of it and decreed to try whether by a prosperous Success they could change their Crimes to Vertue Therefore they hastened all they could to raise Horse and Foot to form an Army equal to their Usurpation which was not difficult for them to do for they being Masters of London whose Multitudes desirous of Novelty were easily amassed for any enterprise especially when the entring into this Warfare might make the Servant freer than his Master for such was the Licence was indulged to those Youths that would serve the Cause 20000 were sooner gathered than the King could get 500. The City also could afford them more Ordnance than the King could promise to Himself common Muskets and to pay their Souldiers besides the vast summs that were gathered for Ireland which though they by their own Act had decreed should not be used for any other enterprise yet now dispence with their Faith and imploy it to make England as miserable as that Island and the Contributions of the deluded souls for this War they seised also upon the Revenues of the King Queen Prince and Bishops and plunder the Houses of those Lords and Gentlemen whom they suspected to be Favourers of the King's Cause And in contemplation of these advantages they promised their credulous party an undoubted Victory and to lead Majesty Captive in Triumph through London within a Month by the Conduct of the Earl of Essex whom they appointed General Thus did they drive that Just and Gracious Prince to seek His Safety by necessary Arms since nothing worse could befal Him after a stout though unhappy Resistance than He was to hope for in a tame Submission to their Violence Therefore though He perfectly abhorred those Sins which are the Consequences of War yet He wanted not Courage to attempt at Victory notwithstanding it seemed almost impossible against so well-appointed an Enemy Therefore with an incredible diligence moving from place to place from York to Nottingham from thence to Shrewsbury and the Confines of Wales by discovering those Abilities with which His Soul was richly fraught unto His deluded Subjects He appeared not only worthy of their Reverence but of their Lives and Fortunes for His Defence and in all places incouraging the Good with His Commendations exciting the Fearful by His Example dissembling the Imperfections of His Friends but always praising their Vertues He so prevailed upon those who were not men of many Times nor by a former Guilt debauch'd to Inhumanity that He had quickly contracted an Army greater than His Enemies expected and which was every day increased by those Lords and Gentlemen who refused to be polluted any longer with the practices of the Faction by sitting among them and being Persons of large Fortunes had raised their Friends and Tenants to succour that Majesty that now laboured under an Eclipse Most men being moved with Pity and Shame to see their Prince whose former Reign had made them wanton in Plenty to be driven from His own Palaces and concluded under a want of Bread to be necessitated to implore their aid for the preservation of His and their Rights So that notwithstanding all the Impostures of the Faction and the Corruptions of the Age there were many great Examples of Loyalty and Vertue Many Noble Persons did almost impoverish themselves to supply the King with Men and Money Some Private men made their way through numerous dangers to joyn with and fight under his Colours Many great Ladies and Vertuous Matrons parted with the Ornaments of their Sex to relieve His wants and some bravely defended their Houses in His Cause when their Lords were otherwhere seeking Honour in his Service Both the Universities freely devoted their Plate to succour their Prince the Supreme Patron and Incourager of all Learning and the Queen pawned Her Jewels to provide Necessaries for the Safety of Her Husband Which Duty of Hers though it deserved the Honour of all Ages was branded by the Demagogues with the imputation of Treason This sudden and unexpected growth of the Strength of the King after so many years of Slanders and such industrious Plots to make Him odious and Contemptible raised the admiration of all men and the fears of that credulous Party who had given up their Faith to the Faction when they represented the King guilty of so much Folly and Vice and some corrupted Citizens had represented Him as a Prodigy of both in a Scene at Guild-Hall in London an Art used by Jesuites to impress more deeply a Calumny that they could not imagine any person of Prudence or Conscience would appear in His Service and they expected every day when deserted by all as a Monster He should in Chains deliver Himself up to the Commands of the Parliament Some attributed this strange increase in power to the natural Affection of the English to their Lawful Soveraign from whom though the Arts and Impulses of Seditious Demagogues may a while estrange and divorce their minds yet their Genius will irresistibly at last force them to their first Love and therefore they urged the saying of that Observing States-man that if the Crown of England were placed but on an Hedge-stake he would be on that side where the Crown was Others referred it to the full evidence of the wickedness of His Adversaries for their Counsels were now discovered and their Ends manifest not to maintain the Common Liberty which was equally hateful to them as Tyranny when it was not in their hands but to acquire a Grandeur and Power that might secure and administer to their Lusts and it was now every where published what Mr. Hambden Answered to one who inquired What they did expect from the King he replyed That He should commit Himself and all that is His to our Care Others ascribed it to the fears of ruine to those numerous Families and Myriads of people which the change of Government designed by the Parliament must necessarily effect But this though it argued that Cause exceeding bad by which so great a part of a Community is utterly destroyed without any absolute necessity for preserving the whole yet made but an inconsiderable Addition to the King whose greatest Power was built upon Persons of the Noblest Extract and the fairest Estates in England of which they could not easily suspect to be devested without an absolute overthrow of all the Laws of Right and Wrong which nevertheless was to be feared by their invasions on the King's most undoubted Rights For when Majesty it self is assaulted there can be no security for private Fortunes and those that decline upon design from the paths of Equity will never rest till they come to the Extremity of Injustice as these afterwards did Besides those that imputed the speedy amassing of these Forces to the Equity of the King's Cause His most Powerful Eloquence Indefatigable Industry and most Obliging Converse there were another sort that suspending their Judgements till all the Scenes of War were passed resolved all into the Providence of
The Liturgy also was abolished under pretence of a Spiritual Liberty for it was accused of putting a restraint upon the Spirit but in truth because it had so frequent Offices for the King To these were added the Covenant the Fetters of the Scotish Slavery this was to bind the whole Nation to the Interests of the Faction and was used as the Water of Jealousie to discover those whom they did suspect Therefore all the Conspirators of what Sect soever whether Independents or Anabaptists though they refused to take it themselves because it did oblige to the Preservation of the King's Person and Authority yet were as eager Imposers of it as the Presbyterians who in simplicity urged it as the Fundamental Constitution of their Empire upon all who they thought would not prostitute their Souls to their designs or had any thing fit to be made their Spoils And by this only Engine many thousand Persons and Families were miserably ruined especially of the Clergy To oblige more fastly those that had no patience to expect nor hopes to receive any reward for their Service against their Prince in the other life and so would not be satisfied with the shews of Religion but sought more solid encouragements in the spoils of it the Lands of the Bishops were exposed to sale and that at such easie rates as might invite the hazards of the Purchace satiate their boundless Covetousness and ingage them in a pertinacious faith to their Merchants To cement all these distinct Humours in one common pleasure the Archbishop of Canterbury was prepared for a Sacrifice and about this time began his Tryal which continued a whole year being when the Houses were at leisure called by several months and weeks to answer to his Charge that by his frequent passages as a Prisoner he might give a pleasant Diversion to the Rabble who are delighted with the ruines and misfortunes of great Persons and by their injuries and reproaches he might be reduced to such a weakness of Spirit as was not competent with the defence of his Cause But his Cause and his Conscience were impregnable and he overthrew their Slanders though he could not their Power By these Arts and Ways was the Winter spent to prepare for the attempts of the following Summer wherein Anno 1644 though the Parliaments Forces increased by the Scotish Succours had the Success over several bodies of the Royalists yet that small Number that followed the King's Person and were guided by His own Counsels and Example obtained two great Victories For His Majesty having once more provided for the Safety of the Queen in sending Her to Excester there to lay down the burden of Her Love and from thence to seek for Shelter in France taken contrary to their hopes His last farewel of Her and left Oxford strengthened against the Siege which the Earl of Essex and Sir Willian Waller threatned that place with He with a small party draws out intending to form His Counsels according to the future Occurrences This made the Enemy divide and Essex was designed to reduce the West But Waller with whom usually went Sir Arthur Hesilrigge a Person fitter to raise Seditious Tumults than manage Armies was to hunt the King upon the Mountains of Wales towards which He seemed to direct His course But hearing of the resolutions of these two jealous Generals He wheels about to Oxford and from thence drew the greatest strength of that Garrison and with that falling upon Waller at Cropredy-bridge obtained a great Victory which would have been more prejudicial to the Enemy had not the Tenderness of His Subjects Blood restrained Him from prosecuting His Success to a greater slaughter But contenting Himself to have diverted Injuries from His own breast He only used this Victory for an advantage to Peace which in a Letter from Evesham July 4. He moves the Parliament unto But the unquiet Criminals rendred it vain and fruitless and represented to the People their yet prevailing Forces in the North and their Army in the West which had now taken in some considerable places to their Obedience Therefore to remove their Confidence in Essex's Power the King follows him and so closely pursues him that He drove him up into Cornwall and there did as it were besiege him During which He sent a Letter to him which was seconded by another from the Lords and Gentlemen in His Army to solicite His endeavours for the Peace and Quiet of the bleeding and wasted Kingdom But it met not its desired effect Because that Earl either valued not that solid Glory of being the happy Author of a Nations Settlement or seared that his past Actions had wholly despoiled him of hopes of Security in a return to Obedience or knew that his Authority was not so great to put an Issue to those Crimes which he had led others to commit For every inconsiderable person may be powerfull at Disturbances but to form Peace requires much Wisdom and great Vertues Which last was generally believed for he had found and complained that his Credit declined with the Faction that they were distrustful lest their own Arts might teach him to have no faith to them because he often solicited them to a composing of the Kingdoms Distractions Therefore making no return to those Letters he provided for his own safety in a Cock-boat and ignominiously deserted his Army of which the Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made their escape but the Commanders of the Foot did capitulate for their Lives and left their Arms Cannon Baggage and Ammunition to the Disposal of the King The speedy and prudent acquisition of these two Victories shewed the King had those Abilities that might have inserted Him in the Catalogue of the Bravest Commanders and had not want of Success in His following Enterprises clouded the Glory of this Summer He had been as eminent among the Masters of War as He was among the Sons of Peace the Honour of which last He most eagerly thirsted as rendering Him most like that Majesty He did represent Therefore after this Victory by a Letter from Tavestock Sept. 8. He re-inforces that from Evesham for an Accord with the Parliament being not transported from His Lenity by the Violence with which Victory uses to hurry humane breasts to an insolence But He knew that Peace though it is profitable to the Conquered yet it is glorious for the Conquerour To busie His Army while He expected their Answer and formed an Association in the Western Counties He sits down before Plymmouth but finding this Message had an equal reception with the former and that the Faction intended not to sacrifice their ill-acquired Power and Usurped Interests to the publick Tranquillity He rises from thence and marches towards London from whence were by this time in the way to meet Him Essex and Waller recruited and joyned with the Earl of Manchester's Forces that were now returned from their Northern Services And at Newbery both sides joyn in an
of the Lords where the Popish Lords and Bishops had the greatest Power and there it stuck whose names they desired to know and in this they were so earnest that they would not willingly withdraw whilest it was debated and then they had leave to depart with this Answer That the House of Commons had already endeavoured Relief from the Lords in their Requests and shall so continue till Redress be obtained Such Petitions as these were likewise from the several Classes of the inferiour Tradesmen about London as Porters Watermen and the like and that nothing of testifying an universal Importunity might be left unattempted Women were perswaded to present Petitions to the same effect While the Faction thus boasted in the success of their Arts Good men grieved to see these daily Infamies of the supreme Council of the Nation all whose Secrets were published to the lowest and weakest part of the People and they who clamoured it as a breach of their Priviledge that the King took notice of their Debates now made them the Subjects of Discourse in every Shop and all the corners of the Street where the good and bad were equally censured and the Honour and Life of every Senator exposed to the Verdict of the Rabble No Magistrate did dare to do his Office and all things tended to a manifest Confusion So that many sober Persons did leave the Kingdom as unsafe where Factions were more powerful than the Laws And Just Persons chose rather to hear than to see the Miseries and Reproaches of their Country On the other side to make the King more plyable they tempt Him by danger in His most beloved Part the Queen concerning whom they caused a Rumour that they did intend to impeach Her of High Treason This Rumour made the deeper Impression because they had raised most prodigious Slanden which are the first Marks for destruction of Princes on Her and when they had removed all other Counsellors from the King She was famed to be the Rock upon which all hopes of Peace and Safety were split That She comanded no less His Counsel than Affections and that His Weakness was so great as not to consent to or enterprize any thing which She did not first approve That She had perverted Him to Her Religion and formed designs of overthrowing the Protestant Profession These and many other of a portentuous falshood were scattered among the Vulgar who are alwayes most prone to believe the Worst of Great Persons and the uncontrolled Licence of reporting such Calumnies is conceived the first Dawning of Liberty But the Parliament taking notice of the Report sent somne of their House to purge themselves from it as an unjust Scandal cast upon them To which the Queen midly answers That there was a general Report thereof but She never saw any Articles in writing and having no certain Author for either She gave little credit thereto nor will She believe they would lay any Aspersion upon Her who hath been very unapt to misconstrue the Actions of any One person and much more the Proceedings of Parliament and shall at all times wish an Happy Vnderstanding between the King and His People But the King knowing how usual it was for the Faction by Tumults and other Practices to transport the Parliament from their just Intentions in other things and that they might do so in this resolved to send Her into Holland under colour of accompanying their Eldest Daughter newly married to the Prince of Orange but in truth to secure Her so that by the fears of Her danger who was so dear unto Him He might not be forced to any thing contray to His Honour and Conscience and that Her Affections and Relation to Him might not betray Her Life to the Malice of His Enemies With Her He also sent all the Jewels of the Crown that they might not be the spoils of the Faction but the means of the support of Her Dignity in foreign parts if His Necessities afterwards should not permit Him to provide for Her otherwise Which yet She did not so employ but reserved them for a supply of Ammunition and Arms when His Adversaries had forced Him to a necessary Defence It was said that the Faction knew of this conveyance and might have prevented it but that they thought it for their greater advantage that this Treasure should be so managed that the King in confidence of that assistance might take up Arms to which they were resolved at last to drive Him For they thought their Cause would be better in War than Peace because their present Deliberations were in the sense of the Law actual Rebellions and a longer time would discover those Impostures by which they had deluded the People who would soon leave them as many now did begin to repent of their Madness to the Vengeance which was due to their practices unless they were more firmly united by a communion of guilt in an open assaulting their Lawful Prince The King hastens the security of the Queen and accompanies Her as far as Dover there to take his farewel of Her a business almost as irksome as death to be separated from a Wife of so great Affections and eminent Endowments and that which made it the more bitter was that the same cause which forced Her Separation from Him set Her at a greater distance from His Religion the only thing wherein their Souls were not united even the Barbarity of His Enemies who professed it yet were so irreconcileable to Vertue that they hated Her for Her Example of Love and Loyalty to Him While He was committing Her to the mercy of the Winds and waves that She might escape the Cruelty of more unquiet and faithless men they prosecute Him with their distasteful Addresses and at Canterbury present Him with a Bill for taking away Bishops Votes in Parliament Which having been cast out of the House of Peers several times before ought not by the Course and Order of Parliament to have been admitted again the same Session But the Faction had now used their accustomed Engine a Tumult and it was then passed by the Lords and brought hither together with some obscure Threats that if it were not signed the Queen should not be suffered to depart By such impious Violences did they make way for that which they call'd Reformation This His Majesty signs though after it made a part of His penitential Confessions to God in hopes that that Bill being once consented to the Fury of the Faction which with so great Violence pursued an absolute Destruction of the Ecclesiastical Government would be abated as having advanced so far in their design to weaken the King's Power in that House by the loss of so many Voices which would have been always on that side where Equity and Conscience did most appear But He soon found the Demagogues had not so much Ingenuity as to be compounded with and they made this but a step to the over throw of that which He designed
in immediately before the Battel at Naseby But yet to satisfie every One how tender He was of the Common Safety He sent several Messages to the Parliament for a Treaty and offers to come Himself to London if He may have security for Himself and Attendants All which were either not regarded or answered with Reproaches And because the people began to murmur at so great an earnestness of the Faction to continue the Wounds of the Nation open and bleeding since there were many Forts yet held out for the King by Gallant Persons besides the Lord Hopton had an Army yet unbroken and Ormond and Montross had considerable Interests in Ireland and Scotland all which might be perswaded in a Treaty to part with those Arms which could not be taken from them without much blood and it was the common belief that these men sought for Victory not Peace and Liberty which was now tendred therefore to raise suspicions in the Vulgar it is suggested that the Cavaliers who came to Compound would take the advantage of the King's Presence if He were permitted to be there and kindle a new flame and War in the City And that it might be thought they had real grounds for these fears the Disarmed Compounders were commanded to depart above twenty miles from London and to injealous the people more all the transactions of the King in the Irish Pacification were published and amplified with the malicious Slanders and Comments of the implacable and conscious Demagogues that so the terrors of the Vulgar being augmented they might be frighted into a longer patience The King finding these men irreconcileable to Peace and that they had declared against His Coming though without a Caution tryes the Leaders of the English Army but they proved no less pertinacious and were now approaching to besiege Oxford Providence not leaving any more Choice but only shewing Him a way for a present Escape He goes in a Disguise which when Necessity cloathes Royal Persons with seems like an Ominous Cloud before the Setting of the Sun to the Scotish Camp that was now before Newark where the Ambassadour of the King of France who was then in the Leaguer had before covenanted for His Majestie 's Safety and Protection and the Scotish Officers had engaged to secure both Him and as many of His Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to Him with their Lives and Fortunes Anno 1646. The King being come thither May 4. made a great alteration in affairs Newark was surrendred by the King's Command and Sir Thomas Glemham having gallantly defended Oxford till the Besiegers offered honourable Conditions delivered up that also But the greatest Change of Counsels were at London where when it was related among whom the King had sought a Sanctuary various and different Discourses were raised Some wondred that His Majesty had sought a Refuge there where the Storm began and how He could apprehend to find Relief from those that were not only the Authors of His Troubles but now the great Advancers of His Overthrow And they conceived no Promises or Oaths can be a sufficient Caution from those People that have been often Perfidious Others judged that in those necessities wherein the King was concluded it was as dangerous not to trust as to be deceived no Counsel could be better than to try whether a Confidence in them would make them faithful and whether they would then be honest when they had the Critical Opportunity to testifie to the world that they intended not what they did but what they said That they fought not against Him but for Him But a last sort bewailed both the greatness of the King's Dangers that should make Him seek for Safety in a tempestuous Sea and false bottom as also the debaucheries of the English Genius which was now so corrupted that their Prince was driven to seek an Asylum from their injuries among a people that were infamous and polluted with the Blood of many Kings While others discoursed thus of the King's journey the Parliament heated by the Independents fiercely declared against the Scots who were removing the King to Newcastle and used several methods to make them odious and drive them home For they kept back their Pay that they might exact Free-Quarter from the Country then they did extenuate their Services derogate from their famed Valour upbraid them as Mercenaries threaten to force them out by the Sword All which while the English Presbyterians though they wish'd well to their Brethren yet lest they should seem to indulge the Insolencies of a strange Nation did not dare to plead in their defence But the Scots themselves for a time did justifie their Reception and Preservation of His Majesty by the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality which forbid the delivery and betraying of those that have fled to any for Succour The Democratick Faction urged that it was not lawful for the Scots their Hirelings and in their Dominion to receive the King into their Camp without the leave of their Masters and keep Him without their Consent These Debates were used to raise the King's price Which when the Scots were almost assured of to make their ware more valuable they solicite the King in hopes of their Defence to command Montross to depart from his noble Undertakings in Scotland where he had almost recovered the Overthrow Roxbrough and Traquaire had betrayed him unto and was become formidable again as also the Loyal Marquess of Ormond to desist from his gallant Oppositions both of the Irish Rebels and English Forces Which when the King had done being not willing those Gallant Persons should longer Hazard their brave Lives and after both these Excellent Leaders had more in anger than fear partâ—â— with their unhappy Arms that they might have a colour of betraying Him whom the General Assembly of Scotland which useth to hatch all the Seditions to the heat and strength of a seeming Authority had forbid to be brought into His Native and Ancient Kingdom as He affectionately call'd it they tender Him the Covenant pretending without that Chain upon Him they did not dare to lead Him into Scotland This His Majesty refused not if they would first loose those Scruples of Church-Government which lay upon His Conscience Therefore to untie those Knots Master Henderson that was then the Oracle of the Kirk and the great Apostle of the Solemn Covenant was employed to converse with Him But the Greatness of the King's Parts and the Goodness of His Cause made all his attempts void for the Papers being published every one yielded the Victory to His Majesty and unfortunate for he returned home and not long after died as some reported of a Grief contracted from the sense of his Injuries to a Prince whom he had found so Excellent While these things were acting at Newcastle the bargain was stroke at London and for 200000 l. His Majesty stripp'd of those Arms He had when He came among them was delivered up
lavished on ambitious designs from all which destructions of Treasure no King was more free was but just sufficient for ordinary and necessary Expences of State and Majesty And though it was most just for Him to expect the Peoples Contribution to their own Safety who were never richer than now nor had they ever more Security for their riches than they now had by His Concessions of Liberty yet knowing how powerful the Faction always was to disturb the Counsels of Parliament He feared that from their Proceedings the Common Enemies would be incouraged as formerly to higher Insolencies and the envious Demagogues would contemn their own safety to ruine His Honour He also accounted it a great unhappiness to be necessitated to maintain His State by extraordinary ways and therefore refused to renew Privy Seals and Loans the use of which He debarred Himself of in granting the Petition of Right Therefore consults His Attorney-General Noy whether the Prerogative had yet any thing left to save an unwilling people Noy acquaints Him with Ancient Precedents of raising a Tax upon the Nation for setting forth a Novie in case of danger and assures Him of the Legality of the way in proceeding by Writs to that effect Which Counsel being embraced there were Writs directed to the several Counties for such a Contribution that in the whole might build furnish and maintain 47 Ships for the safety of the Kingdom And by these the King soon secured and calmed the Seas but the Faction endeavoured to raise a Tempest at Land Anno 1635. They complained of Invasions on their Spiritual Liberties because the Bishops endeavoured in these years to reduce the Ceremonies of the Church to their primitive Observance of which a long Prosperity had made men negligent and time had done that to the Spiritual Body which it doth to the Natural daily amassed those Corruptions which at length will stand in need of cure Therefore when they took this proper Method of reforming a corrupted State in bringing things back to their Original Institution both His Majesty and they were defamed with designs of Popery This Tax of Ship-money was pretended a breach to their Civil Liberties and contrary to Law because not laid by a Parliament Therefore those who sought the People's favour to alter the present Government by seeming the singular Patrons of their Rights refused to pay the Tax Anno 1636. and stood it out to a Tryal at Law The Just Prince declined not the Tryal and permitted Monarchy and Liberty to plead at the same Bar. All the Judges of the Land did justifie by their Subseriptions that it was legal for the King to levy such a Tax and their Subscriptions were enrolled in all the Courts of Westminster-Hall And when it came to be argued in the Exchequer-Chamber ten of them absolutely declared for it only two Crooke and Hutton openly dissented from that opinion to which they had formerly subscribed not without the ignominy of Levity unbeseeming their places And as the King was thus victorious in the Law so was He at Sea and having curbed the Pirates He also reduced the Hollanders to a precarious use of His Seas Amidst all these Difficulties and Calumnies the King hitherto had so governed that sober men could not pray for nor Heaven grant in Mercy to a People any greater Happiness than what his Reign did afford The British Empire never more flourished with Magnificent Edifices the Trade of the Nation had brought the wealth of the Indies home to our doors Learning and all good Sciences were so cherished that they grew to Admiration and many Arts of the Ancients buried and forgotten by time were revived again No Subjects under the Sun richer and which was the effect of that none prouder Security increased the Husband-mans stock and Justice preserved his Life none being condemned as to Life but by the lawful Verdict of those of an equal Condition the Jury of his Peers The poor might reverence but needed not Fear the Great and the Great though he might despise yet could not injure his more obscure Neighbour And all things were so administred that they seemed to conspire to the Publick good except that they made our Happiness too much the cause of all Civil Commotions and brought our Felicity to that height that by the necessity of humane nature which hath placed all things in motion it must necessarily decline And God provoked by our sins did no longer restrain and obstruct the arts and fury of some wicked men who contemning their present certain enjoyments hoped for more wicked acquisitions in publick Troubles to overwhelm every part of the King's Dominions with a deluge of Blood and Misery and to commence that War which as it was horrid with much slaughter so it was memorable with the Experiences of His Majesties Vertues Confusions like Winds from every Coast at once assaulting and trying His Righteous Soul The first Storm arose from the North and the flame first broke out in Scotland where those Lords who feared they should lose their spoils of Religion and Majesty took all occasions to hasten the publick Misery which at last most heavily lay upon their Country the hands they had strengthened and instructed to fight against their Prince laying a more unsupportable slavery upon them than their most impious Slanders could form in the imaginations of the credulous that they might fear from the King by calumniating the King's Government raising fears of Tyranny and Idolatry forming and spreading seditious Libels The Author or at least the Abettor of one of which was found to be the Lord Balmerino a Traytor by nature being the Son of one who had before merited death for his Treasons to King James yet found that mercy from him as the Son now did from King Charles to have his Life and Estate continued after condemnation Yet this perfidious man interpreted the Kings Clemency for his own Vertue and he that had dared such a Crime could not be changed by the Pardon of it and as if he had rather received an Injury than Life he was the most active in the approaching Rebellion Anno 1637. For the Rabble that delights in Tumults were fitted by this and other Boutefeus for any occasion of contemning the King's Authority though His designs that were thus displeasing to the Nobless were evidently for the benefit of the Populacy and at last took fire from the Liturgy something differing from ours lest a full consent might argue a dependency upon the Church of England which some Scotish Bishops had composed and presented to the King for the use of their Church which the King who was desirous that those who were united under His Command might not be divided in Worship confirmed and appointed to be first read July 13. at Edinburgh a City always pregnant with suspicions and false rumors But it was entertained with all the instruments of fury that were present to a debauched multitude for they flung cudgels and sticks at
Justice and the reciprocal motions of the Popular heat that the very same Parliament that first stirr'd up this way of tumultuary Petitions against the King now complained that the Honour and Safety of Parliaments was indangered by Petitions But all their Tyranny upon the complaining Nation prevailed nothing but to provoke them to a higher Indignation and more frequent Petitions And when they perceived they dealt with men obstinate to their own Interests which were not to be gained but by the Publick ruine they fly from Prayers to Arms and intitle their just War For the Liberty of King and People And in several places as in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall York-shire Wales and at last in Surry multitudes take Arms for this Righteous Cause The Navy also fall off and setting Rainsbrough their levelling Admiral on Shore seventeen Ships deliver themselves up to the Prince of Wales The Scots likewise by an Order of their own Parliament send into England to recover the Liberty and Majesty of the King an Army under Hamilton But all was in vain God had decreed other Triumphs for His Majesty and to translate Him to another Kingdom For the English being but tumultuarily raised having no train of Artillery or Ammunition considerable were soon supprest by a veterane Army provided with all necessaries The Scots either through weakness or wickedness of their Commanders who made so disorderly a march that their Van and Rear were forty miles asunder were easily worsted by Cromwell who surprised their main Body and Hamilton was taken Prisoner Cromwell follows the scattered Parties into Scotland where they were likewise assaulted by Argyle a domestick Enemy and forced to submit those Arms the Parliament had put into their hands to the Faction of that false Earl who calls another Parliament from which all were excluded that in the former Voted for the King's Delivery and all the Orders of that Convention made void Cromwell had the Publick Thanks and the private Faith of Argyle to endeavour as opportunity permitted the extirpation of Monarchy out of Scotland The Navy also deserts the Prince being corrupted by the Earl of Warwick who was appointed for this Service and when he had ingloriously bought off their Faith to their lawful Prince himself was ignominiously cashiered by the Conspirators These great disappointments and overthrws of just Enterprises men variously attributed to different Causes Some to the Perfidiousness others to the Weakness of those that managed them as also to the Treachery of some Presbyterians who in hatred to the Army first incouraged and then in Jealousie of the Royallists basely deserted them For the Rabbies of the Kirk cursed Hamilton in the beginning of his Enterprise Another sort thought them unhappy because the greatest part of the Undertakers were such that formerly had either fought against the King or else had betrayed Him and God would not now bless their unexpiated Arms. And some to the Fate of the Kingdom which God had decreed to give over to numerous and impious Tyrants because of their unthankfulness and impatience under so Incomparable a Prince But while these things were managed by the Army that were now at a distance and Cromwell's Terrors were greater in Scotland than here the less guilty Parliament-men seriously considering how impatient the People who in London and other places had gotten innumerable Subscriptions to a Petition for a Personal Treaty now were of those Injuries that were done to their Sovereign how hateful themselves grew because they had betrayed and inslaved their own Privileges together with the Liberties of the Subject to an insatiable and Phanatick Army and how an evident Ruine attended even their Conquests of Him whom it was unlawful to assault did at last though too late contrary to the clamours of their Factious and Democratick Members Repeal those Votes which they had formerly made of No more Addresses to the King This being passed in both Houses they afterwards with a strong Consent Vote a Treaty with the King in Honour Freedom and Safety The Factious Party in the Parliament found themselves too few and weak to oppose this impetuous tendency of the Two Houses and whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more since Members and to baffle the People's just desires of it by imposing many unequal Conditions and obstructive restrictions For they procured that the Treaty should be in the Isle of Wight and not at London that it should be by Commissioners and not immediately with the two Houses as was Petitioned The Propositions that were sent to be Treated were the same which had before been offered to the King at Hampton-Court and were then rejected by Him and also condemned by the Army it self as too unjust The Commissioners were so streightned in Power that it was not lawful for them to soften any one of the Conditions of Peace not to alter the Preface or change the Order of the Propositions nor to debate a Subsequent till the Precedent were agreed on They could conclude nothing they were only to propose the Demands urge Reasons for the Royal Assent receive the King's Answer and refer all in writing to the Parliament whose slow Resolves and the delays of sending were supposed would consume that narrow measure of time which was appointed to debate so many and so different things for they were limited to forty days The Commissioners they sent were Five of the Lord's House and Twelve of the Commoners and with them some of their Presbyterian Ministers who were to press importunately for their Church Government to elude the King's Arguments for Episcopacy and only to impose not to dispute their own With all these upon so many several and different Propositions some relating to the Law of the Land others to Reason of State and some to the practice of the Apostolical Primitive Churches the King was to deal without publick assistance For though He was permitted the Ministery of some Officers of State Counsellours and Divines yet were they but of private advice and to stand behind the Curtain He only Himself was to speak in the Debate and singly to manage matters of Policy with their most exercised Statists and the points of Divinity with their best-studied Divines The Vulgar to whom the Arts of these men were not so obvious were much pleased with the Name of a Treaty and now hoped to exchange their Servitude under so many importunate Tyrants for the moderate and easie Government of one Lawful King Others that had a clearer insight and observed with what difficulties it was burthened hoped for no benefit from it Because that if His Majesty should not Consent as they believed He would not then He would be the object of the popular impatience And if He should Consent He that now was thought to be most injuriously dealt with would then be conceived not to deserve the Pity even of His Friends nor could He gain any other thing by His Concessions than to be
act so full of a manifest Wickedness that the Contrivers could not really intend the Execution but only used it as a Mormo to frighten the King and Parliament to hearken to their Pretensions of a lesser guilt Others considering their former Crimes and Injuries both to King and People and their damnable blasphemies of the Almighty God did truly judge that their preceding Iniquities had now habituated and temper'd them for the extremest mischiefs and that having proceeded thus far they would think their Safety consisted in an accumulation of their Sins Only they admired that these men would discredit their ancient Arts of pretending to God's Direction in which they could not so easily by every Vulgar judgment be deprehended by boasting of the Concurrence of the People which was too evident a Cheat for not one in a thousand through the whole Nation but did abominate their practices But others more Speculative knew it was the accustomed Method of the Subverters of a lawfull Magistracy and Invaders of a Tyranny first to seek the favour of the Rabble by high pretences of Liberty and Justice and then to boast of it as though they had it and were entrusted by the People to recover what they presented to their hopes and desires and that these men following the same practices would be the greatest Oppressors of those whom they pretended to vindicate The Parliament though hitherto they had been very obsequious to the Army yet the Members now meeting in greater Numbers than usually and preferring the utmost hazards to a Compliance with this Remonstrance laid it aside and fell to debate the King's Concessions which then lay before them This free and stout Carriage of theirs was much resented by the Souldiers who stormed at the contempt of those whose Grandeur depended upon their Arms. And lest they should miscarry in their Chief Design and lose the Sacrifice to their Ambition they immediately sent a Party of their Army into the Isle of Wight to secure the King these laying hold upon Him with a most Insolent Rudeness not permitting the delay of a Breakfast forced Him from the Island into Hurst Castle an unwholesome and sordid place The other part of their Army they cause to march towards London with all the imaginable signs of terrour as if they went to sack and plunder an Enemies Town When they had entred they were quartered in those Houses of the King and Nobility which were nearest the Parliament-House hoping by the greatness and nearness of the danger so to affright those Members who were not so wicked as to comply with them that they should voluntarily withdraw and hiding themselves leave the possession to their own scanty Party For then the Violence would seem less and give more Authority to their unjust Decrees But the honest Members were more in love with Justice and therefore not terrified with the Menaces and Clamours of the Souldiers but as inspired with some unaccustomed Courage at this time and thinking themselves guarded by the Priviledges of Parliament with a greater boldness than usually they did upon designs they appear in the House Where the Commoners re-assuming the confideration of the King's Concessions continued that Debate till past Midnight the Factious Party and the Creatures of the Army still raising new Doubts and Scruples multiplying Cavils and by tedious harangues wasting the time that the more Just Party which consisted most of Gentlemen of Fortunes not accustomed to such Watchings and Fastings might be wearied out and leave them to their own Resolves and also that they might give time to the whole Army to march into the City that Night Among the rest Sir Henry Vane who was born to disquiet the world and to be a firebrand of Communities yet still carrying his designs of Confusion under a feigned meekness and simplicity of the Gospel This Man in the Isle of Wight had perswaded the King not to be prodigal in His Concessions that He had already yielded more than was fit for them to ask or Him to grant and undertook to make it evident to the whole world yet now did most fiercely and perfidiously inveigh against the Concessions as designed by the King under the species of Peace to ruine the Parliament and Common-wealth Yet at last notwithstanding those Terrours without and Troubles within the House came to this Resolve that The Kings Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace Which was carried by Two Hundred Voices and there were scarce Sixty Dissenters The next day the same Resolve was passed by the Lords in the very same terms not one dissenting Who immediately adjourned for a week to wait whether this fury of the Army would spend it self after so generous an opposition And the House of Commons sent some of their own Members to acquaint the Lord Fairfax and his Officers of this their Vote This free and publick detestation of the Crime that was designed did extremely enrage the Projectors of it and the Democratick Party in the House mingled Threatnings with their Advices For One of the Chiefs of the Faction could not forbear to assure them that If they continued in this their Resolve they should never after have Liberty of meeting there again Which accordingly was executed for the next day they were to meet there the Colonels had placed a guard of two Regiments of Foot and one of Horse upon the House of Commons who strictly keeping all the Avenues thereto that none might enter without their Licence laid hold upon Forty Members that were Persons of the most known Integrity and highest Resolution they denied admission to One hundred and fifty more and suffered none to enter of whose servile compliance they were not well assured Some that had escaped their observation and got into the House by tickets as from Friends or Servants they invite forth whom being once without doors they violently force away while they in vain pleaded the Privileges of Parliament The imprisoned Members they vex and torture with great Indignities exposing them to the mockeries and insolencies of the Common Souldiers although there were among them many that had before Commanded Armies Brigades and Regiments in the Parliament's cause against the King and others that had been most importunate assertors of their first injustice to their Prince Those that beheld these vicissitudes wondred and acknowledged the just Judgment of God that had thus visibly and properly punished the Injustice of these men against their Lawful Sovereign by the ministry of their own more vile and mercenary Souldiers and did thus upbraid them with the falseness of their Principles by which they acted against the King the very same now serving to honest this violence that was committed on them for both equally pretended to a Necessity of Reformation and Self-preservation Others were inquisitive for the faith of these men who taking up Arms for the Sacred Privileges of Parliament had now left nothing but the Walls of that House For the Number that would serve them was
Warwick who had much of His Trust and Affections in the Isle of Wight a poor ragged Old Man and told him he was a very honest fellow and had been His best Company for two months together He would have those about Him converse rather with Himself than with His Majesty and with them would He mingle Discourses as One of the People none made an end of speaking till His own Modesty not Pride in the King thought it was enough and He never did contradict any man without this mollifying Preface By your favour Sir His discourse as it was familiar so it was directed to raise those that heard it to a nearer approach to Himself by perfection for He did not proudly scoff at but gently laboured to mend the defects of His Subjects When Doctor Hammond had in some degree lost the Manage of His Voice His Majesty shewed him his Infirmity and taught him to amend it which that Excellent Person often mentioned as an instance of a Gracious Condescension of Majesty When Noble Youths came to take their leaves of Him before they went to foreign travel He would not let them go without His Instructions of which this was one My Lord Keep alwayes the best Company and be sure never to be Idle Thus He would confer the Vertues as well as the Titles of Nobility He laboured to keep them as Majesty had made them and that that blood might not be tainted in them which was honoured in their Ancestors Nor did He desire that they should be otherwise than He directed as Tyrants and weak Princes will commend those Vertues which they are afraid of for they dread or envy their Subjects Parts and Abilities Aristotle observes that a Tyrant cares not to hear his Vassals speak any thing that is either Grave or Generous and it is reckoned among the Usurpations of such Monsters that they would have the opinion to be the Only Wise and Gallant Plato indangered his Life when he conversed with the Sicilian Tyrant because he was thought to understand more than his Host It was observed of Cromwell by one of his confident Teachers that in the time of his Tyranny he loved no man that spoke Sense and had several Artifices to disparage it among his Slaves that attended him and he would highly extol those Pulpit-Speakers that had most Canting and least Reason But the King thought it the Honour of Principality to rule over Excellent Persons and affected to be Great only by being Better and to raise their Spirits would stoop with His own Of these He always chose the most accomplished that He knew to be His Ministers of State and closest Confidents His Choice of Ministers of State for as the fortune of Princes stands in need of many Friends which are the surest supports of Empire so He would always seek the Best and those He thought fittest for His Employments which a bad or weak King would hate or fear Therefore He had always the finest Pens and ablest Heads in His Cause and Persons likewise of Integrity in His Service for the Archbishop and Earl of Strafford that were clamoured against as the greatest Criminals were not guilty enough even by those accusations which they were loaded with and yet not proved to receive the Censure of the Law but were to be condemned in an unaccustomed way of spilling English blood When some discovered their Abilities even by opposing His Counsels He preferr'd the Publick Benefit which might be by their Endowments to His private Injuries He would either buy them off to His Service by some Place of Trust or win them to His Friendship unless He saw them to be such whose Natures were corrupted by their Designs for He had a most excellent Sagacity in discerning the Spirits of men or they were such who polluted their parts by prostituting Religion to some base ends the injuries of which He could never neglect and such He neither conceived Honourable in a Court nor hoped they would ever be faithful and quiet in a Community Among these Purchaces were reckoned the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the Lord Falkland and others now living whose Perfections honoured His Judgment and justified His Choice He had no Favorite as a Minister of Pleasures to gratifie whose Lusts and Vanities He might be sollicited to do things contrary to the benefit of the Community His Affection to His People but all were Instruments of Government and must be able to serve the Publick whom He took to serve Himself For no Prince was ever more affectionate of His People than He was nor did He think His Interest separate from theirs Those nice distinctions and cautious limits of Prerogative and Liberty which the Faction invented to enjealous the People with were all indistinctly comprised by Him in an Uniform and Constant care of a just Government none dared to advise Him to attempt at a power His Predecessors had parted with or the Laws had concluded Him from For He told the Lords when He purged the Earl of Strafford from the Accusation of Sir Henry Vane that he had advised His Majesty to make use of some Irish to reduce this Kingdom on which though it had but a single and various testimony the Faction built their Practices against His Life I think no body durst ever be so impudent as to move Me to it for if they had I should have made them such an Example and put such a mark upon them that all Posterity should know My Intentions by it For My Intention was ever to govern by the Law and not otherwise He thought He could not be happy unless His People were so as we found our selves miserable when He was not prosperous Therefore He parted with so much of His Prerogative to buy our Peace and purchase our Content He sought their Love by affecting them the only way of gaining it because that Passion only is free and impatient of Command Nor was He ever more pleased than in the enjoyment of it When His Third Parliament granted five Subsidies and it was told Him that there was not One Voice dissenting it is said He wept for joy and it had been happy for the People if the King had always had such cause of Tears and His Eyes had been always wet with the same Contests for Liberty could never have been more unseasonable than under this Prince for He never denied His Subjects the removal of any just Grievance yea He parted sometimes through their own importunity deluded by the Faction with that which should have kept them Free And when He made such Concessions which tended to the prejudice of those that desired it He would say to some about Him that He would never have granted these things but that He hoped they would see the Inconvenience of that power which they begg'd from Him yet themselves could not manage and return it to its proper place before it became their Ruine He was far from the ambition of Ill Princes to seek