aid from any man nor protection from Heaven when he willingly should fail in these particulars Which pious intentions of his thus declared were of no small advantage to him at that time his Army increasing daily beyond expectation The Rebels therefore hearing which way the King moved beâ—t their course speedily towards him making their Head-quarter in and about Worcester from the four and twentieth of September till the nineteenth of October following Near to which place upon their approach some few Troops of his Majesties under the command of Prince Rupert most happily defeated a far greater number of the Rebel 's principal Cavalry Colonel Sandys Major Douglas and other Commanders with divers other being there slain six Cornets of Horse taken and all this with the loss but of one man Which being the first notable encounter that his Majesties forces had with them and so successful did not a little amaze most of the Rebels party Lest therefore the truth thereof being divulged should dishearten their friends in London and other remote parts they not only caused divers printed Papers to be spread about bragging of it for a special victory but that it might gain the more credit ordain'd a public Thanksgiving in London for the same And to hinder his Majesty from the assistance of his good Subjects under one pretence or other though they had cryed out against his raising an Army by the help of Papists to destroy the Protestant Religion they were not ashamed to make a public Order that if any Papist would bring in considerable sums to them upon the Propositions it should be accepted of As by these subtile devices they had rais'd the flames of Rebellion to this height and deprived the King of all visible means here for the quenching thereof so did they use their utmost endeavours to prevent any help that might be obtained for him from forreign parts as appears by their negotiation with the States of the Vnited Provinces wherein they imploy'd one Walter Strickland with a special Declaration to them complaining of the Prince of Aurange for countenancing the Lord Digby in his making warlike Provisions in those parts for the King's use and in favour of that Lord and other wicked Counsellers and Incendiaries to have licensed experienced Officers and Souldiers to resort into this Kingdom in aid of his Majesty against the Parliament Scandalizing the King also that his Councils were corrupted by a Jesuitical faction and that he had drawn his sword for the destruction of his people desiring therefore that his Majesty might have no manner of Supplies from thence and withall insinuating how near a relation there was betwixt that model into which they aimed to cast this Government and the State of those Provinces and that therefore they expected assistance from them Nor did they rest here as is evident from those Instructions which were brought up by a Committee to be sent into Holland for this Mr. Strickland upon the 29th of February an 1643 by which he was to represent to the States of those Provinces that the Parliament of England did only strive for Reformation of that Religion and State they live in and therefore desired those States that they would now afford them their Brotherly assistance as they had formerly assisted them As also that they would enlarge their union to other Princes and lend them some money upon the public faith of both Kingdoms and the rather because they made Reformed Churches the pattern of their endeavours Neither could they be silent at home but the more to stir up the people inculcated to them that the King had raised an Army by the help of Papists the corrupt part of the Clergy the Delinquent Nobility and Gentry and some notable Traitors beyond-Sea that they had liberty to rob and spoil all sorts of people as also to exact Money and Plate from Corporations by threatning Fire and Sword to the refusers that he had hired a Scotchman to murther Sir Iohn Hotham that by violent oppressions he had exhausted the parts about Shrewsbury and that the Cavaliers were hungry for the wealth of London and the fruitful Counties adjacent that if he should prevail there was no expectation but that all would be exposed to the malice and rapine of his ravenous Souldiers and all honest and religious mens throats cut And therefore that the means of curing and preventing these dangers must be by Loan and contribution to the Earl of Essex's Army which was not inferior in number to the King 's besides better armed full pay'd c. but above all well encouraged and instructed in the Cause by the labour of many Godly and painful Divines and therefore that all Trained Bands Voluntiers c. in all places should assist the Lord General c. Whereunto they added these ensuing Votes viz. 1. That such persons as should not contribute to the charge of the Common-wealth in this time of Necessity should be held sit to be secured and disarmed 2. That the Fines Rents c. of Arch-Bishops Bishops Deans c. and of such notorious Delinquents who had taken up Arms against the Parliament or had been active in the Commission of Array should be sequestred for the use and service of the Common-wealth 3. That the King's revenues should be brought into the several Courts and other places where they ought to be paid in and not issued out until farther order was taken by both Houses of Parliament And to sum up all they set forth another Declaration and Protestation wherein they did in the presence of Almighty God protest and declare to this Kingdom and the whole World that no private passion or respect nor evil intention to his Majesties person no design to the prejudice of his just Honour and Authority had engaged them to raise Forces and take up Arms c. that they had professed their Loyalty by several Remonstrances that they had passed by ignominious Slanders c. that for the avoiding of blood they had directed the Earl of Essex by himself or others to cause an humble Petition to be delivered to his Majesty to return in peace to his Parliament that his Majesty had refused to yield safe conduct for the delivery thereof that he was engaged to the Popish-party for suppression and extirpation of the true Religion and exposing the wealth of this Kingdom to be plundered and spoil'd by Cavaliers c. contrary to his solemn Oaths Protestations and Execrations and therefore that they resolved to enter a solemn Oath and Covenant to defend this Cause with the hazard of their lives against the King's Army And that they expected help from the Brethren of Scotland herein His Majesty therefore having in a very short time and beyond expectation raised an indifferent Army though his wants of many accomodations were very great finding no means of Peace or Safety but by the hazard of Battel which the Rebels eagerly sought casting himself wholly upon
viz. at Dunbar and Worcestrer it will not be amiss to take notice of somewhat concerning his Carcase which was wholly preternatural viz. that notwithstanding it was Artificially Embowelled and Embalmed with Aromatick Odours wrapt also in six-fold Cerecloth and put in a sheet of Lead with a strong wooden Coffin over it yet did it in a short time so strangely ferment that it burst all in pieces and became so noysom that they were immediately necessitated to commit it to the Earth and to celebrate his Funeral with an empty Coffin Which solemnity was performed from Somerset-House in the Strand unto King Henry the Sevenths Chappel at Westminster with that Grandeur and State upon the 23. of November following that it did equalize the greatest and most glorious of our Kings amongst which they laid the Corps of this infamous Regicide CHAP. XXXIX HEre should I go on in the path of my Story but because that reports have been so various and uncertain touching his Parentage and course of life before he became an Actor in this unparallel'd Rebellion it will not be improper to make a short digression and as briefly as may be to say somthing of both That his Extraction by the Fathers side was from Sir Richard Williams Kt. a Gentleman of eminent note in the Court of King Henry the VIII and son to Morgan ap William a Welchman by Sister to Thomas Lord Cromwel Earl of Essex the chief Agent in those days for the dissolution of the Monasteries is not to be doubted Who being by his Uncle preferred to the service of King Henry was for that cause and no other called Cromwel as is apparent enough from Testimonies of credit however some have fancyed otherwise which Sir Richard thereupon writing himself Cromwel alias Williams was then in such Favour and Grace with the King that having received the dignity of Knighthood for his Heroick behaviour at a Tilting in 32. Hen. VIII he had also the great Abby of Ramsey the Nunnery of Hinchinbroke with the Priories of Sautrey and Huntington given to him upon the disposal of the Monastery Lands All which he left unto Sir Henry Cromwel Kt. his Son and Heir Who making Hinchinbroke his principal Seat as more pleasantly situate than Ramsey is left Issue Sir Oliver Cromwel made Knight of the Bath at the Coronation of King Iames and Robert Cromwel a younger Son with some other Children Which Robert though he was by the countenance of his elder Brother made a Justice of Peace in Huntingtonshire had but a slender Estate much of his support being a Brew-House in Huntington chiefly managed by his Wife who was Sister to Sir Robert Steward of the City of Ely Knight and by her had Issue this our famous Oliver stiled Protector of England Scotland and Ireland as hath been observed In his Youth he was for some time bred up in the University of Cambridg where he made no great proficiency in any kind of Learning but then and afterwards sorting himself with Drinking-Companions and the ruder sort of people being of a rough and blustering disposition he had the name of a Royster amongst most that knew him and by his exorbitances so wasted his Patrimony that having attempted his Uncle Steward for a supply of his wants and finding that by a smooth way of application to him he could not prevail he endeavoured by colour of Law to lay hold of his Estate representing him a person not able to govern it But therein failing for lack of better mantenance his aim was for New-England purposing there to fix as is very well known Observing therefore that most of those unquiet Spirits who were refractory to the Church-Discipline by Law Establisht here were the principal persons which had stored that new Plantation and that none but such Schismaticks were welcome guests thither for his better furtherance from those of that gang and the fairer acceptance upon his arrival there through the recommendation of those Godly Brethren he forthwith quitted his old Companions and betook himself to the acquaintance of the pretended Holy Tribe most formally canting in their demure Language and affected tone and frequenting the Sermons of the fiercest Boutefeus Amongst which as a blessed Convert in whom they much gloried he gained in short time a very high Reputation So that having better Natural parts than the most of that Sect and confidence enough to put forth himself upon any fit occasion he was especially made choice of by those who ever endeavoured the undermining of Regal Authority to be their Orator at Huntington unto the late Kings Commissiones of Sewers there in opposition to His Majesties most commendable design for the general drayning of that great and vast level of the adjacent Fenns In which adventure his boldness and Elocution gained him so much credit as that soon after being necessitated through his low condition to quit a Country Farm which he held at St. Ives and betake himself to mean Lodgings in Cambridg the Schismatical party there chose him a Burgess for their Corporation in that unhappy Long-Parliament which began at Westminster upon the third of November 1640. Wherein he bestirred himself with as much violence and heat as any Schismatical Bankrupt did in that mischievious Convention being well aware that a general imbroilment of the Kingdom by an intestine War might be of advantange to such necessitous and desperate people Whereupon in short time he did accordingly obtain his long desired ends for being one of the first of those who put themselves in Arms against the King he was made a Captain of Horse in the Earle of Essex's Regiment and afterward Lieutenant General to the late Earl of Manchester In which service his great strength of Reason accompanyed with no less Courage soon gained him such experience in the Discipline of War as that taking strict care for the well Arming of his men and preventing their disorder upon any hot pursuit such success attended him upon all occasions as at length gained him the Reputation of a skilful Commander by reason whereof he arrived to much higher advancements Where soon discerning the general humour of the Souldier and that many of them were possessed with conceited Revelations some expecting a personal Reign of Christ here on Earth fancying themselves the men who were to make way for his coming and to that purpose that they were to destroy the wicked and possess their Estates he chiefly applyed himself to the humor of those desperate Fanaticks and by his subtle arts in Praying Preaching Groaning and Howling amongst them got himself no less Credit than Mahomet of old did with his Followers And so by degrees ascending those steps of Command and Power whereof instance hath been given in the precedent Story raised himself at last to the highest pitch of Soveraignty as hath already been observed CHAP. XL. I Now proceed to Richard his Son Proclaimed Protector upon his death as hath been said Whose Title was for a
as when the truth which is but one shall appear to the simple Multitude no less variable than contrary to it self the Faith of Men will soon after dye away by degrees and all Religion be held in Scorn and Contempt CHAP. XLIV FOR the Laws of the Land with the Liberty and Property of the Subject because the first ought to be a Defence to the latter let us see what these great pretended Champions for both did for their Preservation Or rather how manifestly they violated them all by their unjust Practises Was it not for Execution of his Majesties Legal Writ grounded upon the Statute for Suppressing of Tumults that Justice Long was Committed to the Tower And were not Commands laid upon the Judges of the King's Bench that they should not grant any Habeas Corpus the Antient Remedy for the Peoples Security for such as the Members had Committed to Prison by their own Authority And did not Mr. Rigby a beloved Member move twice that those Lords and Gentlemen which were Prisoners for no cause but being Malignants as they term'd them should be sold as Slaves to Argiere or sent to the new Plantations in the West-Indies because he had Contracted with two Merchants for that purpose Though Mr. Pym himself had in a Speech in that Parliament acknowledged it against the Rules of Iustice that any Man should be Imprison'd upon a General Charge when no Particulars were proved against him As these things were most evident so was their Order against Publishing the King's Proclamation contrary to Acts of Parliament then in Force Likewise their Barbarous murther of his Majesties Messenger for bringing a Legal Writ to the Sheriffs of London to that purpose As also Collonel Nathaniel Fienes his causing the King's Proclamation concerning Marriners to be burnt in the open Market-place at Bristol by the Common Hangman he being then Governour there and Imprisoning the Earl of Bristol and Justice Malet for having an hand in the Kentish-Petition And notwithstanding the Statute in force against Loanes and Benevolences grounded upon the Petition of Right and that on Magna Charta which the Lord Say Mr. Pym and Mr. Hampden once held so Sacred that being asked upon occasion in King Iames his time why they would not then Contribute to the King's Necessities by way of Loan They Answered that they could be content to lend as well as others but that they feared to draw upon themselves that Curse in Magna-Charta which should be read twice every Year against the Infringers thereof Nevertheless did not these men Commit Mr. Fountain the Lawyer and divers others which refused to lend Money for advancement of their Rebellion And by a special Order sent those Loyal Citizens Sir George Whitmore Alderman Gurney Mr. Gardner and others to several Remote Prisons viz. Yarmouth Colchester Norwich c. for not submitting to their Lawless and Rigorous Tax of the twentieth part for the support of their Rebellious Forces And give power to their Officers to break open Trunks to search for Money and Plate and to seize the same for that purpose Mr. Strode one of the five Members in Justification of these heavy Oppressions saying that it was no more than they had right to do And that every Man in England had trusted his whole Estate to be disposed of as the Members of both Houses should think convenient For if the Members of both Houses quoth he think fitting to seize the Estate of every Man in England all the whole Kingdom is bound to submit to them And was not their Licentious Boldness such that Mr. Pym a single Member during a recess of both Houses by an Order under his own hand did dispence with the Act of Parliament 1. Eliz. for Uniformity of Common-Prayer And when upon a motion of the House that certain Gaolers should be tryed by Marshal Law by reason of some Prisoners escape and that it was opposed by divers Lawyers as an illegal course the Gaolers being answerable by the Law for the same was it not Replyed that they were not to be tyed to any Forms of Law those being to be laid by at such times as this when Necessity is the Rule by which they must guide their Actions What Misery have many Reverend and Orthodox Divines and others suffered by long Imprisonment some sent on Ship-board and kept under the Deck lying many days upon the hard Boards for no other Offence than their firm Loyalty to the King and Constancy in the true Protestant Religion Establish't by Law His Majesties Servant coming only to them on a Message for Peace being likewise so long Imprisoned that he dyed therein with hard Usage How partially Indulgent have they been to those of their own Rebellious Tribe is evident from sundry Instances as that of Mr. Gryffith one of their Members who was made a Captain of Horse with Silver Trumpets and extraordinary Bravery though he had Ravish't the Lady Sidley and was by her Accused for so doing Mr. Lenthall their Speaker having also six Thousand Pounds given him of that Money which had been raised by Act of Parliament for publick Service Having therefore thus trampled down the Laws and made seizure of the Kings Forts Towns Navy and Magazine whereby he was devested of all Power to protect his good Subjects no marvel that they deprived him of all other Authority declaring his nomination of Sheriffs Illegal and authorizing his Deputy Lieutenants and Trained-Bands to Suppress and Apprehend such Sheriffs Levying Money for Horse and Plate as also the twentieth part and a vast Weekly Tax by Distresses and Imprisonment to say nothing of Sequestrations and Plunders Add hereunto the Hanging of those Loyal Persons Mr. Yeomans and Mr. Bourchier at Bustol Likewise Mr. Tompkins and Mr. Chaloner at London And that the Oppressed People might take no benefit of the Law an Order and Declaration was set forth by Authority of both Houses that the Judges of Assize should forbear to go their Circuits as they would answer their Contempt to the Parliament Moreover to let the Reins of all Government loose they discharged all Apprentices from their Masters Service as would serve in their Rebellious Armies Compelling divers against their Parents good will Nor is it less observable that though by their own Fundamentals they had declared that the Subject was not to be forced unto the Wars against his will except it were by the consent of the King and the Estates in Parliament there being an Act in that Parliament passed also to that purpose Nevertheless they frequently pressed great numbers of Men to serve them in their Rebellious Armies And by a special Ordinance gave Power to any three of the Militia of London to raise and send out Men as also to Fine Imprison and Execute Martial-Law By the like Authority it was that they raised vast Sums upon Merchandize under the name of Tunnage
themselves adding that hereafter he should learn to know the Policies of Spain to be no less than those of Navarr And therefore Intreats them for their Honours Sake and Credit of the Holy-Cause to desist from all Thoughts of altering the Fundamental the Salique-Law of France by Transferring the Crown upon a Woman and Submitting the Kingdom to the Dominion of a Stranger But this Proposal of the Spaniard was resented with no less Indignation by most of the Members of the State than by the Bishop of Saintliz who scorned that Strangers should rule over them as if they were either so base as to make themselves instantly Slaves or so foolish as not to understand their own Interests Above all they of the House of Lorrein were netled at it who thought to have shared the Cake amongst themselves Yea the very People of Paris being wearied out with necessities and wants and having tasted a little of the Sweets of Peace by means of a cessation concluded during the time of the Treaty at Suren did impatiently desire an Accord with the King and began to threaten the States unless they would hearken to an Accommodation The Spaniards being now grown so odious to the Parisians as that their Embassadors could not peep abroad in the Streets but they were entertain'd with Scoffs and Curses though but two Years before they were so high in their Books and gracious in their Eyes that they of Paris thought to have yielded the City freely to be under the Subjection of the King of Spain No sooner was this great Mystery of Spanish Policy and Ambition revealed and publickly made known through the Kingdom and that Assembly of States which was Call'd in Rebellion Dissolv'd in Disorder but that the Cities which formerly held for the League and Governours of the Garrisons made hast to return by their Obedience to the King Meaux led the way Peron Pontois Orliens Bruges Lyons and Aix followed after and Paris it self was not long behind Roan and Amiens and the rest came flocking in and were all received to Grace The Spaniards therefore when they saw their main Project for the Crown thus to fayl had thoughts to reimburse themselves by getting Possession of as many strong places upon the Frontiers of France as they could either by Force or Fraud La Fera in Picardy Capella Croisill and Blavet in Brittany and Calais they Surprized By which means they had so strengthen'd themselves as that the Dukes of Guise and Mayne after they had made their Peace with the King and other Leaders of the League were now content to joyn their Forces to beat them out as Enemies whom they had formerly call'd in as Friends And surely if our Covenanters had been as truly sensible of the Honour of the English Nation and Scottish-Practises as the French Leaguers were of theirs they wanted not as just Provocations on one side from the Scotts and fair Invitations on the other from the King to joyn with him in delivering this exhausted and bleeding Kingdom from the Misery which it did at that time suffer and from that Slavery which most good Men feared was at first intended by the Scotts who had solemnly sworn to subdue this late flourishing Church to the Tyranny of a Scottish-Presbytery And not content with that demanded in effect the Supream Command of Ireland to be put into their Hands As also to have an equal share in the Government of England Which Designs of that insolency in them and dishonour to us were such as our Fore-Fathers would not have endured the mention and at the Memory whereof our Posterity will doubtless blush And to bring these their ends about 't is very well known that they made themselves Masters of the strongest Cities in this Kingdom upon their own confines viz. Barwick Newcastle and Carlisle Out of which and such other Footing as they had gained here how they were got the Precedent Story doth sufficiently manifest whereof I shall not give any touch that of the Spaniards departure out of France having no resemblance therewith For the King of Spain found while he was Fighting to gain the Neighbour Kingdom of France he had almost lost his own in the Low-Countries Likewise that neither his Forces nor Moneys were sufficient to maintain two such Expensive Wars at the same time And that he did not gain so much in France but the Hollanders by occasion of that diversion got as much of him in Flanders and therefore was willing to hearken to a Treaty for Peace And the French whose Kingdom was now miserably wasted by a long Civil War not unwilling to imbrace the motion Whereupon a Peace was concluded betwixt those two Crowns at Uervins upon the second of May Anno. 1598. Whereby the Spantard was to restore all the Towns he had taken in the French Dominion and go away only with Bagg and Baggage It is not unworthy of Observation that in all the several Compositions which the Leaguers made with the King upon their Reconcilement and in all the Articles of the Treaty at Uervins for the general Peace there is not the least mention of Religion or Extirpation of Heresy though that was the great Cause for which they ever pretended to take up Arms Only they were careful to preserve their secular Interests and to secure their Persons and Estates upon as good Terms as they could A plain Evidence that Religion was but the Stale Honours and Preferments being the Mark which they aimed at Yet the Protestants whom they had devoted to Destruction in their Holy-League fared in the end never the worse for it For the King was content to confirm and Republish in Anno. 1595 the same Edict in favour of them which Henry the third had granted in Anno. 1577. and which had been the chief Eye-sore to the Papists and a ground of their League Which Edict he caused to be verified in the Parliament at Paris where Coquilius one of the Judges formerly a Violent Leaguer was a special Instrument to further and facilitate the Publication and reception of it in the Parliament And and when the Kingdom had some Liberty to Breath and Recover her Senses even those that were professed Papists did not much repine at the Toleration of Protestants and enlargement of their Priviledges by the Edict of Nantz Anno. 1598. Which the Historian relating labours in part to excuse by discoursing to the Reader That the Common Peace of France Pressed and almost Oppressed with the Tragical Impetuosities of Schisms and Divisions made every thing that was just to be thought necessary and all that was profitable be esteemed just So that seeing the torrent of Religion could not be stopt without a Breach in the State that the Disease was inveterate and a hard matter to remove what was so deeply setled That the Restauration of a Church is the work of God as well as the Plantation Men must be content to do no
Eyes and Screw'd faces do they make And pag. 41. l. 3. Again how like a company of Conjurers do they mumble cut the beginning of their Prayers that the people may not bear them and when artificially they have raised their voices what a pulling do they make But that which afforded them no little advantage was that horrid Gun-powder Plot which happened in the third year of King Iames being hatch'd by those fiery-spirited men of the Romish-perswasion whom the bloudy-minded Jesuits had influenc'd for that most wicked practise For after this to terrify the people with the Church of Rome their Sermons were little less than Declamations against the Papists aiming thereby to represent them formidable and odious insinuating to the world that all the fear of danger was from those of that Religion whilst they themselves in the mean time did insensibly poyson the people with such other unfound Doctrines as became at length the fountain of this late unparallel'd Rebellion which terminated in the execrable Murther of our late gracious King and would have put a Period to this famous and long flourishing Monarchy had not almighty God of his great mercy miraculously prevented it But how far the Principles of these Holy Reformers do differ from the most rigid of the Romish profession against whom they have so long and loudly clamoured these ensuing observations will briefly manifest The Jesuits Tenets In Regnis Hominum potestas Regis est a populo quia populus facit Regem In the Kingdoms of men the power of the King is from the People Potestas immediate est tanquam in subjecto in tota multitudine si causa legitima adsit potest multitudo mutare Regnum in Aristocratiam Democratiam The power is immediately as in the subject in the multitude and if there be lawful cause the multitude may change the Kingdom into an Aristocracy or Democracy De side certum est quemcunque Principem Christianum si a Religione Catholica de flexerit alios avocare voluerit excidere statim omni potestate dignitate idque ante prolatam Papae sententiam posseque debere subditos si vires habeant istiusmodi Haereticum Hominum Christianorum dominatu ejicere It is certainly a matter of Faith that whatsoever Christian Prince shall depart from the Catholic Religion and shall withdraw others doth immediately fall from all power and dignity even before the Popes sentence given and that the Subjects may and should if they have strength cast forth such an Heretick from the dominion of Christian men Talis consensu omnium potest imo debet privari suo dominio Si hoc priscis temporibus minus factum sit causa est quia deerant vires Such a King by the consent of all may yea ought to be deprived of his dominion If this in old time was not done the cause was for that they had not strength Non dissimulandum esse c. This is not to be dissembled that it is the most expedient and safe way if a public meeting may be granted to deliberate what shall be done by common consent First of all the Prince is to be admonished and to be brought to his wits again c. If he reject the Medicine and no hope of his recovery be lest when the Sentence is passed upon him the Common-wealth may first refuse his command And because of necessity there will be a stirring up for war they may unfold their Councils for defence thereof and shew that it is expedient to have weapons and to command the people to advance moneys for the charge of the Wars And if the matter will suffer and the Common-wealth cannot otherwise defend it self with the same right of defence but with a better authority and peculiar of their own Principem publice Hostem declaratum ferro perimere They may kill the Prince he being publickly declared an Enemy The Presbyterian Tenets Populo jus est ut Imperium cui velit deferat The people may confer the Government on whom they please Without the Prince the people may reform and must not tarry for the Magistrate Not Kings and Magistrates only ought to punish crimes against God but the whole body of the people and every member of the same to his ability must revenge the injury done to God If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are free from their Oath of Obedience Subjects do promise obedience that the Magistrate might help them which if he do not they are discharged of obedience Evil Princes ought to be deposed and inferior Magistrates ought chiefly to do it Subjects must withstand wicked Princes they must take up Arms against them God hath appointed the Nobility to bridle the inordinate appetite of Princes and in so doing they cannot be accused as Resisters of Authority Judges ought to summon Princes before them for their crimes and proceed against them as against all other offenders When Magistrates cease to do their duties God giveth the Sword into the peoples hands Let every Soul be subject to Superiors Paul says he wrote this in the Infancy of the Church There were but few Christians then not many of them rich or of ability so as they were not ripe for such a purpose As if a man should write to such Christians as are under the Turk in substance poor in courage feeble in strength unarm'd in number few and generally subject to all kinds of injuries would not he write as Paul did So as the Apostle did respect the men he wrote unto and his words ought not to be extended to the body or people of a Common-wealth or whole City If Paul were alive and did see wicked Kings reigning in Christian Common-wealths Paul would say that he accounted no such for Magistrates he would forbid all men for speaking to them and from keeping them company He would leave them to their Subjects to be punished neither would he blame them if they accounted no such longer for their Kings They may kill wicked Princes as Monsters and cruel beasts And if neither the Magistrate nor the people do their office in deposing or killing them then the Minister must excommunicate such a King Any Minister may do it against the greatest Prince A private man having some special inward notion may kill a Tyrant In other things also were it not for brevity the like parallel might be made in what those of the Romish Perswasion and the Presbyterians do hold as that the Office of Priests and Bishops is one and the same as is judiciously observed by the learned Author of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England printed at London 1679 pag. 366 whereunto I refer my Reader CHAP. III. And having thus demonstrated that the Principles by which this sort of men be unhappily guided are most dangerous and destructive to
and three Fifteens which were by the late Parliament resolv'd on to have been given to the King setting forth a Declaration to manifest the reasons of his requiring that Loan Soon after which he sent away six thousand Foot-Soldiers under the command of Sir Charles Morgan and others for the service of the Vnited Provinces Moreover to heighten and increase these his wants about this time a most unlucky occasion hapned which in short was this that the French Priests and Domestics of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon the King that as the French King had sent back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her his Majesty was forc'd to send them home But that King not looking on this Example and knowing upon what ill terms our King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants Ships which lay in the River of Bourdeaux and then brake out into open war so that the King was constrain'd to make use of those Forces against the French which were design'd to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desire of the Rochellers who humbly sued for his protection and defence but the Fleet set forth for that purpose being encountred with great Tempests was forc'd to return without doing any thing farther then shewing his Majesties good will and readiness to assist them CHAP. IV. BUT the next year the King having made new Preparations for a war with France to manifest what ground he had for it declared that the House of Austria conspiring the ruin of all those of the Reform'd Religion through Christendom as he said plainly appear'd in the wars of Germany had such an influence upon the Councel of France as to prevail with the French to obstruct the landing of Count Mansfield's Army contrary to promise with whom they should have join'd Forces for the relief of the Palatinate and the German Princes the failure wherein proved the ruin of that Army the greatest part whereof perished Furthermore that having by his mediation prevail'd for a Peace between the French King and his Protestant Subjects and engaged his Word that the Protestants should observe the Articles of Agreement nevertheless the King of France contrary to those Articles block'd up their Towns Garrisons and Forts committing many spoils upon them though they had done nothing in violation of the Edict of Peace Whereupon the Duke of Buckingham in order to the relief of the Palatinate being made Admiral and Commander in Chief of the Land-Forces on the 27th of Iune set out from Portsmouth the Fleet consisting of an hundred Sail whereof ten were of the King 's Royal Navy having aboard six or seven thousand Land-Soldiers and towards the later end of Iuly appear'd before Rochel Where attempting to gain the Isle of Rhee which lay before that Town and imbarr'd their Trade his unskilful conduct therein was such that he was forc'd to a retreat with the loss of many valiant men and not a little of his Honour the more full relation of which ill success I refer to our Historians This Expedition proving thus unhappy his Majesties necessitous condition forc'd him to pawn much of his Lands to the City of London for an hundred and twenty thousand pounds which he then borrowed and also to borrow thirty thousand pounds more of the East-India Company But all this being not sufficient to support the charge of the Fleet notwithstanding these former great discouragements still hoping by a Parliament to obtain some reasonable Supply in these his pressing Necessities he call'd another Parliament to begin on the seventeenth of March next following At the meeting whereof he told them None there but knew that common danger was the cause of that Parliament and Supply at that time the Chief end thereof Likewise that if to maintain their own advices and as the case then stood for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State and the just defence of its true Friends and Allies were not sufficient then no Eloquence of men and Angels could prevail the particular dangers being laid open by the Lord Keeper Hereupon after some time spent in debate of these things five Subsidies were voted and the Petition of Right assented to by his Majesty After which the Parliament was first prorogued from the 26th of Iune till the 20th of October And then by Proclamation till the 20th of Ianuary At which meeting the Clergy also gave the King as many Subsidies In the interim of which Prorogation the Duke of Buckingham who had formerly been the Darling of that Parliament which made use of him to King Iames for breaking the match with Spain being now grown odious and in this Parliament represented to be the chief cause of all their Grievances not only by reason of the losses at the Isle of Rhee but for many other respects as in the Annals of that time may at large be seen hoping as well to regain the honour he lost in the last year's attempt in that Isle as a better opinion of the People design'd another Expedition to Rochel In order whereunto being Commander of the Royal Fleet ready to set sail from Portsmouth he was there desperately murther'd by one Iohn Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army upon the 23d of August who gave no other reason for that his barbarous and bloody Act then that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Commonwealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King by the House of Commons in the former Session But I proceed notwithstanding this fair shew of an hopeful accordance there were not a few turbulent-spirited men both in the Parliament and elsewhere who sought all advantages for breaking thereof divers Merchants refusing to pay Tonnage and Poundage in regard it had not been granted to the King by a special Act since the death of his Royal Father King Iames. Whereupon his Majesty first sent for those Merchants to the Council-Table and after by a Speech to both Houses told them he expected they should pass the Bill for it But instead of complying therein the Commons publisht a Declaration concerning Religion alledging that they must prefer it before all other business Whereupon the King whose urgent Necessities for want of the Supply expected pressed hard upon them issuing out a special Commission for taking of Tonnage and Poundage Against which the Commons not only protested but some of their Members behaved themselves therein so disobediently and seditiously to the contempt of his Regal authority that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular they lockt the doors of the House of Commons kept the Key and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had thunder'd out their Anathema's not
in the House tending thereto first by a Proposal of four then five nay six were mention'd and the motion not dislik'd told them peremptorily that it was in vain for them to think of less than twelve in regard he knew under that number would not be accepted And having by that sinister dealing kept such distance betwixt his Majesty and his good Subjects was by some other of the faction so seconded with a hideous representation of their Grievances together with dangerous Innovations in Religion and fears of introducing Superstition besides certain motions as did not without cause put strange apprehensions in the Queen of peril to her person or at least some others very near unto her that his Majesty was constrain'd to dissolve that Parliament And taking consideration of the Scots rebellious Insolencies which every day increased proposed the business of money to his Privy-Council who contributed a considerable sum to his aid his domestic-Servants and Officers making good addition thereto The Earl of Strafford Lord Lieutenant of Ireland speedily hasting into that Kingdom where he call'd a Parliament raised an Army of eight thousand men with money to maintain them and within the space of six weeks return'd into England That the meeting of these Members of Parliament from all parts of the Realm being many of them men of turbulent Spirits and principles totally Antimonarchical gave opportunity for those contrivances which afterwards were put in Action there is nothing more sure For in the first place they took care to infuse Fears and Iealousies into the people every where that the Government was then design'd to be Arbitrary and Popery like to be introduced to promote which Scandals many seditious Preachers took no small pains in their Pulpits especially in and about London Whereupon several tumultuous meetings were made in divers parts of the Suburbs and a Paper set up in the night at the old Exchange animating the Apprentices to sack Lambeth House Which took such effect that two nights following it was beset with above five hundred of the rascal multitude and an attemt made thereon though without success some of them being taken and imprisoned in Southwark But here they rested not for within a few nights after they broke open the White-Lion and King's-bench Prisons and let out their fellows The Scots also having made such preparations for a second Rebellion continued likewise their Parliament according to the Fundamental Laws as their phrase was having enacted a Band to be subscribed by all men before the first of September to maintain it to be a free and lawful Parliament whereupon they form'd another Army and knowing certainly what store of well-wishers they had in this Kingdom as also how easy the work was like to be made through the subtile contrivances of the factious party here from whom they were sufficiently instructed and animated by private Invitations and large promises invaded this Realm passing the Twede at Barwick But the King being slow to believe what they designed was not so forward as to encounter them upon the Borders his Army which he rais'd that Summer lying at that time about New-Castle of which the Earl of Northumberland was made General who alledging himself to be then ill in health staid in London His Majesty therefore having certain advertisement that the Scots were ready to enter Northumberland intended to have made the Earl of Strafford General who declin'd it out of an honoured respect to the Earl of Northumberland but being much pressed in regard of this present occasion desired to serve as Lieutenant general under him and had his Commission accordingly On Thursday the twentieth of Aug. the King set forwards from London towards the North and on Munday following the Earl of Strafford having in that short time fitted himself for his journey posted from London by Coaches and arriving at York the Wednesday after though then much troubled with the Stone rode to Topcliffe on Fryday At that time the Lord Conway was General of the Horse and at Newcastle with the Army Where by reason of the General 's and Lieutenant-General's absence he had the cheif command thereof but made such slender resistance that the Scots forc'd their passage over the River of Tine at Newburne that very Friday and entred Newcastle without opposition himself then retreating with the Army towards York and in some confusion And now that the Scots had thus possess'd themselves of Newcastle they began to strengthen that place and bring all those Northern-parts under contribution Which strange passages made most men amazed scarce any man knowing whom to trust or speak freely to Much labour indeed there was to make the people believe that all this did work for their good and that the Scots were their surest friends this being the certain way to have a Parliament and that the undoubted cure of all things amiss both in Church and State And truly such a burthen was Ship-money then esteem'd to be and some few other extraordinary Impositions so wanton were many grown being surfeited with that plenty which long peace had produc'd that the Scots then had not a few well-wishers in all parts of this Realm their piety and goodness being so cried up by the whole Puritan-party His Majesty therefore in this difficult Labyrinth took resolution to summon a meeting of the Peers at York a course which had anciently been used especially when exigencies were so great that the Convention of a Parliament could not be staid for and at the meeting of this grand Council represented to them the present danger of this Invasion with desire of their advice touching the maintenance of his Army as not safe to be disbanded whilst the Scotish-Forces were on foot as also what course was fittest to be taken to get them out Whereupon without long deliberating a Treaty was determin'd on and for that end sixteen of the Lords then present were assign'd on the King's part to meet with Eleven of the Scots with power to compose and conclude all differences Whereunto the Scots assented upon condition that the King should first revoke his Proclamation whereby he had declared them Traitors COMMISSIONERS Of the English these Francis Earl of Bedford William Earl of Hertford Robert Earl of Essex William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick Iohn Earl of Bristol Henry Earl of Holland Thomas Earl of Berkshire Philip Lord Wharton William Lord Paget Edward Lord Kymbolton Robert Lord Brook Iohn Lord Paulet Edw. L. Howard of Escrick Thomas Lord Savile Francis Lord Dunsmore Of the Scots these Iohn Earl of Rothess Ch. Earl of Dumfermeling Iohn Lord Lowdon Sir Patrick Hepburne of Waughtone Sir Will. Douglas of Cavers William Drummond of Riccarton Iohn Smith Bailiff of Edenborough Alexand Wedderburn Clerk of Dundee Hugh Kennedy Burgess of Aire Alexander Henderson Archibald Iohnstone Which Treaty began at Rippon upon the ninth of October but what good effect it was like to produce we
now plainly see Eleven of those sixteen English Lords which were chosen on his Majesties part being afterwards Actors or Assisters in the late war against him The first demand there made by the Scots Commissioners being no less then forty thousand pounds a month for maintenanne of their Army during the Treaty Which tho not directly granted was so far yielded to as that the Assessment impos'd by them upon the Countie of Northumberland Bishopric of Durham and Town of Newcastle should stand good for the raising of Eight hundred and fifty pounds a day allowance for the space of two months to begin upon the sixteenth of that instant October And that there should be a cessation of Arms the Scots Army to be confin'd on the North part the River Tese and the English to the South thereof CHAP. VII WHich footing thus gotten by the Scots in the North gave no small encouragement to their well-wishers in the South especially in London who in contemplation also of the ensuing Parliament which by his Majesty was summon'd to meet upon the third of November following were not a little animated in divers bold Enterprizes for scandalous papers and Libels were frequently thrown in the streets against the Bishops Yea so bold were the multitude grown by the example of the Scots in an 1637 and through the incitation of many Citizens and others of note who would not then shew themselves that on the 22th of October a rabble of no less than Two thousand Brownists and the like Sectaries entred St. Paul's Cathedral where the high Commission Court then sat tore down all the Benches and cried out No Bishop No High Commission To the consideration of which Parliament begun on the third of November accordingly did the King represent the safety and security of this Realm earnestly desiring that care might be speedily taken for riddance of the Scots which had thus invaded the North and to satisfy their just Grievances promised his hearty concurrence desiring that his Army might not be suffer'd to disband for want of pay before the Rebels for so he then call'd the Scots were put out And that they would lay aside all suspicions to the end it might become a happy Parliament resolving to cast himself wholly upon the love and affection of his English Subjects But the house of Commons consisting of the same or persons worse affected then those in April before the prevalent party purging the House of divers persons whom they concieved would not comply with their destructive enterprises for such they either finding fault with their Elections or making them criminals as to some public Grievances though others of a deeper guilt were not touch'd whose offences might make them obnoxious to their power or obsequious to their designs went slowly on with what his Majesty had proposed to them for the busy-party who were the great Actors in the ensuing Tragedy then fell to contrivance about the accomplishment of their long desired work To which purpose the Treaty at Rippon was soon after remov'd to Westminster to the end that there they might have the Scots Commissioners at hand and the power of the Londoners to assist them for it had been impossible without the conjunction and help of the Prevalent and factious party in that City ever to have accomplish'd the ruine of the establish'd Government and destruction of the King as they afterwards did In order whereunto the first step they made was the entertaining Petitions of Grievances from all parts of the Realm which made such a noise as if the Subjects of England had suffered under the greatest slavery and oppression that had ever been heard of and being devised and framed by themselves were receiv'd with such great acceptance as that the People began to shew no small expressions of Joy in their new Reformers Who to win them the more besides the Impeachment of the Earl of Strafford which was within two days following whom they had made sufficiently odious by representing him to be one of the greatest causes of their oppressions and an especial Enemy to Parliaments expell'd divers Projectors and Monopolists out of the House of Commons impeach'd the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Ely and Lord Keeper Finch for Treason against the State having in order thereto by libellous Pamphlets and Pictures rendred them hateful to the People Damn'd that hideous Grievance of Ship-money by vote Pass'd a Bill for a Triennial Parliament as also impeach'd Justice Berkley of High Treason for his activeness in the business of Ship-money And to try how safely they might adventure to strike at the establish'd Government of the Church which might make the easier way for ruine of the State they brought Pryn Burton and Bastwick in triumph to London who had been censured in the Star-Chamber for Libels against the Hierarchy countenancing a Petition exhibited to them by Alderman Penington against Episcopacy and Church-Discipline Yet that there might be no doubt of their zeal and dutiful affection to the King they sent a Message to his Majesty to desire leave that they might advance and settle his Revenue offering to make him the richest King in Christendom And having thus gain'd a strong confidence with the people what blessed Patriots they were like to be that they might also seem as zealous for God's cause they exhibited a Remonstrance in the name of both Houses to his Majesty grounded upon divers Petitions which they had subtilly procured from all parts of the Realm of the increase of Popery Also that the danger thereof might the more amaze the world they then began to open their Cabinet of Plots and Conspiracies four of the House of Commons imparting to the Lords a a discovery of an horrid design by many thousands of Papists in England Ireland and Wales Moreover because of the great complaint of Innovation in Religion increase of Popery and growth of Superstition they appointed Commissioners for removing Rails from about all Communion-Tables throughout the Realm Likewise to the end that the Bishops might the better attend their Spiritual functions they voted that none of them should have voice in Parliament nor meddle in temporal affairs And to assure the Scots whose Army they as yet thought not fit to part with till their work was brought to more maturity they gave them three hundred thousand pounds towards a supply of their losses and Necessities Which signal favour got them the stile of Brethren and thanks from the Scotish-Commissioners who seem'd so tender of our good that they desired the Treaty might be accelerated and the Kingdom eased of the burthen of the two Armies by their returning home The next thing wherewith they went in hand was the Trial of the Earl of Strafford for 't was resolv'd he must be cut off being a person of such integrity to the King and known abilities To which purpose
but sent down the Earl of Stanford and Lord Willoughby of Parham with four of the House of Commons as a Committee to assist Sir Iohn Hotham there voting that his Majesties declaring Sir Iohn Hotham Traitor was an high breach of the Privilege of Parliament against the Liberty of the Subject and Laws of the Land And now that by their feigned Fears and Jealousies with other subtile devices they had sufficiently amused the people and possess'd themselves of the Royal Navy Forts Ports and Magazine and within a few days following set forth a Declaration signifying their purpose to put in execution their Ordinance for the Militia they answered that Message from his Majesty of the 24 th of April touching Hotham with sundry foul aspersions taxing him with hearkning to wicked Counsels which had practised to put the Kingdom into a combustion and again justifying Sir Iohn Hotham expressed their intentions to settle the Militia according to their Ordinance for suppressing the wicked and malignant Party desiring his Majesties return to be near his Parliament And as the Citizens of London out of their ambition to be a free State were the first and cheif Instruments to set forward this grand work so in this of the Militia they gave example to all other parts of the Kingdom executing the same in Finsbury-feilds with twelve thousand men in Arms ordered by Serjeant Major General Skyppon the members of both Houses being present to give countenance thereto who thereupon voted that having shew'd so much obedience to the Ordinance of Parliament concerning the Militia they had done it according to the Laws of the land and that they should have the assistance of both Houses of Parliament against any that might oppose or molest them therein CHAP. XI ABout this time therefore the King discerning no small danger to his person by reason of these hostile preparations and Actions having not any Guard but with a thin retinue residing at York and withall observing that in most parts of the Kingdom the schismatical Party under colour of putting themselves into a Posture of Defence had provided Arms as also trained and exercised themselves contrary to the Laws of the land sent his Summons to the Gentry of Yorkshire to attend him at York Where being met he shew'd them divers reasons why he conceiv'd it fit to have a Guard for his own Person desiring their assistance therein Whereupon most of them yeilding cheerful obedience he signified to them by his Letters that he should take it well if they would personally attend him in such sort followed and provided as they should think fit for his better safety But before the knowledg thereof could possibly come to them at Westminster having some private advertisement of what was intended they publish'd a Declaration in the name of both Houses of Parliament setting forth That it was against the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that any of the Subjects thereof should be commanded to attend his Majesty at his pleasure excepting such as were bound thereto by special service And that if the Trained Bands or any other his Majesties Subject should upon any pretence be drawn together in a posture of war the Sherifs of such a County ought to raise the power thereof to suppress them And having forthwith voted that the Magazine of each respective Shire in the Realm of England and dominion of Wales should be presently put into the power of such Lord-Lieutenants of those Counties as the Parliament did confide in they publish'd a Declaration scandalizing his Majesties gracious Messages Answers and Declarations taxing him with breach of his word and promises as also with continued oppressions and violation of the Laws countenancing the Rebellion in Ireland and with intent to bring up his Northern-Army to awe the Parliament And having so done voted that the King seduced by wicked Counsel intended to make war against his Parliament who in all their Consultations and Actions had proposed no other end unto themselves but the care of his Kingdom and the performance of all duty and loyalty to his person Next that whensoever the King maketh war upon the Parliament it is a breach of the Trust reposed in him by his people contrary to his Oath and tending to the dissolution of this Government and that whosoever should serve or assist him in such wars were Traitors by the Fundamental Laws of this Realm the very same day sending down the Knights and Burgesses of Buckinghamshire by special Order to see their Ordinance for the Militia put in execution in that County And having proceeded thus far setting also forth another large Remonstrance in justification of all their practises in which they had this bold expression that now they had brought their work to such an height and degree of success that nothing seem'd to be left in their way able to hinder the full accomplishment of their desires unless God in his justice should send a grievous curse upon them within three days following they sent a Petition to the King in the name of both Houses which was delivered to him at York Wherein they boldly reproacht him with his many fair promises and pretences and desired him to disband his Guard it being a cause of great jealousie and danger to the whole Kingdom Otherwise they told him that they should employ their care and utmost power to secure the Parliament and to preserve the peace and quiet of the Realm And shortly after publish'd a third Remonstrance justifying their former Actions farther reproaching him in every thing and challenging the Obligations of his Oath upon that ungrammatical construction of quas vulgus digerit to pass all Bills which they should tender unto him About this time also removing the Magazine form Hull to the Tower of London The King therefore discerning what preparations they had made in every respect in order to the forming of a rebellious Army did by his Royal Proclamation bearing date the xxvijth of May expresly forbid all and every of his Subjects belonging to the Trained-Bands or Militia of this Kingdom to rise march muster or exercise by vertue of any Order or Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament without consent or warrant from himself upon pain of punishment according to the Laws And plainly discerning through these their subtile practices what advantages they made to themselves upon the smallest pretences as also by casting Scandals upon all his Actions he summon'd the Gentlemen and Free-holders of Yorkshire to come to Heyworth-Moore upon the third of Iune Where he declared unto them the reason of his reâ—siding at that time amongst them being driven away from Whiteâ—Hall by Tumults with his purpose to maintain the true Protestant Religion and Laws and that the Guard he there had for the safety of his Royal person consisting of the chief Gentry of that County and one Regiment of the Trained Bands could
and Sconces at Graves-end and Chatham together with Dover-Castle Into Leicestershire they sent the Earl of Stanford with Horse Foot and Canon Into Warwickshire the Lord Brooke and others with six thousand Horse and Foot and into Dorsetshire the Earl of Bedford with seven thousand Foot six hundred Horse and fourteen pieces of Canon and special direction into other parts that their Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants should speedily execute their Ordinance for the Militia and declare to all men that it had been and should be the endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for his Majesties safety c. But the more to incense the people they issued out other Declaration in the name of the Lords and Commons in Parliament scandalizing the King with laying the foundation of an arbitrary and tyrannical Government and that notwithstanding all his Vows and Protestations to govern by Law which had been dispersed throughout the Kingdom to blind and deceive the people as they alleaged the most mischievous principles of Tyranny had been exercised that ever were invented with promise to all well affected persons as they term'd them that should be prejudiced by the Cavaliers that they should have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of all such persons as had withdrawn themselves to York to serve his Majesty The King therefore seriously weighing the perillous condition in which himself and the whole Realm were thus miserably plunged through the rage and malice of these desperate men that he might leave nothing unattemted for preventing of those great calamities which he clearly saw approaching after he had thus erected his royal Standard sent a Message from Notingham to those Houses at Westminister by the Earls of Southampton Dorset and others whereby he propounded that for composure of those unhappy differences some fit persons might be enabled to treat on both sides in such manner and with such freedome as might best tend to an happy conclusion of them But this gracious offer was receiv'd by them with so much scorn and insolence they then having a powerful Army on foot with plenty of Money and other accommodations and his Majesty destitute of all these that the substance of their Answer was that if his Majesty would forsake all his Loyal Subjects then with him and return to his Parliament he should find such expressions of their fidelities and duty as might assure him that his safety Honour and Greatness was only to be found in their affections And immediately publish'd a Declaration setting forth that the Arms which they had taken up c. should not be laid down until his Majesty should withdraw his protection from such as had been voted by both Houses to be Delinquents or that should be so voted and should leave them to the justice of the Parliament Things being brought to this height it will not be improper now to take notice how the Scots did behave themselves towards the King in this unhappy Juncture whose gracious condescensions to them had been such as hardly any age can parallel Wherein it is to be considered that they could not but discern what breaches had been made upon his Majesty and his just Rights by those here who sat at Westminister and call'd themselves the Parliament as also to what degree of strength and power they were grown with the artifices whereby they attain'd thereto Moreover that though by a Petition exhibited to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Realm upon the last of May an 1642 they had intimated a desire to shun any just occasion that might give offence to their gracious Soveraign as they then call'd him or of Iealousy to their Brethen of England and so seemed to stand only as Spectators yet when they heard that their Friends in England had put themselves in Arms and were so powerful in strength every way and his Majesty so weak they then not only shew'd themselves more open but sent a Form of their Kirk-Government to the Parliament at Westminster as a Pattern for Reformation with desire from the Assembly of that Kirk that the same might be establish'd here and a Declaration of their affections to the Reformation in Kirk and State Wherein they signified their expectation that England would now bestir themselves and extirpate the Prelatical Hierarchy that the remainder of the work might be the more easy offering their assistance for furthering thereof Of which more anon That there was nothing wanting in his Majesty that could be expected from a most pious and gracious Prince for prevention of those miseries which this turbulent Generation afterwards brought upon these Realms doth sufficiently appear by his sundry pathetick Messages to them formerly sent Nevertheless to acquit himself farther to God and the world by another Message of Sept. the eleventh he manifested to them what endeavours he had used by his many offers but could not obtain any Treaty And therefore now declared that being thus left to his necessary defence relying only on the Providence of God the justness of his Cause and the affections of his good people he should yet piously remember the blood that was to be spilt in this Quarrel and chearfully embrace a Treaty when ever they should desire it But to this was returned a most scornful and scandalous Answer taxing him with committing by his Souldiers oppressions rapines and murthers upon his good Subjects saying that they had offered him all Security Honour Service Obedience Support c. and sought nothing but that their Religion Liberty Peace of the Kingdom and Safety of the Parliament might be secured from the open violence and cunning practises of a wicked party who had long plotted their destruction upbraiding him that Irish Traitors and Rebels were admitted to his presence grace and favour and telling him that if he would return to his Parliament without his forces they would secure his royal Person Crown and Dignity Being thus driven to these great Extremities which was either to submit to their mercy and forsake all those his loyal Subjects who had faithfully adhered to him or to expose his royal Person with that small part of an Army he then had to the uncertain chance of war and hearing that the Earl of Essex the Rebell 's General was gone out of London in great State upon the tenth of September the cheif part of his Army being advanced to Northampton before he march'd from Notingham towards Shrewsbury upon the thirteenth of that month with what forces he then had and at the Head of them near Wellington made a solemn Protestation to defend the Protestant Religion establish'd in the Church of England to govern by the known Laws of the Land that the Liberty and Property of the Subject might be by them preserved with the same care as his own just rights Also to maintain the just Priviledges of Parliament And that he would expect no
of that Diocess of Coventry and Litchfield In order whereunto when he had march'd within half a mile of Litchfield he drew up his Army and there devoutly pray'd a blessing upon his intended work withall earnestly desiring that God would by some special Token manifest unto them his approbation of that their design which being done he went on and planted his great Guns against the South-East Gate of the Close himself standing in a Window of a little House near thereto to direct the Gunners in their purposed Battery but it so hapned that there being two persons placed in the Battlements of the chiefest Steeple to make shot with long fouling Guns at the Cannoniers upon a sudden accident which occasioned the Souldiers to give a shout this Lord coming to the door compleatly harnessed with Plate-Armour cap a pe was suddenly shot into one of his Eyes but the strength of the Bullet so much abated by the glance thereof on a piece of timber which supported a Pentiss over the Door that it only lodg'd in his Brains Whereupon he suddenly fell down dead Nor is it less notable that this accident fell out upon the second day of March which is the Festival of that sometime famous Bishop St. Chad to whose memory Offa King of the Mercians first erected this stately Church and devoutly dedicated it The next thing whereof I shall take notice is that on the nineteenth day of the same month of March was that feirce Skirmish at Hopton-Heath in the same County of Stafford where the right loyal and valiant Spenser Earl of Northampton encountring Sir William Brereton and Sir Iohn Gell though he had the better of the day being unhappily fallen from his Horse amongst Coney-Burrows was barbarously murthered CHAP. XV. AS to this year's Actions considering that money is the Sinews of war the first thing of note in order to the gaining thereof which the Members at Westminster did was the sequestring of Delinquents i. e. the Royalists estates And finding the poor Country-people very weary of the war and apt to run away having also had so much experience of the Cities forwardness in all things tending to their service to the intent that upon any sudden occasion they might draw out considerable numbers thence they passed an Ordinance that the Committee for the Militia of London and the Suburbs should raise new Regiments of Voluntiers for the better security thereof So likewise for the better support of two other of their Generals viz. Sir William Waller and Sir Arthur Haselrig they passed an Ordinance for engaging the Public Faith to such as should lend either Horse Men or Money unto them in that service But by this time the private Discontents and repinings which these large Exactions caused beginning to make the great Masters in this Tragic Scene to doubt a revolt in the people considering how frequently the King by sundry gracious Proclamations of pardon and all other good means had woed them To carry on the work therefore the more smoothly they were constrained after the example of their Brethren the Scots to make an Engagement by a solemn Oath for continuing their assistance therein And in this as the Citizens of London who in all other occasions had been their principal Instruments did readily tender their service by Sir Henry Mildmay who reported to the House that they would lend the fourty thousand pounds demanded for now they were borrowing again provided that the Holy League and Covenant before spoken of might be made and imposed upon the whole Kingdom And rather than their Blessed Cause as they call'd it should suffer it was moved by the Sub-Committee at Sadler's Hall in Breadstreet that all persons who were willing to promote their own Safety should spare one meal weekly towards the provision of Horse and Arms for the new rais'd Auxiliaries about London Also because they found some slackness in the people to bring in money upon the Propositions they appointed Committees in the several Counties to tax such for their fifth and twentieth part as had not contributed or lent accordingly and passed another Ordinance for taking Horses for the service of the Parliament It is not unworthy of note that this thrifty contrivance for sparing one meal a week was the usher to that then formidable Imposition called Excise never before heard of by many thousands in this Kingdom which the trivers at Westminster durst not shew the people till they were sufficiently tamed under the yoke of other Exactions knowing full well how displeasing it would be to them Nay so fearful were they themselves after they had form'd their first Army lest the people should apprehend any suspicion thereof which might then have endangered a Revolt that when it was but whispered by some what they foresaw would happen they made an Order in their House of Commons for punishing such Malignant persons as had cast aspersions upon that House that they intended to assess any man's Pewter and lay Excise upon that and other Commodities But now that they saw the people by degrees so patiently submit to many other burdens they began to debate in their House of Commons how fit and necessary it would be for them to impose Excise upon Wine Beer Tobacco and such petty Commodities Whereupon Mr. Pym by his Letter to Sir Iohn Hotham signifyed that they had proceeded in the Excise to many particulars and intended to go on farther but that it would be necessary to use the people to it by little and little And because this Ordinance before-mention'd for taking Horses for the service of the Parliament should not pinch upon their friends they passed another by which they appointed certain persons to levy such Horses for the service of the Parliament but with special direction that the Horses taken from the well affected should be valued and repaiment secured upon the Public faith Having thus laid such a sure foundation for the support of more Forces they then sent out a Declaration to their Lord Lieutenants and Deputy-Lieutenants of Kent Canterbury and the Cinqueports that they should associate and raise an Army of a thousand Foot-Voluntiers and one or more Troops of Horse and to appoint a Major General and give Battel to any Forces not raised by authority of both Houses But the Oath formerly mentioned by Sir Henry Mildmay being by this time framed was now thought fit to be set on foot as of high concernment to oblige all those that were well affected and for the better discovery of other well-wishers to the Cause a work therefore of this high consequence being not fit to be brought into the world naked they had a Committee who made report of a treacherous Conspiracy discovered upon the last day of May being the Fast-day viz. of a pretended design to destroy the Parliament and well affected party of the Kingdom to subject Religion
Laws and Liberty of the Subject to establish Popery and to set up an arbitrary Government for prevention whereof both Houses and the whole Realm should enter into a solemn Covenant never to lay down Arms so long as the Popish-party for so they called the King's forces were on foot and Papists and Delinquents protected from the Justice of the Parliament but to assist the Forces rais'd by authority of the two Houses of Parliament against the Forces rais'd by the King Which solemn Oath and Covenant thus drawn up was then taken by both Houses and within ten days following throughout all the Parishes of London And because the poor Country-people might throughout England be all caught upon one day they passed an Order of both Houses that a Public Thanksgiving should be made throughout the whole Kingdom on Thursday the thirteenth of Iuly following for the discovery of the late Plot at which time this Oath and Covenant should be tendred to every man in the several Parishes Also to secure the Pulpit-men the more cordially to them and to make them the more active in stirring up the people upon all occasions they made an Ordinance for calling an Assembly of Divines in order to the setting up of the Presbyterian Government Which Assembly was to consist of ten of the House of Lords and twenty of the House of Commons whose names are therein express'd and the rest Ministers all of the Presbyterian gang excepting three or four whom though for the more credit of that Convention they nominated there was little reason to expect any of their company The Preamble of which Ordinance runs thus Whereas amongst the infinite blessings of Almighty God upon this Nation none is or can be more dear unto us then the purity of our Religion And for that as yet many things remain in the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church which do necessarily require a farther and more perfect Reformation than as yet hath been attained And whereas it hath been declared and resolved by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present Church-government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellours Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and other Eccleastical Officers depending upon the Hierarchy is justly offensive and burthensome to the Kingdom a great impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdom and that therefore they are resolved that the same shall be taken away and that such a Government shall be setled in the Church as may be most agreeable to God's holy word and most apt to procure and preserve the peace of the Church at home and neerer agreement with the Church of Scotland and other reformed Churches abroad c. be it ordained c. 'T was no marvail indeed that they at Westminster bestir'd themselves so hard for by this time the success of his Majesties Armies was such that he had by God's blessing regained the greatest part of the North and West parts of this Realm and did daily so increase in strength that to uphold their Cause they bethought themselves of calling in their Brethren the Scots for aid Wherefore having prepared a Declaration to discover another dangerous Plot to extirpate the Protestant Religion in England Ireland and Scotland they agreed that some of their Members viz. the Lork Grey of Wark Sir William Ayrmia and Mr. Darley should go into Scotland to desire help from thence and prepare Instructions for them with Letters of Credence with promise that they should have allowance for the charge of such forces as they should send and that the debts they already owed them should be paid out of the lands of the Papists and Prelatical party in Northumberland Cumberland and Bishoprick of Durham Which Commissioners did accordingly set forwards upon the xxith of Iuly But about this time the Earl of Essex their General made complaint to them by Letters for want of Horse Arms c. and proposed to them a Treaty for peace Whereunto answer was soon made by the resolution of their House of Commons who debated the same that by their late Vow and Covenant they had bound themselves never to lay down Arms so long as the Papists for so they call'd the King's forces which were then in Arms against them should have protection from the Justice of the Parliament sending him word that they would recruit his Troops according to his desire And to complement their Western General Sir William Waller whose heartiness to the Cause suted so well with theirs they ordered five thousand pounds to be sent down to him and given as a Largess to his Souldiers the more to encourage them in that service But the certain charge of their Rebellious Armies did so vastly increase as was truly foretold by Mr. Green Chairman to their Committee for the Navy upon the sixth of December before viz. that the maintenance of the Lord General 's Army would for the ensuing year amount to above a million of Money that of the Navy having been two hundred and forty thousand pounds for the year passed and that without delay they must of necessity settle a round and constant Tax for maintenance thereof they therefore passed an Ordinance for Excise or new Impost upon Wine Beer Ale Cider Perry Raisins Figs Currans Sugar Spices wrought and raw Silks Furrs Hats Laces Lether Linnen of all sorts Thread Wier c. and for sweetning its relish with the people gave it out that part of its income should pay Debts for which the Public faith was engaged Moreover to raise men as well as money their Western-Army being then destroy'd at Round-way-down the Citizens had a meeting at Grocer's Hall where they made new Subscriptions to set up Sir William Waller again For the better furthering whereof there were new Petitions framed from London Westminster and Southwark and presented to the House of Commons that all the Kingdom might rise as one man against the Common Enemy and that the Parliament would give power to a Committee to list so many of the Petitioners as were willing to go out in their own persons as also to take the Subscriptions of others for the raising a considerable Body of Horse and Foot and that the like course might be taken throughout the Kingdom by a confiding Committee In pursuance whereof both Houses made an Ordinance for raising seven thousand Horse in London Middlesex and the Counties adjacent to be commanded by the Lord Kymbolton afterwards Earl of Manchester and of Eleven hundred Horse in the Counties of Bedford Buckingham Northampton and Hertford to be commanded by Sir Iohn Norwich In Norfolk and Suffolk Eleven hundred by Sir Miles Hobart in Surrey Sussex Southampton and Berkshire fourteen hundred by Colonel Richard Norton And all these thus to be rais'd to resist the Insolencies of the King's Army Certain it is
go out of the line of Communication yet now that they were rais'd they meaning the Parliament might dispose of them whether they pleased without asking their consents And whereas the first Ordinance for Excise was but only for maintenance of the Army and paiment of Debts due by the Common-wealth they passed another wherein was a consideration added for securing of Trade which occasioned the enlargement thereof upon such Commodities as had not been formerly tax'd besides an alteration of the rates Which Commodities were Strong-waters Medicinal-Drugs Haberdashers-ware Vpholsters ware Salt Sallets Sope all sorts of Woollen-cloth Paper Skins and Glasses Having also thus taught the new Auxiliaries the force of an Ordinance of Parliament they passed another for the pressing of five thousand men in the Cities of London and Westminster with the Counties adjacent to go under the command of Sir William Waller And to hasten on the march of their Brethren the Scots to their aid and assistance the Members of the House of Commons with great formality and no less seeming devotion entred into that unhappy Combination called the solemn League and Covenant so fram'd in Scotland in St. Margarets-Church at Westminster Which under the specious veil of Reformation was that fatal Engine whereby not only the Hierarchy in the Church was by them soon after destroyed and the patrimony thereof with the Lands and Revenues of the Crown swallow'd up by those pretenders to Godliness but the sacred Person of the King most inhumanly murthered and this ancient and long flourishing Monarchy so far as 't was in their power wholly subverted and destroy'd as to the whole world is most notorious In the Preamble whereunto they had the confidence to say that this their League and Covenant was according to the commendable practise of these Kingdoms and the Example of God's people in other Nations Whereas there is not only no mention of any such things by our Historiographers nor in the History of any other Realm that I have ever seen excepting that of the Holy League in France whereof I shall take farther notice ere I finish this work but Mr. Philip Nye one of their mighty Champions for the Cause and an especial assertor of this Covenant hath expresly affirmed in print that it is such an Oath as for matter persons and other circumstances the like hath not been in any age or Oath we read of in sacred or humane stories And it is also observable that whereas in the Preamble they farther affirm that they did it to preserve themselves and their Religion which must needs be intended the known Religion publickly profess'd and by Law establish'd in the Church of England from ruine and destruction they immediatly vow to reform Religion here in England according to the pattern of the Kirk of Scotland and to extirpate Episcopacy and all Ecclesiastical Offices depending thereon Notwithstanding they knew full well First that the King was by his Coronation Oath sworn to maintain and defend the Bishops and the Churches under their charge Secondly that all the Clergy of England had testified their approbation of Episcopal Government by personal Subscriptions thereto and thirdly that by a solemn Protestation made and framed by themselves in that very Parliament and recommended by them to be taken by all the people of England they had oblig'd themselves neither for hope nor fear or other respect to relinquish the true Protestant Religion express'd in the Doctrine of the Church of England But all this Pageantry in their thus taking of that solemn League and Covenant could not allay the loud clamours of the people occasion'd by the great pressures and daily exactions under which they miserably groaned the Members therefore were constrain'd to betake themselves to another way for the easing them at least in shew and this was by an Ordinance for selling the King's Queen's and Princes revenues and the arrearages thereof as also to another for felling and cutting down Woods within sixty miles of London in all Forests Chases and Parks belonging to the King or Queen or any Arch-bishop Bishop Dean and Chapter c. Papist Delinquent Malignant c. to be disposed of for supply of the City of London Which seeming favour was for no other purpose than that they might afterwards bring the greater load upon them as they did ere long For within few days upon a jugling Report made to the House of a Pope's Bull translated into English with a Declaration upon it which was pretended to be newly sent into England for the more effectual prosecuting of the Catholic war here a Committee of the House of Commons and of the Assembly of Divines came to a Common-Hall in London to consult with the Citizens for the speedy raising of an hundred thousand pounds for the advance of the Scottish Army to be lent for that service and repay'd when moneys were procured from forreign parts upon the public faith of both Kingdoms And to obtain more men as well as money there issued out another Order that the Committee for the Militia or London should have power to appoint six Regiments of their Trained-Bands and one of their Auxiliaries as also one Regiment of Horse and Dragoons to march out with their Commanders and joyn with the Earl of Essex's Forces Likewise an Ordinance for the pressing of five thousand Souldiers more to be sent to the Islands of Ieresey and Garnsey under the command of the Earl of Warwick those Trained-Bands being appointed to meet in St. Iames Fields and from thence to march unto such place as the Earl of Essex or his Officers should appoint and in default thereof their Shops to be shut up themselves depriv'd of Trade and liable to expulsion out of the lines of Communication And about the same time they passed another Ordinance for assessing the Twenty fifth part upon all Members of Parliament who then were either in the King's Army or otherwise absent their estates to be let in case of not paiment And having lately sped so well upon credit of the public faith they adventured again upon the same security recommending to the Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Essex and Lincoln with the City of Norwich the aid of the Lord Fairfax in Men Money Plate Horse and Amunition passing an Ordinance for repaiment of what should be lent for the speedy bringing in of the Scots to their assistance and securing it in the mean time by the before-mention'd public faith But the reputation of the public faith was now grown so low that moneys came not in either quick enough or in such large sums as were expected it being left arbitrary to the Creditors what they would lend another Ordinance therefore was passed for raising the full sum of sixty six thousand six hundred sixty six pounds thirteen shillings four pence within the Cities of London and Westminster with the Counties of Hertford Bedferd Middlesex Essex Suffolk
Majesties Garrisons In the same month of May Dudley castle in Staffordshire was delivered up to Sir William Brereton by Colonel Leveson and soon after Carnarvon Town and Castle to Major General Mitton and Major General Langhorn the Lord Byron being then Governour there Likewise Ludlow in Shropshire to Sir William Brereton and Borstall house near Oxford Oxford it self also soon followed Sir Thomas Glemham being then Governour As also Farringdon in Berkshire Sir George L'isle being Governour Next Lichfield close in Staffordshire Then the City of Worcester besieg'd by Colonel Whalley and Colonel Raynsborough Colonel Washington being Governour Also Wallingford castle Colonel Blague being Governour Gotherich Castle likewise in Hereford shire and Pendennis-castle in Cornwall whereof Iohn Arrundel of Trerise was Governour Conway Castle in Flintshire being storm'd by Major General Mitton In the next month after a long siege by General Fairfax Sir Trevor Williams and Colonel Langhorn Ragland castle in Monmouth shire was yielded to them And soon after the Isles and Castle of Scilly were given up As also the Castles of Denbigh and Holt Whereupon Generall Fairfax advanced triumphantly towards London And on the first of February next following the Scots having effectually received the whole Sum of two hundred thousand pounds for which they sold the King they marcht over Twede into Scotland His Majestie having thus cast himself upon the loyalty of those touching whose large professions and protestations to him I have already taken notice let us now behold the blessed Fruits of Presbytery by the subsequent Practises of these Zelots which doth amply make good what King Iames long since declared of that Sect viz. that no deserts could oblige nor Oaths or Promises bind them For notwithstanding those their solemn Oaths and Protestations they most perfidiously acted contrary to them hastning thereby that farther ruin which soon afterwards befel the Church of England and at length terminated in the wofull murther of their native Sovereign as is notoriously known to the World carrying on all this under the colour and veile of their Solemn League and Covenant In order whereunto the first thing observable is a plausible Letter directed to the Committee of Estates at that time residing with the Scotch Army wherein they tell them that their earnest desire being to keep a right understanding between the two Kigndomes did move them to acquaint them with that strange providence wherewith they were then surprised together with their carriage and desires thereupon and to endeavour to improve his Majesties being there to the best advantage for promoting the work of Vniformity for setling of Religion and Righteousness and attaining of Peace according to the League and Covenant and Treaty c. affirming that they had a Witness from Heaven and that there was nothing more in their desires than in all their resolutions and proceedings to adhere to the Covenant and Treaty ¶ What hopes this specious Letter might give his Majestie for promoting his earnest endeavours for such an happy peace as he desired is hard to say considering what relation it had to the Solemn League and Covenant but his former assurances in order to his coming to them as I have already observed being such as they were he became so confident thereupon as that shortly after he sent unto the two Houses at Westminster his xi th Message whereby because they had made so great a noyse of setling Religion That together with the Militia and the War of Ireland being the chief things insisted on in their former Propositions he recomended to them the advice therein of those Divines in both Kingdomes whom they had assembled at Westminster And for the Militia offred that he would be content to settle it as they themselves proposed in the Treaty at Uxbridge viz. that all persons who should be trusted therewith might be named by the two Houses of Parliament for the space of seven years and after that time to be regulated as should be agreed on by his Majestie and his two Houses of Parliament And touching Ireland that he would do whatsoever was possible for him to give full satisfaction to them And that if those his free offers would not serve then he desired that al such of their Propositions as were then by them agree'd on might be speedily sent to him he being resolved to comply with them in every thing that might conduce to the happiness of his subjects and removing all unhappy differences which had produced so many sad effects Farther offring that all his forces should be forthwith disbanded and Oxford with the remainder of his other Garrisons rendred into their hands upon honourable conditions and dismantled But to this gracious Message as to his former they turn'd a deaf ear there being then another Game to be play'd which was the getting of the King's person out of the Hands of the Scots suspecting as they had cause that those their dear Brethren would make no little advantage thereof Notwithstanding the Votes at Westminster that he should be disposed of as they should desire and direct Concerning which Votes at Westminster and debates of both Houses thereupon it will not be amiss here to take notice how they alledg'd that the Scottish Army in England was theirs id est under their pay Also that the King ought to be near to his Parliament whereby they might have recourse to him and obtain such things as should be most necessary for the Kingdomes Likewise that by Covenant they were sworn to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament but to detein the King from his Parliament was altogether inconsistent with the Covenant Of which Votes the Scots seem'd to take little notice but in stead thereof and for diversion amused the Members at Westminster with several Letters which they caused to be written to them one from the general assembly of the Kingdome of Scotland wherein they told them that their success against the Enemy id est the King's Forces did lay a strong obligation upon them to improve the power put into their Hands for the advancement of the Kingdome of Christ and bringing forth the head-stone of his House And therefore did earnestly intreat and beseech them in the Bowels of Christ to give unto him the glory due to his name by a timeous establishment of all his Ordinances in full integrity and power according to the Covenant c. Saying that the Searcher of Hearts knew how they desired to keep their Covenant c. concluding with their desires to the Parliament to endeavour all the ends of the Covenant The other to the Assembly of Divines sitting at Westminster wherein they expressed their Thanks for their constant endeavours and labours in the work of setting up the Ordinances of Christ desiring that they would go on in the sedulous promoting of that blessed work The third was to the Lord Mayor
silenc'd yet by reason of his zeal to God's Glory as they term'd it that is to say his activeness against Episcopacie he was exempted from the Rigour of that sentence Moreover as they took care to disable those of the Clergy which were Orthodox and Loyal from preaching any more so to encourage all others who were for their turn though not at all qualified with learning they gave liberty to every bold and schismatical Mechanick to preach under the notion of Gifted-men To which purpose an Ordinance was brought in to the House and read for approving of such illiterate persons to be Ministers And that Episcopal Government might never return again they passed an Ordinance for the sale of all the Lands belonging to the Bishops with special instructions therein for the Contractors and Surveyors Amongst which Instructions it is not the least observable that for the better encouraging of Purchasers they should sell them at ten years purchase Nay such was their care to make this sacrilegious work as plausible to the people as might be that besides the extraordinary pay their Surveyors of those Lands had viz. 20 s. a day and five shillings a day to every Boy that did but carry the end of the measuring-Chain they gave special directions that the Gentry and other popular-men residing in those parts where such Lands lay should be feasted by the Surveyors which feasts amounted to no small charge saying Wee must pay well and hang well About this time also there was a Committee appointed to inquire into the Value of all Church-livings in order to the planting of an able Ministry as they gave out whereas in truth it was to discover which were the best and fattest Beneficies to the end that the principal Champions for the Cause might make choice of those for themselves whereof some had three a piece and some four as is very well known it being aparent that where any small Benefice was there the Church-dores were shut up The more to justify which practice of theirs I could name an Assembly man who being told by an Eminent person that a certain Church in the West of England had no Incumbent askt what the yearly value of the Benefice did amount unto and he answering sifty pounds per annum the Assembly man reply'd if it be no better worth no Godly-man will accept of it But notwithstanding all this the advancement of the Scepter of Iesus Christ that is to say the establishing the Presbyterean-Government by a Law went but slowly on insomuch as the Covenanting Brethren in London who were dayly agitated with the zealous breath of the Presbyterean Bellows from the Pulpits and otherwise growing hot for the Scotch Discipline busyed themselves not a little in getting Hands to a Petition for prosecuting the ends of the Covenant and that Presbyterie might be established And for the better speed of that blessed work the latter part of their new Confession of Faith being brought in by the Assembly of Divines and read in the House of Commons it was Ordered that marginal notes should be forthwith added thereto to prove every Article by Scripture and that the Assembly should also bring in their Answers to the Quaeres of the House concerning the Ius divinum of Presbyterie CHAP. XXII BUT oh the fates Now that after all this formal combining and Covenanting with the precious Brethren of Scotland Horse Arms Jewels Plate and Money in no small proportion so frankly offered up to this Dagon of Presbyterie and a numerous Army poured in from that Nation to help the Lord against the mighty so many dreadfull battels fought so much English-bloud lamentably spilt and such a vast Treasure spent and all to advance the Scepter of Iesus Christ nay the top stone of this glorious building ready to be laid on Now I say the perfect compleating of this great and glorious work was so near that the main Fabrick should begin to totter specially by the unhappy assaults of their own Godly party and at last to tumble down what could be more deplorable yet so it hapned I must therefore here begin to change my note and as I have Historically manifested whence that sacred Impe of Presbytery originally sprung How 't was first transplanted hither what a luxuriant growth in short time it had and what glorious fruit it produced So shall I now briefly shew how and by what means it fell to decay and how that prodigious Monster of Independencie creeping up by the body thereof at length did much overtop it and triumphing for a while at last produced no less direfull effects than what that old stock of Presbyterie always did even the barbarous destruction of our late gracious King of ever blessed memory in his Royal person after he had been most inhumanly persecuted despoiled of his Kingly authority and most shamefully made Prisoner by those devout Covenanters ¶ That Ambition and Avarice were most assuredly the primary causes which incited this Saint-like Generation to act such horrid things as no age hath formerly seen and to carry on these their foul designs under the specious veile of Religion the Laws of the Land and Liberty of the subject hath been already fully manifested Having therefore by this subtil stratagem got the sword and consequently the wealth of the Realm into their power I now come to observe how through the admirable justice of Almighty God upon these grand Hypocrites which first kindled the flames of Civil war amongst us the same power and wealth was by the like ravenous brood now called Independents which sprung forth of their own pharisaical loyns soon torn and wrested out of their greedy Jaws upon the like principles and what use they made of it By what hath been already said 't is sufficiently manifest how and to what end the establishment of the Scottish Discipline was first and principally aymed at by the Presbyterean party here but the severity thereof being at length discerned by some through a cleerer Light the new Reformers thought it most proper not onely to represent to the People the true face thereof in its proper shape but to hold forth unto them an absolute freedome from the merciless phangs and teeth of that cruel beast under the notion of Christian-Liberty whereby every man might exercise himself in the pretended service of God according to what form or order he list as Independent from any that could call him to account which pleasing Doctrine being not a little gratefull to the vulgar soon obtain'd so fair an entertainment especially amongst the souldiery as that not onely the generallity of the Army and many of the Garisons cheerfully embraced it but most of the people through out all parts of the Realm right willingly inclin'd thereto The Presbyterean-Hedge being therefore thus troden down no wonder was it that like scattered Flocks multitudes were gathered up by other Shepherds into new Congregations Anabaptists Millenaries or fifth Monarchy-men Quakers c.
together and consult what we shall ask God next for he will give us whatsoever we ask and so he hath done these seven years And at Christ-Church Aug. 11. I will never believe said he that this Navy was made purposely for the breaking of our Neighbours in pieces and there an end we shall at last joyn together and do such work for God as was never done in the World We shall carry the Gospel with our Navy up and down to the Gentiles and afterwards we shall gather home the Jews out of the Isles first for those of them shall first be called and the Ships of Tharsis shall do it Beloved what this Tharsis is I have made a little search but I shall enquire farther They it seems shall be the first Active and I am sure there is none in such forwardness as ours at present The late Parliament they set their hands to the work then they job'd on again did a little and then stood still again Now we have got a company of Men together which are indeed Godly Men but they are Men of too narrow and low Spirits to do Gods work You see they have all this while been lifting at Tythes and cannot pluck them up for their lives God himself must be fain to put to his Hand We must agree together to ask something new for Iesus Christ for we have enough for our selves already we have Pence enough Prosperity enough and enough of every thing Also at Black-Friers Aug. 29. Divers of our Friends will say come let us sit still now and we may have a great deal of quiet and calm we shall enjoy our pleasant Orchards live upon our purchased revenues and sit under our Vines and Fig-trees only let us be content and stir no farther Beloved do not let us listen to them but tell them if they can go no farther so 't is for our parts we have a farther word of God which burns within us like fire and bids us go on still We did not at first believe for King's Lands nor for a Mannour of Deans and Chapters but we believ'd that Iesus Christ should be set up in his Kingdom Again at Black-Friers Sept. 5. O Lord when shall we hear the sound of Christ's Horse-heels And at Black-Friers Sept. 11. Thou gavest a Cup into the hand of England and we drank of it Then thou carried'st it to Scotland and Ireland and they dronk of it Now thou hast carried it to Holland and they are drinking of it Lord carry it also to France to Spain and to Rome and let it never be out of one or other of their hands till they drink and be drunk and spue and fall and never rise any more Let us be Active against the Kings and Princes of the Earth those Limbs and Claws of the cruel Beast In Order to the trayning up of more such Boutefeus soon after His Majesties Garrison of Oxford was delivered up to the Parliaments General divers of their chief Pulpit-men were sent down to that University to instill the Principles of Presbytery into the Students there as also to initiate them in such long winded Prayers before Sermon with the like Canting Terms as are usually practised by their own precise Gang. And after these seasonable Preparations imployed a number of confiding Persons part Clergy part Lay as Visitors of the several Colleges and Halls there with Authority to any five of them to expell all those Masters and Fellows which either refused to take the Solemn League and Covenant and Negative Oath or to submit to that holy Discipline contained in their new Directory for Worship by which means they made a clear riddance of a Multitude of Orthodox Men whose Learning and Piety had worthily rendred them of high esteem both here and in Foreign Parts The like did they in Cambridge Committing some to strict Imprisonment Of these Famous Preachers it is not unworthy Observation that divers of them were of the Assembly of Divines whom Thomas Lord Fairfax the Parliament's General stiled the Chariots and Horse-Men of Israel With the like Countenance also their Preachers did Preach and Pray thus they did Write and Print Witness their Pamphlets justifying the Mortality of the Soul and Doctrine of Divorce with many others of the like strain insomuch that the very Scots themselves began to cry out as is manifest from those Papers exhibited by their Commissioners to the two Houses at Westminster No Man said they can be so destitute of Sense and Reason as to think such an Anarchy and Confusion as now prevails over the Churches of this Kingdom to be the Ordinance of God No Christian can be so void of knowledge and Faith as to imagine such a monstrous deformity to be the beauty and glory of the Kingdom of Christ on Earth Whereunto I shall add the Report of Mr. Thomas Edwards one of their own Ministers of the Gospel as he stiles himself in his Epistle Dedicatory to the two Houses of Parliament then sitting at Westminster prefixed before his book Intituled the Gangrena containing a Catalogue of many of the Errors Heresies Blasphemies and pernicious practises of the Sectaries of that time vented and acted in England within the compass of 4 years viz. from 1642. till 1646. I am one saith he who out of choice and judgment have imbarked my self with Wife Children Estate and all that 's dear to me in the same Ship with you to sink and perish or to come safe to Land with you and that in the most doubtful and difficult times not only early in the first beginning of the War and Troubles in a Malignant place among Courtiers and those who were Servants and had Relation to the King Queen and their Children pleading your Cause justifying your Wars satis fying many that scrupled But when your affairs were at lowest and the chance of War against you and some of the Grandees and Favourites of these times were packing up and ready to be gone I was then highest and most zealous for you Preaching Praying stirring up the People to stand for you by going out in Person lending of Money in the latter going before them by Example And as I have been your Honours most devoted Servant so am I still yours and you cannot easily lose me Having given thus fair a Character of himself let us now hear him tell what a Blessed Reformation they had in so short a time as four Years produced Things every day saith he grow worse and worse you can hardly conceive or imagin them so bad as they are No kind of Blasphemy Heresie Disorder and Confusion but it is found among us or coming in upon us For we instead of Reformation are grown from one extreme to another fallen from Scylla to Charibdis from Popish Innovations Superstitions and prelatical Tyranny to damnable Heresies horrid Blasphemies Libertinisme and fearful Anarchy Our evils are not removed and cured but only changed One disease and Devil hath left
and Poundage contrary to an express Act made also that very Parliament So likewise a new Imposition called Excise upon Victuals and all other Commodities against which they themselves had much declaimed And to countenance these grand Oppressions voted that an Ordinance of Parliament was as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament Thereupon ordaining that such Persons as ought to pay any Rents Debts c. due to those who are assessed and refused so to do should be Discharged against the Landlord or Creditor And at length became so bold as that their new Lord Mayor Isaac Pennington chalenging a Sturgeon which was taken above London-Bridge and it being answered that it belonged to the King or Lord Admiral Replyed you Malignant Rogue I would have you to know that there is neither King nor Admiral that hath any Power in London but my self Add thereunto their Ordinance for keeping Michaelmas Terme at Westminster notwithstanding his Majesties Proclamation And another Constituting the Earl of Warwick Governour and Lord Admiral of all the Islands in America Inhabited or Planted by the King's Subjects Another declaring the King's Broad-Seal Invalid and Commanding Obedience to all Writs c. to be issued under a new great Seal made by themselves And Sequestring all Offices of those Clerks in Westminster-Hall which were with the King The authority given to the Earl of Manchester by another Ordinance to deprive and displace all Masters and Fellows of Colledges and Halls in Cambridge and all other Clergy-Men within the Association as he should think convenient The Ordinances for seizing the Kings Queens and Princes Revenew for cutting down their Woods For Commanding all Men to pay nothing to his Majesty the Queen and Prince which was due and ought to have been paid to them for those are the words also the Commitment of Laughern and Vivian to Colchester-Goal for denying to pay two Thousand Pounds which was due to the Prince from them though the Receiver was Plundred of the Money And when it was told Mr. Strode Chair-Man to the Committee for raising Money that no more Money could be advanced their Purses having been so drain'd already he Replyed that they must have no denial for their Money was demanded by the Supream Court of Iudicature adding that those were times of necessity Another of the Members sticking not to say shortly after that if it would advantage their Cause he thought it lawful to unvote whatsoever had passed since the beginning of that Parliament Besides which grievous Impositions upon the Subjects Estates they stuck not at the like to their Persons upon pain of Death restraining all Persons for going from London to the King or Queen And for a farther Testimony of their dealing with the People in point of their Proprietie take their Governour of Abington's Answer viz. Coll. Browne to no less than Seven-score poor People which came thither to him at one time wringing their hands and begging for some small Pittance of what he had caused to be taken from them in the Villages thereabours which was no less than all their Goods even to part of their wearing Apparel which was thus with Tears in his Eyes Alas good People it is not in my Power to help you For if this were done by meet Rudeness of my Souldiers I could say something but you have not lost a Pin but according to the Command of both Houses of Parliament who injoin'd us to spare nothing Therefore said he whispering to one or two of them if you have any thing left 't is your best course to Convey it away quickly for the Parliament hath Commanded me to take all I can carry and burn up the rest before the King comes These and the like as by many Instances might be made apparent have been their Practises in violating the Laws of the Land with the Liberties and Properties of the Subject however Fair and Specious their Promises were otherwise until they had got Power into their hands being at length not ashamed to discover their full Intentions by those Propositions which they tendred to His Majesty at Oxford upon the 23d of November 1644. And whereupon a Treaty was had at Uxbridge Where it was judiciously observ'd by his Majesties Commissioners That after a War of near three Years for which the Defence of the Protestant Religion the Liberty and Property of the Subject and the Priviledges of Parliament were made the cause and Grounds in a Treaty of full twenty days nor indeed in the whole Propositions upon which the Treaty should be there was nothing offered to be treated on concerning the Breach of any Law or of the Liberty or Property of the Subject or Priviledge of Parliament but only Propositions for the altering a Government Established by Law and for the making of new Laws by which all the old were or might be Cancelled there being nothing insisted upon on the part of his Majesties Commissioners which was not Laws or denied by them that the other demanded as due by Law The next and last particular for which they made such great Pretences is the Priviledge of Parliaments Having therefore under that colour justified most of their pernicious Actions let us take notice how consonant to Justice Reason or common Honesty their Practices upon this point have been Did they not soon after the beginning of that Unhappy Parliament without any president found a Close-Committee consisting of eight persons whereof no less than seven were principal Contrivers of the ensuing Rebellion And in the business of the Earl of Strafford was not their Bill for his attainder twice read and voted in one day and fifty-five of the Members Posted for not assenting thereto whose Names to their lasting Honour I have here added 1. George Lord Digby 2. Iames Lord Compton 3. Richard Lord Buckhurst 4. Sr. Robert Hatton 5. Sr. Thomas Fanshaw 6. Sr. Edward Alford 7. Sr. Nicholas Slanyng 8. Sr. Thomas Danby 9. Sr. George Wentworth 10. Sr. Peter Wentworth 11. Sr. Frederick Cornwallis 12. Sr. William Carnaby 13. Sr. Richard Wynn. 14. Sr. Gervace Clifton 15. Sr. William Widdrington 16. Sr. William Pennyman 17. Sr. Patricius Curwen 18. Sr. Richard Lee. 19. Sr. Henry Slingesby 20. Sr. William Portman 21. Mr. Gervase Hollies 22. Mr. Sidney Godolphin 23. Mr. Cooke 24. Mr. Coventrey 25. Mr. Benjamin Weston 26. Mr. William Weston 27. Mr. Selden 28. Mr. Alford 29. Mr. Llhoyd 30. Mr. Herbert 31. Captain Digby 32. Serjeant Hyde 33. Mr. Tailor 34. Mr. Gryffith 35. Mr. Scowen 36. Mr. Bridgman 37. Mr. Fettiplace 38. Dr. Turner 39. Capt. Charles Price 40. Dr. Parry a Civilian 41. Mr. Arundell 42. Mr. Newport 43. Mr. Holburne 44. Mr. Noell 45. Mr. Kirton 46. Mr. Pollard 47. Mr. Price 48. Mr. Trevanion 49. Mr. Iane. 50. Mr. Edgcombe 51. Mr. Chichley 52. Mr. Mallorey 53. Mr. Porter 54. Mr. White Secretary to the Earl of
certain Articles which shall be presented unto him in the Parliament which at his Coronation be swears to observe with Protestation to do nothing contrary to what shall be proposed unto him and ordained by the States As also they swear to Reestablish in all the Counties of the Kingdom their Ancient Priviledges Preheminencies and Liberties 4. As in the fourth Article of the Covenant our Men Swear the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hinding the Reformation c. That they may receive condign Punishment not in any ordinary way of Justice according to the Law of the Land but as the Degrees of their Offences shall require or deserve Or in case they neither require not deserve as the Supream Iudicatories of both Kingdoms or others having Power from them shall think convenient Just so the Leaguers Swear in case there shall be any hindrance or Opposition in the fore-mentioned Particulars preservation of Religion c. by whomsoever it be made all the Confederates shall imploy their Lives and Fortunes for the bringing of all such to Punishment and that either by way of Iustice or of Arms without any respect of Persons 5. The like mutual defence of all that enter into their Covenant and their constant Perseverance in it all the Days of their Lives not to suffer themselves directly nor indirectly to be withdrawn by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or terror c. The promoting of it against all Impediments and revealing of all Designes to the contrary Which our Men Swear in the first Article Just so the Leaguers protest thaâ— if any of their Confederates shall be molested or troubled all the rest shall be bound to Revenge his Cause against any Person whatsoever and to discover whatsoever they shall know Prejudicial to their Association they Swear by Almighty God and promise upon their Lives and Honours to continue in this League even to their last drop of Bloud and not to depart from it or go against it upon any Command Pretence Excuse or Occasion whatsoever 6. As ours profess in each Article to take the Covenant Sincerely c. So each of them Swears that he enters into this Holy League Loyally and Sincerely 7. As our Men in the close of the Covenant did make a general Confession of their Sins and Profeâ—s and Declare before God and the World their unfeigned desire to be bumbled for them and to amend their Lives in all Duties they owe to God and Man and each one to go before another in the example of a real Conuersation and likewise invite other Christian-Churches to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant with them So did the Leaguers in the close of their Declaration intreat all Persons of what condition soever not yet confederate with them that they would fauour them and to their Power assist them in the Execution of so good and holy a work Professing they will receive into their Association all good Men that have a Zeal to the Honour of God and his Church and to the Welfare and Reputation of Religion Concluding thus Seeing of necessity all our help must come from God we intreat all good Catholicks to put themselves in good condition to God-wards and be Reconciled to his Divine Majesty by a thorough Reformation of their Lives so to appease the Wrath of God and to call upon him with an upright Conscience both in publick and private Prayers and Devotions to the end that all our Actions may be referred to the Honour of God and his Glory who is the Lord of Hosts and from whom alone we look for strength and certain deliverance And the Parliament at Bloys though at the first meeting it seem'd to concurr in the same intentions with the King yet the effect was nothing less For it was an Assembly packt up of Persons dissaffected to the present Government the greatest part of the Commissioners of Shires being such as had underhand Subscribed the League and had given themselves up to be guided by the Councils of the Duke of Guise Besides the Knights or Commissioners of divers Counties and the Burgesses of several Cities were either not returned or neglected to come or were departed And therefore the Prince of Conde when certain of their Members were sent unto him with a Message in Writing as from the States-general or Parliament he refused to open the Letters or to acknowledge them to be a Parliament affirming that such a Congregation as that where the Commissioners of so many Cities Shires and Counties were wanting in which they went about to force Mens Consciences to Oppress and Extirpate the Total Line and Violate the Prerogative of the Crown of France to comply with the Humours of some Strangers whose Hearts were set on Fire with an unsupportable and Pernicious Ambition could by no means be call'd a Parliament being indeed nothing else but a Conventicle of a few Suborned Persons corrupted by the Disturbers of the publick Peace If we consider the quality of the Persons engaged in that League we shall find them much of the same make with these of ours They were principally of two much different sorts the first for the most part consisted of Noblemen and Persons of Quality such as were ill satisfied with the Power and greatness of the King's Dominion and could not endure to see themselves past by in the disposal of Preferments and Court-Favours and therefore sided with the Faction partly out of discontent and partly out of hopes of Innovation thinking that by putting down the present that they should raise their private Fortunes to a better condition and at last arrive to the height of their Desires The second sort whereof the League was Composed were Persons who for Quality seemed to be much inferior to the former but for use and profit were not a whit below them For these were they that won the Cities the common People and the Tradesmen generally over all the Kingdom These for the most part were Men of a free and good nature passionately affected to the Catholick Faith and most intestine haters of the Huguenots Some of them believing in good earnest that their Religion was in danger of utter Ruine Other desirous to see the destruction of Heresy did not only readily engage themselves in the League in their own Persons but contributed their utmost endeavours to draw on the common People and to win others to the Faction With these fell on as a third sort some of the long Robe Preachers and Lawyers who under colour of Religion did hide either their fickle and inconstant nature or their Ambitious or Covetous Desires of their own Greatness and Preferment To which we may add a fourth sort of Men which were moved either out of private Spleen against some Court-Favourites or were drawn in to side with the League meerly upon their fair Pretences never dreaming that their aimes were against
by the disdain which he had conceived against the Inconstancy and Impertinency of the Citizens of Paris and the want of Money to pay his Souldiers was troubled much But above all the Subtilty and surliness of the Spaniard vexed him most who having caused Seignior de la Mot the Governour of Gravelin to come out of Flanders with their Forces to the confines of the Kingdom refused to let him advance one Foot further or to issue any Moneys for the maintenence of the War unless the Catholick King was first declared Protector of the Crown of France with Authority to dispose of the Principal Dignities as well Ecclesiastical as secular which they called marks of Justice whereby he desired to have Dominion and Superiority over the League Which demands seemed so Exorbitant unto him so prejudicial to the Crown and so dishonest that he could not endure to think of them himself Nor did he believe that any one Man of the Confederates from the Parisians downwards would ever condescend to Decree them Knowing that this were to put the Bridle into the King of Spaine's hands to let him carry all things to such ends as he pleased himself Nor did the Brethren of Scotland sell their Assistance at a much cheaper rate as is plainly to be seen by their Treaty of the 29th of November 1643. For their advance into England and their second demands for their managery of the Government of Ireland But on the other side his Fears of being abandoned and left alone his distrust of the Kings Sincerity in his Promises and the Antient grudge he bore to him but especially his hopes of getting the Crown for himself would not suffer him to hearken to those overtures made by the Marquess of Belin whom he sent back to his Imprisonment with some Ambiguous and General Expressions and cut off the Negotiation for any Accord So still the King seeks but the Faction declines all occasions of Peace For the People of Paris were so far Transported with Zeal to the Cause by reason of the continual denunciations from the Pulpits that there could be no Peace or accommodation made unless they would damn their own Souls that they were resolved to endure any thing rather than to hearken to an Accommodation Insomuch as many who had inconsiderately slipt a Word or two out of their Mouths saying that Accommodation was better than starving and rather Peace than a Siege were in the Rage and Fury of the People either publickly Condemn'd and Executed or without more ado thrown into the River as damn'd Miscreants Enemies of the Catholick Religion and infected with the Poyson of Heresy It is not unworthy Observation what Artifices the Heads of that Rebellion used to abuse the People During the Seige of Paris both the Duke of Mayne without and other Lords within the City imploying all their Art and Industry in giving out Reports and spreading News sometimes of a strong Power from Flanders coming to raise the Seige sometimes of great Provisions of Victual for Relief of the City sometimes of some Accident in favour of their Party Letters and Messengers coming in every day with a Mixture of true and False Reports together Which being Published in their Pulpits and divulged amongst their Guards served to feed the People for a few days And when there were certain Commissioners sent from Paris to treat with the King about an Acommodation Notwithstanding his Majesties Answer was returned in Writing with much sweetness of Language and proffer of all security and possible satisfaction upon return to their Obedience with Letters to the same effect to the Duke of Nemure and others exhorting them to Peace and assuring them that they should receive more from his Grace than they could desire Yet upon return of the Commissioners the Duke of Nemure and other great Persons dissaffected to Peace would not permit the true Copy of the Kings Answer to be Published to the People but caused Reports to be given out that the King would not have any Peace but upon condition of an absolute Submission and that the Duke of Mayne and other Lords of the League should not be included in the Pardon The King of Spaine therefore upon the Duke of Parma's Advice finding how much those of the League relyed upon his ayd and the necessity thereof endeavoured to prolong the War That by the weariness and weakness of the French he might at length compass those ends upon them which he saw it was impossible for him at first to obtain The Duke of Parma himself also to win the more upon the People when he came into France with his Army in assistance of the Leaguers considering that the name of a Spaniard was there odious strayn'd himself with all possible earnestness of Mind for to order his Army as that his Souldiers should not commit any Outrage or Oppression nor give any occasion of offence to the French The War thus Prolonged and the charge thereof grown heavy occasioned much repining in the People against the Duke of Mayne notwithstanding all his Faithful Services and Paines taken for the League against whom none complained more than the Cittizens of Paris who Accused the Duke of misgovernance of an over greediness to keep all things in his own Power and too much profuseness of other Mens Means With them Concurred the Ministers of Spain who liked not to see such a Supream Power in the hands of the Duke of whose Affection to their Designs they had no good Opinion Besides these discontents Brissonius Primier President of the Parliament at Paris who had been at first a principal Instrument for the League when he perceived as his Friends said that the ends of the Grandees were not so sincere for the publick good as he at first had conceived of them or as his Enemies reported being corrupted by large proffers made unto him on behalf of the King by some who were Prisoners in the City or as it was generally believ'd out of the Levity and Inconstancy of his nature began to favour the King's Party who taking heart unto them by means of his Protection making a considerable Body began to Plot how to bring the City to revolt and to reduce it to the Kings Obedience One of which Revolters who had been a chief Fomenter of the League being discovered for holding Intelligence and Plotting for the King was by the instigation of the Sixteen hurried to Prison But whilst they made slow proceeding to his Tryal he escaped which so vexed the Sixteen as that supposing the Judges had a hand therein they furiously raysed the People in Arms and upon the XV th of November beset all the Passes to the Palace of Justice seized upon three of the Judges Brisson Archier and Terdiu hauled them to Prison and there without any Legal Process Strangled them the same day Hang'd up their Bodies upon the Gallows next Morning and like Mad Men ran
about the City setting Guards in sundry places with Threats of the like Cruelty to divers others Upon endeavour to suppress which Uproar the City Garrison refused to obey being so much Devoted to the Councils and Actions of the Sixteen that Alexander de Monte said plainly He would not move against them who managed the Cause of God and all good Men with so much sincerity The Council of the Sixteen Condemning and Executing many Citizens whom they suspected to incline to the Kings Party in a precipitous manner About that time there being a consultation held at Rens by the chief Heads of the League where they Treated long about their Common Interests though every one did palliate their divers Pretences and coloured their private Designs yet was it plain enough that they would never concur in the same end As for the Spaniards they wholly trusted to their own Power and the necessity in which the rest stood of their Assistance The Popes Nuncio insisting upon the Majesty of the Apostolick See and the Foundation of Religion which the Pope must dispose The Duke of Lorreyne stood upon his credit as Head of the Family and pretended that the rest in Modesty must sit down to him The Duke of Savoy had an aim at the Compassing of Provence The Duke of Mercur at Brittain The Duke of Namurz meant to Cantonize the Government The Duke of Mayne as Head of the Army and chief of the Faction relyed upon the Union of the People and assent of the Nobility who stood well affected to him But things being not yet ripe and every one proceeding with great Caution and Secrecy concealed his own Designs and made a semblance as if he were moved with no other Considerations but of the publick good The Duke of Mayne attempted to Storm Mant where the Kings Council many Lords and Prelates and chief Officers of the Crown were with a less Guard than the Quality of the Persons and weakness of the place required To which purpose he brought divers of the Citizens of Paris drew out the Garrisons of Meaux Dreux and Pontois but was repulst by the Valour of the Lords themselves and their Families President Janin was sent into Spain to negotiate with the King of that Realm in behalf of the Leaguers but return'd without any resolution For it was desired in Spain that the War should move but a slow pace that the Duke of Mayne should not grow so much in Credit and Authority with his Party The Council of the Sixteen at Paris to whom the Preachers stuck close which was at first the Basis and Ground-work of the League pretending to carry all things according to their own liking demeaned themselves with much partiality and Passion proper to a Faction without any regard to preserve the Rights of the Crown or the Honour and Reputation of the French Nation their only Studies and whole Endeavours being set upon such things as might ruine the King whom they hated most perfectly and extinguish both his Name and all the Huguenot-Party so that they might put the Reins of Government into the hands of such Persons as would rule all things according to their Humours But the Duke of Mayne studying how to curb and moderate their turbulent desires instituted a Council of State distinct from that of the Sixteen consisting of many Wise and Moderate Men to counterpoise and restrain the heady courses of the other Amongst which were Villeroy Iannin c. Men not tainted with Spanish Practises nor the inconsiderate Zeal of the Preachers which kindled a great Heart-burning and emulation betwixt the Council of the State with the Parliament at Paris and Council of the Sixteen especially some of the Zealots amongst them Thus have we seen the main resemblance of the Holy League with this of ours as to the Original and Prosecution of it though in the ends of them they did somewhat differ Apparent it is that the carriage of the Scotts here was the very same with that of the Spaniards there Their Pretences the same viz. Religion and Assisting their Brethren Their private ends the same the advance of their own greatness Which were no sooner fully understood by the French but even those which were the Kings greatest Enemies began to detest them and chose rather to submit to the just Obedience of their King than undergo the Spanish-Yoke For when the Council of Spain were resolv'd to send but small Forces into France and to spin out the Wars to their own least cost and most advantage Hoping by that means to obtain their ends upon the French who without their help were not able to stand against the Kings Forces which were to procure the Lady Infanta Isabella of Spain to be declared Queen of France in a full Assembly of the States which they intended to force the Duke of Mayne to call for that purpose The Duke perceiving it began utterly to disgust them complaining of their niggardly and sparing assistance afforded to the League and eager desires of domineering which had occasioned the loss of all their former pains and given the King opportunity of recovering such strength as that he was now Superior to them both in Reputation and Forces with much more bitter Language to the Spanish Embassadors he underhand began to Treat of an accord with the King yet remitted nothing of his Violence and pursuit of his Ambitious ends but calling an Assembly of the States at Paris declared himself fully against the King and Proposed the new Election of another hoping the Crown might be conferr'd upon himself for his great Actions in the Wars none having merited more of the Cause Yet could he not prevail with those of his own Family the Dukes of Lorrein and Guise thinking as highly of themselves as he And when the matter came to be opened in a Close Committee of the chief Leaguers before some select Delegates of the three Estates the Duke of Feria in a set Speech full of Art and Eloqnence recommended the Infanta to their Election a thing which the Spanish Agents had before Practised under hand with many large proffers of Honour and Reward to those of the House of Lorrein and other chief Agents of the League Which Proposal sounded so strange in the Ears of the French generally that the Bishop of Saintliz William Rosa a Man of an harsh Temper and dogged Eloquence which he had many Years Exercised against the King and his Adherents though a Fiery-Zealous Leaguer could not endure to hear with Patience but instantly said he now saw the Kings Party was in the right of it who had always given out that they of the League did nothing but veil their State-Interests with the Mask of Religion Which Imputation himself and his Companions had ever laboured to consute out of the Pulpits and that now it grieved him to the Heart to see it confirm'd from the Mouths of the Embassadors
more than they can and leave the Triumph and Conquest of Souls to the Wisdom of God who only forms and Reforms the Hearts of Men as he pleasech and gives the signal to many wandring Souls to bring them into the way of Salvation it being not possible for Men to impose a necessity upon that which God hath left at Liberty the Conscience which should be as free in a State as Thought Where going on he shews by the continued Practice of former times that such Princes as were well advised never killed their Subjects to Convert them nor wasted their Dominions by War to inform their Consciences by the Sword knowing that Religion is an Act of Union and Concord and must be planted by Instruction whereas Wars are all for Division and Destruction And those who in these later times have mingled Heaven and Earth together to compell the Consciences of their Subjects to an Unity in Religion have at last been fayn to give over and let them alone and to reject the advise of those unskilful Physitians who prescribe nothing but Antimony and Letting Bloud for all Diseases Then he proves that the accord made with the Protestants was both just necessary and profitable The whole Discourse is not unworthy the consideration of our times but I shall not trouble the Reader with Transcribing farther Having now dispatch't the Holy-League and made good I hope so much as I undertook that it was for the most part parallel to this of ours One thing only I have not insisted on not knowing whether it be convenient to particularize in it namely the strange Disasters and Unfortunate ends which befell many Eminent Persons of that League Like to which our own Story hath afforded us some Examples already and Posterity may be able to observe more To say nothing of any that were Kill'd in those Wars on either Party nor much of the Tragical ends of many of that Family who were the first Authors and constant Upholders of that League it cannot be forgot that the Duke of Guise and his Brother the Cardinal were both of them suddainly taken away by Trechery when their hopes were at highest And the Duke of Nemure their Brother by the Mother Betray'd by one whom he most trusted Dyed in Despair in the declining of the League Likewise That one of the Duke of Guise his Sons a Person of special note for his Valour was some Years after the Peace miserably torn in peices by a Canon at Arles which burst when he gave Fire to it Shooting at a Mark. The chief of the Duke of Lorreynes Family who thought to have gained the Kingdom of France to his Son from the Father that Son lost all his own Dukedom to the Son The Duke of Merceur who aimed to have had Brittany at least for his share Dyed of the Plague in a Forrein Countrey left no Heir Male so that his whole Estate came to the Duke of Vendosine with his Daughter much against her Will. The Count of St. Paul who had been advanced by the Duke of Mayne to the Title of Mareschal of France was in the time of the League Stab'd by the young Duke of Guise as he came forth of the Church at Remes Villiers the Admiral was basely Kill'd by a Spanish-Souldier in cold Bloud and his Finger cut off by another for his Ring Brisson the Primier President of the Parliament at Paris who had been first most Violent against the King upon suspicion of complying afterwards was with some others Strangled by the Tumultuous Citizens of Paris And the Lord Gomeron Governour of Han in Picardy who sold that place to the Spaniard was Beheaded before the Walls of the same Town a Reward not much Inferior to that of the two Hothums I take no pleasure in reckoning up many of these Instances He that will seek may find more in France and he that will observe I do not wish but fear it in time may discover as many in England One Observation more I shall Intreat the Reader to carry home with him and then I have done with the Holy-League It hath already been shew'd at full that when the Leaguers first took up Armes and bound themselves by Oathes against their King the pretended grounds of the one and the Subject of the other were nothing but the Defence of the true Religion the Laws and Liberties and Property of the Subject with many fair Promises to make the King a Glorious King Where I cannot chuse but observe how the Hand of God by a strange Providence turned all their Vows into Prophecies and their Promises into Predictions by fulfilling them all though in far different sence from what they intended By setling the True Religion they meant the Roman but God fulfilled it of the Protestant And those Armes which they Vowed to the Ruine God Converted to the Advancement of it the Protestants of that Kingdom having upon that occasion obtain'd and ever since enjoyed greater Immunities and a more free and setled course of the Profession of their Religion than ever they had before As to the Laws the Fundamental Laws of France to speak with the French-Man the Salique-Laws touching the Succession of the Crown and Prerogative of the King which they intended to alter they did in the event confirm And as Henry the third was Advanced to a State of Glory by the cruel Hands of Iaques Clement an Instrument of the League and Henry the fourth by Ravilliac one Trained up in the same Principles So was King Charles the first by his bloudy Murtherers here But as it fell out consider what a purchase the Glorious Nobility the Gallant Gentry the Rich Citizens and the Secure Farmer had when by siding with the Leaguers they Exchanged their Loyalty and present Peace which they enjoyed under the King's Protection for the aiery hopes of a greater Liberty and if not bettering at least securing their Estates Did not the long continuance of those Wars so inure the Souldiers to a Military course of Life and the People to Patience under Contributions and Impositions that the former could never since be won to lay the Sword out of his Hands nor the latter get the Yoke shaken off their Shoulders Only the Scene is somewhat altered for whereas before their own Countrey was the Stage of the War they have now removed it to their Neighbours And the Crown of France by reason of their many Victories and Successes is now become justly formidable to a great part of Europe whereby the promise of the Leaguers is fully verified the King is made Glorious but how far they so intended is easy to imagine And how the Liberty of the Subject in general is enhaunted and their Property Establisht by these Glorious Atchievements of the King when their Yearly Taxes for support of his Wars amount almost if not altogether to the value of their Lands let the French if they have any cause make their boast And
31 Aug. * 4 Sept. * 6 Sept. * 11 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 13 Sept. * 25 Sept. The solemn League and Covenant fram'd in Scotland taken by the Members at Westminster Archbishop Laud's life p. 510. * See the Remonstrance of the Army in order to the King's Trial dated at St. Albans 16 Nov. 1648. * Covenant with Narrative p. 12. * 21 Sept. Scob. Coll. p. 54. * 2 Oct. * 5 Oct. * 6 Oct. * 7 Oct. * 18 Oct. * 9 Oct. Scob. Coll. p. 57. * 18 Oct. * Articles of the Treaty at Edenborough for bringing in the Scots Army * 29 Nov. * 20 Nov. * 28 Nov. Scob. Coll. p. 59. * 13 Dec. * 25 Dec. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * 9 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 60. * See the Letter to his Majesty from the Lord Chancelour and divers Lords of that Realm â—ated at Edenâ—â—rough 1 Julii 1643. wherein they promise not 〈◊〉 raise any â—orces without special warrant from the King * His Majesties Declaration to all his Subjects of Scotland â— Jan. 1643. The Scots second Invasion See the Supplication of the Noblemen Barrons Burgesses c. exhibited to the Marquess of Hamilton his Majesties Commissioner an 1638. Wherein by way of Explication of their National Covenant they acknowledge that the quietness and stability of their Religion and Kirk depends upon the safety of the King's Majesty as God's vice-gerent See the Supplication of the general Assembly at Edenborough 12 Aug. 1639. Whereby it appeareth that the whole Kingdom was sworn with their means and lives to stand to the defence of their dread Sovereign his person and authority in every cause which may concern his Majesties Honour with their friends and followers in quiet manner or in Arms as they shall be required by his Majesty See Act 5. of the second Parliament of King Charles concerning the ratification of the Covenant by which their universal Protestation and promise under a solemn Oath and Hand-writing upon fearful pains and execrations is apparent viz. to defend the King's person and authority with their goods bodies and lives against all Enemies within the Realm or without as they desire God to be a merciful defender to them in the day of their death and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. See the Petition presented to his Majesty Jan. 1642 manifesting the promise of the whole Clergy in their National Assembly to keep the people under their charge in obedience to his Majesty and to his Laws confessing it a duty well-beseeming the Preachers of the Gospel See the Petition of the Nobility Gentry Burroughs Ministers and Commons to the Lords of his Majesties Privy-Council of that Kingdom wherein they acknowledged his Majesties zeal for maintaining the true Religion and that to call in question the same after so many reiterated professions and asseverations could not be but an unchristian distrustfulness and in them the height of disloyalty and ingratitude confessing themselves bound in duty to God by whose great name they had sworn to defend and maintain the person greatness and authority of their dread Soveraign as God's Vicegerent to the utmost of their power with their means and lives in every cause which might concern his Honour professing themselves fully satisfied and perswaded of his Majesties royal zeal and resolution and that malice and detraction could not prevail to make the least impression in their loyal hearts of jealousy and distrust or their intending any thing to the prejudice of that Brotherly and blessed conjunction of the two Nations attesting God the searcher of all hearts of their dutiful intentions towards his Majesty their dread and native King strictly bound thereto by all the ties of Nature Christianity and Gratitude 22 Jan. 27 Jan. * Dated 30 Jan. 3 Martii 9 Martii * 22 Jan. Scob. Coll. p. 61. * 20 Febr. Scob. Coll. ut supra Anno 1643. a 26. March b 29. March c 3. April d 6. May. * 16. May. f 18. June g 22. June h 30. June i 1. July k 2. July l 5. July m 13. July n 24. July o 26. July p 2. Aug. q 5. Aug. r 10. Aug. †20. Aug. t 28. Aug. v 1. 3. Sept. x 4. Sept. y 6. Sept. z 17. Sept. a 20. Sept. b 6. Oct. c 4. Decem. d 9. Decem. * 12. Decem. f 21. Decem. g 25. Decem. h 28. Decem. i 25. Jan. k 13. Feb. l 18. Feb. m 21. Mar. n 21. Mar. o 23. March p 16. April q 26. April r 8. May. †21. May. t 5. June v 6. July x 30. July y 2. Aug. z 10. Septem a 16. Septem b 20. Octob. c 3. Jan. d 22. Jan. The Scots Invasion Anno 1644. * 26. March Scab coll p. 65. f 8. July Ibid. p. 73 g 2. July The Battle at Marston-moore h 13. July i 4. July The King's Message from Evesham k 1. Septemb. l 5. Septemb. from Tavestoke m 23. Nov. f 26. Nov. g 2. Decem. Scob. Coll. p. 75. h 9. Decem. The self-denying Ordinance The Book of Common Prayer Abolisht The Directory Establisht i 4. Jan. k 10. Jan. Arch. Bp. of Canterb. beheaded Treaty at Vxbridge l Impr. Oxon. 1645. m Ibid. p. 31. n Ibid. p. 144. 145. o 3. Apr. p 6. Apr. q 25. May r 27. May †28. May t 12 Iune u 20. June x 30. June y 3. July z 15. August * 1. Septem a 14. Sept. b 25. Octob. c 7. Novem. d 17. Nov. * 23 Febr. f 1. March g 29. March h 2. July i 23. July k 19. Octob. l 27. Octob. The second Battel of Newbery * 9. Decemb. The self-denying Ordinance m 31. Dec. n 31. Dec. o Heath's Chron. p. 68. p Ibid. 23. Decemb. q Ibid. p. 18. * cap. 8. r 1. Jan. See the King's observation thereon in his Eikâ—n Basilike cap. †10. Jan. Anno 1645. a 22. April b 31. May. c 25. March d 24. April * 22. May. f 23. May. g 26. May. h 1. June i 14. June k 18. June l 27. June m 28. June n 21. July o 23. July p 25. July q 31. July r 15. August †17. Aug. t 21. Aug. v 22. Sept. x 26. Sept. y 1. Oct. z 14. Oct. a 15. Octob. b 5. Nov. c 16. Nov. d 4. Decem. * 17. Decem. f 17. Jan. g 19. Jan. h 2. Feb. i 3. Feb. k 16. Feb. l 25. Feb. m 28. Feb. n 29. Feb. o 3. March p 14. March q 21. March p 23. Aug. Scob. Col. p. 97. Message from the King for peace q 5. Decem. r 15. Decem. †26. Decem. t 29. Decem. u 15. Jan. x 17. Jan. y 24. Jan. z 29. Jan. a 26. Feb. b 23. March c 22. Octob. Anno 1642. Anno 1646. d 7. Apr. * 8. Apr. f 13. April g 15. April h 25. April i 26. April d The King's Letter to the Marquess