had power to remit or recede from any of these particulars and further what they had to propound concerning his affairs in England To which the Commissioners replied That they had acquainted him with their full power according to the instructions they had received from the Committees of Estates and Kirk in Scotland Upon which his Majesty made Answers That he would consider of their Propositions and doubted not but to return them such an Answer as might give his Kingdome of Scotland satisfaction and so dismissed them for the present But let us thus leave his Majesty and Council debating about the Scotch Commissioners propositions and discourse a little about his affairs under the conduct of the thrice noble and Illustrious Marquesse of Montross who having notwithstanding the opposition which Hamilton gave to the design obtained Commissioners from his Majesty to levy what force he could on that side the sea endeavoured to the utmost of his power to effect it but chiefly among the Princes of the German Empire where he found large and fair promises but very little real assistance onely the Duke of Holstein suppled him with four ships well arm'd and mann'd though these were likewise by some strange neglect delayed a long time at Amsterdam which much retarded the service Colonel Cochran likewise who had been sent Agent into Poland to the Scottish Merchants there for assistance of men and money having received a considerable quantity of money and good supply of corn disposed of the first to his own use sold the other and himself revolted from the service General King who was expected out of Sweden with a party of Horse came not all so many crosses there were in the beginning of the businesse as bad Omens to it's future ill successe But at length the Marquesse fearing least if the King should conclude with the Scots before he had attempted any thing his Commissions would be recalled fatally resolved to depart Scotland as he was so with four ships indifferently well armed but with not above six or seven hundred men and those most strangers besides a small Frigat of sixteen Guns and one thousand five hundred good Armes given him by the Queen of Sweden he set sail and this was all the strength he carried with him from Hamburgh to assault that potent Kingdome Two of these ships and those the biggest were sent before and directed to steer their course for the Orcades but these unfortunately met with a storm and were amongst those rocky Islands their men armes and ammunition cast away so that a third part of the force raised for this expedition was lost But notwithstanding these fatal disasters the sad presages of his ruine the noble Marquess proceeds and with the small number that was left him lands amongst the Islands where he gets together a pretty considerable number which had almost the face of an Army but was for the most part composed of raw and unskilfull fellows a party of these he sends out who without resistance enter the Isle of Orkney there being no Garrison there from thence he dispatches Commissions to Scotland and the Islands adjacent for the levying of Horse and Foot which because the inhabitants of those places to which they were sent could not resist obeyed and not long after the sending of those Commissions Montrosse himself with those forces he had and those Gentlemen resolved to engage in partaking of his fortune landed in Scotland at the point of Cathanes the very farthest land to the Northwest of that Kingdome The people here whom he expected to have joyned with him were so sensible of the miseries of the former war and now more terrified with the name of Foreigners deserted their dwellings and fled away some never stopping till they came to Edenburgh The Parliament of Scotland who were now assembled though they had former advice of the Marquesses designs yet could not tell the place of his landing but now alarm'd by the flying Countrey David Lesley is commanded with the body of the Army to march directly towards them for fear Montrosse should grow too numerous and Colonell Straughan whose valour the States highly approved is ordered with a party of select Horse to advance before to hinder the Marquesses levyes and if he saw opportunity to fight him Montrosse in the mean time to satisfie the World and because the people should not be startled at his invasion whilst the King was upon Treaty publishes a very patheticall Declaration declaring the justnesse of his cause and to clear himself from the aspersion of sinister ends and that his intention was onely against some particular persons who had against the Laws of the Kingdome raised and maintained a war against his Majesties father and did now by their wiles and subtile practices endeavour to destroy the son also and therefore exhorting all Subjects of that Nation to endeavour to free themselves from the tyranny of those who then by an usurped power ruled over them But notwithstanding this Declaration the Countrey came very slowly in Straughan in the mean time advances with all possible speed towards the Royal party whilest Montrosse had not for indeed he could not effect any thing Material besides the fortifying of Dunbath Castle but the Marquess hearing of the Enemies approach made his whole Forces march at a great rate to recover a passe yet neverthelesse before they could come at it the front of the Army discovered Straughan's forlorn hope who marching with hast upon the Marquesses Army found them both almost tired and out of breath and Order however a forlorn hope of 100. Foot are drawn out to meet them who giving them a resolute Charge forced them to no Orderly Retreat but being seconded by Straughan's whole body of Horse they again maintained their ground resolutely Charging upon the Marquesses main Body the Islanders immediately threw down their arms and cryed for quarter but the Holsteiners and Hamburgers made an Orderly retreat for the present into some bushes which having a short time defended they were at last enforced to yield This was a sad blow to his Majesties affairs in Scotland there being great hopes that had Montrosse succeeded and kept them in play both Kirk and State would have come to milder Conditions with him Yet the Marquess himself escaped for the present out of this Battel Though there were near two hundred slain and twelve hundred taken in the field for the Country coming in upon them few Escaped Amongst the Prisoners of Note there were taken Col. Hurry the Lord Frenderick Sir Francis Hay of Dalgettey Col. Hay of Noughton Col. Grey and several other Officers together with the Kings standard which contained this Emphatical Motto IVDGE AND REVENGE MY CAVSE O LORD and whereon was pourtrayed to the life the Effigies of his Majesties Father beheaded But long it was not ere this thrice Heroick Marquess fell into the hands of these his cruel Obdurate and inveterate enemies for though when he saw the battel at a
under But let him that shall look upon the several passages of his read them over and over consider the several difficulties he passed the many dangers he was in to be betrayed the countrey being up round about the summe of money set upon his head for which many hundreds out of covetousness made it their business to search for him and they wil confess ingenuously that God was never so merciful to any people as to us in delivering his sacred Majesty so wonderfully out of the hands of his Enemies who breathed out no thing but his death and destruction that we may yet have hopes to be a happy Nation But let us now return to give a ful account of this dismal loss at Worcester in which most of his Maiesty's foot were either made a prise or a sacrifice to their enemies swords of the horse there escaped 3000. out of the field but were most afterwards either taken or knockt on the head by the Countrey in their flight three thousand were judged flain in the Field and about seven thousand taken prisoners whereof the chiefe were the Earls Derby Lauderdale Cleaveland Shrewsburgh and the Lord Wentworth and many other noble persons taken in the pursuit And the chief of those taken in the battel were the Earls of Carnwarth and Kelly the Lord Synclare Sir Iohn Packington the Maior Generals Montgomery and Piscotty and the Virgil of this Age that thrice worthy Mr. Richard Fanshaw Translatour of the renowned Pastor Fido and Secretary to his Majesty As for the thrice noble Duke Hamilton he was taken but not overcome over-powred but not vanquish't For after having made a most Heroick resistance he was reduced under his enemies power more for want of strength then valour but death entring in at those wounds which he so gallantly received in defence of his Soveraign soon after released him Major General Massey though he escaped the field yet his wounds being desperate he was forced to surrender himself to the Countesse of Stamford and was by her son the Lord Grey of Groby after the recovery of his wounds sent up prisoner to the Parliament and by them committed to the Tower from whence he not long after escaped and went to his Majesty beyond sea This strange and wonderful Victory as the Juncto at Westminster gave it out to be though they had six to one in the field made that sectarian party cock-a-hoop and to make it the greater publick days of Thanks-giving are appointed to make God the patronizer of their villanies murders tyrannies and treasons and now they boast in all their discourses how clearly it might appear that God owned their cause and disowned their adversaries I think a modern Writer hath sufficiently confuted that commonly received tenent of Polititians * That success denotes actions to be either just or unjust I shall therefore leave the sober Reader here to satisfie himself and refer it to him whether such do not justly deserve Ovid's wish Careat succèssibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat Let him for ever in success be poor That thinks it justifies his cause the more But this Nation is so highly sensible of the injustice put upon them by those who pretend so much right in their Cause that there 's no Loyal Subject but will think according to reason that it was not the justice of their cause but our own and the Nation's sinnes which caused God to raise up these men as scourges both to Prince and people and to the Prince onely for the Peoples sake Some I have heard which out of a spirit which I cannot well define have endeavoured to brand his Royal Majesty with Cowardize in this battel which from whence it could proceed unlesse from their own coward nature which would insimulate another in that of which themselves are guilty I cannot imagine since Cromwell the greatest of his Enemies because the most desirous of his Kingdoms yet had so much of truth in him as to give a high and noble Character of his Valour But to proceed We have now said enough of this fatal battel the seeming ruine of the Royal Interest in England unless God of his mercy be pleased to restore it for the good peace and quiet of these Nations since without it we cannot hope to enjoy any His sacred Majesty being landed in France near Havre de Grace from thence with a Noble Lord in his Company posted directly for Roan where they stayed to alter their disguises and furnish them with habits answerable to their Qualities his Majesty from thence having dispatch't Letters to the French Court to acquaint his friends there of his safe arrival which doubtlesse caused no little joy in those who were real to him and almost despaired ever again to have seen him The Duke of Orleans sends his own Coach to fetch him several persons of quality go to meet him by whom he was attended to Paris and there received with all possible expressions of joy lodgings and attendants being forthwith provided for him in the Lâ—uure where at his first arrival he was visited by the Queen his Mother the Duke of Orleans who of all persons in the Kingdome exprest himself the most ready to do him service and the next day visits him again accompanied with his Daughter Madamoiselle He is likewise courted by the Dukes of Beaufort Longueville Guize the Marshal Thurine and many other Peers and Nobles of France who all congratulate his safe deliverance And now his Majesty having lost all hopes of any further means of attaining his Dominions by force leads here a retired life yet living in regard of his high alliance extraction in great esteem with all the French Nobility Insomuch that notwithstanding his present low condition there was very great talk of a match to be made up between him and the Madamoiselle de Orleans the richest Princes in Christendom yet by some means or other it came to no effect though the Queen of England his Mother was an earnest promoter of it and also of the Duke of York to Longneville's daughter Whilest these things were transacting hapned that lately reconciled Fracture between the Prince of Conde Cardinal Mazarine most of the Princes of the Blood siding with the first the King of France who was newly declared of age to sway the Scepter himself with the last The cause of the quarrel was that extravagant power which Mazarine a stranger had usurped in the government of the Kingdome both depriving the Princes of the Blood of their Right and oppressing the people whose daily murmurings more encouraged the Princes against him This power he had got into his hands in the Regency of the Queen Mother whose grand favourite he only was The Princes therefore though they could not during her Regency who so much loved him yet hoped they might effect something now the King himself is come to govern to which intent they charge him with several miscarriages
Treaty was soon carried to Edenburgh where the Parliament being met it was yet by some of those who favoured the Sectarian party in England made a debate whether they should make any more addresses to the King So impudent were they even after the Treaty was concluded with him but there were found but thirty of these malevolent persons so to the major part of the Votes carrying it in the affirmative it was Resolved that another message should be sent unto him to invite him to make all possible speed to his Kingdome of Scotland protesting that they would venture lives and fortunes in assisting him to regain his Right and Kingdomes but they not onely debarre him from having those whom he chiefly favoured to wait upon him but likewise prohibit the Duke Hamilton the Earles of Lauderdale and Seaforth and many other persons of quality's return to Scotland and they nominate such persons as they thought fit out of their own gang to be officers of his houshold there The Iuncto then sitting and governing in England had certain intelligence all along of the proceeds of the Treaty between his Majestie and the Scots together with their Protestations to assist him in the recovery of his Rights in England by some who sat in the Parliament of Scotland betrayed their counsels and earnestly solicited the English to assault Scotland before they were themselves assaulted and invaded to which effect they prepare an Army without any just pretence which they give to Oliver Cromwell to command making him Generalissimo of all the Forces of that Commonwealth in the room of Sir Thomas Fairfax whose Commission was between taken away and laid down Some time before his Majestie's departure from Holland into Scotland news was brought of the unfortunate losse of all Prince Rupert's Fleet most of his ships being either taken sunk or burnt by General Blake Admiral to the English Navy so though the Treaty was concluded with Scotland his Majestie's affairs went every where else to wrack At length all things being in a readinesse his Majesty about the beginning of Iune 1650. took shipping at Scheveleng in Holland and after a tedious storm and narrow scape of some English Vessels which lay in wait for him arrived at Spey in the North of Scotland Some Lords are sent down to receive him to accompany him to Edenburgh where two stately houses are richly provided and furnish't to entertain him He was all along the Countrey entertained with the general joy of all the people several presents being given to him by the Towns as he came along Aberdeen presented him with 1500. l. but the Committee of Estates Kirk fearing that such diet would make too unweildy to their pleasures sent an injunction to severall places requiring them that whatever moneys they had to bestow they should bring it unto such Treasuries as should be appointed by them Thus they permit not the Subjects to shew their good will to their Sovereign nor him to receive it Nor were the States and Kirk as yet content with those hard conditions but they send him new Propositions to Dundee to sign which after some reluctancy he performed for indeed he could do no otherwise being now in their clutches The Parliament and Committee of Estates in Scotland had while they expected his Majestie's arrivall been consulting about the framing of an Army every fourth man in the Kingdome is ordered to be trained and sixteen thousand foot and six thousand horse to be raised for his Majestie's present service Of this Army the Earle of Leven is made General of the Foot and Holborne Major General David Lesley Lieutenant General of the Horse and Montgomery Major General the place of Generalissimo was reserved for the King though he never went into the field with his Army His Majesty being come to Edenburgh is received by the Parliament and Committee of Estates and Kirk with infinite complements and expressions of fidelity and affection and with great acclamations of joy from the people and on the 15. of Iuly is again solemnly proclaimed King at Edenburgh-Crosse but his coronation yet deferred by reason of the then troubles For the English Army notwithstanding the Scots had expostulaled them the unjustnesse of invading their Countrey was advanced upon the borders and at Muscleborough the Scots under Montgomery with a small party set upon the English Army but were worsted and so the two Armies moved at a distance one from the other till they came as far as Dunbar where the Scots had got a considerable advantage by reason of a passe and bragg'd they had got the English in a pound but whether by their own carelessenesse and oversecurity or the over reaching courage and valour of the English I cannot tell a total loss they had there the passe gain'd from them and themselves wholly routed and dispersed I am the shorter in relating the passages between these two Armies in regard that though the King was made Generalisssimo yet he had no influence upon the Army which might rather be called the States or Kirks then the Kings for though he was there present and bore the title of King yet they had the whole powes and made and revoked Laws and Orders The King was then with the States at Saint Iohnstones when the news of this losse and that of the Death of his Sister the Princesse Elizabeth arrived much about the same time and some have been bold to affirm that the latter grieved him more then the former in regard of the imperiousnesse which 't was probable the States of Scotland would have usurped had the successe answered their minds And sufficiently imperious were both they and the Kirk already notwithstanding the ill fortune of their affairs for so great was their insolency towards his Majesty in their earnestnesse to purge his house in extorting Declarations from him against his own party and proceedings and in usurping the whole government of affairs to themselves in placing guards of their own creatures upon his Person c. That his sacred Majesty no longer able to suffer such intolerable affronts and abuses went secretly away accompanied onely with four horse towards the North of Scotland where the Marquess of Huntley the Ealres of Seaforth and Atholl the Lords Ogilby and Newburgh with the Gourdons were ready to appear for him with a considerable party Scotland was not at this time only perplexed with a foreign enemy in her bowels but with civil distempers and divisions for in the West there was a party under the command of Straughan and Kerr who declared against the actions of the Committee of Estates for their too much hast and precipitation in the Treaty with the King for their receiving him before he had given any evidence of a real change That they believed his profession of the cause and Covenant was counterfeit therefore refused to submit to his power These men were purely for the Kirk against the King's Authority Another Party there was in the North
or trust to the swiftnesse of their horses heels but very few of them escaped among which were the Dukes of York and Glocester though the first was not heard of till three daies after which made some suspect that he was taken by the French Forces but by Turine after at a fit opportunity nobly releast I may particularly take occasion here to commend the valour of the Duke of York's own Troop who indeed bore the brunt of the whole Battel though I cannot deny but they were seconded by some very Noble spirits of the Spaniards but the personal valour of Mr. Henry Bendish son to Sir Thomas Bendish Ambassadour for the English Nation in Turky who had the ill fortune to be taken prisoner must not be forgotten Let us now change the Scene a little to England where the Protector begins to die the Scaffold in as deep a purple as the Vest given him at his late Instalement bore and that not onely with the bloud of those seculars that were loyal to their Soveraign but having as he thought now secured to himself the Government his hand reaches to the sacred Clergy nor will he strike at a reed or a shrub amongst them but imitating the Ancient fable of the Iupitrian Thunder strikes at the Olympus the Atlas the mainest pillar and support of the Protestant Religion for no lesse then the Reverend Doctor Hewet's blood will now satisfie his insatiate Cruelty a man whose vertues and piety as they were beyond expression so I think was the manner of his death beyond example This Doctor Sir Henry Slingsby who had ever since the forementioned rising in Yorkshire layn prisoner in Hull Castle with many others are accused of a design to have seized on the Tower of London and the Magazine at Hull both in one day the one by a divine the other by a Prisoner but these persons must have several others to be their assistants and that especially in London who while the Doctor was securing the Tower must fire the City of London in several places Those that make plots may as easily discover them and with as much ease prevent them the Protector could do both but to make some shew of a great deel of fear in the businesse Worthy Alderman Tichburn then Lord Mayor of London is immediately commanded to settle the Militia the Protector telling him as he easily might that there was a grand design in hand probably of his own contriving against his Government that the Marquess of Ormond had lately been in England transacting about it that the Common Enemy for so was his sacred Majesty then styled lay ready with a potent Army ships hired to transport them on the Sea coasts of England and that therefore the Militia should be settled in confiding hands meaning such either whose interest or fear must render them faithful to the Protector shortly after according to the common course the persons to be accused are apprehended the chief of which were Dr. Hewet Mr. Iohu Mordant brother to the Earl of Peterborough Col. Ashton Capt. Henry Mallory Mr. Woodcock Iohn Betteley Edmund Stacy Henry Fryer Iohn Sumner and Oliver Allen who were all accused to be complices of this grand design And because no English Law could take away these mens Lives The ordinary Tyrannical way of a High Court of Justice must do it Sir Henry Slignsby who was brought prisoner from Hull Castle was the first who came before them and is accused for having endeavoured to draw the Governor of that Castle from his Allegience excellently good to the Protector and pleading not guilty yet was by two Witnesses found ready convicted and condemned Dr. Hewet being come before them according to the example of his Royal Master King Charles the first refused to plead or own the Iurisdiction of the Court for which contempt as they were pleased to interpret it he had the same sentence pronounced against him and was afterwards together with Sir Henry Slingsby executed on Tower-hill Mr. Mordant brother to the Earl of Peterborough disavowed likewise the Authority of the Court but at last being induced to plead was acquitted so was Mr. Woodcock Mallory Fryer sumner and Allen were sentenced but reprieved Ashton Stacy and Bettely were hanged drawn and quartered in several places of London And here we must not forget the magnanimous death of Iohn Betteley who having made a Speech clearing his Innocency and the justness of his Cause undauntedly leapt off the Ladder and died a worthy sufferer for the Royal Interest His sacred Majesty during these strange Murders and oppressions of his Subjects in England by a power which had usurpt the Regality is forced to sit still his urgent necessities not giving him leave either to revenge their deaths or redeem the surviving who heavily groaned under the yoke his onely remedy now was his prayers to God which he pursues with an earnest devotion that he would be pleas'd in his good time to deliver his faithful Subjects from those miseries and burdens they then struggled under and without doubt God hath heard and will perform his pious desires As an introduction to which it pleased the DIVINE MAJESTY to take out of this world the grandest opposer of his Majesty's Right OLIVER CROMWELL who from a mean beginning had raised himself by force to be the arbitrary Governour of these Nations is by the Almighty called to give an account of his actions before the High Tribunal of Heaven where are neither false witnesses nor interessed Judges and that on the same day on which he had gained two such signall victories over his Majestie's forces at Dunbar and Worcester viz. on the third day of September Yet he thought he had so certainly secured the Government of these three Nations for himself and that he nominates his son Richard for his Successour a person to speak the truth as not at all endowed with his fathers courage so not at all inclined to his ambition one whom if fame lies not of him could have willingly been content to have surrendred his Protectorship to the Kingship of the lawfull heir and by law undoubted Successour But those Officers of the Army whose ambition though not in so high a degree had so engaged them as Complices to Oliver Cromwell in his high late designes against his King and Countrey had so great a load of guilt upon their consciences that they could not hear of much less agree to the admission of his sacred Majesty Nor was it indeed only thus but some ambitious spirits there were and particularly Maj. â—eneral Lambert whose high-flown thoughts made him fancy Idea's in his brain and forc't him to attempt the enterprising to make him Commander of these three Nations as Oliver by his means had done before which designes of his in the sequell ruin'd him and discovered those grand cheates and abuses which that party had put upon the Nation endeavouring to enslave them to their own arbitrary power whilst they pretended those