would rather become a Sacrifice for his People then betray their Lives Laws Liberties and Estates together with the Church and Common-wealth and the honour of his Crown to so intolerable a bondage of an armed faction Saturday night and Sunday night the King lay in White-hall so neer the place appointed for the separation of his soul and body that he might hear every stroak the workmen gave upon the scaffold where they wrought all night this was a new device to mortifie him but it would not doe Tuesday the thirtieth of Ianuary was the day appointed for the Kings death His Majesty coming upon the scaffold shewed all the while an extraordinary magnanimity and Christian patience He had his head severed from his body at one stroke the Schismaticks showting presently after His Executioners though then concealed are now found to be Ioyce that bloody instrument of Cromwell's designes and Peters who lay not with a Butchers Wife so long to be ignorant of her Trade And therefore the Parliament have now sent for them to receive the condign punishment of their villany This is the relation of his Majesties Tryall by a mix'd Court of Justice erected by fifty or sixty confederate Members after all the rest of the Members above two hundred and fifty had been violently secluded secured and frighted And thus this noble Prince a Person sanctified by many afflictions after he had escaped Pistoll Poyson and pestilent Air could not escape the malice of Cromwell nor the impudence of Cook Bradshaw Steele Aske Doristaus Thus was the Shepheard smitten and the Sheep were scattered But Heaven not willing longer to endure the wickedness of such insolent Tyrants nor to see the innocent longer in affliction hath been pleased at length to restore the King to his Throne putting his Enemies to shame and confusion and herein we must admire the justice of the Parliament to whom the King unwilling to be Judge in his own cause hath referred himself What they have done their Acts declare The last week they excepted eleven of the grand Delinquents from mercy M. G. Harrison Mr. Say Mr. Scot. Coll. Berkstead M. Lisle Cornel. Holland Iones Cook Broughton Sar. Dandy M. Hulit After this in further prosecution of their intentions to bring these
at Oxford and surprise the Kings person at Holmby which was done by his Instrument Cornet Ioyce with a commanded party of Horse by which action Cromwell now thought himself so secure that when Ioyce giving him an account of what he had done told him that he had now the King in his power Cromwell repli'd Then have I the Parliament in my pocket It was not for him publickly to own so impudent an act therefore he had recourse to his wonted dissimulation protesting in the sight of God his ignorance in that business both to the King and Parliament adding to his Protestation an Execration upon his Wife and Children Having so farre prosper'd in his design as to get the King into his clutches the next contrivance was to get the Parliament into his power This was to be effected by purging both Houses so that there might be no Members here but what should be absolutely of Cromwels Faction to which purpose they send first a confused impeachment against eleven of the Members who thereupon modestly withdrew to free the Parliament from such danger as they should incurre by protecting them But while these things were acting Cromwell finding he could not compasse what he intended against the Parliament but that he must make the City his enemies casts about how to cheat the Countrey it being dangerous to have both City and Countrey his enemies at that time Agents are therefore imploy'd to spread Books and Pamphlets about the Kingdom wherein particular notice is taken of the pressures and grievances of the Nation courting them to neglect the King and the Parliament as unable to relieve them and to make their addresses to the Army who had it in their hands onely to restore the King uphold the Parliament and give them their Freedoms and Liberties and to take away from them all Taxes and Excises by these and the like pretences they deceived the people so far as to make them patiently bear the burthen of free quarter and to make Addresses to the Army for free quarter Having Iull'd the people into a sleep they now seek how to quarrell with the City They had withdrawn their quarters some thirty miles from London in a pretended obedience to the Parliament of which pretended example of their submission they made singular use against all objections but finding their designs retarded both in City and Parliament by the remainder of that party which they had left they must therefore find a quarrel to march against the City to give the Houses a stronger purge then they had formerly done Hereupon the Army demands the City Militia and had it granted by a packt company of the lower House when most of the Members were absent The City petition for their former Militia and to second their Masters many of the Apprentices came down with another of theirs it was not long ere Cromwell who watch'd for this opportunity had his Agents among them to keep up the Ryot and increase it as much as in them lay particularly one Highland was observed more active then all the rest This was cunningly contriv'd to encrease the sdandall upon the City The Army was now upon their march to London whereupon the speaker and about forty Members more having left about one hundred and forty sitting in the House sled to the Army It is thought that what the Speaker did proceeded from certain strong Threats and Menaces of Cromwell and Ireton for that he had solemnly professed a day or two before to Sir Ralph Ashton and others that he scorned to do such a base unjust and dishonourable act and that he would rather die in his chair Hereupon the remaining Members choose a new speaker and proceed to act one way while the Army with both the fugitive Speakers and the sugitive Members vote another signing engagements to live and die with the Army The Army were so overleavend with this engagement that they send out Warrants to the Trained Bands to march with them against the City The City hearing of their approch sent Commissioners sundry times to mediate an accord but the Army would give them no better termes then these that they should yield to desert both Houses and the impeached Members that they should call in their Declarations relinquish the Militia deliver up their forts to the Army with the Tower of London and the Magazines there disband all their Forces and turn the Reformadoes out of the line receive such guards of horse and foot as the Army should appoint demolish their works and suffer the Army to march in triumph through the City All which was suddainly and dishonourably yielded to so great was the undermining strength of Cromwels party to weaken the hands of all his opponents This being effected the fugitive Members were brought agin into the House And now we must look upon the Army and Parliament acting and consulting together They put into imployments none but men of their own faction that they may have all in their own hands they alter and divide the Militia of London setting up particular Militia's at Westminster Southwark and the Hamlets to make them weaker by such a division and demolish the lines of Communication and fright many more members from the House partly by threats and partly by false impeachments Then they declare all void which the Parliament had done in their absence and when many of the Commons were refractory and denyed to pass this ordinance they were either urged to it with threats or forced to depart the house Sir Arthur Haslerig telling them some heads must fly off and that he feared the Parliament of England could not save the Kingdome but they must look another way for safety That they could not satisfie the Army but by declaring all void from the beginning In which words he was seconded by Vane Prideaux Gourdon Mildmay Scott and Holland whom we must henceforward look upon as the Protectors greatest instruments And because this did not wholly effect the design they produce a scandalous letter from the Army wherein the members that sate while the two Speakers were absent were called pretended Members and threatned that if they would not give their assents topass the ordinance they should sit in the House at their peril for the Army would take them as Prisoners of war and trye them at a Counsel Thus the Members being frighted away the next day in a very thin assembly of Olivers creatures the ordinance passed and thus had Cromwel and his few conspirators what so far they sought for that is to say the whole power of the Parliament and Army This being done several accusations of high Treasons were brought against the Earles of Suffolk Lincoln Middlesex the Lords Berkley Willoughby Hunsdon and Maynard they were committed to the Tower that so those Lords that had engaged with the Army might have their house to themselves Several Petitions were likewise exhibited to the Houses bearing these titles to the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled distinct
not to be found and that he was a Malignant and had attempted to set the King at liberty To which it was replyed That a Committee could be named to examine the business concerning the Foot-boy that struck Sir H. Mildmay though no man knew where to find the Foot-boy that it was strange there should be such a difference between beating a Subject and killing a King that though Mr. Osborn were a Malignant yet unless he were also a Nullifidian convicted of perjury his oath was valid and good But Scot stood up and said That this pressing to examine this business was but to draw C. Hammond to Town that the King might the easier make an escape and Sir IOhn Evelin of Wilts alledged That this was an invention of Mr. Osborn to bring the King to Town with freedom honour and safety And though other motions were made for the said Committee yet either Mr. Scowen or Skippon stood up and offered to divert the business by new matter concerning the Army which bears all business down before it and so the business was buried in silence for that time Afterwards the Lords propounded that he might have forty dayes allowed him which was with much ado granted He comes and avouches it and one Doucet further affirm'd a design of Rolfe's to pistoll the King Rolfe presents himself at the Commons Barr with a Letter from Hammond who denies the design and pleads Rolfe's cause for him Rolfe denyed it at the Barr with a very trembling voice yet afterwards hid out of the way Hammond was neither sent for nor questioned Thus was this business quite husht up which onely serv'd to shew what the Gentlemen at Westminster solely aimed at and indeed their rancour was now at that height against the King that Skippon thought it just cause of complaint that some persons had printed a Book called A motive to loyall Subjects to endeavour the preservation of his Majesties person Many Petitions now also come for a Personall Treaty and among the rest the Surrey men petition for a Personal Treaty But Scot standing up in the House argued That it was a design to ruine the Godly That he was of opinion that there could be no time seasonable for a Personall Treaty or a Peace with so perfidious a Pince but that it would be alwayes either too soon or too late that he that draws his sword against the King must throw away the scabbord that all peace with him would prove the spoil of the Godly Thus by him and by the assistance of the Worthies Ven Miles Corbet Hill and Harvey Cromwell had his design in part for that the Petition had no success The King was now a prisoner in the Isle of Wight when Cromwell had overthrown Duke Hamilton at Preston and there by cut off the greatest hopes which the King had of being releived The Victory was great and swelled the Grandees that were then sitting at Westminster to such a height of pride of whom the chief were Thom. Scot Cornelius Holland and Sir Harry Mildmay that though before there were fair hopes of a Personall Treaty now began to shew an utter disdain and malice against it and to threaten and insult over all that had petitioned for it abroad or spoken for it in the House But the wise sort or rather the more crafty to do mischief knowing how weary the people were of their Texes and the Army and how covetous to purchase peace though at the price of a new warr and further considering that the Scots were not wholly reduc'd that the people were not yet quieted in many parts of England and finding the Prince with a considerable Fleet at Sea ready to raise new tempests at Land thought it better to dally on the Treaty till Oliver had quite finish'd his Northern Expedition and were marched nearer London and that all things were quiet in England and then to break off the Treaty and purge the House of those that sought to agree with the King under pretence of being the Kings corrupt Party Therefore to blind the peoples eyes it was debated in the House whether a Treaty should be had with the King upon the Propositions of Hampton-Court the question being put the Yeas and Noes were even fifty seven to fifty seven insomuch that the Speakers voice was put to turn the scales who though at this time he foreman of Oliver's shop gives his voice in the affirmative following then his conscience against his interest andmy Lord Say openly in the House of Lords said God forbid that any man should take advantage of this victory to break off the Treaty However Cromwell having got a full conquest over his enemies marches for London upon his design though the Parliament forbid his approach And to shew his contempt of them he prints a Declaration accusing them of lightness breach of trust inconstancy and indiscretion and threatning presently to advance towards Westminster to do what God should enable them The same night he came to Hide-Park corner The next thing he did was to take possession of White-hall for his Quarters He brought to town with him four Regiments of Foot and six of Horse which he quartered in the Mews by his own order The next news frequent in the Town was that of the Kings being seized in his bed-chamber and hurried away prisoner to Hurst Castle a Block-house in the Isle of Wight standing out a mile and a half in the Sea so noisome that the Guards could not endure to be there long without often shifting their quarters This insolent action satisfied onely the Independent and Monarchicall party but the others who were yet more numerous seeing so hainous a fact committed against the life of the King and the faith and honour of the Parliament resolve once more to try their power whereupon it was moved that it might be declared That his Majesty was remov'd by the Generals Warrant without the consent or privity of the House The Army Members to slop this argue that the word Declare would be construed a declaring against the Generall and Army and that the word Consent argued a disagreement in opinion and practise between the Parliament and the House as if the Houses dissented from it hereupon it was barely voted without the privity of the House Nevertheless the other Members proceed to the Kings Answers to the Propositions of both Houses whether they were satisfactions or no which after a long and tedious debate was carried in the affirmative and to keep a good correspondence with the Army a Committee of six Members was appointed to confer with the Generall and his Officers but could receive no other answer from them then this that the way to correspond was to comply with the Armies Remonstrance And now the Saints militant being inraged that the House had recovered so much courage and honesty to vote according to their consciences after some proud conference between Pride Hewson and other Officers and the Speaker in Westminster-Hall with