Spirits unguarded spoil'd of any other restraint than that All-Seeing Eye which hath too little influence upon the rest of Mankind On the other side their declining Fortune constantly runs into extreams or if they go to the Grave in Peace their Ashes are certainly Arraign'd for whatever the Importunity of Dependents Distraction of Counsels Exigency of Affairs or Iniquity of the Times forc'd them upon And herein no History affords a more deplorable Instance than that of our Royal and Blessed Martyr who having run a Course of the most inhuman Treatments ever offered to Crown'd Head since that of Thorns was worn and then universally acquitted not only by the Grand Inquest of the Nation but by all others who had the least Sense of Honour Truth or Virtue in their Souls hath now of late been Murther'd afresh his Memory so despitefully Assaulted and the many Old Calumnies and Reproaches so maliciously Reviv'd as if there had been nothing done or said in his Vindication Could they alledge any thing de Novo it might give a fresh Gloss to their Bafled Cause but their Malice did so fully disgorge it self at first as they can only New Chew the same Coleworts take down and Vomit up again those Villanous Defamations which have been as often answer'd as urg'd and perhaps had not been urg'd again did they not hope the Licentiousness of the Age which God forbid would bear them out and enable them to crush any one who should dare to reply He who to the best of my Observation first brake the Ice upon this unworthy Subject was one Roger Coke Esq in Two Volumes which he calls Detections of the four last Reigns a Title of great sound and cannot but raise an Expectation in every inquisitive Reader of some great Discoveries some deep Mysteries of State or Mischievous Intrigues the World hath not hitherto been acquainted with Whereas I defie any of his Abettors for he is gone to his proper Place to produce one single Passage which hath not been alledg'd and reply'd to before and as often reply'd to as alledg'd An Abridgment of all the Libels and all the Lyes since the coming in of King Iames the first had been a more agreeable Title for though Rushworth's Collections and the Life of Lord Keeper Williams are mostly cited by him Authors too too partial yet there is not one Roguy Pamphlet from Sr. A. W.'s Court of King Iames to Milton's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I speak in reference to the first Volume only which hath not afforded Materials for this ill-natur'd Malicious Work neither could any one expect otherwise who knew the Man and his Conversation being of an haughty positive Humour with all the other ill Qualities of his Grandfather the great Lord Chief Iustice Coke and perhaps too by Natural descent without any of the good Indeed he seem'd to be the Caput Mortuum of that high Spirit so dull and insipid as Spight it self could not raise him for 't is thought he wrote those bitter Invectives against the Royal Family to be reveng'd on King Iames the first for deposing his Grandfather although 't is well known his Arbitrary and Insolent deportment in that great Trust made it absolutely necessary but engaging in the popular Cause afterward that expiated for all In short the Whole of all what he calls a History is of as loose a Contexture as our Capitation Stuff and of as Course a Composition scare giving a good Word to any Person or any Party He declares a suspition of offending the Commonwealth's Men and yet obliges them with one continued Libel against Monarchy whereunto he was too well qualified by the predominancy of a Swelling Spleen and Overflowing Gall with other unhappy Circumstances both as to Temper and Condition so that had they not been thus Vented 't is to be feared he might with Iudas have burst asunder Yet this Uncouth Piece because False and foul Mouth'd took to Admiration among the several Factions insomuch as in two Years time no less than three Impressions were wrought off indeed they had not been gratified with any thing of that kind for several Years before and such perverse Dispositions like Men in Fevers will greedily swallow whatever allays the present Drought of their Minds tho' it promotes the Distemper and hastens their Ruin And upon this account is there such Care taken of a fresh supply so that an Undesigning Integrity cannot but be concern'd for the next Age which generally gives the best account of that which preceded how it will be able to Cull out the Truth from those Numberless Volumes of Lyes and Forgeries which every Commonwealth Bigot and Mercenary Pen is free to impose upon the World According to what I mention'd of a fresh Supply some Months since these Memoirs of Ludlow came forth and are altogether as much in Vogue as the Detections were at first tho' as to the Libelling part upon our Royal Martyr it discovers nothing but the same inveterate Spight and repeated Untruths set forth in another Method and different Appearance wherein that Spirit of Calumny and Delusion which possesses every Individual throughout their several Tribes knowing how much they delight in variety does most readily gratify them finding it the readiest means to secure their complyance in the grossest Impositions and falsest Slanders Whilst I am Writing this there are two Pamphlets more come to my Hand in comparison whereof the Two former may pass for Candid Modest Writers Their Titles are A Defence of the Parliament of 1640. and the People of England against King Charles I. And King Charles I. no such Saint or Martyr as commonly Reputed both which without doubt were design'd for the last Effort of Fanatick Effrontie and thought to give as fatal a stroke to the Martyr's Reputation as the Ax did to his Life and if the rudest Language that ever was Pen'd and the impudentest Lies that ever were Told could be any ways Effectual thereunto their work is throughly done for there is not one Sentence in both these Libels but must come under both those Characters Milton had Wit and Stile to flourish off his malicious Reproaches but here is such Billinsgate stuff as never burthen'd the Press till our Salamanca Graduate led the Van and if he wrote as is commonly reported by a Club these doubtless came from the same Fraternity Their Stile their Sense and Good Manners exactly accord and so do their Temper and Complection all of the same Metal true Monumental Brass and 't is great pity they are not every one severally Erected without any Pedestals to support them However I will not so positively place it here as to exclude their Counterpart that Club of Calves-Heads at the other end of Town 'T is in the mean while an unhappy Consideration and never thought consistent with any well ordered Government that every impudent profligate Wretch should assume a Liberty of Arraigning at Pleasure all Orders and Degrees of Men both Living and Dead even
of Queen Elizabeth who though she indulg'd Liberty of Speech to her Members yet if any dar'd to open or so much as quetch against her Prerogative or fall upon any Debates which did not properly come within their Sphere she never spar'd to express the height of her Resentment whereof take this single Instance One Morris a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Dutchy offer'd a Bill ready drawn for Retrenching the Ecclesiastical Courts into much narrower Bounds with several such like Alterations wherewith his busy Head was pregnant Of this the Queen having present Notice sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons afterwards Lord Chief Iustice and a violent Beautifeu in these three Parliaments of King Charles by whom she order'd this Message to the House viz. That it was wholly in her Power to Call to Determine to Assent or Dissent to any thing done in Parliament that the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be the more Religiously observ'd by compelling with some sharpe Laws such as neglect that Service and that the Safety of her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for that it was not meant they should meddle with Matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical that she wondered any should attempt a thing so contrary to her Commandment and that she was highly offended at it And finally that it was her pleasure no Bill touching any Matters of State or for Reformation of Matters Ecclesiastical should be there Exhibited On the delivery of which Morris is said to have been seiz'd on in the House by a Sergeant at Arms however seiz'd upon he was and committed Prisoner kept for some Years in Tutbury Castle discharg'd from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practice in his Prosession as a Common Lawyer What would Ludlow have done had he been a Member in those happy Times Here at home either Tutbury or Tyburn would have been his Fate and if got abroad 't is a question whether Swisserland it self could have secur'd him from the long Arm of that great Virago CHAP. IV. Not any just Ground for Complaint of Grievances NEither had they better Authority for the several Grievances they made such a Noise about hunting after them with all the Earnestness imaginable receiving none so kindly as those who brought them Information of fresh Game though generally it proved a Brake-bush instead of a Hare That Disparity printed in Sir Henry Wotton's Remains between the Elizabeth's time and the Duke of Buckingham was sometime after discovered to be the first Essay of a Younger but much abler Pen the Person who writ it making as great a Figure during all the Troubles of Charles the I. and II. as any whatsoever and upon the Restauration was advanc'd according to his great Merits and Sufferings This Ingenious little Piece to make good the Disparity undertaken observes how great an Advantage the Earl had from the Temper of the Age and easy Good Natur'd disposition all People were then in 'T was saith he an ingenious uninquisitive Time when all the Passions and Affections of the People were lapp'd up in such an innocent and humble Obedience that there was never the least Contestations nor Capitulations with the Queen nor though she frequently consulted with her Subjects any further Reasons urg'd of her Actions than her own Will When there were any Grievances they but Reverendly convey'd them to her Notice and left the Time and Order of the rest to her Princely Discretion Once they were more importunate and formal in pursuing the Complaints of the Purveyors for Provision which without doubt was a crying and an heavy Oppression The Queen sent them Word they all thought themselves wise enough to reform the Misdemeanors of their own Families and whisht they had so good an Opinion of her as to trust her with her Servants too I do not find that the Secretary who delivered this Message received any Reproach or Check or that they proceeded any further in the Inquisition On the other side that of the Duke of Buckingham's Favour with King Iames and Charles the I. He tells us was a busy querulous froward Time so much degenerated from the Purity of the former that the People under pretences of Reformation with some Petulant Discourses of Liberty which their great Impostors scattered amongst them like false Glasses to multiply their Fears began Abditos Principis Sensus quid occultius parat exquirere extended their enquiries even to the Chamber and private Actions of the King himself forgetting that Truth of the Poet Nusquam libertas gratior extat quam sub Rege pio 'T was strange to see how Men afflicted themselves to find out Calamities and Mischiefs whilst they borrowed the Name of some great Persons to scandalize the State they lived in A general disorder throughout the whole Body of the Commonwealth nay the Vital Parts perishing the Laws violated by the Judges Religion prophan'd by the Prelates Heresies crept into the Church and countenanced All which they themselves must rectify without being beholden to the King or consulting the Clergy And give me leave to add proving there was any Truth in those Allegations they made such a Noise about Thus far that Great Man who hints likewise at the most probable Causes which might produce that Frenzy this World of ours was then got into As 1 st The heat of young Heads who are ever more forward to reform others than themselves 2 dly The Disappointments some of longer standings met with in reference to their own Advancement But more especially in the 3 d. place The Revolution of Time which had made them unconcern'd in the Loyal Fears that govern'd sixty Years since and the Nation too happy in that Spirit and Condition Unless more sensible of it and thankful for it From which stupid Humour it was that such as cry'd Fire most with the same Breath blew the Coals and would never give over till they had set all in a Flame One of these Grievous Cries was Tunnage and Poundage about which we have already mention'd his Majesty's just Resentments but withall his too great Condescention in hopes to give them Satisfaction So far beneath our self to use his own Words As we are confident never any of our Predecessors did the like nor was the like ever required or expected from them Notwithstanding which they continued their Proceedings and as the King goes on We endured long with much patience both these and sundry other strange and exorbitant Incroachments and Usurpations such as were never before attempted in that House Roger Coke is also very hot upon this Scent and gives a History thereof out of his Grandfather's Institutes so far as to serve his turn yet withall is forc'd to own that they had been continued to all the Kings and Queens since Edward the 4 th so that passing an Act was only Matter of Form for if Prescription long continued Custom be Common Law
in mind of what Plutarch relates concerning the peoples Prejudice against Metiochus Metiochus is Captain Metiochus is Surveyor Metiochus bakes the Bread c. evil day to Metiochus So crys Ludlow the Clergy advise the King the Clergy raise the Forces the Clergy pay the Army c. evil day to the Clergy whereas the only Clergyman of our Nation whom the King consulted was Bishop Laud and they that write most in vindication of Hamilton give him a very honourable Character as to whatsoever he advised in those unhappy affairs although neither he nor any of his Majesty's Faithful Loyal Subjects of either Kingdom were satisfied with those unreasonable condescentions he was wheedled into for that it was most visibly apparent the more he yielded the more insolently they persisted in further demands being so far from setting one step forward as to stand back with the greater Obstinacy and consider what was further to be insisted upon in defiance of all Honour Right and Law for as Ludlow relates The King by Commission impowered the Marquess of Hamilton to treat them into a Submission consenting to the suppression of the Liturgy High-Commission Court and Articles of Perth but the Scots insisting upon the Abolition of Episcopacy and the King refusing his consent to it they did it themselves in an Assembly held at Glasco This is a general account and which is very much and rare True but there were several Circumstances in the management thereof very considerable As first they that understood and wish'd best to the King and Kingdoms interest thought Hamilton a very improper person to be employ'd in that affair for that several of his nighest Relations were chief of the Covenant party his Mother more especially so great a Heroine as to ride with Pistols at her saddle Bow and defie both God and the King in defence of so good a cause Secondly there were several other prejudices against him which whether true or false made many honest men move with the less vigor because they expected no good Event from whatsoever he engag'd in and this was most unhappily confirmed by the Concessions he cajol'd the King into as to the Liturgy High Commission c. For after a long and fruitless Treaty with the Covenanters at Edinburgh attended with three several journeys to the English Court instead of Treating them into a Submission as Ludlow words it they Treated the King obtaining all to that time their most insolent demands What is alledg'd in his defence That he knew the Kings condition how unable he was or hard it would be to bring an Army into the Field is no ways valid for he was then as able as afterwards and delays were rather to their advantage than his and since all men of observation concluded the Scots would never give off without blows the Punctilio of first Aggressor was nonsence they never stood upon it when it would serve their turn and that their so grosly abused Sovereign should not take the best opportunity of chastising them is against all Rules of Reason and Policy whatsosoever but to speak freely the King 's great tenderness and regard to those his natural and Native Subjects as he termed them was so unfortunately misplac'd upon the most ungrateful set of people that ever trod upon God's Earth to his and their own ruine as well as all others concerned with them But if Hamilton impos'd upon the King by cajoling him into the most groundless concessions ever any Prince yielded to so doubtless the Covenanters impos'd altogether as much upon him for whether there was any correspondence between them or not as to this particular which for ought I can find remains still in the dark he could not but rationally presume it would be an eternal obligation to procure in one single Declaration a full grant of whatever all their Supplications Remonstrances Protestations c. had hitherto demanded and so indeed the Lords of the Council took it subscribing a Letter of acknowledgment to his Majesty in one of the most Rhetorical Flights I have generally met with owning that such acts of Clemency could not proceed from any Prince saving him who is the lively image of the great God Author of all Goodness Which how the most and most considerable of them kept afterwards would be unhappy to observe The Covenanters on the other side resolved to act without a vizard which they had some time before thrown quite away and for fear the People should cool and forbear assisting in the designed Rebellion repair'd to the Cross at Edinburgh erected a Scaffold under it where a great number of Earls Lords Gentlemen and others mounted with Swords in their hands and Hats on their Heads having that worthy wight Archibald Johnson who never fail'd in any villainy tho as property to Oliver Cromwell and a member in the Committee of safety to read the most Impudent Ignorant Treasonable ay and Blasphemous Protestation that ever was penn'd to make good which last charge it is there expresly affirm'd that their Covenant was seal'd from Heaven and approv'd thence by rare and undeniable Evidences whereas it looks more like a Combination from Hell the undoubted forge of all Faction Sedition and Schism Nevertheless they did not think fit to break out into open Rebellion till they had got the Blessing of their Assembly to the meeting whereof the King had likewise condescended It hath somewhat of affinity with our Convocation only in imitation of Geneva was divided into several Classes and from a Provincial choice sent up to a General These at the beginning of the Reformation play'd Rex and Pope all in one would controul and Over-rule whatever Civil Determinations they dislik'd command the King to discharge such a Minister of State otherways they would proceed to Excommunication and when once upon a time he had engag'd the Magistrates of Edinburgh to entertain the French Embassadours with which Crown he design'd to enter into Ancient Amity the little Class of that City Preachers proclaimed a Fast to be kept the same day on which three of them severaly preach'd one after another without intermisson Thundering out Curses against the Magistrates and other Noble men who attended the Embassadors Neither stay'd ther Folly here saith my Author but pursuel the Magistrates with the censures of the Church and with much difficulty were kept from Excommunication These insolencies by degrees King Iames put a Check to and for 60 years last past such assemblies were regularly summon'd in Subordination to their Bishop but now they were resolv'd to have all thrown open again and to be the surer of a Party brought the lay Elders to Vote in the Choice of their Commissioners that the sober and honest part of the Clergy which were numerous might not over Balance them in short never was any Election carry'd on with so much partiallity and confusion which continu'd all the time of their Session till the Commissioners patience was so highly
was his to their care an exact Moral of what the Wolves propounded that if the Sheep would put away their Dogs they would be very careful of their Preservation and though the Proposal did not take yet the Design was carryed on and the Nation most abominably worryed the just Judgment of Heaven giving way to the cursed credulity of an infatuated People who could take none but Wolves for their Protectors As I have already declar'd to be no further concern'd in this dismal Scene of Blood and Slaughter than the Memory and Honour of our Royal Martyr is concern'd so I must further add that whatever Relations our Author makes as to any particular Battle or other considerable war-like Action is so Lame Partial and False as the Diurnals of those times which nevertheless ly'd most abominably on each side may pass for Authentick History in comparison with him But then for his own dear Self as to the Defence of Warder Castle and other little Atchievements in Willshire and elsewhere in which too generally his rashness brought him by the Lee the account he gives is so vain and fulsome trivial and tedious that 't is hard to resolve whether he makes the greater Discovery of his Pride or Folly to be sure they are both very transcendent The Vindicator of Ol. Cr. exposes him very briskly for those many impertinent Panigyricks upon himself and will have it a plain Demonstration of the Narrowness of his Soul and the Lowness of his Genius and I fancy he might have added the Insolency of his Temper To confirm what I said of a lame and partial Account of Things his Relation of that first Battle at Edge-Hill is a full Testimony where this Man of Iron owns himself at a loss from his Troop at the beginning and tells little but his own wanderings up and down to find them Yet by all means the Victory must be theirs and there was a great Defect somewhere the Fight was not renew'd next Day whereas such as were in it had enough the Day before and he intimates as much by saying that Prince Rupert taking advantage of the Disorder our own Horse had put the Foot into press'd upon them with such Fury that he put them to Flight And then adds If the time which he spent in pursuing them too far and plundering the Waggons had been employ'd in taking such Advantages as offer'd themselves in the Place where the Fight was it might have prov'd more serviceable to the carrying on the Enemies Designs p. 50. Which is very modestly express'd because to the King's prejudice otherwise he might have said had not the Prince been guilty of that gross oversight Neglect or Rashness for 't was all in one that Day had in great Probability put an end to the Dispute the Army had never return'd to their Masters at Westminster nor our Author any occasion to trouble the World with the impertinency of his Memoirs for to speak-freely yet nothing but Truth the Princes indescretions of that Kind his great Courage and little Conduct in whatsoever Battles he engag'd in conduc'd more to the discomfiture of the King 's just Cause than all the Rebel Forces or whatever other Arm of Flesh appear'd against him as may be further on observ'd However that their Advantage was not considerable appears from what he further adds that the Army return'd to London not like Men that had obtained a Victory but as if they had been beaten p. 52. which is a shrewd Circumstance that they were so and to that he joyns another every way as considerable upon the King 's advance with part of his Army to Maydenhead or there abouts for it was really Colebrook and those seven Miles were a considerable Addition to his approach the Parliament sent to him to assure him their earnest Desire to prevent the effusion of more Blood and to procure a right understanding between his Majesty and them A certain Omen they were not much transporteed with the Victory this being the first last time they began a Motion for Peace He goes on The King profess'd in his Answer to desire nothing more upon which they thought themselves secure whereas the next Day he took the Advantage of a Mist and March'd within half a Mile of Brandford before discover'd c. p. 53. and beat off what Forces were there though he tells us they made a brave Defence This coming by way of surprise he calls Treachery and all the Round-heads about Town made a loud Clamor upon the King's forfeiture of his Royal Word whereas upon enquiry all the Trick and Treachery was on their side for as they propounded no Cessation of Arms in their Petition so the King had News brought that Essex was drawing his Forces and Ordinance out of London towards him so that without seizing Brandford their Forces at Windsor Kingston and Acton might have hemm'd him in and his Army depriv'd both of Moveing or Subsisting So that after a tedious Paper Scuffle upon the Matter the Parliament were forc'd to own That they gave direction to the Earl of Essex to draw the Army out of London and that part of it was at Brandford whilst the Committee was with the King and conscious to themselves of a just exception cautiously add That they sent a Messenger to know whether his Majesty intended forbearance of Hostility but he found them in fight and could not pass Brandford So that having kept up the Ferment among their City Gulls by the foremention'd Slander which our impudent Author calls the treacherous Design of the late Expedition they again sent Propositions to Oxford being the same in effect with those delivered at York but they found no better Reception than the others had done p. 56. Neither did they expect otherwise or indeed desire considering the insolency of their Demands which the King tells them in his Answer Had he not given up all the Faculties of his Soul to an earnest endeavour of Peace and Reconciliation c. he could not but resent their heavy Charges and not suffer the Reproaches cast upon him The whole procedure of that Treaty may be seen in Whitlock's Memoirs who treats the King like a Gentleman and speaks Truth where himself was concern'd for neither of which this our Brute hath the least Regard nay seems wilfully to defy both I must not here omit what that scribling Fellow K. Ch. No Saint nor Martyr alledges That he took a most Bloody and Treacherous Advantage of the Parliament's Army near Colebrook whilst he was under Treaty at Uxbridge with them p. 4. whereas the Treaty at Uxbridge was more than Two Years after Would the present Age be content with such licentious Impudence to Characterise and expose them in the next In this Year 43 our Governor of Warder Castle before he falls upon his great Charge and weighty Atchievements there gives a cursory Relation of what pass'd in other Parts In the Spring he saith our Army was Master of the Field The
these Remains of his should be Printed and Publickly Sold cry'd up by the whole Party for an extraordinary Piece and swallow'd as such by our many superficial Readers who take what comes fresh from the Press and every New Author are brought over to his Opinion looks very daring as if they were not without great hopes of having their Good Old Cause new Bottom'd and the Rump once more set uppermost All which the Prefacer does more than intimate by giving so great a Deference to his Author and the Cause he engag'd in as if such alone made the Service of their Country the principal care of their Lives and all Government Arbritrary but in their Hands pag. 4. And to excite your Commiseration he adds that when Charles the 2d was permitted to Act his part this Gentleman who had gone through innumerable Hazards for the Liberty of England was stripp'd of his Estate and under the Odious Name of Traytor forc'd to Abandon his Native Country p. 6. Such Language as this we were forc'd to bear with when they had got the Power into their own Hands but sure we are not yet come to 48 or 59. when a company of profligate Villains the Scum and Scorn of Mankind with an Army of Ianisaries to their Assistance took such Care of England's Liberty as to make all Honest Men Slaves and Loyal Men Traytors and whoever is so easy as to believe there is one Syllable of Truth in this Prefaoer's Harangues and flourishes I wish so that others might not suffer with them they were some time under that sort of Free-Government for their better Information That this his Commonwealth-Champion was sent for to recover Ireland out of the Hands of those Papists is a Secret not known before and I fancy they that did it had rather it should have continued so or be quite forgotten than the Reception he found here To be sure the Business was done without him and if this his Admirer would have been so ingenuous as to tell what those Worthy Gentlemen in the House of Commons said when they express'd their Indignation at his Return 't would have been as well worth transmitting to Posterity as any Remarks upon that Conjuncture p. 7. Neither is it at all for his Reputation that his Family was Antient and had an Estate which plac'd him in the first Rank of Gentlemen p. 4. The English Gentry were the main support of the Royal Cause and stood by their oppressed Prince with an Unparallell'd Bravery considering the Necessities they both labour'd under Some indeed were drawn to the contrary Party by mistake or misinformation and left them in due time others persever'd too long but when it came to the Arraignmemt and Murther of the King it was their utmost and universal Detestation this well descended Gentleman had few other Associates in that Horrid Act than Draymen Coblers Tinkers c. the very Refuse of Mechanicks as well as Mankind especially as to the Army Officers who were the chief promoters thereof whilst our doughty Members whatever they thought of themselves serv'd no otherwise than as their Tools and Properties and so indeed were they Cromwell's though much regretted by them when he lay'd aside his Vizard and assum'd all to himself Since therefore this Author of theirs so basely degenerated from most others of his Quality as to become not only Rebel but Regicide I shall have so little regard for his Descent as to give him the bare Name of Ludlow Whether he writ all these Memoirs or more than these is not of moment to enquire The Vindicator of Oliver Cromwell tells us when Blood went to him at Geneva in order to engage him in New Disturbances he found him writing of a History and thought he might be much more proper for that than the Command of General which his Admirers here design'd him the other 's quick and penetrating Judgment soon discovering his blind side and that only his being of the Party gave him the Reputation of Parts And accordingly that Vindicator has as mean an Opinion of his History as the other of his Generalship And so must every one else who regards either Sense or Truth Although 't is likewise said these two Volumes are but the Abridgment of many more Reams foul'd upon this Subject which his Party and Printer thought fit to lick into somthing of Form contract and perhaps alter too as might best serve the present Design of promoting the Good Old Cause As to my particular undertaking the Vindication of our Royal Martyr I doubt not but to satisfy every impartial Reader that he writes not one Syllable of Truth yet withal is such a Common-place Recorder of Falshoods as to mention nothing but those Old Calumnies and Slanders which indeed serv'd the Faction's turn when first started and misled the Credulous Rabble but have been long since detected and evinc'd by the Clearest Demonstration any matter of Fact is capable of for the same Cheat never last's long Truth certainly prevails in the End Upon which account all such as take these indirect Courses must necessarily be qualified with a quick Invention be sure to have a New Trick at hand as soon as the Old is discovered that the Parties impos'd upon may have no leisure to reflect or otherwise discover the Iuggle And by this Artifice more especially were our 41 Confusions commenc'd and carry'd on about which time a Spirit of Calumny and detraction of Evil Speaking Lying and Slandering seem'd to be let loose as Satan in the Revelations to deceive the Nation and persecute all therein who would not worship that Gog and Magog they were going to set up with this Spirit I say our many Pulpit Beautifews and Lay Demagogues were so cursedly possest as nothing Sacred or Civil could escape their Obloquy or restrain the Madness of the People from believing their forg'd Reports or prosecuting their Rebellious Designs 't is inconceivable the Delusions they impos'd upon them the Contradictions they made them swallow till it became so habitual to the whole Party as every little Mechanick and Blew Apron'd Brother would as naturally tell a Lye for the good of the Cause as the Sale of their Wares and if discovered be as far from Shame as the Devil from a Blush Afterwards indeed the Evil Spirit was for some time conjur'd down confin'd to the Dark Cell of its own Melancholy thoughts and sad regret for disappointed Mischiefs but of late 't is broke forth again and rages most violently prevails to astonishment upon a Reinfatuated Age for from thence more especially it must proceed that Men should have so soon forgot not only God's Mercies but their own Miseries too Among the many other Allays which an impartial Judgment will find to abate much the envied Happiness of Princes 't is none of the least that during their full Gales of Prosperity they are beset with Flatterers instead of Friends their Impunity is their danger and Superiority to Laws leaves their
to the Sacred Ashes of the best Man and most abused Prince that ever sat upon a Throne May not the Great God who Iudgeth right upon defect of all Earthly Powers in doing Iustice to injur'd Innocence and oppressed Virtue be hereby provok'd to Arise and Defend his own Cause Remember the Rebukes his Servants have whereby their Enemies take occasion to blaspheme his Name and slander the Footsteps of his Anointed A JUST DEFENCE OF THE Royal Martyr CHARLES I. PART I. CHAP. I. The Commonwealth Party could never agree upon any one Model OUR Author begins his Memoirs with the Ruin of his Cause the Roasting of the Rump which doubtless was a great disappointment very much to his prejudice and therefore in reference to his own dear Self we will grant he had Reason to complain That having seen our Cause betray'd and the most solemn Promises that could be made to the Asserters of it openly Violated I departed from my Native Country c. Now because this Cause of his is so much magnified throughout both his Volumes as the only Means of securing the Liberty Safety and publick Interest of the People whereas the Office of a King was Burdensom and Dangerous the House of Peers useless upon which account both ought to be Abolished and the Government settled in the way of a Common-wealth the two first Votes they made after their Execrable Parricide it will I hope be thought no improper digression to examin the Rise of this excellent Model how it came first in Power How it behav'd it self whilst so and what became of it in the end In order whereunto we must know that the Violent and Numerous Faction in that fatal long Parliament of Forty were all of one piece so long as the King was able to bear up and most implacable against all such Loyal Faithful Members as adher'd unto him some of which they turn'd out of the House and forc'd many others to withdraw as well for the security of their Persons as in Obedience to their Consciences which oblig'd them to stand by their injur'd Prince so that in Ianuary 43 the King assembled at Oxon a greater Number of Lords and Commons then sat at Westminster although the latter supply'd themselves with a sort of Cattle call'd Recruiters from such Corporations and Burroughs as were within their Quarters where they might be sure of confiding Men who would not fail to carry on the Work as they had begun But divine Vengeance designing further to scourge us with our own Rod though it gave Success to their rebellious Arms yet withal so divided them amongst themselves as they that expected most had least of the Spoil whilst the Bear and the Wolf the Presbyterian and Independent contended one cunning Fox ran off with the Prey for as soon as the Royal Cause was vanquish'd those two Iunto's fell into implacable Enmities in the House and because the Independent was smallest in Number they supply'd that Defect by the Army which had been so modell'd by Cromwell as to be all of their own Leven and undertook their Quarrel so effectually as to bring a Charge against eleven of the most leading Members on the other Side who thereupon were forc'd to absent themselves some of them for their better Security beyond the Seas But this Purge would not do there must be a stronger Dose to remove the tough Presbyterian Humour which was accordingly prescrib'd for the other Iunto finding themselves still out-voted ran away to the Army and carry'd their Speaker with them making a sad Complaint that their elder Brethren of the other Faction were obstinate and refractory and would not let them have their Wills in going thorough-stitch to the Ruin of King and Kingdom at leastwise would not let it go their own Way and therefore begg'd their Assistance in the Accomplishment of so good a Work whereupon they strait-way march'd up to Westminster fill'd both the Palace Yards with Soldiers and set double Files through the Hall up to the Doors of both Houses looking scornfully upon the Members which had sat in the Absence of their Speaker and threatned to pull them forth by the Ears if they did not give speedy Satisfaction so that at present they carried all before them However the Army or rather their Managers Cromwell and Ireton seem'd herein to mis-time their Design the whole Nation was allarm'd at these extravagant Proceedings that the King should be so barbarously confin'd the Parliament forc'd now they seem'd somewhat dispos'd to an Accommodation and all things controll'd by the Arbitrary Licentiousness of a Military Rabble even to a Vote of no more Addresses to the King Which first proceeded from their Motion without Doors to their Creatures within this made several Counties petition and then rise in Arms some who had been Commanders for the Parliament in Wales endeavoured to retrieve their Country from those Mischiefs their Mistakes had brought upon it And Scotland actually declaring against their Brethren's Abuse of the King provided an Army to invade them This made our Men of the Sword postpone for the present their State-Reformation and fall to their proper Calling Fairfax undertook such loyal Gentlemen and Parties in Kent and Essex as had engag'd to free their Country from an Army of Mamaluks and shut them up in Colchester whilst Cromwell's veterane Forces found a ready Conquest of the Welsh and the Scotch under such ill Conduct as if they came on purpose to acquaint him how easie it was for a Man of Resolution and good Management to subdue and enslave their Nation In the mean time whilst this kind of second War was on foot the whole Kingdom besides those concern'd in the foremention'd Engagements began to reflect what a miserable Condition they had brought themselves into The City petition the Parliament for a personal Treaty with the King they accordingly vote in their secluded Members repeal that of no Addresses and agree to a Treaty at the Isle of Wight which nevertheless met with so many Obstacles and Delays from the adverse Iunto as the Army had finish'd their Business before the Treaty could be brought to a Conclusion and were so incens'd thereat as they came up in a Rage to London took Quarters at and about Whitehall fell the second Time to reform the House whereof they actually seiz'd and committed 41 Members denyed Entrance to above 160 more besides about 40 or 50 who voluntarily withdrew to avoid their Violence so that the whole was now reduc'd to between 40 or 50 such profligate Wretches both as to Life and Principle that they would stick at no Villany the Bashaws their Masters thought fit to put upon them And this is the true Origin of what is commonly call'd the Rump of the long Parliament the End whereof is so much condol'd by our Author although it might as properly have been call'd the Excrement to be sure their Actions will make our Nation stink in the Nostrils of all good Men to
generally been all the World over and in all Ages where a Kingdom was look'd upon no otherwise than a larger Family from whence at first they all came and the Master thereof as the Pater Patriae the common Father of the Country and when otherwise the Children have been oftner to blame than the Parent though when the Breach was once made nothing could be more natural than for both Sides to run into Extreams Farther yet we should consider all earthly Powers and every Individual under them are subordinate to the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe who in a secret and wonderful manner arbitrates and controuls all humane Undertakings according to the infinite Wisdom of his own unsearchable Will and when provok'd to high Displeasure by some enormous National Crimes hath been then observ'd more especially to interpose and give a People over to such cursed Infatuations as to violate all Rules of common Discretion as well as Duty and precipitate their own Ruin whereof farther on we may have too sad Occasion to make Application And however towards the End of the last Century and Beginning of this several Parts of Europe were mad upon this Republican Humour and many amongst us are so foolish as still to continue the Freak yet I have sometimes thought with my self from the few Instances we have in History of this kind of Government and them them that were mostly founded upon the Ruin of Monarchies continued all the Time of their being in perpetual Disorders and Convulsions of State till at last they resolv'd into a Monarchy again This I say hath made me think that they all took their Beginning from the foremention'd Displeasure of the Almighty for inverting that Oeconomy wherein he had plac'd the World and maugre all their Conceits and Oppositions would have it so continue For the Great King of Heaven is jealous both of his Honour and Prerogative and when a few fancyful Novellists will dare to set up the Right of their Sovereign Lords the People in Opposition to his Ordinances and eternal Establishments the Decision may be easily foreseen if with Reverence duly attended his infinite Wisdom and Patience so wonderfully operating and in so secret a manner upon their hard and impenitent Hearts as to make themselves the Instruments of his Wrath and Vengeance And from the same Power and secret Will it is that the Parties themselves are so little sensible of the Iudgment as to maintain their Opinion with more Earnestness than ever and so may continue without Controul for having withal the Command of Legions no wise Philosopher will dare to dispute his best against them However God is not mocked and so they will find at last But then secondly If we consider this in Hypothesi and bring it home to our own Case we shall find a very black Account for after all their Noise and Clamors the little Finger of this Upstart Commonwealth prov'd heavier to the whole Nation than the Loyns of the most rigid Monarch that ever sate upon the Throne Nay 't is farther certain by most dear bought Experience that there was more Arbitrary Power and illegal Commitments exorbitant Taxes Rapine and Plunder Sequestrations and Sacrilege with whatever else could be most Unjust and Tyrannical voted and put in practice during the twenty Years Usurpation of the several Iunto's than by all the Crowned Heads ay and their Favorites too to take off all Allegations of that kind since the Conquest I might add since the Creation did our Histories reach so far 'T is modestly express'd by our Author that notwithstanding their other Helps the Charge at Sea and Land was so great as they were forc'd to lay a Land-Tax of 120000 l. per Mensem Which notwithstanding if we may believe him the People pay'd very freely Now let us examin a little what these other Helps were They had seiz'd not only upon all the Crown but Church-Lands and dispos'd of them at Pleasure They had the free Contributions of the City Dames and all others well affected as far as their Quarters extended even to the poor Country Wenches Bodkins and Thymbles They had the Sequestration of all the Loyal Nobility and Gentry whose Estates they dispos'd of amongst themselves to several 1000 l. per Annum They had rais'd the Customs much higher than ever they were in the King's Time And in humble Imitation of their Brethren the Dutch retrench'd the Excesses of Good Fellowship by an Excise which the Nation was never acquainted withal before and now must never be without Besides 25 th Parts Decimations with numberless other Ways of squeezing the People who notwithstanding must think all too little for that happy Liberty this Free State had brought them into One thing farther I must observe in Reference to the Land-Tax that as it was collected according to the Lunary or as the Term then went Military Months so they would not rest there but were so good at Multiplication as to repeat that Monthly Assessment sixteen or seventeen times in a Year Whereas the Sum which two or three of these Months amounted to was as much as was ever given to or expected by any King before and would have made Charles I. the happyest Prince and continued us the easiest People under Heaven Can we be pityed to have it brought to more Millions than that made 100000 ls and a Necessity of continuing the same So fatal a thing it is not to take the Man's Advice but instead of that Fear to God and Honour to the King which he recommends be medling with such as are given to change the most troublesome Generation of Men any Nation was ever plagu'd withal for whatever Improvements our Royal Societies may make as to Natural Knowledg Oso's in Politicks or Religion are most intollerable their Chymical Heads will never forbear trying Experiments till both evaporate in Smoak and Confusion Had Sir T.'s Alphonso the Wise liv'd in these mutable Times to those four Old Things he gave so great a Preference there doubtless had been added a fifth and that is Old Government CHAP. III. King James and Charles I. design'd nothing of Arbitrary Power IN Confirmation of what I said That Arbitrary Power is the Grand Topick of the Faction Our Author Ludlow begins his spiteful Charge there Those who make any Enquiry into King Iames's Reign will find that tho his Inclinations were strongly bent to render himself Absolute yet he chose rather to carry on that Design by Fraud than Violence But King Charles having taken a nearer View of Despotick Government in his Iourny to France and Spain tempted with the glittering Shew and imaginary Pleasures of that empty Pageantry Immediately after his Ascent to the Throne pull'd off the Mask and openly discovered his Intentions to make the Crown absolute and Independent pag. 1 2. Audacter Calumniari goes a great way in any bad Cause To be sure this Calumny hath been so frequently urg'd so constantly inculcated as several worthy Gentlemen otherwise
Admonition could move no Reasons or Perswasions prevail when the Time was so far spent that they had put an impossibility upon themselves to perform their Promise whereof they esteemed all Gracious Messages to them to be but Interruptions His Majesty upon mature Advisement dissolv'd them This is the Account the King himself gives in his Declaration of their unkind Dealing and his too just Provocation for that Act otherways would they have comply'd with him in those his urgent Necessities there should have been no Obstruction upon the Duke's Account they might have gon on with their Articles and been certainly Baffled as to that of King Iames's Death and perhaps most of the rest But I must not break off here without my promis'd Remark upon the Defence who by adding another most Impossible Story renders that aforemention'd yet more Improbable There are few will believe because he brings none That for many Reasons it was concluded King Charles had no small share in that abominable Act of Poysoning his own Father King James I. But to add and that Good Man Prince Henry his Son is such a Stretch as nothing but one by a Halter can keep pace with and they deserve to go together That Prince Henry was thought to have something of foul Play Sir W's Libel does insinuate but no Man of Sense or History ever believed a Syllable thereof and that Answer Intituled Aulicus Coquinariae clearly makes appear it was right down Libel that is absolutely false and as there was no ground to place it where Sir A's Baseness design'd so for this unthinking Blockhead to transfer it upon that poor innocent Child his Brother let the most prejudic'd Fanatick judge when told that at Henry's Death this his younger Brother was not Twelve Years Old having been all along of a weak unhealthy Constitution liv'd a Studious retir'd Life with very little Conversation but that of Books and Tutors which was indeed of great Advantage to his future Accomplishments but kept him then from making any Figure at Court or entring upon any Intrigue there which the most Active Princes of that Age have seldom been known to engage in much less to carry on such an Unnatural Enterprize Yet doubtless this is as true as the other and whoever for the Time to come relate either may the same Fate attend them as did Horace's Planus a Lying Cheat not to be believ'd when they speak Truth tho their Lives depend thereupon Nulla fides damnis verisque doloribus adsit Roger Coke hath another the prettyest Maggotty Reason to prove King Iames could not dye a Natural Death because all the five James 's his Predecessors in Scotland were carryed off otherwise I will not concern my self with what was done in Scotland but dare be the Courts Compurgator for all of that Family which have dy'd since it came into England although none have gon off without some such ill-natur'd and ill-grounded Suggestion I wish I could say as much for the Parliament or rather a Rump of it which out-did whatever hath been done in Scotland or any where else upon the Face of the whole Earth And further to provoke Divine Vengeance we have got a Generation of Villains which at this Hour dare to justify it and no Notice taken thereof Nay these eager Blood-hounds are so delighted with that sort of Game as when they cannot come at it themselves will needs have it done by others for so it was confidently mutter'd of the last which went off by Death and if God curse us with continuing this Set of Men will pass for an Authentick Story 50 or 60 Years hence it was enough at present to found it in a Whisper especially since the Physicians and amongst them Dr. L a great Confident of theirs declar'd that upon inspecting the Brain there was so clear Evidence of an Apoplexy as 't was impossible to think of any other Cause However there is nothing Extraordinary in all this besides the grosseness of the Fiction there are few Historians relate the Death of Princes without something of a real or imaginary Force But to bury them alive by Supposititious Births is altogether Modern an Advance of this present Age with how much Interest or Honour the next may Judge CHAP. XIII His Government before the Rebellion THese be the most tho' not all for all it is impossible to Enumerate and therefore let it be all the most considerable Exceptions false Clamors and frontless Cavils wherewith the wide-mouth'd Factions blackned the King and Trumpetted up Rebellion into which dismal and bloody Scene before we enter Let us take a general View of his Government during the Twelve Years Interstitium or if you will Interregnum of Parliaments for they were never quiet till Supream and then least of all where we shall find this true Father of his Country so tenderly Provident for a crooked and perverse Generation Nurtur'd them up in so much Peace and Plenty such a continued Affluence of all Things requisite to Humane Welfare as never any Nation enjoy'd a greater and very few have equall'd them therein That he Hated or had any Prejudice against Parliaments is so far from being True as if there were any Mistake it appear'd rather at First on the other Side he Caress'd them a little too much To be sure it was by his Inducement the Duke of Bucks made that Narrative relating to the Spanish Match and Treaty to both Houses of Parliament in Iames's Last whereto as occasion serv'd he gave his Attestation which so pleas'd their Popular aspiring Humour as the Duke was then the Whitest Boy and his Master the Hopefullest Prince in the World And he doubtless intended to have gon on in that Sincere plain-dealing Way represented Things as they really were and expected they should have met him half Way in all reasonable Returns But his more Experienc'd Father understood better told them both how short-liv'd such Caresses would be as they should find too soon Which immediately upon his coming to the Crown most Prophetically fell out in his first Parliament where making a small Complement of Two Subsidies they return'd to their Old Vomit Evil Counsellors Grievances and the like must be the only Subject of Debate after which they made so strict a Search as such another Set of Busy Men according to the Latin Adage would for a Knot in a Bulrush yet hereupon the Breach so gradually widned Three several Parliaments as to part at last in a final Separation Whereunto after all is say'd never Prince had greater or juster Provocation Nevertheless I cannot find in his Proclamation set out upon the last Dissolution or any where else that it was declared Criminal for the People to speak any more of Parliaments as Ludlow with his usual Impudence affirms p. 2. The King as I say'd finding the Factions so prevalent in all Elections as it was impossible to get a Parliament would either hearken to Reason or Act with Temper
have reaped great Advantages thereby would they have acted with reason or consulted his Honour with the Common Interest of all the Three Kingdoms together which Good man was his grand aim But to have any design of Promoting their Superstition or otherwise give them the least advantage upon the true Establishments in Church and State was as far from him as from the Commonwealth Party not to abuse and belye him upon that account and indeed all others whatsoever And thus ended all Transactions between the King and that unhappy People but the next year when things came to extremity and directly tended to his Murder the Marquess of Ormond was invited over by them to assume the Lieutenancy and a strict Union entred into between him and the Catholick Commissioners as they termed themselves and all Partys seem'd abundantly satisfy'd in the choice of a Person who had shown himself Superiour to all those Calumnies they had formerly aspersed him with However so many different Humours Passions and Interests could not long stick together the Provisions for next Campagne were not answerable to promise and when they came to Action the Ecclesiasticks and their Bigotted Party return'd to their Old vomit would neither lead nor drive but at the same Priest-ridden trot as formerly so that quarrelling at those disappointments themselves were the Cause of and fomenting the Divisions they ought to have cemented Cromwell in the mean while coming over with an Army of Veteran well Disciplin'd Rebels their whole Island became the most dismal Scene of War Pestilence and Famine as we find any where Recorded the numbers being unaccountable which perished by those three Arrows of Divine Vengeance others either by Stealth or Composition got into Foreign parts whilst the remainder were shut up in one Corner of the Kingdom and had all their Estates divided amongst the Conquerors And thus ended this Popish Rebellion which as it was begun in imitation of the Scotch Covenant so was it prosecuted with the like Insolent and Unreasonable Demands and with somewhat a severer draught of the Almighty's Displeasure although nothing but an Impenitent Heart could make either of them forbear to acknowledge how Righteous God is in all his ways CHAP. III. Of the English Rebellion THE two former Prospects have been dismal enough and could not but move both Indignation and Pity as to the Aggressors and Suffering Parties had the Scene lain at the farthest Distance but being either in our Neighbourhood or on our Borders and we at the sole Charge of buying the Scotch home and buoying up the Protestant Interest against the Irish one would think should have caution'd us to keep together amongst our selves and take Care to prevent any further Annoyance from such troublesom Neighbours But to continue nay aggravate the Freak fall together by the Ears one with another when they were both fallen upon us was so abominably Stupid as the whole observing Part of the World became amas'd and Posterity 't is probable would have given no Credit thereto were we not like to confirm it by continuing in the same Mixture of Fools and Mad-men to the Consummation of all things For Confirmation whereof I cannot but observe that the Scots acted like themselves and having so solemn an Invitation from us could not forbear according to the Common Policy of the World to set forward from their own Wilderness to our Canaan The Irish likewise had strong Prejudices both as a conquer'd Nation and from the unhappy Influence of their Romish Emissaries upon whose Sleeves they had not only pinn'd their Faith but Obedience to the Civil Power so that had their Defection been confin'd within any Bounds of Humanity some Grains of Allowance might have been given them After all therefore the most Astonishing surprise lies on our Side in that we were not only forward to foment them but so barbarously Stupid as to Sheath the Sword in one anothers Bowels without any imaginable Cause but what the Historian assigns in all such Cases Nimis Felicitas The Scene then hence forward must be at home where will appear several Acts full of nothing but Misery and Confusion a sad Completion both of the Prophets Charge and Curse there being no Truth nor Mercy nor Knowledge of God in the Land but by Swearing and Lying and Killing and Stealing Blood touched Blood to the Effusion of that Royal Blood which I fear will be never expiated till the last Conflagration to be sure some others though very considerable have done little towards it That Observation of Amm. Marcellin could never be more Applicable than here Manum injicientibus fatis hebetantur sensus hominum obtunduntur Fate so strongly overrul'd all our Deliberations dazled the Sight of our Judgments and Counsels so such a Degree there was no Thought left for the most Natural Principle to all Mankind Self-Preservation and that whether we consider his Majesty's too many and great Compliances on the one hand or the Faction's Impudence on the other whose Demands continually improv'd with his Concessions crying as the Wise Man tells the Horsleeches two Daughters incessantly do Give Give nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris without giving over till the Nation fainted and they burst asunder with it's Blood And this Ludlow owns that the King not willing to languish in Expectation sent to the House that they would at once make their full Demands and prepare a Bill c. But they perceiving the Design for he must never be without one though they good Creatures were as undesigning as the Devil return'd for Answer That they could not suddenly resolve upon so weighty a Work but would do it with all possible speed pa. 16. which time never came nor was thought of after Indeed their Thoughts were quite otherwise imploy'd to widen the Wound and render it incurable in order whereunto their first Attempt was to Stab the King through the Sides of his Ministers not only remove from him but Sacrifice all such worthy Patriots as had Courage and Abilities to detect and oppose their pernicious Enterprises Thus Ludlow tells us they impeach'd the Lord Keeper Finch Earl of Starfford and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury of High Treason in endeavouring to subvert the Laws and erect an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power p. 12. the former very prudently made his escape the only means of avoiding that impertuous Hurricane which Innocence it self could not otherwise have stem'd The other two fell the Objects of their implacable Rage and being the Persons against whom next the King himself our Author revives his Calumnies with the greatest Obloquy I shall presume to give a short Account of the Procedure against them so Arbitrary and Illegal as it seem'd to be carried on not only without any regard to Iustice but even Humanity it self The Earl whom they first fell upon as he could not have a greater so deserv'd no less Character than what his Majesty gave him of a Person whose great Abilities might make a