p. 187. r. ordering p. 188. r. directly p. 191. d. they p. 194. r. contrive p. 198. r. discourse l. 10. r. effect p. 200. r. them p. 225. r. whom p. 247. r. Six p. 225. r. resplendent p. 263. r. beatissimo p. 264. r. Generis p. 299. r. places of sev p. 341. r. thereof were p. 343. r. liv'd and died p. 366. r. All this very c. p. 415. r. shou'd p. 425. d. they p. 443. r. very great p. 484. r. pretensive in 't p. 492. r. King-craft THE Publishers Advertisement TO THE READER THere is no question but many at the first sight of the Title page will Wonder that so Sacred a Name shou'd be there and that the Life of so Great a Prince should be pretended to be written in so little time History they will say is a Work of Time it self as well as that part of it call'd Biography which Treats of the Lives of Eminent and Great Men and of Illustrious Heroes informing us in the Nature of Things and of Duties and Teaching us the great Arts of Life and Death which are no such easie and trivial matters as to be thrown over the left Shoulder And what shall we say to the Confidence of this Author who now in less than two Months space has huddled up the Life of the greatest Monarch of the British Line which perhaps is more difficult to be wriâ—â—â— than that of any of his Predecessorâ— and would claim a Century or at lest as many Years as it was acted in to be absolutely and thoroughly digested by the most reaching Genius and most consummated Wit Wherefore to satisfie thee Reader and thy Objection I will tell and assure thee That the Author is partly I do say more acquainted with the great difficulty as well as use of History in general and that for his own Part This which thou hast here he hath been long about these many years and that it is no Mushroom business springing up from a foggy Brain in one Night and as likely to perish by another It is a thoughtful Piece no illegitimate Brat no Sham-extract Verbatim out of other Books which thou hast perhaps read and paid for already For I should be very loath if I knew such a thing to so be unconscionable to impose upon thee But now perhaps from my Answer to the former Objection thou wilt be ready to raise another and look upon my Author as no kind Wisher to his Prince to go and write his Life before his Demiss which resembles a kind of an Expectation of his Death rather than the putting up any hearty Prayers for the Continuance of his Life as every good Subject ought to do In return to this I am still of the Affirmitive side and will again assure thee That he is a very Loyal and Worthy Gentlemen and that thou wilt believe me as soon as thou hast read his Book And besides to consider the thing in it self 't is so far from being an Act that looks any ways Disloyal to write a Princes Life before his Decease that on the other hand it is extreamly Loyal and Meritorious As we see now in France where an Annual Pension is setled upon the Great Satyrist to write the Life of his Master the French King Indeed this I will add in my Authors behalf that I have heard him say he never desir'd to live to finish his Book but Addressed Heaven to the contrary hoping it might prove a Picture and Draught of the Kings Life only to the middle But since Heaven has thought fit to take our Gracious Prince to it self I prevailed with him to revise the whole Work and make an addition to such years as was wanting Which being compleated I here present to the Publick View For you may ghess Reader that when we Book sellers have got any thing of this Nature it is as severe a piece of Mortification and Self-denial to keep it private as it is for our Gallants to keep their Chambers the same Day they have got a new Suit Adieu A Table of the most Remarkable matters couch't in this Royal Story Anno à Virginis partu 1630 KIng Charles the Second born at St. James's A Prodigious Star then appearing at Mid-day page 5 Baptiz'd by Dr. Laud Bishop of London 7 Committed in his Infancy to the Countess of Dorsets care then to the Government of the Earl of New-Castle and the Tutorage of Dr. Duppa Ibid. 1638 First called Prince of Wales by Order not creation 7. Accompanies his Royal Father in Progresses Ibid. Takes his Seat in Parliament Ibid. Carries a reprieving Message from the King to the Parliament about the Earl of Strafford 8 1640 Goes with his Father into the North. 10 At York is made Captain of a choice Guard of Loyal Nobles and Gentlemen 11 1642 Gives the first proof of his Bravery at Edghill-fight 12 Committed at Oxford to the care of the Marquess of Hartford Chancellor of that University 13 1644. Endeavours to Heal the Differences 'twixt his Father and the Factious Diet. 15 A Match propos'd between him and the Infanta of Portugal Ibid. 1646. Sails to the Scilly Islands 19 His Answer to the Parliaments swimming Invitation Ibid. Their barbarous Ordinance that follow'd thereupon 20 The manner how he employed his time in those Islands 21 His first Visit to France ibid. Desires leave to go into the French Army but declines it upon his Fathers Prohibition 22 Made Generalissimo by his Father 23 The Scots tender of him ibid. His Answer to a Letter of theirs 25 1648. He appears with some Forces in Jersy-Isle ibid. Grants Martial Commissions to several Persons of Honour 26 Sets forth a Declaration 27 The Kentish men rise in his behalf 30 But are worsted by Fairfax 32 He Seizes some Merchants Ships and attempts the Relief of Deal-Castle ibid. Colchester taken by Famine and Fairfax 35 He retires into Holland ibid. His Letter to the King his Father 36 The Treaty at the Isle of Wight ibid. Cromwel and the Armies proceedings with the Parliament to bring the King to a Tryal 37 An Ordinance past by the Commons for his Tryal but oppos'd by the Lords 39 The Juncto resolves to Try him without the Lords consent 40 The Princes behaviour and pious Acting thereupon 41 The King accursedly Sentenc'd to be Beheaded 42 His Sacred Memoirs and Papers of Advice to his Son 43 King Charles the first most sacrilegiously Assassinated 57 Prince Charles succeeds him 59 The Juncto declare it High-Treason to Proclaim him 60 Vote down the House of Lords ibid. Appoint Judges and Justices 62 The People open their Eyes detest them 63 King Charles the II. Proclam'd in England 64 Receives at the Hague the news of the Royal Martyrdom 65 His Comportment thereupon 66 Sends Embassadors to several Princes 67 1649. Proclaim'd in Scotland by Penitent Rebels 68 Passes through Flanders where he is highly Caress'd and Regal'd into France 72 The Scots invite him over 74
Titus Britannicus AN ESSAY OF HISTORY ROYAL IN THE Life Reign OF HIS Late SACRED MAJESTY CHARLES II. Of Ever Blessed and Immortal Memory By AVRELIAN COOK Gent. Ut ameris Amabilis esto Ovid. Majora Veris Monstra vix capiunt Fidem Senec. LONDON Printed for James Partridg Stationer to His Royal Highness George Hereditary Prince of Denmark at the Post-Office by Charing-Cross 1685. To the most NOBLE HONOURABLE REVEREND WILLIAM Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FRANCIS Lord Guilford C. S. LAWRENCE Earl of Rochester P. GEORGE Marquess of Halifax C. P. S. JAMES Duke of Ormond S. R. D. CHRISTOPHER Duke of Albemarle HENRY Duke of New-Castle HENRY Duke of Beaufort CHARLES Marquess of Winchester ROBERT Earl of Lindsey S. A. C. HENRY Earl of Arlington C. R. D. AUBERY Earl of Oxford THEOPHILUS Earl of Huntington JOHN Earl of Bridgwater HENRY Earl of Peterborough PHILIP Earl of Chesterfield Robert Earl of Sunderland HENRY Earl of Clarendon JOHN Earl of Bath WILLIAM Earl of Craven ROBERT Earl of Ailesbury JOHN Earl of Radnor DANIEL Earl of Nottingham HENRY Earl of Middleton THOMAS Vicount Falconberg HENRY Lord Bishop of London GEORGE Lord Dartmouth SIDNEY Lord Godolphin Sir JOHN ERNLY Sir THOMAS CHICHELEY Sir GEORGE JEFFERIES and Sir LEOLINE JENKINS The Lords of His late Majesties Privy-Council My LORDS IT was a Custom much us'd by the Ancient Writers among the Greeks and Romans to Dedicate their Books to their most particular Friends and sometimes to Intitle and call them by their Friends Names In our Age wherein we either do or shou'd imitate Antiquity in all commendable things This laudable Custom is either wholly laid aside or practis'd by so few that they almost escape Observance If indeed this Method of Dedicating Books was chang'd into a better I should have no reason to complain but rather to applaud the happy Genius of our Times for outshining the brightest days of Antiquity But most assuredly we can find no causes for such Triumphs The Dedications now made in England and France which two Countries in this Age we may Parallel with the foremention'd Greece and Italy upon the Score of Excellence in Wit with respect to the rest of Europe Our Dedications I say are so full of nauseous and fulsom Flatteries and Most of 'em so generally made up of about a dozen long Words variously turn'd and dispers'd that for my part I wonder how any Man can proceed any further in a Book of such small hopes but must needs lay it down and chuse rather to go to Bounding-Stones with Augustus Nay this crying Sin of the Nation is come to that pass that even our Poets who were made and fram'd on purpose in such a Make as only to lash Vice with the severest Satyr are yet most abominably guilty of this crime When an excellent Comedy has appear'd on the Stage for some time and perhaps done the Work of an Hundred Homilies in visiting and reclaiming Mankind from their evil ways it comes forth in Print and all is spoil'd again by a wicked Dedication in the beginning which propagatâ—â— Atheism so that no man can believe the Poet is honest and speaks his mind in the Play while he talks so lewdly and contradictorily in the Dedication It was not so in Ben. Johnson's days What I have said of Epistles Dedicatory in general may partly seem to hook my self into the crowd of these numerous Transgressors while I inscribe this Book to your Great Names But several Things I have to alledg for my self First tho this Piece be not presented to any private Friend of its Author in Emulation of the Ancients yet as far as possibly I have followed their Sacred Rules and Canons in a Work of this publick Nature For it is the Life of one of the Greatest and Wisest Princes that â—ver Sway'd the English or any other Scepter And to whom cou'd I better devote His Life than to His Greatest and Wisest Friends for such He always call'd His best Servants Ye are concern'd MY LORDS in every Page of this Book and can witness what is here related to be true No part of His Life but wherein some of you have had a share In His Education His Exile His Sufferings His Victories His Triumphs And while I write his Life in some measure I write Yours For such is the fate of Celsitude and honour that Great Men in some sense do frequently Dye before Sixty three And to be sure when a Prince falls he does not fall alone but several Others have their Lives interchangeably writ with his Besides MY LORDS being unable to find any Object nearer to him than Your selves except his Majesty whom God long preserve and the Family Royal I lay under an indispensable necessity of imploring your Lordships Patronage For such is my Veneration to the Blood of my Prince that by no means can I be perswaded to think the ensuing Papers fit for his most Sacred and Princely Eye or worthy a Royal Protection and I am resolv'd to be as Innocent as I can and not offend One Prince after having committed Treason against the Fame of another However MY LORDS tho this be not a Piece fit for a Kings Cabinet yet I hope this Image of our late Sovereigns Life will not be refus'd by Your Lordships since we love the Pictures of those Persons we admire let 'em be never so unfinisht let them be drawn by what hand soever The other Thing which I propos'd to my self in this Address was the avoiding Flattery tho it may seem a very unnecessary Caution since he that looks up to such a Thick-set Conglobation and as it were Galaxy of heavenly Virtues must easily infer that they are too high for Flattery and too bright to have any lustre added to them With all the Tragical forces of Eloquence I might here expatiate on the Topicks of Grand Descent of Titles and honours of Policy and Government of Arms and Learning of the Tent and the Closet But it is not my design to manage these common Subjects And I beg leave of your Lordships to say That in the front of a Book consecrated to the fame of CHARLES the II d I think I shou'd do an Injury to him if I endeavour'd professedly to write any other Panegyrick but his tho at the same time I must needs include Your Lordships Praises And herein I have determin'd to take a View of the King himself and not of his Deeds that Province I leave to his history and to set his personal Virtues and not additional Actions before your Eyes for a bad man may do a praise-worthy thing but a good man himself can only be praised Many Kings themselves do either hear or read their own Commendations and take care to see their own Glory setled before they dye But such kind of Annals usually is as mortal as their Subject and as soon turns to Ashes No His late Majesties Praise shall not be Mercenary The World after his Death shall
Embassador the Lord Lockhart to compose the differences between them and resolving whether he succeeded in that Mediation or not to be no partaker with them in their Quarrels and Commanded by Proclamation that none of his Subjects should enter into the Service of any Foreign Prince And for the better securing of Trade to and from his Ports which was much disturbed by the Insolency of several Dutch Spanish and French Privateers betwixt whom the War still continued he Publish'd a Proclamation wherein he declared That all Ships to what Party soever they belonged should be under his Protection during their stay in any of his Ports or Harbours Commanding the Officers of his Navy to use their utmost endeavours to hinder the Roving of any Private Men so near his Coast as to give apprehension of danger to Merchants And that if a Man of War of either Party and one or more Merchant-Men of another should come into any of his Ports the Merchant-Men should sail out two Tides before the Man of War should be permitted to stirr forbidding his Sea-men to List themselves on Board any Foreign Man of War or other Ship designed for Traffick or the Fishing-Trade without his Licence laying down several other Rules in Relation to the security of Trade and the Maintaining his Sovereignty in those Seas which were punctually observed and thereby many Merchants and Traders preserved from being made prize of by their Enemies And that he might secure the Peace of his Kingdom for the future as well as for the present he procured the Parliament to give him the sum of five hundred eighty four thousand nine hundred and seventy eight Pounds for the speedy building thirty Ships of War which he caused to be built so large and substantial that they cost him one hundred thousand Pounds more than they gave him And now beginning to reflect upon the success of the French King's Arms and fearing lest the growing Greatness of that Monarch might too much obscure his own Glory and threaten the future Peace of his Kingdom resolved with himself by entring into an Alliance with some Princes and States abroad to put a stop to his further Conquests in Flanders And that the French might not think him in jest only he immediately applied himself to the raising of Forces and in a short time had a brave Army on Foot ready to be transported into Flanders and Married his Niece the Lady Mary eldest Daughter to his only Brother the Duke of York to the Prince of Orange The Parliament having at their last sitting desired him to hasten his entering into such Councils and Alliances as might save what remained of Flanders from being devoured by the French he acquainted them at their next Meeting with what he had done telling them that he had made such an agreement with Holland and the rest of the Confederates that if seconded by plentiful supplies from them and due care from the Spaniards for their own Preservation he doubted not but to restore such an Honourable Peace to Christendom as might not be in the Power of one Prince alone to disturb which he had endeavoured by a fair Treaty And was resolved if that succeeded not to enter into an actual War with France laying before them the expences he had been at already and what sums of Money such a War would necessarily require And to remove all sorts of Jealousies he had Married his Niece to the Prince of Orange thereby giving full assurance never to suffer that Prince's Interest to be ruined if assisted by them as he ought to be to preserve it To Alarm the French King the more with a noise of War the Parliament made several Addresses to the King wherein they intreated him to enter into an Actual War with that Crown promising to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes to that end And a Book was Published Intituled Christianissimus Christianandus wherein reasons were given for reducing the most Christian King to a more Christian state in Europe And finding that the French King still went on in his Conquests he sent some Regiments of his new raised Forces over into Flanders to secure the places of greatest consequence there and Commanded a Fast on Wednesday the tenth of April to be kept in London and on that day fortnight throughout the whole Kingdom to implore the blessings of Heaven on his undertakings And the Parliament to assist him with Money which is the sinews of War raised him a liberal sum by a Pole-Bill and that they might weaken the French as well as strengthen him Prohibited French Wines and other things of the Growth and Manufactury of that Country a contrivance that would certainly have reduced him to terms of Moderation and Peace had the rest of the Confederates done the like but for want of that the design of the Prohibition fell and he received little or no dammage thereby However remembring how fatal the Arms of England had formerly been to France and being Thunder-strook with the Fame of the King 's having in forty days raised an Army of thirty thousand Men and fitted out a Navy of ninety Ships he durst not adventure notwithstanding his success in Flanders to run the hazard of a War with that Nation To prevent which he resolved to consent to a Peace with some of the Confederates hoping thereby to break the measures already taken by King Charles and therefore presently offered a separate Treaty with Holland which People according to their usual though unjust and base Custom of serving themselves and leaving their Confederates in the lurch without acquainting the King of England therewith accepted of and afterwards concluded upon condition that he would give up Maestricht and other places which he had taken from them during the War But besides their usual custom of waiting the first opportunity of slipping their own necks out of the Coller they being informed that the League Offensive and Defensive which the King of England had entred into with them was not well understood at home and had met with some unfitting and very undeserv'd Reflections and that the Parliament had taken up a Resolution of giving no Money till satisfaction was first had in some Matters of Religion and those Jealousies removed which they had without all ground taken up of his Proceedings very much influenced their entrance into that Treaty concluding that it was now vain to rely any longer upon England since England was no longer it self by reason of those Divisions and Misunderstandings between the King and his Parliament But the King who was not ignorant of what the Dutch were doing resolving to save Flanders either by a War or Peace perswaded the King of Spain and the rest of the Conferates to accept of the same Treaty with them endeavouring to procure a Cessation of Arms on all sides during the time of the Treaty the better to make way for the desired Peace However considering the influence that Peace would have upon England