beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the County of York Gave his People to understand That He had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legal way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majesty to put them into a Military posture they should be drawn and engaged in any opposition against Him or His just Authority But 21 June 1642. e The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The design of their Propositions of raising horse and moneys was to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authority and Person and that the Forces already attending His Majesty and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary disign so as at this time also they do not charge the King with any maner of action of War or any thing done in a way or course of War against them and gave just cause of fear and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a War against their Soveraign did forbid all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the City of London And declare that if He should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should be held a levying War against the Parliament and all this done before His Majesty had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any maner or provision of War to defend himself when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to York but to give a weekly account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should be sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should be trained and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His Letter under His signe Manual commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits f to use all means to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawful assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and not to govern by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation He would speedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both Houses of Parliament commanding g That no Sheriff Mayor Bayliff Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having been imprisoned for proclaiming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaim any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings Name which should be contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both Houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order h That in case any forces should be brought out of one County into another to disturb the Peace thereof they should be suppressed by the Trained bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Town of Hull whilest the King is at York i seizeth on a Ship coming to Him with provisions for His houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queen to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Town k which the Parliament allows of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5 July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to be made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should be sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drums were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earl of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawn up to be sent to the Deputy-Lieutenants of the several Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings and divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the House of Commons ordered to meet every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foot to be raised in London and the Countrey be imployed by direction of the Parliament and the Lord Brook is furnished with 6. pieces of Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councel of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four dayes after 11. July 1642. l The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto Him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But m the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both Houses of Parliament and n those who have obeyed their Orders Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate General in that Cause 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King o to forbear any preparations or actions of War and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before that Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should be delivered to Him He would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the same pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as His Magizine and Navy
to pursue and give him battail When Sheba the son of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said f We have no part in David every man to his Tent O Israel and thereupon every man of Israel followed after him and forsook their King David who knew that Moses would not make a War upon the Amorites though he had Gods commandment for it without offers of Peace and messengers sent first unto them said to Amasa Assemble me the men of Judah within three dayes and when he tarried longer said unto him Take thou thy Lords servants and pursue after him lest he get him fenced Cities and escape us For they that would take heed of Cockatrices have ever used to kill them in the shell And g diligenti cuique Imperatori ac magistratui danda est opera saith Bodin ut non tam seditiones tollere quam praeoccupare studeant For sedition saith he once kindled like a spark of fire blown by popular fury may sooner fire a whole City then be extinguished Et tales igitur pestes opprimere derepente necesse est Princes and Soveraigns who are bound to protect and defend their Subjects are not to stand still and suffer one to oppress another and themselves to be undone by it afterwards But put the case that the Parliament could have been called â— Parliament when they had driven away the King which is the head and life of it or could have been said to have been two Houses of Parliament when there was not at that time above a third part of the House of Peers nor the half of the House of Commons remaining in them and what those few did in their absence was either forced by a Faction of their own or a party of Seditious Londoners for indeed the War rightly considered was not betwixt the Parliament and the King but a War made by a Factious and Seditious part of the Parliament against the King and the major part of the Parliament and had been as it never was nor could be by the Laws and constitution of the Kingdom co-ordinate and equal with the King and joint tenants of the Kingdom it would have been necessary to make the War as just as they could and to have done all that had been in order to it and therefore we hope they which pretend so much to the Justice of the Kingdom will not be offended to have the Justice of their War something examined CHAP. IV. Suppose the War to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equals whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it PLerique h saith learned Grotius tres statuunt bellorum justas causas defensionem recuperationem punitionem Three causes are usually alleaged by Princes or States to justifie wars viz. in the defence or recovery of their own or for punishment for a wrong done For any defence the Parliament might pretend a necessity of The King neither assaulted them nor used any violence to them when they first of all granted out their Propositions and Commissions of War unless they can turn their jealousies into a Creed and make the Kings demanding the five Members and Kimbolton being done by warrant of the Law of the Land and the Records and precedents of their own houses appear to be an assaulting of them Or if any reasonable man knew but how to make that to be an assault or a necessary cause of War for them to revenge it the Kings waving and relinquishing of his charge afterwards against them might have certainly been enough to have taken away the cause of it if there had been any howsoever a War made onely to revenge a bare demand or request of a thing was neither so much as forced or a second time demanded of them but was totally laid aside and retracted can never be accounted just As for the recovery of things lost or taken away the Parliament it self had nothing taken from them for both they and the people were so far from being losers at that time by the King as i the Remonstrance of the House of Commons made to the people 15. December 1641. of the Kings errors as they pleased to call them in the government but indeed the errors rather of his Ministers and themselves also in busying him with brawles and quarrels and denying to give him fitting supplies k mentions how much and how many beneficial Laws the King had granted them And so the Parliament and people being no losers and the King never denying them any thing which could in honour or conscience be granted them That part of the justifying of a War will no way also belong to them But if the punishment for offences and injuries past if they could be so properly called being a third cause of justifying a War could be but imagined to be a cause to justifie the Parliaments War against the King Yet they were to remember another Rule or Law of War l Ne nimis veteres causae accersantur That they do not pick quarrels by raking up past grievances and that it be not propter leviusculas injurias or for trifles For when the King who if he had been no more then co-ordinate with them had called them to counsel to advise him followed their advice in every thing he could finde any reason for taken away all grievances made a large provision to prevent them for the future by granting the Triennial Parliament and so large an amends for every thing they could but tell how to complain of there was so little left to the people and the Parliament to quarrel for as they were much behind in thankfulness for what they had got of him already Or if any other causes or provocations should be imagined as mis-using the Parliaments Messengers or the like we know the King unless it were by his patience and often Messages for Peace was guilty of no provocations but on the contrary though he had all maner of scorns and reproaches cast upon him and his Messengers evil intreated by them could never be brought to return or retaliate it to any of theirs But nothing as yet serving to excuse them it will not be amiss to examine the Causes as they are set down by themselves to justifie their war and so we may well suppose there are no other A War against the King for safety of His own Person was needless and then it comes within that rule of War and Law of Nations Ne leves sint causae belli not to make a War unnecessary for the King would look to that himself and as they were His Subjects they as well as every honest Subject were bound to defend and assist Him but not whether he would or no and in such a way of defence as would tend to His ruine rather then His safety For surely should any stranger of another Kingdom or Nation have casually passed by Edge-hill when the Kings and the Parliaments Armies were in
it 192 CHAP. VIII VVHether the conditions offered by the King would not have been more profitable if they had been accepted and what the people have got instead of them 205 ERRATA Which escaped the Press PAg. 120. l. 15. read their for they p. 118. l. 20. Saxon for Sixon p. 122. l. 22. interfere a. KING CHARLES The first No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THat there hath been now almost seven years spent in Civil Wars abundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdom by it then all the several Changes Conquests and Civil Wars it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans woful experience some onely excepted who have been gainers by it will easily assent unto No mervail therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could be granted to be true might either have hindred or lessened it would now put the blame of so horrid a business from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to bear it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chains and their Princes with fetters of Iron and think they have a Commission from Heaven to do it the guilt of it being necessarily either to be charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made believe that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so far out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity be guilty of the fact if He should have been as in all reason He ought to have been acquited of it the onely Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will be but either a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soul and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it self and by tracing out the footsteps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance whereof for I hope the original of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile we shall enquire who first of all raised the Feares and Jealousies Secondly represent set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous and seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and Whitehall until the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham and from the setting up of his Standard until the 13 Septemb. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility and a negative and churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obtained from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a war if it were made between equals Fourthly suppose the war to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equals whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fifthly whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons and rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixthly who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it Seventhly who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it Eightly whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have been more profitable for the People if they had been accepted and what the Kingdom and People have got in stead of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Fears and Jealousies THe desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earl of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legal guard offered by the King and His protestation to be as careful of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dream of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths-men to be taken away The training of horses under ground and a plague-plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse-back sent into the House of Commons to Mr. Pym A designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Laws and Liberties of the people and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament party or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could be so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But He that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish subjects the latter of whom the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therefore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himself not long after by a printed Remonstrance or Declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to be errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keep his gates at White-hall shut and procure divers Captains and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to be a guard for him and had been fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty He should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so far from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need and reason enough to do it he still granted them that he might not seem to deny what might but seem to be for the good
War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against His Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against His Person otherwise then as He was intrusted They have power to judge whether He discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged onely to them to Judge of the Law r 27 of May The King by His Proclamation forbids all His Subjects and Trained bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Commanded all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of York to seize and make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to be void in Law s command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by His command secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties protected all that were Delinquents against Him make all to be Delinquents that attended him and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to Him t 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himself a guard and u that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willough by of Parham to Muster and Trayn the County of Lincoln who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to do it x 10 June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against His Parliament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within 80 miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Privy Councel Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament y with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put His Subjects out of His protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate His Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of His Royal Priviledges then His demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton if it had not been Lawful for him so to do could be of theirs z granted a Commission of array for the County of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained bands a And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That He would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for His necessary defence whereupon the Lord keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia which had not the Royal assent to it 14 June 1642. Being informed b That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great sums of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unless He should be compelled to do it for His own defence forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses Within two days after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14. Barons the Lord Chief-Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and c That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such design and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of London for the raising of horse viz. 15 June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolution a year before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admiral and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him upon pain of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwich-shire to settle the Militia 17 June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City of London to inquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18 June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make War against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great Seal And 20 June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfulness of His Commissions of Array d That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawful and the Earl of Essex himself had in the
might be delivered unto Him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid down the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place He would lay down Armes and repair to them and desired all differences might be freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Liberty Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdom a blessed Peace and prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull they had Armed their General with power against Him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their General of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information That some of the Town of Portsmouth had revolted to Collonel Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majesty Order Forces to be sent thither speedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earl of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraign forces coming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earl of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brooks carrying the pieces of Ordinance to Warwick Ordered 5000. Horse and Foot to be sent to assist Him 9. August 1642. Upon information That the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array and to have the Magazine of the County to be delivered unto them Gave power to the Earl of Essex their Lord-General the Lord Brook and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earl of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earl of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the suppressing of any that should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation two dayes before Declaring the Earl of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yield to His Majesty within 6. dayes to be Traytors p vote the said Proclamation to be against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Declare their resolutions to maintain and assist the Earl of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppress the Kings Party Though all that the Kings Loyal Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legal way of the Militia and within a day or two after Ordered the Earl of Essex their Lord General to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an answer would be afforded to the Kings message sent from Hull where whilest He with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of His fellow Subjects 12. August 1642. The King though he might well understand the great leavies of Men and Armes ready to march against Him by a Declaration published to all His Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by him in this Parliament should be as equally observed as those which most of all concerned His own interest and rights and that His quarrel was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might be delivered into the hands of Iustice to be tried by their Peeres according to the known Laws of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brook Sir John Hotham Major General Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance He would cause Indictments to be drawn of High Treason upon the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. and if they submit to trial and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should be acquited But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours He had used for peace He that saw the Hydra in the mud and slime of Sedition in its Embryo birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devour him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved Robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and believe no more in the hopes of other remedies which had so often deceived Him but if He will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any maner of satisfaction to his own judgement and discretion betake himselfe to the sword which God had intrusted Him with and therefore makes the best use He could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His servants and friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to bear him company in His troubles provides what men arms He could in his way towards Nottingham where He intended to set up His Standard But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that He intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare q That now it appears to all the world that there is good ground of their fears and jealousies which if ever there had been any as there was no cause at all of any more then that some of them meaning to murder or ruine Him they were often afraid He should take notice of it and seek to defend himself there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certain ground appearing that He intended to defend himself against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the Actors and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdom who should persist to serve the King in this War against the Parliament and That it should be Lawful for any number of persons to ioyn and defend themselves and that the Earl of Essex their General should grant out Commissions for levying and conducting forces into the Northern parts And Sir John Hotham the Governor of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffs of the County of York and the adjacent Counties with the power of the Counties and Trained bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majesty who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since
fight and have been told that the King shot at them for the safety of His own Person and that they also shot against Him for the safety of His own Person and being asked which of the two parties he believed did really or most of all intend the safety of it we cannot tell how to think any man such a stranger to nature reason or understanding as to think the King should not fight as the Dictates of nature perswaded him to or that the King could tell how to fight against those that fought for him or that if he should be so hugely mistaken in that one year or Battel he should be in several other years and Battels after To fight for the defence of the Religion established as they made also the people believe was as needless when the King offered to do every thing might help to promote it and they are so little also to be credited in that pretence as we know they did all they could from the beginning to ruine it took away Episcopacy the hedge and bounds of it brought in Presbytery to preach up and aid their Rebellion and when their own turns were served encouraged Conventicles and Tub-preachers to pull down the Presbytery And being demanded at the treaty at Uxbridge by the Kings Commissioners what Religion they would have the King to establish were so unprovided of an answer as they could not resolve what to nominate nor in any of their propositions afterwards sent to the King though ofted urged and complained of by the Scottish Commissioners could ever finde the way to do it but have now set up an Independent extemporary enthusiastick kinde of worshipping God if there were any such thing in it or rather a religious Chaos or gallimaufrey of all maner of heresies errours blasphemies and opinions put together not any of the owners of which we can be confident will subscribe to that opinion that Wars may be made for Religion or that conscience ought to be forced by it As for the restrictive part of the Laws to keep the people in subjection we can very well perswade our selves no such War was ever made yet in the World nor any people ever found that would engage in a War for that they obeyed but against their wills And for that part of the Law that gives them the Kings protection priviledges immunities and certainties of deciding controversies which are more fitly to be called the Liberties of the people then to have 45. of the House of Commons or a Faction to make daily and hourly Laws Religion and Government and vote their estates in and out to pay an Army to force their obedience to it if we had not out-lived the Parliaments disguises and pretences saw them now tearing them up by the roots that there may be no hope of their growing up again and setting up their own as well as the ignorant and illiterate fancies of Mechaniques and Souldiers in stead of them we might have said that also had been needless when the King had done abundantly enough already and offered to grant any thing more that could in reason be demanded of Him And as touching their priviledges of Parliament They that understand but any thing of the Laws of England or have but looked into the Records and Journals of Parliament can tell that all priviledges of Parliament as King James said were at first bestowed upon them by the Kings and Princes of this Kingdom That priviledges of Parliament extended not to Treason or Felony or breach of the Peace That m 32. Hen. 6. Sir Thomas Thorpe Speaker of the House of Commons being arrested in execution in the time of the prorogation of the Parliament the Commons demanded he might be set at liberty according to their priviledges whereupon the Judges being asked their Councel therein made answer that general supersedeas of Parliament there were none but special supersedeas there was in which case of special supersedeas every Member of the House of Commons ought to enjoy the same unless in cases of Treason Felony or breach of the Peace After which answer it was determined that the said Sir Thomas Thorpe should lye in execution and the Commons were required on the behalf of the King to choose a new Speaker which they did and presented to the King accordingly That Queen Elizabeth was assured by her Judges that she might commit any of her Parliament during the Parliament for any offence committed against her Crown and dignity and they shewed her precedents for it and that primo tertio Caroli Regis upon search of precedents in the several great cases of the Earls of Arundel and Bristol very much insisted and stood upon the House of Peers in Parliament allowed of the exception of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace For indeed it is as impossible to think that there can be any priviledge to commit Treason as to think that a King should priviledge all his Nobility and every one of his Subjects that could get to be elected into the House of Commons in Parliament to commit Treason and to take away his life in the time of Parliament whensoever their revenge or malice or interest should find the opportunity to do it or that if it could be so any King or Prince would ever call or summon a Parliament to expose himself to such a latitude of danger or give them leave to sit as long as they would to breed it or that priviledges of Treason can be consistent with the name or being of a Parliament to consult and advise with the King for the defence of him and his Kingdom or that when Felony and breach of Peace are excepted out of their priviledge Treason that is of a far higher nature consequence and punishment should be allowed them or if there could have been any such priviledge and a meaner man then their Soveraign had broke it a small understanding may inform them that they could not without breach of the Peace have fought for it against a fellow Subject and then also could not their priviledges have reached to it but the King might have punished them for it and if they cannot upon a breach of priviledge n as it was adjudged in Halls case without the Kings writ and the cause first certified in Chancery deliver one of their own servants arrested It is not likely any warrant can be found in Law to inforce the King to reparation though he himself should have broken it but to petition the King for an allowance of that or any other priviledge as well in the middle or any other time of their sitting in Parliament as they alwayes do at the presenting of their Speaker in the beginning of it Wherefore certainly the People never gave the Parliament Commission if they could have given a Commission to make a War against their Soveraign to claim that was never due to them or to fight for that was never yet fought for by any of their
forget their due titles of Earls Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else there must be neither Treaty nor Peace At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King and His Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few days added to it and if the King could in Honor and Conscience have granted all the other parts of the Propositions must grant them an Act not onely to confiscate the Estates of His Friends and those that took Arms to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them which were onely guilty of it a thing so unfitting unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to be cut off and making them to gather the crumbs from under his table or Benhadads demand of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and people of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace and was not to be asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yield unto a thing nature it self would abhor and the worst of villains and reprobates rather lose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any but a Devil nor granted by any but his Equals And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the only cause of such unnatural and barbarous propositions it may well be wondred why they that have made to themselves for we cannot believe they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of piece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to do that which they are now so busie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doores of Janus or the Devil open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must be made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocritical pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to be ever since to whom their Masters the people we mean as to the House of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a War against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the book of God and their own consciences to perswade them to it That z duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other ways to come by pretended rights then by a War and we ought never to make use of a War which is the worst of all remedies if we may obtain it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre a The Rebellious Barons of England in the raign of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the King of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this Kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that means only stopped Charles b the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well c Intelligendum est eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt ilico eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a War without assaying all other just means of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion do turn their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will be found faulty For the French King and the States of the United Provinces did by more then one Request and Embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and His Parliament and desired to have all things in difference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it how satisfactorily he had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But we have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the company of so much wickedness we shall remove to the Kings party and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is clear enough already if he were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the business The King as He was defensor protector subditorum suorum and sworn to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority committed to him in vain And if he had no maner of just cause of fear either in His own Person or authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of His Subjects and plundring and taking away their Estates from them long before He had either armed himself or had wherewithal to do it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring Him to Justice and might by the same reason do it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might do it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans onely Sheep he that understood well enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure
be argument enough to conclude They vvere more likely to loose by a peace then a vvar therefore the more vvilling to continue it And if their own interests vvould not put them so far upon it their vain glory and ambition vvould be forvvard enough to persvvade them to it and if not that the success of their arms or miscalled Providence vvould make them look as experience tels us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the Great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his kingdome and if not that their feares and iealousies now growne greater by wronginge of the King then ever they were when they without any cause suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his Den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoeiug of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would be so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People who had no minde to preserve themselves and the morniug before he was inforced to fight in his own defence at Edg-hill did not only scnd his Proclamation of Pardon to all except the Earl of Essex wch would lay down their Arms but before hee had gathered up the Bayes which he had there won sends afterwards a like Proclamation of pardon to all those that the day before did all they could to kill him And in all his actions of War afterward behaved himself like a weeping Father defending himself against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children For had the Parliament accepted of his offers before he came to Beverley or besieged Hull he had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his people but half so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners display'd at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavours for peace after that battel and not sought to surround or ruine him when he came so neer as to their very doors to intreat for it they had never been troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himself at Braynford had his Treaty at Oxford been proceeded in with the same desires of peace he brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham bridge had been kept for better purposes had he sought his own advantages he had not besieged Glcoester or had he not been so unwilling to put the people in it to the hazard of a storm might have taken it had they not sent their General to assault him at Gloucester whil'st he was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites that with-held it from his obedience and sought to ruine and undoe him as well as his Loyal Subjects he had not fought with them afterwards at Newbury had not his Olive branches been flung in the fire by those he sent them unto he had not been put to defend himself at Cropredy bridge had any thing been able to prevail with the Parliament to pitty their fellow Subjects he had not taken such a tedious and dangerous march to relieve those they would have ruined at Bodmin in Cornwal had the Treaty at Uxbridge taken effect he needed not afterwards have adventured so much to defend himself at Newbury had not the new model'd Army after so many tenders of peace refused by their masters been sent out to destroy him he had not been put to the trouble of taking Leicester for his security and had not he been surrounded and almost surprised by them he might have reserved himself to a better success and advantage then he had at Naseby had his voluntary resigning up of the remainder of his Armies and Garisons been able to perswade any thing with them there had not been so much as a Relique of War left in the Kingdome or could so many messages for peace and so many Petitions of the people for it have made but any impression on the Parliament so many divisions parties and insurrections had not since broken the Harps of the Children of Israel nor had the drums outgone the voice of the Turtle He that could not bring himself to the common actions of War to hang a Spie but when one was hanged before he knew of it was intreating the Governour of Oxford to spare him He that when he had in his power John Lilborne one of the most factious that were against him Wingate and Darley Parliament men Col. Ludlow an actor of that Treason his father had not long before spoken against him and Dr. Bastwick one of the bellows and principal factours of this horrid Rebellion did no more then imprison some of them and giving the rest a legal Tryal shewed them what the Law they made silly people believe they took up arms to maintain would judg of them and suffered them to be exchanged to do what they could afterwards against him He that when he had taken 400. Prentise-boies in the Fight at Brainford did but dismiss and pitty them and when he had compelled the Earl of Essex the Parliaments General at Lestithiel in Cornwal to fly away by Sea in a Cock-boat leave all the Artillery and foot of his Army to his mercy did no more but only disarm them and take an Oath of them never more to serve against him And being then in the hight of his prosperity sent a Message and offer of peace to the Parliament who were low enough at that time if their designes would have given them leave to have received it He that could say He should be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to loose his own was not likely to be guilty of blood-seeking or the sheding of it He that had experience enough how much his Life and Crown were sought for yet to shew them the way to peace and to take off all pretences to hinder it could sheath his own sword and put himself into the hands of those he had so little reason to trust as he knew them to be the great contrivers of the War against him caused the Marquess of Montrosse one of his mighty men of war to disband when he was master of a strong and not long before fortunate Army in Scotland commanded Newarke Oxford Wallingford and Worcester very strong and almost impregnable Towns and Garrisons in England to be delivered up and all acts of hostility by sea and land and all the preparations his friends could make either in forraign parts or at home to cease He that could endure five years Ballading Libelling and preaching against him and such heaps of numberless affronts and injuries of all kinds done unto him and two years imprisonment afterwards yet so long as he enjoyed but the liberty of pen and inke or a messenger to carry it did so tire them with messages and offers of peace as they Voted it to be Treason for any to bring any message from him and