he was committed to the Governance of the Lady Cary as before is said And not long after for his better welcom into England he was on the sixth day of January next following commonly called Twelfth-day invested solemnly with the title of Duke of York by cincture of a Sword imposition of a Cap and Coronet of Gold upon his Head and by delivering unto him a Verge of Gold himself with ten others of eminent Nobility having been made Knights of the Bath with all the accustomed Ceremonies the day before 1606. In the sixth year of his Age he was taken from the charge of his Women though not from the Motherly superinspection of the Lady Cary and committed to the Pedagogy of Master Thomas Murray a Scot by Nation sufficiently qualified for that service but otherwise ill Principled in the Rites and Ceremonies in which the Church of England differed from the Kirke of Scotland 1610. Under this Tutor the young Duke advanced exceedingly in the way of good Letters the weaknesse of his lower parts which made him unapt for Exercises and feats of Activity rendring him more retired and studious and more intent upon his Book then he had been otherwise Which Prince Henry taking notice of as he the young Duke Dr. Abbot then newly made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privie-Chamber for the Kings coming out the Prince to put a jest upon him took the Arch-Bishops Square-cap out of his hand and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good boy and followed his Book he would make him one day Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Which the child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagernesse This though at first it was not otherwise beheld then as an Act of Childish passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry dyed and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill Presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be foresignified by it But in that their fears were groundlesse and their conjectures no better grounded then their fears there never being a more gracious Patron to the Church nor a more resolute Champion in behalf of the Hierarchy then he proved to be What is presaged if there were any presaging in it in reference to the Archbishops Person may be shewen hereafter 1611 1612. In the eleventh year of his Age he was made Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and on the sixth day of November Anno 1612. he lost his Brother Prince Henry whom he immediately succeeded in the Dukedome of Cornwall with all the Royalties Rents Profits and Commodities of it according to the entail which was made thereof by King Edward the third when he conferred it upon Edward the black Prince his eldest Son The first solemn Act which he appeared in after this change of his condition was at the Funerall of Prince Henry on the 7. of Decem. following at which he attended as chief Mourner And on the 14 of February then next ensuing being Sunday and St. Valentines day he performed the Office of a Brideman a Paranymph the Grecians call him to the Princesse Elizabeth his Sister married upon that day to Frederick the Fifth Prince Elector Palatine A marriage which drew him afterwards into many cares and great expences of which more hereafter In his Childhood he was noted to be very wilful somewhat inclining to a perversenesse of disposition which might proceed from that retiredness which the imperfection of his Speech not fitting him for publick discourse and the weakness of his limbs and joynts as unfit for Action made him most delight in But now being grown both in years and state he began to shake off that retirednesse and betake himself to all manner of man-like exercises such as were Vaulting riding great Horses running at the ring shooting in crosse bowes Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance in which he became so perfect that he was thought to be the best Marks-man and the most comely mannager of a great Horse of any one in all three Kingdoms And as he shaked off this retirednesse so he corrected in himself the Peccancy of that humour which had grown up with it there being no man to be found of an evener temper more pliant to good Counsel or lesse wedded then he was to his own opinion 1616. On the third of November Anno 1616. He was at White-hall with all the accustomed Solemnities created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint and put into the actuall possession of all the Regalities Profits and Commodities belonging to them his Houshould being then formed and constituted and all the officers of State which belong unto him appointed to their severall places And now it was expected that he should break out into more glory then he had done formerly and take upon him as the Heir of so great an Empire But considering very wisely that the forward and enterprizing nature of his Brother Prince Henry the popularity which he affected and the great resort of young Noble-men continually unto his Court had been displeasing to his Father resolved to keep himself at a close ward and not to seem so great as he was that when time served he might appear greater then he seemed to be Old Princes do not love to have their eldest Sons too active and to tread too close upon their heels and therefore many times do enterpose the power of a favorite to keep them at the greater distance A policy much used by King James in the whole course of his Government who for that cause in the life-life-time of Prince Henry took Sir Robert Carr into his most especiall favour whom he first made Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and on the twenty fifth of March Anno 1611. Created Viscount Rochester and the same year made Knight of the Garter also conferring on him all the power and trust he was capable of that by the greatnesse of the one he might keep down the daring nature and confident Spirit of the other Prince Charles understood this well enough and carried himself with so much prudence that he disputed not the power of his Fathers favourites suffering all Honour Offices and other matters at the Court to be carried by them as best pleased the King Which though it was generally ascribed unto Pusillanimity and the defect of Spirit in him yet was it look'd upon as an Act of the greatest wisedom by more knowing men For had he any wayes crost the designs and Councels either of Carr then Earl of Sommerset or of the Duke of Buckingham his Fathers favourites who at that time did much out-shine him he had not only incurred the Kings displeasure but of necessity must have divided the Court and by consequence the
noise of a Declaration which they had then upon the Anvil he dissolved the Parliament on the eighteenth day of June then following No sooner was he freed from this but the necessity of his Affairs involved him in another Embroylment The French Priests and Domesticks of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon him that he was forced to send them home in which he did no more then what the French King had done before him in sending back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her But the French King not looking on his own example and knowing on what ill termes the King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants ships which lay on the River of Burdeaux and then brake out into open war So that the King was fain to make use of those Forces against the French which were designed to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desires of the Rochelers who humbly sued for his protection and Defence But the Fleet not going out till after Michaelmas found greater opposition at the Sea then they feared from the Land being encountred with strong Tempests and thereby necessitated to return without doing any thing but onely shewing the Kings good-will and readinesse toward their assistance 1627. But the next yeare this design was followed with greater vigour by the Duke of Buckingham who hoped thereby to make himself of some consideration in the eyes of the people The gaining of the Isle of Re which lay before the Town of Rochel and imbarred their Trade was the matter aimed at and he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work if he had not followed it more like a Courtier then a Souldier suffering himself to be complemented out of the taking of their chief Fort when it was almost at his mercy and standing upon points of Honour in facing those Forces which were sent from the French King to raise the siege when he might have made a safe retreat unto his ships without losse or danger In the mean time his Majesty neither neglected his Affairs at home nor his Friends abroad At home he found the Puritan faction to be much increased by the remisnesse of the goverment of Archbishop Abbot whom therefore he suspended from all his Metropoliticall Jurisdiction and confined him to his House at Ford in Kent committing the exercise thereof to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford Bath and Wells by Letters Patents bearing date the 9. day of October Anno 1627. Abroad he found the Princes of Germany wormed out of their Estates one after another by the Emperours Forces the King of Denmark whom they had made the Head of their League being driven out of the Countrey by Count Tilly and hardly able to defend his own Dominions No Prince so fit for the prosecution of that cause as Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden whom therefore he elects into the Noble Order of the Garter and solemnly invests him with it in the midst of his Army then lying at the Siege of Darsaw a Town of Pomerella belonging to the Crown of Poland on Sunday the twenty third of October of the same year also At which time he laid the grounds of that Confederacy which being seconded by the French the States of the Vnited Provinces and the distressed Princes of the Empire brought that King into Germany where he gave the first great check to the Emperours fortunes and had restored the Prince Elector Palatine to his ancient Patrimony if he had not fallen unfortunately at the Battell of Lutzen 1628. Being thus ingaged and embroiled he gave a beginning to his third Parliament on the seventeenth of March and freely declares to them the necessities under which he lay in Answer whereunto the Commons voted five Subsidies but meant he should pay dearly for them before he had them Such grievances as they thought fit to insist upon were cast into the mold of a petition by them called a Petition of Right which if the King granted he must lose his prerogative if he denied it he must lose all hopes of their supply in his great extremities The consideration of which last induced him to yield to their desires and confirm that petition by Act of Parliament the Prerogative never so much descending from Perch to popular Lure as by that concession But though this Act of grace might have given satisfacton even to supererogation as one well observeth yet the Commons were not so contented but were preparing a Remonstance to take away his Right of Tonnage and Poundage as disclaimed by him in that Act which coming to the Kings knowledge on the twenty sixth of June he adjourns the Parliament till the twentieth day of October then next ensuing In the mean time the Duke prepares for the relief of Rochel both by Sea and Land and being ready to set sail was suddenly cut off at Ports-muth by the hand of one John Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army alledging no other reason for that bloody act but that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Common-wealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King in the former Session But such was the constancy of the Kings temper and the known evenness of his spirit that this sad Accident made little or no stop in the proceedings of the Fleet which at the last set forwards under the command of the Earl of Lindsey who found the Haven of Rochel so strongly barred that it was utterly impossible for his Ships to force their way though it was gallantly attempted and give relief to the besieged who thereupon set open their Gates and received their King into their Town without more delay To smooth his way to the next Session of Parliament adjourned again till the twentieth of January Arch-bishop Abbot is admitted to kisse his hand by whom he is commanded not to fail of his attendance at the Councel table Dr. Barnaby Potter a through-paced Calvinian is made Bishop of Carlisle and Mr. Mountagues book called Appello Caesarem for which he had been questioned and molested in the beginning of the Kings first Parliament must be supprest and called in by Proclamation But this little edified with the faction in the house of Commons who not onely took upon them the reforming of the Church and State but called the Customers in question for levying Tonnage and Poundage not then granted nor ever likely to be granted as it had been formerly by Act of Parliament and distraining such Merchants goods as refused to pay it And in this point they went so high that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular upon the second day of March they lockt the Doors of the Parliament-house kept the key thereof in one of their pockets and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had
in the Assembly at Aberdeen Anno 1616. for composing a Liturgy and extracting a new book of Canons out of the scattered Acts of their old Assemblies At the Assembly held at Perth Anno 1618. he obtained an Order for receiving the Communion kneeling for administring Baptisme and the Lords Supper in private Houses in cases of extreme necessity for Episcopall confirmation and finally for the celebrating the Anniversaries of our Saviours Birth his Passion Resurrection and Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost All which he got to be confirmed in the following Parliament So far that wise King had advanced the work of Uniformity before his engaging in the Cause of the Palatinate His Breach with Spain and the War which did insue upon it took off his thoughts from prosecuting that design which his son being more intangled in Wars abroad and Distempers at home had no time to finish till he had setled his Affaires and attained to some measure both of Power and Glory But being it was a businesse which was to be acted leisurely and by degrees not all at once he first resolved upon passing of an Act of Ratification of all that had been done by his Father and then to go in hand with the introducing of a publick Liturgie In the effecting whereof at such a time as he went into Scotland to receive that unfortunate Crown he found a stronger opposition in the Parliament of that Kingdom also about the passing of that Act of Ratification then he had reason to expect But carried it at last by a far major part of that Assembly This gave him the fist taste of their disaffection to his Person and Government but he went forward notwithstanding in pursuit of those purposes which he brought thither with him For not long after his return into England he gave order to the Dean of his Chappell Royall in Edenburgh that Prayers be read therein according to the English Liturgie that a Communion be had every moneth and all Communicants to receive the Sacrament on their knees that he who officiated if he be a Bishop perform it in his Rochet and other Episcopall Robes and that he do it in his Surplice if a common Presbyter and finally that not onely the Lords of the Council but the Lords of the Session and as many of the principall Magistrates of that City also as could conveniently fail not of their attending the Divine Service there on Sundayes and Holy-dayes For by this means he gave himself no improbable hopes that the English Liturgy passing a probationership in the Chappel Royall might find a plausible entertainment in the Churches of Edenburgh and be received by degrees in all the rest of the Kingdom But the Presbyterian Scots not ignorant of the Kings intentions insinuated into the minds of the common People that this was a design onely to subject that pure Kirk to the superstitious Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England and therefore that it did behove them to stand together as one man to oppose their entrance The Lords and Gentry of that Realm who feared nothing so much as the Commission of Surrendries before mentioned laid hold on this occasion also And they being seconded by some male-contented spirits of that Nation who had not found the King to be as prodigal of his favours to them as his Father had been before endeavoured to possesse them with Fears and Jealousies that Scotland was to be reduced to the form of a Province and governed by a Deputy or Lord Lieutenant as Ireland was The like done also by some Lords of Secret Council who before had governed as they listed and thought their power diminished and their persons under some neglect by the placing of a Lord President over them to direct in chief So that the people generally being fooled into this opinion that both their Christian and Civil Liberty were in no small danger became capable of any impression which the Presbyterian Faction could imprint upon them Which visibly appeared by a virulent and seditious Libel published in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Authour was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was legally convicted and condemned of treason but pardoned by the Kings great goodnesse and by that pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following The fire thus breaking out in Scotland it was no marvel if it had laid hold on England also the Puritans of both Nations working themselves about this time into a Body and from henceforth communicating their Counsels and designs unto one another The King not long after his return thought fit to renew his Fathers Declaration about lawfull sports on the Lords Day the principall motives whereunto were the increase of Popery in some parts of the Kingdome occasioned by interdicting all honest Recreations on that day and the rest of the Holy-dayes the tendency of the Sabbatarian Doctrine to down-right Judaisme some orders made by some publick Ministers of Justice for suppressing the Annual Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes and finally the bringing of Dancing Running shooting and other harmlesse Recreations within the compasse of the Statute made in the first Parliament of his Reign against all unlawfull exercises and pastimes in which no such thing was ever intended And though the Kings intention in it was onely to ease the people from that yoke of superstition which many of their Preachers had laid upon them yet by the practise of those Preachers it made more noise among the People and wakened more to appear in defence of that which they call Religion then all the Geese in the Capitoll Nor did His Majestie speed much better in another of his pious intentions concerning the Conformity of Parochiall Churches to their Mother Cathedrals The Dean and Chapter of S. Pauls as Ordinaries of the place had appointed the Communion-Table in St. Gregories Church to be placed Altar-wise at the end of the Chancel where it had stood and by her injunctions ought to stand in Q. Elizabeths time Against this some of the parishioners appealed to the Dean of the Arches the Dean Chapter to the King The cause being heard before His Majesty and the Lords of the Council on the third of November Anno 162â— it pleased his Majesty having first shewed his dislike of all Innovations to declare that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandement that if those few parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the Cause shall confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter On this encouragement the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Metropoliticall Visitation beginning in the year next following and the Suffragan Bishops in
armed himself against all future events in the middle of these hopes and expectations so the Houses of Parliament were not wanting to themselves in their care and diligence to destroy those hopes and make those expectations fruitlesse and of no effect For the Storm thus breaking out on all sides Lieutenant Generall Cromwel with some part of the Army is ordered to march into Wales where he reduced such Towns and Castles under his command as had before been manned against them the three chief Captains above named yielding themselves upon the hopes of that mercy which they never tasted This done he hasteneth towards the Scots whom he found in Lancashire discomfits them takes all their Foot with their Canon Arms and Ammunition The Duke or Marquesse with his Horse which had escaped out of the fight were so closely followed by the diligence of the pursuers that most of his Horse being slain or taken himself was sent Prisoner unto London Following his blow Cromwel bestowes a visit on Scotland suppresses all those in that Kingdome who stood in any sort suspected of the crime of Loyalty the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle being delivered into his hands without blowes or Blood-shed An expedition which he made good use of in his following Counsels discovering by this means the weaknesse and condition of the Countrey the irreconcilable Factions and part-takings amongst the great ones of that Realm on whose divided wills and pleasures all the rest depended and on what side they lay most open and assaultable when any further occasion should be taken as there after was to attempt upon them In the mean time some Troops of the other part of the Army scatter the weak forces of the Earl of Holland who flying towards the North is taken at Saint Neots in the County of Huntingdon and sent Prisoner unto London also The Kentish being either scattered or forced over the Thames put themselves into the Town of Colchester and are there besieged by Sir Thomas Fairfax himself with his part of the Army The issue of which Siege was this that after some extremities endured by the besieged the place was yielded upon composition the Townsmen to be safe from plunder the Souldiers and their Commanders to yield themselves Prisoners absolutely without any Conditions The Principal of these were the Lord Capel Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle all of them of approved valour and fidelity of which the two last were shot to death upon the place the first reserved for the Scaffold on which he lookt death in the face with as much magnanimity as Hamilton and Holland who suffered at the same time with him entertained it with a poorness and Dejection of Spirit And which was worst because it lost some Reputation to the Prince in his first Attempt the Marriners growing discontented that Prince Rupert was appointed to be their Admirall instead of the Lord VVilloughby of Parham by whom they desired to be commanded fell off with many of their Ships and returned again to their old Admirall the Earl of VVarwick By the withdrawing of which Ships he was rendred the lesse able to do any thing considerable on the Sea and landing with some Forces neer Deal-Castle in Kent sped not so fortunately as both his Friends hoped and himself expected But notwithstanding these Successes the Houses seeing how desirous the whole Nation was of a Personall Treaty recalled their Votes of No-Address and ordered that a Personall Treaty should be held with his Majesty at Newport in the Isle of VVight to begin on the eighteenth day of September next following But the Commissioners which were sent to mannage this Treaty spent so much time upon each Nicety and Punctillio of the Propositions before they drew towards a Conclusion that they gave the Officers of the Army too much opportunity to frame and publish a Remonstrance bearing date at S. Albans on the sixteenth of November In which it was declared that the King was the sole cause of all that blood-shed which had been made in the Kingdome that he was incapable of any further trust in the publick government and that nothing could be more expedient to the safety of the Common-wealth then to bring him to the Bar of Justice Nor staid they there but in pursuit of this Design some of the Officers were appointed to go into the Isle of Wight and having seized upon his Person to bring him over to Hurst Castle in Hampshire from whence they brought him by degrees to VVindsor and at last to VVestminster And on the other side the Independent Party in the House of Commons holding intelligence with the Army voted his Majesties Concessions to be so unsatisfactory that no well-grounded Peace could be built upon them In the next place a care was taken by the Army to purge the House of all those members to whom his Majesties condescensions had given satisfaction Which done a New Court called the High Court of Justice is to be set up a President of the same appointed certain Commissioners nominated to Act as Judges and a set time designed to call his Majesty to a Tryall in an unprecedented way before his Subjects It is reported that at his going from the Bar one of the Souldiers most barbarously spit in his face and used very reproachfull words against him Which though his Majesty suffered with his wonted patience yet the Divine vengeance would not suffer it to go unrevenged that wretch being not long after condemned in a Court of War for some endeavours to make a Mutiny in the Army and openly shoâ— to death in S. Pauls Church-yard And now Saturday the 20 of January the day of his appearing being come his Majesty was brought from the Palace of Saint James unto VVestminster Hall to appear before the new Judges and answer unto all particulars which are thought fit to be objected His appearance could not be avoided in regard he was under a constraint but no constraint could force his will to make him acknowledge their Authority or submit himself unto their judgement He would not so betray the Liberty of the English Subject as he plainly told them to any arbitrary and lawlesse Power as he must needs do by submitting unto their proceedings and therefore since the Laws and Liberties of the Land were now in question he stood resolved to dy a Martyr for them both For which contempt having stood resolutely on the same term as oft as he was brought before them he was sentenced on Saturday the twenty seventh of the same moneth to lose his life by the dividing of his head from his body That fatall morning being come the Bishop of London who attended on him in that sad exigent read the morning Prayers and for the first Lesson thereof the 27 Chapter of S. Matthews Gospel relating the History of our Saviours Sufferings under Pontius Pilate by the practise of the chief Priests the Scribes and Pharisees and others of the Great Council of the Jewish Nation
soon as he is once full he begins to howl and such a howling fit fell at this time on the Presbyterians They had carried on this Tragedy to the very last Act from the first bringing in of the Scots to the beginning of the war and from the beginning of the war till they had brought him prisoner into Holmby-House and then quarrelled with the Independents for taking the work out of their hands and robbing them of the long-expected fruits of their Plots and Practises They cried out against them in their Pulpits and clamoured against them in their Pamphlets for this most execrable fact of which themselves were parcel-guilty at the least Et si non re at voto pariter Regicidae c. On the other side the Independents who had washt their hands in the blood of the King seemed as desirous as the Presbyterians to wash their hands of it By them it was alledged more calmly that they had put Charles Stuart to death against whom they had proceeded as the sole cause of so much bloodshed but that the King had been murthered a long time before by the Presbyterians when they deprived him of his Crown his Sword and his Scepter of his Crown by forcing from him those Prerogatives which placed him in a Throne of Eminence above his People of his Sword by wresting the Militia out of his hands by which he was made unable to protect them and finally of his Scepter in divesting him of the power of calling Parliaments and of his Negative voice in making those Laws by which he was to govern all estates of men under his Dominion And more then so that they had deprived him of his naturall Liberty as he was a Man of the society of his Wife as he was a Husband of conversation with his Children as he was a Father of the attendance of his Servants as he was a Master and in a word of all those comforts which might make life valued for a Blessing So that there was nothing left for the Independents to do but to put an end to those Calamities into which this miserable man this vir dolorum as he might very well be called had been so accursedly plunged by the Presbyterians Thus did each party seek to shift the guilt of this most execrable Act upon one another and thus fell CHARLES the meekest of Men and the best of Princes leaving behind him an example of Christian fortitude in suffering patiently that blow which neither the Law of God or man nor any deservings of his own could inflict upon him His body being removed to VVindsor was there interred in the same Vault with K. Henry the 8. but not interred with that solemnity nor in that publick form and manner which is appointed in the Liturgy of the Church of England of which he had been alwayes a devout Observer and to the last a resolute Patron and Defender His Funerall solemnized and his Death lamented with fewer tears than can be easily imagined men bleeding inwardly from their hearts when their eyes durst not expresse outwardly what grief they felt So dangerous were the times Vt suspiria etiam subscriberentur as Tacitus affirmeth of the times of Domitian a most cruell Tyrant that mens very sighs were registred and kept upon account toward the undoing of many in the time to come But though he died thus in the strength of his years he still lives in the memories of all good men and by that most excellent Portraiture which he hath made of himself will be preserved alive amongst all Nations and unto all succeeding Ages The Pourtraiture of King Charles in his Solitudes and Sufferings will be a Character of his Parts and Piety beyond all expressions but his own a Monument of richer metall than all the Tombs of Brasse or Marble erected to the honour of his Predecessors which no Inscription whatsoever though in Letters of Gold and engraven with a pen of Diamonds can be able to parallel And so I shut up this short View of the Life and Reign of this glorious King as Tacitus doth the Life of Julius Agricola a right noble Roman the names of the persons onely changed viz. Quiquid ex Carolo amavimus quicquid mirati sumus manet mansurumque est in animis hominum in aeternitate temporum fama rerum Horat. Carm. lib. 1. Ode 24. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit Nulli flebilior quam mihi THE END