Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A92095
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Prince Rupert his declaration.; Declaratie van Prins Robert. English
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Rupert, Prince, Count Palatine, 1619-1682.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing R2290; Thomason E242_32; ESTC R1017
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4,033
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8
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PRINCE RVPERT HIS DECLARATION OXFORD Printed by LEONARD LICHFIELD Printer to the Vniversity 1642. PRINCE RVPERT HIS DECLARATION IT will seeme strange no doubt to see me in print my knowne disposition being so contrary to this scribling age and sure I had not put my selfe upon a Declaration if in common prudence I could have done otherwise I need not tell the world for it is too well knowne what malicious lying Pamphlets are printed against mee almost every morning whereby those busie men strive to render me as odious as they would have me against whom doubtlesse I had sooner declared but that I well knew this mutinous lying spirit would be easily convinced but never silenced which as it ceaseth at no time so it spares no person And this was too manifest to me by those bold odious and impossible untruths forged against His sacred Majestie their owne King and Soveraigne and my Gracious and Royall Uncle who is onely guilty of this that he is too good to be their King and to deale clearly this was it furnished me with sufficient patience thinking it but reasonable that I should be slandered as well as His Majestie But since it hath pleased my Lord Wharton to tell the whole City of London openly at Guild-hall and since to tell it all the world in print that one great cause of their preservation at Edge-hill was the barbarousnesse and inhumanity of Prince Rupert and his Troopers that we spared neither man woman nor child and the thing which we aime at is pillage and plundering and the way which we would come by it is murthering and destroying since such a charge as this comes from such a mouth I hold my selfe bound in honour to speak and tell that Lord that as much of his speech as concernes mee is no truer then the rest of it which for the most part is as false as any thing that hath been spoken or printed in London these two yeares and had I knowne his Lordships intention I would have asked his reason either before or now at Keinton if his Lordship had but stayed so long as to be asked the question But me thinke I heare the credulous people say What was not the Kings Standard rescued from them by force were there so many as 20. of our men killed by all the Kings Canons was not our right wing long under the power of their Canons so as some 17. shot of Canon shot against them and yet not a man of ours so much as hurt Nay were there not 3000. slaine of the Kings Army and but 300. of ours If these abominable untruths with many more like them in his Lordships speech be all true then shall he freely charge me with barbarousnesse and inhumanity but if these be most grosse falsities as many thousand worthy Gentlemen will take their oathes they are then I must professe I am sorry that any Baron of the English Nation should utter such fowl untruths to deceive the poore abused Citizens of London with false reports and so slander us T was ever my opinion that no valiant man would speake a knowne untruth nor can I blame his Lordship or any others faint-heartednesse in so bad a cause as theirs is which doubtlesse is the reason why such Noblemen and Gentry in His Majesties Army who hitherto had spent all their daies in peace could then fight so valiantly ex tempore not valuing their lives and forgetting their dearest relations so as our enemies in their hackney railing Pamphlets were forced to say The Cavaliers to give the Divell his due fought very valiantly And indeed had they not shewed rather too much valour our enemies had had lesse bottome whereon to sound any untruths whereof I take this relation to be one of their master-pieces of forgeries for that they slew as many of ours as we did of theirs is as true as that they beat us at Sherbourne Castle and at Worcester Now for barbarousnesse and inhumanity to women and children wherewith his Lordship and those impudent unpunished papers cried daily in the streets do continually slander us I must here professe that I take that man to be no Souldier or Gentleman that will strike much lesse kill a woman or a child if it be in his power to doe the contrary And I openly dare the most valiant and quick-sighted of that lying Faction to name the time the person or the house where any child or woman lost so much as a haire from their head by me or any of our souldiers In a battell where two Armies fight many one hath unfortunately killed his dearest friend very often those whom willingly hee would otherwise have spared and vvhether any woman or child were killed in this fight is more then I can justly say I am sorry if there were I speak not how wilfully barbatous their souldiers were to the Countesse Rivers to the Lady Lucas in Essex and likewise to the like persons of quality in Kent and other places Whom have wee ever punished for speaking against us as they most Jewishly whipped to death a Citizen of London for saying no more then what was included in His Majesties Proclamation But since they name plundering whose monies nay whose Armes have we taken away unlesse theirs who actually had or at least declared they would use them against His Majesties Army And for that little cloth borrowed for our souldiers vvherewith their Pamphlets make such a noise His Majesty by Gods help will see it better paid for then any thing they have taken upon publick Faith What house have we ransacked as they did the Earle of Norhamptons mangling and cutting in pieces rich chaires beds stooles and hangings drinking as much and as long as they were able then letting the rest run out upon the floore when as the very Earle of Essex his house at Chartley suffered not the least damage by us What Churches have we defaced as they did at Canterbury Oxford Worcester and many other places whose pockets have vve pickt ever to the value of three pence under pretence of searching for letters as they lately did in Glocestershire and particularly this last week at Windsor and Vxbridge Is it not their usuall practice first to plunder a mans house of all plate and monies and then imprison him as a Delinquent for no other fault but because he stood loyall to his Prince as if it vvere too little to take a mans estâ—te unlesse also they rob him of his innocence Have they not now stuffed all the prisons in London vvith Earles Lords Bishops Judges and Knights Masters of Colledges Lawyers and Gentlemen of all conditions and Countieâ— for vvhat God knowes they themselves know not insomuch as now they are enforced to find our new prisons for the Knights Aldermen and substantiall Citizens of London vvho are now thrust in thither only because they are suspected to love their King Have they not by imprisonment or threats muzzeled the mouthes of the most grave and learnedst
Preachers of London vvitnesse Doctor Featly Doctor Hayward Doctor Holdsworth Master Shute Master Squire Master Griffiâ—â— â—â—d many others for so I am informed these men are because they preach that vvhich their conscience tells them is the knowne truth And vvho are countenanced but ignorant and seditions teachers vvho like the Masse Priests of old call mightily on the people for their plate and money for their patrons and themselves vvho besides their daily Pulpit treasons vent such other Divinity as if Luther vvere living he vvould blush to call them Protestants And if this be not cruelty injustice and tyranny let God and posterity judge Mow for any loosenesse or incivility in our souldiers more then vvhat is incident and common to great Armies I vvish they vvould not mention it lest some impartiall readers who know their courses understand it to be meant by some of their great Reformers vvho are that way as notoriously guilty as any And for my selfe I appeale to the consciences of those Lords and Gentlemen vvho are my daily witnesses and to those people vvheresoever our Army hath been vvhat they know or have observed in my carriage which might not become one of my quality and the son of a King And whereas they slander us for Popish Cavaliers I vvish there were no more Papists in their Army then vve have in ours but to me t is no vvonder with what face they can slander us for men dis-affected to the Protestant Religion vvhen as their grand Reformers refuse to come to Church For His sacred Majesty I have been a frequent vvitnesse here in England and all the world knowes he never shewed himself otherwise and therefore hold it to be my part and duty to tell them that His Majesty is the most faithfull and best defender of the Protestant Religion of any Christian Prince in Europe and is so accounted by all the Princes in Christendome And vvhat a gracious supporter hath he been in particular to the Queene of Bohemia my vertuous Royall mother and to the Prince Elector my Royall brother no man can be ignorant of if therefore in common gratitude I do my utmost in defence of His Majesty and that cause whereof hee hath hitherto been so great and happy a patron no ingenuous man but must thinke it most reasonable And for my selfe the vvorld knows how deeply I have smarted and vvhat perils I have undergone for the Protestant cause vvhat stately large promises vvere offered me vvould I consent and vvhat a wretched close imprisonment vvas threatned if I refused to change my Religion vvhen I was captive to the Emperour of Germany enough to satisfie any man of moderation But if it be not sufficient I vvould to God all Englishmen were at union amongst themselves then vvith what alacrity vvould I venture my life to serve this Kingdome against those cruell Popish Rebels in Ireland for though I will never fight in any unrighteous quarrell yet to defend the King Religion and Lawes of a Kingdome against subjects who are up in armes against their Lord and Soveraigne and such all good wise men know this and that of Ireland to be though the pretence looke severall waies such a cause my conscience tells mee is full of piety and justice and if it please God to end my daies in it I shall thinke my last breath spent vvith as much honour and religion as if I were taken off my knees at my prayers I thinke there is none that take me for a Coward for sure I feare not the face of any man alive yet I should repute it the greatest victory in the vvorld to see His Majesty enter London in peace without shedding one drop of bloud where I dare say God and His Majesty are witnesses I lye not no Citizen should be plundered of one penny or farthing whereby that ancient and famous City would manifestly perceive how desperately it hath been abused by most strange false and bottomlesse untruths for which some body without repentance must be ashamed at the day of Judgement if they escape a condigne legall punishment in this world I therefore conclude with this open profession and I am confident our whole Army will say Amen unto it he that hath any designe against the Protestant Religion the Lawes of England or hopes to enrich himselfe by pillaging the City of London let him be accursed And so whether peace or warre the Lord prosper the worke of their hands who stand for GOD and King CHARLES RVPERT