one word I am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present unto your Lordships their most affectionate Thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great Wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upon this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal concurrence of Complaints from all the Seabordering parts of this Kingdom did find a great and grievous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffick The base Pirates of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our Ships and Goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into Barbarous Captivity while to our shame and hinderance of Commerce our Enemies did as it were Besiege our Ports and Block up our best Rivers Mouths our Friends on slight pretences made Embargoes of our Merchants Goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slight us So great was the apparent diminution of the ancient Honour of this Crown and once strong reputation of our Nation wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and everywhere by Sea and Land the Valours of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy in Scotland to say no more united Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the Second they called their Wisest the House of Austria as great and Potent and both strengthned with a Malicious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-Countries had no being yet by constant Councels and Old English ways even then that Spanish pride was cool'd that greatness of the House of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low-Countries such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us Honour over all the Christian World The Commons therefore wondring at the evils which they suffered debating of the causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of Decay of Trade and Strength of Honour and Reputation in this Kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great man the cause of all whom I am here to name the Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudley Diggs made a stand as wondring to see the Duke present yet he took the Roll and read the Preamble to the Charge with the Duke's Titles which I shall here for the Readers Satisfaction insert and so proceed For the speedy Redress of the great evils and mischiefs The Preamble to the Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham and of the chief causes of those evils and mischiefs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honour and safety of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Crown and Dignities and to the good and welfare of his People The Commons in this present Parliament by the Authority of our Soveraign Lord the King assembled do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoin and Guyen General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdoms Lieutenant-General Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Armado lately set forth Master of the Horse of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque-Ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all Forests and Chases on this side of the River of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Lieutenant of Middlesex and Buckinghamshire Steward and Bayliff of Westminster Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-Chamber and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council in his Realms both of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other matters comprized in the Articles following And him the said Duke do Accuse and Impeach of the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes And now my Lords This lofty Title of this mighty man methinks doth raise my Spirits to speak with a Paulo majora canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for Foundation I compare the beautiful Structure and fair Composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God viz. the World it self in which the solid Body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may well resemble us the Commons and as it is encompassed with Air and Fire and Spheres Celestial of Planets and a Firmament of fixed Stars all which receive their heat light and life from one great glorious Sun even like the King our Soveraign so that Firmament of fixed Stars I take to be your Lordships those Planets the great Officers of the Kingdom that pure Element of Fire the most Religious Zealous and Pious Clergy and the Reverend Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Law and Justice the Air wherein we breathe all which encompast round with cherishing comfort this Body of the Commons who truly labour for them all and though they be the Footstool and the lowest yet may well be said to be the setled Centre of the State Now my Lords if that glorious Sun by his powerful Beams of Grace and Favour shall draw from the bowels of this Earth an Exhalation that shall fire and burn and shine out like a Star it needs not be marvell'd at if the poor Commons gaze and wonder at the Comet when they feel the effects and impute all to the corruptible matter thereof But if such an imperfect Meteor appear like that in the last Age in the Chair of Casiopea among the fixed Stars themselves where Aristotle and the old Philosophers conceived there was no place for such corruption The Meteor in 1680. is worth your observation upon this very account then as the learned Mathematicians were troubled to observe the irregular motions the prodigious magnitude and the ominous Prognosticks of that Meteor so the Commons when they see such a Blazing-Star in course so exorbitant in the affairs of this Common-wealth cannot but look up upon it and for want of Perspectives commend the nearer examination to your Lordships who may behold it at a better distance Such a prodigious Comet the Commons take this Duke of Buckingham to be And so the Commons do the Duke of York now cum multis aliis c. Anno Domini 1680 and 1681. and
periclitation necessitates an early resolution In sum three of the best Rhetoricians Honour Opportunity and Safety are all of a plot and plead you see for expedition Perhaps it may be expected I should say something in way of Account of my Religion as also of the Temper and Tenure of my future Government But as I hope I have not been guilty of any thing which may justly start the least question in either so I would desire you to repose in this assurance That I will in neither vary from those principles wherein I have been instituted at the feet of that Eminent Gamaliel my late Father The Speech being ended the King Vailed his Crown a thing rare in any of his Predecessors Though denied it could not be but this Speech was elemented of very rational materials and ponderous arguments yet it did not cause such a precipitation of resolution but that the Parliament did descend to the consideration thereof by degrees That which retarded the Debate was this They had in store by them two Petitions one for Religion the other against Grievances to which having been moulded in King James his time and preferr'd to him at the close of the last Sessions of the last Parliament they as yet never received answer They said it was the ancient and as they conceived a most prudential practice to present Petitions at the Commencement of Parliaments or so long before their Dissolutions as the King might have time to return a deliberate Answer That the same course they were resolved strictly to pursue and give priority of dispatch to those Petitions before any other business whatsoever which accordingly they did To the several Heads against Grievances His Majesty gave a distinct and satisfactory answer and promised largely upon the Petition for Religion and the better to draw on Supplies he did audit unto them the several Disbursements both relating to the Army and Navy that so all jealousies of mis-employment might be removed which produced so good effects as that the Laity gave him freely and without condition two Subsidies from Protestants and four from Papists as a mulct from the House upon their Recusancy and the Clergy three This was upon July the 8th and the next day the King signified That he took notice of the slender appearance in the House by reason of contagion and that therefore having a tender regard to their healths he declared his intention of Adjournig them upon Monday next being the 11th of that Month which accordingly was performed to the 1st of August and Oxford named for the place which gave disgust to some Members of the House In this Sessions of Parliament was Mr. Montague questioned for Publishing certain Books prejudicial to the Protestant Cause for which he was ordered to be brought to the Bar to whom the Speaker declared the pleasure of the House That they would refer his Censure to the next Meeting and in the interim in respect of his notorious contempt he should stand committed to the Serjeants Ward entring Bail for his then appearance But Mr. Mountague had by the cunning artifice of his Court-friends crept into the Kings service undiscern'd and the King signified to the Parliament two days after That he thought his Servants whereof Mountague was one might have as much Protection as the Servant of an ordinary Burgess nevertheless his Bond of 2000 l. whereupon he was Bailed continued uncancell'd August the 1st the Parliament met again at Oxford the Divinity-School was appointed for the House of Commons and the Galleries above for the House of Lords The 4th of the same Month both Houses were called together to Christ-Church-Hall by the King where he laid open unto them his wants for setting forth the Fleet but the Parliament before they would return any Answer presented him with a Petition against Recusants to this effect Most Gracious Soveraign IT being infallibly true that nothing can more establish your Throne and assure the peace and prosperity of your People than the unity and sincerity of Religion We your Majesties most humble and loyal Subjects and Commons in this present Parliament assembled observing that of late there is an apparent mischievovs increase of Papists within your Dominions hold our selves bound in conscience and duty to present the same unto your Sacred Majesty together with the dangerous consequences and what we conceive to be the most principal causes and what may be the remedies thereof 1. Their desperate ends being the Subversion both of Church and State and the restlesness of their spirits to attain those ends the Doctrines of their Teachers and Leaders perswading them that therein they shall do God good service 2. Their evident and strict dependance upon such Foreign Princes as no way affect the good of your Majesty and State 3. An opening a way of Popularity to the ambition of any who shall adventure to make himself Head of so great a party The principal causes of the increase of Papists in those times and the remedies proposed by the Parliament I shall refer you to the Book it self for your farther satisfaction To all the several branches thereof the King August the 7th gave such a plausible and satisfactory answer as nothing could be desired more One good turn requires another And as the King had given the Parliament ample content by this Answer so he hoped they would be as cheerful in supplying him with Moneys for which he earnestly importun'd them and more especially for his great Naval preparation whereupon ensued a great Debate in the House some were very prompt to give without delay some would give but in convenient time but not then others would give but they complained that the design was managed by young and single Councel that Sir Robert Mansell a man of singular judgment and experience had declared against the Plot and had tender'd to the Council of War a project of much greater advantage and less expence which was approved by the Lord of Chichester to the which the Solicitor replied in the Dukes behalf That the Council of War for the generality much disliked the project of Sir Robert and concluded upon what was then intended but the greater part agreed not to give and to make an humble Remonstrance declaring the Causes and Reasons of their not giving Most of the Voters of this Remonstrance flew high and impetuously prest in upon the Duke some would divest him of his Offices the Admiralty especially others of his Revenue by resuming what he possest of the Crown-demeans others demanded an account of what publick Moneys he had been entrusted with This being signified to the King he soon prognosticated of what quality the Remonstrance would prove therefore immediately in distaste he determined to Dissolve the Parliament The House of Commons were Resolved into a Grand Committee when the Usher came from the Lords House with that Message and before they would permit the Solicitor then in the Chair to leave his seat they agreed upon a
agreed to give him five Subsidies whereof Secretary Coke was the first Evangelist and Porter of that good news to the King who received it with wondrous joy and asked the Secretary by how many Voices it was carried Sir John replyed but by one At which perceiving the Kings countenance to change Sir said he your Majesty hath the greater cause to rejoyce for the House was so unanimous therein as that they made but one voice whereupon the King wept and bad the Secretary tell them He would deny them nothing of their Liberties which any of his Predecessors had granted The stream of affairs running thus smoothly The Subjects Libetty under debate without the least wrinkle of discontent on either side the House of Commons first insisted upon the Personal Freedom of the People and resolved for Law That no Freeman ought to be imprisoned either by the King or Council without a legal Cause alledged This opinion of the House was reported to the Lords at a Conference by Sir Edward Coke Sir Dudley Diggs Mr. Selden and Mr. Littleton Sir Dudley Diggs citing Acts 25. vers 27. It seemeth an unreasonable thing to send a Prisoner and not withal to signifie the Crimes laid against him This business stuck very much in the Lords House The Lords nice in the business who were willing that the Nails should be pared not the hands tyed of the Prerogative several and great Debates there were about it The Attorney pleading eagerly though impertinently for the King and the ancient Records were so direct for the People and so strongly enforced as the Attorney had no more to say but only I refer my self to the Judgment of the Lords and when these Lords were to give Judgment concerning it the Ducal or Royal party for they were both one were so prevalent as they who leaned the other way durst not abide the Tryal by Vote but calling the Lord-Keeper down moulded the House into a Committee until the Lord Say made a motion That they who stood for the Liberties being effective about fifty might make their Protestation and that to be upon Record And that the other opposite party should also with Subscriptions of their Names enter their Reasons to remain also upon Record that so Posterity might not be to seek who they were who so ignobly betrayed the Freedom of our Nation and that this done they should proceed to a Vote At which the Court-party were so daunted as that they durst not mutter one syllable against it Personal Liberty being thus setled next they fall upon Liberty of Goods the unbilleting of Soldiers and nulling of Martial-Law in times of Peace and finding Magna Charta and six other Statutes explanatory of it to be expresly on their side they Petitioned the King to grant them the benefit of them whereupon he declared Himself by the Lord-Keeper unto them in his Verbis That He did hold the Statutes of Magna Charta and the six other insisted upon for the Subjects Liberty to be all in force and assured them that he would maintain all his Subjects in the just freedom of their Persons and safety of Estates and that he would govern according to the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and that his People should find as much security in his Royal Word and Promise as in any Laws they could make so that hereafter they should have no cause to complain and therefore he desired no doubt nor distrust might possess any man but that they would proceed speedily and unanimously on with their business This Message begat a new Question Whether or no his Majesty should be trusted upon his Royal Word Some thought it needless because of his Coronation-Oath binding him to maintain the Laws of the Land That Oath was as strong as any Royal Word could be Others were of opinion That should it be put to Vote and carried in the Negative it would be infinitely dishonourable unto him in Foreign parts who would be ready to say The People of England would not trust their King upon his Royal Promise At length in the height of this Dispute stands up Sir Edward Coke and thus informed the House We sit now in Parliament and therefore must take his Majesties Word no otherwise than in a Parliamentary-way that is The King sitting on his Throne in his Royal Robes his Crown on his Head his Scepter in his Hand in full Parliament both Houses being present all these Circumstances observed and his Assent being entred upon a Record make his Royal Word the Word of a King in Parliament and not a word delivered in a Chamber or at second hand by the mouth of a Secretary or Lord-Keeper therefore his Motion was That the House should More Majorum according to the custom of their Predecessors draw a Petition De Droict of Right to His Majesty which being confirmed by both Houses and assented unto by the King would be as firm an Act as any This Judgment of so great a Father in the Law The Petition of Right presented by this Parliament at this time ruled all the House and accordingly a Petition was framed and at a Conference presented unto the Lords the substance whereof after the recital of several Statutes relating to the Priviledge of the Subject was reduced to four Heads The Petition being presented to his Majesty after two several Answers thereunto which did not please the Parliament he did the third time give them this Answer the Petition being read thereunto Le droict soit faict comme il est desire This I am sure is full yet no more than I granted you in my first Answer you see now how ready I have shewed my self to satisfie your Demands so that I have done my part wherefore if this Parliament have not an happy conclusion the sin is yours I am free The King having ended the Houses testified their joy with a mighty shout and presently the Bells rung and Bonefires were kindled all the City over Nor was the true cause so distinctly known for many apprehended at first that the King had delivered the Duke up to them to be sent to the Tower on which misprision some said the Scaffold on Tower-hill was instantly pulled down the People said his Grace should have a new one It is said that the House of Lords made Suit to the King upon this happy accord That he would be pleased to receive into Grace those Lords who were in former disfavour which he readily yielded unto And admitted the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop of Lincoln the Earls of Essex Warwick Bristol and the Lord Say to kiss his hand The Petition thus granted the Commissions of Loan and Excise were instantly out-lawed and at the entreaty of the House of Peers cancell'd in the Kings presence Having thus secured the faults they removed the faulty and resolved upon a large Remonstrance to the King ripping up the Grievances themselves and the Authors of them This Remonstrance consisted of six Branches
true Tory-men indeed and very uncharitable in the highest measure but only to prune and pare off some Luxuriant and overgrown branches viz. Court Parasites evil Councels who were great Favorites corrupt Judges and such-like Sycophants which had well-nigh sucked like so many idle Drones the very sap from the root of our most Noble Magnificent thrice happy and never enough to be admired Triple-Constitution And in order to the accomplishment of the aforementioned premises I have consulted several Authors for my best satisfaction that are now extant as to the Transactions of those times wherein I must confess I do find them at a very great distance and opposition one to another and very various in their several sentiments and apprehensions according to their particular inclinations as to the merit of the cause on either side wherein by the way although with all due submission to the more grave acurate and discerning Judgments of the Learned I do humbly conceive some of these have erred too much on the right and others too much on the left hand but yet as to matter of fact as to what was really done and transacted in those days they do in the main generally all agree And among the rest I have perused one piece in particular which in my slender apprehension hath avoided both extremes and as we do usually say In Medio consistet Virtus and hath passed Scilla and Charibdis without any danger of too much reflecting upon either side Him I have made choice of in particular as one of the ablest Pilates to steer my course through the Channel whereby to avoid those many Rocks and Quick-sands which a man may suddenly run upon if he have not the Conduct of an experienced guide and so God send the good Ship of Vox Veritas unto her desired harbour A Ship though but small in bulk yet pretty handsomely and tight built for Publick service and I hope will be able stoutly to defend His Majesties particular Person and Government by King Lords and Commons against all bold Assassinates against all crafty Incendiaries against all cursed Achitophels against all absolute Monarchical Tories and Tantivies against all Blood-thirsty and Hellish Papists whatsoever who would not only pervert but utterly destroy the present best established Government this day in the Christian World by stretching of it forth beyond its legal and due bounds proviso's restrictions and limitations And from such notorious and malicious persons in grain let every good and loyal Subject and every true English-man insert it in his Quoditian Litany and private Devotion Libera nos Domine The Title of that particular piece I have even now mentioned is viz. The Reign of King Charles By H. L. Esquire London Printed by F. L. and J G. for Henry Seile Senior and Junior over-against St. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet and Edward Dod at the Gun in Ivy-Lane Anno Domini 1656. And that the said person was not biassed you may perceive by the Date thereof It was in the time when the late Tyrant Oliver Cromwell had assumed the seat of chief Magistrate and at that time of day to have dipped his Pen in gall might have been very grateful and complesant to that grand Usurper who having such a puissant and dreadful Army of well-disciplin'd victorious and well-paid Janizaries at his Command made the Lyon so impudently bold as to call our grand Charter of England Magna Charta Magna F. And in a small space of time after that it pleased God to snatch him away from us in a high tempestuous wind as an example to all future Tyrants who shall offer to attempt the like boldness upon our fundamental Laws Liberties and Properties And that you may be the better satisfied as to the impartiality of this ingenious and fair Historian what he was or is if as yet inter vivos I cannot tell Pray do but peruse his Preface to the said History and you will find in his Verbis in his own Apology viz. What Oblique Descants will come to Traverse upon this honest Narrative I already prejudicate The fate of those who write of Times within ken Time's better for the History than for the Historian For while they render truth more resplendent they usually bring the Relator under a cloud whence the bane of all faithful Tradition that an Historian is rarely found until the truth be lost And what is History without its Idium Truth but a meer Romance And if so what Pen will undertake the History of a King Kings in their Functions so nearly resemble the Divine Nature as God himself hath stiled them Gods And as in many respects they represent it so also in that of Cyprian though not in his sense De Deo etiam periculosum est dicere verum Though as man they are within the incidence of frailty for as that Emperor said Imperium non tollit affectus Soveraignty doth not proscribe humane affections yet their failings have been in former times accounted like their Persons so sacred that to touch them though never so tenderly hath been esteemed Petty-Treason But in King Charles the grand concernment of these Annals the danger is counter-changed and to exhibit in him any thing of merit and importance less than a Nero or Domitian many will not endure And these two extremes make my passage through this History like that of Jonathans to the Philistins a sharp Rock on the one side and a sharp Rock on the other side Which consideration hath moved me to decline many things otherwise remarkable and not commonly known and to content my self with saving truths nor should I have adventured a modest Vindication of this King in some particulars not reflecting upon the fatal proceedings against him had not the ingenuity of some eminently disaffected to him led me the way But if in relation to these perils I have been studious to bear my self erect yet in other concernments some will censure me for too strong a Biass Some will say peradventure I seem no friend to the Clergy and lest my silence should make this an Accusation which is but a meer Calumny I answer Churchmen I honour no man more and this I do for their Sacred Orders sake But if their Order be Sacred it doth not I wish it did make all such who are initiated in that Order too many of that holy profession are ever were and will be Sacred in another and worse sense The unsanctified lives of some officiating at the Sacred Altar have been the complaint of all ages Read we not to their shame of the sons of Eli whose impiety made them abhor the Offerings of the Lord Doth not Chrysostome tell us of some of his Contemporaries who had Canonical Discipline been punctually observed should not have been permitted so much as to step over the threshold of Gods house were notwithstanding advanced to the highest grison of Church-Dignities And if this Narrative presents some Ecclesiasticks blame-worthy the inference is fallacious that
therefore our times are worse than former or that the accrimination overspreadeth all No what St. Augustine said of some Enormitans in his time is no less true of ours That though our Church had cause to grieve for the blemishes of some yet might she glory in the Ornaments of more And so much shall serve for my present purpose as to the former part of this Authors Preface Et si constristamur de aliquibus Purgamentis tamen consolamur de pluribus Ornamentis Aug. Epist 137. wherein he doth endeavour to satisfie his Readers that he will carry an even hand between either side and steer his course aright and so far I shall endeavour as much as in me lyes to write after his Copy But yet where persons are blame-worthy I shall not be Meal-mouth'd but let them know their failings and embecillities until they give me better satisfaction than I have at present concerning their Reformation And now to transcribe some of this Authors Narrative concerning the Reign of King Charles the First so wise so vertuous so temperate so chaste so learned and so religious a Prince and a strong assertor of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against the Old Gentleman at Rome and all his adherents yet that this Prince after his Death by the Pens-Militant instead of inserting this Parenthesis concerning him as they have done of many Princes after their decease of Ever blessed Memory should be constrained to counterchange their Dialect and say of Ever unfortunate and deplorable Memory I must confess is so profound a mystery unto me that I am not able to search and penetrate into the depth thereof and therefore must leave this I could wish I were not able to say so much by experience most unfortunate Prince though of Ever blessed Memory in some sense unto the searcher of all hearts and before whom all things are naked bare and open who worketh and wisely disposeth of all things both in Heaven and in Earth according to the infallible and most unerring Councel and Dictates of his own Will But to proceed in my intended design to Transcribe from my Author some of the particular and most material Transactions as to matter of fact in those days and should I have transcribed the whole it would have been a new Edition of the said Narrative and would have swelled this small piece which was intended for no other in my primary cogitations unto a very large Bulk the which you may please to peruse in manner and form as followeth viz. King James surrendred his Soul to God and his Three Kingdoms to his Son at Theobalds Anno Domini March the 27th 1625. And now it will not be amiss saith the ingenious Historian nor vary from the usual ceremony ordained to the body of extinct Princes if I here represent in brief the pourtraicture of this Famous Monarch which I will do freely sincerely and with a spirit which equally disdains to libel or flatter him In the stile of the Court His Character he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any excursion beyond the Precincts of verity to say that neither Britain nor any other Kingdom whatsoever could ever since Solomon's days glory in a King for recondite learning and abstruse knowledge so near a match to Solomon as he And though he was a Universal Scholar yet did he make other Sciences their most proper imployment but drudges and servitors to Divinity wherein he became so transcendently eminent as he notoriously foil'd the greatest Clerks of the Roman See Nor did his Theological abilities more advantage the Cause of Religion abroad than at home they keeping the new-fangled Clergy aloof and at a distance as not daring to infuse into so solid a judgment their upstart and erroneous fancies no nor disquiet the Churches peace with Heterodox opinions by which it appears this Author and King James were both Calvinists as to their particular Sentiments in matters of Religion A stout adversary he was to the Arminians and Semi-Pelagians whom he called as Prosper before him and so doth the whole tribe of them ever since the Enemies of Gods grace And as slender a friend he was to the Presbytery here he intends in matters Ecclesiastical as to the form of Church-government and imposed Constitutions of whose Tyrannical and Antimonarchical principles he had from his cradle smart experience He was an excellent Speaker the Scheme of his Oratory being more stately than Pedantick and the Expressions argued him both a King and Scholar In his apparel and civil garb he seemed naturally to affect a Majestick carelesness which was so hectick and habitual in him as even in Religious exercises where the external demeanor is a grand part of that sacred homage he was somewhat too incurious and irreverent He was indulgent a little to his Palat and had a smack of the Epicure In pecuniary dispensations to his Favourites he was most excessive liberal yea though the exigence of his own wants pleaded retention Nor was Solomon himself more a Solomon according to the true notion of the word which imports a man of rest than he selecting for his Motto Beati Pacifici or the seventh Beatitude as most agreeable to his genius and natural constitution He was studious of peace somewhat over-much for a King in pursuit whereof Virtue flew to a lessening and in the opinion of many out of sight he incurring thereby the note of Pusillanimity very suspicious from his managing the Cause of the Palatinate for had not the thought of War been terrible unto him would he so long have endured his Son-in-law exterminated from his Patrimony while the Austrian Faction to his great dishonour cajol'd and kept him in delusory chat with specious fallacies Would he in those feveral Negotiations of Carlisle Bristow Belfast and Weston have spent so vast sums the moity whereof had they been disposed in Military-levies and preparations would have Modell'd an Army able when Hidleburgh Manhrein and Frankindale defended themselves to have totally dissipated all the forces of the Usurpers to have Master'd the imperious Eagle enforcing her to forego her Quary and reinstate the Paulsgrave Would he so tediously have courted the Alliance of Spain to the very great regret of his Subjects whom his Predecessor had so often baffled and whom England ever found a worse friend than enemy What stronger Evidence can be given in of a wonderful defect of courage As this faint-heartedness lost him the reputation and respects of his People so his heavy pressures upon them and undue Levies by Privy-Seals and the like alienated their affections especially considering how those Moneys were misemployed indeed rather thrown away partly in the two dishonourable Treaties of Spain and Germany and the consequential Entertainments and partly in Largesses upon his Minion Buckingham Between this disaffection and contempt in his People there was generated a general disposition to turbulent and boisterous darings and expostulations even against his darling
the Parliament Thus expired this short-liv'd or rather thus ended this still-born Parliament although we have had a much shorter Anno Domini 1680. A Parliament I know not whether more unfortunate in beginning so late or ending so soon A Parliament which had Power and probably Will enough to impede the torrent of the late Civil War for the breaches between the King and People were grown so high as one might already discern all the lineaments of an Insurrection in Embrio but by my Authors good leave the wisest head could not foresee contingent actions for who could foretel but that his late Majesty might have been advised by his Grand Council and not by his Court Favourites whose abortion nothing could cause but a happy union in Parliament a thing not very difficult much less impossible at that time had the King yielded to a detrenching some luxuriances of his Prerogative to the reducing Episcopacy to its primitive institution that is to the frame by Divine Right a Root which had not sap enough to maintain so spreading and flourishing a Top as was contended for to a more frequent and sociable communication with the grand Representative In short so much fluent and spontaneous concessions as being resolved upon too late were in reference to his personal security lost and thrown away in the ensuing Parliament of the which we shall now very suddenly come to give a very succinct account as to their particular proceedings and transactions and compare both these Parliaments together with those that have been assembled of late Anno Domini 1680. and 1681. And after that shall draw towards a conclusion as I presume it will be high time lest my Multum in Parvo Vox Veritatis should prove at the long run Vox Contractitionis But this only by the way And moreover the dissolution of this Parliament was ascribed tho' perhaps wrongfully to the advice of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Archbishop Laud beset by the Rabble in his House at Lambeth so that on the ninth of May a Paper was posted upon the Old Exchange by one John Lilburn exciting the Apprentices to rise and rifle his House at Lambeth on Monday following of which he having notice made provision against them for his own defence and many of them upon enquiry having been actors therein were apprehended and imprison'd in the White Lyon in Southwark but within three days after some of their Complices got together and came to the Prison and brake it open and set them free yet nevertheless one of the chief Ringleaders was Taken Arraigned Condemned and Drawn Hanged and Quartered on the 21 of May. This Convention was not more unhappily dissolved The Convocation sitteth than another was continued that is as a witty Gentleman said well A new Synod made of an old Convocation which by new Commissions from the King were impowered to sit still the Impulsives to it are very easily collected from what resulted from it as you read more at large in the aforesaid Author Pápe 189. The Parliament being blown away without affording any thing in nature of a supply to the Kings wants All the wheels of the Prerogative are put into motion to carry on the War against Scotland First the City of London were invited to a Loan then all Knights and Gentlemen who held Lands in Capite of the King were summoned to send Men Horses and Arms agreeable to their abilities In September the Lords Mandevil and Edward Howard delivered to the King at York this Petition To the King 's Most Excellent Majesty The humble Petition of Your Majesties most Loyal and most Obedient Subjects whose names are underwritten in behalf of themselves and divers others Most Gracious Soveraign THe Zeal of that Duty and Service which we owe to your Sacred Majesty and our earnest affections to the good and welfare of this your Realm of England have moved us in all humility to beseech your Royal Majesty to give us leave to offer to your Princely wisdom the apprehension which we and others your faithful Subjects have conceived of the great distempers and dangers now threatning the Church and State and your Royal Person and of the fittest means by which they may be removed and prevented The evils and dangers which your Majesty may be pleased to take notice of are these viz. I. That your Majesties Sacred Person is exposed to hazard and danger in the present Expedition against the Scotish Army and by occasion of this War Your Majesties Revenue is much wasted your Subjects with Coat and conduct Money Billetting of Souldiers and other Military Charges and divers Rapines and Disorders committed in several parts of this your Realm by the Souldiers raised for that Service and your whole Kingdom become full of fears and discontents II. The sundry innovations in matter of Religion the Oath and Canons lately imposed upon the Clergy and other your Majesties Subjects III. The great increase of Popery and the Employing of Popish Recusants and others ill affected to the Religion by Laws Established in places of Power and Trust especially in commanding of Men and Arms both in the Field and sundry Counties of this your Realm whereas by Law they are not permitted to have any Arms in their own Houses IV. The great mischiefs which may fall upon this Kingdom if the intententions which have been credibly reported of bringing in Irish and Foreign Forces should take effect V. The urging of Ship-money and prosecution of some Sheriffs in the Star-Chamber for not levying of it VI. The heavy charge upon Merchandize to the discouragement of Trade the multitude of Monopolies and other Patents whereby the Commodities and Manufactures of the Kingdom are much burthened to the great and universal grievance of your People VII The great grief of your People and Subjects by long intermission of Parliaments and the late and former Dissolving of such as have been called without the happy effects which otherwise they might have produced For remedy whereof and prevention of the Dangers that may arise to your Royal Person and to the whole State they do in all humility and faithfulness beseech your Most Excellent Majesty that you would be pleased to Summon a Parliament within some convenient time whereby the causes of these and other great Grievances which your People lie under may be taken away and the Authors and Counsellors of them may be brought to such legal and condign punishment as the nature of their several offences shall require And that the present War may be composed by your Majesty's wisdom without Blood in such manner as may conduce to the Honour and Safety of your Majesties Person the the comfort of your People and the uniting of both your Realms against the Common Enemy of the Reformed Religion And your Majesty's Petitioners shall ever pray c. Francis Bedford Robert Essex Mulgrave Say and Seal Edward Howard William Hartford Warwick Bullingbrooke Mandevil Brook Paget Concluded the 28th of August 1640.
The King's Answer BEfore the receipt of your Petition His Majesty well foresaw the danger that threatens himself and Crown and therefore resolved the 24th of this Instant to Summon all the Peers and with them to Consult what in this Case is fittest to be done for his own honour and fafety of the Kingdom where they with the rest may offer any thing that may conduce to those ends According to this Resolution the Lord-Keeper had Directions from the King to issue out Writs of Summons for their appearing at York on the day prefixt which he punctually pursued Soon after the presenting of this Petition from the Lords came another from the Scots the substance whereof was a Desire That His Majesty would call a Parliament for setling a firm peace between the two Nations To this Petition the King replyed with signification of what he had ordered before in reference to himself and to the welfare of both Kingdoms And the Truth of it is it was high time for an Accommodation to be effected for Lesley now began to rant it in New-Castle and the parts adjacent as Brennus did at Rome with a Vae Victis He imposed a Tax of 350 pounds per diem upon the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 pounds upon Northumberland upon pain of Plundering and yet permitted Souldiers to rifle Houses break open Shops and act what insolencies they pleased seized upon four great English Ships laden with Corn as lawful prize they not knowing in whose possession the Town was till they enter'd the Haven The first day of the Lords Assembling at York it was resolved that a Parliament should be Summoned to convene at Westminster November the Third Then a Message was sent to the Scots desiring a speedy Treaty at York The Scots replied They held that no place of security for their Commissioners considering that the Lieutenant of Ireland who commanded His Majesties Army was one who had proclaimed them Traytors in Ireland before the King had done the same in England and who had threatned to destroy their Nation both Root and Branch and against whom as a chief Incendiary of the late Troubles they intended to complain whereupon it was concluded that the Treaty should be held at Rippon which accordingly took place The Parliament now approaching whose Convening was attended by this Kingdom with so much longing such impatience of desires as every moment which retarded it was interpreted as a kind of Grievance to the Subject for we began now to think that nothing could make us a happy People but a Parliament and that no Parliament could make us miserable This was the Sence of the greater part of this Nation and if this Parliament succeeded not adequate to some Mens Vote perhaps the miscarriage of their hopes may be somewhat imputed to this Sence Over-ruling Providence delights oft to order the Operations of free and natural Agents counter to Mans Expectations to teach us the vanity of that Faith which is founded upon Causes subaltern And oh that I could here but express to the life the high Expectations of the People from this Parliament which came with such a terrible swing after so long an Interval and so many Dissolutions that put the whole Nation into such a Consternation as I presume the like President cannot be produced out of the Records of Antiquity since William the Conqueror did first invade our English Territories But however Courteous Readers for your present Divertisement I will here make a small Attempt to express the present Thoughts and Expectations of that Parliament which in process of time brake forth into a Civil War and I pray God I may never live to see the like again the which I shall represent under the Emblem of a new tight and well-built Ship which upon the Launching was named The Bon Resolution although some would have it called The House of Commons others The Three Estates and others The Swiftsure and was immediately employ'd in His Majesties Service but being for some time wind-bound within the Harbor viz. about 12 days the Captain of the said Ship coming early out of his Cabin one morning and finding the Wind tackt about and blowing fair for his intended Voyage being upon the Quarter-Deck he knocks up his Seamen and salutes them after this manner viz. ARise you Mortals from your Dens of Sleep Neptune now calls to launch into the Deep The Wind blows fair it 's lately turn'd South-west And we must Sail directly to the East For Pearls and Diamonds Jewels of great Rate Which in the Acquest sometimes a broken Pate Hath been our Lot yet still we venture must You know our Shipwrights wherein so great a Trust Is now repos'd in us comes from Whitehall Our late Commission whence we may learn All Which way to steer our course and will direct Whom we must crush and whom we must protect In this our Voyage 'T is the Common-weal Of these Three Kingdoms That a Roaring Peal Of Small and Great Shot now aloud must Ring From this our Vessel To preserve the King In all His Legal Rights But to advance Against all those who have lead up a Dance As will in time if Heavens do not prevent Destroy both King and all the Parliament And in their stead set up a Scarlet Whore Of whose sweet Nature we have long before Known by Experience and now for to be cheated By their Sham-Plots again and to be defeated Huzza Brave Lads This thing shall never be We 'll rather chuse upon a Triple Tree To take our chance and now Heavens crown the Event And bless our Vessel and our good Intent Heavens bless us from the Sally Men of War Heavens bless us likewise that we do not jar Among our selves If such a thing should be And that our Seamen now should disagree And fight for Thimbles Bodkins and Gu-gaws Instead of fighting for the Good Old Cause Of Liberty and Property Oh! this Evil Would make us Zealots for the Pope and Devil More than for Christs true Church which now doth stand In danger much if these should have Command Within our British Isle which to prevent God bless our King and His next Parliament Which now approacheth whom we must defend And so our Ship the Lord Almighty send Into safe Harbor when that we shall bring Peace to the Church and Honor to the King And when our Pearls and Diamonds shall arrive We 'll fix them fast upon King CHARLES his Hive His Crown shall glister like the Rising Sun Courage Brave Boys Our Wars shall then be done When we shall see those Fellows sent from hence With all their Tories to that place from whence They first did rise which was from that Grand Syre Who claims the Patent to be the great Lyar And Forger of all Mischiefs both in Church and State But will at length get such a Broken Pate As will confound him and his Holy Church When as Old Nick shall leave him in the Lurch To him I 'll