attempts the King first opposes the Law in several Declarations manifests the Power of Arms to be the ancient and undoubted Right of the Crown by many Proclamations charges all men under the Crime and Penalties of Treason to forbear the Execution of those Ordinances which were published to license their Rebellion and answers with a wonderful Diligence and Eloquence all the fictious Pretensions of the Parliament to that Power in their several Remonstrances But though the King had in the judgment of all understanding and uninteressed persons the Juster Cause and the more powerful Pen yet the Faction's Hast which is most essicacious in civil Discords the Slanders they had raised of Him and impressed in the minds of the People the terrors of that Arbitrary Power which the House of Commons had a long while exercised in the vexatious prosecution of all such as did oppose their imperious Resolves for they would by their Messengers send for the Great Earls and Prime Barons of the Kingdom as Rogues and Felons and weary them and others with a tedious and chargeable Attendance oppress them with heavy and unproportionable Censures and restrain them by Illegal Imprisonments and the hopes of licence and spoil in the ruine of Church and State had so preoccupied the Minds of the inferiour Multitude that neither Law nor Religion could have the least consideration in their practices and those Persons whom His Majesty appointed as Commissioners of Array in few places found that Obedience which was due to the just Commands of a Gracious Prince who vainly expected that Reverence to Justice in others which Himself gave After the experience of their Power in these their Successes at Land and having gotten the whole Navy at Sea being made Masters of the most and greatest Strengths of the Kingdom they then thought it might be safe for them to publish the aims and ends of their most destructive designs which if sooner manifested when the King by his Message of the 20th of Jan. from Windsor-Castle advised them to prescribe the limits of their Privileges give full Boundaries to His own Power and propose what was in their judgments proper to make the People happy and most religiously promised an equal tenderness of theirs and the Peoples Rights as of His own and what was for the Publick good should not be obstructed for His Particular Emolument they had justly drawn upon themselves all that popular hatred which they endeavoured to fling upon the King and had been buried under those ruines which they projected for the Grave of Majesty But then the Faction confided not so much in their own force nor were the Vulgar then so blinded with fury as to chuse their own destruction and therefore to that Message of Peace nothing was returned but Complaints that by such Advisoes their Counsels were disturbed that it was contrary to their unbounded Privileges to be minded of what was necessary But now they were furnished with a Power equal to their Ambition they thought it expedient to confirm their newly-gotten Empire with some pretensions to Peace but with a great deal of Caution that the affectation of it might not disappoint them of their hopes which were all built upon War and Confusion Therefore they formed the Conditions such as the King could not in Honour or Conscience grant them nor expect Peace by them Or if He did they should be instated in such a Grandeur that they might reap for themselves all the reproachful Honours and unlawful gains of an Arbitrary Power the thing they aimed at and leave the King overwhelmed with shame and contempt for their miscarriages in Government These Conditions were digested into Nineteen Propositions which when presented to the King He saw by an assent to them He should be concluded to have deposed Himself and be but as an helpless and idle Spectator of the Miserie 's such Tyrants would bring upon the People whom God had committed to His Trust Therefore He gave them that denial which they really desired and expected and adjusts His refusal in a Declaration wherein He sets forth the Injustice of each Proposition His Answer He sent by the Marquess of Hertford and Earl of Southampton Persons of great Integrity and Prudence with Instructions to treat in the House of Peers upon more equal Conditions But it behoved the Faction not to let the Kingdom see any way to Peace therefore denying any admittance to those Lords before ever the King's Answer could publickly discover who were the obstructours of the Peoples quiet they Ordered a Collection to be made of Money and Plate to maintain Horse Horse-men and Arms for the ensuing War The specious Pretences for which were the Safety of the King's Person and the taking Him out of the hands of Evil Counsellors the Defence of the Privileges of Parliament the Preservation of the Protestant Religion and the maintenance of the ancient Laws of the Land Such inviting causes as these inflamed the Minds of the Multitude and filled them with more aiery hopes of Victory than the noise of Drums and Trumpets But that which was most powerful were the Sermons of such who being displeased with the present Ecclesiastical Government were promised the richest Benefices and a partage of the Revenues which belonged to Bishops Deans and Chapiters These from their Pulpits proclaimed War in the Name of Christ the Prince of Peace and whatsoever was contributed to the spilling of the Blood of the Wicked was to build up the Throne of the meekest Lamb and besides the satisfaction they were to expect from the Publick Faith which the Parliament promised there was a larger Interest to be doubled upon them in the Kingdom of Saints that was now approaching Deluded by these Artifices and Impostures People of all Conditions and all Sexes some carried by a secret Instinct others hurried by some furious Zeal and a last sort led by Covetousness cast into this Holy Treasury the Banck for Blood all the Ornaments of their Family all their Silver Vessels even to their Spoons with the Pledges of their first Love their Marriage-rings and the younger Females spared not their Thimbles and Bodkins the obliging Gifts of their Inamorato's from being a part of the Price of Blood But while these Preparations were made at London the King at York declares against the Scandal that He intended to Levy War against the Parliament calling God to witness how far His desires and thoughts were from it and also those many Lords who were Witnesses of His Counsels and Actions do publish to the World by a Writing subscribed with all their Names to the number of Forty and odd that they saw not any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget the belief of any such Design and were fully perswaded that He had no such intention But all was in vain for the Faction chose that the People should be rather guilty of committing Rebellion that only of favouring the Contrivers of it and decreed to try
Himself by perfection for He did not proudly scoff at but gently laboured to mend the defects of His Subjects When Doctor Hammond had in some degree lost the Manage of His Voice His Majesty shewed him his Infirmity and taught him to amend it which that Excellent Person often mentioned as an instance of a Gracious Condescension of Majesty When Noble Youths came to take their leaves of Him before they went to foreign travel He would not let them go without His Instructions of which this was one My Lord Keep always the best Company and be sure never to be Idle Thus He would confer the Vertues as well as the Titles of Nobility He laboured to keep them as Majesty had made them and that that blood might not be tainted in them which was honoured in their Ancestors Nor did He desire that they should be otherwise than He directed as Tyrants and weak Princes will commend those Vertues which they are afraid of for they dread or envy their Subjects Parts and Abilities Aristotle observes that a Tyrant cares not to hear his Vassals speak any thing that is either Grave or Generous and it is reckoned among the Usurpations of such Monsters that they would have the opinion to be the Only Wise and Gallant Plato indangered his Life when he conversed with the Sicilian Tyrant because he was thought to understand more than his Host It was observed of Cromwell by one of his confident Teachers that in the time of his Tyranny he loved no man that spoke Sense and had several Artifices to disparage it among his Slaves that attended him and he would highly extol those Pulpit-Speakers that had most Canting and least Reason But the King thought it the Honour of Principality to rule over Excellent Persons and affected to be Great only by being Better and to raise their Spirits would stoop with His own Of these He always chose the most accomplished that He knew to be His Ministers of State and closest Confidents for as the fortune of Princes stands in need of many Friends which are the surest supports of Empire so He would always seek the Best and those He thought fittest for His Employments which a bad or weak King would hate or fear Therefore He had always the finest Pens and ablest Heads in His Cause and Persons likewise of Integrity in His Service for the Archbishop and Earl of Strafford that were clamoured against as the greatest Criminals were not guilty enough even by those accusations which they were loaded with and yet not proved to receive the Censure of the Law but were to be condemned in an unaccustomed way of spilling English blood When some discovered their Abilities even by opposing His Counsels He preferr'd the Publick Benefit which might be by their Endowments to His private Injuries He would either buy them off to His Service by some Place of Trust or win them to His Friendship unless He saw them to be such whose Natures were corrupted by their Designs for He had a most excellent Sagacity in discerning the Spirits of men or they were such who polluted their parts by prostituting Religion to some base ends the injuries of which He could never neglect and such He neither conceived Honourable in a Court nor hoped they would ever be faithful and quiet in a Community Among these Purchaces were reckoned the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland the Lord Falkland and others now living whose Perfections honoured His Judgment and justified His Choice He had no Favorite as a Minister of Pleasures to gratifie whose Lusts and Vanities He might be sollicited to do things contrary to the benefit of the Community but all were Instruments of Government and must be able to serve the Publick whom He took to serve Himself For no Prince was ever more affectionate of His People than He was nor did He think His Interest separate from theirs Those nice distinctions and cautious limits of Prerogative and Liberty which the Faction invented to enjealous the People with were all indistinctly comprised by Him in an Uniform and Constant care of a just Government none dared to advise Him to attempt at a power His Predecessors had parted with or the Laws had concluded Him from For He told the Lords when He purged the Earl of Strafford from the Accusation of Sir Henry Vane that He had advised His Majesty to make use of some Irish to reduce this Kingdom on which though it had but a single and various testimony the Faction built their Practices against His Life I think no body durst ever be so impudent as to move Me to it for if they had I should have made them such an Example and put such a mark upon them that all Posterity should know my Intentions by it For my Intention was ever to govern by the Law and not otherwise He thought He could not be happy unless His People were so as we found our selves miserable when He was not prosperous Therefore He parted with so much of His Prerogative to buy our Peace and purchase our Content He sought their Love by affecting them the only way of gaining it because that Passion only is free and impatient of Command Nor was He ever more pleased than in the enjoyment of it When His Third Parliament granted five Subsidies and it was told Him that there was not One Voice dissenting it is said He wept for joy and it had been happy for the People if the King had always had such cause of Tears and His Eyes had been always wet with the same Contests for Liberty could never have been more unseasonable than under this Prince for He never denied His Subjects the removal of any just Grievance yea He parted sometimes through their own importunity deluded by the Faction with that which should have kept them Free And when He made such Concessions which tended to the prejudice of those that desired it He would say to some about Him that He would never have granted these things but that He hoped they would see the Inconvenience of that Power which they begg'd from Him yet themselves could not manage and return it to its proper place before it became their Ruine He was far from the ambition of Ill Princes to seek an unlimited Power but He thought it the Office of the best Sovereign to set bounds to Liberty He despised His Life if it were to be bought by the Misery of the Nation and therefore rejected the Propositions of the Army as the Conditions of His Safety when tendred to Him the day before His Murther because they would inslave the People Neither would He expose particular persons to an evident and inevitable danger though it were to secure Himself for when my Lord Newburgh and his Noble Lady at whose house in Bagshot He did stay as He was removed from Carisbrook to Windsor proposed to Him a way to escape from that bloody Guard that hurried Him to the Slaughter He rejected it saying If I
they alledged by evil Counsellors did raise Forces and by them mastered their Adversaries in that Parliament such as it was for it was held and kept with force how good use soever hath been made of the Precedents therein they procured a special Act of Pardon for their raising of Men and that those Assemblies should not be drawn into example for the time to come And as no Man can levy War or raise Forces without the King so much less against the personal Commands of the King opposed thereunto For by the Statute of the 25. year of King Edward the Third which is but declaratory of the old Law in that point it is Treason to levy War against the King in His Realm Within the construction of which Statute it is true which was said in the late Declaration under the name of both Houses of Parliament of the 26. of May last levying War in some sense against the King's Authority though not intended against His Person is levying War against the King And therefore the raising of Forces though upon pretence of removing of some evil Counsellors from about the Queen hath been adjudged Treason in the Case of the late Earl of Essex in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and in divers other Cases And We wish all Our Subjects to consider whether if Men shall be raised contrary to Our Proclamation and against Our Will it be not against Our Authority But it is as true and was never denied but in that Declaration that the raising of Forces against the King's personal Command being no Ideot nor Infant uncapable of understanding to Command being accompanied with His Presence is and is most properly levying of War against the King For if it be a sufficient pretence for raising of Men against the King's Person that it is for the defence of the King's Authority and of His Kingdom though against His express Command and Proclamation the Irish Rebels will have colour for their horrid Rebellion for they say though it be notoriously false it is for the defence of the King's Authority and of His Kingdom And Wat Tyler and Jack Cade and Kett the Tanner wanted not publick Pretences which were perhaps just causes of Complaints though not of raising of Men. And though these persons have gone about subtilly to distinguish betwixt Our Person and Our Authority as if because Our Authority may be where Our Person is not that therefore Our Person may be where Our Authority is not We require all Our good Subjects to take notice of the Law which is in print and full force That their Allegiance is due unto the natural Person of their Prince and not to His Crown or Kingdom distinct from His natural Capacity and that by the Oath of Ligeance at the Common Law which all persons above the age of twelve years are or ought to be sworn unto they are bound to be true and faithful not to the King only as King but to Our Person as King CHARLES and to bear Us truth and faith of Life and Member and earthly Honour and that they shall neither know nor hear of any ill or damage intended to Us that they shall not defend And that when in the time of King Edward the Second Hugh Spencer being discontented with the King caused a Bill to be written wherein was contained amongst other things That Homage and the Oath of Allegiance was more by reason of the King's Crown that is His Kingdom than of His Person and that seeing the King cannot be reformed by suit of Law if the King will not redress and put away that which is ill for the Common People and hurtful to the Crown that the thing ought to be put away by force and that His Lieges be bound to Govern in aid of Him and in default of Him he was condemned for it by two Parliaments and perpetually banished the Kingdom We have made mention of these Cases not so much to clear Our Right that We alone have the power of raising Forces and none of Our Subjects either in Parliament or out of Parliament against Our Will or personal Command which We think no Man that hath the least knowledge in Our Laws and is not led away by private Interests and may speak his mind freely will deny nor was ever questioned in any Parliament before this time as to let them see how dangerous the effect and consequence of raising of Forces without Us may be unto Us and to the Commonwealth under pretence of Defence of both And though We cannot doubt of the Affections of Our good Subjects considering their Interest is involved with Ours and how precious the Peace of the Kingdom is and ought to be unto them and that according to the words of the Statute of the eleventh year of King Henry the Seventh and the eighteenth Chapter by the duty of their Allegiance they are bounden to serve and assist Us at all seasons when need shall require Yet to the end that Our good Subjects may know what their Duty is and what We expect from them and that all others who through Malice or private Interests shall be transported beyond their Duties may be left without excuse We do therefore by this Our Proclamation charge and command all Our Subjects upon their Allegiance and as they tender Our Honour and Safety and the Peace and Safety of the Kingdom that they presume not to raise or levy any Horses Horsmen or Arms or any Forces whatsoever by colour of any Authority whatsoever without Our express pleasure signified under Our great Seal other than such as shall be raised levied and imprested by the Order as well of Our Self as of both Houses of Parliament according to an Act made this Sessions intituled An Act for the better raising and levying of Soldiers for the present defence of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland by Justices of Peace and otherwise in such manner as is prescribed in the said Act or Contribute or give any Assistance in Money Plate finding of Horses Horsmen or Arms or any other ways to or for any such Preparation Levie or Forces And that such of Our good Subjects who through Ignorance have been mis-led to consent or subscribe to any such Levie Contribution or Assistance forthwith upon publication of this Our Proclamation desist from continuing such their Contribution or Assistance or giving any countenance to any such Levies at their utmost perils And We do likewise streightly charge and command as well all Our Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Balliffs Constables and all other Our Officers whatsoever that they use their utmost endeavours as well for publishing this Our Proclamation as for the suppressing of all Levies or Forces raised or to be raised without or against Our consent as also all other Our loving Subjects that they be attending aiding and assisting Our said Officers and Ministers therein as they and every of them will answer it at their utmost perils Given at Our Court at York
the eighteenth day of June in the eighteenth year of Our Reign 1642. Votes of the Lower House for raising an Army against the KING Die Martis 12 Julii 1642. Resolved upon the Question THAT an Army shall be forthwith raised for the Safety of the King's Person defence of both Houses of Parliament and of those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom Resolved upon the Question That the Earl of Essex shall be the General Resolved upon the Question That this House doth declare that in this Cause for the Safety of the King's Person defence of both Houses of Parliament and of those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion the Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom they will live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they have nominated General in this Cause MDCXLII Aug. 8. A Declaration of the Lords and Commons for raising of Forces against the KING Together with His MAJESTY'S Declaration in Answer to the same A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands as others in several Counties of this Kingdom to lead against all Traitors and their Adherents and them to Arrest and Imprison and to Fight with Kill and Slay all such as shall oppose any of His Majesty's loving Subjects that shall be imployed in this Service by either or both Houses of Parliament WHereas certain Information is given from several parts of the Kingdom That divers Troops of Horse are imployed in sundry Counties of the Kingdom and that others have Commission to raise both Horse and Foot to compel His Majesty's Subjects to submit to the Illegal commission of Array out of a Traiterous intent to subvert the Liberty of the Subject and the Law of the Kingdom and for the better strengthening themselves in this wicked attempt do joyn with the Popish and Jesuitical Faction to put the Kingdom into a Combustion and Civil War by levying Forces against the Parliament and by these Forces to alter the Religion and the Antient Government and lawful Liberty of the Kingdom and to introduce Popery and Idolatry together with an Arbitrary Form of Government and in pursuance thereof have Traitorously and Rebelliously levied War against the King and by force robb'd spoil'd and slain divers of His Majesty's good Subjects travelling about their lawful and necessary occasions in the King's Protection according to Law and namely that for the end and purpose aforesaid the Earl of Northampton the Lord Dunsmore Lord Willoughby of Eresby Son to the Earl of Lindsey Henry Hastings Esquire and divers other unknown persons in the Counties of Lincoln Nottingham Leicester Warwick Oxford and other places the Marquess of Hartford the Lord Paulet Lord Seymour Sir John Stawel Sir Ralph Hopton John Digby Esquire and other their Accomplices have gotten together great Forces in the County of Somerset The Lords and Commons in Parliament duly considering the great Dangers which may ensue upon such their wicked and traitorous Designs and if by this means the Power of the Sword should come into the hands of Papists and their Adherents nothing can be expected but the miserable ruine and desolation of the Kingdom and the bloody massacre of the Protestants they do Declare and Ordain That it is and shall be lawful for all His Majesty's loving Subjects by force of Arms to resist the said several Parties and their Accomplices and all other that shall raise or conduct any other Forces for the ends aforesaid and that the Earl of Essex Lord General with all his Forces raised by the Authority of Parliament as likewise the Lord Say Lieutenant of Oxfordshire Earl of Peterborough Lieutenant of Northamptonshire Lord Wharton Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire Earl of Stamford Lieutenant of Leicestershire Earl of Pembroke Lieutenant of Wiltshire and Hampshire Earl of Bedford Lieutenant of Somersetshire and Devon Lord Brook Lieutenant of Warwickshire the Lord Cranborne Lieutenant of Dorsetshire the Lord Willoughby of Parham Lieutenant of Lincolnshire and all those who are or shall be appointed by Ordinance of both Houses to perform the place of Deputy-Lieutenants and their Deputy-Lieutenants respectively Denzil Hollis Esquire Lieutenant of the City and County of Bristol and the Mayors and Sheriffs of the City and Deputy-Lieutenants there and all other Lieutenants of Counties Sheriffs Mayors Deputy-Lieutenants shall raise all their Power and Forces of their several Counties as well Trained Bands as others and shall have power to conduct and lead the said Forces of the said Counties against the said Traitors and their Adherents and with them to fight kill and slay all such as by force shall oppose them and the Persons of the said Traitors and their Adherents and Accomplices to Arrest and Imprison and them to bring up to the Parliament to answer these their Traiterous and Rebellious Attempts according to Law and the same or any other Forces to transport and conduct from one County to another in aid and assistance one of another and of all others that shall joyn with the Lords and Commons in Parliament for the defence of the Religion of Almighty God and of the Liberties and Peace of the Kingdom and in pursuit of those wicked and Rebellious Traitors the Conspirators Aiders and Abettors and Adherents requiring all Lieutenants of Counties Sheriffs Mayors Justices of Peace and other His Majesty's Officers and loving Subjects to be aiding and assisting to one another in the Execution hereof And for so doing all the parties above-mentioned and all others that shall joyn with them shall be justified defended and secured by the Power and Authority of Parliament Die Lunae Aug. 8. 1642. Ordered that this Declaration be forthwith Printed and Published Hen. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. His MAJESTY's Declaration in Answer to a Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands c. AS much experience as We have had of the inveterate Rancour and high Insolence of the Malignant Party against Us We never yet saw any expression come from them so evidently declaring it as the Declaration entituled A Declaration of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the raising of all Power and Force as well Trained Bands as others in several Counties of this Kingdom to lead against all Traitors and their Adherents c. In which that Faction hath as it were distilled and contracted all their Falshood Insolence and Malice there being in it not one period which is not either Slanderous or Treasonable And nothing can more grieve Us than that by their infinite Arts and Subtilty employed by their perpetual and indefatigable Industry and by that Rabble of Brownists and other Schismaticks declaredly ready to appear at their Call they should have been able so to draw away some and drive away others of Our good Subjects from Our
their Actions are declared Treasonable and their Persons Traitors and thereupon Your Majesty hath set up Your Standard against them whereby You have put the two Houses of Parliament and in them this whole Kingdom out of Your Protection so that until Your Majesty shall recall those Proclamations and Declarations whereby the Earl of Essex and both Houses of Parliament and their Adherents and Assistants and such as have obeyed and executed their Commands and Directions according to their Duties are declared Traitors or otherwise Delinquents and untill the Standard set up in pursuance of the said Proclamations be taken down Your Majesty hath put us into such a condition that whilest we so remain we cannot by the fundamental Priviledges of Parliament the publick Trust reposed in us or with the general good and safety of this Kingdom give Your Majesty any other Answer to this Message Joh. Brown Cler. Parliament H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. This strange Answer might well have discouraged Us from any thought of proceeding further this way and informed Us sufficiently what spirit still governed amongst those few who continued still in both Houses otherwise after so many bitter and invective Messages and Declarations sent to Us and published against Us We should not have been reproached with Our Proclamations and Declarations set forth by Us as the effect of such evil Counsel as was unparallel'd by any former Examples We believe indeed such Proclamations and Declarations have never been before set forth but were former times ever acquainted with such intolerable Provocations Were there ever before these twelve months Declarations published in the name of eitheir or both Houses of Parliament to make their King odious to the People Have either or both Houses ever before assumed or pretended to a Power to raise Armes or levy War in any Cause or can both Houses together exercise such a Power Are those Actions which the Law hath defined literally and expresly to be Treasonable or such Persons to be Traitors not so because they are done by Members of either House or their appointment And must not We declare such who March with Arms and Force to destroy Us to be Traitors because the Earl of Essex is their General Those whom We have or do accuse We have named together with their Crimes notorious by the known Law of the Land a favour not granted to Our Evil Counsellors and appeal to that known Law to judge between Us And now that by this We should have put the whole Kingdom out of Our Protection in whose behalf We do all that We have done is a corrupt Gloss upon such a Text as cannot be perverted but by the cunning practices of such who wish not well to King or People Yet that no weak persons might be misled by that Imputation upon Us we sent a Reply to that Answer in these words WE will not repeat what means We have used to prevent the dangerous and distracted estate of the Kingdom nor how those means have been interpreted because being desirous to avoid effusion of blood We are willing to decline all memory of former bitterness that might make Our offer of a Treaty less readily accepted We never did declare nor ever intended to declare both Our Houses of Parliament Traitors or set up Our Standard against them and much less to put them and this Kingdom out of Our Protection We utterly profess against it before God and the World And further to remove all possible Scruples which may hinder the Treaty so much desired by Vs We hereby promise so that a day be appointed by you for the revoking of your Declarations against all Persons as Traitors or otherways for assisting of Vs We shall with all chearfulness upon the same day recall Our Proclamations and Declarations and take down Our Standard In which Treaty We shall be read to grant any thing that shall be really for the good of Our Subjects Conjuring you to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the dangerous condition of England in as high a degree as by these Our Offers We have declared Our Self to do and assuring you that Our chief desire in this World is to beget a good understanding and mutual confidence betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament This Message produced an Answer little differing from the former like Men who had no other measure of the justice of their Cause than their Power to oppress Us forgetting their own Duties they sharply inform Us of Ours in these words May it please Your Majesty IF we the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled should repeat all the ways we have taken the endeavours we have used and the expressions we have made unto Your Majesty to prevent those Distractions and Dangers Your Majesty speaks of likely to fall upon this Kingdom we should too much enlarge this Reply Therefore as we humbly so shall we only let your Majesty know that we cannot recede from our former Answer for the reasons therein expressed for that Your Majesty hath not taken down Your Standard recalled Your Proclamations and Declarations whereby You have declared the Actions of both Houses of Parliament to be Treasonable and their Persons Traitors And You have published the same since Your Message of the 25th of August by Your late Instructions sent to Your Commissioners of Array Which Standard being taking down and the Declarations Proclamations and Instructions recalled if Your Majesty shall then upon this our humble Petition leaving Your Forces return unto Your Parliament and receive their faithful Advice Your Majesty will find such expressions of our Fidelities and Duties as shall assure You that Your Safety Honour and Greatness can only be found in the affections of Your People and the sincere Counsels of Your Parliament whose constant and undiscouraged Endeavours and Consultations have passed through Difficulties unheard-of only to secure Your Kingdoms from the violent Mischiefs and Dangers now ready to fall upon them and every part of them who deserve better of Your Majesty and can never allow themselves representing likewise Your whole Kingdom to be balanced with those Persons whose desperate Dispositions and Counsels prevail still so to interrupt all our endeavours for the relieving of bleeding Ireland as we may fear our labours and vast expences will be fruitless to that distressed Kingdom As Your Presence is thus humbly desired by us so is it in our hopes Your Majesty will in your reason believe there is no other way than this to make Your Self happy and Your Kingdom safe John Brown Cler. Parliament Without any bitterness or reprehension of their neglect of Us and the publick Peace to express Our deep sense of the Calamities at hand We yet once more hoping to awake them to a Christian tenderness towards the whole Kingdom sent to them in these words WHo have taken most ways used most endeavours and made most real expressions to prevent the present Distractions and Dangers let all the World
to such a Temper as might make a full Peace much more probable Nor did His Majesty find in the Treaty it self that the Committee were any better enabled though to avoid delay and that a Conclusion might be made possible His Majesty often desired it They were limited twice to four days and once to seven they were bounded to two Propositions and to their bare narrow Instructions concerning those nor had they so much as any Power or Instructions at all concerning that most important part of their own Proposition so often prest by themselves His Majesty's Return to His Parliament So that resolving as it will be afterward shewed they did to yield no farther to His Majesty's Proposition than with such Limitations as would in effect retain what they seemed to give up they expect that His Majesty should entirely yield to theirs without any Limitation and to invert their own words upon another occasion should yield to that which would have produced to them an absolute Victory and Submission under pretence of Agreement and Peace It being evident to all Men that His Rights forced from Him by Violence being not absolutely restored His Army being disbanded and He returned to London the Members of both Houses for dissenting from them and assisting of Him remaining expelled no security from Tumults for the rest of the Members being given and all good Subjects being totally discouraged by so absolute a Prevalence of the Factious and Rebellious His Majesty were as much in the disposal of the Five Members as if they had him in the Tower and He ought His Crown wholly to their Grace and Favour if they did not Depose Him And yet they would be thought to desire nothing in desiring that the Armies should be upon these Terms disbanded but only that the Kingdom might be eased of their Burthen and the spring of these Calamities might be stopped His Majesty demands That His own Revenue Magazine Towns Forts and Ships taken by Force be restored to Him The Revenue which they could easily pay back out of other Mens Purses they easily agree about but to part with such strengths which had and did help to enable them to leave no Subject any more of his Right than they had to the detaining of these they can by no means endure And therefore they propose such Limitations as in effect limit away all and yet may seem to the vulgar or to the careless not to signifie much to wit That these Strengths may be put into such hands as they will confide in and that no less than three years That the Commanders may during that time not admit of any Forces upon whatsoever occasion without Consent of the Houses and they and all Generals and Commanders of the Armies on either side may swear to preserve the Peace of the Kingdom against all Forces raised without consent of both Houses and this for no limited time His Majesty who had asked nothing but what was His by Law and who in order to Peace had not asked so much as by Law was due to Him to wit the punishment of those who had taken these things from Him could not but wonder to see such things asked of him to which by Law there was no Pretence He therefore endeavours to limit their Limitations to the Law of the Land He names those Persons to this Custody whom the Law had named first and exprest Himself most willing that they should be put out at the same door they came in at that the Law which had vested them might eject them if they had offended against it But expected not that the Injury done Him of taking these things from Him and them contrary to Law should be a reason why any new conditions or Limitations should be laid upon Him or His Ministers which the Law laid not To this the Committee replies not denying what the King asked to be legally His or to have been illegally taken from Him nor making any legal or so much as colourable or at all any Exceptions against the Persons legally vested in those Places and without any Cause shewed it would have ill become His Majesty to have devested His Servants of their Rights in the instant when some of them are venturing their Lives for his Service but retire to their old inaccessible Fort of Fears and Jealousies To this His Majesty rejoyns shews what he had done to prevent and destroy Fears and Jealousies in them intimates what they had done to create Fears and Jealousies in Him that having by Force taken these things from Him when He had them He had more Reason to have insisted upon further Security to inable him to keep them than simply to desire them to be returned to Him and much more than to grant them more hold of them to enable them the better to wrest them from Him again represents to them that by the same Reason upon the same ground they may ask Him all His Legal Power since all the Power vested in Princes for the necessary Protection of their Subjects may possibly be employed for their hurt and concludes in His Opinion with a very wholesome Advice against that dangerous and now too Epidemical Disease of Fears and Jealousies and prescribes to them to make the Law their Rule and Measure as the best Antidote and Cure for that Disease This insisting upon this Answer as His Majesty for these Reasons thought to be most reasonable so He likewise thought it most necessary First because themselves having told Him in the Debate about Cessation in the point of Ships that for them to allow Him the Approbation of Commanders was to give Him up the Strength He could not want Logick so much as not to draw this Conclusion from these Premises That for Him to allow them the Approbation of the Commanders both of Magazines Towns Forts and Ships was in that to give all back to them which they would seem to restore to Him Secondly because his Majesty by now consenting upon the ground of Jealousies to such Demands as exceed those which before they had joyned the injustice of forcing these things from Him to the unreasonableness of demanding them His Majesty in His weakest Condition denied to them He must appear to justifie those Jealousies to approve of those Demands and of that Injustice and to condemn Himself as guilty of the woful effects of that Contention for not having sooner consented to them Thirdly because He must condemn the Lords House of the same Crime for having twice refused to joyn in that demand and having had no Jealousies as long as they had no Tumults Fourthly because He must either quit during the lives of these several Persons required to be sworn and at least for three years when the Militia in their own Bill was asked but for two His known Right of sole raising Men and without the consent of both Houses even although no Parliament were sitting for the Bill that says it may continue does not say it
whether by a prosperous Success they could change their Crimes to Vertue Therefore they hastened all they could to raise Horse and Foot to form an Army equal to their Usurpation which was not difficult for them to do for they being Masters of London whose multitudes desirous of Novelty were easily amassed for any enterprise especially when the entring into this Warfare might make the Servant freer than his Master for such was the Licence was indulged to those Youths that would serve the Cause 20000 were sooner gathered that the King could get 500. The City also could afford them more Ordnance than the King could promise to Himself common Muskets and to pay their Souldiers besides the vast summs that were gathered for Ireland which though they by their own Act had decreed should not be used for any other enterprise yet now dispense with their Faith and imploy it to make England as miserable as that Island and the Contributions of the deluded Souls for this War they seized also upon the Revenues of the King Queen Prince and Bishops and plunder the Houses of those Lords and Gentlemen whom they suspected to be Favourers of the King's Cause And in contemplation of these advantages they promised their credulous Party an undoubted Victory and to lead Majesty Captive in Triumph through London within a Month by the Conduct of the Earl of Essex whom they appointed General Thus did they drive that Just and Gracious Prince to seek His Safety by necessary Arms since nothing worse could befall Him after a stout though unhappy Resistance than He was to hope for in a tame Submission to their Violence Therefore though He perfectly abhorred those Sins which are the Consequences of War yet He wanted not Courage to attempt at Victory notwithstanding it seemed almost impossible against so well-appointed an Enemy Therefore with an incredible diligence moving from place to place from York to Nottingham from thence to Shrewsbury and the Confines of Wales by discovering those Abilities with which His Soul was richly fraught unto His deluded Subjects He appeared not only worthy of their Reverence but of their Lives and Fortunes for His Defence and in all places incouraging the Good with His Commendations exciting the fearful by His Example dissembling the Imperfections of His Friends but alwaies praising their Vertues He so prevailed upon those who were not Men of many Times nor by a former Guilt debauch'd to Inhumanity that He had quickly contracted an Army greater than His Enemies expected and which was every day increased by those Lords and Gentlemen who refused to be polluted any longer with the practices of the Faction by sitting among them and being Persons of large Fortunes had raised their Friends and Tenants to succour that Majesty that now laboured under an Eclipse Most Men being moved with Pity and Shame to see their Prince whose former Reign had made them wanton in Plenty to be driven from His own Palaces and concluded under a want of Bread to be necessitated to implore their Aid for the Preservation of His and their Rights So that notwithstanding all the Impostures of the Faction and the Corruptions of the Age there were many great Examples of Loyalty and Vertue Many Noble Persons did almost impoverish themselves to supply the King with Men and Money Some Private Men made their way through numerous dangers to joyn with the fight under His Colours Many great Ladies and vertuous Matrons parted with the Ornaments of their Sex to relieve His wants and some bravely defended their Houses in His Cause when their Lords were otherwhere seeking Honour in His service Both the Universities freely devoted their Plate to succour their Prince the Supreme Patron and Incourager of all Learning and the Queen pawned Her Jewels to provide necessaries for the Safety of Her Husband Which Duty of Hers though it deserved the Honour of all Ages was branded by the Demagogues with the imputation of Treason This sudden and unexpected growth of the Strength of the King after so many years of Slanders and such industrious Plots to make him odious and contemptible raised the admiration of all Men and the fears of the credulous Party who had given up their Faith to the Faction when they represented the King guilty of so much Folly and Vice and some corrupted Citizens had represented Him as a Prodigie of both in a Scene at Guild-Hall in London an Art used by Jesuites to impress more deeply a Calumny that they could not imagine any Person of Prudence or Conscience would appear in His Service and they expected every day when deserted by all as a Monster He should in Chains deliver Himself up to the Commands of the Parliament Some attributed this strange increase in power to the natural Affection of the English to their Lawful Sovereign from whom though the Arts and Impulses of Seditiouc Demagogues may a while estrange and divorce their minds yet their Genius will irresistibly at last force them to their first Love and therefore they urged the saying of that Observing States-man that if the Crown of England were placed but on a Hedge-stake he would be on that side where the Crown was Others referred it to the full evidence of the wickedness of His Adversaries for their Counsels were now discovered and their Ends manifest not to maintain the common Liberty which was equally hateful to them as Tyranny when it was not in their hands but to acquire a Grandeur and Power that might secure and administer to their Lusts and it was now every where published what Mr Hambden answered to one who inquired What he did expect from the King he replied That He should commit Himself and all that is His to our Care Others ascribed it to the fears of ruine to those numerous Families and Myriads of People which the change of Government designed by the Parliament must necessarily effect But this though it argued that Cause exceeding bad by which so great a part of a Community is utterly destroyed without any absolute necessity for preserving the whole yet made but an inconsiderable Addition to the King whose greatest Power was built upon Persons of the Noblest Extract and the fairest Estates in England of which they could not easily suspect to be devested without an absolute overthrow of all the Laws of Right and Wrong which nevertheless was to be feared by their invasions on the King's most undoubted Rights For when Majesty it self is assaulted there can be no security for private Fortunes and those that decline upon design from the paths of Equity will never rest till they come to the Extremity of Injustice as these afterwards did Besides those that imputed the speedy amassing of these Forces to the Equity of the King's Cause His most Powerful Eloquence indesatigable Industry and most Obliging Converse there were another sort that suspending their Judgments till all the Scenes of War were passed resolved all into the Providence of God Who though He were pleased
although they had been all raised to that Dignity and Trust by the Faction yet answered that It was contrary to the known Laws and Customs of England that the King should be brought to Tryal To heal these two wounds which the Lords and Judges had branded their Cause with they use two other Artifices to keep up the Spirits and Concurrence of their Party First they bring from Hertfordshire a Woman some say a Witch who said that God by a Revelation to her did approve of the Armie's Proceedings Which Message from Heaven was well accepted of with thanks as being very seasonable and coming from an humble Spirit A second was the Agreement of the People which was a Module of a Democratical Polity wherein those whose abject Condition had set them at a great distance from Government had their hopes raised to a share of it if they conspired to remove the great Obstruction which was the Person and Life of the King This was presented to the House of Commons by Sr Hardress Waller and sixteen other Officers as a temporary remedy for when they had perpetrated their Impiety they discountenanced and fiercely profecuted those that endeavoured it In confidence of these their Arts and their present Power notwithstanding all these publick Abhorrencies and Detestations by all Persons of Honour and Knowledge they enacted their Bill And for President of this Court they chose one of the Number John Bradshaw A person of an equal Infamy with his new employment a Monster of Impudence and a most fierce Prosecutor of evil purposes Of no repute among those of his own Robe for any Knowledge in the Law but of so virulent and petulant a Language that he knew no measure of modesty in Speaking and was therefore more often bribed to be silent than fee'd to maintain a Client's cause His Vices had made him penurious and those with his penury had seasoned him for any execrable undertaking They also had a Sollicitor of the same metal John Cook A needy Man who by various Arts and many Crimes had sought for a necessary Subsistence yet still so poor that he was forced to seek the shelter of obscure and sordid Corners to avoid the Prison So that vexed with a redious Poverty he was prevailed upon through the hopes of some splendid booties to venture on this employment which at the first mention he did profess to abhorr These were their chief Agents other inferiour Ministers they had equally qualified with these their prime Instruments as Dorislaus a German Bandito who was to draw up the Charge Steel another of their Counsel under pretence of sickness covered his fear of the Event though he did not abhor the wickedness of the Enterprise having before used his Tongue in a cause very unjust and relating to this the Murther of Captain Burleigh The Serjeants Clarks and Cryer were so obscure that the World had never taken notice of them but by their subserviency to this Impiety These were the publick Preparations In private they continually met to contrive the Form of their Proceedings and the Matter of their Accusation Concerning the first they were divided in Opinions Some would have the King first formally degraded and devested of all His Royal habiliments and Ensigns of Majesty and then as a private person exposed to Justice But this seemed to require a longer space of time than would comport with their project which as all horrid acts was to be done in a present fury lest good Counsels might gather strength by their Delay Others rejected this course as too evidently conforming with the Popish procedure against Sovereign Princes and they feared to confirm that common Suspicion that they followed Jesuitical Counsels whose Society it is reported upon the King's offering to give all possible Security against the Corruptions of the Church of Rome at a Council of theirs did decree to use their whole Interest and Power with the Faction to hasten the King's death Which sober Protestants had reason enough to believe because all or most of the Arguments which were used by the Assertors of this Violence on His Majesty were but gleanings from Popish Writers These Considerations cast the Determination on their side who designing a Tyrannical Oligarchy whereby they themselves might have a share in the Government would have the King proceeded against as King that by so shedding His Blood they might extinguish Majesty and with Him murther Monarchy For several of them did confess that indeed He was guilty of no Crime more than that He was their King and because the Excellency of His Parts and Eminent Vertues together with the Rights of His Birth would not suffer Him to be a private Person In their second debate about the Matter of Accusation all willingly embraced the Advice of Harrison who was emulous of the Power of Cromwell and though now his Creature yet afterwards became the Firebrand and Whirlwind of the following Times to blacken Him as much as they could yet found they not wherewith to pollute His Name For their old Scandals which they had amassed in their Declaration for no more Addresses to the King had been so publickly refuted that they could afford no colour for His Murther Therefore they formed their Accusation from that War to which they had necessitated Him And their Charge was that He had levied War against the Parliament that He had appeared in Arms in several places and did there proclaim War and executed it by killing several of the Good People for which they impeached Him as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and an implacable Common Enemy This Charge in the Judgment of Considering Men argued a greater guilt in those that prosecuted it than in Him against whom it was formed for they seemed less sensible of the instability and infirmities of Humane Nature than those that had none but her light to make them generous for such never reproached their conquered Enemies with their Victory but these Men would murther their own Prince against whom they had nothing more to object than the unhappy issues of a War which leaves the Conquered the only Criminal while the names of Justice and Goodness are the spoils of the Conquerour How false those Imputations of Tyranny Treason and Murther were was sufficiently understood by those who considered the peaceful part of the King's Reign wherein it was judged that if in any thing He had declined from the safest arts of Empire it was in the neglect of a just Severity on Seditious Persons whom the Laws had condemned to die And in the War it was known how often his Lenity had clipped the Wings of Victory But it appeared that these Men as they had broken all Rights of Peace so they would also those of Conquest and destroy that which their Arms pretended to save How little Credit their Accusation found appeared by the endeavours of all Parties to preserve the King's Person from Danger and the Nation from the guilt of His Blood For while they
it and yours to give credit to what I shall say as to Him that sits at the Helm For what concerns your Petition I shall answer it in a convenient time X. To the Lords and Commons in Answer to their Petition of Right June 11. MDCXXVIII GEntlemen I am come hither to perform My Duty and I think no man can think it long since I have not taken so many daies in answering of the Petition as you have spent weeks in framing it And I am come hither to shew you that as well in formal things as in essential I desire to give you as much content as in Me lieth The Lord Keeper having added somewhat in explanation and pursuance of the former the Petition was read and the King's Answer The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Land and that the Statutes be put in due execution that the Subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppression contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the preservation whereof He holdeth Himself obliged as well as of His Prerogative XI To the Lords and Commons His second Answer to their Petition in the House of Lords June 7. MDCXXVIII MY Lords and Gentlemen The Answer I have already given you was made with so good deliberation and approved by the judgments of so many wise men that I could not have imagined but that it should have given you full satisfaction But to avoid all ambiguous interpretations and to shew you that there is no doubleness in My meaning I am willing to please you in words as well as in substance Read your Petition and you shall have an Answer that I am sure will please you The Petition being read by the Clerk of the Crown the Clerk of the Parliament read the King's Answer LE DROICT SOIT FAIT COMME IL EST DESIRE C. R. Which done His Majesty added This I am sure is full yet no more than I granted you in My first Answer for the meaning of that was to confirm all your Liberties knowing according to your own Protestations that you neither meant nor can hurt My Prerogative And I assure you My Maxime is The Peoples Liberty strengthens the King's Prerogative and that the King's Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties 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 of it XII To the House of Commons at the reading of their Remonstrance in the Banquetting-House at WHITE-HALL June 11. MDCXXVIII GEntlemen Upon My Answer to your Petition of Right I expected no such Declaration from you which containeth divers points of State touching the Church and Common-wealth and I do conceive you do believe I understand them better than your selves But since the Reading thereof I perceive you understand these things less than I imagined Notwithstanding I will take them into My Consideration as they deserve XIII To the Lords and Commons at the Prorogation of His Third Parliament June 26. MDCXXVIII MY Lords and Gentlemen It may seem strange that I come so suddenly to end this Session therefore before I give My Assent to the Bills I will tell you the cause though I must avow I ow an account of My Actions to none but God alone It is known to every one that a while ago the House of Commons gave Me a Remonstrance how acceptable every man may judge and for the merit of it I will not call that in question for I am sure no wise man can justifie it Now since I am certainly informed that a second Remonstrance is preparing for Me to take away My profit of Tonnage and Poundage one of the chief Maintenances of the Crown by alledging that I have given away My Right thereof by My Answer to your Petition This is so prejudicial unto Me that I am forced to end this Session some few hours before I meant it being not willing to receive any more Remonstrances to which I must give a harsh Answer And since I see that even the House of Commons begins already to make false constructions of what I granted in your Petition lest it be worse interpreted in the Countrey I will now make a Declaration concerning the true intent thereof The Profession of both Houses in the time of hammering this Petition was no waies to trench upon My Prerogative saying they had neither intention nor power to hurt it Therefore it must needs be conceived that I have granted no New but only confirmed the Antient Liberties of My Subjects Yet to shew the clearness of My intentions that I neither repent nor mean to recede from any thing I have promised you I do here declare that those things which have been done whereby men had some cause to suspect the Liberty of the Subject to be intrench'd upon which indeed was the first and true ground of the Petition shall not hereafter be drawn into example to your prejudice and in time to come in the word of a King you shall not have the like cause to complain But as for Tonnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want and was never intended by you to ask never meant I am sure by Me to grant To conclude I command you all that are here to take notice of what I have spoken at this time to be the true intent and meaning of what I granted you in your Petition but especially you My Lords the Judges for to you only under Me belongs the interpretation of the Laws For none of the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate what new Doctrine soever may be raised have any power either to make or declare a Law without My Consent XIV To the Lords and Commons in the Banquetting-House at WHITE-HALL January 24. MDCXXVIII IX MY Lords and Gentlemen The care I have to remove all Obstacles that may hinder the good correspondencie between Me and this Parliament is the cause I have called you hither at this time the particular occasion being a complaint lately made in the Lower-House And for you My Lords I am glad to take this and all other occasions whereby you may clearly understand both My Words and Actions for as you are nearest in degree so are you the fittest Witnesses for Kings The Complaint I speak of is for staying mens Goods that denied Tonnage and Poundage And this may have an easy and short Conclusion if My Words and Actions be rightly understood For by passing the Bill as Mine Ancestors have had it My by-past Actions will be included and My future Actions authorized Which certainly would not have been stuck upon if men had not imagined that I had taken this duty as appertaining to My Hereditary Prerogative In which they are much deceived for it ever was and still is My meaning by the gift of My People to enjoy it and My intent in My Speech at
of War And Justice stands a Prisoner at the Bar. This Scene was like the Passion-Tragedy His Saviour's Person none could Act but He. Behold what Scribes were here what Pharisees What Bands of Souldiers what false Witnesses Here was a Priest and that a Chief one who Durst strike at God and His Vicegerent too Here Bradshaw Pilate there This makes them twain Pilate for Fear Bradshaw condemn'd for Gain Wretch couldst not thou be rich till Charles was dead Thou might'st have took the Crown yet spar'd the Head Th' hast justifi'd that Roman Judge He stood And washt in Water thou hast dipt in Blood And where 's the Slaughter-House White-hall must be Lately His Palace now His Calvary Great CHARLES is this Thy dying-place And where Thou wer 't our KING art Thou our MARTYR there Thence thence Thy Soul took flight and there will we Not cease to Mourn where Thou didst cease to Be. And thus blest Soul He 's gone a Star whose fall As no Eclipse proves Oecumenical That Wretch had skill to sin whose Hand did know How to behead three Kingdoms at one blow England hath lost the Influence of her KING No wonder that so backward was her Spring O dismal Day but yet how quickly gone It must be short Our SUN went down at Noon And now ye Senators is this the Thing So oft declar'd is this your Glorious King Did you by Oaths your God and Country mock Pretend a Crown and yet prepare a Block Did you that swore you 'd Mount CHARLES higher yet Intend the Scaffold for His Olivet Was this Hail Master Did you bow the knee That you might murther Him with Loyalty Alas two Deaths what Cruelty was this The Axe design'd you might have spar'd the Kiss London didst thou Thy Prince's Life betray What could Thy Sables vent no other way Or else didst thou bemoan His Cross then ah Why would'st thou be the cursed Golgotha Thou once hadst Men Plate Arms a Treasury To bind thy KING and hast thou none to free Dull beast thou should'st before thy Head did fall Have had at least thy Spirits Animal Did You Ye Nobles envy CHARLES His Crown Jove being fal'n the Puny-gods must down Your Raies of Honour are eclip'st in Night The Sun is set from whence You drew your Light Religion Veils her self and Mourns that she Is forc'd to own such horrid Villany The Church and State do shake that Building must Expect to fall whose Prop is turn'd to Dust But cease from Tears-CHARLES is most blest of men A God on Earth more than a Saint in Heav'n THE END A COLLECTION OF DECLARATIONS TREATIES AND OTHER Principal Passages concerning the DIFFERENCES BETWIXT King Charles I. AND HIS TWO HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT Clearly Manifesting The Justice of His Cause His Sincerity in Religion His Constant Endeavours for Peace Bona agere mala pati Regium est LONDON Printed MDCLXXXVII THE PREFACE TO THE NOBILITY and GENTRY OF ENGLAND I Might call this Collection A Complete Body of English Politicks as comprehending both the Duty and the Interest of all true English-men and those largely set forth in some of the most excellent Discourses that were ever written in this kind Which for their own sakes might claim some better respect from the present Age than to be cast aside as out-dated Pamphlets or at the best confusedly scattered like the Leaves of Sibylla without any care of conserving and transmitting them to Posterity The sad Experience of so many years hath taught this Nation to their cost how miserable even the greatest Subjects make themselves by incroaching upon that Soveraignty which alone can protect them from the Injuries and the Scorn of their Inferiours Here you will discover the Arts the Means and the Degrees by which those Mischiefs were attempted and atchieved Which whensoever you see repeated you will know the Plot is as well against your Privilege and the Liberty of your Countrey as the Prerogative of your Prince Indeed If it were as easie to root out the remembrance of the ill Examples as it is to remit the punishment of the Crimes by Acts of Grace and Pardon and Oblivion it were perhaps no Imprudence to let those Mischiefs sleep with their Authors and leave their Memories buried in the Ruines they have made But since many that are content to take the utmost advantage of a Pardon are yet too good to acknowledge they ever stood in need of any since most will remember only What hath been done and few trouble themselves to inquire How or Why it cannot be thought impertinent together with the Actions to represent also the true Causes that have produced such Effects and the Circumstances that attended them which may remain as Marks to warn Posterity of those Errors which have cost the present Age so dear This is here done not from the private phancies or observations of any one Person or Party but from the Publick and Authentick Writings of Both digested in such order that the Reader may compare what both sides had to say for themselves and thereby discern whose Designs and what Counsels tended most to the Peace and Welfare of the Nation A study most proper for those Ranks of men whom the Favour of Princes hath raised above the Common Multitude to this one End that they may assist Them in the administration of Their Government and in keeping Peace and good order in their Countries To have Collected all that passed in these great Contests would have been the Work of many Volumes But the most material and most necessary to carry on the Series of Times and Things which in a manner comprehend the Sum or at least shew the Result of all the rest are here disposed according to their most natural order of time under these few heads I. His Majesties Declarations concerning His Proceedings in His Four first Parliaments p. 217. II. Declarations and Papers concerning the Differences betwixt His Majesty and His Fifth Parliament p. 241. III. Declarations and Paper concerning the Treaty of Peace at Oxford MDCXLII III. p. 325. IV. A Declaration concerning the Cessation in Ireland Also Declarations and Passages of the Parliament at Oxford p. 401. V. Papers and Passages concerning the Treaty of Peace at Vxbridge p. 437. VI. Messages Propositions and Treaties for Peace With divers Resolutions and Declarations thereupon MDCXLV VI. VII VIII p. 547. HIS MAJESTIES DECLARATIONS CONCERNING HIS PROCEEDINGS IN HIS FOUR FIRST PARLIAMENTS A Declaration of the true Causes which moved His MAJESTY to Assemble and after inforced Him to Dissolve the First and Second Meetings in Parliament THE King 's most Excellent Majesty since His happy access to the Imperial Crown of this Realm having by His Royal Authority summoned and assembled two several Parliaments the first whereof was in August last by adjournment held at Oxford and there dissolved and the other begun in February last and continued until the fifteenth day of this present month of June and then to the unspeakable grief
KING A Proclamation about the dissolving of the Parliament WHereas We for the general good of Our Kingdom caused Our High Court of Parliament to assemble and meet by Prorogation the twentieth day of January last past sithence which time the same hath been continued and although in this time by the malevolent dispositions of some ill-affected persons of the House of Commons We have had sundry just causes of offence and dislike of their proceedings yet We resolved with patience to try the uttermost which We the rather did for that We found in that House a great number of sober and grave persons well affected to Religion and Government and desirous to preserve Unity and Peace in all parts of Our Kingdom and therefore having on the five and twentieth day of February last by the uniform Advice of Our Privy Council caused both Houses to be adjourned until this present day hoping in the mean time that a better and more right understanding might be begotten between Us and the Members of that House whereby this Parliament might have an happy end and issue and for the same intent We did again this day command the like Adjournment to be made until the tenth day of this month It hath so happened by the disobedient and seditious carriage of those said ill-affected persons of the House of Commons that We and Our Regal authority and Commandment have been so highly contemned as Our Kingly Office cannot bear nor any former Age can parallel And therefore it is Our full and absolute resolution to dissolve the same Parliament whereof We thought good to give notice unto all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and to the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of this present Parliament and to all others whom it may concern that they may depart about their needful affairs without attending any longer here Nevertheless We will that they and all others should take notice that We do and ever will distinguish between those who have shewed good affection to Religion and Government and those that have given themselves over to Faction and to work disturbance to the Peace and good order of our Kingdom Given at Our Court at White-hall this second day of March in the fourth year of Our Reign of Great Britain France and Ireland God save the KING His MAJESTIE's Speech at the Dissolving of the Parliament My Lords I Never came here upon so unpleasant an occasion it being the Dissolution of a Parliment Therefore men may have some cause to wonder why I should not rather chuse to do this by Commission it being a general Maxim of Kings to leave harsh commands to their Ministers Themselves only executing pleasing things Yet considering that Justice as well consists in reward and praise of Vertue as punishing of Vice I thought it necessary to come here to day to declare to you and all the world that it was meerly the undutiful and seditious carriage in the lower House that hath made the Dissolution of this Parliament And you my Lords are so far from being causes of it that I take as much comfort in your dutiful demeanors as I am justly distasted with their proceedings Yet to avoid mistakings let me tell you that it is so far from me to adjudge all the House alike guilty that I know that there are many there as dutiful Subjects as any in the world it being but some few Vipers amongst them that did cast this mist of undutifulness over most of their eyes yet to say truth there was a good number there that could not be infected with this contagion insomuch that some did express their duties in speaking which was the general fault of the House the last day To conclude as these Vipers must look for their reward of punishment so you my Lords may justly expect from Me that favour and protection that a good King oweth to His loving and dutiful Nobility And now my Lord Keeper do what I have commanded you His MAJESTIE's Declaration to all His loving Subjects of the Causes which moved Him to Dissolve the Parliament HOwsoever Princes are not bound to give account of their Actions but to God alone yet for the satisfaction of the minds and affections of Our loving Subjects We have thought good to set down thus much by way of Declaration that We may appear to the world in the truth and sincerity of Our own Actions and not in those colours in which We know some turbulent and ill-affected Spirits to masque and disguise their own wicked intentions dangerous to the State would represent Us to the publick view We assembled Our Parliament the seventeenth day of March in the third year of Our Reign for the safety of Religion for securing Our Kingdoms and Subjects at home and Our Friends and Allies abroad and therefore at the first sitting down of it We declared the miserable afflicted estate of those of the Reformed Religion in Germany France and other parts of Christendom the distressed extremities of Our dearest Uncle the King of Denmark chased out of a great part of his Dominions the strength of that party which was united against Us that besides the Pope and house of Austria and their ancient Confederates the French King professed the rooting out of the Protestant Religion that of the Princes and States on Our party some were over run others diverted and some disabled to give assistance For which and other important motives We propounded a speedy supply of Treasure answerable to the necessities of the Cause These things in the beginning were well resented by the House of Commons and with much alacrity and readiness they agreed to grant a liberal aid But before it was brought to any perfection they were diverted by a multitude of questions raised amongst them concerning their Liberties and Priviledges and by other long disputes that the Bill did not pass in a long time and by that delay Our affairs were put into far worse case than at the first Our forein actions then in hand being thereby disgraced and ruined for want of timely help In this as We are not willing to derogate from the merit and good intentions of those wise and moderate men of that House to whose forwardness We attribute it that it was propounded and resolved so soon so We must needs say that the delay of passing it when it was resolved occasioned by causless jealousies stirred up by men of another temper did much lessen both the reputation and reality of that supply and their spirit infused into many of the Commissioners and Assessors in the Country hath returned up the Subsidies in such a scanty proportion as is infinitely short not only of Our great Occasions but of the precedents of former Subsidies and of the intentions of all well-affected men in that House In those large disputes as We permitted many of Our high Prerogatives to be debated which in the best times of Our Predecessors had never been questioned without punishment or sharp reproof so We
judge as well by former Passages as by Our two last Messages which have been so fruitless that though We have descended to desire and press it not so much as a Treaty can be obtained unless We would denude Our Self of all force to defend Vs from a visible strength marching against Vs and admit those Persons as Traitors to Vs who according to their Duty their Oaths of Allegiance and the Law have appeared in defence of Vs their King and Liege Lord whom We are bound in Conscience and Honour to preserve though We disclaimed all our Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of Our Standard as against Our Parliament All We have now left in Our Power is to express the deep sense We have of the publick Misery of this Kingdom in which is involved that of Our distressed Protestants of Ireland and to apply Our Self to Our necessary Defence wherein We wholly rely upon the Providence of God the Justice of Our Cause and the Affection of Our good People so far We are from putting them out of Our Protection When you shall desire a Treaty of Vs We shall piously remember whose blood is to be spilt in this Quarrel and chearfully embrace it And as no other Reason induced Vs to leave Our City of London but that with Honour and Safety We could not stay there nor raise any Force but for the necessary defence of Our Person and the Law against Levies in opposition to both so We shall suddenly and most willingly return to the one and disband the other as soon as those causes shall be removed The God of Heaven direct you and in mercy divert those Judgments which hang over this Nation and so deal with Vs and Our Posterity as We desire the Preservation and Advancement of the true Protestant Religion the Laws and the Liberty of the Subject the just Rights of Parliament and the Peace of the Kingdom But as if all these gracious Messages had been the effects only of Our Weakness and instances of Our want of Power to resist that torrent they deal at last more plainly with Us and after many sharp causeless and unjust Reproaches they tell Us in plain English that without putting Our Self absolutely into their hands and deserting all Our own Force and the Protection of all those who have faithfully appeared for Us according to their Duty there would be no means of a Treaty although Our extraordinary desire of Peace had prevailed with Us to offer to recall Our most just Declarations and to take down Our Standard set up for Our necessary defence so their unjustifiable Declarations might be likewise recalled Their Answer follows in these words WE the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled do present this our humble Answer to Your Majesty's Message of the 11th of this instant Month of September When we consider the Oppressions Rapines Firing of Houses Murthers even at this time whilst Your Majesty propounds a Treaty committed upon Your good Subjects by Your Soldiers in the presence and by the Authority of their Commanders being of the number of those whom Your Majesty holds Your self bound in Honour and Conscience to protect as Persons doing their Duties We cannot think Your Majesty hath done all that in You lies to prevent or remove the present Distractions nor so long as Your Majesty will admit no Peace without securing the Authors and Instruments of these Mischiefs from the Justice of the Parliament which yet shall be ever dispens'd with all requisite Moderation and distinction of Offences although some of those Persons be such in whose Preservation Your Kingdom cannot be safe nor the unquestionable Rights and Priviledges of Parliament be maintain'd without which the Power and Dignity thereof will fall into contempt We beseech Your Majesty therefore to consider Your Expressions That God should deal with You and Your Posterity as Your Majesty desires the Preservation of the just Rights of Parliament which being undeniable in the Trying of such as we have declared to be Delinquents we shall believe Your Majesty both towards Your self and Parliament will not in this Priviledge we are most sensible of deny us that which belongs unto the meanest Court of Justice in this Kingdom Neither hath Your Majesty cause to complain that You are denied a Treaty when we offer all that a Treaty can produce or Your Majesty expect Security Honour Service Obedience Support and all other effects of an Humble Loyal and Faithful Subjection and seek nothing but that our Religion Liberty Peace of the Kingdom Safety of the Parliament may be secured from the open Violence and cunning Practices of a wicked party who have long plotted our ruin and destruction And if there were any Cause of Treaty we know no competent Persons to Treat betwixt the King and Parliament and if both Cause and Persons were such as to invite Treaty the Season is altogether unfit whilst Your Majesty's Standard is up and Your Proclamations and Declarations unrecalled whereby Your Parliament is charged with Treason If Your Majesty shall persist to make Your self a shield and defence to those Instruments and shall continue to reject our faithful and necessary Advice for securing and maintaining Religion and Liberty with the Peace of the Kingdom and Safety of the Parliament we doubt not but to indifferent judgments it will easily appear who is most tender of that Innocent Blood which is like to be spilt in this Cause Your Majesty who by such persisting doth endanger Your self and Your Kingdoms or we who are willing to hazard our selves to preserve both We humbly beseech Your Majesty to consider how impossible it is that any Protestation though published in Your Majesty's name of Your tenderness of the Miseries of Your Protestant Subjects in Ireland of Your Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and Laws of this Kingdom can give satisfaction to reasonable and indifferent men when at the same time divers of the Irish Traitors and Rebels the known Favourers of them and Agents for them are admitted to Your Majesty's presence with Grace and Favour and some of them imployed in Your service when the Cloaths Munition Horses and other Necessaries bought by your Parliament and sent for the supply of the Army against the Rebels there are violently taken away some by Your Majesty's Command others by Your Ministers and applied to the maintenance of an unnatural War against Your People here All this notwithstanding as we never gave Your Majesty any just cause of withdrawing Your self from Your great Council so it hath ever been and shall ever be far from us to give any impediment to Your Return or to neglect any proper means of curing the Distempers of the Kingdom and closing the dangerous Breaches betwixt Your Majesty and Your Parliament according to the great Trust which lies upon us and if Your Majesty shall now be pleased to come back to Your Parliament without Your Forces we shall be ready to secure Your Royal Person
shall observe the Articles of the Cessation by which that is restrained III. As for the expression of the Army raised by the Parliament they are contented it should be altered thus raised by both Houses of Parliament as not desiring to differ upon words But to give any conclusive Power in this case to the Committee upon such Differences as may arise wherein the Houses have given no express direction is neither safe for the Committee to undertake nor fit for the two Houses to grant yet to debate and to press the reason of their desires whereby an Agreement from Your Majesty may be procured is granted to them And although the two Houses did think it most proper the Cessation should be first agreed on and that it was unfit to Treat in blood yet to satisfie the World of their earnest longing after Peace they have given power to the Committee to enter into the Treaty upon the two first Propositions notwithstanding the Cessation be not yet assented to and those being agreed they hope the foundation will be laid not only of a suspension but a total abolition of all Hostility in the Kingdom IV. If the nature of War be duly considered it must needs be acknowledged that it is incompatible with the ordinary rules of a peaceable Government Your Majesty would have them commit none but according to the known Laws of the Land whereby they conceive Your Majesty understands that it must be by the ordinary Process of Law which being granted it will follow that no man must be committed by them for supplying Your Majesty with Arms Powder Ammunition for by the Law of the Land the Subjects may carry such goods from London or any other place to Oxford the Souldiers must not be committed if they run from their Colours and refuse any duty in the Army no man shall be committed for not submitting to necessary supplies of Mony So that if this be yielded in Your Majesty's sense they shall be disabled to restrain supplies from their Enemies and to govern or maintain their own Souldiers It cannot be thought reasonable that under the disguise of a Cessation they should admit that which will necessarily produce the dissolving of the Army and destruction of the Cause It seems not probable that Your Majesty doth intend that if any be taken with supplies for this Army or mutining in Your own such persons shall not be committed but according to the known Laws of the Land that is by process of Law but rather that Your Majesty will so interrupt this limitation of known Laws that though it lays streight bonds upon the two Houses yet it leaves Your Generals as much liberty as before For it hath been denied by Your Majesty that these known Laws give any Power to the two Houses of Parliament to raise Arms and so consequently their General cannot exercise any Martial Law in those cases and it is not unlike but that it will be affirmed that the Generals constituted by Your Majestys Commission have that power by the same known Laws So that this Article under the specious shew of Liberty and Law would altogether disable them to defend their Liberties and Laws and would produce to Your Majesty an absolute Victory and Submission under pretence of a Cessation and Treaty V. Being by necessity inevitable on their part enforced to a defensive War in this unhappy Breach between Your Majesty and them and that they are therein warranted both by the Laws of God and Man it must needs follow that by the same Law they are enabled to raise means to support that War and therefore till it shall please God to incline Your Majesty to afford them such a Peace as may secure them they cannot relinquish the power of laying Taxes upon those who ought to joyn with them in that Defence and the necessary ways of levying those Taxes upon them in case of refusal for otherwise their Army must needs be dissolved But if Your Majesty shall consent to disband the Armies the Cause of the War being taken away the Consequences will likewise be removed and the Subject restored to the benefit of those Laws which the necessity of Arms hath in such cases suspended VI. They deny any pretence of consenting to those Alterations and Additions offered by Your Majesty only in the Preamble they say they have considered of those Articles with such Alterations and Additions unto which Articles they profest they were ready to agree not as they were accompanied with those Alterations and Additions but in such manner as they expressed As for the Clause left out in the third Article it implyed a freedom of passage and communication of Quarters which is contrary to the nature of a Cessation whereby matters should be preserved in the state they are and neither party have liberty so much to advantage himself as it is evident Your Majesty might do if your Forces in the North and West might joyn with those at Oxford and bring those supplies of Treasure or Arms thither which were brought out of Holland or at least it should be so indifferent as to give a proportionable advantage to the other side which this doth not For the Forces under the power of both Houses are so disposed that they have an easie passage from one to the other but Your Majesty's Forces are severed the one from the other by many large Counties strong Passes and competent Armies and if they had admitted this Clause they had bereaved themselves of one of the greatest Advantages and freed Your Majesty's party of one of the greatest Inconveniences which Your Majesty or they have in this War For the Reasons already alledged they cannot agree to the alterations and enlargements of the Cessation propounded or to transfer any such power to the Committee of treating debating and agreeing upon those Articles in any other manner than the Houses have directed but that a fair and speedy passage may be opened to a secure and a happy Peace they have enabled their Committees to treat and debate upon the two Propositions concerning His Majesty's own Revenue the delivery of His Towns Castles Magazines and Ships and the disbanding of the Armies which being agreed upon a present Peace and Security will follow and the Treaty upon the other Propositions be facilitated without fear of interruption by the confusion of War or exasperation of either party by the bloody effects thereof In which Treaty the two Houses will desire and expect nothing but what doth stand with Your Majesty's Honour and the Trust reposed in You and is necessary for your Majesty's good Subjects that they may enjoy the true Religion and their Liberties and Privileges and that they may freely and in a Parliamentary way concur with Your Majesty in those things which may conduce to the Glory of God the Safety and Happiness of Your Majesty and Your Posterity and People and preventing the like miserable effusion of English blood for the time to come For the
take in those of another Kingdom to their Resolutions who are not bound by our Laws But what violation soever they make of the Laws they are forward to put the King in mind of His Duty and therefore tell Him That He is sworn to maintain the Laws as they are sworn to their Allegiance to Him these Obligations being reciprocal It is true in some sense that the Oath of the King and Subjects is reciprocal that is each is bound to perform what they swear the King as well as the Subjects but he that will well weigh their Letter and make one part have connexion with the other and examine that part of their Covenant whereby they swear they will defend the Kings Person and Authority no further or otherwise than in preservation of their Religion and Liberties may easily find another construction viz. That the Subjects Allegiance is no longer due than the King performs His Duty nay no longer than He in their opinion observes His Duty whereof they themselves must be Judges and if He fail in His Duty they may take up Arms against Him A Principle which as it is utterly destructive to all Government so we believe they themselves dare not plainly avow it lest as they now make use of it against the King so the People finding their failure of Duty and breach of Trust should hereafter practise it by taking up Arms against them and so shake of that yoak of Tyranny imposed by their fellow Subjects which lies so heavy upon them It were well as they still press upon the King maintenance of the Laws they would also know that their Obligation to observe the same is reciprocal and while they here resolve to defend and preserve the full Power of this Parliament which in their sense can be no other than the Power they have exercised this Parliament they would take notice that they are therein so far from observation of the Laws that they desperately resolve an utter subversion of them For what can more tend to the destruction of the Laws than to usurp a Power to themselves without the King and against His will to raise Arms to attribute to their Orders or pretended Ordinances the power of Laws and Statutes to inforce Contributions Loans and Taxes of all sorts from the Subject to imprison without cause shewed and then prohibit Writs of Habeas Corpus for their enlargement to lay Excises upon all Commodities to command and dispose of the Lives and Estates of the free-born Subjects of this Kingdom at their pleasure to impose Tonnage and Poundage contrary to the Law declared in the late Act for Tonnage and Poundage and all this done and justified as by a legal civil Power founded and inherent in them All which are manifest breaches of the Petition of Right and Magna Charta the great Evidence of the Liberties of England which Charter by express words binds them and us though assembled in Parliament as well as the King And though it be not now as heretofore it hath been taken by solemn Oath on the Peoples part as well as on the Kings nor a Curse as heretofore pronounced on the Violators yet they having taken a Protestation to maintain the Laws and the Liberties and Properties of the Subject and inclusively that Charter let them take heed whilst they make use of this their pretended Power to the destruction of the Law lest a Curse fall upon them and upon their Posterity God knoweth and it is too certain a truth that our selves and many other good Subjects in this Kindom even under the Power of the Kings Army have suffered exceedingly in Liberty and Estates during this present Rebellion by many heavy Charges the sad consideration whereof makes our hearts bleed because we can see no way for relief so long as this unnatural Rebellion continues But as these things were first practised by them and thereby necessitated upon the Kings Army so it was never yet pretended that they were done by virtue of a Law but either by Consent or by the unhappy and unavoidable exigences of War and to expire with the present Rebellion which God in mercy hasten For our parts we have the inward comfort of our own Consciences witnessing with us that we have improved all opportunities and advantages for the restoring of this Kingdom to its former Peace and we must witness for His Majesty His most hearty desires thereof And though both His Majesty and our endeavours therein have been made frustrate yet God in his great goodness hath raised up our spirits not to desert our Religion our King our Laws our Lives the Liberties of us English free-born Subjects and by God's assistance and His Majesty's concurrence we do resolve to unite our selves as one Man and cheerfully adventure our Lives and Estates for the maintenance and defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion of the Church of England of which we profess our selves to be for the defence of the Kings Person and Rights of His Crown for the regaining and maintaining the Rights and Privileges of Parliament and the Liberty of the Subjects Person and Property of his Estate according to the known Laws of the Land to repel those of the Stotish Nation that have in a warlike manner entred this Realm and to reduce the Subjects thereof now in Rebellion to the Kings Obedience And we doubt not but the same God will enlighten the eyes of the poor deceived People of this Land like true-hearted honest English-Men to joyn unanimously with us in so just and pious a work And the God of Heaven prosper us according to the goodness of the Cause we have in hand The Names of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford who did subscribe the Letter to the Earl of Essex dated January 27. 1643. CHARLES P. YORK CUMBERLAND Ed. Littleton C. S. Fra. Cottington D. Richmond M. Hartford E. Lindsey E. Dorset E. Shrewsbury E. Bath E. Southampton E. Leicester E. Northampton E. Devonshire E. Carlisle E. Bristol E. Berkshire E. Cleveland E. Rivers E. Dover E. Peterburgh E. Kingston E. Newport E. Portland V. Conway L. Digby L. Mowbray and Maltravers L. Wentworth L. Cromwell L. Rich. L. Paget L. Chandois L. Howard of Charleton L. Lovelace L. Savile L. Mohun L. Dunsmore L. Seymour L. Percy L. Wilmott L. Leigh L. Hatton L. Jermyn L. Carrington JOhn Fettiplace Esq Sir Alex. Denton Sir John Packington Sir Tho. Smith F. Gamul Esq Jo. Harris Esq Joseph Jane Esq Rich. Edgcombe Esq Jonathan Rashleigh Esq G. Fane Esq P. Edgcombe Esq Will. Glanvill Esq Sir Ro. Holborne Sir Ra. Sydenham Fra. Godolphin Esq Geo. Parry D. of Law Amb. Manaton Esq Ri. Vivian Esq Jo. Polewheele Esq John Arundell Esq Tho. Lower Esq Sir Edw. Hide Will. Allestree Esq Sir Geo. Stonehouse Ed. Seymour Esq Peter Sainthill Esq Sir Will. Poole Roger Matthew Esq Ri. Arundell Esq Ro. Walker Esq Giles Strangwaies Esq Sir John Strangwaies Sir Tho. Hele. Sir Ger. Naper Sam. Turner
lastly after having lived so many years in the most glorious and most unblemished Church of Christendom the total defacing and pulling down the whole Fabrick of it censuring and reproaching the Doctrine and destroying the Discipline and as if we were cast ashore in some uninhabited Climate where the Elements of Christianity were not known the calling without the least shadow or colour of Law or Lawful Authority against His Majesty's express Consent manifestly against the Statute of 25 th year of King Henry the Eighth an assembly of Divines composed of some Noblemen Gentlemen and Ministers all under the style of Godly and Learned Divines most of which are not otherwise known than by their Schism and Separation from that Church in which they were born and to which they have subscribed and these Men now must new-make and mould the Religion by which we must all be saved God in his good time we hope will vindicate his own Cause and repair the breaches which have been lately made For the Laws of the Land and the Liberty of the Subject so speciously urged and pretended to be the end of those who have disturbed our Peace we need say little every place and every person is an ample evidence and testimony of the bold and avowed violation of either The Charter of our Liberties Magna Charta so industriously and Religiously preserved by our Ancestors and above Thirty several times confirmed in Parliament that Rampire and Bulwark of all the precious Privileges and Immunities which the Subjects of this Kingdom could boast of and which distinguishes them from all the Subjects of Christendom is levelled and trampled under foot scorned despised and superseded by Votes and Orders Men of all sorts Clergy and Laity imprisoned without the least charge that by the Law is called a Crime and their Estates are sequestred by Persons of whom the Law can take no notice Committees made by Committees Rob Banish and Imprison the Lords and Commons of England Men committed by Persons of no Authority for no cause to Prison have by Habeas Corpus the good old Remedy and Security for our Liberty been brought to the Kings Bench and by command of those who first committed them remanded and Commands given to the Judges that they should grant no Habeas Corpus which they were sworn to grant to any Persons committed by them or by those to whom they grant Authority to commit which themselves have not Power to do Neither can we pass over the motion made by Mr. Rigby a Member of the House of Commons to transport those Lords and Gentlemen who were Prisoners and by them accounted Malignants to be sold as Slaves to Argiers or sent to the new Plantation in the West Indies urged the second time with much earnestness because the Proposer had contracted with two Merchants to that purpose the which though it took no effect at that time may awaken those who have observed so many things to pass and be ordered long after they have been once or twice denied and rejected And who sees the new and inhumane way of imprisoning Persons of Quality under Decks on Ship-board by which cruel usage many of our Country-men have been murthered may have reason to fear they may be hereafter carried a longer voyage than is yet avowed The twentieth part of our Estates is at once taken and if we are not willing to obey that Order the other Nineteen are taken from us as Malignants a term unknown and undefined and yet crime enough to forfeit our Lives and all that we have Our fellow-Subjects have been executed in cold blood for doing that which by the Laws of God and Man they were bound to do and after their Murther their Estates seized and their Wives and Children exposed to Misery and Famine Laws made and Penalties imposed by Laws this Parliament are suspended dispensed withal and those things done by Order against which those Laws were made And that there may be no face of Justice over the Land the Judges are prohibited to ride their Circuits for the administration of that Justice which the King owes His People and they are bound to execute And after all this and after the merciless shedding so much English Blood after the expending so much Money much of which was given for relief of our poor Protestant Brethren of Ireland and diverted for the improving the Distractions at home after the transportation of such vast sums of Money and great Treasure into Foreign parts to the unspeakable impoverishing this Poor Kingdom to make our Misery lasting and our Confusion compleat a Foreign Enemy is invited and brought into the Bowels of this Kingdom to drink our blood to divide our Possession to give us new Laws and to Rule over us And the better to make way to those horrid Impositions by confounding and making void all civil Rights and Proprieties and the better preparing the Kingdom to be shared by Strangers a New Great Seal the special Ensign of Monarchy and the only way by which Justice is derived and distributed to the People is counterfeited and used albeit it be by the express letter of the Statute of the 25 th year of King Edward the Third declared to be High Treason Having now made this clear plain Narration to the Kingdom the truth and particulars whereof are known to most Men that when Posterity shall find our names in the Records of these times as Members trusted by our Country in that great Council by whose Authority and Power the present Alteration and Distraction seems to be wrought it may likewise see how far we have been and are from consenting to these desperate and fatal Innovations we cannot rest satisfied without Declaring and Publishing to all our fellow-Subjects and to the whole World that all our Intentions and Actions have been are and shall be directed to the defence of His Majesty's Person and just Rights the preservation of the true Protestant Religion and Liberties of the Kingdom established by Law That as we do with all humility to God Almighty and as a great Blessing from him acknowledge His Majesty's happy and Religious Reign and Government over this Kingdom and especially the excellent Laws and Statutes made in His time and particularly those in this Parliament so we do with all duty and submission Declare That His Majesty is the only Supream Governour of this Realm in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Temporal That His Natural Person is not to be divided from His Kingly Office but that our natural Allegiance and the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy do bind us and all His other Subjects to Loyalty and Allegiance to His Natural Person That His Majesty's Negative Voice without which Monarchy is dissolved is an inherent Right of His Crown and that no Orders of one or both Houses of Parliament without His Majesty's express Consent can make a Law to bind the Subjects either in their Property or Liberty That we do from our Souls abhor
the Supplies of Money being scanty and slow the Fleet could not go forth till Octob. 8. an unseasonable time in the British Seas and their first contest was with Winds and Tempests which destroying some scattered all the Ships When they met a more dangerous Storm fell among the Souldiers and Seamen where small Pay caused less Discipline and a Contempt of their General the Lord Wimbleton rendred the attempt upon Cades vain and fruitless This was followed by a Contagion to which some conceive discontented minds make the Bodies of Men more obnoxious in the Navy which forced it home more empty of Men and less of Reputation The Infection decreasing at London the King performed the Solemnities of His Coronation Feb. 2. with some alterations from those of His Predecessors for in the Civil He omitted the usual Parade of riding from the Tower through the City to White-Hall to save the Expences that Pomp required for more noble undertakings In the Spiritual there was restored a Clause in the Prayers which had been pretermitted since Henry VI. and was this Let Him obtain favour for this People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give Him Peter ' s Key of Discipline Paul ' s Doctrine Which though more agreeing to the Principles of Protestantism which acknowledgeth the Power of Princes in their Churches and was therefore omitted in the times of Popery yet was quarrelled at by the Factious Party who take advantages of Calumny and Sedition from good as well as bad circumstances and condemned as a new invention of Bishop Laud and made use of to defame both the King and him After this He began a second Parliament Feb. 2. wherein the Commons voted Him four Subsidies but the Demagogues intended them as the price of the Duke of Buckingham's Blood whom Mr Cook and Dr Turner with so much bitterness inveighed against as passing the modesty of their former dissimulation they taxed the King's Government Sir Dudley Digges Sir John Elliot and others carried up Articles against him to the Lords House in which to make the Faction more sport the Duke and the Earl of Bristol did mutually impeach each other By these contrasts the Parliament were so highly heated that the Faction thought it fit time to put a Remonstrance in the Forge which according to their manner was to be a publick Invective against the Government But the King having notice of it dissolves the Parliament June 18. An. 1626. and the Bill for the Subsidies never passed An. 1626 This misunderstanding at home produced another War abroad For the King of France taking advantage of these our Domestick embroilments begins a War upon us and seiseth upon the English Merchants Ships in the River of Bourdeaux His pretence was because the King had sent back all the French Servants of the Queen whose insolencies had been intolerable But the World saw the vanity of this pretext in the Example of Lewis himself who had in the like manner dimitted the Spanish Attendants of his own Queen and that truly the unhappy Counsels in Parliament had exposed this just Prince to Foreign Injuries Which He Magnanimously endeavoured to revenge and to recover the Goods of His abused Subjects and therefore sent the Fleet designed for Justice upon Spain to seek it first in France But the want of Money made the Preparations slow and therefore the Navy putting out late in the Year was by Storms forced to desist the Enterprize So that what was the effect only of the malice of His Enemies was imputed by some to a secret Decree of Heaven which obstructed His just Undertakings for Glory The next Year the King An. 1627 quickened by the Petitions of the Rochellers who now sued for His Protection as well as by the Justice of His own Cause more early prosecuted His Counsels and sent the Duke of Buckingham to attach the Isle of Rhe which though alarmed to a greater strength by the last Year's vain attempt yet had now submitted to the English Valour had not the Duke managed that War more with the Gayeties of a Courtier than the Arts of a Soldier And when it was wisdom to forsake those Attempts which former neglects had made impossible being too greedy of Honour and to avoid the imputation of fear in a safe retreat he loaded his overthrow with a new Ignominy and an heavier loss of Men the common fate of those Who seek for Glory in the parcels lose it in the gross Which was contrary to the temper of his Master who was so tender of humane Blood that therefore He raised no Wars but found them and thought it an opprobrious Bargain to purchase the fruitless Laurels or the empty name of Honour with the Lives of Men but where the publick Safety required the hazard and loss of some particulars This Expedition being so unhappy and the Miseries of Rochel making them importunate for the King's Assistance His Compassionate Soul was desirous to remove their Dangers but was restrained by that necessitous condition the Faction had concluded Him under To free Himself from which that He might deliver the oppressed he doth pawn His own Lands for 120000 Pounds to the City and borrows 30000 l. more of the East-India Company but this was yet too narrow a Foundation to support the Charges of the Fleet and no way so natural to get adequate supplies as by a Parliament which He therefore summons to meet March 17. intending to use all Methods of Complacency to unite the Subjects Affections to Himself Which in the beginning proved successful for the modesty of the Subjects strove with the Piety of the King An. 1628 and both Interests contended to oblige that they might be obliged The Parliament granted the King five Subsidies and He freely granted their Petition of Right the greatest Condescension that ever any King made wherein He seemed to submit the Royal Scepter to the Popular Fasces and to have given Satisfaction even to Supererogation These auspicious beginnings though full of Joy both to Prince and People were matter of Envy to the Faction and therefore to form new Discontents and Jealousies the Demagogues perswaded the Houses that the King 's Grant of their Petition extended beyond their own hopes and the limits themselves had set and what He had expresly mentioned and cautioned even to the taking away His Right to Tonnage and Poundage Besides this they were again hammering a Remonstrance to reproach Him and His Ministers of male-administration Which Ingratitude He being not able to endure on June 26. adjourns the Parliament till Oct. 20. and afterward by Proclamation till Jan 20. following In the interim the King hastens to send Succours to Rochel and though the General the Duke of Buckingham was at Portsmouth Assassinated by Felton armed as he professed with the publick Hatred yet the Preparations were not slackned the King by His personal Industry doing more to the necessary furnishing of the Fleet in ten or twelve
all their Ecclesiastical Promotions But the Laity that in the House had not time to declame against His Majestie 's Proceedings did it without doors for being dispersed to their homes they filled all places with suspicious rumours and high discontents and in Southwark there was an open Mutiny began which was not pacified without much danger and the Execution of the principal Leaders The King thus betrayed defamed and deserted by those who should have considered that in His Honour their Safety was embarqued though He had no less cause to fear secret Conspiracies at Home which were more dangerous because obscure than the Scots publick Hostility yet vigorously prosecuted his undertaking and raised a sufficient Army but could not do it with equal speed to His Enemies who had soon re-united their dispersed Forces and incouraged by the Faction with whom they held Intelligence in England contented not themselves to stand upon the defence but invaded us and advanced so far before all the King's Army could be gathered together that they gave a defeat to a Party of it ere the Reer could be brought up by the Earl of Strafford who was appointed General or the King could come to incourage them with His Presence He was no sooner arrived at his Army but there followed Him from some English Lords a Petition conformable to the Scotch Remonstrance which they called the Intentions of the Army So that His Majesty might justly fear some attempts in the South while He was thus defending Himself from the Northern injuries The King answered the Petitioners That before their Petition came He had resolved to summon all the Peers to consult what would be most for the Safety of the Nation and His own Honour Who accordingly met Sept. 24. Where it was determined that a Parliament should be called to meet Nov. 3. and in the mean time a Cessation should be made with the Scots with whom some Commissioners from the Parliament should treat Nov. 3. began that Fatal Parliament which was so transported by the Arts of some unquiet persons that they dishonoured the name and hopes of a Parliament ingulfed the Nation in a Sea of Blood ruined the King and betrayed all their own Priviledges and the People's Liberty into the power of a phanatick and perfidious Army And although His Majesty could not hope to find them moderate yet He endeavoured to make them so telling them at their meeting that He was resolved to put himself freely upon the Affections of His English Subjects that He would satisfie all their just Grievances and not leave to malice it self a shadow to doubt of His desire to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom He commended to their care the chasing out of the Rebels the Provisions of His own Army and the Relief of the oppressed Northern Counties But the Malignity of some few and the ignorance of more employed that Assembly in other matters first in purging their House of all such as they conceived would not comply with their destructive Enterprises and for such men they either found some fault with their Elections or made them Criminals in some publick Grievance though others of a deeper guilt they kept among them that their Offences might make them obnoxious to their power and obsequious to their commands Then with composed Harangues they declamed upon the publick Grievances and reckoned up causal Misfortunes amongst designed Abuses of Government every way raising up Contumelies against the present Power and that which was fullest of Detraction and Envy was applauded as most pregnant with Liberty Thus pretending several Injuries had been done to the People they raised the Multitude to hopes of an unimaginable Liberty and a discontent with the present Government After this they set free all the Martyrs of Sedition that for their malignant Libels had been imprisoned and three of them were conducted through London with such a company of people adorned with Rosemary and Bayes as it seemed a Triumph over Justice and those Tribunals that sentenced them Then they fell upon all the chief Ministers of State they impeached the Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland after him the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Finch Keeper of the Great Seal the Judges that according to their Oath had determined Ship-money legal and others some of which fled those that were found were clapt in Prison so that the King was soon despoiled of those that were able or faithful to give Him Counsel and others terrified in their Ministry to Him While the Factious thus led the House their Partisans without by their Instructions formed Petitions against the Government in Church and State to which they seduced the ignorant Rabble in the City and several Counties to subscribe and in a tumultuous manner to present them to their Patriots Who being animated by the success of their Arts fell to draw up a Bill for Triennial Parliaments wherein the Power of calling that great Council of the Nation was upon the refusal of the King and the neglect of others devolved upon Constables which prophanation of Majesty though the King disswaded them from yet they persisted in and He passed it After five Months time for so long a space they took to rake up Matter and Witnesses to justifie their accusation An. 1641 and to give leisure to the Court for Overtures of gainfull Offices to the great Sticklers against him which not appearing the Earl of Strafford is brought to his Triall in Westminster-Hall before the Lords as His Judges the King Queen and Prince sitting behind a Curtain in an adjoyning Gallery and round about the Court stood the Commons His Accusers and Witnesses were English Scotch and Irish and indeed so brave a Person could not be ruined but by the pretended hatred of the whole Empire The English were such as envied his Vertues and greatness in the King's Favour The Scotch because they knew his Prudence able to counterwork their Frauds discover their impudent Cheats and his wise management to overthrow their Force The Irish hatred arose from his just and necessary Severity in his Government whereby he had reduced them from so great a Barbarousness that was impatient of Peace to a Civility that was fertile of Plenty and by Artifices Husbandry and Commerce had rendred that tumultuary Nation so rich that they were now able to repay to the English Treasury those great Debts which their former Troubles and Commotions had contracted Although those of this Nation were Papists and sworn Enemies both of the English name and State and were even then practising and meditating their Rebellion which they hoped more easie when so wise a Governour was removed and so prone enough of themselves to the Crime yet were they much caressed by the Faction that these in the name of the whole Kingdom should press the Earl with envy to the Grave His Charge consisted of twenty eight Articles that their number might cover their want of Evidence To all which the Lieutenant whose
at first secretly they whispered and at last publickly imputed that horrid Massacre Which Slanders were coloured by the Arts of the Irish Rebels who to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged that the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them with Auxiliary Forces That they did but maintain His Cause against the Puritans That they had the King's Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent that themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old broad Seal that had been taken from an obsolete Patent out of Farnham Abbey by one Plunckett in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of many That the Scots were in Confederacy with them to beget a Faith of which they abstained from the Lives and Fortunes of those of that Nation among them On the other side to incourage the Natives of their own Party they produce fictitious Letters wherein they were informed from England that the Parliament had passed an Act that all the Irish should be compelled to the Protestant Worship that for the first offence they should forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives Besides they present them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be shaken off that they would have a King of their own Nation and that the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided among the Natives And with these hopes of Spoil and Liberty and Irish were driven to such a Fury that they committed so many horrid and barbarous Acts as scarce ever any Age or People were guilty of In the mean while nothing was done for the relief of the poor English there but only some Votes passed against the Rebels till the King returned to London which was about the end of November where He with the Queen and the Prince were magnificently feasted by the Citizens and the chief of them afterwards by Him at Hampton-Court For he never neglected any honest Arts to gain His Peoples love to which they were naturally prone enough had not His Enemies methods and impulses depraved their Genius But this much troubled the Faction who envied that Reverence to Majesty in others which was not in themselves and they endeavoured to make these loves short and unhappy for they discountenanced the prime advancers of this Honour of the King and were more eager to render Him odious For having gotten a Guard about them they likewise insinuated into the people dangerous apprehensions as the cause of that Guard and every day grew more nice and jealous of their Priviledges and Power The King's advices to more tenderness of His Prerogative or His Advertisements of the scandalous Speeches that were uttered in their House they interpret as encroachments upon their Grandeur and upbraided the King for them in their Petitions to Him But their greatest effort upon Majesty was the Remonstrance after which they took all occasions to magnifie the apprehensions of those Fears which they had falsly pretended to in it This the Faction had before formed and now brought into the House of Commons where it found a strong opposition by those wise men that were tender of the publick Peace and Common Good though those who preferred their Private to the General Interest and every one that was short-sighted and improvident for the future were so fierce for it that the Debates were continued all Night till ten a Clock the next Morning so that many of the more aged and Persons of best Fortunes not accustomed to such watchings were wearied out and many others not daring to provoke the Faction in this their grand Design left the House so that at last they carried it yet but by eleven Votes Which they presented with a Petition to take away the Votes of Bishops in the House of Lords and the Ceremonies in the Church and to remove those Persons from His Trust which they could not confide in yet named none but only accused all under the name of a Malignant Popish Party Which they had no sooner delivered than they caused it to be published in print To which the King answers in another publick Declaration but so much to the Discontent of the Demagogues to find their Methods of Ruine so fully discovered as they were in His Majesties Answer that they had recourse to their former Sovereign Remedy which sober men accounted a Crime and an indignity to Government the Tumults of the Rabble Who in great numbers and much confusion came up to Westminster some crying out against Bishops others belching their fury against the Liturgy and a third Party roaring that the Power of the Militia should be taken out of the King's hands To their Clamours they added rude Affronts to those Lords whom their Leaders had taught them to hate and especially to the Bishops at their going in or coming out of the House and afterwards drawing up to White-Hall they appeared so insolent as it was evident they wanted only some to begin for there were enough to prosecute an assault upon the King in His own Palace The Bishops thus rudely excluded from their Right and Liberty of coming to the Parliament Twelve of them afterwards protest against the Proceedings of it during their so violent Exclusion Which Protestation the Commons presently accused of High Treason and caused their Commitment to the Tower where they continued them till the Bill against their Votes in the Lord's House was past that they might not produce their Reasons for their Rights and against the Injustice offered unto them and then afterwards released them The King also saw it necessary to take a Guard of such Gentlemen as offered their Service for His Safety and to prevent the prophaning of Majesty by the rude fury of the People who used to make their Addresses acceptable at Westminster by offering in their passage some base Affronts at White-Hall But when the terrour of this Guard had reduced them to some less degree of Impudencie they then instructed by their Heads laboured to make it more unsafe to the King by seeking to raise the Rage and Jealousie of the whole City against Him For at Midnight there were cries out in the Street that all People should arise to their defence for the King with His Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their Throats in their Beds Than which though nothing was more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Alarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those nightly fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with Madness The King therefore not alwaies to incourage these Violences with Patience but at last by a course of Justice to take off those whom He had found to be the Authors of these destructive Counsels the grand Movers of these Seditious practices and which was more the Inviters of a Foreign Force the Scotch Army into this Nation commands
Popish Lords and Bishops had the greatest Power and there it stuck whose Names they desired to know And in this they were so earnest that they would not willingly withdraw whilest it was debated and then they had leave to depart with this Answer That the House of Commons had already endeavoured Relief from the Lords in their Requests and shall so continue till Redress be obtained Such Petitions as these were likewise from the several Classes of the inferiour Tradesmen about London as Porters Water-men and the like and that nothing of testifying an universal Importunity might be left unattempted Women were perswaded to present Petitions to the same effect While the Faction thus boasted in the success of their Arts Good men grieved to see these daily Infamies of the Supreme Council of the Nation all whose Secrets were published to the lowest and weakest part of the People and they who clamoured it as a breach of their Privilege that the King took notice of their Debates now made them the subjects of discourse in every Shop and all the corners of the Street where the good and bad were equally censured and the Honour and Life of every Senator exposed to the Verdict of the Rabble No Magistrate did dare to do his Office and all things tended to a manifest Confusion So that many sober Persons did leave the Kingdom as unsafe where Factions were more powerful than the Laws And Just Persons chose rather to hear than to see the Miseries and Reproaches of their Country On the other side to make the King more plyable they tempt him by danger in His most beloved Part the Queen concerning whom they caused a Rumour that they did intend to impeach Her of High Treason This Rumour made the deeper Impression because they had raised most prodigious Slanders which are the first Marks for destruction of Princes on Her and when they had removed all other Counsellors from the King She was famed to be the Rock upon which all hopes of Peace and Safety were split That She commanded no less His Counsels than Affections and that His Weakness was so great as not to consent to or enterprise any thing which She did not first approve That She had perverted Him to Her Religion and formed Designs of overthrowing the Protestant Profession These and many other of a portentuous falshood were scattered among the Vulgar who are always most prone to believe the Worst of Great Persons and the uncontrolled Licence of reporting such Calumnies is conceived the first Dawning of Liberty But the Parliament taking notice of the Report sent some of their House to purge themselves from it as an unjust Scandal cast upon them To which the Queen mildly answers That there was a general Report thereof but She never saw any Articles in writing and having no certain Author for either She gave little Credit thereto nor will She believe they would lay any Aspersion upon Her who hath been very unapt to misconstrue the Actions of any One Person and much more the Proceedings of Parliament and shall at all times wish an Happy Vnderstanding between the King and His People But the King knowing how usual it was for the Faction by Tumults and other Practices to transport the Parliament from their just Intentions in other things and that they might do so in this resolved to send Her into Holland under colour of accompanying their eldest Daughter newly married to the Prince of Orange but in truth to secure Her so that by the fears of Her danger who was so dear unto Him He might not be forced to any thing contrary to His Honour and Conscience and that Her Affections and Relations to Him might not betray Her Life to the Malice of His Enemies With Her He also sent all the Jewels of the Crown that they might not be the Spoils of the Faction but the means of the support of Her Dignity in Forein Parts if His Necessities afterwards should not permit Him to provide for Her otherwise Which yet She did not so employ but reserved them for a supply of Ammunition and Arms when His Adversaries had forced Him to a necessary Defence It was said that the Faction knew of this Conveyance and might have prevented it but that they thought it for their greater advantage that this Treasure should be so managed that the King in confidence of that Assistance might take up Arms to which they were resolved at last to drive Him For they thought their Cause would be better in War than Peace because their present Deliberations were in the sense of the Law actual Rebellions and a longer time would discover those Impostures by which they had deluded the People who would soon leave them as many now did begin to repent of their Madness to the Vengeance which was due to their Practices unless they were more firmly united by a communion of Guilt in an open assaulting their Lawful Prince The King hastens the Security of the Queen and accompanies Her as far as Dover there to take His Farewel of Her a Business almost as irksom as Death to be separated from a Wife of so great Affections and eminent Endowments and that which made it the more bitter was that the same Cause which forced Her Separation from Him set Her at a greater distance from His Religion the onely thing wherein their Souls were not united even the Barbarity of His Enemies who professed it yet were so irreconcileable to Vertue that they hated Her for Her Example of Love and Loyalty to Him While He was committing Her to the mercy of the Winds and Waves that She might escape the Cruelty of more unquiet and faithless men they prosecute Him with their distasteful Addresses and the Canterbury present Him with a Bill for taking away Bishops Votes in Parliament Which having been cast out of the House of Peers several times before ought not by the Course and Order of Parliament to have been admitted again the same Session But the Faction had now used their accustomed Engine the Tumult and it was then passed by the Lords and brought hither together with some obscure Threats that if it were not signed the Queen should not be suffered to depart By such impious Violences did they make way for that which they call'd Reformation This His Majesty signs though after it made a part of His penitential Confessions to God in hopes that the Bill being once consented to the Fury of the Faction which with so great Violence pursued an absolute Destruction of the Ecclesiastical Government would be abated as having advanced so far in their Design to weaken the King's Power in that House by the loss of so many Voices which would have been always on that side where Equity and Conscience did most appear But He soon found the Demagogues had not so much Ingenuity as to be compounded with and they made this but a step to the Overthrow of that which He designed to preserve When His
to single Him out of all the Kings of the Earth as the fittest Champion to wrestle with Adversity and to make Him glorious by Sufferings which being well born truly prove men Great yet would He furnish Him almost by a Miracle likewise with such Advantages in the conduct of which His Prudence and Magnanimity might evidence that He did deserve Propserity and by clearing up even this way His eminent Vertues warn the following Ages from a Credulity to unquiet Persons since the best of Princes was thus infamously slandered From all these concurring Causes each one in their Way and Order did the King's Strength so far increase as that He won many Battles and was not far from Conquest in the Whole War had not God seen fit to afflict this sinful Nation with Numerous and most Impious Tyrants and make us feel that no Oppressions are so unsupportable as those which are imposed by such as have made the highest Pretensions to Liberty of which we had bitter experience after the War was finished that was now begun For there had been some slight Conflicts ere this in the several Countries betwixt the Commissioners of Array and the Militia with various Successes which require just Volumes and compleat Histories to relate and cannot be comprehended in the short View of the King's Life where it is only intended to speak of those Battles in which the King in Person gave sufficient evidence of His Wisdom and Valour The first of which was at Edge-Hill on Oct. 23. For the King had no sooner gotten a considerable Force though not equal to those of His Enemies but He matched towards London and in His way thither met with Essex's Army that were come from thence to take Him The King having viewed their Army by a Prospective-glass from the top of that Hill and being asked afterwards by His Officers what He meant to do To give them battle said He with a present Courage it is the first time I ever saw the Rebels in a Body God and good Mens Prayers to Him assist the Justice of My Cause and immediately prepared for the Fight which was acted with such a Fury that near 6000 were slain according to the common account but some say a far less number were slain upon the place Night concluded this Battle which had comprehended the whole War had not the King 's prevailing Horse preferr'd the Spoils to Victory and left the Enemy some advantage to dispute for her But the King had all the fairest marks of her Favour For though He had lost His General yet he kept the Field possessed the dead Bodies opened His way toward London and in the sight of some part of the Army of Essex who accounted it a Victory that He was not totally routed and killed took Banbury and entred Triumphantly into Oxford which He had designed for His Winter-quarters with 150 Colours taken in fight And having assured that place He advances towards London whither Essex had gotten before Him and disposed his baffled Regiments within 10 Miles of the City yet the King fell upon two Regiments of them at Brainford took 500 Prisoners and sunk their Ordnance From thence intending to draw nearer London He had intelligence that the City had powred forth all their Auxiliaries to re-inforce Essex's Troops to which being unwilling to oppose His Souldiers wearied with their March nor thinking it safe to force an Enemy to fight upon Necessity which inspires a more than Ordinary Fury He retreats to Oxford having taught His Enemies that He was not easily to be overcome For in the management of this Battle He did not only undeceive the abused World of those Slanders which His Enemies had polluted Him with but He exceeded that Opinion His own Party had of His Abilities and though He parted from London altogether unexperienced in Martial Affairs yet at Edge-Hill He appeared a most Excellent Commander His Valour was also equal to His Prudence and He could as well endure Labours as despise Dangers And by a communication of toils encouraged His Souldiers to keep the Field all the Night when they saw He refused the refreshments of a Bed for He sought no other Shelter from the injuries of the Air than His own Coach These Vertues and this Success made such an impression on the Parliament that though they took all courses to hide the Infamy of their worsted Army yet in more humble Expressions than formerly they Petitioned the King for a Treaty of Peace which His Majesty very earnestly embraced But the Faction who were frighted with these Tendencies to an Accommodation cause some of the City to Petition against it and to make proffer of their Lives and Fortunes for the prosecution of the War Encouraged by this they form their Propositions like the Commands of Conquerours and so streighten the Power and time of their Commissioners that the Treaty at Oxford became fruitless which there had taken up all the King's Employment this Winter though abroad His Forces were busie in several Parts of the Nation not without Honour At the Opening of the Spring the Queen comes back to England An. 1643 bringing with Her some considerable Supplies of Men Money and Ammunition and Her coming was entertained with such a Series of Successes that the King that Summer was Master of the North and West except some few Garrisons Which so dismaied the Parliament that very many of them were preparing to quit the Kingdom and had the King followed His own Counsels to march immediately towards London and not been fatally over-born at a Council of War which it is said His Enemies at London did assure their Party would so be first to attempt Gloucester He had in the judgment of all discerning men then finished the War with Glory But here He lay so long till Essex had gotten a Recruit from London and came time enough to Relieve the Town though in his Return the King necessitated him to fight worsted him near Newbery and so bravely followed him the next day that He forced the Parliaments Horse which were left in the Reer to seek their safety by making their way over a great part of their Foot yet lost on His side much Noble Blood as the Earls of Carnarvan and Sunderland and Viscount Falkland This last was lamented by all being equally dexterous at the Pen and Sword had won some Wreaths in those Controversies that were to be managed by Reason and was eminent in all the Generous parts of Learning above any of his Fortune and Dignity After this Encounter the King returns to Oxford to consult with those Members of both Houses that had left the Impostures and Tumults at London to joyn with Him for the Common Benefit who being as to the Peers the far greater and as to the Commons an equal Number with those at Westminster they assumed the Name and Authority of Parliament and deliberated of the ways of Peace and means to prevent the Desolations which the Faction so
continue the Wounds of the Nation open and bleeding since there were many Forts yet held out for the King by Gallant Persons besides the Lord Hopton had an Army yet unbroken and Ormond and Montross had considerable Interests in Ireland and Scotland all which might be perswaded in a Treaty to part with those Arms which could not be taken from them without much blood and it was the common belief that these Men sought for Victory not Peace and Liberty which was now tendred therefore to raise suspicions in the Vulgar it is suggested that the Cavaliers who came to Compound would take the advantage of the King's Presence if he were permitted to be there and kindle a new Flame and War in the City And that it might be thought they had real grounds for these fears the disarmed Compounders were commanded to depart above twenty Miles from London and to injealous the People more all the transactions of the King in the Irish Pacification were published and amplified with the malicious Slanders and Comments of the implacable and conscious Demagogues that so the terrours of the Vulgar being augmented they might be frighted into a longer patience The King finding these men irreconcileable to Peace and that they had declared against His Coming though without a Caution tries the Leaders of the English Army but they proved no less pertinacious and were now approaching to besiege Oxford Providence not leaving any more Choice but only shewing Him a way for a present Escape He goes in a Disguise which when Necessity cloaths Royal Persons with seems like an Ominous Cloud before the Setting of the Sun to the Scottish Camp that was now before Newark where the Ambassadour of the King of France who was then in the Leaguer had before covenanted for His Majestie 's Safety and Protection and the Scottish Officers had engaged to secure both Him and as many of His Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to Him with their Lives and Fortunes The King being come thither May 4. made a great alteration in Affairs An. 1646 Newark was surrendred by the King's Command and St Thomas Glemham having gallantly defended Oxford till the Besiegers offered Honourable Conditions delivered up that also But the greatest Change of Counsels were at London where when it was related among whom the King had sought a Sanctuary various and different Discourses were raised Some wondred that His Majesty had sought a refuge there where the Storm began and how He could apprehend to find Relief from those that were not only the Authors of His Troubles but now the great Advancers of His Overthrow And they conceived no Promises or Oaths can be a sufficient Caution from those People that have been often Persidious Others judged that in those Necessities wherein the King was concluded it was as dangerous not to trust as to be deceived no Counsel could be better than to try whether a Confidence in them would make them faithful and whether they would then be honest when they had the Critical Opportunity to testifie to the World that they intended not what they did but what they said That they fought not against Him but for Him But a last sort bewailed both the greatness of the King's Dangers that should make Him seek for Safety in a tempestuous Sea and false bottom as also the debaucheries of the English Genius which was now so corrupted that their Prince was driven to seek an Asylum from their injuries among a People that were infamous and polluted with the Blood of many Kings While others discoursed thus of the King's journey the Parliament heated by the Independents fiercely declared against the Scots who were removing the King to Newcastle and used several methods to make them odious and drive them home For they kept back their Pay that they might exact free-Quarter from the Countrey then they did extenuate their Services derogate from their famed Valour upbraid them as Mercenaries threaten to force them out by the Sword All which while the English Presbyterians though they wish'd well to their Brethren yet lest they should seem to indulge the Insolencies of a strange Nation did not dare to plead in their defence But the Scots themselves for a time did justifie their Reception and Preservation of His Majesty by the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality which forbid the delivery and betraying of those that have fled to any for Succour The Democratick Faction urged that it was not lawful for the Scots their Hirelings and in their Dominion to receive the King into their Camp without the leave of their Masters and keep Him without their Consent These Debates were used to raise the King's price Which when the Scots were almost assured of to make their ware more valuable they sollicit the King in hopes of their Defence to command Montross to depart-from his noble Undertakings in Scotland where he had almost recovered the Overthrow Roxbrough and Traquaire had betrayed him unto and was become formidable again as also the Loyal Marquess of Ormond to desist from his gallant Oppositions both of the Irish Rebels and English Forces Which when the King had done being not willing those Gallant Persons should longer hazard their brave Lives and after both these Excellent Leaders had more in anger than fear parted with their unhappy Arms that they might have a colour of betraying Him whom the General Assembly of Scotland which useth to hatch all the Seditions to the heat and strength of a seeming Authority had forbid to be brought into His Native and Ancient Kingdom as He affectionately call'd it they tender Him the Covenant pretending without that Chain upon Him they did not dare to lead Him into Scotland This His Majesty refused not if they would first loose those Scruples of Church-Government which lay upon His Conscience Therefore to untie those Knots Mr. Henderson that was then the Oracle of the Kirk and the great Apostle of the Solemn Covenant was employed to converse with Him But the Greatness of the King's Parts and the Goodness of His Cause made all his attempts void for the Papers being published every one yielded the Victory to His Majesty and unfortunate for he returned home and not long after died as some reported of a Grief contracted from the sense of his Injuries to a Prince whom he had found so Excellent While these things were acting at Newcastle the bargain was stroke at London and for 200000 l. His Majesty stripp'd of those Arms He had when He came among them was deliver'd up as it were to be scourged and crucified to some Commissioners from the Parliament But to honest their Perfidiousness they add this Caution That there should be no attempt made upon the King ' s Person but being entertained at one of His own Palaces He should there be treated with upon Propositions from both Nations which should speedily be sent to Him But the Parliament never though of sending any Propositions till He
their Honour that it should not be any prejudice to Him But His Majesty had no sooner read it than they finding it not to the Gust of those that sent them notwithstanding the Faith they had given cause their Just Soveraign to be kept close Prisoner force away His Chaplains Dr. Sheldon now Lord Bishop of London and Dr. Hammond both which He highly valued for their Integrity Wisdom Piety and Learning and His other Servants even those whom the Parliament had placed formerly about Him and in whom His Goodness had wrought both an Affection and Admiration of Him and permit none about him but such as they hoped would be a Watch upon Him and whose barbarous Souls might trample on His Fortune Besides they set strict Guards at His Doors and Windows lest any Letters might come to Him or be sent from Him The like reception His Letter found with the Parliament For Cromwell and his Officers were resolved to go on with their Design and having so long used the Adjutators as served to frighten the King into the Toils they had set they soon quiet them which was not difficult being a Company of hot-headed Fellows that could only talk not form a Counsel or a Party to endure a Storm by executing some of their most pertinacious Leaders and being free of that Care applied their Practices wholly to the Destruction of His Majesty To this purpose they mould the Four Votes for No Addresses to the King but before they bring them into Publick they send into their several Counties about Forty or Fifty of the Principal Members who they thought would oppose them to raise Money for the Souldiers Nevertheless the first of those Votes was contested against so strongly that the Debates lasted from Ten of the Clock in the Morning till Seven in the Evening and though they thus wearied the more Honest Party yet could it not pass till the Conspirators had engaged that no worse thing should be done to the King The remaining Votes were dispatched in half an Hours time when those of the most sober Principles were gone forth to refresh themselves and the Conspirators still kept their Seats The House of Peers were not so hasty in them as the Commons had been and their Debates vexed the Conspirators with Delays till those who were sent by the Army to thank the Lower House for their Consent to these Desires of the Souldiers did also threaten the Upper for their long Deliberations some new Terrors were also added for they quartered two of their Regiments at White-Hall under colour of guarding the Parliament but in truth to work upon the Lords which had its effect for many that had the most Honourable thoughts in this Business forsook the Parliament and then three or four which often was the fullest Number about those times in that House joyn with the Commons in their Votes for no Addresses This prodigious Perfidiousness in Parliament and Army both which had so frequently declared and engaged themselves by Oaths and Promises to preserve the King in his Just Rights fill'd all men with amazement and indignation to see how little they valued their Faith who pretended so high to Religion therefore each of them were put to satisfie the Common Fame Cromwell to some would have cover'd this Impiety with another that as He was praying for a Blessing from God on his Vndertakings to restore the King to His Pristine Majesty his Tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth that he could not speak one word more which he took as a return of Prayer and that God had rejected Him from being King To others he did impudently assert That it was lawful to circumvent a wicked man with deceit and frauds The Conspirators in the Parliament strove to honest their Proceedings by a Declaration and assign in it for Causes of their Perjuries all the Calumnies that had been raised against the King by His most professed Enemies or from those uncertain Rumours which themselves had invented adding and repeating others which had even in the Parliament House been condemned as Forgeries yet now were used as necessary Veils for a more execrable Falshood Which infamous Libel they caused to be sent to all the Parishes of the Kingdom to be divulged supposing that none did dare to refute their black and most malicious Slanders or that none could publickly do it because they set strict Watches upon all the Printing-Presses They likewise commanded the Curates to read it in their several Churches and commend it to the People And that these might the more readily observe their Orders they at the same time strictly enjoyn the payment of Tithes and Vote that the Dean and Chapiter's Lands which they had designed for profane Uses and never intended they should be for the Emolument of Church-men should be set apart for Augmentations for their Preachers pretending a servent zeal for the propagation of the Gospel when they did most dishonour it By their Agents and the Anabaptists with other Hereticks and Schismaticks they sollicite the unacquainted Rabble to sign to Gratulatory Addresses to approve what they had already done and petition for a speedy progress in the Ruine of His Majesty But all these their cursed Projects failed for several Answers to their Defamations were published One writ by the King Himself another by Sir Edward Hyde and a third by Dr. Bates all which proved the Monstrous Falshoods of their Paper and that the Faction were guilty of what they imputed to the King and this with such Evidence that none of their most mercenary Writers or the most foul-mouthed Conspirators did dare or hope with Success to reply unto The Curates coldly if at all observed their Orders and there came so few Petitions and those signed by such contemptible and lewd persons as they rather loaded the Faction with more hatred than gave them any credit While generally in every place none of the People could contain their Fury against these Impostors but publickly cursed them and their Infamous Adherents For their Miserie 's made them sensible of the want of that Prince whose gentle and just Rule had brought them to such an inebriating Prosperity that they had forgot the Minister of their Happiness But now they found Government when it was out of His hand like Moses's Rod cast on the ground transformed to a Serpent and that those who pretended to free them from Tyranny had deluded them into the most insufferable Slavery wherein they were either totally despoiled of all things that render our Being comfortable or they were not secure in the use of them Religion the Ornament of the present and the Pledge of a future Life was so dishonoured by Schisms and Heresies somented to weaken the People by Divisions to a tameness under their Oppressors by Fasts for the most impious Designs and Thanksgivings for prosperous Crimes that some men concluded it to be nothing else but the Invention of Tyrants and the Disguise of Villains
to be gained but by the Publick Ruine they fly from Prayers to Arms and intitle their just War For the Liberty of King and People And in several places as in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk Cornwall Yorkshire Wales and at last in Surrey multitudes take Arms for this Righteous Cause The Navy also fall off and setting Rainsbrough their levelling Admiral on Shore seventeen Ships deliver themselves up to the Prince of Wales The Scots likewise by an Order of their own Parliament send into England to recover the Liberty and Majesty of the King an Army under Hamilton But all was in vain God had decreed other Triumphs for His Majesty and to translate Him to another Kingdom For the English being but tumultuarily raised having no train of Artillery nor Ammunition considerable were soon supprest by a veterane Army provided with all necessaries The Scots either through weakness or wickedness of their Commanders who made so disorderly a March that their Van and Reer were forty miles asunder were easily worsted by Cromwell who surprised their main Body and Hamilton was taken Prisoner Cromwell follows the scattered Parties into Scotland where they were likewise assaulted by Argyle a domestick Enemy and forced to submit those Arms the Parliament had put into their hands to the Faction of that false Earl who calls another Parliament from which all were excluded that in the former Voted for the King's Delivery and all the Orders of that Convention made void Cromwell had the Publick Thanks and the private Faith of Argyle to endeavour as opportunity permitted the extirpation of Monarchy out of Scotland The Navy also deserts the Prince being corrupted by the Earl of Warwick who was appointed for this Service and when he had ingloriously bought off their Faith to their lawful Prince himself was ignominiously cashiered by the Conspirators These great disappointments and overthrows of just Enterprises men variously attributed to different Causes Some to the Perfidiousness others to the Weakness of those that managed them as also to the Treachery of some Presbyterians who in hatred to the Army first incouraged and then in Jealousie of the Royalists basely deserted them For the Rabbies of the Kirk cursed Hamilton in the beginning of his Enterprise Another sort thought them unhappy because the greatest part of the Undertakers were such that formerly had either fought against the King or else had betrayed Him and God would not now bless their unexpiated Arms. And some to the Fate of the Kingdom which God had decreed to give over to numerous and impious Tyrants because of their unthankfulness and impatience under so Incomparable a Prince But while these things were managed by the Army that were now at a distance and Cromwell's Terrors were greater in Scotland than here the less guilty Parliament-men seriously considering how impatient the People who in London and other places had gotten innumerable Subscriptions to a Petition for a Personal Treaty now were of those Injuries that were done to their Sovereign how hateful themselves grew because they had betrayed and inslaved their own Privileges together with the Liberties of the Subject to an insatiable and Phanatick Army and how an evident Ruine attended even their Conquests of Him whom it was unlawful to assault did at last though too late contrary to the clamours of their factious and Democratick Members Repeal those Votes which they had formerly made of No more Addresses to the King This being passed in both Houses they afterwards with a strong Consent vote a Treaty with the King in Honour Freedom and Safety The factious Party in the Parliament found themselves too few and weak to oppose this impetuous tendency of the Two Houses and the whole Kingdom to Peace But yet they endeavoured to frustrate the labours of their more sincere Members and to baffle the People's just desires of it by imposing many unequal Conditions and obstructive restrictions For they procured that the Treaty should be in the Isle of Wight and not at London that it should be by Commissioners and not immediately with the two Houses as was petitioned The Propositions that were sent to be treated were the same which had before been offered to the King at Hampton-Court and were then rejected by Him and also condemned by the Army it self as too unjust The Commissioners were so streightned in Power that it was not lawful for them to soften any one of the Conditions of Peace not to alter the Preface or change the Order of the Propositions nor to debate a Subsequent till the Precedent were agreed on They could conclude nothing they were only to propose the Demands urge Reasons for the Royal Assent receive the King's Answer and refer all in writing to the Parliament whose slow Resolves and the delays of sending were supposed would consume that narrow measure of time which was appointed to debate so many and so different things for they were limited to forty days The Commissioners they sent were five of the Lord's House and twelve of the Commoners and with them some of their Presbyterian Ministers who were to press importunately for their Church-government to elude the King's Arguments for Episcopacy and only to impose not to dispute their own With all these upon so many several and different Propositions some relating to the Law of the Land others to Reason of State and some to the practice of the Apostolical Primitive Churches the King was to deal without publick assistance For though He was permitted the ministry of some Officers of State Counsellours and Divines yet were they but of private advice and to stand behind the Curtain He only Himself was to speak in the debate and singly to manage matters of Policy with their most exercised Statists and the points of Divinity with their best-studied Divines The Vulgar to whom the arts of these men were not so obvious were much pleased with the Name of a Treaty and now hoped to exchange their Servitude under so many importunate Tyrants for the moderate and easie Government of one Lawful King Others that had a clearer insight and observed with what difficulties it was burthened hoped for no benefit from it Because that if His Majesty should not consent as they believed he would not then He would be the object of the popular impatience And if He should consent He that now was thought to be most injuriously dealt with would then be conceived not to deserve the Pity even of his Friends nor could He gain any other thing by His Concessions than to be ruined with more Dishonour So that considering both the inviolable Integrity of His Majesty and the implacable Malice of His Enemies they despaired of any happy Issue But beyond the Faith of these men and the Hopes of the other the King 's incredible Prudence had found Temperaments for their most harsh Propositions And by a present Judgment and commanding Eloquence did so urge His own and refel their Arguments that He forced an Admiration of Himself
aforesaid Answer the Propositions for which We shall willingly receive whereever We are and desire if it may be to receive them at Brainford this Night or early to Morrow Morning that all possible speed may be made in so good a work and all inconveniences otherwise likely to intervene may be avoided VII From OXFORD April 12. MDCXLIII At the Close of the Treaty Concerning the Disbanding of all Forces and His Return to the Houses TO shew to the whole World how earnestly His Majesty longs for Peace and that no success shall make Him desire the continuance of His Army to any other end or for any longer time than that and until things may be so setled as that the Law may have a full free and uninterrupted course for the defence and preservation of the Rights of His Majesty both Houses and His good Subjects 1. As soon as His Majesty is satisfied in His first Proposition concerning His own Revenue Magazines Ships and Forts in which He desires nothing but that the Just Known Legal Rights of His Majesty devolved to him from His Progenitors and of the Persons trusted by Him which have been violently taken from both be restored unto Him and unto them unless any just and legal exceptions against any of the persons trusted by Him which are yet unknown to His Majesty can be made appear to Him 2. As soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and Voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. the same of right belonging unto them by their birth-rights and the free election of those that sent them and having been voted from them for adhering to His Majesty in these Distractions His Majesty not intending that this should extend either to the Bishops whose Votes have been taken away by Bill or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made 3. As soon as His Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous Assemblies as to the great breach of the Priviledges and the high dishonour of Parliaments have formerly assembled about both Houses and awed the Members of the same and occasioned two several complaints from the Lords House and two several desires of that House to the House of Commons to join in a Declaratien against them the complying with which desire might have prevented all these miserable Distractions which have ensued which security His Majesty conceives can be only setled by adjourning the Parliament to some other place at the least twenty Miles from London the choice of which His Majesty leaves to both Houses His Majesty will most cheerfully and readily consent that both Armies be immediately disbanded and give a present meeting to both His Houses of Parliament at the time and place at and to which the Parliament shall be agreed to be adjourned His Majesty being most confident that the Law will then recover the due credit and estimation and that upon a free debate in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament such provisions will be made against seditious Preaching and Printing against His Majesty and the established Laws which hath been one of the chief causes of the present Distractions and such care will be taken concerning the legal and known Rights of His Majesty and the Property and Liberty of His Subjects that whatsoever hath been published or done in or by colour of any illegal Declaration Ordinance or Order of one or both Houses or any Committee of either of them and particularly the power to raise Arms without His Majesty's consent will be in such a manner recalled disclaimed and provided against that no seed will remain for the like to spring out of for the future to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and to endanger the very Being of it And in such a Convention His Majesty is resolved by His readiness to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed to Him by Bill for the real good of His Subjects and particularly for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of the practices of Papists against the State and the due execution of the Laws and true levying of the penalties against them to make known to all the world how causeless those Fears and Jealousies have been which have been raised against Him and by that so distracted this miserable Kingdom And if this offer of His Majesty be not consented to in which He asks nothing for which there is not apparent Justice on His side and in which He defers many things highly concerning both Himself and People till a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament which in Justice He might now require His Majesty is confident that it will then appear to all the World not only who is most desirous of Peace and whose fault it is that both Armies are not now disbanded but who have been the true and first cause that this Peace was ever interrupted or these Armies raised and the beginning or continuance of the War and the destruction and desolation of this poor Kingdom which is too likely to ensue will not by the most interessed passionate or prejudicate person be imputed to His Majesty VIII From OXFORD May 19. MDCXLIII In pursuance of the former SInce His Majesty's Message of the twelfth of April in which He conceived He had made such an Overture for the immediate disbanding of all Armies and composure of these present miserable Distractions by a full and free Convention in Parliament that a perfect and settled Peace would have ensued hath in all this time above a full month procured no Answer from both Houses His Majesty might well believe Himself absolved before God and man from the least possible charge of not having used His utmost endeavour for Peace yet when he considers that the Scene of all this Calamity is in the Bowels of His own Kingdom that all the bloud which is spilt is of His own Subjects and that what Victory soever it shall please God to give Him must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him when He considers That these desperate civil Dissentions may incourage and invite a foreign Enemy to make a prey of the whole Nation That Ireland is in present danger to be totally lost That the heavy Judgments of God Plague Pestilence and Famine will be the inevitable attendants of this unnatural Contention and That in a short time there will be so general a habit of Uncharitableness and Cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdom that even Peace it self will not restore His People to their old temper and security His Majesty cannot but again call for an Answer to that His Message which gives so fair a rise to end these unnatural Distractions And His Majesty doth this with the more earnestness because He doubts not the condition of His Armies in several parts His strength
happy and flourishing condition His Majesty having perused the Propositions now brought to Him finds them the same in effect which were offered to Him at Newcastle To some of which as He could not then consent without violation of His Conscience and Honour so neither can He agree to others now conceiving them in many respects more disagreeable to the present condition of affairs than when they were formerly presented unto Him as being destructive to the main principal Interests of the Army and of all those whose affections concur with them And His Majesty having seen the Proposals of the Army to the Commissioners from His two Houses residing with them and with them to be treated on in order to the clearing and securing of the Rights and Liberties of the Kingdom and the setling of a Just and lasting Peace to which Proposals as He conceives His two Houses not to be strangers so He believes they will think with Him that they much more conduce to the satisfaction of all Interests and may be a fitter foundation for a lasting Peace than the Propositions which at this time are tendered unto Him He therefore propounds as the best way in His judgment in order to a Peace that His two Houses would instantly take into consideration those Proposals upon which there may be a Personal Treaty with His Majesty and upon such other Propositions as His Majesty shall make hoping that the said Proposals may be so moderated in the said Treaty as to render them the more capable of His Majesty's full Concession Wherein He resolves to give full satisfaction to His People for whatsoever shall concern the setling of the Protestant Profession with liberty to tender Consciences and the securing of the Laws Liberties and Properties of His Subjects and all the just Privileges of Parliaments for the future And likewise by His present deportment in this Treaty He will make the World clearly judge of His intentions in matters of future Government In which Treaty His Majesty will be well pleased if it be thought fit that Commissioners from the Army whose the Proposals are may likewise be admitted His Majesty therefore conjures His two Houses of Parliament by the duty they owe to God and His Majesty their King and by the bowels of compassion they have to their fellow-Subjects both for the relief of their present Sufferings and to prevent future Miseries that they will forthwith accept of this His Majesty's offer whereby the joyful news of Peace may be restored to this distressed Kingdom And for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland mentioned in the Propositions His Majesty will very willingly Treat upon those particulars with the Scotch Commissioners and doubts not but to give reasonable satisfaction to that His Kingdom At Hampton-Court the ninth of September 1647. XXXI From HAMPTON-COURT Nov. 11. MDCXLVII Left on the Table at His departure For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. LIberty being that which in all times hath been but especially now is the common theme and desire of all men common reason shews that Kings less than any should endure Captivity And yet I call God and the world to witness with what Patience I have endured a tedious Restraint which so long as I had any hopes that this sort of My Suffering might conduce to the Peace of My Kingdoms or the hindring of more effusion of bloud I did willingly undergo but now finding by too certain proofs that this my continued Patience would not only turn to my Personal Ruine but likewise be of much more prejudice than furtherance to the publick good I thought I was bound as well by natural as political obligations to seek My Safety by retiring My self for some time from the publick view both of my Friends and Enemies And I appeal to all indifferent men to judge if I have not just cause to free My self from the hands of those who change their Principles with their condition and who are not ashamed openly to intend the destruction of the Nobility taking away their negative voice and with whom the Levellers doctrine is rather countenanced than punished And as for their intentions to my Person their changing and putting more strict Guards upon Me with the discharging most of all those servants of Mine whom formerly they willingly admitted to wait upon Me does sufficiently declare Nor would I have this Retirement mis-interpreted for I shall earnestly and uncessantly endeavour the setling of a safe and well-grounded Peace where-ever I am or shall be and that as much as may be without the effusion of more Christian blood for which how many times have I desired prest to be heard and yet no ear given to Me. And can any reasonable man think that according to the ordinary course of affairs there can be a setled Peace without it or that God will bless those who refuse to hear their own King Surely no. Nay I must further add that besides what concerns My self unless all other chief Interests have not only a hearing but likewise just satisfaction given unto them to wit the Presbyterians Independents Army those who have adhered to Me and even the Scots I say there cannot I speak not of Miracles it being in My opinion a sinful presumption in such cases to expect or trust to them be a safe or lasting Peace Now as I cannot deny but that My Personal security is the urgent cause of this My Retirement so I take God to witness that the publick Peace is no less before Mine eyes and I can find no better way to express this My profession I know not what a wiser may do than by desiring and urging that all chief Interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction As for Example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to content ought in My Judgment to enjoy the Liberty of their Consciences have an Act of Oblivion or Indemnity which should extend to all the rest of My Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindred from using such lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let Me be heard with Freedom Honour and Safety and I shall instantly break through this Cloud of Retirement and shew My self really to be Pater Patriae Hampton Court Novemb. 11. 1647. XXXII From the Isle of WIGHT November 17. MDCXLVII For a Personal Treaty with His particular Concessions For the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to the two Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HIS Majest is confident that before this time His two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which He left behind Him at Hampton-Court
that if in this time instead of mending your Errors by delay you persist in your Errors you make them greater and irreconcileable whereas on the other side if you do go on chearfully to mend them and look to the distressed state of Christendom and the Affairs of the Kingdom as it lyeth now by this great Engagement you will do your selves honour you shall incourage Me to go on with Parliaments and I hope all Christendom shall feel the good of it V. To the House of Lords at WESTMINSTER May 11. MDCXXVI MY Lords The Cause and only Cause of My coming to you this day is to express the sense I have of all your Honours for he that toucheth any of you toucheth Me in a very great measure I have thought fit to take order for the punishing some insolent Speeches lately spoken I have been too remiss heretofore in punishing such Speeches as concern My self Not that I was greedy of their Monies but that Buckingham through his importunity would not suffer Me to take notice of them lest he might be thought to have set Me on and that he might come the forwarder to his Trial. And to approve his Innocency as touching the matters against him I My self can be a Witness to clear him in every one of them I speak not this to take any thing out of your hands but to shew the reason why I have not hitherto punished those insolent Speeches against My self And now I hope you will be as tender of My Honour when time shall serve as I have been sensible of yours VI. To the French Servants of the QUEEN at Somerset-House July 1. MDCXXVI GEntlemen and Ladies I am driven to that extremity as I am personally come to acquaint you that I very earnestly desire your return into France True it is the deportment of some amongst you hath been very inoffensive to Me But others again have so dallied with My Patience and so highly affronted Me as I cannot I will no longer endure it VII To the Lords and Commons at the opening of His Third Parliament at WESTMINSTER Mar. 17. MDCXXVII VIII MY Lords and Gentlemen The Times are now for Action for Action I say not for Words therefore I shall use but a few And as Kings are said to be exemplary to Their Subjects so I wish you would imitate Me in this and use as few falling upon speedy Consultation No man is I conceive such a Stranger to the Common Necessity as to expostulate the cause of this Meeting and not to think Supply to be the end of it And as this Necessity is the product and consequent of your Advice so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just Defence of our Friends and Allies being so considerably concerned will be I hope arguments enough to perswade Supply For if it be as most true it is both My Duty and yours to preserve this Church and Common-wealth this Exigency certainly requires it In this time of Common danger I have taken the most antient speedy and best way for Supply by calling you together If which God forbid in not contributing what may answer the quality of My occasions you do not your duties it shall suffice I have done Mine in the Conscience whereof I shall rest content and take some other course for which God hath impowered Me to save that which the folly of particular men might hazard to lose Take not this as a Menace for I scorn to threaten any but My Equals but as an Admonition from Him who is tied both by Nature and Duty to provide for your preservations And I hppe though I thus speak your Demeanours will be such as shall not only make Me approve your former Counsels but oblige Me in thankfulness to meet you oftner than which nothing can be more pleasing to Me. I will only add one thing more and then leave My Lord Keeper to make a short Paraphrase upon the Text I have delivered you which is to Remember a thing to the end we may forget it Remembring the Distractions of our last Meeting you may suppose I have no Confidence of good success at this time But be assured I shall freely forget and forgive what is past hoping you will follow that sacred advice lately inculcated to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace VIII To the Lords and Commons at WHITE-HALL April 4. MDCXXVIII MY Lords and Gentlemen I do very well approve the Methods of your Proceedings in this Parliament A Jove Principium hoping that the rest of your Consultations will succeed the happier And I like the Preamble of My Lord Keeper otherwise I should a little have suspected that you thought Me not so careful of Religion as I have and ever shall be wherein I am as forward as you can desire As for your Petition I answer first in general that I like that well and will use these as well as all other means for the maintenance and propagation of that Religion wherein I have lived and do resolve to die But for the particulars you shall receive more full Answer hereafter And now I will only add this That as we pray to God to help us so we must help our selves for we can have no assurance of his assistance if we do lie in a Bed and only pray without using other means And therefore I must remember you that if we do not make provision speedily we shall not be able to put a Ship to Sea this year Verbum sat sapienti est IX To the Speaker and House of Commons April 14. MDCXXVIII MAster Speaker and you Gentlemen When I sent to you My last Message I did not expect to Reply for I intended to hasten you not to find fault with you I told you at your first meeting that this time was not to be spent in Words and I am sure it is less fit for Disputes which if I had a desire to entertain Master Speaker's Preamble might have given Me ground enough The Question is not now What Liberty you have in disposing of matters handled in the House but rather at this time what is fit to be done Therefore I hope you will follow My example in eschewing Disputations and fall to your important business You make a Protestation of your affection and zeal to My Prerogative grounded upon so good and just reasons that I must believe you But I look that you use Me with the like charity to believe what I have declared more than once since your meeting which is that I am as forward as you for the preservation of your true Liberties Let us not spend so much time in this that may hazard both My Prerogative and your Liberties to our Enemies To be short Go on speedily with your business without any fear or more Apologies for time calls fast upon you which will neither stay for you nor Me Wherefore it is My Duty to press you to hasten as knowing the necessity of
concerned But the Duty I owe to God in the preservation of the true Liberty of My People will not suffer Me at this time to be silent For how can any free-born Subject of England call Life or any thing he possesseth his own if Power without Right daily make new and abrogate the old Fundamental Law of the Land which I now take to be the present Case Wherefore when I came hither I expected that you would have endeavoured to have satisfied Me concerning these grounds which hinder Me to answer to your pretended Impeachment But since I see that nothing I can say will move you to it though Negatives are not so naturally proved as Affirmatives yet I will shew you the Reason why I am confident you cannot Judge Me nor indeed the meanest man in England For I will not like you without shewing a Reason seek to impose a belief upon My Subjects There is no proceeding just against any man but what is warranted either by God's Laws or the Municipal Laws of the Countrey where he lives Now I am most confident this dayes proceeding cannot be warranted by God's Law for on the contrary the authority of Obedience unto Kings is clearly warranted and strictly commanded both in the Old and new Testament which if denyed I am ready instantly to prove And for the question now in hand there it is said That where the Word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him What dost thou Eccl. 8. 4. Then for the Law of this Land I am no less confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an Impeachment can lye against the King they all going in His Name and one of their Maxims is That the King can do no wrong Besides the Law upon which you ground your proceedings must either be old or new if old shew it if new tell what Authority warranted by the Fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave to God and the world to judge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the People of England's Commission could grant your pretended Power I see nothing you can shew for that for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man in the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Plough-man if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so far are you from having it Thus you see that I speak not for My own Right alone as I am your King but also for the true Liberty of all My Subjects which consists not in the power of Government but in living under such Laws such a Government as may give themselves the best assurance of their Lives and propriety of their Goods Nor in this must or do I forget the Privileges of both Houses of Parliament which this days Proceedings do not only violate but likewise occasion the greatest breach of their publick Faith that I believe ever was heard of with which I am far from charging the two Houses for all pretended Crimes laid against Me bear Date long before this late Treaty at Newport in which I having concluded as much as in Me lay and hopefully expecting the Houses agreement thereunto I was suddenly surprized and hurried from thence as a Prisoner upon which account I am against My will brought hither where since I am come I cannot but to My power defend the ancient Laws and Liberties of this Kingdom together with My own just Right Then for any thing I can see the Higher House is totally excluded And for the House of Commons it is too well known that the major part of them are detained or deterred from sitting so as if I had no other this were sufficient for Me to protest against the Lawfulness of your pretended Court. Besides all this the Peace of the Kingdom is not the least in My thoughts and what hopes of Settlement is there so long as Power reigns without Rule or Law changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdom hath flourished for many hundred years nor will I say what will fall out in case this Lawless unjust proceeding against Me do go on And believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this Change for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the Reign of Queen Elizabeth the King My Father and My self until the beginning of these unhappy Troubles and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new And by this time it will be too sensibly evident that the Arms I took up were only to defend the Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom against those who have supposed My Power hath totally changed the ancient Government Thus having shewed you briefly the Reasons why I cannot submit to your pretended Authority without violating the Trust which I have from God for the Welfare and Liberty of My People I expect from you either clear Reasons to convince My Judgment shewing Me that I am in an Error and then truly I will answer or that you will withdraw your proceedings This I intended to speak in Westminster-Hall on Monday 22. January but against Reason was hindred to shew My Reasons Westminster-Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. Afternoon O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Seventy one present The King brought in by the Guard looks with a Majestick Countenance upon his pretended Judges and sits down After the second O yes and Silence commanded Cooke began more insolently May it please your Lordship my Lord President this is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any Issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibite a Charge against him containing the Highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England That a King of England trusted to keep the Law that had taken an Oath so to do that had Tribute pay'd him for that end should be guilty of a wicked Design to subvert and destroy our Laws and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defence of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against the Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the People of England that he might speedily be required to make an Answer to the Charge But My Lord in stead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High
Majesty therefore rather preferred the safety of His People from that present and visible danger than the providing for that which was more remote but no less dangerous to the state of this Kingdom and of the affairs of that part of Christendom which then were and yet are in friendship and alliance with His Majesty and thereupon His Majesty not being then able to discern when it might please God to stay His hand of Visitation nor what place might be more secure than other at a time convenient for their re-assembling His Majesty dissolved that Parliament That Parliament being now ended His Majesty did not therewith cast off His Royal care of His great and important affairs but by the advice of His Privy Council and of His Council of War He continued His preparations and former resolutions and therein not only expended those moneys which by the two Subsidies aforesaid were given unto Him for His own private use whereof He had too much occasion as He found the state of His Exchequer at His first entrance but added much more of His own as by His credit and the credit of some of His Servants He was able to compass the same At last by much disadvantage by the retarding of provisions and uncertainty of the means His Navy was prepared and set to Sea and the designs unto which they were sent and specially directed were so probable and so well advised that had they not miscarried in the execution His Majesty is well assured they would have given good satisfaction not only to His own people but to all the world that they were not lightly or unadvisedly undertaken and pursued But it pleased God who is the Lord of Hosts and unto whose Providence and good pleasure His Majesty doth and shall ever submit Himself and all His endeavours not to give that success which was desired And yet were those attempts not altogether so fruitless as the envy of the Times hath apprehended the Enemy receiving thereby no small loss and our party no little advantage and it would much avail to further His Majestie 's great affairs and the Peace of Christendom which ought to be the true end of all hostility were these first beginnings which are most subject to miscarry well seconded and pursued as His Majesty intended and as in the judgment of all men conversant in actions of this nature were fit not to have been neglected These things being thus acted and God of his infinite Goodness beyond expectation asswaging the rage of the Pestilence and in a manner of a sudden restoring health and safety to the Cities of London and Westminster which are the fittest places for the resort of His Majesty His Lords and Commons to meet in Parliament His Majesty in the depth of Winter no sooner descried the probability of a safe assembling of His people and in His Princely Wisdom and Providence foresaw that if the opportunity of seasons should be omitted preparations both defensive and offensive could not be made in such sort as was requisite for their common safety but He advised and resolved of the summoning of a new Parliament where He might freely communicate the necessities of the State and by the counsel and advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament who are the representative body of the whole Kingdom and the great Counsel of the Realm He might proceed in these enterprises and be inabled thereunto which concern the common good safety and honour both of Prince and People and accordingly the sixth of February last a new Parliament was begun At the first meeting His Majesty did forbear to press them with any thing which might have the least appearance of His own Interest but recommended unto them the care of making of good Laws which are the ordinary subject for a Parliament His Majesty believing that they could not have suffered many days much less many weeks to have passed by before the apprehension and care of the common safety of this Kingdom and of the true Religion prosessed and maintained therein and of Our Friends and Allies who must prosper or suffer with us would have led them to a due and a timely consideration of all the means which might best conduce to those ends which the Lords of the higher House by a Committee of that House did timely and seasonably consider of and invited the Commons to a Conference concerning that great business at which Conference there were opened unto them the great occasions which pressed His Majesty which making no impression with them His majesty did first by message and after by Letters put the House of Commons in mind of that which was most necessary the defence of the Kingdom and due and timely preparations for the same The Commons House after this upon the seven and twentieth of March last with one unanimous consent at first agreed to give unto His Majesty three intire Subsidies and three Fiteens for a present supply unto Him and upon the six and twentieth of April after upon second cogitations they added a fourth Subsidy and ordered the days of payment for them all whereof the first should have been on the last day of this present month of June Upon this the King of Denmark and other Princes and States being ingaged with His Majesty in this Common Cause His Majesty fitted His occasions according to the times which were appointed for the payment of those Subsidies and Fifteens and hastned on the Lords Committees and His Council at War to perfect their resolutions for the ordering and setting of His designs which they accordingly did and brought them to that maturity that they found no impediment to a final conclusion of their Counsels but want of money to put things into Action His Majesty hereupon who had with much patience expected the real performance of that which the Commons had promised finding the time of the year posting away and having intelligence not only from His own Ministers and Subjects in forein parts but from all parts of Christendom of the great and powerful preparations of the King of Spain and that His design was upon this Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ireland or both and it is hard to determine which of them would be of worst consequence He acquainted the House of Commons therewith and laid open unto them truly and clearly how the state of things then stood and yet stand and at several times and upon several occasions re-iterated the same But that House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passions of a few members of the House for private and personal ends ill beseeming publick persons trusted by their Country as then they were not only neglected but wilfully refused to hearken to all the gentle admonitions which His Majesty could give them and neither did nor would intend any thing but the prosecution of one of the Peers of this Realm and that in such a disordered manner as being set at their own instance into a Legal way wherein the proofs
for their persons for no other cause but because they had Petitions depending in that House and which is more strange they resolved that a Signification should be made from that House by a Letter to issue under the hand of their Speaker unto the Lord Keeper of Our Great Seal that no Attachments should be granted out against the said Chambers Fowkes Gilman or Philips during their said Priviledge of Parliament whereas it is far above the power of that House to give direction to any of Our Courts at Westminster to stop Attachments against any man though never so strongly priviledged the breach of priviledge being not in the Court that grants but in the party or Minister that puts in execution such Attachments And therefore if any such Letter had come to the Lord Keeper as it did not he should have highly offended Us if he had obeyed it Nay they went so far as they spared not the Honour of Our Council-board but examined their proceedings in the case of Our Customers interrogating what this or that man of Our Council said in direction of them in the business committed to their charge And when one of the members of that House speaking of Our Counsellers said We had wicked Counsel and another said That the Council and Judges sought to trample under feet the Liberty of the Subject and a third traduced Our high Court of Star-Chamber for the sentence given against Savage they passed without check or censure by the House By which may appear how far the members of that House have of late swollen beyond the rules of moderation and the modesty of former times and this under pretence of priviledge and freedom of speech whereby they take liberty to declare against all authority of Council and Courts at their pleasure They sent for Our Sheriff of London to examine him in a cause whereof they had no jurisdiction their true and ancient jurisdiction extending only to their own Members and to the conservation of their Priviledges and not to the censure of forein persons and causes which have no relation to their Priviledges the same being but a late Innovation And yet upon an enforced strain of a contempt for not answering to their satisfaction they committed him to the Tower of London using that outward pretext for a cause of their committing him the true and inward cause being for that he had shewed himself dutiful to Us and Our Commandments in the matter concerning Our Customs In these Innovations which We will never permit again they pretended indeed Our service but their drift was to break by this means through all respects and ligaments of Government and to erect an universal overswaying power to themselves which belongs only to Us and not to them Lastly in their proceedings against Our Customers they went about to censure them as Delinquents and to punish them for staying some goods of some factious Merchants in Our Store-house for not paying those duties which themselves had formerly payed and which the Customers without interruption had received of all other Merchants many years before and to which they were authorized both by Our great Seal and by several directions and commandments from Us and Our Privy Council To give some colour to their proceedings herein they went about to create a new Priviledge which We will never admit That a Parliament-man hath priviledge for his goods against the King the consequence whereof would be that he may not be constrained to pay any duties to the King during the time of Priviledge of Parliament It is true they would have made this case to have been between the Merchant and Our Farmers of Our Custom and have severed them from Our Interest and Commandment thereby the rather to make them liable to the censure and punishment of that House But on the other side We holding it both unjust and dishonourable to withdraw Our self from Our Officers in any thing they did by Our Commandment or to disavow any thing that We had enjoyned to be done upon Monday the three and twentieth day of February sent a Message unto them by Secretary Coke thanking them for the respect they had shewed in severing the Interest of Our Farmers from Our own Interest and Commandment nevertheless We were bound in Honour to acknowledge as truth that what was done by them was done by Our express direction and commandment and if for doing thereof Our Farmers should suffer it would highly concern Us in Honour Which Message was no sooner delivered unto them but in a tumultuous and discontented manner they called Adjourn Adjourn and thereupon without any cause given on Our part in a very unusual manner adjourned themselves until the Wednesday following on which day by the uniform advice of Our Privy Council We caused both Houses to be adjourned until the second day of March hoping that in the mean time a better and more right understanding might be begotten between Us and the members of that House whereby the Parliament might come to an happy issue But understanding by good advertisement that their discontent did not in that time digest and pass away We resolved to make a second Adjournment until the tenth of March which was done as well to take time to Our self to think of some means to accommodate those difficulties as to give them time to advise better and accordingly We gave commandment for a second Adjournment in both Houses and for cessation of all businesses till the day appointed Which was very dutifully obeyed in the Higher House no man contradicting or questioning it But when the same commandment was delivered in the House of Commons by their Speaker it was straightways contradicted and although the Speaker declared unto them it was an absolute Right and power in Us to adjourn as well as to prorogue or dissolve and declared and read unto them divers precedents of that House to warrant the same yet Our commandment was most contemptuously disobeyed and some rising up to speak saying they had business to do before the House should be adjourned the Speaker again declared Our express and peremptory command to adjourn and that himself should presently leave the House and come unto Us which he offered to do but was withstood by two that had of purpose placed themselves one on either side of the Speaker's Chair and by force held him in for a time yet the Speaker finding means to get out of the Chair and purposing to come to Us as We had commanded those two and divers others caught hold of him and by strong hand brought him back and set him in the Chair against his will and then a member of that House cast out a most seditious paper framed by himself and his Adherents without any warrant from the House and containing a proscription of such as in duty and obedience to Us should advise or assist Us in the receipt of Tonnage and Poundage or should pay that duty as Enemies to the State and required
it to be read A most audacious insolency for any to presume to do that of their own heads which if the whole House had done in that manner had been above their power and had deserved the highest censure But the Speaker refusing to read it the Author of it took on him most seditiously and factiously to declare the contents of it and he and other his Adherents required it should be put to the question Which being misliked by many grave and wise men in the House and refused by the Speaker as We doubt not but all good men will believe he had cause and even abhor the memory of that insolent and seditious Act yet many bitter taunts and invectives were uttered against the Speaker by those factious persons and the doors being fast locked such as were well-affected to Our service were against their wills kept in the House all the time of this tumult and disorder And when some Advertisement came to Us that the House was in great distemper We first sent for the Serjeant of the House whom they after they knew Our pleasure therein presumptuously detained And after We sent a Message unto them by the Gentleman-usher of the Higher House but he coming to the door and declaring that he had a Message from Us was refused to be admitted and being kept at the door a long time at last the House adjourned themselves without receiving Our Message A proceeding so irregular as no Parliament can parallel when Our absolute Commands warranted by Law and precedents of former times were disobeyed the Speaker violated Our Messenger and message excluded which ought to have been admitted if they were a House and if they were not a House they ought not at all to have disputed much less to blast the honour of Our Servants to proscribe Our best Subjects and give Law to Sovereignty striking at the very essence of Monarchy By all which it appears that there wanted not men in that House that would get themselves a name by setting Diana's Temple on fire and make themselves popular by putting all the Kingdom in combustion For what other end could there be in that malicious speech whereby a wicked Shimei at that time would make Us odious in the eyes of all Our people as if it were meant to transfer all Trade and give the fatness of the Land to Strangers A conceipt We call God to witness which never entred into Our Soul and We think never harboured in any heart but that seditious heart which first broached it For God forbid We should love any ends so well as by any necessity to be driven to forget that indissoluble bond between Us and Our people We could and would have expected longer had We conceived any hope of their returning to their duty Whilest the Duke of Buckingham lived He was intituled to all the distempers and ill events of former Parliaments and therefore much endeavour was used to demolish him as the only wall of separation between us and Our people But now he is dead no alteration was found amongst those envenomed spirits which troubled then the blessed harmony between Us and Our Subjects and continue still to trouble it For now under the pretence of publick care of the Common-wealth they suggest new and causeless fears which in their own hearts they know to be false and devise new engines of mischief so to cast a blindness upon the good affections of Our people that they may not see the truth and largeness of Our heart towards them so that now it is manifest the Duke was not alone the mark that those men shot at but was only as a near Minister of Ours taken upon the by and in their passage to their more secret designs which only were to cast Our Affairs into a desperate condition to abate the powers of Our Crown and to bring Our Government into obloquy that in the end all things may be overwhelmed with anarchy and confusion We do not impute these disasters to the whole House of Commons knowing that there were amongst them many religious grave and well-minded men but the sincerer and better part of the House being over-born by the practices and clamors of the other who careless of their duties and taking advantage of the Times and Our Necessities have forced Us to break off this meeting which had it been answered with like duty on their parts as it was invited and begun with love on Ours might have proved happy and glorious both to Us and this whole Nation We have thus declared the manifold causes We had to dissolve this Parliament whereby all the world may see how much they have forgotten their former ingagements at the entry into the War themselves being perswaders to it promising to make us feared by Our Enemies and esteemed by Our Friends and how they turned the necessities grown by that War to enforce Us to yield conditions incompetible with Monarchy And now that Our people may discern that these provocations of evil men whose punishment We reserve to a due time have not changed Our good intentions to Our Subjects We do here profess to maintain the true Religion and Doctrine established in the Church of England without admitting or conniving at any backsliding either to Popery or Schism We do also declare that We will maintain the ancient and just Rights and Liberties of Our Subjects with so much constancy and justice that they shall have cause to acknowledge that under Our Government and gracious protection they live in a more happy and free estate than any Subjects in the Christian world Yet let no man hereby take the boldness to abuse that Liberty turning it to licentiousness nor misinterpret the Petition by perverting it to a lawless liberty wantonly or frowardly under that or any other colour to resist lawful and necessary Authority For as We will maintain Our Subjects in their just Liberties so We do and will expect that they yield as much submission and duty to Our Royal Prerogatives and as ready obedience to Our Authority and Commandments as hath been performed to the greatest of Our Predecessors And for Our Ministers We will not that they be terrified by those harsh proceedings that have been strained against some of them For as We will not command any thing unjust or dishonourable but shall use Our Authority and Prerogatives for the good of Our People so We will expect that Our Ministers obey Us and they shall assure themselves We will protect them As for Our Merchants We let them know We shall always endeavour to cherish and enlarge the trade of such as be dutiful without burthening them beyond that which is fitting but the duty of five in the hundred for the guarding of the Seas and defence of the Realm to which We hold Our selves still obliged and which duty hath continued without interruption so many successions of Ages We hold no dutiful or good Subject will deny it being so necessary for the good of
and the charge of an Army fit to master such a business amounting to so great a sum as his Majesty had no means to raise having not only emptied his own coffers but issued between three and four hundred thousand pounds which he borrowed of his servants upon security out of his own estate to provide such things as were necessary to begin such an action with his Majesty after the example of his Predecessors resorted to his People in their representative Body the Parliament whom he desired with all the expressions of Grace and Goodness which could possibly come from him that taking into serious and dutiful consideration the nature of these bleeding evils and how dangerous it was to lose the least minute of time lest thereby those of Scotland should gain opportunity to frame their parties with forein States that they would for a while lay aside all other debates and pass an Act for the speedy payment of so many Subsidies as might enable his Majesty to put in readiness for this Summer those things which were to be prepared before so great an Army could be brought into the field For further supply necessary for so great an undertaking his Majesty declared that He expected it not till there might be a happy conclusion of that Session and till their just Grievances might be first graciously heard and relieved Wherein as His Majesty would most willingly have given them the precedence before matter of Supply if the great necessity of his occasions could have permitted so he was graciously pleased for their full assurance and satisfaction therein to give them His Royal word That without determining the Session upon granting of the Subsidies He would give them before they parted as much time as the season of the year and the great affairs in hand would permit for considering all such Petitions as they should conceive to be good for the Commonwealth and what they could not now finish they should have full time to perfect towards Winter His Majesty graciously assuring them that He would go along with them for their advantage through all the expressions of a gracious and pious King to the end there might be such a happy conclusion of that as might be the cause of many more meetings with them in Parliament From their first assembling until the 21 of April the House of Commons did nothing that could give His Majesty any content or confidence in their speedy supplying of Him whereupon He commanded both the Houses to attend Him in the Banquetting House at White-Hall in the afternoon of that 21 day of April Where by the Lord Keeper His Majesty put them in mind of the end for which they were assembled which was for His Majestie 's Supply that if it were not speedy it would be of no use unto Him part of the Army then marching at the charge of above a hundred thousand pounds a month which would all be lost if His Majesty were not presently supplied so as it was not possible to be longer forborn Yet His Majestie then exprest that the Supply He for the present desired was only to enable Him to go on with His designs for three or four months and that He expected no further Supply till all their just Grievances were relieved And because His Majesty had taken notice of some misapprehensions about the levying of the Shipping-money His Majesty commanded the Lord Keeper to let them know That He never had any intention to make any Revenue of it nor had ever made any but that all the money collected had been paid to the Treasurer of the Navy and by Him expended besides great sums of money every year out of His Majestie 's own purse That His Majesty had once resolved this year to have levied none but that He was forced to alter His resolution in regard He was of necessity to send an Army for reducing those of Scotland during which time it was requisite the Seas should be well guarded And besides His Majesty had knowledge of the great Fleets prepared by all neighbouring Princes this year and of the insolencies committed by those of Algiers with the store of Ships which they had in readiness And therefore though His Majesty for this present year could not forbear it but expected their concurrence in the levying of it yet for the future to give all His Subjects assurance how just and Royal His intentions were and that all His aim was but to live like their King able to defend Himself and them to be useful to His friends and considerable to His enemies to maintain the Soveraignty of the Seas and so make the Kingdom flourish in trade and commerce He was graciously pleased to let them know that the ordinary Revenue now taken by the Crown could not serve the turn and therefore that it must be by Shipping-money or some other way wherein He was willing to leave it to their considerations what better course to find out and to settle it how they would so the thing were done which so much imported the honour and safety of the Kingdom and His Majesty for His part would most readily and chearfully grant any thing they could desire for securing them in the propriety of their Goods and Estates and in the Liberty of their Persons His Majesty telling them it was in their power to make this as happy a Parliament as ever was and to be the cause of the King 's delighting to meet with His people and His People with Him That there was no such way to effect this as by putting obligations of trust and confidence upon Him which as it was the way of good manners with a King so it was a surer and safer course for themselves than any that their own jealousies and fears could invent His Majesty being a Prince that deserved their trust and would not lose the honour of it and a Prince of such a gracious nature that disdained His People should overcome Him by kindness He had made this good to some other Subjects of His and if they followed His counsel they should be sure not to repent it being the people that were nearest and dearest to Him and Subjects whom He did and had reason to value more than the Subjects of any His other Kingdoms His Majesty having thus graciously expressed Himself unto them He expected the House of Commons would have the next day taken into consideration the matter of Supply and laid aside all other debates till that were resolved of according to His desire But in stead of giving an Answer therein such as the pressing and urgent occasions required they fell into discourses and debates about their pretended Grievances and raised up so many and of so several natures that in a Parliamentary way they could not but spend more time than His Majestie 's great and weighty Affairs could possibly afford His Majesty foreseeing in His great Wisdom that they were not in the way to make this an happy Parliament which He
not My fashion wherefore to conclude what I offered the last day to the House of Commons I think is well known to you all as likewise how they accepted it which I desire not to remember but wish that they had remembred how at first they were told in My Name by my Lord Keeper That delay was the worst kind of denial Yet I will not lay this fault on the whole House for I will not judge so uncharitably of those whom for the most part I take to be Loyal and well-affected Subjects but that it hath been the malicious cunning of some few seditiously-affected men that hath been the cause of this Misunderstanding I shall now end as I began in giving your Lordships thanks for your affection shewn to Me at this time desiring you to go on to assist me in the maintaining of that Regal power that is truly Mine and as for the Liberty of the People that they now so much seem to startle at know My Lords that no King in the world shall be more careful to maintain them in the Property of their Goods Liberty of their Persons and true Religion than I shall be And now My Lord Keeper do what I have commanded you Then the Lord Keeper added My Lords and you Gentlemen of the House of Commons The King's Majesty doth dissolve this Parliament BY all the proceedings herein declared it is evident to all men how willing and desirous his Majesty hath been to make use of the ancient and noble way of Parliament used and instituted by his Royal Predecessors for the preservation and honour of this famous Monarchy and that on his Majestie 's part nothing was wanting that could be expected from a King whereby this Parliament might have had an happy conclusion for the comfort and content of all his Majesties Subjects and for the good and safety of this Kingdom On the contrary it is apparent how those of the House of Commons whose sinister and malitious courses enforced his Majesty to dissolve this Parliament have vitiated and abused that ancient and noble way of Parliament perverting the same to their own unworthy ends and forgetting the true use and institution of Parliaments For whereas these meetings and assemblies of his Majesty with the Peers and Commons of this Realm were in their first original and in the practice of all succeeding ages ordained and held as pledges and testimonies of Affection between the King and his People the King for his part graciously hearing and redressing such Grievances as his People in humble and dutiful manner should represent unto Him and the Subjects on their part as Testimonies of their Duty supplying His Majesty upon all extraordinary occasions for the support of his Honour and Soveraignty and for preserving the Kingdom in glory and safety those ill-affected Members of the House of Commons instead of an humble and dutiful way of presenting their Grievances to his Majesty have taken upon them to be the Guiders and Directors in all matters that concern his Majestie 's Government both Temporal and Ecclesiastical and as if Kings were bound to give an account of their Regal Actions and of their manner of Government to their Subjects assembled in Parliament they have in a very audacious and insolent way entred into examination and censuring of the present Government traduced his Majestie 's administration of Justice rendred as much as in them lay odious to the rest of his Majestie 's Subjects not only the Officers and Ministers of State but even his Majestie 's very Government which hath been so just and gracious that never did this or any other Nation enjoy more Blessings and Happiness than hath been by all his Majestie 's Subjects enjoyed ever since his Majestie 's access to the Crown nor did this Kingdom ever so flourish in Trade and Commerce as at this present or partake of more Peace and Plenty in all kinds whatsoever And whereas the ordinary Revenues of the Crown not sufficing to defray extraordinary charges it hath ever been the usage in all Parliaments to aid and assist the Kings of this Realm with free and fitting supply towards the maintenance of their Wars and for making good their Royal undertakings whereby the Kingdom intrusted to their protection might be held up in splendor and greatness those ill-affected persons of the House of Commons have been so far from treading in the steps of their Ancestors by their dutiful expressions in this kind that contrarily they have introduced a way of bargaining and contracting with the King as if nothing ought to be given Him by them but what He should buy and purchase of them either by quitting somewhat of His Royal Prerogative or by diminishing and lessening His Revenues Which courses of theirs how repugnant they are to the duty of Subjects how unfit for His Majesty in Honour to permit and suffer and what hazard and dishonour they subject this Kingdom to all men may easily judge that will but equally and impartially weigh them His Majesty hath been by this means reduced to such streights and extremities that were not His care of the Publick good and safety the greater these men as much as in them lies would quickly bring ruine and confusion to the State and render contemptible this glorious Monarchy But this frowardness and undutiful behaviour of theirs cannot lessen His Majestie 's care of preserving the Kingdoms intrusted to His Protection and Government nor His gracious and tender affection to His people for whose good and comfort His Majesty by God's gracious assistance will so provide that all His loving Subjects may still enjoy the happiness of living under the blessed shade and protection of His Royal Scepter In the mean time to the end all His Majestie 's loving Subjects may know how graciously His Majesty is enclined to hear and redress all the just Grievances of His People as well out of Parliament as in Parliament His Majesty doth hereby further declare His Royal will and pleasure that all His loving Subjects who have any just cause to present or complain of any Grievances or Oppressions may freely address themselves by their humble Petitions to His Sacred Majesty who will graciously hear their complaints and give such fitting redress therein that all His people shall have just cause to acknowledge His Grace and Goodness towards them and to be fully satisfied that no persons or assemblies can more prevail with His Majesty than the Piety and Justice of His own Royal nature and the tender affection He doth and shall ever bear to all His people and loving Subjects THE PARABLE OF IOTHAN IUD 9 And the Bramble sayd unto the Trees If in truth ye anoint me King over you then come and put your trust in my shadow and if not let Fire come out of the Bramble and devour the Cedars of Lebanon Iudg. 9. v. 15. Imperium Flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis Artibus exercuit Tacit. Hist. lib. 1. i. e. NO man ever
of the State of the Kingdom THE Commons in this present Parliament assembled having with much earnestness and faithfulness of affection and zeal to the publick good of this Kingdom and His Majesties Honour and Service for the space of twelve months wrastled with the great Dangers and Fears the pressing Miseries and Calamities the various Distempers and Disorders which had not only assaulted but even overwhelmed and extinguisht the Liberty Peace and Prosperity of this Kingdom the comfort and hopes of all His Majesties good Subjects and exceedingly weakned and undermined the foundation and strength of His own Royal Throne do yet find an abounding malignity and opposition in those Parties and Factions who have been the cause of those evils and do still labour to cast aspersions upon that which hath been done and to raise many difficulties for the hinderance of that which remains yet undone and to foment Jealousies betwixt the King and the Parliament that so they may deprive Him and His People of the fruit of his own gracious intentions and their humble desires of procuring the publick Peace Safety and Happiness of this Realm For the preventing of those miserable effects which such malicious endeavours may produce We have thought good to declare First The Root and the growth of these mischievous Designs Secondly The Maturity and ripeness to which they have attained before the beginning of the Parliament Thirdly The effectual Means which have been used for the extirpation of those dangerous evils and the Progress which hath therein been made by His Majesties Goodness and the wisdom of the Parliament Fourthly The ways of Obstruction and Opposition by which that progress hath been interrupted Fifthly The courses to be taken for the removing those Obstacles and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavours of restoring and establishing the ancient Honour Greatness and Security of this Crown and Nation The Root of all this mischief we find to be a malignant and pernicious design of subverting the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government upon which the Religion and Justice of this Kingdom are firmly establish'd The Actors and Promoters hereof have been First The Jesuited Papists who hate the Laws as the obstacles of that Change and subversion of Religion which they so much long for Secondly The Bishops and the corrupt part of the Clergy who cherish Formality and Superstition as the natural effects and more probable supports of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Vsurpation Thirdly Such Counsellors and Courtiers as for private ends have engaged themselves to further the interests of some foreign Princes or States to the prejudice of His Majesty and the State at home The Common Principles by which they moulded and governed all their particular Counsels and Actions were these First To maintain continual Differences and Discontents betwixt the King and the People upon questions of Prerogative and Liberty that so they might have the advantage of siding with Him and under the notions of men addicted to His Service gain to themselves and their parties the places of greatest trust and power in the Kingdom A Second To suppress the purity and power of Religion and such persons as were best affected to it as being contrary to their own ends and the greatest impediment to that Change which they thought to introduce A Third to conjoyn those parties of the Kingdom which were most propitious to their own ends and to divide those who were most opposite which consisted in many particular observations to cherish the Arminian part in those Points wherein they agreè with the Papists to multiply and enlarge the Differences betwixt the common Protestants and those whom they call Puritans to introduce and countenance such Opinions and Ceremonies as are fittest for accommodation with Popery to encrease and maintain ignorance looseness and prophaneness in the People that of those three parties Papists Arminians and Libertines they might compose a body fit to act such Counsels and resolutions as were most conducible to their own ends A Fourth To disaffect the King to Parliaments by Slanders and false Imputations and by putting Him upon other waies of supply which in shew and appearance were fuller of advantage then the ordinary course of Subsidies though in truth they brought more loss than gain both to the King and People and have caused the great Distractions under which we both suffer As in all compounded bodies the Operations are qualified according to the predominant Element so in this mixt party the Jesuited Counsels being most active and prevailing may easily be discovered to have had the greatest sway in all their determinations and if they be not prevented are likely to devour the rest or to turn them into their own nature In the beginning of His Majesties Reign the party begun to revive and flourish again having been somewhat dampt by the breach with Spain in the last year of King James and by His Majesties Marriage with France the Interests and Counsels of that State being not so contrary to the good of Religion and the prosperity of this Kingdom as those of Spain and the Papists of England having been evermore addicted to Spain then France yet they still retained a purpose and resolution to weaken the Protestant parties in all parts and even in France whereby to make way for the Change of Religion which they intended at home The first effect and evidence of their recovery and strength was the dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford after there had been given two Subsidies to His Majesty and before they received relief in any one Grievance many other more miserable effects followed The loss of the Rochel Fleet by the help of our Shipping set forth and delivered over to the French in opposition to the advice of Parliament which left that Town without defence by Sea and made way not only to the loss of that important place but likewise to the loss of all the strength and security of the Protestant Religion in France The diverting of His Majesties course of Wars from the West Indies which was the most facile and hopeful way for this Kingdom to prevail against the Spaniard to an expenceful and succesless attempt upon Cales which was so ordered as if it had rather been intended to make us weary of War then to prosper in it The precipitate breach with France by taking their Ships to a great value without making recompence to the English whose goods were thereupon imbarg'd and confiscate in that Kingdom The Peace with Spain without consent of Parliament contrary to the promise of King James to both Houses whereby the Palatine Cause was deserted and left to chargeable and hopeless Treaties which for the most part were managed by those who might justly be suspected to be no friends to that Cause The charging of the Kingdom with billetted Souldiers in all parts of it and that concomitant design of Germane horse that the Land might either submit with fear or
Bills of the Triennial Parliament for the Continuance of this present Parliament and in the Preamble to the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage the matter of which having begot so many disturbances in late Parliaments We were willing to remove that no Interest of Ours might hereafter break that correspondence abundantly contenting Our self with an Assurance which we still have that We should be repaired and supplyed by a just proportion of Confidence Bounty and Obedience of Our People In the Bills for the taking away the High-Commission and Star-chamber Courts We believed We had given that real satisfaction that all jealousies and apprehensions of arbitrary pressures under the Civil or Ecclesiastical State would easily have been abandoned especially when they saw all possible doubts secured by the visitation of a Triennial Parliament These and others of no mean consideration We had rather should be valued in the hearts and affections of Our People then in any mention of Our own not doubting but as We have taken all these occasions to render their condition most comfortable and happy so they will always in a grateful and dutiful relation be ready with equal tenderness and alacrity to advance Our Rights and preserve Our Honour upon which their own Security and subsistence so much depends And We will beso careful that no particular shall be presented unto Us for the compleating and establishing that Security to which We will not with the same readiness contribute Our best assistance If these Resolutions be the effects of Our present Councils and We take God to witness that they are such and that all Our loving Subjects may confidently expect the benefit of them from Us certainly no ill design upon the Publick can accompany such Resolutions neither will there be great cause of suspicion of any Persons preferred by Us to degrees of Honour and places of Trust and imployment since this Parliament And We must confess that amongst Our misfortunes We reckon it not the least That having not retained in Our Service nor protected any one person against whom Our Parliament hath excepted during the whole sitting of it and having in all that time scarce vouchsafed to any man an instance of Our Grace and Favour but to such who were under some eminent character of Estimation amongst Our People there should so soon be any misunderstanding or jealousie of their Fidelity and uprightness especially in a time when We take all occasions to declare that We conceive Our self only capable of being served by honest men and in honest ways However if in truth We have been mistaken in such Our election the particular shall be no sooner discovered to Us either by Our own observation or other certain information then We will leave them to publick Justice under the marks of Our Displeasure If notwithstanding this any Malignant Party shall take heart and be willing to sacrifice the Peace and Happiness of their Country to their own sinister ends and ambitions under what pretence of Religion and Conscience soever if they shall endeavour to lessen Our Reputation and Interest and to weaken Our lawful Power and Authority with Our good Subjects if they shall go about by discountenancing the present Laws to loosen the Bonds of Government that all Disorder and Confusion may break in upon Us We doubt not but God in his good time will discover them unto Us and the wisdom and courage of Our High Court of Parliament joyn with Us in their suppression and punishment Having now said all that We can to express the clearness and uprightness of Our Intensions to Our People and done all We can to manifest those Intentions We cannot but confidently believe all Our good Subjects will acknowledge Our part to be fully performed both in Deeds past and present Resolutions to do whatsoever with Justice may be required of Us and that their quiet and prosperity depends now wholly upon themselves and is in their own power by yielding all obedience and due reverence to the Law which is the inheritance of every Subject and the only security he can have for his Life Liberty or Estate and the which being neglected or disesteemed under what specious shews soever a great measure of Infelicity if not an irreparable Confusion must without doubt fall upon them And We doubt not it will be the most acceptable Declaration a King can make to His Subjects that for Our part We are resolved not only duely to observe the Laws Our Self but to maintain them against what opposition soever though with the hazard of Our Being And Our hope is that not only the Loyalty and good Affections of all Our loving Subjects will concur with Us in the constant preserving a good understanding between Us and and Our People but at this time their own and Our Interest and compassion of the lamentable condition of Our poor Protestant Subjects in Ireland will invite them to a fair Intelligence and Unity amongst themselves that so We may with one heart intend the relieving and recovering that unhappy Kingdom where those barbarous Rebels practise such inhumane and unheard-of Outrages upon Our miserable people that no Christian ear can hear without horrour nor Story parallel And as We look upon this as the greatest affliction it hath pleased God to lay upon Us so Our unhappiness is increased in that by the Distempers at home so early remedies have not been applyed to those growing evils as the expectation and necessity there requires though for Our part as We did upon the first notice acquaint Our Parliament of Scotland where We then were with that Rebellion requiring their aid and assistance and gave like speedy intimation and recommendation to our Parliament here so since Our return hither We have been forward to all things which have been proposed to Us towards that Work and have lately Our Self offered by a Message to Our House of Peers and communicated to Our House of Commons to take upon Us the care to raise speedily ten thousand English Voluntiers for that Service if the House of Commons shall declare that they will pay them Which particulars We are in a manner necessitated to publish since We are informed that the Malice of some persons hath whispered it abroad That the no speedier advancing of this business hath proceeded from some want of alacrity in Us to this great Work whereas we acknowledge it a high crime against Almighty God and inexcusable to Our good Subjects of Our three Kingdoms if We did not to the utmost imploy all Our powers and faculties to the speediest and most effectual assistance and protection of that distressed People And we shall now conjure all Our good Subjects of what degree soever by all the Bonds of Love Duty or Obedience that are precious to good men to joyn with Us for the recovery of the Peace of that Kingdom and the preservation of the Peace of this to remove all their Doubts and Fears which may interrupt their Affection to Us
We utterly profess against it being most confident of the Loyalty good Affections and Integrity of the intentions of that great Body and knowing well that very many of both Houses were absent and many dissented from all those particulars We complain of But we do believe and accordingly profess to all the world that the Malignity of this Design as dangerous to the Laws of this Kingdom the Peace of the same and the Liberties of all Our good Subjects as to Our Self and Our just Prerogative hath proceeded from the subtle Informations mischievous Practices and evil Counsels of ambitious turbulent Spirits disaffected to God's true Religion and the Unity of the Professors thereof Our Honour and Safety and the publick Peace and Prosperity of Our People not without a strong influence upon the very actions of both Houses But how faulty soever others are We shall with God's assistance endeavour to discharge Our Duty with uprightness of heart and therefore since these Propositions come to Us in the name of both Houses of Parliament We shall take a more particular notice of every of them If the 1 2 3 4 5 9 10 15 16 19. Demands had been writ and printed in a tongue unknown to Us and Our People it might have been possible We and they might have charitably believed the Propositions to be such as might have been in order to the ends pretended in the Petition to wit the establishing of Our Honour and Safety the Welfare and Security of Our Subjects and Dominions and the removing those Jealousies and Differences which are said to have unhappily fallen betwixt Vs and Our People and procuring both Vs and them a constant course of Honour Peace and Happinss But being read and understood by all We cannot but assure Our Self that this Profession joyned to these Propositions will rather appear a Mockery and a Scorn the Demands being such as We were unworthy of the Trust reposed in Us by the Law and of Our Descent from so many great and famous Ancestours if We could be brought to abandon that Power which only can inable Us to perform what We are sworn to in protecting Our People and the Laws and so assume others into it as to devest Our Self of it although not only Our present Condition which it can hardly be were more necessitous then it is and We were both vanquish'd and a Prisoner and in a worse condition then ever the most unfortunate of Our Predecessours have been reduced to by the most criminal of their Subjects and though the Bait laid to draw Us to it and to keep Our Subjects from indignation at the mention of it the promises of a plentiful and unparallel'd Revenue were reduced from generals which signifie nothing to clear and certain particulars since such a Bargain would have but too great a resemblance of that of Esau's if We should part with such Flowers of Our Crown as are worth all the rest of the Garland and have been transmitted to us from so many Ancestours and have been found so useful and necessary for the Welfare and Security of Our Subjects for any present Necessity or for any low and sordid considerations of Wealth and Gain And therefore all men knowing that those Accommodations are most easily made and most exactly observed that are grounded upon reasonable and equal Conditions We have great cause to believe that the Contrivers of these had no intention of setling any firm Accommodation but to increase those Jealousies and widen that Division which not by Our fault is now unhappily fallen between Us and both Houses It is asked That all the Lords and others of Our Privy Council and such We know now what you mean by such but We have cause to think you mean all great Officers and Ministers of State either at home or beyond the Seas For care is taken to leave out no Person or Place that Our Dishonour may be sure not to be bounded within this Kingdom though no subtle Insinuations at such a distance can probably be believed to have been the cause of our Distractions and Dangers should be put from our Privy Council and from those Offices and imployments unless they be approved by both Houses of Parliament how faithful soever We have found them to Us and the publick and how far soever they have been from offending against any Law the only rule they had or any others ought to have to walk by We therefore to this part of this Demand return you this Answer That We are willing to grant that they shall take a larger Oath then you your selves desire in your Eleventh Demand for maintaining not of any part but of the whole Law and We have and do assure you That We will be careful to make election of such Persons in those places of trust as shall have given good testimonies of their abilities and integrities and against whom there can be no just cause of exception whereon reasonably to ground a diffidence That if We have or shall be mistaken in Our election We have and do assure you that there is no man so near to Us in place or affection whom we will not leave to the Justice of the Law if you shall bring a particular charge and sufficient proofs against him and that We have given you the best pledge of the effects of such a promise on Our part and the best security for the performance of their duty on theirs a Triennial Parliament the apprehension of whose Justice will in all probability make them wary how they provoke it and Us wary how We chuse such as by the discovery of their faults may in any degree seem to discredit Our Election But that without any shadow of a Fault objected only perhaps because they follow their Conscience and preserve the established Laws and agree not in such Votes or assent not to such Bills as some persons who have now too great an Influence even upon both Houses judge or seem to judge to be for the publick good and as are agreeable to that new Vtopia of Religion and Government into which they endeavour to transform this Kingdom for We remember what names and for what Reasons you left out in the Bill offered Us concerning the Militia which you had your selves recommended in the Ordinance We will never consent to the displacing of any whom for their former Merits from and Affection to Us and the publick We have intrusted since We conceive that to do so would take away both from the affection of Our Servants the care of Our Service and the Honour of Our Justice And We the more wonder that it should be ask'd by you of Us since it appears by the Twelfth Demand That your selves count it reasonable after the present turn is served that the Judges and Officers who are then placed may hold their places quamdiu se bene gesserint And We are resolved to be as careful of those We have chosen as you are of those you would
Parishes first by special Letters and earnest Sollicitations from the prime Leaders of this turbulent Faction after by Orders requiring such Ministers as would not accept their Recommendations to attend and shew cause All licence was given to those leud Seditious Pamphlets which despised the Government both of the Church and State which laid any Imputations and Scorns upon Our Person or Office and which filled the ears of all Our good Subjects with Lyes and monstrous Discourses to make them believe all the ill of the Government and Governors of Church and State Books against the Book of Common-Prayer and the established Laws of the Land suffered without reprehension to be dedicated to both Houses of Parliament whatsoever the Rancour and Venome of any Infamous person could digest published without control and nothing discountenanced and reproached but a dutiful regard of Us and Our Honour and a sober esteem and application to the Laws of the Kingdom This was the condition We found at our return from Scotland besides a strange groundless apprehension of Danger infused generally into the minds of Our good Subjects as if some notable Design were in hand against the Parliament against the City of London against the whole Kingdom of England There fell out an Accident whilest We were in Scotland concerning the Marquesses of Hamilton and Argile Those two Lords upon some information given to them that their Persons were in danger upon a sudden withdrew themselves from the Parliament in Scotland and for some few days removed out of Edenburgh Whatever they had been informed and what ever they suspected the Grounds of both were very fully examined by the Parliament there their Persons being of that quality and estimation in that Kingdom that they were sure of Justice Upon the whole themselves and the Parliament were satisfied that the Information first given to them could not be made good to the proof of any Design to the Danger of these Lords and the Examinations of the whole matter sent by Our direction to Our Parliament here How if all had been true that was imagined this business could so highly and nearly concern the Peace of this Kingdom and the present Safety of both Our Houses of Parliament We cannot imagine Yet upon the first report of it here which was the day before the first Meeting after the Recess without staying to hear the opinion of Our Parliament there who used all diligence in the examination or of Our Parliament here such strange Glosses and Interpretations were made upon that accident not without reflection upon Us and Our Honour as if at the same time there had been such a Design to have been executed here as they had fancied to themselves that to be and a sudden resolution was taken first by the Committee during the Recess after by the Houses to have a Guard for the defence of London Westminster and both Our Houses of Parliament which must needs make a great impression in the minds of Our good Subjects in a time when they were newly freed from the fears of two Armies to be awaked with the apprehension of Dangers of which seeing no ground they were to expect no end Matters being thus stated and all possible skill being used by that Faction and by their Emissaries of the Clergy who at the same time such Clamour was raised of the unlawfulness that the Clergy should meddle in Temporal Affairs were their chief Agents to derive their Seditious directions to the People and were all the week attending the doors of both Houses to be imployed in those errands to infuse the most desperate Fears into the minds of all Men that could be imagined To be sure that the memory of former bitterness might not depart they provide for Our Entertainment against We should come to London to present Us with a Remonstrance as they called it of the State of the Kingdom laying before Us and publishing to all the world all the mistakes and all the misfortunes which had happened from Our first coming to the Crown and before to that hour forgetting the blessed condition notwithstanding the unhappy mixture all Our Subjects had enjoyed in the benefit of Peace and Plenty under Us to the envy of Christendom objecting to Us the Actions of some and the thoughts of others and reproaching Us with matters which indeed never entred into Our thoughts nor to Our knowledge into the thoughts of any other reviling Us to the People and complaining to Us of the House of Peers whose Authority Interest and Privilege was then as much slighted and despised as Ours is since and easily passing over those singular Acts of Our Grace passed by Us this Parliament or ascribing them to their own wisdom in the procurement they concluded against a Malignant Party and that they had no hope of settling the Distractions of the Kingdom for want of concurrence with the House of Peers and that concurrence was desperate by reason of the Prevalency of the Bishops and of the Recusant Lords into which number all those Lords were cast who presumed to dissent from any Propositions made by the House of Commons When this Engine was prepared for the People by the prime Leaders of that desperate Faction it was presented to the House of Commons and the greatest industry and skill used that is imaginable by private Sollicitations Threats and Promises to procure consent that it might be passed by that House and after a long debate longer than ever was known in Parliament till three of the clock in the morning from ten the day before when very many through weariness and weakness were forced to leave the House so that it looked as was well said like the Verdict of the Starved Jury they carryed it by eleven Voices And shortly within very few days after Our return when We had been received with all possible expressions of Joy by Our City of London which was publickly murmured against and the chief advancers of that Duty and Affection discountenanced as if they envied Us the Loyalty of Our People and when it was publickly said in Our House of Commons upon some dispute of a pretended breach of the Orders of the House That their Discipline ought to be severe for the Enemy was in view that Remonstrance was presented to Us at Our Court at Hampton-Court by some Members of the House of Commons with a Petition contracting the sharp Language in the Remonstrance into less room amongst other things That We would concurr with Our People for depriving the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament for which there was no Bill passed both Houses and to employ such Persons about Us as Our Parliament might confide in We received this strange Petition and stranger Remonstrance graciously from the hands of the Presenters promised them an Answer and in the mean time desired that the Remonstrance might not be published to the People the thing it self and the printing any thing of the like nature being never heard of by the
them a full Narration of what We had done the day before and assured them that We intended no proceedings but such as were most agreeable to the Law of the Land and the Priviledge of Parliament This demeanour of Ours We thought would have given satisfaction to all Our loving Subjects that if in truth We had erred in the form of Our Proceedings yet Our intentions were full of Justice and regard to the general Law of the Land from which We shall never willingly swerve But in stead of any application to inform our Judgment wherein we had erred and how We were to proceed both Our Houses of Parliament under the title of Committees adjourned themselves to the Guild-Hall and afterwards to Grocers-Hall the Persons accused remove themselves into the City as to a Sanctuary and there manage and contrive business to their own ends they cause Discourses to be published and Infusions to be made of incredible danger to the City and Kingdom by that Our coming to the House and Alarm was given to the City in the dead time of the night That We were coming with Horse and Foot thither and thereupon the whole City put in Arms. And however the envy seemed to be cast upon the Designs of the Papists mention was only made of actions of Our own Their seditious Preachers and Agents are by them and their special and particular directions sent into the several Counties to infuse those Fears and Jealousies into the minds of Our good Subjects with Petitions ready drawn by them for the People to sign which were yet many times by them changed three or four times before the delivery upon accidents and occurrences of either or both Houses And when many of Our poor deceived People of Our several Counties have come to Our City of London with a Petition so framed altered and signed as aforesaid that Petition hath been suppressed and a new one ready drawn hath been put into their hands after their coming to Town insomuch as few of the company have known what they petitioned for and hath been by them presented to one or both Houses of Parliament as that of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire witness those Petitions and amongst the rest that from Hartfordshire which took notice of matters agreed on or dissented from the night before the delivery which was hardly time enough to get so many thousand hands and to travel to London in that errand The accused Members to shew how much they were above Us and the reach of the Law march with a Guard of armed Men to the place where the Committee sate sit with them and govern those Counsels First they procure a Declaration to be set forth and printed from the Committee without being reported to the House contrary to all Custom and Priviledge of Parliament and against the Law it self with very strange expressions of Our carriage and upon the matter requiring all people to assist them This they cause to be sent into the City to the common-Councel which by the undue practices of Captain Venne and Master Foulk since made Alderman for his good service their principal Agents they had caused to be altered by putting out the gravest and most substantial Citizens and taking in persons of desperate Fortunes and Opinions who they knew would concur with them in their more desperate Actions the same Design and the same way pursued to make the City of London at their disposal as had been practised in the House of Commons to work upon the whole Kingdom and with this Common-Council Correspondence is kept for the setting of unusual Watches placing of Guards in several places of the City as if some desperate attempt and assault were to be made upon the whole City by Us who were known scarce to have a Guard strong enough to preserve Our own House from Violence A Commander is appointed under the Title of Serjeant-Major-general and as if all Men were now by their new Protestation made Judges of the Priviledges of Parliament and the Breaches thereof and absolved from all Rules of Obedience special provision is made and publick direction is given for drawing down the Trained-bands of Our City of London to Westminster on a day appointed to guard and bring in triumph the persons accused of High-Treason as such worthy Patriots that the Commonwealth it self could not subsist but with reference to them who in their discourses and by their Messages to their Confederates expressed the greatest Scorn of and the most treasonable Reproaches against Us that can be imagined When We understood this horrid preparation made against Us the Power it was evident these persons had to do hurt and the Malice We knew they bore against Our Person which We had too great reason to fear they intended to seize We resolved to yield for the present to this Storm and so the day before their coming to Westminster We withdrew Our Person with Our Royal Consort and Our Children to Our House at Hampton-Court and the rather lest the Courage and Indignation of some of Our good Subjects might how weakly soever yet with the effusion of blood oppose that great scorn intended Us and believing that possibly by Our removing with all such persons whose presence was excepted against and discharging that small Guard which the Tumults had forced Us to take for Our Safety and which was urged as an Argument of Danger and Ground of the general Fears might at least lessen their appearance the next day But these Powerful Persons would by no means conceal their triumph over Us but the next day are guarded from their residence in the City with multitudes of armed Men and Ammunition in a hostile and warlike manner to Westminster The same Care and Industry was used to provoke and incense Our Mariners Masters of Ships and other Seamen who were solicited by the Agents for the accused Persons and by their special direction to express their Affection likewise to the Cause in hand and thereupon near one hundred Lighters and Long-Boats were set out by water laden with Sakers Murthering-Pieces and other Ammunition dressed up with Wast-clothes and Streamers as ready for fight And in this Array these Men by water and the Soldiers by land cried out as they passed by That they would thus Protect and Defend those worthy Gentlemen whom We had accused of High-Treason and as they passed by Our Windows at White-Hall scornfully asked what was become of Vs whither We were gone In this Equipage they came to both Houses where it is no wonder they have been since able to govern having given such testimony of their Power both by land and water Let all the world judge by what Law this Army was raised and whether any Act of Ours against these persons was as unwarrantable as these proceedings We bore all this being so much amazed at these Distractions that We could not easily find what colour the Malice of these Men had found out thus to out-face Us not yet conceiving We
and any found so unjust so illegal as the proceedings against the Gentlemen of Kent for preparing and presenting a Petition agreeable in form and matter to all the Rules of Law and Justice by which Men are to be informed to ask any thing as the judgment against Mr. Binyon that he should be disfranchised be incapable of ever bearing Office in the Commonwealth imprisoned in the Gaol at Colchester for the space of two years and to pay three thousand pounds fine nothing being charged and proved against him that any Law or Reason could tell him he was not to do Though the Sentences in the other Courts were in some cases too severe and exceeded the measure of the offence there was still an offence somewhat done that in truth was a crime but here Declarations Votes and Judgments pass upon Our People for matters not suspected to be crimes till they are punished And have such proceedings ever been before this Parliament If Monopolies have been granted to the prejudice of Our People the calamity will not be less if it be exercised by a good Lord by a Bill than itt was before by a Patent and yet the Earl of Warwick thinks fit to require the Letter-Office to be confirmed to him for three lives at the same time that 't is complained of as a Monopoly and without the alteration of any Circumstance for the ease of the Subject and this with so much greediness and authority that whilest it was complained of as a Monopoly he procured an Assignment to be made of it to him from the person complained of after he had by his Interest stopped the proceedings of the Committee for the space of five Months before that Assignment made to him upon pretence that he was concerned in it and desired to be heard Of such soveraign Power was his Name as it could be no longer a Grievance to Our People if it might prove an Advantage to him A Precedent very likely to be followed in many Monopolies if they may be assigned to Principal members or their friends witness the connivence now given to Sir John Meldram for his Lights since his undertaking their Service at Hull Have Partiality and Corruption in Judges obstructed the course of Justice was there ever such Partiality and Corruption when their fellow-Members of either House are by them importuned and solicited for their Votes in causes before them and no other measure or Rule to the Justice of that faction than the opinions of the persons contending What sums of mony have been given to and what contracts have been made with some Members of either House who are of this powerful Faction We complain of for preserving this Man from being questioned and promoting an Accusation against that Man for managing such a Cause and procuring such an Order We are very well able to give particular Information which We shall willingly do when there may be such a sober and secure debate as becomes the Dignity and Freedom of Parliament and the Witnesses now within their reach may neither be awed nor tampered with before Trial. For how little care there is taken for discoveries of this nature appears by that which upon complaint of a slander against Master Pym was justified and the Author averred against him for taking thirty pound Bribe to preserve a Papist from legal prosecution which hath been so long suffered to sleep at a Committee Our Case is truly stated so truly that there is scarce any Particular urged or alledged by Us which is not known to many and the most to all Men. And must Our Condition be now irreparable Are the Injuries committed against Us and the Law justifiable And must We be censured for using all possible means to be freed from them or to be repaired for them because they seem to carry the Name Consent and Authority of both Our Houses of Parliament There is not a Particular of which We complain that found not eminent opposition in both Houses and yet for the most part not above a moiety of either House present The Order of the ninth of September an Order to suspend the execution of Laws in force passed when there were not above eighty Commoners of which many dissented and but twenty Lords whereof eleven the major part expresly contradicted it The first unseasonable Remonstrance the fountain from whence all the present mischiefs have flowed was carried but by eleven Voices after fifteen hours sitting when above two hundred were absent and was never approved by the Lords The business of the Militia was at least twice rejected by double their number in the House of Peers who consented to it there being no Popish Lord present and twelve Bishops in the Tower and yet this proposed again the House being made thin of those Lords who had formerly opposed it who went out immediately it being their usual course to watch such opportunities to effect their businesses after Master Hollis his Threats and then carried The Declaration against Us sent to New-market was carried but by one Voice in the House of Peers and by a small number in the House of Commons The justifying Sir John Hotham in his Act of High Treason was opposed by many Persons of great worth though neither House had half its number And We are very far from censuring all those Persons who concurred in these or any other particulars We believe very many of them stood not in so clear a light to discern the Guilt Malice Ambition or Subtilty of their Seducers But if in truth there were a consent entirely in both Houses of Parliament as We are most assured there will never be to alter the whole frame of Government must We submit to those Resolutions and must not Our Subjects help and assist Us in the defence of Laws and Government established because they do not like them Did We intend when we called them to that great Council or did Our good Subjects intend when they sent them thither in their behalfs that they should alter the whole frame of Government according to their own Fancies and Ambition and possess those Places during their Lives What Our opinion and resolution is concerning Parliaments We have fully expressed in Our Declarations We have said and will still say they are so essential a part of the Constitution of this Kingdom that We can attain to no Happiness without them nor will We ever make the least attempt in our thoughts against them We well know that our Self and Our two Houses make up the Parliament and We are like Hippocrates Twins We must laugh and cry live and dye together that no Man can be a friend to the one and an enemy to the other the Injustice Injury and Violence offered to Parliaments is that which We principally complain of and We again assure all Our good Subjects in the presence of Almighty God that all the Acts passed by Us this Parliament shall be equally observed by Us as We desire those to be which
be Treason are so accused and others warned from involving themselves in their Guilt and except We will take down Our Standard that Our good Subjects may not repair to Us for Our Defence when so many Armies are raised against Us in several parts of the Kingdom and ready to destroy Us and such of Our good Subjects who dare continue loyal to Us and except We will return to London from whence with Violence We have been driven We must not be treated with or receive any Answer to so gracious a Message It can no longer be doubted by any Man who hath not wilfully forsaken his Understanding that it is no more a Quarrel undertaken by the Parliament but contrived and somented by the persons We have named and now continued solely in their defence to whose Ambition Faction and Malice the true Reformed Protestant Religion the just Right Honour Safety and Life of Us and Our Posterity the Law of the Land which hath so long preserved this Nation Happy the Liberty of the Subject established by that Law and the glorious Frame and Constitution of this Kingdom must be sacrificed But as We have hitherto left no Action unperformed which in Honour Justice and Conscience We were obliged to do or in Christian Policy and Prudence We could conceive might probably prevent these Calamities so We thank God he hath given Us a full Courage and Resolution to run the utmost hazard of Our Life for the suppression of this Horrible Rebellion in the which no disproportion of Power Arms or Money shall discourage Us. And We hope that all Our good Subjects besides by the common Duty of Allegiance will be stirred up for their own sakes for the preservation of the blessed Protestant Religion and for the upholding this whole admirable Frame of Government which being dissolved all their private and particular Rights and Interests must be immediately confounded to bring in their utmost power and Assistance unto Us in this desperate Exigent And We do declare that whosoever shall lose his life in this Service for Our defence the Wardship of his Heir shall be granted by Us without Rent or Fine to his own use and We shall hold Our Self obliged to take all possible care for the support relief and protection of all their Wives and Children who shall have the hard fortune to dye in this Service CHARLES R. Our express pleasure is That this Our Declaration be published in all Churches and Chappels within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales by the Parsons Vicars or Curates of the same MDCXLII His MAJESTY's Declaration to all His loving Subjects after His late Victory against the Rebels on Sunday the 23. of October AS We must wholly attribute the Preservation of Us and Our Children in the late bloody Battel with the Rebels to the Mercy and Goodness of Almighty God who best knowing the Justice of Our Cause and the Uprightness of Our Heart to his Service and to the good and welfare of Our People would not suffer Us and this whole Kingdom to be made a Prey to those desperate Persons so We hold it Our Duty still to use all possible means to remove that Jealousie and Mis-understanding from Our good Subjects which by the Industry and Subtilty of that Malignant Party which hath brought this Mischiefand Confusion upon the Kingdom hath been infused into them and to that purpose thugh even those Scandals are sufficiently answered by many of Our Declarations and Messages and by Our late Protestation made in the head of Our Army which We shall always by the help of God stedfastly and solemnly observe We shall take notice of those subtile Insinuations by which at this present according to that observation We can make and Information We can receive they endeavour to poyson the hearts and corrupt the Allegiance of such of Our good Subjects who cannot so clearly discern their Malice and Impostures First by urging and pressing that false groundless Imputation of Our favouring Popery and Our imploying many of that Religion now in Our Army secondly by seducing Our good People to believe that this Army raised and kept for Our necessary Defence and without which in all probability the Malice of these Men had before this taken Our Life from Us is to fight against and subdue the Parliament to take away the Privileges thereof and thereby to root out Parliaments If either of which were true We should not have the courage with an Army much greater than Ours to hope for success For the First for Our Affection to that Religion Our continual Practice Our constant Profession and several Protestations will satisfie all the World against which Malice and Treason it self cannot find the least probable Objection We wish from Our heart the zeal and affection of these Men to the true Protestant Religion were as apparent as Ours For the imploying Men of that Religion in Our present Service in the Army whosoever considers the hardness and streights the Malice and Fury of these Men have driven Us to their stopping all passages and ways that neither Men nor money might come to Us their declaring all such to be Traitours who shall assist Us their entertaining Men of all Countries all Religions to serve against Us would not wonder if We had been very well contented to have received the service and assistance of any of Our good Subjects who had Loyalty enough whatsoever their Religion is to bring them to Our Succour All Men know the great number of Papists which serve in their Army Commanders and others the great Industry they have used to corrupt the Loyalty and Affection of all Our Subjects of that Religion the private Promises and Undertakings they have made to them that if they would assist them against Us all the Laws made in their prejudice should be repealed yet neither the weakness of Our own condition nor the other Arts used against Us could prevail with Us to invite those of that Religion to come to Our succour or to recal Our Proclamation which forbad them to do so And We are confident though We know of some few whose eminent Abilities in Command and Conduct and moderate and unfactious Dispositions hath moved Us in this great Necessity to imploy them in this Service that a far greater number of that Religion is in the Army of the Rebels than in Our own And We do assure Our good Subjects though We shall always remember the particular services which particular Men have or shall in this Exigent of Ours perform to Us with that Grace and Bounty which becomes a just Prince yet We shall be so far from ever giving the least countenance or encouragement to that Religion that We shall always use Our utmost endeavour to suppress it by the execution of those good and wholsome Laws already in force against Papists and concurring in such further Remedies as the care and wisdom of Us and both Houses of Parliament shall think most necessary for the
Members of either of them That some Officers of both Armies may speedily meet to agree of the manner of the disbanding and that fit Persons may be appointed by His Majesty and the Parliament who may repair to the several Armies and see the disbanding put in speedy execution accordingly That his Majesty do likewise remove the Garrisons out of Newcastle and all other Towns Castles and Forts where any Garrisons have been placed by Him since these Troubles and that the Fortifications be likewise slighted and the Towns and forts left in such state and condition as they were in the year 1636. That all other Towns Forts and Castles where there have been formerly Garrisons before these Troubles be committed to the charge of such Persons to be nominated by His Majesty as the Parliament shall confide in and under such Instructions as are formerly mentioned That if His Majesty shall be pleased to assent to these Propositions concerning the Towns Forts Castles Magazines and Ships that then His Majesty be humbly intreated to name Persons of Quality to receive the charge of the several Offices and Forts Castles and Towns to be forthwith certified to the two Houses of Parliament that thereupon they may express their confidence in those persons or humbly beseech His Majesty to name others none of which Persons shall be removed during three years next ensuing without just cause to be approved by Parliament and if any be so removed or shall dye within the said space the Person to be put into the same Office shall be such as both Houses shall confide in That all Generals and Commanders in any of the Armies on either side as likewise the Lord Admiral of England the Lord Warden of the Cinque-ports all Commanders of any Ships and Commanders of any Town Castle or Fort shall take an Oath to observe these Articles afore-mentioned and to use their uttermost power to preserve the true Reformed Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom against all Forein Force and all other Forces raised without His Majesties Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament You shall move His Majesty that for the better dispatch of the Treaty and the free intercourse of Instructions and Advertisements betwixt the two Houses of Parliament and the Committee there may be a free pass of Messengers to and from the Parliament and the Committee without search or interruption and His Majesty's safe Conduct to be obtained to that effect to such Persons as are or shall be appointed for that service viz. for Master John Rushworth Master Mithael Welden Master John Corbet of Graies Inn and Master James Standish H. Elsinge Cler. Parl. D. Com. The KING's Message concerning the Cessation 23 Martii 1642. CHARLES R. HIS Majesty hath immediately upon their arrival admitted the Committee sent to Him from both Houses of Parliament as the Messengers of Peace to His Royal Presence and received the Articles of Cessation brought by them which are in effect the same His Majesty formerly excepted to though their expression in the Preface to these Articles of their readiness to agree to those Alterations and Additions offered by His Majesty in such manner as is expressed made Him expect to have found at least some of the real Alterations and Additions made by Him admitted which He doth not discover I. His Majesty desired that Provision might be made and Licence given to His good Subjects for their freedom of Trade Traffick and Commerce though in matters which concerned Himself more immediately as in Arms Ammunition Mony Bullion and Victual for the use of His Army and the Passage of all Officers and Souldiers of His Army He was contented the restraint should be in such manner as was proposed of which His Majesty is so tender that as he hath provided for the same by His gracious Proclamations so He doth daily release and discharge such Merchandize and Commodities as are contrary to those Proclamations stayed by any of His Majesties Forces To this Freedom and Liberty of His good Subjects there is not the least admission given by these Articles so that they have not any ease or benefit by this Cessation which His Majesty desires both Houses to consider of and whether if His Majesty should take the same course to stop and interrupt the Trade of the Kingdom as the other Army doth a general Loss and Calamity would not seize upon His good Subjects II. His Majesty to the end that a full Cessation might be as well at Sea as at Land and He might be secured that the Ships proposed to be set forth for the Defence of His Majesties Dominions should be employed only to that end and purpose desired that they might be put under the Command of Persons to be approved of by His Majesty which is not consented to by these Articles but their former to which His Majesty excepted strictly and entirely insisted on by which besides that part of Hostility remains the conveying of any number of Forces from any part to any other by that means remains free to them III. For the prevention of any Inconveniences which might arise upon real Differences or Mistakes upon the latitude of Expressions as if His Majesty should now consent to these Articles proposed in the Terms proposed He must confess the Army of which He complains to be raised by the Parliament and either Himself to be no part of the Parliament or Himself to have raised that Army and for prevention of that Delay which He foresaw could not otherwise be avoided if upon every Difference the Questions must be remitted to London His Majesty desired that the Committee for whom He then sent a safe Conduct might have liberty to debate any such Differences and Expressions and reconcile the same that all possible Expedition might be used to the main Treaty In this point of so high Concernment no power is given in these Articles and the Committee confessed to His Majesty they have no Power given but are strictly and precisely bound to the very words of the Articles now sent and that before these are consented to by Us they cannot enter into any Treaty concerning the other Propositions IV. His Majesty desired that during the Cessation none of His good Subjects might be imprisoned otherwise than according to the known Laws of the Land This is in no degree consented to but the priviledge and liberty to which they were born reserved from them till the disbanding of both Armies though they are no part of either Army and so have no benefit by this Cessation V. His Majesty desired that during this Cessation there should be no Plundering or Violence offered to any of His Subjects In the Answer to which His desire against Violence is not at all taken notice of nor is His desire against Plundering any ways satisfied His Majesty not only intending by it the robbing of the Subject by the unruliness of the uncommanded Souldier which their Clause of requiring the Generals and
the desire of both Houses of His Majesty's coming to His Parliament which they have often exprest with as full offers of security to His Royal Person as was agreeable to their Duty and Allegiance and they know no cause why His Majesty may not repair hither with Honour and Safety but they did not insert it into your Instructions because they conceived the Disbanding of the Armies would have facilitated His Majesty's Resolution therein which they likewise conceived was agreeable to His Majesty's Sense who in declaring His Consent to the Order of the Treaty did only mention that part of the first Proposition which concerned the Disbanding and did omit that which concerned His coming to the Parliament Oath of Officers They conceive the ordinary Oaths of the Officers mentioned are not sufficient to secure them against the extraordinary causes of Jealousie which have been given them in these troublesome times and that His Majesty's Answer lays some tax upon the Parliament as if defective and thereby uncapable of making such a Provisional Law for an Oath therefore you shall still insist upon their former desires of such an Oath as is mentioned in your Instructions If you shall not have received His Majesty's positive Answer to the humble desire of both Houses in these two first Propositions according as they are exprest in your Instructions before the twenty days limited for the Treaty shall be expired you shall then with convenient speed repair to the Parliament without expecting any further direction Jo. Brown Cler. Parliamentorum CHARLES REX TO shew to the whole World how earnestly His Majesty longs for Peace and that no Success shall make Him desire the continuance of His Army to any other end or for any longer time than that and until things may be so settled as that the Law may have a full free and uninterrupted course for the defence and preservation of the Rights of His Majesty both Houses and His good Subjects 1. As soon as His Majesty is satisfied in His first Proposition concerning His own Revenue Magazines Ships and Forts in which He desires nothing but that the just known Legal Rights of His Majesty devolved to Him from His Progenitors and of the Persons trusted by Him which have violently been taken from both be restored unto Him and unto them unless any just and legal exceptions against any of the Persons trusted by Him which are yet unknown to His Majesty can be made appear to Him 2. As soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. the same of right belonging unto them by their birth-rights and the free election of those that sent them and having been voted from them for adhering to His Majesty in these Distractions His Majesty not intending that this should extend either to the Bishops whose Votes have been taken away by Bill or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made 3. As soon as His Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as to the great breach of the Priviledges and the high dishonour of Parliaments have formerly assembled about both Houses and awed the Members of the same and occasioned two several complaints from the Lords House and two several desires of that House to the House of Commons to joyn in a Declaration against them the complying with which desire might have prevented all these miserable Distractions which have ensued which security His Majesty conceives can be only settled by adjourning the Parliament to some other place at the least twenty miles from London the choice of which His Majesty leaves to both Houses His Majesty will most chearfully and readily consent that both Armies be immediately disbanded and give a present meeting to both His Houses of Parliament at the time and place at and to which the Parliament shall be agreed to be adjourned His Majesty being most confident that the Law will then recover the due credit and estimation and that upon a free debate in a full and peaceable convention of Parliament such provisions will be made against seditious Preaching and Printing against His Majesty and the established Laws which hath been one of the chief causes of the present Distractions and such care will be taken concerning the legal and known Rights of His Majesty and the Property and Liberty of His Subjects that whatsoever hath been publisht or done in or by colour of any illegal Declaration Ordinance or Order of one or both Houses or any Committee of either of them and particularly the power to raise Arms without His Majesty's Consent will be in such manner recalled disclaimed and provided against that no seed will remain for the like to spring out of for the future to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and to endanger the very Being of it And in such a Convention His Majesty is resolved by His readiness to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed to Him by Bill for the real good of His Subjects and particularly for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants for the education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of practices of Papists against the State and the due execution of the Laws and true levying of the Penalties against them to make known to all the World how causless those Fears and Jealousies have been which have been raised against Him and by that so distracted this miserable Kingdom And if this Offer of His Majesty be not consented to in which He asks nothing for which there is not apparent Justice on His side and in which He defers many things highly concerning both Himself and People till a full and peaceable convention of Parliament which in Justice He might now require His Majesty is confident that it will then appear to all the World not only who is most desirous of Peace and whose default it is that both Armies are not now disbanded but who hath been the true and first cause that this Peace was ever interrupted or these Armies raised and the beginning or continuance of the War and the destruction and desolation of this poor Kingdom which is too likely to ensue will not by the most interessed passionate or prejudicate person be imputed to His Majesty His MAJESTY's Questions before the Treaty and the Committees Answers March 25. 1643. Mis MAJESTY desires to be answered these Questions in writing by the Committee of both Houses 1. WHether they may not shew unto Him those Instructions according to which they are to Treat and Debate with His Majesty upon the two first Propositions of which the last Message from both Houses takes notice and refers unto 2. Whether they have power to pass from one Proposition to the other in the Debate before His Majesty have exprest His mind concerning the Proposition first entred into 3. Whether they have power
Towns and Forts which are within the Jurisdiction of the Cinque-Ports they shall be delivered up into the hands of such a Noble Person as Your Majesty shall appoint to be Warden of the Cinque-ports being such a one as they shall confide in That the Town of Portsmouth shall be reduced to the number of the Garrison as was at the time when the Lords and Commons undertook the custody thereof and such other Forts Castles and Towns as were formerly kept by Garrisons as have been taken by both Houses of Parliament into their care and custody since the beginning of these Troubles shall be reduced to such proportioon of Garrison as they had in the year 1636. and shall be so continued and that all the said Towns Forts and Castles shall be delivered up into the hands of such persons of quality and trust to be likewise nominated by Your Majesty as the two Houses of Parliament shall confide in That the Warden of the Cinque-ports and all Governours and Commanders of Towns Castles and Forts shall keep the same Towns Castles and Forts respectively for the Service of Your Majesty and the Safety of the Kingdom and that they shall not admit into any of them any forein Forces or any other Forces raised without Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament and they shall use their utmost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever raised without such Authority and Consent and they shall seize all Arms and Ammunition provided for any such Forces They likewise humbly propose to Your Majesty that you would remove the Garrisons out of Newcastle and all other Towns Castles and Forts where any Garrisons have been placed by Your Majesty since these Troubles and that the Fortifications be likewise slighted and the Towns and Forts left in such state and condition as they were in in the year 1636. That all other Towns Forts and Castles where there have been formerly Garrisons before these Troubles may be committed to the charge of such persons to be nominated by Your Majesty as both Houses of Parliament shall confide in and under such Instructions as are formerly mentioned And that those new Garrisons shall not be renewed nor their Fortifications repaired without Consent of Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament Northumberland Will. Pierrepont John Holland Will. Armyne B. Whitelocke March 28. 1643. HIS Majesty is content that all the Garrisons in any Towns and Forts in the hands of any persons imployed by the two Houses of Parliament wherein there were no Garrisons before these Troubles be removed and all Fortifications made since that time may be slighted and those Towns and Forts shall for the future continue in the same condition they were in before For the Cinque-ports they are already in the Custody of a Noble person against whom His Majesty knows no just Exceptions and who hath such a Legal Interest therein that His Majesty cannot with justice remove Him from it untill some sufficient Cause be made appear to Him but is willing if He shall at any time be found guilty of any thing that may make him unworthy of that Trust that he may be proceeded against according to the rules of Justice The Town of Portsmouth and all other Forts Castles and Towns as were formerly kept by Garrisons shall be reduced to their ancient proportion and the government of them put into the hands of such persons against whom no just Exceptions can be made all of them being before these Troubles by Letters Patents granted to several persons against any of whom His Majesty knows not any Exceptions and who shall be removed if just cause shall be given for the same The Warden of the Cinque-ports and all Governors and Commanders of Towns Castles and Forts shall keep the same Towns Castles and Forts as by the Law they ought to do for His Majesty's Service and the Safety of the Kingdom and they shall not admit into any of them Forein Forces or other Forces raised or brought in contrary to the Law but shall use their utmost endeavour to suppress all such Forces and shall seize all Arms and Ammunition which by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom they ought to seize The Garrisons of Newcastle and all other Towns Castles and Forts in which Garrisons have been placed by His Majesty since these Troubles shall be removed and all the Fortifications shall be slighted and the Towns and Forts left in such state and condition as they were in the year 1636. All other Towns Forts and Castles where there have been formerly Garrisons before these Troubles shall be committed to the charge of such persons and under such cautions and limitations as His Majesty hath before exprest And no new Garrisons shall be renewed nor their Fortifications repaired otherwise than as by the Laws and Statutes of the Kingdom they may or ought to be Falkland March 29. 1643. COncerning the appointing of the Warden of the Cinque-ports and Governors of Your Majesty's Towns Castles and Forts we humbly desire to know if Your Majesty's Reply doth intend that both Houses of Parliament may express their Confidence of the persons to whose trust those places are to be committed for that we are directed by our Instructions that if Your Majesty be pleased to assent thereunto that You would nominate persons of Quality to receive the charge of them that we may forthwith certifie both Houses of Parliament that thereupon they may express their Confidence in those persons or humbly beseech Your Majesty to name others none of which persons to be removed during three years next ensuing without just cause to be approved by both Houses of Parliament and if any be so removed or shall dye within the said space the persons to be put in the same Offices shall be such as both Houses shall confide in We humbly desire to know if Your Majesty intends the Garrison of Portsmouth to be of such a proportion as it was about the year 1641. about which time a new supply was added to the former Garrison to strengthen it which both Houses of Parliament think necessary to continue We humbly desire Your Majesty would be pleased to give a more full Answer to this Clause that they should not admit into them any forein or other Forces Raised without Your Majesty's Authority and Consent of the two Houses of Parliament and that they shall use their utmost endeavours to suppress all Forces whatsoever Raised without such Authority and Consent and that those Garrisons should not be renewed or their Fortifications repaired without Consent of Your Majesty and both Houses of Parliament Northumberland J. Holland Will. Armyne B. Whitelocke Will. Pierrepont April 5. 1643. HIS Majesty doth not intend that both Houses of Parliament shall express their Confidence of the persons to whose trust the Cinque-ports or other His Majesty's Towns Castles and Forts now are or shall be committed but only that they shall have liberty upon any just Exceptions to proceed
let the woful experience of these last eighteen years judge where in a time of Peace and Plenty the power of issuing out Commissions to compel Loans a power in the King at His pleasure to impose a Charge upon the People to provide Ships without limitation of time or proportion a power in the Council-Board to commit Men and determine business without distinction of persons or causes the power of laying Impositions both upon Forein and Domestick Commodities and many other Acts of Oppressions was under the name and colour of a Legal Right thereunto practised and put in execution against which the Subject had no help of relief but was necessitated to submit and lie under the burthen And when at any time a Parliament was called being the only cure and remedy for these griefs it could no sooner touch upon these sores but it was dashed in pieces by a sudden Dissolution And now that a remedy is provided for that mischief by the Act for continnance of this Parliament it is attempted by the force and power of an Army to effect that which formerly could have been done with more ease and readiness And now they refer it to the censure of any honest Man whether they have not the warrant of Reason and Necessity to demand some security to enjoy that which His Majesty confesseth to be the Peoples right and in reference to that whether their Demand of having the Forts Castles and Shipping to be put into such hands as both Houses shall have cause to confide in was not both moderate and reasonable And touching their Demand and His Majesty's Answer to the Clause concerning the admission of Forces into those Forts Castles and Towns they must still submit it to all indifferent judgments how much Reason and Justice was comprehended in their Demand and how little satisfaction they received therein His Majesty answers That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law should be admitted which they could heartily wish heretofore had or hereafter would be really performed but they desire it may be considered what security this will be to the Kingdom to prevent the raising or bringing in of Forces contrary to law who shall be Judges of the Law when those Forces are once raised and once brought in Surely His Majesty will not acknowledge the two Houses of Parliament to be for His Majesty by several Declarations hath expresly denied them any such Power For contrary to their Declarations fortified with Law and Reason His Majesty published and affirmed the Legality of the Commission of Array and put the same in execution in most parts of the Kingdom hath authorized the Papists of the Kingdom to take Arms to oppose the Parliament and their Proceedings and to rob spoil and deprive the Protestants of this Kingdom of their Estates and lives hath by divers Proclamations and Declarations published the raising of Forces and taking up of Arms by the two Houses of Parliament and such as therein obey their Commands for their own defence and the defence of their Religion and Liberty assaulted by an Army of Papists and their adherents to be Rebellion and Treason and the taking up of Arms by the Papists and their adherents to be acts of Duty and Loyalty and all this urged and pretended to be warranted by the Law of the Land And they do not doubt but by the same Law persons legally impeached and accused in Parliament of high Treason as the Lord Digby Master Percy Master Jermyn Master Oneale and others are by the power of an Army protected from the Justice of the Parliament and yet all this while the People have not only His Majesty's Promise but His Oath to govern and protect them according to the Laws of the Land And now they appeal to the World whether such a general Answer That no Forces raised or brought in contrary to Law without admitting them so much as to declare their confidence in the persons that are to be entrusted with the Power be just or reasonable What is it otherwise in effect than to make those persons that are the Instruments to violate the Law Judges of that Law which to our sad experience is the woful and miserable present condition of this Kingdom And though by what had hitherto passed they had little cause to suspect such a happy issue to the Treaty as they heartily wished and most earnestly laboured for discovering not the least inclination of compliance to their just Demands but all or most of them answered with a Denial and that not without some sharpness and acrimony yet resolving to be wanting in nothing of their parts they enjoyned their Committee to press on the Proposition for Disbanding and humbly desire His Majesty's positive Answer thereunto which if assented unto by His Majesty would though not wholly take away the cause and perfectly cure the Distractions of this Kingdom yet at least take off the smart and pain under which both Church and State do most miserably languish and so better enable them to endure the expectation of a through Cure The Committee applied themselves to His Majesty accordingly and after some endeavour to protract the debate of this Proposition and desire that it might be deferred to the conclusion of the Treaty and that the time of the Treaty might be enlarged His Majesty being earnestly importuned to a positive and speedy Answer to the end the Kingdom might know what they might trust to His Majesty was pleased to return this Answer That as soon as His Majesty were satisfied in His first Proposition concerning His own Revenue Magazines Ships and Forts secondly as soon as all the Members of both Houses shall be restored to the same capacity of sitting and voting in Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. not intending to extend it to the Bishops Votes or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made thirdly as soon as His Majesty and both Houses might be secured from such tumultuous assemblies as formerly assembled about both Houses which security His Majesty explains can be only settled by adjourning the Parliament to some place twenty miles from London His Majesty would consent that both the Armies should be disbanded and come to the Parliament Which in terms plain enough is as much as to say That until both Houses shall consent to those Demands He will not Disband His Army He will continue the War And what Reason or Justice is either in the matter or manner of those demands or what hope or expectation the People can have to see an end of their present Calamities they leave it to themselves to judge His Majesty in the beginning of the Treaty in His Answer to the Propositions of both Houses was pleased to express how unparliamentary it was by Arms to require new Laws but how to apply that to the two Houses of Parliament they must confess they are to seek they never having demanded any new Laws by Arms endeavouring
that his Consent was as much forced from Him as these Particulars were forced from His Majesty or if they were so far out of Danger of any farther Encroachments upon their Power that He could have no cause of Fears and Jealousies in granting some of these to them nay that their advice in the Choice arose wholly from His Majesty's Desire and not their Demand then the Precedents fit not this Case and so make nothing for their purpose But now that the Perpetuity of this Parliament hath so far encouraged those who by Arts and Violence have gotten Power over it that they may probably hope to make this Power as perpetual as it and have given so sufficient Evidence what further use they would make of any Power His Majesty supposes Himself to have more reason to be cautious in that Point than any of His Predecessors who were content to share any part of this Power but for once with but a temporary Assembly especially since their several Propositions have shewed how much more they wish and M. Prinne's Books printed by Order of a Committee of the House of Commons signified by Warrant under M. White 's hand have shewed how much more they pretend to and since any Grant of His is desired by these Men but to enable them to obtain the rest of their pretences or desires what he yielded to them concerning my Lord of Essex and Sir John Conyers being Lieutenants of Yorkshire and the Tower being prest in these very Precedents as an Argument to Him why he should grant all they ask now On the other side if his Majesty should make use of their own kind of Weapon and do the same or as great things or make them the like or as great demands as their Predecessors have tacitely approved of or directly assented to when they were done or made by His as in the just Famous time of Queen Elizabeth in the Case of Stanhope and Savile or in the same time in Wentworth's Case or in the Reign of Henry the Eighth in the Power given to Him to dispose of the Kingdom by His Will and Testament and others of the like and near as high kinds He believes both Houses would think what others then did to be no Argument to perswade them either to approve or consent but would rather for ever wave all Arguments from Precedents than direct themselves by the same Rule Their third Argument is That His Majesty had formerly exprest that His Forts and Castles should be only in such hands as both Houses might safely confide in And His Majesty expresseth still as much and till some just legal cause be shewed him why the Persons now in those Commands cannot be safely Confided in by them He conceives they might safely confide in them if they pleas'd But His Majesty did likewise once say He would put all those places both of the Forts and Militia into such hands as both Houses should approve or recommend unless such were named against whom He had just and unquestionable Exceptions To which His Majesty replies That His Offer not giving them satisfaction then for they would then limit no time for the Militia which was the Condition of that Offer of His Majesty's and since it seems it would give none yet for they now ask no less for the Ships than for those and more for both as to the time and other Circumstances than He then offered for these and they by forcing those Places from Him since and some of the Persons legally vested in those Places by their faithfulness to him in this War having given Him so much more cause not to yield to it now He conceives the case to be so altered by all these differences that though out of His earnest desire to satisfie them as long as He thought them capable of satisfaction by it He then intended what He spoke yet He may insist upon what He now insists without being said to have receeded from His Word Did not they refuse to accept of four Persons named in His Majesty's Bill concerning the Militia which themselves had but newly offered Him in their Ordinance concerning it And had those Persons in that time given them so great cause for that refusal as His Majesty hath had given Him for this And yet will they confess that ill Counsel prevail'd with them to recede from their Words and that therefore His Majesty had the more cause to be farther secured Their fourth Argument is That unless these Limitations be granted those secret and wicked Councellors that have been Instruments of the present Miseries will have the disposing of those Places and His Majesty carry but the Name To this His Majesty replies That knowing who have been the Instruments of these Miseries He should by that believe the secret and wicked Councellors spoken of to be the active part of the close Committee for if He have any wicked Councellors about him He confesseth they have cause to call them Secret as well as Wicked since they have not only wholly concealed themselves from Him but He having often press'd to have some named could never obtain from them the Name so much as of one nor since hath heard so much as one proof or charge either of being wicked Councellors or of any Legal Crime against any of His Servants whom they have named though they have publisht them withal to be incapable of Pardon However He finds that if what they say were true the ends of these Councellors and of their violent Party is but just the same that is to dispose of these Places and that His Majesty may only carry the Name But they have found a Letter of His Majesty 's to the Queen which shews that the great and eminent Places of the Kingdom are disposed of by Her Advice and then conclude from Her Religion that they are by consequence disposed of by the advice of Papists and Jesuits and that the Persons there named even during the sitting of Parliament are either all impeacht by them or bear Arms against them To this His Majesty replies First That He cannot but deplore the condition of the Kingdom when Letters of all sorts of Husbands to Wives even of His Majesty to His Royal Consort are intercepted read brought in Evidence and publisht to the World Secondly That if they will remember how far many of those Persons of both Sexes who have received most notable marks of Favour from Her Majesty are even in their own Opinion from so much as inclining to Popery they must confess her Favours and Recommendations not to be disposed of by Priests and Jesuits Thirdly That the Places there named in which Her Majesty's Advice may seem to be desired are not places as they call it of the Kingdom but private menial places a Treasurer of the Household a Captain of the Pensioners and a Gentleman of the Bed-chamber That concerning the other more publick Places His Majesty absolutely declares Himself without leaving room for Her Advice
Viscount Muskery and the rest of the above-named Persons hath put his Hand and Seal And the said Viscount Muskery Sir Lucas Dillon Knight Nicholas Plunket Esquire Sir Robert Talbot Baronet Sir Richard Barnewell Baronet Torlogh O-Neale Geffry Brown Ever Mac-Gennis and John Walsh Esquires to that part of the Articles remaining with the said Marquess of Ormond have put their Hands and Seals the day and year above written Muskery Lucas Dillon Nic. Plunket Rob. Talbot Rich. Barnewell Torl O-Neale Geffry Browne Ever Mac-Gennis Jo. Walsh An Instrument touching the manner of payment of 30800. pound Sterling by several Payments VVHereas by an Instrument bearing Date with these presents we have in the behalf and by Authority from the Roman Catholicks of this Kingdom freely given unto His Majesty the Sum of thirty thousand pounds Sterling wherein the times or manner of payments are not expressed we do therefore hereby agree that the same shall be paid in manner following viz. 5000. pounds within one Month next after the Date of these presents the one half in money and the other half in goods and merchantable Beeves not under four or above ten years old at the rate of 30 pounds the score at the City of Dublin 5000 pounds more within one month next after the said first month the one half in money and the other half in Beeves as aforesaid at the like rates at the City of Dublin aforesaid also within two months next after 5000 pounds more whereof one half of Beeves as aforesaid at the like rates and the other half in money one other 5000 pounds at or before the last of February next and the Sum of 10000 pounds being the last payment of the said thirty thousand pounds at or before the last day of May next which shall be in the year 1644. And we hereby further agree that 800 pounds more shall be paid to His Majesty's use to whom the Lords Justices shall appoint at the Garrison of Naas within two months next ensuing the one half by one months end next after the Date hereof and the other half by the end of one month more next after the first month All other payments in money save the eight hundred pounds shall be paid at Dublin and the rest of the Beeves save the said first two payments to be paid within the several Provinces to His Majesty's use to such persons as shall be appointed by His Majesty's Lords Justices or other chief Governour or Governours in this Kingdom they first giving notice to us or any one or more of us of their pleasures therein In witness whereof we have hereunto put our Hands and Seals the sixteenth day of September 1643. Muskery Lucas Dillon Nic. Plunket Rob. Talbot R. Barnewell Tor. O-Neale Geffry Browne Ever Mac-Gennis Jo. Walsh VVHereas the Lord Marquess of Ormond hath demanded the Opinions as well of the Members appointed from the Council-board to assist his Lordship in the present Treaty as of other Persons of Honour and Command that have since the beginning thereof repaired out of several parts of this Kingdom to his Lordship they therefore seriously considering how much His Majesty's Army here hath already suffered through want of relief out of England though the same was often pressed and importuned by His most Gracious Majesty Who hath left nothing unattempted which might conduce to their support and maintenance and unto what common Misery not only the Officer and Souldier but others also His Majesty's good Subjects within this Kingdom are reduced and further considering how many of his Majesty's principal Forts and places of strength are at this present in great distress and the imminent danger the Kingdom is like to fall into and finding no possibility of prosecuting this War without large Supplies whereof they can apprehend no hope nor possibility in due time they for these causes do conceive it necessary for His Majesty's Honour and Service that the said Lord Marquess assent to a Cessation of Arms for one whole Year on the Articles and Conditions this day drawn up and to be perfected by virtue of His Majesty's Commission for the preservation of this Kingdom of Ireland Witness our Hands the fifteenth day of September 1643. Clanrickard and St. Albans Roscomon Richard Dungarvan Edward Brabazon Inchequin Thomas Lucas James Ware Michael Ernly Foulk Huncks John Powlet Maurice Eustace Edward Povey John Gifford Philip Percival Richard Gibson Henry Warren Alanus Cooke Advocatus Regis MDCXLIII By the King A Proclamation for the Assembling the Members of both Houses at Oxford upon occasion of the Invasion by the Scots VVHereas We did by our Proclamation bearing date the twentieth day of June last upon due consideration of the Miseries of this Kingdom and the true Cause thereof warn all Our good Subjects no longer to be mis-led by Votes Orders or pretended Ordinances of One or Both Houses by reason the Members do not enjoy the Freedom and Liberty of Parliament which appears by several instances of Force and Violence and by the course of their Proceedings mentioned in Our said Proclamation and several of Our Declarations since which time Our Subjects of Scotland have made great and Warlike preparations to enter and invade this Kingdom with an Army and have already actually invaded the same by possessing themselves by force of Arms of Our Town of Berwick upon pretence that they are invited thereunto by the desires of the two Houses the which as We doubt not all Our good Subjects of this Kingdom will look upon as the most insolent Act of Ingratitude and Disloyalty and to the apparent breach of the late Act of Pacification so solemnly made between the Kingdoms and is indeed no other than a design of Conquest and to impose new Laws upon this Nation they not so much as pretending the least Provocation or Violation from this Kingdom so We are most assured that the major part of both Houses of Parliament do from their Souls abhor the least thought of introducing that Foreign Power to increase and make desperate the Miseries of their unhappy Country And therefore that it may appear to all the World how far the major part of both Houses is from such Actions of Treason and Disloyalty and how grossly those few Members remaining at Westminster have and do impose upon Our People We do Will and require such of the Members of both Houses as well those who have been by the Faction of the Malignant party expelled for performing their Duty to Us and into whose rooms no Persons have been since chosen by their Country as the rest who have been driven thence and all those who being conscious of their want of Freedom now shall be willing to withdraw from that Rebellious City to assemble themselves together at our City of Oxford on Munday the twenty second day of January where care shall be taken for their several Accommodations and fit places appointed for their meeting and where all Our good Subjects shall see how willing
Parliament as they had upon the first of January 1641. the same of right belonging unto them by their Birth-rights and the free Election of those that sent them and having been Voted from them for adhering to His Majesty in these Distractions His Majesty not intending that this should extend either to the Bishops whose Votes have been taken away by Bill or to such in whose places upon new Writs new Elections have been made 3. As soon as His Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such tumultuous Assemblies as to the great breach of the Privileges and the high Dishonour of Parliaments have formerly assembled about both Houses and awed the Members of the same and occasioned two several complaints from the Lords House and two several desires of that House to the House of Commons to joyn in a Declaration against them the complying with which desire might have prevented all these miserable Distractions which have ensued which Security His Majesty conceives can be only settled by Adjourning the Parliament to some other place at the least twenty Miles from London the choice of which His Majesty leaves to both Houses His Majesty will most chearfully and readily consent that both Armies be immediately disbanded and give a present meeting to both His Houses of Parliament at the time and place at and to which the Parliament shall be agreed to be Adjourned His Majesty being most confident that the Law will then recover the due credit and estimation and that upon a free debate in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament such Provisions will be made against Seditious Preaching and Printing against His Majesty and the established Laws which hath been one of the chief causes of the present Distractions and such care will be taken concerning the Legal and known Rights of His Majesty and the Property and Liberty of His Subjects that whatsoever hath been published or done in or by colour of any illegal Declaration Ordinance or Order of one or both Houses or any Committee of either of them and particularly the Power to raise Arms without His Majesty's Consent will be in such manner recalled disclaimed and provided against that no seed will remain for the like to spring out of for the future to disturb the Peace of the Kingdom and to endanger the very Being of it And in such a Convention His Majesty is resolved by His readiness to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed to Him by Bill for the Real good of His Subjects and particularly for the better discovery and speedier conviction of Recusants for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of practices of Papists against the State and the due execution of the Laws and true levying of the Penalties against them to make known to all the World how causeless those fears and jealousies have been which have been raised against Him and by that so distracted this miserable Kingdom And if this Offer of His Majesty be not consented to in which He asks nothing for which there is not apparent Justice on His side and in which He defers many things highly concerning both Himself and People till a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament which in Justice He might now require His Majesty is confident that it will then appear to all the World not only who is most desirous of Peace and whose fault it is that both Armies are not now disbanded but who have been the true and first cause that this Peace was ever interrupted or these Armies raised and the beginning or continuance of the War and the Destruction and Desolation of this poor Kingdom which is too likely to ensue will not by the most interessed passionate or prejudicate Person be imputed to His Majesty His MAJESTY'S Message to both Houses May 19. in pursuance of the foregoing Message SInce His Majesty's Message of the twelfth of April in which he conceived He had made such an Overture for the immediate Disbanding of all Armies and Composure of these present miserable Distractions by a full and free Convention in Parliament that a perfect and settled Peace would have ensued hath in all this time above a full Month procured no Answer from both Houses His Majesty might well believe Himself absolved before God and Man from the least possible Charge of not having used His utmost endeavour for Peace Yet when He considers that the Scene of all this Calamity is in the Bowels of His own Kingdom that all the Blood which is spilt is of His own Subjects and that what Victory soever it shall please God to give Him must be over those who ought not to have lifted up their hands against Him when He considers that these desperate civil Dissentions may encourage and invite a Foreign Enemy to make a Prey of the whole Nation that Ireland is in present danger to be totally lost that the heavy Judgments of God Plague Pestilence and Famine will be the inevitable Attendants of this unnatural Contention and that in a short time there will be so general a habit of uncharitableness and Cruelty contracted throughout the Kingdom that even Peace it self will not restore His People to their old Temper and Security His Majesty cannot but again call for an Answer to that His Message which gives so fair a Rise to end these unnatural Distractions And His Majesty doth this with the more earnestness because He doubts not the condition of His Armies in several parts His strength of Horse Foot and Artillery His plenty of Ammunition which some Men lately might conceive He wanted is so well known and understood that it must be confessed that nothing but the Tenderness and Love to His People and those Christian Impressions which always have and He hopes always shall dwell in His heart could move Him once more to hazard a Refusal And He requires them as they will answer to God to Himself and all the World That they will no longer suffer their fellow-Subjects to welter in each others Blood that they will remember by whose Authority and to what end they met in that Council and send such an Answer to His Majesty as may open a door to let in a firm Peace and Security to the whole Kingdom If His Majesty shall again be disappointed of His Intentions herein the Blood Rapine and Distraction which must follow in England and Ireland will be cast upon the Account of those who are deaf to the motion of Peace and Accommodation CHARLES R. May 19. 1643. OUR express Pleasure is That this Declaration of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford be read by the Parson Vicar or Curate in every Church and Chapel within Our Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales MDCXLIV April 15. The Petition of the Lords and Commons of Parliament assembled at Oxford Presented to His MAJESTY the day before the Recess And His MAJESTY'S Gracious Answer to the same To the Kings most excellent
desire from your Lordships for the present is Whether by the Words in the first of those Propositions in your Lordships Paper annexed the respective bounds of their Dwellings you intend the several bounds of their dwelling Houses or the bounds of Parishes or whether you intend an alteration of the bounds of Parishes In the second Proposition What other Church-Officers your Lordships intend shall joyn with the Ministers in the Government of the Church and what Jurisdiction they shall exercise in order to that Government and from whom they shall derive it and in what degree be subordinate to the power from whom they derive it and what you intend by Presbyterial Government in your third Proposition In the fourth Proposition What your Lordships intend by Congregational Classical and Synodical Assemblies How Synodical Assemblies Provincial and National shall be constituted as to Persons and Causes and what shall be the bounds and limits of their Jurisdiction and from whom the several Jurisdictions above mentioned shall be derived To these particulars we would be glad if your Lordships think it fit to receive satisfaction by Debate where Questions may be asked and Replies made before any Answer be returned in writing which may ask much time and be less satisfactory but we refer the way to your Lordships Their Answer 1. Feb. VVE cannot but be sensible of the great loss of time occasioned by your Lordships Questions for Information in your last Paper and shall have small hopes of good success in this Treaty having these two days made so little progress unless your Lordships be pleased to give us full Answers to our Demands concerning Religion Yet to give all satisfaction with as little expence of time as may be we are ready by present Conference to clear the Questions in your Paper The King's Commissioners Reply in two several Papers next following 2. Feb. VVE conceive there was no cause your Lordships should apprehend any loss of time occasioned by our Questions for that your Propositions concerning Religion were not delivered to us till Friday last and the Directory then delivered with them so long that the reading of it spent the residue of that day and divers other Papers to which the Propositions referred and without which we could not consider them were not delivered us before yesterday and some of them not till after the Paper which imputes a delay to us and your Lordships having propounded only general heads of a Presbyterial Government without any particular Model of it which in several Reformed Churches as we are informed is various both in Names and Powers it was necessary to understand the particular expressions in your Paper the Alteration desired being so great and being proposed to be enacted which will require His Majesty's Consent whom we ought to satisfie having so great a Trust reposed in us And we desire your Lordships to consider how impossible it hath been for us to give your Lordships in less than two days a full Answer which in your last Paper you require to what you propose which is in effect to consent to the utter abolishing of that Government Discipline and publick Form of the Worship of God which hath been practised and established by Law here ever since the Reformation and which we well understand and the Alteration of which in the manner proposed takes away many things in the Civil Government and provides no remedy for the Inconveniences which may happen thereby And to consent to the Alienation of the Lands of the Church by which for ought appears besides infinite other Considerations so many Persons may be put to beg their Bread to oblige His Majesty and all His Subjects to the taking a new Oath or Covenant and to receive and consent to a new Government we do not nor without information cannot understand and which in truth appears to us by your Lordships Propositions not to be yet agreed upon in the particulars and your Lordships having declared to us that you have other things to propose to us concerning Religion which you do not yet think it fit time to acquaint us withal Notwithstanding all which difficulties we shall proceed with all possible expedition and desire your Lordships will not object Delays to us till we give you just occasion February 2. THAT we may make a right use of the Information your Lordships were pleased yesterday to afford us in debate upon the questions proposed by us concerning the Propositions in your Lordships Paper annexed for the future Government of the Church and so have some understanding of that Government intended by your Lordships in place of that you propose to be abolished we desire to receive your Lordships Answer in writing whether these short Collections upon the Debate yesterday be the Sum of your Lordships Resolutions or Informations upon the Questions formerly proposed by us We conceive that the information given to us in debate by your Lordship 's to the Questions we proposed to you in writing was 1. That the Congregational Assemblies consist of the Ministers and Ruling Elders 2. That the Classical Assemblies consist of many Congregational Assemblies 3. That the Provincial Assemblies are constituted to the several Classical Assemblies 4. That all these Congregational Classical and Provincial Assemblies together constitute a National Assembly 5. That the Authority and Jurisdiction of the several Assemblies shall be setled by Parliament And if your Lordships have any thing else to inform us concerning this Government we desire to receive the same from your Lordships The Kings Commissioners Paper 3. February VVE are readyby present Conference to enter upon consideration of your Lordships First Proposition concerning Religion and shall desire to receive or give satisfaction whereby we may be of one mind in that Argument And for the better entering into this Debate we desire to know whether in respect of Alteration mentioned in the Third Proposition to be made in the Bill for abolishing Episcopacy you would have this individual Bill pass or not Their Answer 3. Feb. VVE desire the Bill for the utter abolishing of Episcopacy which now remains with His Majesty may be passed without prejudice to us to insist upon the Alterations mentioned in the Third Proposition and we are ready to give your Lordships a present Conference upon the First proposition concerning Religion according to your desire After a Conference wherein much time was spent in debate concerning that individual Bill which was presented for abolishing Episcopacy their Commissioners delivered this Paper 3. February VVE desire your Lordships Answer to our Demands upon the Propositions for Religion and in the first place to the Bill for abolishing of Episcopacy which hath been so much debated that upon the expiring of the first three days appointed to Treat concerning Religion we may be able to return such an account to the Parliaments of both Kingdoms as may give them hopes of a happy progress in this Treaty The King's Commissioners Answer 3. Feb. VVE conceive
approbation and consent of the Presbyters or the major part of them That competent maintenance and provision be established by Act of Parliament to such Vicarages as belong to Bishops Deans and Chapters out of the Impropriations and according to the value of those Impropriations of the several Parishes That for the time to come no Man shall be capable of two Parsonages or Vicarages with Cure of Souls That towards the settling of the publick Peace one hundred thousand pounds shall be raised by Act of Parliament out of the Estates of Bishops Deans and Chapters in such manner as shall be thought fit by the King and two Houses of Parliament without the Alienation of any of the said Lands That the Jurisdiction in Causes Testamentary Decimal Matrimonial be settled in such manner as shall seem most convenient by the King and two Houses of Parliament And likewise that one or more Acts of Parliament be passed for regulating of Visitations and against immoderate Fees in Ecclesiastical Courts and the abuses by frivolous Excommunications and all other abuses in the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in such manner as shall be agreed upon by His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament And if your Lordships shall insist upon any other thing which your Lordships shall think necessary for Reformation we shall very willingly apply our selves to the consideration thereof 13. February FOR the confirmation of the Ordinances concerning the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines and the taking the Covenant we conceive neither of them need be insisted on if the alterations of Church-Government be agreed upon between us and if they be not it will not be reasonable that we consent to those Ordinances And for the Covenant we cannot advise His Majesty to swear and sign the same nor consent that an Act of Parliament should pass for enjoyning the taking thereof by His Majesty's Subjects 13. February VVE do not yet conceive that the Directory for publick Worship delivered to us by your Lordships ought to be enacted or that it is so likely to procure and preserve the Peace of this Kingdom as the Liturgy or Common-Prayer-Book already established by Law against which we have not yet received from your Lordships any Objections which Liturgy as the same was compiled by many Learned and Reverend Divines of whom some dyed Martyrs for the Protestant Religion we conceive to be an Excellent Form for the Worship of God and hath been generally so held throughout this Kingdom till within these two or three years at the most And therefore since there are no Inconveniences pretended to arise from the Book of Common-Prayer to which we conceive the Directory is not more liable and since there is nothing commendable in the Directory which is not already in the Book of Common-Prayer we conceive it much better and more conducing to the Peace of this Kingdom still to observe the said Form with such Dispensations as we have expressed in our first Paper now presented to your Lordships and if there shall be any Alterations proposed by your Lordships of such particulars in the Book of Common-Prayer as good men are scrupled at we shall willingly endeavour to give your Lordships satisfaction in those particulars but as yet can make no further or other Answer than we have already done but shall be ready to receive such Objections as your Lordships shall think fit to make against the Book of Common-Prayer and your Reasons for introducing the Directory And for the Proposition concerning Church-Government annexed to your first Paper we have no Information how that Government shall be constituted in particular or what Jurisdiction shall be established or by whom it shall be granted or upon whom it shall depend And therein also we desire further Information from your Lordships 13. February VVE desire to see the Bills for the Observation of the Lord's day for suppressing of Innovations in Churches and Chapels and for the better advancement of the Preaching of God's Holy Word which are mentioned in your Lordships Paper of the 11. of Febr. we being very ready to consent to the subject Matter of those Bills We have expressed in our Paper delivered to your Lordships what we conceive fit to be done in the business of Pluralities which will prevent any inconveniences that way And when your Lordships shall give us your Demands concerning Papists and when we shall see the Acts for the regulating and reforming of both Universities of the Colleges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton and for the Education and Marriage of His Majesty's Children and the Children of His Heirs and Successors in the true Protestant Religion we shall give your Lordships such Answers as shall be fit being very willing to concur with your Lordships in any good means for the suppressing of Popery and advancement of the Protestant Religion And we are well assured that His Majesty hath taken a pious care for the Education of all His Children in the true Protestant Religion and having already married one of His Children to the satisfaction we conceive of all His good Subjects we are confident in due time His Majesty will so dispose of the rest in Marriage as shall be most for the advancement of Religion and the good and welfare of all His Dominions Their Answer to the First 13. February VVHereas we expected your Lordships resolution for His Majesty's assent unto the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-Bishops Bishops c. we find by your Paper given in this Evening that your Lordships are not yet satisfied that the Bill should pass and you are pleased to express several Reasons and Objections against it which were at large answered and cleared at the publick Debate But what was then said by us is now by your Lordships wholly omitted nor may we in writing represent it again unto your Lordships it not being agreeable to the usage of Parliament to deliver Reasons for or against a Bill though we were willing by Conference in the Treaty to satisfy all doubts and remove all scruples which remained with you And so far were we from consenting that Episcopacy hath continued from the Apostles times by continual Succession that the contrary was made evident unto your Lordships and the Unlawfulness of it fully proved And as for that which your Lordships have propounded for uniting and reconciling all differences in the matter of Religion it is a new Proposition which wholly differs from ours is no way satisfactory to our desires nor consisting with that Reformation to which both Kingdoms are obliged by their solemn Covenant therefore we can give no other Answer to it but must insist to desire your Lordships that the Bill may be past and our other Demands concerning Religion granted The King's Commissioners Reply thereunto 13. February VVE conceive that our Answer to your Lordships concerning the Bill for the utter Abolishing of Arch-bishops Bishops c. was so reasonable that it clearly appears thereby that the passing that
already settled by the Laws of that Kingdom Their Answer thereunto 15. February TO your Lordships fourth Paper of the 14. of Feb. it is answered that by our Propositions for settling the Admiralty of Scotland by Act of Parliament it is intended that the Admiralty and Forces at Sea c. shall be settled in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fittest for the safety and security of that Kingdom And as touching the inheritance of any person which is already settled by the Laws of that Kingdom the Estates of Parliament will do that which is agreeable to Justice The King's Commissioners Paper 15. February VVE desire to know whether the Papers delivered to us touching the Militia contain all your Lordships Propositions touching the Militia of England and Scotland and if they do not that your Lordships will deliver the rest that we may make our Answers upon the whole Their Answer 15. Feb. VVHatsoever is contained in the Propositions concerning the Militia of England and Scotland is delivered in to your Lordships except the 23. Proposition and the last Article in the 26. Proposition which are reserved for their proper place After all these passages the King's Commissioners delivered in this Paper in further Answer to their Propositions concerning the Militia 17. Feb. VVE had no purpose in our Answer delivered by us to your Lordships on the sixth day of February to divide our Answers concerning the Militia of the two Kingdoms otherwise than in point of time and till we might receive satisfaction from your Lordships concerning the Powers to be given to the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and the other particulars mentioned in our Papers since delivered to your Lordships wherein we are not as yet satisfied by any Papers delivered by your Lordships to us Our further Answer to those Propositions concerning the Militia is That we are willing and do agree that the like course shall be taken and observed touching the Militia of the Kingdom of Scotland as is offered in our said Paper of the sixth of February and as shall be hereafter agreed on for the Kingdom of England which we conceive to be a full security for the performance and observation of all Articles which shall be agreed upon between us in order to a blessed Peace which we are so desirous may be punctually and exactly observed that we are willing that His Majesty be desired to take a most solemn strict Oath for the full observation thereof and likewise that all persons of any immediate trust by office or attendance on His Majesty and any other whom you shall think fit shall take such Oath for the due observance of the same with such reasonable Penalties as shall be proposed by your Lordships and agreed to by us in which we believe we shall not differ with your Lordships being willing that whosoever shall in the least degree infringe the Agreement which shall be made between us may be looked upon and accounted as most pernicious Enemies to King and Kingdoms And if it shall be thought necessary to make any additional settlement of the Militia with a general reference to the good of the Kingdoms respectively we desire the same may be done after the Peace established by the joynt consent of His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament in England and His Majesty and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively And as we shall desire and endeavour to remove all occasions that may interrupt the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom and a perfect Amity with them and shall not desire any change of or to intermeddle in their Laws or Government or give them cause to apprehend any disturbance or violation of them from this Kingdom so are we obliged with all tenderness to preserve the Honour Dignity and Constitution of this Realm And therefore as we are yet satisfied we cannot consent that any Persons authorized by the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland or any advice from thence shall have any influence upon the Militia of this Kingdom or further interpose in the affairs of this Kingdom than is already provided by the Act of Pacification And we offer to your Lordships considerations whether unless there could be an union of the Laws of both Kingdoms such a mixture of Power as is now proposed and the influence thereof both upon Martial and Civil affairs may not prove very inconvenient and prejudicial to both Kingdoms and give cause of Jealousies to each other to the disturbance of that mutual Amity so much desired But if this intermingling of Power in both Kingdoms shall be further insisted on by your Lordships we propound that the same may be settled as after a Peace established shall be agreed by the joynt consent of His Majesty and both Houses of Parliament of England and of His Majesty and the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland and if your Lordships shall insist on any thing further for necessary Security we shall apply our selves to the consideration thereof if we shall have further time so to do according to our desires grounded upon His Majesty's Letter Their Paper 17. Feb. WE do conceive that we have in our former Papers punctually satisfied your Lordships in all you desired to know concerning the Powers of the Commissioners of both Kingdoms and the other particulars mentioned by your Lordships And what your Lordships now offer concerning the Militia of the Kingdom of Scotland that the like course shall be taken in it as is expressed in your Lordships Paper of the 6 th of Feb. to be observed for the Militia of this Kingdom your Lordships may remember that in our Answer to that Paper we told your Lordships it was differing from what we had proposed and unsatisfactory to our just and necessary desires for securing the Peace of the Kingdoms and it cannot be expected that what was so then for the Kingdom of England should now be thought other for the Kingdom of Scotland And though both Kingdoms be now united in the same Cause and labouring under the same Dangers and therefore necessitated to a mutual and reciprocal Assistance of each other had proposed a joynt remedy and security by that Commission desired in our 17 th Proposition we find your Lordships say that as yet you are satisfied you cannot consent unto it To which we answer That we believed we had given your Lordships such convincing Reasons as might have satisfied you and we doubt not but they may if you will recollect your memories concerning them and rightly weight them This being the last day we are to Treat upon this Subject it cannot be expected and as we conceive it is altogether needless to use any more Arguments we do therefore desire your Lordships will be pleased now at the last to give us your full and positive Answer to our Demands as we have often already pressed your Lordships And whereas your Lordships do propound that if we shall further insist upon the
no Answer to us whether any Commission be now on foot or other Authority given by his Majesty for any Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland other then that which determines in March next nor to our desire that no Cessation of Arms or Peace in Ireland may be Treated upon or concluded without consent of both Houses of the Parliament of England nor do we understand why your Lordships should delay your Answer herein till the Peace in England be concluded since it hath been so clearly manifested to your Lordships by the true meaning of the Act passed by His Majesty this Parliament that His Majesty can make no Peace nor Cessation without the Consent of the two Houses and that your Lordships satisfactory Answer to this and our other Demands concerning Ireland will much conduce to the settling the Peace of this Kingdom We therefore again desire your Lordships full and clear Answer to the particulars expressed in our sixth and seventh Papers yesterday delivered to your Lordships The King's Commissioners Answer 20. Febr. VVE do not hold our selves any ways obliged to answer your Lordships Demand whether any Commission be on foot or other Authority from His Majesty for a Peace or Cessation of Arms in Ireland that Question not arising upon any Propositions on His Majesties part yet for your Lordships satisfaction we do again assure you we do not know there is any Peace or Cessation made there other than that which determines in March next But what Commission the Marquess of Ormond as Lievtenant of Ireland or General of the Forces there hath to that purpose we do not know and therefore cannot inform your Lordships And as to the other particulars in that Paper we do refer our selves to the Answers formerly given in to your Lordships Demands touching that Subject with this that we do conceive it to be most clear that His Majesty is in no wise restrained by express words or by the meaning of any Act made this Parliament from making a Peace or Cessation in Ireland without the consent of the two Houses Their Paper 19. Feb. THere being but three days left to Treat upon the Propositions for Religion the Militia and for Ireland and for that your Lordships have given no satisfactory Answers to our Demands concerning them we therefore now desire to confer with your Lordships how to dispose of the three days yet remaining that we may receive your Lordships full and clear Answers thereunto The King's Commissioners Answer 19. February VVE see no cause why your Lordships should think our Answers upon the Propositions for Religion and the Militia were not satisfactory And for that of Ireland we have received many Papers from your Lordships concerning that business besides the Propositions themselves to all which we doubt not to give a full and clear Answer to your Lordships to morrow being the time assigned and the last day of the Treaty upon that Subject After we shall be ready to confer with your Lordships of disposing the remainder of the time Accordingly after the before-mentioned Demands and Answer thereunto of the 19. of February the King's Commissioners in Answer to theirs of the 18. of February n. 149. delivered in this Paper 20. February VVE have already told your Lordships how far we are from being satisfied by what you have alledged against His Majesties Power to make a Cessation with the Rebels in Ireland neither have your Lordships in any degree answered the important Reasons which induced his Majesty so to do it being very evident that by the Cessation there His Majesties Protestant Subjects have been preserved and subsisted which without it they could not have done the two Houses forbearing to send any relief or supply to them and His Majesty not being able And we desire your Lordships to consider how impossible it was whilst the War continued in England with such fierceness and animosity by Arms to reduce the Kingdom of Ireland to His Majesties Obedience and therefore His Majesty had great reason to preserve that by a Cessation which he could not reduce by a War And we are most confident that the Necessities which are not offered as excuses for but were the real grounds of the Cessation were very visible to all those in that Kingdom whose Advices His Majesty ought in reason to follow and whose Interests were most concerned and would not have given such Advice if any other way could have been found out to preserve them And we have been credibly informed that the Committee sent into Ireland which His Majesty never understood to be sent thither to supply the Necessities but to observe the Actions of His Majesties Ministers there having in their Journey thither signed Warrants in their own names to apprehend the Persons of Peers of this Realm and Persons of His Majesties Privy Council were never discountenanced there for His Majesties directions that Persons who were not of His Privy Council there should not be present at those Councils cannot be interpreted a discountenance to them in any thing they ought to do And we are most assured that His Majesty sent no Message or Letter to divert the course of the Officers subscribing for Land in satisfaction of their Arrears but the Soldiers were meerly discouraged from the same by discerning that for want of Supplies they should not be able to go on with that War And we do assure your Lordships that His Majesty doth not believe that the Sums of Money raised for Ireland which your Lordships do admit to have been made use of by both Houses of Parliament otherwise then was appointed are yet satisfied in any proportion the greatestpart of the Money raised upon the Bill for 400000 l. and of the Moneys raised upon the charitable Collections as well as the Adventurers Moneys being imployed upon the War here and if the same were since satisfied it doth no ways excuse the diverting of them when in the mean time that Kingdom suffered by that diversion and that the fear that other Moneys so raised might likewise be misimployed was a great reason amongst others that made His Majesty not consent to that Bill mentioned by your Lordships And for the Regiments of Horse and Foot which your Lordships in your Paper of the 18. of this Month say were designed for Ireland though they were imployed otherwise because a Commission could not be obtained for the Lord Wharton who was to command those Forces it is well known that those Forces were raised before His Majesties Commission was so much as desired and then the Commission that was desired should have been independent upon His Majesties Lieutenant of that Kingdom and therefore His Majesty had great reason not to consent to such a Commission and so the damages of keeping those six Pinnaces and the 1000 Land-Forces if any such were proceeded not from any default of His Majesty And for the Provisions seized by His Majesties Forces it is notorious that they were seized in the way
contrary to our expectations that instead of being rewarded we have been prejudiced instead of getting a Fortune we have spent part of one and though we behave our selves never so well abroad and perform the actions of honest men yet we have the reward of Rogues and Rebels which is Misery and Want when we come home Now my Lords although we be brought to so great an exigence that we are ready to rob and spoil one another yet to prevent such outrages we thought it better to try all honest means for our subsistence before we take such indirect courses Therefore if your Lordships will be pleased to take us timely into your considerations before our urgent Wants make us desperate we will as we have done hitherto serve your Lordships readily and saithfully But if your Lordships will not find a way for our Preservations here we humbly desire we may have leave to go where we may have a better Being and if your Lordships shall refuse to grant that we must then take leave to have our recourse to that first and primary Law which God hath endued all men with we mean the Law of Nature which teacheth all men to preserve themselves The Letter of the Lords Justices and Council of Ireland to His MAJESTY of the 11. of May 1643. May it please your most Excellent Majesty AS soon as we Your Majesties Justices entred into the charge of this Government we took into our consideration at this Board the state of Your Army here which we find suffering under unspeakable Extremities of Want of all things necessary to the support of their Persons or maintenance of the War here being no Victuals Cloaths or other Provisions requisite towards their sustenance no Money to provide them of any thing they want no Arms in Your Majesties Stores to supply their many defective Arms not above Forty Barrels of Powder in Your Stores no strength of serviceable Horses being now left here and those few that are their Arms for the most part lost or unserviceable no Ships arrived here to guard the Coasts and consequently no security rendred to any that might on their private Adventures bring in Provisions of Victuals or other necessaries towards our subsistence and finally no visible means by Sea or Land of being able to preserve for You this Your Kingdom and to render deliverance from utter Destruction to the remnant of Your good Subjects yet left here We find that Your Majesties late Justices and this Board have often and fully by very many Letters advertised the Parliament in England of the extremities of Affairs here and besought Relief with all possible importunity which also have been fully represented to Your Majesty and to the Lord Lieutenant and Mr. Secretary Nicholas to be made known to Your Majesty and although the Winds have of late for many days and often formerly stood very fair for Accessions of Supply forth of England hither and that we have still with longing expectations hoped to find Provisions arrive here in some degree answerable to the Necessities of Your Affairs yet now to our unexpressible grief after full six months waiting and much longer patience and long suffering we find all our great Expectations answered in a mean and inconsiderable quantity of Provisions viz. threescore and fifteen Barrels of Butter and fourteen Tun of Cheese being but the fourth part of a small Vessels loading which was sent from London and arrived here on the fifth day of this month which is not above seven or eight days Provision for that part of the Army which lies in Dublin and the out-Garrisons thereof no Money or Victuals other than that inconsiderable proportion of Victual having arrived in this place as sent from the Parliament of England or from any other forth of England for the use of the Army since the beginning of November last We have by the Blessing of God been hitherto prosperous and successful in Your Majesties Affairs here and should be still hopeful by the mercy of God under the Royal Directions of Your Sacred Majesty to vindicate Your Majesties Honour and recover Your Rights here and take due Vengeance on these Traitors for the innocent Blood they have spilt if we might be strengthened and supported therein by needful Supplies forth of England but these Supplies having hitherto been expected to come from the Parliament of England on which if Your Majesty had not relied we are assured You would in Your high Wisdom have found out some other means to preserve this Your Kingdom and so great and apparent a failer having hapned therein and all the former and late long continuing Easterly Winds bringing us no other Provisions than those few Cheeses and Butter and no Advertisements being brought us of any future Supply to be so much as in the way hither whereby there might be any likelihood that considerable means of support for Your Majesties Army might arrive here in any reasonable time before we be totally swallowed up by the Rebels and Your Kingdom by them wrested from you we find our selves so disappointed of our hopes from the Parliament as must needs trench to the utter loss of the Kingdom if Your Majesty in Your high Wisdom ordain not some present means of preservation for us And considering that if now by occasion of that unhappy and unexpected failing of support from thence we shall be less successful in Your Services here against the Rebels than hitherto whilst we were enabled with some means to serve You we have been the shame and dishonour may in common construction of those that know not the inwards of the cause be imputed to us and not to the failings that disabled Us and considering principally and above all things the high and eminent trust of your Affairs here deposited with us by Your Sacred Majesty we may not forbear in discharge of our Duty thus freely and plainly to declare our humble apprehensions to the end Your Majesty thus truly understanding the terribleness of our Condition may find out some such means of support to preserve to Your Majesty and Your Royal Posterity this Your Ancient and Rightful Crown and Kingdom and derive Deliverance and Safety to the Remnant of Your good Subjects yet left here as in Your Excellent Judgment You shall find to be most for Your Honour and Advantage And so praying to the King of Kings to guide and direct You for the best in this high and important Cause and in all other Your Counsels and Actions we humbly remain from Your Majesties Castle of Dublin the 11 th Day of May 1643. Your Majesties most Loyal and most Faithful Subjects and Servants His MAJESTIES Answers to certain Papers delivered in to His Commissioners at Uxbridge upon the Close of the Treaty one concerning the Militia and two concerning Ireland To which being long and coming in so near the breaking up of the Treaty no Answers could then be given HAving received an account of the Passages of the late
and Consent of the said Lords and Commons or of such Committees or Council in the Intervals of Parliament as they shall appoint 3. That during the same space of ten years the said Lords and Commons may by Bill or Ordinance raise and dispose of what Moneys and for what Forces they shall from time to time find necessary as also for payment of the Publick Debts and Damages and for all other the Publick uses of the Kingdom 4. And to the end the temporary Security intended by the three particulars last precedent may be the better assured it may therefore be provided That no Subjects that have been in Hostility against the Parliament in the late War shall be capable of bearing any Office of Power or publick Trust in the Commonwealth during the space of five years without Consent of Parliament or of the Council of State or to sit as Members or Assistants of either House of Parliament until the second Biennial Parliament be past III. For the present form of disposing the Militia in order to the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and the Service of Ireland 1. That there be Commissioners for the Admiralty a Vice-Admiral and Rere-Admiral now to be agreed on with power for the forming regulating appointing of Officers and providing for the Navy and for ordering the same to and in the ordinary Service of the Kingdom and that there be a sufficient provision and establishment for Pay and maintenance thereof 2. That there be a General for Command of the Land-Forces that are to be in pay both in England Ireland and Wales both for Field and Garrison 3. That there be Commissioners in the several Counties for the standing Militia of the respective Counties consisting of Trained Bands and Auxiliaries not in pay with power for the proportioning forming regulating training and disciplining of them 4. That there be a Council of State with power to superintend and direct the several and particular powers of the Militia last mentioned for the Peace and Safety of this Kingdom and of Ireland 5. That the same Council may have power as the King 's Privy Council for and in all Forreign Negotiations provided That the making of War or Peace with any other Kingdom or State shall not be without the Advice and Consent of Parliament 6. That the said power of the Council of State be put into the hands of trusty and able persons now to be agreed on and the same persons to continue in that power si bene se gesserint for a certain Term not exceeding seven years 7. That there be a sufficient establishment now provided for the Salary Forces both in England and Ireland the establishment to continue until two Months after the meeting of the first Biennial Parliament IV. That an Act be passed for disposing the great Offices for ten years by the Lords and Commons in Parliament or by such Committees as they shall appoint for that purpose in the Intervals with submission to the Approbation of the next Parliament and after ten years they to nominate three and the King out of that number to appoint one for the succession upon any vacancy V. That an Act be passed for restraining of any Peers made since the 21. day of May 1642. or to be hereafter made from having any power to sit or vote in Parliament without Consent of both Houses VI. That an Act be passed for recalling and making void all Declarations and other Proceedings against the Parliament or against any that have acted by or under their Authority in the late War or in relation to it and that the Ordinances for Indemnity may be confirmed VII That an Act be passed for making void all Grants c. under the Great Seal that was conveyed away from the Parliament since the time that it was so conveyed away except as in the Parliaments Propositions and for making those valid that have been or shall be passed under the Great Seal made by the Authority of both Houses of Parliament VIII That an Act be passed for Confirmation of the Treaties between the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland and for appointing Conservators of the Peace betwixt them IX That the Ordinance for taking away the Court of Wards and Liveries be confirmed by Act of Parliament Provided His Majesties Revenue be not damnified therein nor those that last held Offices in the same left without reparation some other way X. An Act to declare void the Cessation of Ireland c. and to leave the prosecution of that War to the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England XI An Act to be passed to take away all Coercive Power Authority and Jurisdiction of Bishops and all other Ecclesiastical Officers whatsoever extending to any Civil Penalties upon any and to repeal all Laws whereby the Civil Magistracy hath been or is bound upon any Ecclesiastical Censure to proceed ex officio unto any Civil Penalties against any persons so censured XII That there be a repeal of all Acts or Clauses in any Act enjoyning the use of the Book of Common Prayer and imposing any Penalties for neglect thereof as also of all Acts or Clauses in any Act imposing any penalty for not coming to Church or for Meetings elsewhere for Prayer or other Religious Duties Exercises or Ordinances and some other provision to be made for discovering of Papists and Popish Recusants and for disabling of them and of all Jusuites or Priests from disturbing the State XIII That the taking of the Covenant be not enforced upon any nor any penalties imposed upon the Refusors whereby men might be constrained to take it against their Judgments or Consciences but all Orders or Ordinances tending to that purpose to be repealed XIV That the things here before proposed being provided for settling and securing the Rights Liberties Peace and Safety of the Kingdom His Majesties Person His Queen and Royal Issue may be restored to a Condition of Safety Honour and Freedom in this Nation without diminution to their Personal Rights or further Limitation to the Exercise of the Regal Power than according to the particulars aforegoing XV. For the matter of Compositions 1. That a less number out of the Persons excepted in the two first Qualifications not exceeding five for the English being nominated particularly by the Parliament who together with the persons in the Irish Rebellion included in the third Qualification may be reserved to the future Judgment of the Parliament as they shall find cause all other excepted persons may be remitted from the Exception and admitted to Composition 2. That the Rates for all future Compositions may be lessened and limitted not to exceed the several proportions hereafter exprest respectively That is to say 1. For all persons formerly excepted not above a third part 2. For the late Members of Parliament under the first Branch of the fourth Qualification in the Propositions a fourth part 3. For other Members of Parliament in the second and third Branches of the
perfecting of these Concessions as also for such other things as may be proposed by the two Houses and for such just and reasonable demands as his Majesty shall find necessary to propose on his part he earnestly desires a Personal Treaty at London with his two Houses in Honour Freedom and Safety it being in his Judgment the most proper and indeed only means to a firm and settled Peace and impossible without it to reconcile former or to avoid future misunderstandings All these things being by Treaty perfected his Majesty believes his two Houses will think it reasonable that the Proposals of the Army concerning the Succession of Parliaments and their due Elections should be taken into consideration As for what concerns the Kingdom of Scotland his Majesty will very readily apply himself to give all reasonable satisfaction when the Desires of the two Houses of Parliament on their behalf or of the Commissioners of that Kingdom or of both joyned together shall be made known unto him From the Isle of Wight Novemb. 17. 1647. His MAJESTIES Declaration at the Isle of VVight Novemb. 19. 1647. CHARLES R. HIS Majesty doth declare That he came from Hampton-Court for no other cause but for the preservation of His Person which was as He apprehended in such danger that He could not with Safety continue longer there That if He could have been there with Safety He would not have departed thence nor from the Army And that He chose this place rather than any other when He was at liberty to have gone whither He pleased that He might still continue under the protection of the Army Colonel Hammond being a Member thereof and that He might have conveniency of free intercourse between Himself and the Parliament for the settlement of a general Peace to which He professes a very great inclination and desire and that there shall be nothing wanting on His part that may be reasonably expected from Him And His Majesty doth further Declare That in case these Gentlemen be taken from Him and punished as evil doers for counselling Him not to go out of the Kingdom but rather to come to the place where He now is for the ends aforesaid and for their endeavouring accordingly in attending Him hither He cannot but Himself expect to be dealt with accordingly His case being the same Carisbrooke Castle Novemb. 19. 1647. His MAJESTIES Letter to Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX from Carisbrooke Novemb. 26. 1647. For Sir Thomas Fairfax General CHARLES R. HAving left Order at Our remove from Hampton-Court that a Copy should be given you of what We had then written to both Houses of Parliament touching the causes of Our withdrawing and the continuance of Our Resolutions to improve every occasion of the satisfaction of all chief Interests that so a happy Peace may be settled in Our Dominions in pursuance whereof We have lately sent a Message to both Houses from this place and a Copy of it to you and being desirous in order to that blessed Work to give you Our present sense upon the condition of Affairs as they now stand We have thought fit to appoint Sir John Barkley to repair unto you and to communicate the same to you and We shall be glad by him to receive a mutual communication of your sense also upon this Subject not doubting but you easily perceive by the late Disorders into what a depth of Confusion the Army and the Nation will fall if timely and effectual preventions be not used And therefore We have now again proposed as the only Expedient a Personal Treaty for the composing of all differences and fulfilling the desires of all Interests to which if you will imploy your Credit as you cannot but expect the Blessings of God upon your endeavours therein so you may justly look for the best return that ever Our Condition shall be able to make you Given at Carisbrooke Castle the 26. day of Novemb. 1647. His MAJESTIES Message to both Houses from Carisbrook Castle Dec. 6. 1647. To the Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore to be communicated to both Houses of Parliament at Westminster and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland CHARLES R. HAD His Majesty thought it possible that His two Houses could be imployed in things of greater concernment than the Peace of this miserable distracted Kingdom He would have expected with more patience their leisure in acknowledging the receit of His Message of the 16. of November last But since there is not in nature any consideration preceding to that of Peace His Majesties constant tenderness of the welfare of His Subjects hath such a prevalence with Him that He cannot forbear the vehement prosecution of a Personal Treaty which is only so much the more desired by His Majesty as it is superior to all other means of Peace And truly when His Majesty considers the several complaints He daily hears from all parts of this Kingdom that Trade is so decayed all Commodities so dear and Taxes so insupportable that even natural subsistence will suddenly fail His Majesty to perform the Trust reposed in Him must use His uttermost endeavours for Peace though He were to have no share in the benefit of it And hath not His Majesty done His part for it by devesting Himself of so much Power and Authority as by His last Message He hath promised to do upon the concluding of the whole Peace And hath He met with that Acknowledgment from his two Houses which this great grace and favour justly deserves Surely the blame of this great retarding of Peace must fall somewhere else than on His Majesty To conclude If ye will but consider in how little time this necessary good Work will be done if you the two Houses will wait on His Majesty with the same Resolutions for Peace as He will meet you He no way doubts but that ye will willingly agree to this His Majesties earnest desire of a Personal Treaty and speedily desire His presence amongst you where all things agreed on being digested into Acts till when it is most unreasonable for His Majesty or His two Houses to desire each of other the least Concession this Kingdom may at last enjoy the blessing of a long-wisht-for Peace From Carisbrook Castle Decemb. 6. 1647. MDâXLVII Dec. 24. The Four Bills sent to the King to the Isle of VVight to be passed Together with the Propositions sent unto Him at the same time which upon the passing of those Bills were to be Treated upon THE Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament have commanded us to present to Your Majesty these Four Bills which have passed the two Houses of Parliament thus severally Entituled viz. An Act concerning the raising settling and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Gernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed An Act for justifying the Proceedings of Parliament in the late War and for declaring all Oaths Declarations
thereunto Provided always and be it further Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary Legal Power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being Military Officers concerning the Administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of Peace Maiors Bailiffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers or any of them do levy conduct imploy or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary Command from His Majesty His Heirs or Successors without the Consent of the said Lords and Commons and that if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in Warlike manner or otherwise to the number of Thirty persons and shall not forthwith separate and disperse themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or Command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person and persons not so separating and dispersing themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High Treason being first Declared guilty of such Offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the Great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding and he or they that shall offend herein shall be incapable of any Pardon from His Majesty His Heirs and Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided also further That the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and imploying the Forces of that City for the Defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the sitting of this present Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act for justifying the Proceedings of Parliament in the late War and for Declaring all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other Proceedings against it to be void WHereas the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament have been necessitated to make and prosecute a War in their just and lawful Defence and thereupon Oaths Declarations and Proclamations have been made against them and their Ordinances and Proceedings and against others for adhering unto them and for executing Offices Places and Charges by Authority derived from them and Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions for the causes aforesaid have been had and made against some of the Members of the Houses of Parliament and other his Majesties good Subjects and Grants have been made of their Lands and Goods Be it therefore Declared and hereby Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by Authority of the same That all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or made against both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any the Members of either of them for the causes aforesaid or against their Ordinances or Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from the said Houses or either of them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders Inquisitions and Grants thereupon made and all other Proceedings for any the causes aforesaid had made done or executed or to be had made done or executed whether the same be done by the King or any Judges Justices Sheriffs Ministers or any others are void and of no effect and are contrary to and against the Laws of the Realm And be it further Enacted and hereby Declared by the Authority aforesaid That all Judges Justices of the Peace Maior Sheriffs Constables and other Officers and Ministers shall take notice hereof and are hereby prohibited and discharged in all time to come from awarding any Writ Process or Summons and from pronouncing or executing any Judgment Sentence or Decree or any way proceeding against or molesting any of the said Members of the two Houses of Parliament or against any of the Subjects of this Kingdom for any the causes aforesaid Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning Peers lately made and hereafter to be made BE it Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament That all Honour and Title of Peerage conferred on any since the twentieth day of May 1642. being the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament be and is hereby made and declared Null and Void Be it further Enacted and it is hereby Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that no Person that shall hereafter be made a Peer or His Heirs shall sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament Soit baillé aux Seigneurs A ceste Bille les Seigneurs sont assentuz An Act concerning the Adjournments of both Houses of Parliament BE it Declared and Enacted by the Kings Majesty and by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament and by the Authority of the same That when and as often as the Lords and Commons assembled in this present Parliament shall judge it necessary to adjourn both Houses of this present Parliament to any other place of the Kingdom of England than where they now sit or from any place adjourn the same again to the place where they now sit or to any other place within the Kingdom of England that then such their Adjournment and Adjournments to such places and for such time as they shall appoint shall at all times and from time to time be valid and good any Act Statute or Usage to the contrary notwithstanding Provided always and be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid That no Adjournment or Adjournments to be had or made by reason or colour of this Act shall be deemed adjudged or taken to make end or determine any Session of this present Parliament And they also commanded us to present to Your Majesty these ensuing Propositions Heads of the Propositions 1. That the new Seal be confirmed and the old Great Seal and all things passed under it since May 1642. be made void 2. That Acts be passed for raising Moneys to satisfie Publick Debts 3. That Members of both Houses put from their places by the King be restored 4. That the Cessation in Ireland be made void and the War left to both Houses 5. That an Act of Indemnity be passed 6. That the Court of Wards be taken away and such Tenures turned into common Soccage 7. That the Treaties between the English and Scots be confirmed and Commissioners appointed for Conservation of the Peace between the Kingdoms 8. That the Arrears of the Army be paid out of the Bishops Lands forfeited Estates and Forests 9. That an Act be
much of their Office as was ordinary and perpetual and such a distinction of Bishops and Presbyters as His Majesty hath formerly expressed needeth no further Confirmation from Scripture to such as are willing to make use of their Reason also which in interpreting Scripture upon all other occasions they are inforced to do nor any thing by you produced in this Paragraph any further Answer only that distinction of Eminently and Formally because you illustrate it by instancing in Himself His Majesty could not but take notice of which He either understandeth not or thinketh your Illustration thereof not to be very apposite for Actions and Operations flow from the Forms of things and demonstrate the same as Effects do their Causes The Apostles therefore acting in the ordinary exercise of Church-Government did act not Eminently only but Formally also as Bishops rather than Apostles As Concerning Timothy and Titus First Whether they were Evangelists or no His Majesty never meant to dispute Only because you often call for Scripture-proof His Majesty thought fit to admonish you that in your Answer you take two things for granted viz. that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists and that Evangelists were such Officers as you described neither of which if it should be denied you could clearly prove from Scripture alone without calling in the help of other Writers to attest it as in your Reply you have now done Master Hooker's neither have you indeed brought any thing in this Reply out of Scripture to prove either of both sufficient to convince him that were of a contrary mind Secondly you seem Sect. 12. to mistake that which was the Third Point in that part of His Majesties Paper which was not Whether Timothy and Titus were Evangelists or no concerning which His Majesty neither did nor doth contend but Whether in the Church-Government they exercised they acted as Evangelists as you affirm and so only as extraordinary Officers or not Zuinglius having said that the Name of a Bishop and Evangelist is the same thing proveth it from ii Tim. iv and concludeth Constat idem fuisse officium utriusque Bishop and Evangelist the same Office both Gerard saith the word Evangelist in that place is taken generally and not in the special sense that is to say for a Minister of the Gospel at large and the Context there indeed seemeth to import no more and not for an Evangelist by peculiar Office And Scultetus not only affirmeth that Saint Paul appointed Timothy and Titus to Ephesus and Crete not as Evangelists but as Church-Governours but saith further that the Epistles written to them both do evince it and also bringeth Reasons to prove it Upon what particular Reasons Gillespy c. reject the conceit of their acting as Evangelists His Majesty certainly knows not But if this be one of their Arguments as to their best remembrance from whom His Majesty had the Information it is That if whatsoever is alleged from the Scripture to have been done by the Apostles and by Timothy and Titus in point of Ordination Discipline and Government may be eluded by this that they acted therein as extraordinary Officers there will be no proof at all from Scripture of any power left in any ordinary Church-Officer to the purposes aforesaid His Majesty then recommendeth to your most sober thoughts to consider First how this Conceit of their acting as extraordinary Ministers only tends to the subversion of all Ministers as well as of the Bishops since upon this very ground especially the Socinians deny all Mission and Ordination of Ministers in the Church and Secondly if the contrary be proved by Gillespy c. by good Arguments that they acted as ordinary Officers in the Church then whether they have not thereby laid a better foundation for the claim of the Bishops viz. of Governing the Churches as single persons in Ordinary Office than either they or you are willing to acknowledg Thirdly His Majesty thinketh it a great liberty which you take in rendring the sense of His Reply as you have done viz. The Scriptures never call them Bishops but the Fathers do c. Whereas if you had followed His sense in that Paper you might rather have delivered thus The Scripture describeth them as Bishops and the Fathers call them so For that of yours The Scripture calls Timothy an Evangelist some of late have refuted it and rejected it with scorn you should have said rather The Scripture doth not any where affirm of Titus nor clearly prove of Timothy that they were by peculiar Office Evangelists but that in governing the Churches they acted as Evangelists or extraordinary Officers is by sundry late Writers the Evasion it self having been but of late time minted refuted and rejected For that of yours The Scripture relates their motion from Church to Church but some affirm them to be fixed at Ephesus and in Crete It should have been Neither doth their motion from Church to Church hinder but that they might afterward be fixed at Ephesus and in Crete neither doth their being Bishops of Ephesus and Crete hinder but that they might afterwards for propagation of the Gospel be by the Apostles appointment often imployed other-where For that of yours The Scripture makes distinction of Evangelists and Pastors but some say that Timothy and Titus were both It should have been The Scripture maketh no such distinction of Evangelists and Pastors but that the same persons might not only successively be both but even at the same time also be called by both Names Fourthly Tho you say You do not undervalue the Testimonies and Catalogues mentioned yet you endeavour which cometh not far short of undervaluing to lessen the reputation of both but too much Of those Testimonies by putting them off as if when they report Timothy and Titus and others to have been Bishops they speak but vulgarly or by way of allusion and not exactly as to the point in Debate But of Hierom upon whom you chiefly rely in this cause the contrary is evident who in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers wherein he was to deliver things Fide Historica and to describe the persons of such as are Registred in that Catalogue by their proper and known distinctive Titles and Styles expresly styleth Timothy Titus Mark Polycarp and others Bishops of such and such places and such on the other side as were but mere Presbyters Ecclesioe Antiochenoe or Alexandrinoe Presbyteri c. observing the difference so constantly and exactly throughout the whole Book that nothing can be more clear than that he understood the word Episcopus no otherwise than in the ordinary Ecclesiastical sense and as a Bishop is distinct from a Presbyter As for that passage you allege out of him by custome in the judgment of Learned men he must mean the practice of the Apostolick times and by Dominica dispositio the express Precept of Christ unless you will have himself contradict what himself hath written in sundry other places whose Testimonies
whatever displeasure they had conceived against Me My Court or the Clergy But all Reason bids Me impute these sudden and vast desires of change to those few who armed themselves with the many-headed and many-handed Tumults No less doth Reason Honour and Safety both of Church and State command Me to chew such morsels before I let them down If the streightness of my Conscience will not give Me leave to swallow down such Camels as others do of Sacriledg and Injustice both to God and Man they have no more cause to quarrel with Me than for this that My throat is not so wide as theirs Yet by Gods help I am resolved that nothing of Passion or Peevishness or list to contradict or vanity to shew my Negative Power shall have any biass upon my Judgment to make Me gratifie My Will by denying any thing which my Reason and Conscience commands Me not Nor on the other side will I consent to more than Reason Justice Honour and Religion perswade Me to be for Gods Glory the Churches good my Peoples welfare and my own Peace I will study to satisfie My Parliament and My People but I will never for fear or flattery gratifie any Faction how potent soever for this were to nourish the Disease and oppress the body Altho many mens Loyalty and prudence are terrified from giving Me that free and faithful Counsel which they are able and willing to impart and I may want yet none can hinder Me from craving of the Counsel of that mighty Counsellor who can both suggest what is best and incline My Heart stedfastly to follow it O Thou first and Eternal Reason whose Wisdom is fortified with Omnipotency furnish thy Servant first with clear discoveries of Truth Reason and Justice in My Vnderstanding then so confirm My Will and Resolution to adhere to them that no Terrors Injuries or Oppressions of My Enemies may ever inforce Me against those rules which Thou by them hast planted in My Conscience Thou never madest Me a King that I should be less than a Man and not dare to say Yea or Nay as I see cause which freedom is not denied to the meanest creature that hath the use of Reason and liberty of Speech Shall that be blamable in Me which is commendable veracity and constancy in others Thou seest O Lord with what Partiality and Injustice they deny that freedom to Me their KING which Thou hast given to all men and which themselves pertinaciously challenge to themselves while they are so tender of the least breach of their Priviledges To Thee I make my Supplication who canst guide us by an un-erring rule through the perplexed Labyrinths of our own thoughts and other mens Proposals which I have some cause to suspect are purposely cast as Snares that by my granting or denying them I might be more entangled in those difficulties wherewith they lie in wait to afflict Me. O Lord make thy way plain before Me. Let not My own sinful Passions cloud or divert thy Sacred Suggestions Let thy Glory be my End thy Word my Rule and then thy Will be done I cannot please all I care not to please some men If I may be happy to please Thee I need not fear whom I displease Thou that makest the wisdom of the world foolishness and takest in their own devices such as are Wise in their own conceits make Me wise by thy Truth for thy Honour My Kingdoms general good and My own Souls Salvation and I shall not much regard the Worlds opinion or diminution of Me. The less Wisdom they are willing to impute to Me the more they shall be convinced of thy Wisdom directing Me while I deny nothing fit to be granted out of crossness or humor nor grant any thing which is to be denied out of any fear or flattery of men Suffer Me not to be guilty or unhappy by willing or inconsiderate advancing any mens Designs which are injurious to the publick good while I confirm them by my Consent Nor let Me be any occasion to hinder or defraud the Publick of what is best by any morose or perverse dissentings Make Me so humbly charitable as to follow their Advice when it appears to be for the publick good of whose Affections to Me I have yet but few evidences to assure Me. Thou canst as well bless honest Errors as blast fraudulent Counsels Since we must give an account of every evil and idle world in private at thy Tribunal Lord make Me careful of those solemn Declarations of My mind which are like to have the greatest influence upon the Publick either for woe or weal. The less others consider what they ask make Me the more solicitous what I answer Tho Mine own and My Peoples Pressures are grievous and Peace would be very pleasing yet Lord never suffer me to avoid the one or purchase the other with the least expence or waste of my Conscience whereof Thou O Lord only art deservedly more Master than My self XII Vpon the Rebellion and Troubles in IRELAND THE Commotions in Ireland were so sudden and so violent that it was hard at first either to discern the rise or apply a remedy to that precipitant Rebellion Indeed that sea of Blood which hath there been cruelly and barbarously shed is enough to drown any man in eternal both infamy and misery whom God shall find the malicious Author or Instigator of its effusion It fell out as a most unhappy advantage to some mens Malice against Me that when they had impudence enough to lay any thing to My charge this bloodyopportunity should be offered them with which I must be aspersed Altho there was nothing which could be more abhorred to Me being so full of sin against God Disloyalty to My self and destructive to My Subjects Some men took it very ill not to be believed when they affirmed that what the Irish Rebels did was done with My privity at least if not by My Commission But these knew too well that it is no news for some of My Subjects to fight not only without My Commission but against My Command and Person too yet all the while to pretend they fight by My Authority and for My Safety I would to God the Irish had nothing to alledg for their imitation against those whose blame must needs be the greater by how much Protestant Principles are more against all Rebellion against Princes than those of Papists Nor will the goodness of mens intentions excuse the scandal and contagion of their Examples But whoever fail of their Duty toward Me I must bear the blame this Honour My Enemies have always done Me to think moderate injuries not proportionate to Me nor competent trials either of My Patience under them or My Pardon of them Therefore with exquisite malice they have mixed the gall and vinegar of Falsity and Contempt with the cup of My Affliction charging Me not only with Untruths but such as wherein I have the greatest share of Loss
than a mocking and tempting of God to desire him to hinder those mischiefs whose occasions and remedies are in our own power it being every mans sin not to avoid the one and not to use the other There are ways enough to repair the Breaches of the State without the Ruines of the Church as I would be a Restorer of the one so I would not be an Oppressor of the other under the pretence of Publick Debts The occasions contracting them were bad enough but such a discharging of them would be much worse I pray God neither I nor Mine may be accessary to either To Thee O Lord do I address my Prayer beseeching Thee to pardon the rashness of my Subjects Swearings and to quicken their sense and observation of those just moral and indispensable bonds which thy Word and the Laws of this Kingdom have laid upon their Consciences From which no pretensions of Piety and Reformation are sufficient to absolve them or to engage them to any contrary practices Make them at length seriously to consider that nothing Violent and Injurious can be Religious Thou allowest no mans committing Sacriledg under the zeal of abhorring Idols Suffer not Sacrilegious designs to have the countenance of Religious ties Thou hast taught us by the wisest of Kings that it is a snare to take things that are holy and after Vows to make enquiry Ever keep thy Servant from consenting to Perjurious and Sacrilegious Rapines that I may not have the brand and curse to all posterity of robbing Thee and Thy Church of what thy Bounty hath given us and thy Clemency hath accepted from us wherewith to encourage Learning and Religion Tho my Treasures are exhausted my Revenues diminished and my Debts encreased yet never suffer Me to be tempted to use such profane Reparations lest a Coal from thine Altar set such a fire on my Throne and Conscience as will be hardly quenched Let not the Debts and Engagements of the Publick which some mens Folly and Prodigality hath contracted be an occasion to impoverish thy Church The State may soon recover by thy blessing of Peace upon us the Church is never likely in Times where the Charity of most men is grown so cold and their Religion so illiberal Continue to those that serve Thee and thy Church all those Incouragements which by the will of the pious Donors and the Justice of the Laws are due unto them and give them grace to deserve and use them aright to thy Glory and the relief of the Poor That thy Priests may be cloathed with Righteousness and the Poor may be satisfied with bread Let not Holy things be given to Swine nor the Churches bread to Dogs rather let them go about the City grin like a Dog and grudge that they are not satisfied Let those Sacred morsels which some men already by violence devoured never digest with them nor theirs Let them be as Naboth's Vineyard to Ahab gall in their mouths rottenness to their Names a moth to their Families and a sting to their Consciences Break in sunder O Lord all violent and Sacrilegious Confederations to do wickedly and injuriously Divide their hearts and tongues who have bandied together against the Church and State that the Folly of such may be manifest to all men and proceed no further But so favour My righteous dealing O Lord that in the Mercies of Thee the Most High I may never miscarry XV. Vpon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the KING to stir up the People against Him IF I had not My own Innocency and Gods Protection it were hard for Me to stand out against those stratagems and conflicts of Malice which by Falsities seek to oppress the Truth and by Jealousies to supply the defect of real causes which might seem to justifie so unjust Engagements against Me. And indeed the worst effects of open hostility come short of these Designs For I can more willingly lose my Crowns than my Credit nor are my Kingdoms so dear to Me as my Reputation and Honour Those must have a period with my Life but these may survive to a glorious kind of Immortality when I am dead and gone A good name being the embalming of Princes and a sweet consecration of them to an Eternity of Love and Gratitude among Posterity Those foul and false Aspersions were secret engines at first employed against my Peoples love of Me that undermining their opinion and value of Me My Enemies and theirs too might at once blow up their Affections and batter down their Loyalty Wherein yet I thank God the detriment of my Honour is not so afflictive to Me as the sin and danger of my Peoples Souls whose eyes once blinded with such mists of Suspicions they are soon misled into the most desperate precipices of actions wherein they do not only not consider their Sin and Danger but glory in their zealous adventures while I am rendred to them so fit to be destroyed that many are ambitious to merit the name of my Destroyers imagining they then fear God most when they least honour their King I thank God I never found but my Pity was above my Anger nor have my Passions ever so prevailed against Me as to exclude my most compassionate Prayers for them whom devout Errors more than their own Malice have betrayed to a most Religious Rebellion I had the Charity to interpret that most part of my Subjects fought against my supposed Errors not my Person and intended to mend Me not to end Me. And I hope that God pardoning their Errors hath so far accepted and answered their good Intentions that as he hath yet preserved Me so he hath by these Afflictions prepared Me both to do Him better service and My people more good than hitherto I have done I do not more willingly forgive their seductions which occasioned their loyal Injuries than I am ambitious by all Princely merits to redeem them from their unjust Suspicions and reward them for their good Intentions I am too conscious to My own Affections towards the generality of my People to suspect theirs to Me nor shall the Malice of my Enemies ever be able to deprive Me of the comfort which that confidence gives Me. I shall never gratifie the spightfulness of a few with any sinister thoughts of all their Allegiance whom Pious frauds have seduced The worst some mens Ambition can do shall never perswade Me to make so bad interpretations of most of my Subjects actions who possibly may be Erroneous but not Heretical in point of Loyalty The sense of the Injuries done to my Subjects is as sharp as those done to My self our welfares being inseperable in this only they suffer more than My self that they are animated by some Seducers to injure at once both themselves and Me. For this is not enough to the Malice of my Enemies that I be afflicted but it must be done by such instruments that my Afflictions grieve Me not more than this doth that
solicitous for My Friends safety than Mine own chusing to venture My self upon further hazards rather than expose their resolute Loyalty to all extremities It is some skill in play to know when a game is lost better fairly to give over than to contest in vain I must now study to re-inforce my Judgment and fortifie my Mind with Reason and Religion that I may not seem to offer up My Souls Liberty or make My Conscience their Captive who ought at first to have used Arguments nor Arms to have perswaded My Consent to their new demands I thank God no Success darkens or disguises Truth to Me and I shall no less conform my words to my inward dictates now than if they had been as the words of a KING ought to be among Loyal Subjects full of power Reason is the Divinest power I shall never think My self weakned while I may make full and free use of that No eclipse of outward fortune shall rob me of that light what God hath denied of outward Strength his Grace I hope will supply with inward Resolutions not morosely to deny what is fit to be granted but not to grant any thing which Reason and Religion bids me deny I shall never think My self less than My self while I am able thus to preserve the Integrity of My Conscience the only Jewel now left Me which is worth keeping O Thou Soveraign of our Souls the only Commander of our Consciences tho I know not what to do yet mine eyes are toward Thee To the protection of thy Mercy I still commend My self As Thou hast preserved Me in the day of Battel so Thou canst still shew Me thy strength in My weakness Be Thou unto Me in My darkest night a pillar of Fire to enlighten and direct Me in the day of my hottest Affliction be also a pillar of Cloud to overshadow and protect Me be to Me both a Sun and a Shield Thou knowest that it is not any perverseness of Will but just perswasions of Honour Reason and Religion which have made Me thus far to hazard my Person Peace and safety against those that by Force have sought to wrest them from Me. Suffer not My just Resolutions to abate with My outward Forces let a good Conscience always accompany Me in my greatest Solitude and Desertions Suffer Me not to betray the powers of Reason and that Fortress of My Soul which I am intrusted to keep for Thee Lead Me in the paths of thy Righteousness and shew Me thy Salvation Make My ways to please Thee and then Thou wilt make Mine Enemies to be at Peace with Me. XXIII Vpon the SCOTS delivering the KING to the English and His Captivity at Holdenby YET may I justifie those Scots to all the world in this that they have not deceived Me for I never trusted to them further than to men If I am sold by them I am only sorry they should do it and that My price should be so much above my Saviour's These are but further Essays which God will have Me make of mans Uncertainty the more to fix Me on Himself who never faileth them that trust in him Tho the Reeds of Egypt break under the hand of him that leans on them yet the Rock of Israel will be an everlasting stay and defence Gods Providence commands Me to retire from all to himself that in him I may enjoy My self whom I lose while I let out my hopes to others The Solitude and Captivity to which I am now reduced gives Me leisure enough to study the World's Vanity and Inconstancy God sees it fit to deprive Me of Wife Children Army Friends and Freedom that I may be wholly His who alone is all I care not much to be reckoned among the Unfortunate if I be not in the black list of Irreligious and Sacrilegious Princes No Restraint shall ensnare My Soul in sin nor gain that of Me which may make My Enemies more insolent My Friends ashamed or My Name accursed They have no great cause to triumph that they have got My Person into their power since My Soul is still My own nor shall they ever gain My Consent against My Conscience What they call Obstinacy I know God accounts honest Constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid Me to recede 'T is evident now that it was not Evil Counsellors with Me but a good Conscience in Me which hath been fought against nor did they ever intend to bring Me to My Parliament till they had brought My Mind to their obedience Should I grant what some men desire I should be such as they wish Me not more a King and far less both Man and Christian What Tumults and Armies could not obtain neither shall Restraint which tho it have as little of Safety to a Prince yet it hath not more of Danger The Fear of men shall never be My Snare nor shall the love of any Liberty entangle my Soul Better others betray Me than My self and that the price of my Liberty should be My Conscience The greatest Injuries My Enemies seek to inflict upon Me cannot be without My own Consent While I can deny with Reason I shall defeat the greatest impressions of their Malice who neither know how to use worthily what I have already granted nor what to require more of Me but this that I would seem willing to help them to destroy My self and Mine Altho they should destroy Me yet they shall have no cause to despise Me. Neither Liberty nor Life are so dear to Me as the Peace of My Conscience the Honour of My Crowns and the welfare of My People which My Word may injure more than any War can do while I gratifie a few to oppress all The Laws will by God's blessing revive with the Love and Loyalty of my Subjects if I bury them not by My Consent and cover them in that grave of dishonour and injustice which some mens Violence hath digged for them If my Captivity or Death must be the price of their Redemption I grudg not to pay it No condition can make a King miserable which carries not with it his Souls his Peoples and Posterities Thraldom After-times may see what the Blindness of this Age will not and God may at length shew My subjects that I chose rather to suffer for them than with them Haply I might redeem My self to some shew of Liberty if I would consent to enslave them I had rather hazard the Ruin of one King than to confirm many Tyrants over them from whom I pray God deliver them whatever becomes of Me whose Solitude hath not left Me alone For Thou O God infinitely good and great art with Me whose Presence is better than Life and whose Service is perfect Freedom Own Me for thy Servant and I shall never have cause to complain for want of that Liberty which becomes a Man a Christian and a King Bless Me still with Reason as a Man with Religion as a Christian
Martyrdom Jan. 30. 1648 9. p. 206 APPENDIX Concerning Church-Government Of the Differences between His Majesty and the two Houses in point of Church-Government See Icon Basil XVII p. 687 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and Henderson concerning the Change of Church-Government 1646. p. 75 The Papers which passed betwixt His Majesty and the Divines attending the Commissioners of both Houses at Newport 1648. Append. p. 612 seqq THE END The Duke of Lenox the Earl of Arran in Scotland Some Writers who since have been convinced of their misinformation have named amongst those seven Lords the Lord Bruce Earl of Elgin but his Lordship upon the first notice of this report did to several Persons of Quality and Honour he conversed with and since hath affirmed to me that he was not then present and that his heart could never consent to the shedding of the blood of that excellent Prelate * A full Answer â The Regal Apology His Majestie 's Religion His Justice His Clemency His Fortitude His Patience His Humility His Choice of Ministers of State His Affection to His People His Obliging Converse His Fidelity His Chastity His Temperance His Frugality His Intellectual Abilities His Skill in all Arts. His Eloquence His Political Prudence The Censure of His Fortune A Presage of His Fall and the future State of the Royal Family His Recreations The Features of His Body His Children Acts 14. 23. Acts 6. 6. 1 Cor. 16. 1. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Cor. 5. 5. 3 Joh. 9 10. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Tit. 1. 5. Revel 2. 3. 1 Tim. 5. 19. Tit. 3. 10. * 5 15 26 29. of Decemb. 84 15. of Jan. 1645. * Jan. 23. 2 Feb. Passed by the Fag-end of the House of Commons Jan. 4. having been cast out by the Lords Jan. 2. Hereabout I was stopt and not suffered to speak any more concerning Reasons * defiance * Answer * four for it seems some came in after Here a Lady interposed saying Not half the People but was silenced with threats Upon the Earl of Strafford Pointing to the Bishop Turning to some Gentlemen that wrote Pointing to the Bishop These words were spoken upon occasion of private Discourse between His Majesty and the Bishop concerning the several Stages of man's life and his course through them in allusion to Posts and Stages in a Race * Cook 7. Report Calvin's Case Mr. Stroud Mr. Pym. Sir John Biron Lord Say His Majesty's gracious Message to both Houses of Parliament sent from Nottingham Aug. 25. 1642. by the Earls of Southampton and Dorset Sr. John Culpeper Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sr. William Vdal The Answer of the Lords and Commons to His Majesty's Message the 25. of Aug. 1642. His Majesty's Reply to an Answer sent by the two Houses of Parliament to His Majesty's Message of the 25 of August concerning a Treaty of Accommodation The humble Answer and Petition of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto the Kings last Message The humble Answer of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament unto His Majesty's last Message Message of Feb. 20. * to the Votes of both Houses and to their desire of a safe Conâuct His Majesty's Message of Apr. 12. at the end of the Treaty Inserted before pag. 353. * were presently His Majesty's Message replying to this Paper is inserted before p. 250. In His Message of April 12. pag. 353. Pag. 353. April 5. * The fourth of Edward the Third Artic. 1. against Roger Mortimer The King had put to him four Bishops four Earls and four Barons without whose consent or of four of them no great business was to be transacted Rot. Parliam 13 E. 3. N. 15 16. The whole Navy disposed of by Parliament N. 13 14. Admirals appointed and Instructions given to them N. 32. Instructions for the defence of Jersey and a Deputy-Governour appointed in Parliament N. 35. Souldiers of York Nottingham c. to go at the cost of the Countrey and what they are to do N. 36. A Clark appointed for payment of their wages by the oversight of the Lord Percy and Nevil N. 38. Sir Walter Creak appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 39. Sir Tho. de Wake appointed to set forth the Array of Soldiers for the County of York and N. 40 41 42 43. others for other Counties 14 E. 3. N. 36. The Parliament agreeth that in the Kings absence the Duke of Cornwal shall be Keeper of England N. 35. They appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury the Earls of Lancaster Warren and Huntington Councellors to the Duke with power to call such others as they shall think fit N. 19. Certain appointed to keep the Islands and Sea-coasts N. 42. The Lord of Mowbray appointed Keeper of Berwick N. 48. Commission to the Lord Mowbray of the Justices of Lentham N. 53 54 c. Commissions of Array to the Earl of Angois and others 15 E. 3. N. 15. That the Chancellors chief Justices Treasurers Chancellors and Barons of the Exchequer c. may be chosen in open Parliament and there openly sworn to observe the Laws Answer thus That as they sall by death or otherwise it shall be so done in the choice of a new with your assents c. 50 E. 3. N. 10 11. Ordered in Parliament That the King should have at the least ten or twelve Counsellors without whom no weighty matters should pass c. N. 15. A Commission to the L. Percy and others to appoint able persons for the defence of the Marches of the East-Riding 1. R. 2. N. 18 19. The Parliament wholly disposeth of the Education of the King and of the Officers c. N. 51. Officers for Gascoign Ireland and Artois Keepers of the Ports Castles c. 2. R. 2. Rot. Parl. par 2. artic 39. The Admiralty N. 37. In a Schedule is contained the order of the E. of Northumb. and others for the defence of the North Sea-coasts and confirmed in Parliament 6 R. 2. N. 11. The Proffer of the Bishop of Norwich to keep the Sca-coasts and accepted in Parliament 8 R. 2. 11 16. The names of the chief Officers of the Kingdom to be known to the Parliament and not to be removed without just cause 11 R. 2. N. 23. No persons to be about the King or intermeddle with the Affairs of the Realm other than such as be appointed by Parliament 15 R. 2. N. 15. The Commons name the person to treat of a Peace with the Kings enemies Rot. Parl. 1 H. 4. N. 106. That the King will appoint able Captains in England and Wales Stat. 4. H. 4. cap. 31 32 33. printed The Welch-men shall bear Office 5 H. 4. N. 16. The King at the request of the Commons removed his Confessor and three other Men from about him N. 37. At the request of the Commons nameth divers Privy-Councellors 7 and 8 H. 4 26. Power given to the Merchants to name two persons to be Admirals 7 and 8 H. 4. N. 31. Councellors appointed by
there were Twenty Dissenters blush to assume the Authority of managing the weightiest affairs of the English Empire to alter and change the Government to expose His Majesty to a violent Murder and to overthrow the Ancient Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom For being wholly devoted to the service of the Army they communicated counsels with them and whatsoever was resolved at the Council of War passed into a Law by the Votes of this Infamous remnant of the House of Commons who now served the Souldiers in hopes of part of the Spoil and a precarious Greatness which being acquired by so much Wickedness could not be lasting In order therefore to the Army's design they revive those Votes of No Addresses to the King which had at first but surreptitiously and by base practices passed and had been afterwards repealed by a full House Those Votes of a Treaty with the King and of the Satisfactoriness of His Concessions with scorn they rased out of the Journal-Book And then proceeded to Vote 1. That the People under God are the Original of all Just Power 2. That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament being chosen by and representing the People have the Supreme Authority of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted and declared for Law by the Commons of England assembled in Parliament by which they understood themselves hath the force of a Law 4. That all the People of this Nation are concluded thereby although the Consent and Concurrence of the King and House of Peers be not had thereunto 5. That to raise Arms against the People's Representative or Parliament and to make War upon them is High Treason 6. That the King Himself took Arms against the Parliament and on that account is guilty of the blood shed throughout the Civil War and that He ought to expiate the crime with His own blood Those that were less affected with the common Fears and Miseries could not temper their mirth and scorn at such ridiculous Usurpers that thought to adjust their Crimes by their own Votes that in one breath would adorn the People with the Spoils of Monarchy and in the next rob the People to invest themselves And it is said that even Cromwell who intended to ruine our Liberty was ashamed and scorned their so ready Slavery and afterwards did swear at the Table of an Independent Lord that he knew them to be Rascals and he would so serve them Others of more melancholy Complexions considering the baseness of these servile Tyrants and the humours of their barbarous masters the Souldiers all whose inhumanities they were to establish by a Law and that Power gotten by Wickedness cannot be used with the Modesty that is sit for just Magistrates justly feared that as under the King they had enjoyed the height of Liberty so under these men they were to be overwhelmed in the depth of Slavery and that these Votes which overturned the very Foundation of our Laws could not be designed but for some horrid Impiety and our lasting Bondage which came so to pass For in their next Consultations they constitute a Tribunal to sentence their Sovereign which afterwards they used as a Shambles for the most Loyal and Gallantest of the Nobless and People of the most abject Subjects and to procure a Reverence to the Vilest of men they give it the specious name of The High Court of Justice For which they appoint 150 Judges that the Number might seem to represent the whole Multitude of the most violent and heady of all the Faction To whom they give a power of citing hearing judging and punishing CHARLES STUART King of England To make up this Number they had named six Peers of the Upper House and the twelve Judges of the Land But the greatest part were Officers of the Army who having confederated against His Majesty and publickly required His Blood could not without a contempt to the light of Reason be appointed His Judges and Members of the Lower House who were most violent against Monarchy and indeed all Government wherein themselves had no share The rest were Persons pick'd out of the City of London and Suburbs thereof who they imagined would be most obsequious to their Lusts Those that surveyed the List and knew the men deemed them most unfit for a Trust of Justice and proper Instruments for any wicked undertaking for of these Judges one or two were Coblers others Brewers one a Goldsmith and many of them Mechanicks Such among them as were descended of ancient Families were Men of so mean worth that they were only like the Statues of their Ancestors had nothing but their Names to make them knownunto the World Some of them were Spend-thrifts Bankrupts such as could be neither safe nor free unless the Kingdom were in Bondage and most notorious Adulterers whose every Member was infamous with its proper Vice Vain and Atheistical in their Discourse Cowardly and Base in Spirit Bloody and Cruel in their Counsels and those Parts that cannot honestly be named were most dishonest One of them was accused of a Rape Another had published a Book of Blasphemies against the Trinity of the Deity Some of them could not hope to get impunity for their Oppressions of the Country and Expilations of the publick Treasure but by their ministry to this Murther Others could not promise themselves an advancement of their abject or declining Fortune but by this Iniquity Yet all these by the Faction were inrolled in the Register of Saints though fitter to standas Malefactors at the Bar than to sit upon Seats of Judgment And notwithstanding their diligent search for such a Number of Men who would not blush at nor fear any guilt some of those whom they had named in abhorrencie of the Impiety refused to sit and some that did yet met there in hopes of disturbing their Counsels All this while the House of Peers were not consulted and it was commonly supposed that most of them terrified with those Preparations against the King the only defence of the Nobless against the Popular Envie would absent themselves from that House except four or five that were the Darlings of the Faction and they deemed the Names and Compliance of those few were enough to give credit and Authority to their bloody Act. But in them they were disappointed also for some of the Peers did constantly meet and on that day wherein the Bill for Trial of the King was carried up to that House there were Seventeen then present a greater Number than usual who all Unanimously even the Democratick Lords not dissenting did reject the Bill as Dangerous and Illegal This so highly provoked the Fury of the Faction that they meditated a severe revenge and for the present blotted out those Peers whose Names they had before put into their Ordinance to make the Court more splendid After this they did also rase out the names of the Judges of the Land for they being privately consulted concerning these Proceedings against the King
might have been suddenly and speedily resolved and that long before this time And if the expressions of both Houses in their Reasons had not necessitated His Majesty in His own defence to give such Answers as could not upon those points deliver Truth without some shew of Sharpness no Expression of that kind in His Majesty's Answer had given any pretence for the rejection of or refusing so much as to treat upon this Cessation which though it were at present for no long time yet was from the day named by themselves the 25 of March whereas His Majesty first moved for a Cessation and Treaty without any limitation at all in the time of either and His Majesty was most ready to have enlarged the time so that in the mean while the point of Quarters might be so settled as that His Armies might subsist and which might have been if they had pleased a very good and promising earnest and fore-runner of that great blessing of Peace for the obtaining of which the wishes and endeavours of all good men being earnestly bent a farther debate in order to so great a Benefit did not deserve to be styled a consumption of time And His Majesty cannot but conceive Himself to be in a strange condition if the doubtfulness of Expressions which must always be whilst the Treaty is at such a distance and power is denied to those upon the place to help to clear and explain or His necessary Replying to charges laid upon Him that He might not seem to acknowledge what was so charged or the limitation of the time of seven days for the Treaty which was not limited by His Majesty who ever desired to have avoided that and other limitations which have given great interruptions to it should be as well believed to be the grounds as they are made the arguments of the rejection of that which next to Peace it self His Majesty above all things most desires to see agreed and settled and which His Majesty hopes if it may be yet agreed on will give His People such a taste of such a Blessing that after a short time of consideration and comparing of their several conditions in War and Peace and what should move them to suffer so much by a Change they will not think those their friends that shall force them to it or be themselves ready to contribute to the renewing of their former Miseries without some greater evidence of Necessity than can appear to them when they shall have seen as they shall see if this Treaty be suffered to proceed that His Majesty neither asks nor denies any thing but what not only according to Law He may but what in Honour and care of His People he is obliged to ask or deny And this alone which a very short Cessation would produce His Majesty esteems a very considerable advantage to the Kingdom and therefore cannot but press again and again that whatever is thought doubtful in the expressions of the Articles may as in an hour it may well be done be expounded and whatsoever is excepted at may be debated and concluded and that Power and Instructions may be given to the Committee to that end that the miserable effects of War the effusion of English blood and desolation of England until they can be totally taken away may by this means be stayed and interrupted His Majesty supposes that when the Committee was last required to desire His Majesty to give a speedy and positive Answer to the first proposition concerning Disbanding His Answers in that point to which no Reply hath been made and which He hopes by this time have given satisfaction were not transmitted and received but wonders the Houses should press His Majesty for a speedy and positive Answer to the first part of their first Proposition concerning Disbanding when to the second part of the very same Proposition concerning His Return to both Houses of Parliament they had not given any Power or Instructions to the Committee so much as to treat with His Majesty and when His Majesty if His desire of Peace and of speeding the Treaty in order to that had not been prevalent with Him might with all manner of Justice have delayed to begin to treat upon one part until they had been enabled to treat upon the other In which point and for want of which power from them the only stop now remains His Majesty's Answers to both parts of their first Proposition being given in transmitted and yet remaining unanswered To which until the Houses shall be at leisure to make Answer that as little delay in this Treaty as is possible may be caused by it His Majesty desires likewise that the Committee may be enabled to treat upon the following Propositions in their several orders A Letter from both Houses April 8. WE have sent unto you by this Gentleman Sir Peter Killegrew some additional Instructions by which your Lordship and the rest of the Committee will perceive the Resolutions which the Houses have taken upon the Papers which they received this day from you This is all we have in command and remain Your Lordship 's humble Servants Manchester Speaker of the House of Peers pro tempore Will. Lenthall Speaker of the Commons House in Parliament Westminster this 8 of April 1643. Instructions concerning the Insisting received April 9. 1643. Additional Instructions for Algernon Earl of Northumberland William Lord Viscount Say and Seal William Pierrepont Esquire Sir William Armyne and Sir John Holland Baronets Bulstrode Whitelocke Esquire Committees from both Houses attending His Majesty at Oxford Magazines and enlarging the time THE two Houses of Parliament are unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer to that Clause of the first Proposition which concerns the Magazines Wherefore you are to desire His Majesty to make a further Answer in such manner as is exprest in the Instructions formerly given you and you shall let His Majesty know That the Lords and Commons do not think fit to enlarge the time of the Treaty beyond the twenty days formerly limited Cinque-Ports Towns Forts and Castles They likewise remain unsatisfied with His Majesty's Answer concerning the Cinque-Ports Towns Forts and Castles being in the most material points an express Denial Wherefore you are to insist upon their desire for another Answer according to your Instructions Ships They observe in His Majesty's Answer concerning the Ships not only a Denial to all the desires of both Houses but likewise a Censure upon their proceedings However you are to insist upon their desires expressed in your Instructions Disbanding They further conceive that His Majesty's Answer to their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding is in effect a Denial unless they desert all those cautions and limitations which they have desired in their Answer to His Majesty's first Proposition Wherefore you are to proceed insisting upon that part of their first Proposition concerning the Disbanding according to your Instructions KING's Return to the Parliament You shall declare to His Majesty
and Forces in opposition to each other that these Towns Forts and Ships are a great part of their Forces so that for them to restore them absolutely to the King would be for them to disband totally and for His Majesty's Forces to continue To this His Majesty answers That this Treaty was intended by Him to be in order to a firm and settled that is a just Peace and never to be such wherein a pretended Equality should exclude evident Justice Let Equality determine the manner of the disbanding of the Armies raised upon these Distractions but let Justice restore what Violence hath taken and determine of known undoubted Rights since by this Argument if any Prince seize upon any Strength that belongs to His stronger Neighbour and Arms be taken up upon it the stronger must never in a Treaty when the Armies are to be disbanded expect to have His Strength restored to him lest the other return to be what He was and what He ought to be that is the weaker of the two Secondly His Majesty answers That by the same reason of Security other Power and Prerogatives being Strength as well as Forces and neither more vested in Him nor less possible to be used for the Peoples hurt they may as well require a share and interest in those too and that things may be made sufficiently equal between the sides may expect to be as much Kings as He. Thirdly in their own opinion and by their own confession as it appears by their Argument used in the Cessation in the point of Ships if they be but allowed the Approbation of Commanders His Majesty gives up this strength to them and not they to Him and it will be their Forces and not His which are to continue undisbanded and that that they say to be contrary to Equality and as they came by these Forces it is evident to be contrary to Justice Fourthly His Majesty answers that these Forces are not so great or so great a Strength of the side that shall possess them but that the Arts Union Industry and Violence of that Party was so much too strong for His Majesty when He had that Strength as to take that Strength from Him and therefore His Majesty wonders they should make any difficulty to restore what it may appear by so fresh experience that they are so able to resume and therefore His Majesty hopes His People will attribute it to His great Desire of Peace that He did not demand some farther security to enjoy that which is not denied to be His Majesty's And His Majesty observes that both this and the second Answer were given by His Majesty to the same Arguments made upon the same occasion by their Committee in the Treaty and yet this Declaration repeats the same Arguments without replying to those Answers Fifthly His Majesty desires that the Difficulty with which His Majesty raised His Army and the Ease with which they raised theirs may be considered how impossible it would have been for Him to have raised Forces if they had not raised first and how much slowlier this Army being disbanded He could raise a new one and how quick and ready their Body of fierce eager Sectaries and Schismaticks would be to return into an Army upon the least Call and how conveniently they inhabit for so speedy a meeting being to continue most of them in or so near London that their Quarters in War were usually much more distant than their Dwellings in Peace and then His Majesty doubts not but it will appear that in this respect too the real and total Disbanding is of His Majesty's part only and that in effect the Continuance of Forces is still of theirs Their Second Argument why His Majesty should admit of their Limitations is a bundle of Precedents To which His Majesty replies First that the Records which are here quoted for these are now in the same hands as his Majesty's Magazines Towns Forts and Ships and therefore knows not how He can either have their Truth sufficiently considered and examined or without it conside in their Quotations Secondly all the particular Circumstances both of matter and time what induced it and what followed it do not herein appear though very necessary to be known that they may be possible to be answered But this His Majesty can find upon view That some of them concern not any part of what is now demanded but one of them concerns a Chancellor Treasurer and Privy-Seal and another concerns Privy-Councillors and another the Protectorship another the choice of some without whose Advice or of four of them nothing should be done by the King which it seems they have an eye upon demanding too which made them run so much in their heads who collected these as to put them in here That some concern not the Persons now demanding but conclude only for the Merchants to chuse an Admiral and not for the Houses to confide in him which Precedent may be of some use to the Common-Council but of none to the Parliament That some are of no concern at all as only about appointing of Clarks for payment of Wages yet put in to encrease the bulk That hardly any of the Precedents that concern any of the things in Question concern any more than part of those which are altogether demanded in the Limitations desired some concerning only the Command of Ships and those too not granted by Act but by Commission and that for ought appears only during pleasure some extending but to one Town or Place as Berwick or Jersey That most of these Precedents appear to have been when the Kings were in Minority and under Protectors some when they were in extreme Age and Impotency some in the Reign of a King who was shortly after deposed in Parliament too an unlikely Circumstance to invite His Majesty at this time to follow that Example others in His Reign who succeeded Him and having no Right to the Crown but the Criminal Consent of both Houses had Reason to deny them nothing who had given Him All. And of some of the Precedents now quoted the Inconveniences are known to have been so great and so suddenly found that they were so speedily revoked in Parliament with no less a Brand than as being contrary to the Customs of the Realm and to the blemishing of the Crown that if they had ingenuously added those Circumstances these Precedents would more have justified His Majesty for not yielding than them for either asking any thing towards those or but for quoting them at all But doth any of these Precedents tell us that these Parliaments claim'd any Right in any of these or that any King yield any degree of Power in any one of these Points to both Houses when they had first taken them from Him by Force and rais'd an Army by Ordinance against Him and He was in a condition to resist what they had raised And if either any of these Kings were so much in their Power