condemned And I thank God though the weight of the Sentence lye very heavy upon me yet I am as quiet within as I thank Christ for it I ever was in my life and though I am not the first Archbishop but the first man that ever dyed by an Ordinance of Parliament yet some of my Predecessors have gone this way though not by this means for Elfegus was hurried away and lost his head by the Danes and Simon Sudbury in the fury of Wat Tyler and his fellowes And long before these Saint John Baptist had his head danced off by a lewd Woman and Saint Cyprian Archbishop of Carthage submitted his head to a persecuting sword Many examples great and good for they teach me patience and I hope my cause in Heaven will look of another dye then the colour that is put upon it here upon earth and some comfort it is to me not only that I go the way of these great men in their several Generations but also that my charge if I may not be partiall looks somewhat like that against Saint Paul in the 25. of the Acts for he was accused for the Law and the Temple that is the Law and Religion and like that of St. Stephen in the sixth of the Acts for breaking the Ordinances which Moses gave us which Ordinances were Law and Religion but you 'l say do I then compare my self with the integrity of Saint Paul and Saint Stephen no God forbid far be it from me I onely raise a comfort to my self that these great Saints and servants of God were thus laid up in their severall times And it is very memorable that Saint Paul who was one of them and a great one that helped on the accusation against Saint Stephen fell afterwards into the self-same accusation himself yet both of them great Saints and servants of God I but perhaps a great clamour there is that I would have brought in Popery I shall answer that more fully by and by in the mean time you know what the Pharisees said against Christ himself in the eleventh of John If we let him alone all men will believe him Et veniunt Romani and the Romanes will come and take away both our place and the Nation Here was a causelesse cry against Christ that Romans would come and see how just the Judgement of God was they crucified Christ for fear lest the Romanes should come his death was that that brought in the Romanes upon them God punishing them with that which they most feared and I pray God this clamour of veniunt Romani of which I have given to my knowledg no just cause help not to bring him in for the Pope never had such an harvest in England since the Reformation as he hath now upon the Sects and divisions that are among us in the mean time by honour and dishonour by good report and evil report as a deceiver and yet true am I now passing out of this world Some particulars also I think not amisse to speak of First this I shall be bold to speak of the King our gracious Soveraign he hath been much traduced by some for labouring to bring in Popery but upon my Conscience of which I am now going to give God a present account I know him to be as free from this Charge I think as any man living and I hold him to be as sound a Protestant according to the Religion by Law established as any man in this Kingdom and that he will venture his Life as far and as freely for it and I think I do or should know both his affection to Religion and his grounds upon which that affection is built as fully as any man in England The second particular is concerning this great and populous City which God blesse here hath been of late a fashion taken up to gather hands and then goe to the Honourable and great Court of the Kingdome the Parliament and clamour for Justice as if that great and wise Court before whom the causes come which are unknown to the many could not or would not doe Justice but at their call and appointment a way which may endanger many an innocent man and pluck innocent bloud upon their own heads and perhaps upon this City also which God forbid and this hath been lately practis'd against my self God forgive the setters of this with all my heart I begge it but many well-meaning people are caught by it In Saint Stevens case when nothing else would serve they stirred up the people against him Acts 6. and Herod went just the self same way for when he had kill'd Saint James he would not venture upon Saint Peter too till he saw how the people took it and were pleased with it in the 12. of the Acts. But take heed of having your hands full of bloud in the first of Isaiah for there is a time best known to himself when God among other sinnes makes inquisition for bloud and when Inquisition is on foot the Psalmist tells us Psalme 9. that God remembers that is not all that God remembers and forgets not saith the Prophet the complaint of the poor and he tells you what poor they are in the ninth verse the poor whose bloud is shed by such kind of meanes Take heed of this It is a fearfull thing at any time to fall into the hands of the living God in the 12. of the Hebrews but it is fearfull indeed then especially when he is making his Inquisition for bloud and therefore with my prayers to avert the Prophesie from the City let me desire that this City would remember the Prophesie that is expressed Jeremiah 26.15 The third particular is this poor Church of England that hath flourished and been a shelter to other neighbouring Churches when stormes have driven upon them but alas now it is in a storme it self and God knows whether or how it shall get out and which is worse them a storme from without it is become like an Oake cleft to shivers with wedges made out of its own body and that in every cleft prophanesse and irreligion is creeping in apace while as Prosper saith men that introduce prophaness are cloaked with a name of imaginary religion for we have in a manner almost lost the substance and dwell much nay too much a great deal in Opinion and that Church which all the Jesuites machinations in these parts of Christendome could not ruine is now fallen into a great deal of danger by her own The last particular for I am not willing to be tedious I shall hasten to goe out of this miserable world is my self and I beseech you as many as are within hearing observe me I was born and baptized in the bosome of the Church of England as it stands yet established by Law in that profession I have ever since lived and in that profession of the Protestant Religion here established I come now to die this is no time to dissemble
up Your Spirit and if there want evidence there is reliance my security lies not in my knowing that I shall come to Heaven and come to Glory but in my resting and relying upon him When the Aâ—chor of Faith is thrown out there may be shakings and tossings but there is safety nothing shall interrupt safety although something may interrupt security my safety is sure although I apprehend it not and what if I goe to God in the dark What if I come to him as Nicodemus did staggering in the night It is a night of trouble a night of darkness though I come trembling and slaggering in this night yet I shall be sure to find comfort and fixedness in him And the Lord of heaven be the strength stay and support of Your soul and the Lord furnish You with all those graces which may carry You into the bosome of the Lord Jesus that when You expire this life You may be able to expire it into him in whom You may begin to live to all Eternity and that is my humble Prayer Holland M. Bolton God hath given me long time in this world he hath carried me through many great accidents of Fortune he hath at last brought me down into a condition where I find my self brought to an end for a dis-affection to this State to this Parliament that as I said before I did believe no body in the world more unlikely to have expected to suffer for that Cause I look upon it as a great judgement of God for my sins And truly Sir since that the death is violent I am the less troubled with it because of those violent death that I have seen before principally my Saviour that hath shewed us the way how and in what manner he hath done it and for what cause I am the more comforted I am the more rejoyced It is not long since the King my Master passed in the same manner and truly I hope that his purposes and intentions were such as a man may not be ashamed not onely to follow him in the way that was taken with him but likewise not ashamed of his purposes if God had given him life I have often disputed with him concerning many things of this kind and I conceive his sufferings and his better knowledge and better understanding if God had spared him life might have made him a Prince very happy towards himself and very happy towards this Kingdom I have seen and known that those blessed souls in heaven have passed thither by the gate of sorrow and many by the gate of violence and since it is Gods pleasure to dispose me this way I submit my soul to him with all comfort and with all hope that he hath made this my end and this my conclusion that though I be low in death yet neverthelesse this lownesse shall raise me to the highest glory for ever Truly I have not said much in publick to the people concerning the particular Actions that I conceive I have done by my counsels in this Kingdom I conceive they are well known it were something of vanity methinks to take notice of them here I 'le rather die with them with the comfort of them in my own bosom and that I never intended in this action or any action that ever I did in my life either malice or bloud-shed or prejudice to any creature that lives For that which concerns my Religion I made my profession before of it how I was bred and in what manner I was bred in a Family that was looked upon to be no little notorious in opposition to some liberties they have conceived then to be taken and truly there was some mark upon me as if I had some taint of it even throughout my whole ways that I have taken every body knows what my affections have been to many that have suffered to many that have been in troubles in this Kingdom I endeavourad to relieve them I endeavoured to oblige them I thought I was tyed so by my Conscience I thought it by my charity and truly very much by my Breeding God hath now brought me to the last instant of my time all that I can say and all that I can adhere unto is this That as I am a great sinner so I have a great Saviour that as he hath given me here a fortune to come publickly in a shew of shame in the way of this suffering truly I understand it not to be so I understand it to be a glory a glory when I consider who hath gone before me and a glory when I consider I had no end in it but what I conceive to be the service of God the King and the Kingdom and therefore my heart is not charged much with any thing in that particular since I conceive God will accept of the intention whatsoever the action seems to be I am going to dye and the Lord receive my Soul I have no relyance but upon Christ for my self I do acknowledge that I am the unworthyest of sinners my life hath been a vanity and a continued sin and God may justly bring me to this end for the sins I have committed against him and were there nothing else but the iniquities that I have committed in the Way of my Life I look upon this as a great Justice of God to bring me to this Suffering and to bring me to this Punishment And those Hands that have been most active in it if any such there hath been I pray God forgive them I pray God that there may not be many such Trophies of their Victories but that this may be as I said before the last Shew that this People shall see of the Blood of Persons of Condition of Persons of Honour I might say something of the Way of our Tryall which certainly hath been as extraordinary as any thing I think hath ever been seen in this Kingdom but because that I would not seem as if I made some complaint I will not so much as mention it because no body shall believe I repine at their actions that I repine at my Fortune it is the will of God it is the hand of God under whom I fall I take it entirely from him I submit my self to him I shall desire to roul my self into the Arms of my blessed Saviour and when I come to this place when I bow down my self there I hope God will raise me up and when I bid farewell as I must now to Hope and to Faith that Love will abide I know nothing to accompany the soul out of this World but Love and I hope that Love will bring me to the Fountain of Glory in Heaven through the Arms Mediation and the Mercy of my Saviour Jesus Christ in whom I Believe O Lord help my Unbelief Hodges The Lord make over unto You the righteousness of his own Son it is that Treasurie that he hath bestowed upon You and the Lord shew You the Light of his Countenance and
heedless and heady Teachers How many of you young men have for some small discontent departed from your loving Masters dear Friends or tender Parents and fled into the Army How many of you driven by Tyranous oppression poverty or cruelty have left your dear wives and children And some for novelty or wantonness adhere to this imployment not considering the great danger of spilling innocent bloud How many of you have drawn your Swords you do not know for what How many of you keep drawn your swords you do not know for what You have put to death a pious and just King and in his stead have reared up even another Jeroboam that makes Israel to sin What his goodness is you best know You have put down a good old Law and reared up another of your own to judge the people by my calling for the benefit of the former and for the equity even of your own Law I am in parr condemned here to dye Be you Judge of the proceedings How many of you have had a hand in putting down the ancient true Church and raised up in your own imaginations a new one But alas You know not what you do if you did you would grieve to see what a glorious Church you have ruined you would never have pulled down the hedges and broken down the senses that the wild beasts of the Forrest should come in that the little foxes should devour and the wilde Boar should rout out so stately a Vine When the Jewes were led into captivity their goodly and magnificent Temple was burnt but in processe of time they obtained favour amongst the Heathen Kings they dwelt amongst and had liberty therewith to rebuild rebuild they did and finished a second Temple at which sight all the young men rejoyced to see so gallant a Temple but the old men wept to see how farre different and short the second Temple was from the glory of the first So you young men rejoyce at your imaginary Church but the old men methinks I see some weep Oh weep not for me weep for your Country weep to see Religion Liberty and Laws taken from you weep to see so many good men snatcht away but indeed from the miseries to come and weep for what your unhappy selves will suffer Souldiers however you flourish for a time and perhaps many of you may reioyce at our deaths but believe it as Sampson pull'd the house of the Philistims down when he fell so shall we give you and your Cause a greater blow by our deaths than living we possibly could have done You may for a time flourish but remember what our Saviour said All you that make use of the Sword shall perish by the Sword you shall be cut down like the grass and wither away like the green herbs But do you behold yonder glorious place Do you behold the spangled Heavens where the holy Angels dwell where God himself is rounded with thrones Principalities Powers and the Celestiall Spirits of just men when the Trump shall blow when the dead shall rise at the dreadfull day of judgement How will you answer all your Rapes and Murthers Do you think your hands that have been bathed in the bloud of your King the bloud of so many of your eminent Country-men so unjustly they have been bathed in the bloud of many of your friends your kindred perhaps your Parents can ever reach yonder glorious place without repentance Oh no repent now therefore it is not too late shake off your bloudy Protector rescue your ancient Laws and call in your Royal young PRINCE whom you have long enough wronged Make your Addresses to the great Protector of Heaven and earth as I now do my self for a Pardon for all your former and present transgressions I dye an obedient Son of the Church of England and with a dutifull heart to the KING and desire that none present that love him will be disheartned by my death but continue faithfull to the end And so farewel I forgive all the world c. The Speech of the Honourable Colonel Penruddock the greatest part whereof he delivered upon the Scaffold in Exon. Castle the 16. day of May 1655. the whole he left with a Gentleman and friend of his written with his own hand which is as followeth Together with the manner of his being beheaded As he was ascending the Scaffold baring his knees and bowing himself he used these words This I hope will prove to be like Jacobs ladder though the feet of it rest on earth yet I doubt not but the top of it reacheth to Heaven When he came upon the Scaffold he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death I thank God who hath given me victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Then with abundance of Christian chearfulnesse he spake to the people as followeth Gentlemen IT hath ever been the custom of all persons whatsoever when they come to die to give some satisfaction to the world whether they be guilty of the fact of which they stand charged The crime for which they stand charged The crime for which I am now to die is Loyalty but in this age call'd high Treason I cannot deny but I was at Southmoulton in this County but whether my being there or my actions there amount to so high a crime as high Treason I leave to the world and to the Law to judg Truly if I were conscious to my self of any base ends that I had in this undertaking I would not be so in jurious to my own soul or disingenuous to you as not to make a publick acknowledgement thereof I suppose that divers persons according as they are biassed in their severall interests and relations give their opinions to the world concerning us I conceive it impossible therefore so to expresse my self in this particular as not to expose both my judgement and reputation to the censure of many which I shall leave behind me Because I will not put others therefore upon a breach of charity concerning me or my actions I have thought fit to decline all discourses which may give them a capacity either to injure themselves or me My Tryall was publick and my severall examinations I believe will be produced when I am in my grave I will refer you therefore to the first which I am sure some of you heard and to the later which many of you in good time may see Had Captain Crook done himself and us that right which a Gentleman and a Souldier ought to have done I had not now been here The man I forgive with all my heart but truly Gentlemen his protesting against those Articles he himself with so many protestations and importunities put upon us hath drawn so much dishonour and bloud upon his head that I fear some heavy judgement will pursue him Though he hath been false to us I pray God I do not prove a true prophet to him Nay I must say more
ever I took defended my selfe with Arms I never took up Arms against the People but for my People and the Laws President The command of the Court must be obeyed no answer will be given to the Charge King Well Sir Then the Lord President ordered the default to be recorded and the contempt of the Court and that no answer would be given to the Charge And so was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cotton's house Then the Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber on Tuesday at twelve a clock aod from thence they intend to adjourn to Westminster Hall at which time all persons concerned are to give their attendance Resolutions of the Court at their Meeting in the Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 22. 1648. THis day the King being withdrawn from the Bar of the High Court of Justice the Commissioners of the said High Court of Justice sate private in the Painted Chamber and considered of the Kings carriage upon the Saturday before and of all that had then passed and fully approved of what the Lord President had done and said in the managing of the businesse of that day as agreeing to their sense And perceiving what the King aimed at viz. to bring in question if he could the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Authority thereof whereby they sate and considering that in the interim he had not acknowledged them in any sort to be a Court or his Judges and through their sides intended to wound if he might be permitted the Supreme Authority of the Commons of England in their Representative the Commons assembled in Parliament after advice with their Councell learned in both Laws and mature deliberation had of the matter Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction or that which constituted them a Court of which debate they had not proper Conusance nor could they being a derivative Judge of that Supreme Court which made them Judges from which there was no appeal and did therefore order and direct viz. Ordered that in case the King shall again offer to dispute the Authority of the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court have taken into consideration his demands of the last day and that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have constituted this Court whose Power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him That in case the King shall refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court will take it as a contumacy and that it shall be so Recorded That in case he shall offer ot answer with a saving notwithstanding of his pretended Prerogative above the jurisdiction of the Court That the Lord President do in the name of the Court refuse his protest and require his positive Answer whether he will own the Court or not That in case the King shall demand a Copy of the Charge that he shall then declare his intention to Answer and that declaring his intention a Copy be granted unto him That in case the King shall still persist in his contempt the Lord President do give command to the Clerk to demand of the King in the name of the Court in these words following viz. Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the People of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court requires you to give a positive Answer to confesse or deny the Charge having determined that you ought to Answer the same At the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Seventy three persons present The King comes in with his Guard looks with an austere countenance upon the Court and sits down The second O Yes made and silence commanded Mr. Cook Solicitor General May it please your Lordship my Lord President This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England that a King of England trusted to keep the Law That had taken an Oath so to do That had Tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of a wicked design to subvert and destroy our Lawes and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defence of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against his Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the people of England that he might speedily be required to make an Answer to the Charge But my Lord in stead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High Court your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive Answer either by denying or confession of it but my Lord he was then pleased for to demur to the jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then over-rule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy judgement against him My Lord I might presse your Lordship upon the whole That according to the known Rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable plea Guilty or not Guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryall That as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the prisoner at the Bar has done but besides my Lord I shall humbly presse your Lordship upon the whole Fact The House of Commons the Supreme Authority and jurisdiction of the Kingdome they have declared That it is notorious That the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clear as Chrystal and as the Sun that shines at noon day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the people of Englands behalf severall witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confesse it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is very great for justice and judgement and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgement be pronounced against the prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what is moved by the Councel on the behalf of the Kingdome against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what delatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands
them and reserved to themselves to alter as they shall see cause Sir it is very true what some of your side have said Rex non habet parem in Regno This Court will say the same while King That you have not your Peer in some sense for you are Major singulis but they will aver again that you are Minor universis and the same Author tells you that in exhibitione juris there you have no power but in _____ quasi minimus This we know to be Law Rex habet superiorem Deum Legem etiam Curiam and so saies the same Author and truly Sir he makes bold to go a little further Debentei ponere fraenum They ought to bridle him and sir we know very well the stories of old Those Wars that were called the Barons Wars when the Nobility of the Land did stand out for the liberty and property of the Subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade to play the Tyrants freer but called them to accompt for it we know that truth That they did fraenum ponere But sir if they do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own Honor and the Kingdoms good as the Barons of England will not be unmindfull of what is for their preservation and for their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt This we learn the end of having Kings or any other Governors it 's for the enjoying of Justice that 's the end Now Sir if so be the King will go contrary to the end of his Government Sir he must understand that he is but an Officer of trust and he ought to discharge that Trust and they are to take order for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governor This is not Law of yesterday Sir since the time of the division betwixt you and your People but it is Law of old And we know very well the Authors and Authorities that do tell us what the Law was in that point upon the Election of Kings upon the Oath that they took unto their People and if they did not observe it there were those things called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Author the plaints and wrongs done of the King and Queen or their Children such wrong especially when the People could have no where else any remedy Sir that hath been the People of Englands case they could not have their remedy elsewhere but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were ordained for that purpose to redresse the grievances of the People that was their main end and truly Sir if so be that the Kings of England had been rightly mindfull of themselves they were never more in Majesty and State then in the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Stories have told us We have a miserable a lamentable a sad experience of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speak these things the rather to you because you were pleased to let fall the other day you thought you had as much knowledge in the Law as most Gentlemen in England it is very well Sir And truly Sir it is very good for the Gentlemen of England to understand that Law under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the Scripture says They that know their Masters will and do it not what followes The Law is your Master the Acts of Parliament The Paliaments were to be kept antiently we finde in our author twice in the year That the Subject upon any occasion might have a ready remedy and redresse for his Grievance Afterwards by several Acts of Parliament in the dayes of your Predecessor Edward the third they must have been once a year Sir what intermission of PARLIAMENTS hath been in your time it is very well known and the sad consequences of it and what in the interim in stead of these Parliaments hath been by you by an high and Arbitrary hand introduced upon the People that likewise hath been too well known and felt But when God by his Providence had so brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a Parliament Sir yet it will appeare what your ends were against the Antient and your Native Kingdome of Scotland The Parliament of England not serving your ends against them you were pleased to dissolve it Another great necessity occasioned the calling of this Parliament and what your designes and plots and indeavours all along have been for the ruining and confounding of this Parliament hath been very notorious to the whole Kingdome And truly Sir in that you did strike at all that had been a sure way to have brought about that that this laies upon you Your Intention to Subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land For the great bulwark of Liberty of the People in the PARLIAMENT of England and to Subvert and Root up that which your aim hath been to do certainly at one blow you had confounded the Liberties and the propriety of England Truly Sir it makes me call to minde I cannot forbear to expresse it for Sir we must deal plainly with you according to the merits of your cause so is our Commission it makes me call to minde these proceedings of yours that we read of a great Roman Emperor by the way let us call him a great Roman Tyrant Caligula that wisht that the People of Rome had bad but one neck that at one blow he might cut it off and your proceedings hath been somewhat like to this for the body of the people of England hath been and where else represented but in the Parliament and could you have but confounded that you had at one blow cut off the neck of England but God hath reserved better things for us and hath pleased for to Confound your designes and to break your Forces and to bring your Person into Custody that you might be responsible to Justice Sir we know very well That it is a question on your side very much prest by what Precedent we shall proceed Truly Sir for Precedents I shall not upon these occasions institute any long discourse but it is no new thing to cite Precedents almost of all Nations where the people when power hath been in their hands have been made bold to call their Kings to account and where the change of Government hath upon occasion of the Tyranny and Mis-government of those that have been placed over them I will not spend time to mention France or Spain or the Empire or other Countries Volumes may be written of them But truly Sir that of the Kingdome of Arragon I shall think some of us have thought upon it when they have the justice of Arragon that is a man tanquam in medio positus betwixt the King of Spain and the people of the Country that if wrong be done by the King he that is the King of Arragon the Justice hath power to reform the
people that came to be Spectators very great The King being come upon the Scaffold it was expected he would say somewhat to the people the which he did But because we have no other Relation of what his Majesty then spake save what was taken in short hand on the Scaffold by three several Gentlemen who were very exquesite in that Act nor had his Majesty any copy being surprized and hastned by those who attended him to the Scaffold save only a few heads in a little scrip of Paper which after his death the Soldiers took from the Bishoo of London to whom he gave it therefore the Reader must be content with this Copy which was by them upon joynt comparing of their copyes published some few words being altered to make the sense perfect The King being come upon the Scaffold and looking about him upon the people who were kept off by Troops of Horse so that they could not come neer to hear him omitted what he had purposed to have spoken to them as 't is thought and turning himself to the Soldiers and Officers the Instruments of the Regicide spake to them to this effect The King being come upon the Scaffold look'd very earnestly upon the block and asked Col. Hacker if there were no higher and then speak thus directing his Speech cheifly to Coll. Thomlinson King I Shall be very little heard of any body here I shall therefore speak a word unto you here indeed I could hold my peace very well if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as wel as to the punishment but I think it is my duty to God first and to my Country for to clear my self both as an honest man a good King and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency In troth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this for all the world knows that I never did begin a War with the two houses of Parliament and I call God to witness to whom I must shortly make an account That I never did intend for to incroach upon their Priviledges they began upon me it is the Militia they began upon they confest that the Militia was mine but they thought it fit for to have it from me and to be short if any body will look to the dates of Commissions of their Commissions and mine and likewise to the Declarations will see cleerly that they began these unhappy troubles not I so that as the guilt of these enormous Crimes that are laid against me I hope in God that God will clear me of I will not I am in charity God forbid that I should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliment there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this guilt for I doe believe that ill instruments between them and me has been the chief cause of all this blood-shed so that by way of speaking as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods judgements are just upon me Many times he does pay Justice by unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will onely say this That an unjust Sentence * that I suffered for to take effect is * Strafford punished now by an unjâ—st Sentence upon me that is so for I have said to shew you that I am in innocent man Now for to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good man that will bear me witness That I have forgiven all the world even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my death who they are God knows I doe not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their charge nay not only so but that they may take the right way to the peace of the Kingdom for my Charity commands me not only to forgive particular men but my Charity commands me to endevour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sir I doe wish with all my soul and I do hope there is some here will carry it further that they may endevour the Peace of the Kingdome Now Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and will put you in the way first you are out of the way for certainly all the way you ever have had yet as I could find by any thing is in the way of conquest certainly this is an ill way for conquest Sir in my opinion is never just except there be a good just Cause either for matter of wrong or just Title and then if you goe beyond it the first quarrel that you have to it is it that makes it unjust at the end that was just at first But if it be onely matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a Pirat said to Alexander that he was the great Robber he was but a petty Robber and so Sir I doe think the way that you are in is much out of the way Now Sir for to put you in one way believe it you will never do right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successors and the people their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to his Scriptures which is now out of order For to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but onely this A National Synod freely called freely debating among themselves must settle this when that every Opinion is freely and clearly heard For the King indeed I will not then turning to a Gentleman that touched the Ax said Hurt not the Ax that may hurt me For the King the Laws of the Land will cleerly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns my own particular I onely give you a touch of it For the people and truely I desire their Liberty and freedom as much as any body who soever but I must tell you that their Liberty and freedome consists in having of government those Laws by which their Life and their Goods may be most their own It is not for having share in government Sir that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clean different things and therefore until they do that I mean That you do put the people in that Libertie as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sir It was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an Arbitrarie way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I needed not to have come
here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the Martyr of the people Introth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer for I will onely say this to you that in truth I could have desired some little time longer because I would have put this that I have said in a little more order and a little better digested then I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God that you doe take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdome and your own salvations Dr. Juxon Will your Majesty though it may be very well known your Majesties affections to Religion ye it may be expected that you should say somewhat for t the worlds satisfaction King I thank you very heartily my Lord for that I had almost forgotten it Introth Sirs My Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the world and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and this honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take care they doe not put me to pain and Sir this and it please you But then a Gentleman coming near the Ax the King said take heed of the Ax pray Take heed of the Ax then the King speaking to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then the King called to Doctor Juxon for his Night cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Does my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his cap which the king did accordingly by the help of the executioner and the Bishop then the King turning to Doctor Iuxon said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side Doctor Juxon There is but one Stage more this Stage is turbulent and troublesome it is a short one But you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from earth to heaven and there you shall find a great deal of cordial joy and comfort King I goe from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Doctor Juxon You are exchanged from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown a good exchange The king then said to the executioner is my hair well Then the King took off his Cloak and his George giving his George to Doctor Juxon saying Remember Then the King put off his Doublet and being in his Wastcoat put his cloak on again then looking upon the block said to the executioner You must set it fast Executioner It is fast Sir King When I put my hands out this way stretching them out then After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up Immediately stooping down laid his neck upon the Block and then the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King said thinking he had been going to strike stay for the sign Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little pause the King stretching forth his hands The Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body the head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the people which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his house at Saint James's where his body was embalmed and put in a Coffin of Lead laid there a fortnight to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday sevennight after his Corps embalmed and coffined in Lead was delivered cheifly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and John Joyner former Cook to to his Majesty they attended with others cloathed in mourning Suits and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in that which was formerly the Kings Bed-chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with black and made dark Lights burning round the Hearse in which it remained till three in the Afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquesse of Hertford the Marquesse of Dorchster the Earl of Lynsey having obtained an order from the Parliament for the Decent Enterment of the King their royal Master provided the expence thereof exceeded not five hundred pounds at their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Collonel Wichcott Governour of the Castle desiring the Enterment might be in St. George's Chappel and by the form in the Common Prayer Book of the Church of England this request was by the Governour denyed saying it was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act To which the Lords replied there is a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no power so binds its own hands as to disable it self in some cases all could not prevail the Governour persisting in the negative The Lords betook themselves to the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some pains taking therein they discover a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as is probably conjectured lyeth the body of King Henry the eight and his beloved wife the Lady Jane Seamor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being Room for one more they resolve to inter the body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the pious Bishop of London following next and other persons of Quality the body was committed to the earth with sighs and tears especially of the Reverend Bishop to be denyed to do the last Duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body upon the Coffin was these words set KING CHARLES 1648. A Letter worthy Perusal written by King CHARLES to his Son the PRINCE from Newport in the Isle of Wight Dated November 29. 1648. Son BY what hath been said you may see how long We have laboured in the search of Peace Do not you be discourag'd to tread those wayes in all those worthy means to restore your self to your Right but prefer the way of Peace shew the greatness of your mind rather to conquer your enemies by pardoning then by punishing If you saw how unmanly and unchristianly this implacable disposition is
hath an immediate passage from this earthly Tabernacle to that Region of endless glory yea to the presence of God himself in whose presence is fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore Then the E. of Cambridge turning to the Executioner said which way is it that you would have me lie Sir Execut. The Executioner pointing to the front of the Scaffold the Earl replyed What my Head this way Then the Under-Sheriffs son said my Lord the Order is that you should lay your head towards the High Court of Justice The E. of Cambridge after a little discourse in private with some of his servants kneeled down on the side of the Scaffold and prayed a while to himself When he had finisht his prayer D. Sibbald spake to him thus My Lord I humbly beseech God that you may now with a holy and Christian courage give up your soul to the hand of your faithful Creator and gracious Redeemer and not be dismayed with any sad apprehension of the terrors of this death and what a blessed and glorious exchange you shall make within a very few minutes Then with a chearfull and smiling countenance the Earl embracing the Doctor in his Arms said Camb. Truly Sir I do take you in mine Arms and truly I bless God for it I do not fear I have an assurance that is grounded here laying his hand upon his heart Now that gives me more true joy then ever I had I pass out of a miserable world to go into an eternal and glorious Kingdome and Sir though I have been a most sinful creature yet Gods mercy I know is infinite and I bless my God for it I go with so clear a Conscience that I know not the man that I have personally injured D. Sibbald My Lord it is a marvellous great satisfaction that at this last hour you can say so I beseech the Lord for his eternal mercy strengthen your Faith that in the very moment of your Dissolution you may see the Arms of the Lord Jesus stretched out ready to receive your soul Then the Earl of Cambridge embracing those his Servants which were there present said to each of them You have been very faithful to me and the Lord bless you Camb. Then turning to the Executioner said I shall say a very short Prayer to my God while I lie down there and when I stretch out my hand my right hand then Sir do your Duty and I do freely forgive you and so I do all the world D. Sibbald The Lord in great mercy go along with You and bring You to the possession of everlasting life strengthning Your Faith in Jesus Christ This is a passage My Lord a short passage unto eternal glory I hope through the free grace of Your gracious God You are now able to say O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy Victory and to make this comfortable answer Blessed be God blessed be God who hath given me an assurance of victory through Christ Jesus Then the Earl of Cambridge said to the Executioner Must I lie all along Execut. Yes and 't please your Lordship Camb. When I stretch out my hands but I will fit my head first tell me if I be right and how you would have me lie Ex. Your shirt must be pinn'd back for it lie too high upon your shoulders which was done accordingly D. Sibbald My Lord Now now lift up Your eyes unto Jesus Christ and cast Your self now into the everlasting Arms of Your gracious Redeemer Then the Earl having laid his head over the Block said Is this right D. Sibbald Jesus the Son of David have mercy upon You. Execut. Lie a little lower Sir Camb. Well Stay then till I give you the signe And so having layn a short space devoutly praying to himself he stretched out his right hand whereupon the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body which was received by two of his servants then kneeling by him into a Crimson Taffaty Scarf and that with the body immediately put into a Coffin brought upon the Scaffold for that purpose and from thence conveyed to the house that was Sir John Hamiltons at the Mews This execution being done the Sheriffs Guard went immediately to meet the Earl of Holland which they did in the mid-way between the Scaffold and Westminster-Hall and the Under-Sheriffs son having received him into his charge conducted him to the Scaffold he taking M. Bolton all the way in his hand passed all along to the Scaffold discoursing together upon which being come observing his voice would not reach to the people in regard the Guard compassed the Scaffold he said Henry Lord Rich Earl of Holland His Speech on the Scaffold immediately before his Death March 9. 1649. Holland IT is to no purpose I think to speak any thing here Which may must I speak And then being directed to the front of the Scaffold he leaning over the Rayls said I think it is sit to say something since God hath called me to this place The first thing which I must profess is what concerns my Religion and my Breeding which hath been in a good Family that hath ever been faithful to the true Protestant Religion in the which I have been bred in the which I have lived and in the which by Gods grace and mercy I shall dye I have not lived according to that Education I had in that Family where I was born and bred I hope God will forgive me my sins since I conceive it is very much his pleasure to bring me to this place for the sins that I have committed The cause that hath brought me hither I believe by many hath been much mistaken They have conceived that I have had ill Designs to the State and to the Kingdome Truly I look upon it as a Judgement and a just Judgement of God not but I have offended so much the State and the Kingdome and the Parliament as that I have had an extream vanity in serving them very extraordinarily For those Actions that I have done I think it is known they have been ever very faithful to the Publike and very particularly to Parliaments My Affections have been ever exprest truly and clearly to them The dispositions of Affairs now have put things in another posture then they were when I was engaged with the Parliament I have never gone off from those Principles that ever I have professed I have lived in them and by Gods grace will die in them There may be Alterations and Changes that may carry them further then I thought reasonable and truly there I left them But there hath been nothing that I have said or done or professed either by Covenant or Declaration which hath not been very constant and very clear upon the principles that I ever have gone upon which was to serve the King the Parliament Religion I should have said in the first place the Commonwealth and to seek the
everlasting blisse and glory it takes us from the miseries of this world and society of sinners to the city of the living God the celestial Jerusalem I blesse God I am thought worthy to suffer for his Name and for so good a cause and if I had a thousand lives I would willingly lay them down for the cause of my King the Lords Anointed the Scripture commands us to fear God and honour the King to be subject to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether to the King as supreme or to those that are in Authority under him I have been alwayes faithfull to my Trust and though I have been most basely accused for betraying Leverpool yet I take God to witnesse it is a most false aspersion for I was then sick in my bed and knew not of the delivering of it till the Officers and Souldiers had done it without my consent and then I was carried prisoner to Sr. John Meldrum afterwards I came down into the country and seeing I could not live quietly at home I was perswaded by Collonel Forbes Colonel Overton Lieutenant Colonel Fairfax whom I took for my good friends to march in their Troops which I did but with intention still to doe my King the best service when occasion was and so I did and I pray God to turn the hearts of all the souldiers unto their lawful Soveraign that this Land may enâ—oy Peace which till then it will never doe and though thou kill me yet will I put my trust in thee wherefore I trust in God he will not fail me nor forsake me Then he took his Bible and read divers Psalmes fit for his own occasion and consolation and then put up divers prayers some publickly and some privately the publick was this which follows His Prayer WElcome blessed hour the period of my Pilgrimage the term of my Bondage the end of my cares the close of my sins the bound of my travels the goal of my race and the heaven of my hopes I have fought a long fight in much weaknesse I have finished my course though in great faintnesse and the Crown of my joy is that through the strength of thy grace I have both kept the true faith and have fought for my Kings the Lords Annointed's cause without any wavering for which and in which I die I doe willingly resign my flesh I despise the World and I defie the Devil who hath no part nor share in me and now what is my hope my hope Lord Jesu is even in thee for I know that thou my Redeemer livest and that thou wilt immediately receive my Soul and raise up my body also at the last day and I shall see thee in my flesh with these eyes and none other And now O Lord let thy Spirit of comfort help mine infirmities and make supplication for me with sighs and groans that cannot be expressed I submit my self wholly to thy will I commit my Soul to thee as my faithfull Redeemer who hast bought it with thy most precious Blood I confesse to all the world I know no name under heaven by which I may be saved but thine my Jesu my Saviour I renounce all confidence in any merits save thine I thankfully acknowledge all thy blessings I unfainedly bewail all my sins I stedfastly believe all thy promises I heartily forgive all my Enemies I willingly leave all my Friends I utterly loath all earthly comforts and I entirely long for thy coming Come Lord Jesus come quickly Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Private were to himself his hat being before his eyes after this he put up divers short Ejaculations As I know my Redeemer liveth Father unto thy hands I commend my spirit for thou hast redeemed it O God thou God of truth Lord Jesus receive my Spirit and many of the like and so he yeelded to Death The Speech of Cornet Michael Blackburn immediately before his Death August 23. 1649. It is expected I should say something and indeed it is my desire to say something and but a little I Am not a Gentleman by birth but my Parents are of an honest quality and condition I was brought up in the Protestant Religion and in that Religion I have lived and in that I now die I have some five or six years since ingaged to this War wherein I had no other end or intention but to doe my King true and faithfull service according to my duty and the dictate of my Conscience I have not done so much service as I desired but I have been always faithfull to him and wish I could have done him more and for his son the King that now is I wonder any man of this Kingdome should have the boldness or impudence to lift up his hand against him to keep him from his Crown whereof he is Heir apparent and hath as good right and title to it by his Birthright as any man living hath of his Inheritance or Possession I pray God blesse him forgive all my Enemies and Lord Jesus receive my Spirit The Speech of Colonel Eusebius Andrews immediately before his Execution on the Scaffold on Tower-hill on Thursday August 22. 1650. being attended on by D. Swadling AS soon as he came upon the Scaffold kissing the block he said I hope there is no more but this Block between me and Heaven and to the Lieutenant of the Tower he said I hope I shall neither tire in my way nor go out of it After he had been a good while upon the Scaffold turning to the rail he speaks to the people as followeth Christian Gentlemen and people Your business hither to day is to see a sad spectacle a man to be in a moment unman'd and cut off in the prime of his years taken from further opportunities of doing good either to himself his friends the Commonwealth or especially to God It seldom happens but upon very good cause And though truly if my general known course of life were but inquired into I may modestly say there is such a moral honesty upon it as some may be so sawcy as to expostulate why this great Judgement is fallen upon me but know I am able to give them and my self an answer and out of this breast am able to give a better account of my Judgement and Execution then my Judges themselves or you are able to give It is Gods wrath upon me for sins long unrepented of many Judgements withstood and mercies slighted therefore God hath whipped me by his severe rod of correction that he might not lose me I pray joyn with me in prayer that it may not be a fruitless rod that when by this rod I have laid down my life by this staffe I may be comforted and received into glory I am very confident by what I have heard since my sentence there is more exception made against proceedings against me then I ever made My Tryers had a Law and the value of that Law is indisputable and for me
be Loyal I hope my God hath forgiven that when it is upon harmless employment not invading any according to his just Masters Order for indeed I have been alwayes bred up in that Religion my Allegiance hath been incorporated into my Religion and I have thought it a great part of the service due from me to Almighty God to serve the King putting off his hat I need not make any Apology for any thing in relation to the present things in England for were I as I spake before my Judges were I as evil as my Sentence hath here made me black it were impossible for me to have prejudiced any body in England or to England belonging in that imployment but I blesse God for his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ putting off his hat who hath brought me home to him here in this way it was the best Physick for the curing of my Soul and those that have done it have no more power in then that of my body I leave nothing behind me but that I am willing to part withall all that I am going to is desirable And that you may all know that Almighty God hath totally wrought in me a totall Deniall of my self and that there is that perfect Reformation of me within and of my own corruptions by the blessed Assistance of his holy Spirit I desire Almighty God in the abundance of the bowels of his mercy in Jesus Christ not onely to forgive every Enemy if any such be in the world here or wheresoever but to bring him into his bosom so much good and particular comfort as he may at any time whether the Cause were just or unjust have wished me any manner of evill for I take him to be the happy instrument of bringing me to heaven It is tedious but I have an inward comfort I bless Almighty God pray Gentlemen give me leave speaktng to some that prest upon him I should never do it but to give satisfaction to all charitable Hearts I have been troublesome Sheriff You have your liberty to speak more if you please Sir Henry Hide But as to that part Mr. Sheriff that did concern the Deniall as it was affirmed by Master Attorney Generall of my Masters imployment Truly landing at Whitehall I told that Council there was just Commissions to an old Officer by the blessing of God I have be me and I have other good things that God hath blessed me withall more then all the good Christians in the world that are not the Grand Seignior's Slaves and we that are Merchants abroad we allow our selves any sufferance that may induce to our own safety inlargement of Trade or preservation of what is ours Why I had by the grace of my gracious Master a confirmation of my old Commission of Consulage in Greece but as to the Embassie no more then my Credentiall Letters did speak nor no more then that I attempted an Internuncio they call it in those places which is a Messenger between the one and the other King They both unhappily died of severall deaths and both violent too And it is a custom not unknown to you Master Sheriff and other Gentlemen that practice in the world that Princes of course for the continuation of amity do send Messengers where there is peace that the transaction of those publick expressions of reciprocall Affections may be performed but for Embassie God forbid I should own it I never had it however they have used it as the happy means to bring me to God this day I beseech God in the bowels of my Saviour to forgive those people that have done it I owe them no harm so God pay them home with all the good of this and an everlasting life As for Power I have been long absent here in England I meddle with none Sufficient to me in Gods grace to the salvation of my soul I have been alwayes fearfull of offending Almighty God according to the grace he hath given me but to learn new Religion and new Ways that I must say Master Sheriff to you and all others that hear me I cannot dispence with my Conscience to give offence to Almighty God I am now if it may be with your Commission Master Sheriff to pour out my soul to Almighty God in two or three words the place is straitned If I knew wherein to give any satisfaction to any thing whatsoever wherein I have offended or no I am here in the fear of God to do it I forgive them with all my soul and my forgiveness is clear as I am now going to receive Happiness at the hand of my Saviour But if I thought it were satisfaction to Sir Thomas Bendish and all the Company or any who think they have offended me I am come Master Sheriff to pay that Obedience Willingly that Debt I owe to Nature to pay it upon the score of a Subject because Conscience within me tells me not that for the intentions of serving my Prince that I could deserve such a Death though ten thousand times more other ways Doctor Hide There was some suspition that you might impart the way you were upon to some of those Servants that were with you Sir Henry Hide I humbly thank you for remembring me of it and if any be here of the Turky Company this day or any Friend of theirs I shall desire them from a dying Man to take this truth That neither my Brother my innocent Brother that this is with me nor other Gentlemen with me in my company have contributed any thing to their disturbance it was my own business whatsoever hath been done that hath been to evil or loss though I deny both of them in my Intentions I come not here to accuse any man nor excuse my self but I praise God for all his deliverances yet I know I shall do God a great deal of Service and them a great deal of justice in not involving any of my company in any thing of mischief I cannot answer Objections I find a man may be in Turky or in any place all the World over where they will give that Language which they hold sitting but this is beneath me Blessed be Almighty God that hath called me to the Knowledge of him and this ready Obedience which I pray and mercifull accepting of my Saviour and patient Death And I beseech you all whatsoever you are that you will accompany me with your Prayers whereby my Soul may be assisted within me in that passage to my Saviour whither I am going I am weak of body I have discontinued long from the Kingdom I am unacquainted with new Forms I have desired to serve God according to his Commandments after the Old way I have begged mercy of God for all my offences to him and have had my pardon sealed from Heaven by the Bloud of my Saviour I beg pardon of all whosoever whether I have offended them or no I truly forgive them and have besought Almighty God to poure his
a Tyrant then see how you come short of it in your Actions whether the highest Tyrant by that way of Arbitrary Government and that you have sought to introduce and that you have sought to put you were putting upon the People whether that was not as high an Act of Tyranny as any of your Predecessors were guilty of nay many degrees beyond it Sir the term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily agree it must denote and suppose a breach of Trust and it must suppose it to be done by a Superior and therefore Sir as the People of England might have incurred that respecting you if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of Law so on the other side when you did break your Trust to the Kingdome you did break your Trust to your Superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore Sir for this breach of Trust when you are called to account you are called to account by your Superiors Minimus ad Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously gloriously for they having power in their hands and their great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire That you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss That you would endevour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are your high crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third thing too if those had not been and that is Murther which is layd to your charge All the bloody Murthers that have been committed since this time that the devision was betwixt you and your People must be laid to your charge that have bean acted or committed in these late Wars Sir it is an heinous and crying sin and truly Sir if any man will ask us what punishment is due to a Murtherer Let Gods Law let Mans Law speak Sir I will presume that you are so well read in Scripture as to know what God himself hath said concerning the shedding of Mans blood Gen. 9. Num. 35. will tell you what the punishment is and which this Court in behalf of the Kingdome are sensible of of that innocent blood that has been shed whereby indeed the Land stands still defiled with that blood and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but with the shedding of the blood of him that shed this blood Sir we know no Dispensation from this blood in that Commandement Thou shalt do no murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest Peasants the meanest of the People the command is universall Sir Gods Law forbids it Mans Law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of exception nor even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you 'T is true that in the case of Kings every private hand was not to put forth it self to this work for their Reformation and punishment But Sir the people represented having power in their hands had there been but one wilfull act of Murther by you committed had power to have convenâ—ed you and to have punished you for it But then Sir the weight that lies upon you in all those respects that have been spoken by reason of your Tyranny Treason breach of trust and the Murthers that have been committed surely Sir it must drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall condition as I said at first I know it cannot be pleasing to you to hear any such things as these are mentioned unto you from this Court for so we do call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdome as we have often said and although you do yet endevour what you may to dis-court us yet we do take knowledge of our selves to be such a Court as can administer Justice to you and we are bound Sir in duty to do it Sir all I shall say before the reading of your Sentence it is but this the Court does heartily desire that you will seriously think of those evils that you stand guilty of Sir you said well to us the other day you wisht us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God that we know is a King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God that is the avenger of innocent blood we have that God before us that God that does bestow a curse upon them that withhold their hands from shedding of blood which is the case of guilty Malefactors and that do deserve death That God we have before our eyes and were it not that the conscience of our duty hath called us unto this place and this imployment Sir you should have had no appearance of a Court here but Sir we must prefer the discharge of our duty unto God and unto the Kingdome before any other respect whatsoever and although at this time many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what they intend to do Sir we do here declare that we shall not decline or forbear the doing of our duty in the administration of Justice even to you according to the merit of your offence although God should permit those men to effect all that bloody designe in hand against us Sir we will say and we will declare it as those Children in the fiery Furnace that would not worship the golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up That their God was able to deliver them from that danger that they were neer unto but yet if he would not do it yet notwithstanding that they would not fall down and worship the Image we shall thus apply it That though we should not be delivered from those bloody hands and hearts that conspire the overthrow of the Kingdome in generall of us in particular for acting in this great work of Justice though we should perish in the work yet by Gods grace and by Gods strength we will go on with it And this is all our Resolutions Sir I say for your self we do heartily wish and desire that God would be pleased to give you a sense of your sins that you would see wherein you have done amisse that you may cry unto him that God would deliver you from blood-guiltinesse A good King was once guilty of that particular thing and was clear otherwise saving in the matter of Vriah Truly Sir the story tells us that he was a repentant King and it signifies enough that he had dyed for it but that God was pleased to accept of him and to give him his pardon thou shalt not dye but the childe shall dye thou hast given cause to the enemies of God to blaspheme King I would desire
only one word before you give sentence and that is That you would hear me concerning those great imputations that you have laid to my charge President Sir you must give me leave to go on for I am not far from your Sentence and your time is now past King But I shall desire you will hear me a few words to you for truly what ever Sentence you will put upon me in respect of those heavy imputations see by your speech you have put upon me that I Sir it is very true that President Sir I must put you in mind Truly Sir I would not willingly at this time especially interrupt you in any thing you have to say that is proper for us to admit of but Sir you have not owned us as a Court and you look upon us as a sort of people met together and we know what Language we receive from your party King I know nothing of that Pres You dis-avow us as a Court and therefore for you to address your self to us not to acknowledge us as a Court to judge of what you say it is not to be permitted and the truth is all along from the first time you were pleased to dis-avow and disown us the Court needed not to have heard you one word for unless they be acknowledged a Court and engaged it is not proper for you to speak Sir we havâ— given you too much liberty already admitted of too much delay and we may not admit of any further were it proper for us to do we should hear you freely and we should not have declined to have heard you at large what you could have said or proved on your behalf whether for totally excusing or for in part excusing those great heinous charges that in whole or in part are laid upon you But Sir I shal trouble you no longer your sins are so large a dimension that if you do but seriously think of them they will drive you to a sad consideration they may improve in you a sad and serious repentance And that the Court doth heartily wish that you may be so penitent for what you have done amiss that God may have mercy at leastwise upon your better part Truly Sir for the other it is our parts and duties to do that that the Law prescribes we are not here Jui dare but Jus dicere We cannot be unmindful of what the Scripture tels us For to acquit the guilty is of equal abomination as to condemn the innocent we may not acquit the guilty what Sentence the Law affirms to a Traytor Tyrant a Murtherer and a publique Enemy to the Countrey that Sentence you are now to hear read unto you and that is the Sentence of the Court The Lord President commands the Sentence to be read Make an O Yes and command silence while the Sentence is read O Yes made silence commanded The Clerk read the Sentence which was drawn up in parchment Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an high Court of Justice for the Triing of Charles Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at first time a charge of high Treason and other crimes and misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Here the Clerk read the Charge Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid He the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so exprest the several passages at his Tryal in refusing to answer For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge That the said Charles Stewart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publique Enemy shall be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body After the Sentence read the Lord President said This Sentence now read and published it is this Act Sentence Judgement and resolution of the whole Court Here the Court stood up and assenting to what the President said King Will you hear me a word sir President Sir you are not to be heard after the Sentence King No sir President No Sir by your favour Sir Guard withdraw your Prisoner King I may speak after the sentence By your favour Sir I may speak after the sentence ever By your favour hold the sentence Sir I say Sir I do I am not suffered for to speak expect what Justice other people will have O Yes All manner of persons that have any thing else to doe are to depart at this time and to give their attendance in the Painted Chamber to which place this Court doth forthwith adjourn it self Then the Court rose and the King went with his Guard to Sir Robert Cottons and from thence to White-Hall The Names of those persons that were present at the Sentencing of the King to death Bradshaw O. Cromwell H. Ireton Sir Hardres Waller H. Wanton Tho. Harrison Edw. Whalley Tho. Pride Isaac Ewer Lord Grey of Grooby Will. Lord Mounson Sir Jo. Danvers Sir Tho. Maleverer Sir Jo. Bourchir Isaac Penington Hen. Martin Will. Puresoy Jo. â—arkstead Jo. Blakeston Gilbert Millington Sir William Constable Edward Ludlow Jo. Hutchinson Sir Mich. Livesey Robert Titchborne Owen Roe Robert Lilburn Adrian Scroop Rich. Dean Jo. Okey Jo. Harrison Jo. Hughson Wil. Goffe Cor. Holland Jo. Carew W. Heveningham Miles Corbet Jo. Jones Tho. Lister Pet. Pelham Tho. Wogan Fran. Allen Tho. Challoner Jo. Moore W. Say Jo. Aldred Fran. Lassels Hen. Smith Ja. Challouer Humph. Edwards Greg. Clement Jo. Fry Sir Greg. Norton Ed. Harvey Io. Venn Tho. Scot Tho. Andrewes Alderman of London W. Cawley Anth. Stapley Jo. Downes Tho. Horton Tho. Hamond Jo. Lisle Nich. Love Vincent Potter Augustine Garland Io. Dixwell Symon Meyne Ia. Temple Peter Temple Dan. Blagrave Jo. Brown Tho. Walte Ordered that Sir Hardress Waller Coll. Harrison Com. General Ireton Coll. Dean and Coll Okey are appointed a Committee to consider of the time and place for the Execution of the King according to his sentence given by the high Court of Justice Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 29. 1648. UPon Report made from the Committee for considering of the time and place of the executing of the judgement against the King That the said Committee have resolved that the open street before White-hall is a sit place And that the said Committee conceive it fit that the King be there executed the morrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn for that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed unto and ordered to be ingrossed which was done and Signed and Sealed accordingly as followeth The Warrant for beheading the King At the high Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging of Charles Stuart King of England Jan. 29. 1648. WHereas Charles Stuart King of England is and standeth Convicted Attainted and Condemned of high Treason and other high Crimes and Sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to death by the