beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the County of York Gave his People to understand That He had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legal way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majesty to put them into a Military posture they should be drawn and engaged in any opposition against Him or His just Authority But 21 June 1642. e The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The design of their Propositions of raising horse and moneys was to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authority and Person and that the Forces already attending His Majesty and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary disign so as at this time also they do not charge the King with any maner of action of War or any thing done in a way or course of War against them and gave just cause of fear and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a War against their Soveraign did forbid all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the City of London And declare that if He should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should be held a levying War against the Parliament and all this done before His Majesty had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any maner or provision of War to defend himself when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to York but to give a weekly account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should be sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should be trained and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His Letter under His signe Manual commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits f to use all means to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawful assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and not to govern by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation He would speedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both Houses of Parliament commanding g That no Sheriff Mayor Bayliff Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having been imprisoned for proclaiming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaim any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings Name which should be contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both Houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order h That in case any forces should be brought out of one County into another to disturb the Peace thereof they should be suppressed by the Trained bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Town of Hull whilest the King is at York i seizeth on a Ship coming to Him with provisions for His houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queen to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Town k which the Parliament allows of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5 July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to be made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should be sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drums were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earl of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawn up to be sent to the Deputy-Lieutenants of the several Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings and divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the House of Commons ordered to meet every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foot to be raised in London and the Countrey be imployed by direction of the Parliament and the Lord Brook is furnished with 6. pieces of Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councel of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four dayes after 11. July 1642. l The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto Him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But m the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both Houses of Parliament and n those who have obeyed their Orders Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate General in that Cause 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King o to forbear any preparations or actions of War and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before that Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should be delivered to Him He would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the same pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as His Magizine and Navy
War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against His Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against His Person otherwise then as He was intrusted They have power to judge whether He discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged onely to them to Judge of the Law r 27 of May The King by His Proclamation forbids all His Subjects and Trained bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Commanded all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of York to seize and make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to be void in Law s command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by His command secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties protected all that were Delinquents against Him make all to be Delinquents that attended him and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to Him t 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himself a guard and u that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willough by of Parham to Muster and Trayn the County of Lincoln who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to do it x 10 June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against His Parliament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within 80 miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Privy Councel Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament y with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put His Subjects out of His protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate His Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of His Royal Priviledges then His demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton if it had not been Lawful for him so to do could be of theirs z granted a Commission of array for the County of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained bands a And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That He would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for His necessary defence whereupon the Lord keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia which had not the Royal assent to it 14 June 1642. Being informed b That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great sums of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unless He should be compelled to do it for His own defence forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses Within two days after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14. Barons the Lord Chief-Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and c That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such design and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of London for the raising of horse viz. 15 June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolution a year before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admiral and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him upon pain of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwich-shire to settle the Militia 17 June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City of London to inquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18 June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make War against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great Seal And 20 June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfulness of His Commissions of Array d That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawful and the Earl of Essex himself had in the
to pursue and give him battail When Sheba the son of Bichri blew a Trumpet and said f We have no part in David every man to his Tent O Israel and thereupon every man of Israel followed after him and forsook their King David who knew that Moses would not make a War upon the Amorites though he had Gods commandment for it without offers of Peace and messengers sent first unto them said to Amasa Assemble me the men of Judah within three dayes and when he tarried longer said unto him Take thou thy Lords servants and pursue after him lest he get him fenced Cities and escape us For they that would take heed of Cockatrices have ever used to kill them in the shell And g diligenti cuique Imperatori ac magistratui danda est opera saith Bodin ut non tam seditiones tollere quam praeoccupare studeant For sedition saith he once kindled like a spark of fire blown by popular fury may sooner fire a whole City then be extinguished Et tales igitur pestes opprimere derepente necesse est Princes and Soveraigns who are bound to protect and defend their Subjects are not to stand still and suffer one to oppress another and themselves to be undone by it afterwards But put the case that the Parliament could have been called â— Parliament when they had driven away the King which is the head and life of it or could have been said to have been two Houses of Parliament when there was not at that time above a third part of the House of Peers nor the half of the House of Commons remaining in them and what those few did in their absence was either forced by a Faction of their own or a party of Seditious Londoners for indeed the War rightly considered was not betwixt the Parliament and the King but a War made by a Factious and Seditious part of the Parliament against the King and the major part of the Parliament and had been as it never was nor could be by the Laws and constitution of the Kingdom co-ordinate and equal with the King and joint tenants of the Kingdom it would have been necessary to make the War as just as they could and to have done all that had been in order to it and therefore we hope they which pretend so much to the Justice of the Kingdom will not be offended to have the Justice of their War something examined CHAP. IV. Suppose the War to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equals whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it PLerique h saith learned Grotius tres statuunt bellorum justas causas defensionem recuperationem punitionem Three causes are usually alleaged by Princes or States to justifie wars viz. in the defence or recovery of their own or for punishment for a wrong done For any defence the Parliament might pretend a necessity of The King neither assaulted them nor used any violence to them when they first of all granted out their Propositions and Commissions of War unless they can turn their jealousies into a Creed and make the Kings demanding the five Members and Kimbolton being done by warrant of the Law of the Land and the Records and precedents of their own houses appear to be an assaulting of them Or if any reasonable man knew but how to make that to be an assault or a necessary cause of War for them to revenge it the Kings waving and relinquishing of his charge afterwards against them might have certainly been enough to have taken away the cause of it if there had been any howsoever a War made onely to revenge a bare demand or request of a thing was neither so much as forced or a second time demanded of them but was totally laid aside and retracted can never be accounted just As for the recovery of things lost or taken away the Parliament it self had nothing taken from them for both they and the people were so far from being losers at that time by the King as i the Remonstrance of the House of Commons made to the people 15. December 1641. of the Kings errors as they pleased to call them in the government but indeed the errors rather of his Ministers and themselves also in busying him with brawles and quarrels and denying to give him fitting supplies k mentions how much and how many beneficial Laws the King had granted them And so the Parliament and people being no losers and the King never denying them any thing which could in honour or conscience be granted them That part of the justifying of a War will no way also belong to them But if the punishment for offences and injuries past if they could be so properly called being a third cause of justifying a War could be but imagined to be a cause to justifie the Parliaments War against the King Yet they were to remember another Rule or Law of War l Ne nimis veteres causae accersantur That they do not pick quarrels by raking up past grievances and that it be not propter leviusculas injurias or for trifles For when the King who if he had been no more then co-ordinate with them had called them to counsel to advise him followed their advice in every thing he could finde any reason for taken away all grievances made a large provision to prevent them for the future by granting the Triennial Parliament and so large an amends for every thing they could but tell how to complain of there was so little left to the people and the Parliament to quarrel for as they were much behind in thankfulness for what they had got of him already Or if any other causes or provocations should be imagined as mis-using the Parliaments Messengers or the like we know the King unless it were by his patience and often Messages for Peace was guilty of no provocations but on the contrary though he had all maner of scorns and reproaches cast upon him and his Messengers evil intreated by them could never be brought to return or retaliate it to any of theirs But nothing as yet serving to excuse them it will not be amiss to examine the Causes as they are set down by themselves to justifie their war and so we may well suppose there are no other A War against the King for safety of His own Person was needless and then it comes within that rule of War and Law of Nations Ne leves sint causae belli not to make a War unnecessary for the King would look to that himself and as they were His Subjects they as well as every honest Subject were bound to defend and assist Him but not whether he would or no and in such a way of defence as would tend to His ruine rather then His safety For surely should any stranger of another Kingdom or Nation have casually passed by Edge-hill when the Kings and the Parliaments Armies were in
forget their due titles of Earls Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else there must be neither Treaty nor Peace At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King and His Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few days added to it and if the King could in Honor and Conscience have granted all the other parts of the Propositions must grant them an Act not onely to confiscate the Estates of His Friends and those that took Arms to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them which were onely guilty of it a thing so unfitting unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to be cut off and making them to gather the crumbs from under his table or Benhadads demand of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and people of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace and was not to be asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yield unto a thing nature it self would abhor and the worst of villains and reprobates rather lose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any but a Devil nor granted by any but his Equals And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the only cause of such unnatural and barbarous propositions it may well be wondred why they that have made to themselves for we cannot believe they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of piece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to do that which they are now so busie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doores of Janus or the Devil open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must be made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocritical pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to be ever since to whom their Masters the people we mean as to the House of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a War against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the book of God and their own consciences to perswade them to it That z duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other ways to come by pretended rights then by a War and we ought never to make use of a War which is the worst of all remedies if we may obtain it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre a The Rebellious Barons of England in the raign of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the King of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this Kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that means only stopped Charles b the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well c Intelligendum est eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt ilico eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a War without assaying all other just means of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion do turn their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will be found faulty For the French King and the States of the United Provinces did by more then one Request and Embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and His Parliament and desired to have all things in difference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it how satisfactorily he had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But we have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the company of so much wickedness we shall remove to the Kings party and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is clear enough already if he were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the business The King as He was defensor protector subditorum suorum and sworn to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority committed to him in vain And if he had no maner of just cause of fear either in His own Person or authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of His Subjects and plundring and taking away their Estates from them long before He had either armed himself or had wherewithal to do it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring Him to Justice and might by the same reason do it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might do it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans onely Sheep he that understood well enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure
VERITAS INCONCUSSA OR A most certain Truth asserted THAT KING CHARLES THE FIRST Was no MAN OF BLOOD But a MARTYR For His People Together with a sad and impartial enquiry whether the King or Parliament began the War which hath so much ruined and undone the Kingdom of England and who was in the defensive part of it By FABIAN PHILIPPS Esq Exoritur aliquod majus è magno malum Nondum ruentis Ilii fatum stetit SENEC Tragoed in Troade Act. 3. LONDON Printed by Richard Hodgkinson in the Year 1649. and reprinted by Thomas Newcomb and are to be Sold by William Place at Grayes-Inn-Gate 1660. Though CHARLES be added to their heaps of slain They cannot prove that Abel murder'd Cain He dy'd a Martyr for his Peoples good Vote what they can they 're guilty of his blood But their 's the sin His the eternall Glory And Truth commends to Time his lasting Story TO THE KING' 's MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY Most Gracious Soveraign IT having been the Cardo quaestionis or too much a question betwixt your Royal Father and His Parliament to whom the sin of our late Civil Wars and miseries with the bloody and horrid consequences thereof did belong though without question He was no way guilty of it but was a Martyr and sufferer in it and the guilt and profit of that great and crying sin being so inlaid and riveted in the promoters thereof as it was not only by time and successes which are not seldom the encouragers and supporters of it become to be the interest of a great part of that Faction or people but to be miscalled Piety Religion good affection and Godliness it self and yet sticks as a Leprosie to those and their seed that were more wicked then the covetous but unbloody Gehazi and if God of his mercy do not cleanse them from it will transmit it with an impenitency to boote which we do not finde entailed upon Gehazi's to their posterities The ensuing vindication of your Royal Father that he was not the Contriver Author and Beginner of that War which hath so undone and Harassed these three Nations was for the most part written by me a little before His Martyrdom and finished and published about the moneth of April 1649. in the midst of a fiery persecution and ruining of all that did but act or write or do any thing on His behalf and now re-printed and come abroad again may if publiquely owned under your Majesties gracious Patronage after Your happy restauration and the peoples sense and sight of their sin and follies be more instrumental in the conviction converting of many of those misguided zelots or thriving sinners then it was or could be before they had tasted and been so long acquainted with miseries and release them out of the prisons of that self-conceitedness and opiniastretè wherein Satan hath cunningly lodged and imprisoned their deluded Souls making them believe that they are in the Church way to Heaven when as without a timely repentance they are but going down to the place of everlasting burnings and is now the more necessary for that no longer ago then in April last a printed and publique Address was as impudently as wickedly made by a Seditious party calling themselves the most faithful friends and servants in the common-Common-cause to the Lord General Monck and the Officers of the Army under his Command to perswade them upon false and mistaken grounds out of their Loyalty by telling them That though it were possible that they should forget the publique Interest and their own yet certainly God would not all the injuries and oppressions done by that Family which pretends to the Government of these Nations to His Church and people in these and other Nations And though the Inscription of Exit Tyrannus which was fixed over the place where the Statue of the late King formerly stood at the Exchange hath been blotted out by the Rabble yet it was written with the Pen of a Diamond in the hearts of many thousands and will be so hereafter in the Adamantine Roles of Fame and History And that one of the great Incendiaries and Capital Offenders could very lately and since the Parliaments voting of him to be excepted desire and make means for a Pardon but being put to shew his repentance by a publique retractation in order to the obtaining of your Majesties favor would rather be without it then forsake his former opinions and that there are too many amongst those many that made acclamations and seemed to rejoyce in Your Majesties return to Your Throne and most ancient and undoubted Rights who have not changed their Spots but counterfeiting Loyalty to get blessings they never deserved can outdo a Proteus or the greatest of Dissemblers and onely keep their vomit to make a Cordial of when they shall but espy an opportunity to lick it up again and think themselves as infallible as they fancied the Spirit to be which deluded them To convert whom if possible and those too too many who have exceeded the gain-sayings of Korah Dathan and Abiram been greater gainers by it and to lead them into the right way and guard as well as I could Piissimi Regis Cineres the ashes and memory of my late Soveraign from the violation scandals and injuries which those who are rightly called Phanaticks are never a weary to put and cast upon them hath been and is the design aswell as the duty of him who having not come in only at the eleventh hour but laboured all that he could in the other part of the morning or day in the vineyard of Loyalty shall never cease to be a lover and servant of that Truth and Reason which enjoyns it And Your MAJESTIES Loyal and Obedient Subject FABIAN PHILIPPS TO HENRY BELL A PRINTER Arrogating to himself to be the Author of this Book HENRY BELL YOu might have contented your self with that unjust and now too common liberty taken by some Printers and Booksellers in abusing of Authors Readers and People by a false imposition of names and many counterfeit pieces and selling of one thing for another which in the want and absence of the good and Kingly Government of England and a Court of Star-Chamber which in the thirteenth year of the Reign of King Charles the Martyr had limited the Printers in the City of London not to exceed the number of twenty two of which who were then named are now only left alive our late unruly and licencious Times allowed you for in our formerly well-ordered dayes of a peaceable subjection to a most gracious King Books were as in most other Kingdoms of Europe to be licenced before they could be printed and the Printers and Stationers knew not at least durst not put in practise those grand Cheates which of late too many of them have put upon the people nor did use as many tricks in their Trades as the devil could invent or provide for them by printing and publishing books manuscripts
it 192 CHAP. VIII VVHether the conditions offered by the King would not have been more profitable if they had been accepted and what the people have got instead of them 205 ERRATA Which escaped the Press PAg. 120. l. 15. read their for they p. 118. l. 20. Saxon for Sixon p. 122. l. 22. interfere a. KING CHARLES The first No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THat there hath been now almost seven years spent in Civil Wars abundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdom by it then all the several Changes Conquests and Civil Wars it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans woful experience some onely excepted who have been gainers by it will easily assent unto No mervail therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could be granted to be true might either have hindred or lessened it would now put the blame of so horrid a business from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to bear it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chains and their Princes with fetters of Iron and think they have a Commission from Heaven to do it the guilt of it being necessarily either to be charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made believe that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so far out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity be guilty of the fact if He should have been as in all reason He ought to have been acquited of it the onely Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will be but either a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soul and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it self and by tracing out the footsteps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance whereof for I hope the original of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile we shall enquire who first of all raised the Feares and Jealousies Secondly represent set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous and seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and Whitehall until the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham and from the setting up of his Standard until the 13 Septemb. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility and a negative and churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obtained from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a war if it were made between equals Fourthly suppose the war to be made with a neighbour Prince or between equals whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fifthly whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons and rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixthly who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it Seventhly who laboured to shorten the War and who to lengthen it Eightly whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have been more profitable for the People if they had been accepted and what the Kingdom and People have got in stead of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Fears and Jealousies THe desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earl of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legal guard offered by the King and His protestation to be as careful of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dream of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths-men to be taken away The training of horses under ground and a plague-plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse-back sent into the House of Commons to Mr. Pym A designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spain and Denmark of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Laws and Liberties of the people and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament party or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could be so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But He that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish subjects the latter of whom the Earl of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therefore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himself not long after by a printed Remonstrance or Declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to be errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keep his gates at White-hall shut and procure divers Captains and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to be a guard for him and had been fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty He should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so far from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need and reason enough to do it he still granted them that he might not seem to deny what might but seem to be for the good
fight and have been told that the King shot at them for the safety of His own Person and that they also shot against Him for the safety of His own Person and being asked which of the two parties he believed did really or most of all intend the safety of it we cannot tell how to think any man such a stranger to nature reason or understanding as to think the King should not fight as the Dictates of nature perswaded him to or that the King could tell how to fight against those that fought for him or that if he should be so hugely mistaken in that one year or Battel he should be in several other years and Battels after To fight for the defence of the Religion established as they made also the people believe was as needless when the King offered to do every thing might help to promote it and they are so little also to be credited in that pretence as we know they did all they could from the beginning to ruine it took away Episcopacy the hedge and bounds of it brought in Presbytery to preach up and aid their Rebellion and when their own turns were served encouraged Conventicles and Tub-preachers to pull down the Presbytery And being demanded at the treaty at Uxbridge by the Kings Commissioners what Religion they would have the King to establish were so unprovided of an answer as they could not resolve what to nominate nor in any of their propositions afterwards sent to the King though ofted urged and complained of by the Scottish Commissioners could ever finde the way to do it but have now set up an Independent extemporary enthusiastick kinde of worshipping God if there were any such thing in it or rather a religious Chaos or gallimaufrey of all maner of heresies errours blasphemies and opinions put together not any of the owners of which we can be confident will subscribe to that opinion that Wars may be made for Religion or that conscience ought to be forced by it As for the restrictive part of the Laws to keep the people in subjection we can very well perswade our selves no such War was ever made yet in the World nor any people ever found that would engage in a War for that they obeyed but against their wills And for that part of the Law that gives them the Kings protection priviledges immunities and certainties of deciding controversies which are more fitly to be called the Liberties of the people then to have 45. of the House of Commons or a Faction to make daily and hourly Laws Religion and Government and vote their estates in and out to pay an Army to force their obedience to it if we had not out-lived the Parliaments disguises and pretences saw them now tearing them up by the roots that there may be no hope of their growing up again and setting up their own as well as the ignorant and illiterate fancies of Mechaniques and Souldiers in stead of them we might have said that also had been needless when the King had done abundantly enough already and offered to grant any thing more that could in reason be demanded of Him And as touching their priviledges of Parliament They that understand but any thing of the Laws of England or have but looked into the Records and Journals of Parliament can tell that all priviledges of Parliament as King James said were at first bestowed upon them by the Kings and Princes of this Kingdom That priviledges of Parliament extended not to Treason or Felony or breach of the Peace That m 32. Hen. 6. Sir Thomas Thorpe Speaker of the House of Commons being arrested in execution in the time of the prorogation of the Parliament the Commons demanded he might be set at liberty according to their priviledges whereupon the Judges being asked their Councel therein made answer that general supersedeas of Parliament there were none but special supersedeas there was in which case of special supersedeas every Member of the House of Commons ought to enjoy the same unless in cases of Treason Felony or breach of the Peace After which answer it was determined that the said Sir Thomas Thorpe should lye in execution and the Commons were required on the behalf of the King to choose a new Speaker which they did and presented to the King accordingly That Queen Elizabeth was assured by her Judges that she might commit any of her Parliament during the Parliament for any offence committed against her Crown and dignity and they shewed her precedents for it and that primo tertio Caroli Regis upon search of precedents in the several great cases of the Earls of Arundel and Bristol very much insisted and stood upon the House of Peers in Parliament allowed of the exception of Treason Felony and breach of the Peace For indeed it is as impossible to think that there can be any priviledge to commit Treason as to think that a King should priviledge all his Nobility and every one of his Subjects that could get to be elected into the House of Commons in Parliament to commit Treason and to take away his life in the time of Parliament whensoever their revenge or malice or interest should find the opportunity to do it or that if it could be so any King or Prince would ever call or summon a Parliament to expose himself to such a latitude of danger or give them leave to sit as long as they would to breed it or that priviledges of Treason can be consistent with the name or being of a Parliament to consult and advise with the King for the defence of him and his Kingdom or that when Felony and breach of Peace are excepted out of their priviledge Treason that is of a far higher nature consequence and punishment should be allowed them or if there could have been any such priviledge and a meaner man then their Soveraign had broke it a small understanding may inform them that they could not without breach of the Peace have fought for it against a fellow Subject and then also could not their priviledges have reached to it but the King might have punished them for it and if they cannot upon a breach of priviledge n as it was adjudged in Halls case without the Kings writ and the cause first certified in Chancery deliver one of their own servants arrested It is not likely any warrant can be found in Law to inforce the King to reparation though he himself should have broken it but to petition the King for an allowance of that or any other priviledge as well in the middle or any other time of their sitting in Parliament as they alwayes do at the presenting of their Speaker in the beginning of it Wherefore certainly the People never gave the Parliament Commission if they could have given a Commission to make a War against their Soveraign to claim that was never due to them or to fight for that was never yet fought for by any of their
as the Lord liveth this man shall surely dye And can any man think that the King when He saw so much Sedition and Treason among the People countenanced and cherished Tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and Warlike assemblies propositions made to bring in Horse and Money to maintain an Army against Him and many of His Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can be blamed if he had a great deal sooner gone about to defend both himself and His people For who d saith St. Jerom. did ever rest quietly sleeping near a viper lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos gentibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit haec non scripta sed nata lex saith e Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custom and Nature it self have made self-preservation to be warrantable Nemo exponere se debet periculis obviam offensioni eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit bellum say the Civil Laws and where there was not nuda cogitatio or a bare intention onely to ruine the King but so much over and over again acted as might well occasion more then a fear and apprehension in him of what hath since been brought to pass against him no man certainly without much blindness or partiality can think it to be a fault in Him to seek to defend himself when the Parliament did not only long before He raised any forces to defend himself but at the same time when He was doing of it make the people believe His Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up Arms to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it be in the Kings case when it was not onely an endeavour to defend himself but all those that have been since slain and undone and ruined for want of power enough to do it Defence is by the civil Lawyers said to be either necessary profitable or honest f Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendat sive prope sive posita longe A man is said to defend himself when it is but his own Goods Estate or People whether near or further of Necessaria defensio ejus est factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs be a necessary defence against whom an armed enemy is either marching or preparing Utilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur When we make a War to prevent or be before hand when War or mischief is threatned or likely to come upon us For as Nicephorus the Historian saith He that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus autevertere nec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meet and take away growing evils and turn them another way and not to delay and be slack in it Honesta defensio quae citra metum ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur g When for no fear of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerly in favour or help of others the War is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may be justly said to tarry too long before he made the second and third kinds of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a War against himself or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend him and was so over much in love with Peace as he utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the Love and Religion of His Subjects and Parliament promises and the seeming impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against Him as all His three Kingdoms were in a flame of war and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him His Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Towns and Places seised on Armies marching against Him and He only and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Town at His back ready every day to surprize Him and several Armies marching and in action before and round about Him before He granted out any Commission for War or had or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself It would be too much injury and too great a violence to all maner of reason and understanding to deny Him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the second would not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation go without it For h haec est necessitas saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum confugitur Or if with Grotius we look upon it another way and make the Justice of War to consist First in defensione Secondly in recuperatione rerum Thirdly in punitione The King before ever He went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of York had cause enough and enough to do it and it would be hard if a great deal less then that should not be able to deliver Him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary War When that which was made by David upon the Children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperor of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon Him and not receiving His Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to do it But what could the King do more in His endeavours and waiting for a Peace or less in His preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes we dare say plainly here set down in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of war Homicide by the Laws of England shall be excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some Water or Wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all maner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then do no less then rouse him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his sences as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and he as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part for they had all
regal Authority to the great and difficult work of Reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his general Councel of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16. November 1648. made to the Parliament did call the putting down of Monarchy and the establishing of their unjust ends the publique interest originally contended for on the Parliament part and the Declaration and Votes of those that call themselves the Commons of England in Parliament assembled 15. January 1648. Affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if any who had assisted the King had been Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly office and were never refused to be brought to a due and legal tryal to be one of the pretended causes of making this War And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to be the onely motives which induced them to undertake this War Wherefore though our Achans will neither confess nor be brought to punishment till the wrath and never failing judgment of God shall bring them and their sons and their daughters and their successes and the asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate and hide their nakedness cannot keep out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never it will be as plain as the most infallible demonstration that they were never necessitated to make a War but were so far from the Justification of a defensive War as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that which hath been said to prove them guilty of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or be believed if he should be so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a war for that which was none of their own or for Laws and Liberties when they did not want them and might have had as much addition made unto them as the good of the Nation and right reason could have desired or that they were constrained to make a War because he would not un-King or un-man himself and give away his Negative voice and undertaking by his Oath to do justice to his people and protect and defend them quit his Militia and put himself out of all power to do it or because he would not leave the care education and marriage of his children which every man that is not hors du sens sans raison out of his vvits or a very great stranger to the most ordinary and common parts of understanding was never yet denied or were enforced to make a War to take away tenures in Capite which was a principal flower of the Kings Crown or for a Reformation of Religion which was already the envy and ambition of the best of the Reformed Churches or to commit sacriledge or abolish Episcopacy which at the least was of Apostolical institution or to preserve the Statute of 25. E. 3. concerning what was Treason when they themselves committed most of the Treasons were mentioned in it and more then their fore-fathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that we may do all the right we can to those which have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certain conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to be true enough it will not we hope be impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceed to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALl in the Neighbourhood of their proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not been wanting to their own preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest Jealousie Vigilancy Terror and Authority over those they could but get within their pretended Jurisdiction witness Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earl of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the Imprisonment of their own Members for speaking against the Sence and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to be stifled a ship-board upon suspicion that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristoll Merchants Mr. Bourchier and Mr. Yeomans for an endeavour to deliver up Bristol putting Colonel Essex out of the Governmen of that Town upon suspicion of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tompkins and Master Chaloner for a purpose to force the delivery up of some factious men to Justice banishing Master Waller an eminent member of the House of Commons for the contrivance of it searching the Houses of Forraign Embassadors and intercepting and opening their Letters Beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plymouth and Sir John Hotham who adventured first of all to set up their authority and was magnified and almost adored for it for an intention only to deliver up Hull to the King executing of his Son for joyning with his Father in it hanging Master Kniveton one of the Kings Messengers but for bringing his Majesties Proclamation to London for the adjourning of the Tearm being a greater misusage then Davids messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving undoing of any that durst but own the King or write any thing for or in his behalf or send or bring any message from him or his party or that did but give any aid or assistance to him to which their Oaths and Consciences and the Covenant which they themselves took and forced upon the people did oblige them shooting and cannonading of the Queen when she came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at sea a year after when she was going back into France from him sequestring wives and mothers that did but relieve their husbands and childrens wants when they returned out of the Kings service putting thousands of Orthodox Ministers out of their benefices and livelyhoods for using the Common-Prayer-Book preaching true Doctrine and obedience to the King or praying for him at the same time when they pretended liberty of conscience and preservation of Religion voting the Prince a Traitor for wishing well or being in company with his Father for he was too young to do any thing else for him and making or rather supposing charges of high Treason against those that either fought for the King or counselled him how to defend himself in obeying the known Laws wch they themselves made the world believe they made some part of the war for ordering all to die without mercy that did but harbor the King when he fled in a disguise before their Armies condemning men by a Court martial after the War
be argument enough to conclude They vvere more likely to loose by a peace then a vvar therefore the more vvilling to continue it And if their own interests vvould not put them so far upon it their vain glory and ambition vvould be forvvard enough to persvvade them to it and if not that the success of their arms or miscalled Providence vvould make them look as experience tels us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the Great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his kingdome and if not that their feares and iealousies now growne greater by wronginge of the King then ever they were when they without any cause suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his Den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoeiug of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would be so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People who had no minde to preserve themselves and the morniug before he was inforced to fight in his own defence at Edg-hill did not only scnd his Proclamation of Pardon to all except the Earl of Essex wch would lay down their Arms but before hee had gathered up the Bayes which he had there won sends afterwards a like Proclamation of pardon to all those that the day before did all they could to kill him And in all his actions of War afterward behaved himself like a weeping Father defending himself against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children For had the Parliament accepted of his offers before he came to Beverley or besieged Hull he had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his people but half so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners display'd at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavours for peace after that battel and not sought to surround or ruine him when he came so neer as to their very doors to intreat for it they had never been troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himself at Braynford had his Treaty at Oxford been proceeded in with the same desires of peace he brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham bridge had been kept for better purposes had he sought his own advantages he had not besieged Glcoester or had he not been so unwilling to put the people in it to the hazard of a storm might have taken it had they not sent their General to assault him at Gloucester whil'st he was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites that with-held it from his obedience and sought to ruine and undoe him as well as his Loyal Subjects he had not fought with them afterwards at Newbury had not his Olive branches been flung in the fire by those he sent them unto he had not been put to defend himself at Cropredy bridge had any thing been able to prevail with the Parliament to pitty their fellow Subjects he had not taken such a tedious and dangerous march to relieve those they would have ruined at Bodmin in Cornwal had the Treaty at Uxbridge taken effect he needed not afterwards have adventured so much to defend himself at Newbury had not the new model'd Army after so many tenders of peace refused by their masters been sent out to destroy him he had not been put to the trouble of taking Leicester for his security and had not he been surrounded and almost surprised by them he might have reserved himself to a better success and advantage then he had at Naseby had his voluntary resigning up of the remainder of his Armies and Garisons been able to perswade any thing with them there had not been so much as a Relique of War left in the Kingdome or could so many messages for peace and so many Petitions of the people for it have made but any impression on the Parliament so many divisions parties and insurrections had not since broken the Harps of the Children of Israel nor had the drums outgone the voice of the Turtle He that could not bring himself to the common actions of War to hang a Spie but when one was hanged before he knew of it was intreating the Governour of Oxford to spare him He that when he had in his power John Lilborne one of the most factious that were against him Wingate and Darley Parliament men Col. Ludlow an actor of that Treason his father had not long before spoken against him and Dr. Bastwick one of the bellows and principal factours of this horrid Rebellion did no more then imprison some of them and giving the rest a legal Tryal shewed them what the Law they made silly people believe they took up arms to maintain would judg of them and suffered them to be exchanged to do what they could afterwards against him He that when he had taken 400. Prentise-boies in the Fight at Brainford did but dismiss and pitty them and when he had compelled the Earl of Essex the Parliaments General at Lestithiel in Cornwal to fly away by Sea in a Cock-boat leave all the Artillery and foot of his Army to his mercy did no more but only disarm them and take an Oath of them never more to serve against him And being then in the hight of his prosperity sent a Message and offer of peace to the Parliament who were low enough at that time if their designes would have given them leave to have received it He that could say He should be more afraid to take away any mans life unjustly then to loose his own was not likely to be guilty of blood-seeking or the sheding of it He that had experience enough how much his Life and Crown were sought for yet to shew them the way to peace and to take off all pretences to hinder it could sheath his own sword and put himself into the hands of those he had so little reason to trust as he knew them to be the great contrivers of the War against him caused the Marquess of Montrosse one of his mighty men of war to disband when he was master of a strong and not long before fortunate Army in Scotland commanded Newarke Oxford Wallingford and Worcester very strong and almost impregnable Towns and Garrisons in England to be delivered up and all acts of hostility by sea and land and all the preparations his friends could make either in forraign parts or at home to cease He that could endure five years Ballading Libelling and preaching against him and such heaps of numberless affronts and injuries of all kinds done unto him and two years imprisonment afterwards yet so long as he enjoyed but the liberty of pen and inke or a messenger to carry it did so tire them with messages and offers of peace as they Voted it to be Treason for any to bring any message from him and