had with the apprehension of the Irish insurrection and that horrible slaughter there committed on the poor English Protestants and that they stood not a little in jelousie and affrighted at their assiduall intell igence received from beyond sea of the Kings preparations and that his heart was not right towards them but of this he had determined to put them soon out of doubt and the more to confuse them conceiving that the Citizens would on all occasions be wholly for him having in his approach to the City in his returne from Scotland and his entry into the Suburbs and throughout all the City courteously saluted the people by the often puting off his Hat as before is intimated a favour which till then neither himselfe or his Father before him had never bestowed upon the vulgar when as it after appeared his designe was to make use of them having in readinesse and shortly after fild whitehall with the forlorn Officers of his Casheered Army he takes an occasion under pretence of suspicion of Treason to send for Sir Arthur Hasterigge Mr ' Hollis Mr. Pym Mr. Stroude and Mr. Hamden of the Commons House and my Lord Kimboulion of the Lords House by one of his Serjeants at Arms which being denyed him by the House as a plain breach of their privileges The very next day being the fourth of January he comes attended with his guards and those armed Cavaleers and entred into the House of Commons sits downe in the Speakers Chaire and demands the foresaid six Members which upon private intelligence given them of the Kings intent had absented themselves the King missing his prey grew exceedingly into choller and vow'd that he would have them wheresoever they were his own comportment and the demeanour of the Cavallers both in desperate words and big looks was so terrible to the Parliament that they forsook the House and sate in the City sending out a Declaration of the high breach of their Privileges together with a Petition to his Majesty that he would be pleased to grant them a guard for the security of their persons and sitting which true it is it was granted them but with such a person for the command as that they durst not accept of him but were compelled to remaine for their safety a longer space in the City untill the Lord Major and the Citizens readily assisted them and for their better security brought them in Coaches strongly guarded to Westminster whither also resorted a considerable party dayly passing along by Whitehall Gates to their rescue in case the Cavaleers should have againe disturbed their consultations on this party the Cavaleers falls a beating them whereof some they kill'd even at the Court gate untill a greater number came to their assistance The King finding himself then deceived in his expectation and that the people were generally devoted to the Parliament he makes severall visits into the City where in a publike audience be partly complains of the affronts done to him by the Parliament in their detaining the six Members and partly excusing his unadvisednesse in his entring the house in that manner as he did which is evident by his own Declaration but finding at last that his hopes failed him to have any assistance out of the City against the Parliament he stood some time in doubt what course to take but in the end resolves under the specious pretexts of his Insafety by reason of the Tumults as since himself stiles them not to stay at Whitehall any longer thereupon he departs from his own Court and the Parliament as more fully hereafter I shall take occasion to remember Hitherto I have presented you with nothing but that which is obvious and long since knowne to all the Kingdome having as briefly as I could deduced the story from the third of November 1640. which was the very day that the Parliament sate down to January 1641 neer about the latter end whereof the King removed from Whitehall to Hampton-Court Windsor and Theobalds accompanyed with his wonted guard of Ruffians the Parliament continuing still to petition him for his returne and concurrence with them but no perswasions or arguments would prevail but on he goes Northward and makes his residence at York whither he draws by degrees many of the Lords and Commons from the Parliament most of the Delinquent party resorting unto him together with my Lord Digby from beyond sea though with his own approbation long before proclaimed Traytor thither also notwithstanding the severall affronts done to the Parliaments Messages and Messengers they ceased not to importune his return but nothing could move him against his will and inclinations for now he had another game to play having hitherto failed in all his practises and as he conceived his designes then grown to maturity his next plot was to seize on the Town of Hull by the Earle of Newcastle where a very great Magazine of Arms and Ammunition had been deposited the Summer before which the King had also refused to return to the Tower and the Towne of Newcastle by Colonell Legge was likewise to be seized on both maritime towns and of great importance for the letting in of all strangers to his assistance whereof the Parliament having certain intelligence and by all the Kings former courses being more fully assured from abroad apprehending the dangerous consequence therof thought then it more than high time in what possibly they could for the safety of themselves and the Kingdom to prevent the mischiefs which they then evidently perceived threatned the universall Nation and thereupon they suddenly dispatched the two Hothams with Commission to pre-possesse the Town by the Trained Bands of those parts here you may see the first armes that ever the Parliament appeared in unlesse you shall urge the guards which the City sent them for securing their persons from the fury of the Cavaliers which admit it was onely defensive to preserve themselves and the Kingdome in what possibly they might and in prevention of future storms which they inevitably saw were sure to fall upon them from abroad and had they not gone farther in seizing on the Navy the Tower Forts Castles and Ammunition together with the Crown Revenues which are the Nerves and strengths of the Kingdome which had they neglected no man can make doubt but they would have been perverted from their proper use and turned against the Kingdom surely then when they perceived that nothing would worke upon the Kings obstinacy but that he was resolved to make Warre and to embroyle the whole Kingdom and let in strangers they would have been deemed unworthy of the places they held in the behalf of their Countreys had they not done as they did But as to the Kings part please you to look over all the progresse of his designes and take them once more into your second consideration and you cannot in any reason beleeve but that from the very first commitment of the Earl of Strafford to the lower whose escape
of his Progenitors as it is well known to many of his own party who were of that Committee touching the improving of an annuall revenue to be setled upon him by act of Parliament out of one particular the Customes amounting to 400000 li. per annum proposed by old Mr. Turner the Farmer of the Allom works and the same so much forwarded that it was committed by Votes of the Parliament to a select number of Members to be considered and shortly after was stated to a proportion of 200000 l. more per annum than ever he received out of the great and petty farms but that the world may know the wilfulnesse of this King after that he was gon from the Parliament and had erected his Standard at Nottingham he sent word by Master Levison by name and one of his Bedchamber to Turner That if ever he medled with the Parliament about that businesse thenceforth not to look him in the face whence it evidently appears that he meant not to take any thing of the Parliament by way of gift having it in design to take what he pleased as power should inable him God knowes I send you no Fables but shall willingly be accomptable of any thing which you shall find herein inserted if it suit not with the naked truth and sincerity of him who would not that your self and so many of the English Nation should be any longer deluded and flamm'd with untruthes and nurst up in a belief of want of the Parliaments good and loyall intentions towards him untill he had wilfully and desperately made himself uncapable of the love and loyalty of his people and such was the ingratitude of this unhappy King for proofe whereof amongst many instances that I could present and of his carelesse paying where he borrowed and ruining of many of his servants let this one suffice of Mr. Turner tow hom he owed no small sums promised much and often as he did to many others but performed nothing when it was the least thought of his heart the after-story as a known truth will both shew forth his ingratitude and the extremity of his want with those sordid shifts he was put unto both at the sitting down of this Parliament and long before when the poor old man petitioned him for the nomination of a Baron which is most true that the King granted him without scrupie provided he named a Gent. of worth in short it was my Lord Capel and he was to give him in ready money 10000 l. but the King sending for the old man told him of his want and that he would gratifie him otherwise with double that sum so the King as it is well known flattered the good old man out of his money which was presently given to the Queen Mother for her Transportation hence into Germany and the old Gentleman left to seek his bread and to die a very poor man many instances of this kinde I could relate but to returne to our relation the Parliament then moved the City for the loan of so much present money as might serve to discharge the arrears due to both Armies which the Citizens denyed unless an act might passe for the Parliaments sitting during pleasure the Citizens well remembring the Kings wonted and sudden dissolving of all the Parliaments of his Reigne The King then finding where the Remora lay readily past that bill in relation to his own debt which hath been since both by himselfe and his party so much magnified for an Act of Grace surpassing all of his Progenitors and shortly thereupon takes his journey towards Scotland which considering his own hidden designes was chosen in so fit a conjuncture of time as that he overtooke the Scotch Army in their march before they past the borders where what overtures he made to the Commanders to joyn with him against the Parliament best appears by the notice thereof given and sent by them to the Parliament and their own Commissioners here then residing The King then finding that neither the English or Scotch Armies would be wrought upon answerable to his designes posts to Edinburgh where he very well understood that to keep the Scots quiet necessarily he should be compell'd to give that Parliament all the content they desired as t is maifestly known he did in all things they demanded and in many Acts of Grace which to the English Parliament he utterly denyed and stood upon even to the last as the Militia the choice of their Admirall Chancellour Judges c. During the Kings abode in Scotland which was near upon foure moneths it is well known the Irish Rebellion brake forth in October 1641. and that rising authorised under the great Seale of Scotland as both the Rebels themselves aver'd and that attested by divers witnesses of credit which had seene it under Seal the Parliament here at that time had a recesse only so many of the Members as might keep up the reputation of a Parliament resided at Westminster the rest were retired unto their habitations untill November following when by order of the Houses they were all to re-assemble in the mean time whilest most of the Lords and Commons were in the Country hapned that Rebellion the Parliament by this time and at their coming together had to their old a new worke cut out to their hands what the King could not accomplish either in England or Scotland by the way of insurrections and disturbances in both those Kingdomes he had fore-laid the way to do it in Ireland howsoever grosly palliated and denyed in his Pourtracture yet so suspicious of fowle play as that on a right understanding of the mannagery of the peace and the slye carrying on of the whole businesse between himselfe and the Marquesse of Ormond to be seen in his own Letters makes it plain that he had a perfidious hand therein Now as to his preparations from France and Holland wherewith to Invade the Parliament its manifest he had then in readinesse a very considerable proportion of all sorts of ammunition and many men at least in expectation to be sent him at a call About the beginning of December following the King having as he conceived made sure worke with the Scots comes to London where at his first comming to the House he makes open profession what content he had given to his Scotch Parliament even to a kind of ostentation and as to this Parliament some dislikes he was pleased to take against them for that in his absence they had no better forwarded their worke and as to his reception in the City it was magnificent and as it seemed very well pleasing to himselfe sure it was to the people and all the spectators which suspected nothing of his ill meaning towards the Parliament The King by this time having been at home much about 20 dayes had a new and another kind of game to play than that of meriment he found that the Parliament was then much distracted as good reason they
the West marches to assist the Irish Army landing at Milford as need should require and the President my Lord of Bridgewater commanded to wave that place for his Majesties speciall service a person as it seems that was too honest to be wrought upon At the same time his Lordship Cottington was likewise made Lord Warden of the Tower with authority to take in Souldiers and to fortifie that piece which accordingly was put in execution and the White-Tower planted with many great Ordnance with their mouths forced against the City to the great amazement of the Citizens and the whole Kingdom What the King meant or intended by these irregular and prodigious acts of his let the most willfull Malignant make his own judgement when as the whole Kingdom was never in a greater calme of peace loyalty and quietnesse or in any appearance of insurrection The Excise at that instant was likewise in agitation and the very same house wherein now that office is erected in Broadstreet taken by Cottington to the same purpose and Strafford much a-about that time dispatcht into Ireland there to call a Parliament for assistance in relation to the intended Scotch War where he musters a new the Irish army gets four Subsidies presently returns for Engl. where a Parl. for the same end was likewise summoned not any thing now stood as Remora in the way of the Kings great designe but those refractory Scots this was the block that in the first place must be removed to begin this work of darknesse first fomented by the Bishops especially Canterbury here and that pragmattick Prelat of Scotland Maxwell with Hamilton and Traquair on the by These two assisted by Strafford had the whole managery of that affair We must not too much insist on every particular this Scotch work alone requiring a volume to derive it from its first fountain and originall as a project of the old Kings to introduce the Episcopal power and Church Government there conformable to that of England and to suppresse or master that of the Kirk Presbyterian power as the only obstruction to absolute Soveraignty Gods providence and his wayes are insearchable and the carriage of this work of darknesse is very remarkeable it hath left the world in a maze how the Kings designs by this Scotch enterprize should turne and overthrow the whole frame and fabrick of all his former projections and of so faire a fore-game so to bring it about as on the very nick of the accomplishment to lose both it his reputation and life and at a time when all wise men had given the freedoms of the English nation utterly lost and meerly by the wilfulnesse of his own irregular motions more beloved reverenced and obeyed than any of his Predecessors The state of the three Kingdomes as abovesaid but a little before this Scotch enterprise as to a any Warre from abroad mutinies and insurrections at home was well known to be in as great a calme of Peace and quietnesse as in any reign since the Conquest the subject passive loyall and obedient to the Kings will and pleasure himfelf at peace and amity with all his Allyes Confederates and Neighbour-Princes nothing could be Imagined to have troubled him but his own ambition and those restlesse appetites of his which would not suffer him to enjoy content in the mid'st of prosperity and to rest satisfied in the fruition of more abundance than ever any King of England attain'd unto In this requiem could he have seen it was his soule restlesse and as we may of truth say by no instigation more troubled than by hers which had the honour of his Bed an unhappy unquietnesse which his principall privadoes rather added fewell to the fire thereof than water to quench it they had studied his inclination which was the rule they walkt by not how to apply wholsome medicines to cure the raging malady of his ambition which by none was more cherish'd than by the Bishops and his formal clergy in the way wherein his will and lust had predominance over his reason such as had not only taken the same fiery infection but as much laboured therein as himself whose sunction and office if grace had guided them it properly was rather to have applyed antidotes than venome to their Masters disease and to have told him plainly where the fault lay But to returne to the relation of this Scotch enterprise the King as before is intimated through meer necessity was induced to call a Parliament not to reforme abuses crept into the Common-wealth better it may be said violently introduced through his ill Government and discontinuance of Parliaments the ancient remedies of publick grievances but to supply his own wants in reference to the war intended the Kings wants being more pressing than ever the servants of his own side in Court a good space before debard of their Wages purposely to scrape up moneys towards this needlesse Warre the Queens Servants on the other side were notwithstanding exactly paid It would be superfluous and impertinent to describe the whole story of this designe so obvious and generally knowne to all the Kingdom how first this affair was carryed on by sending a new Litturgy to EDINBVRGH as an experiment how the Scots would swallow the first bayt to their inthraldome how there the Litturgy was resented and with what after disgusts it was not only refused but detested How that Traquire and Hamilton one after the other were Commissioned with power instructions to inforce their conformity what Flames Invectives and Comments flew here abroad of the Bishops penning of their Rebellion how againe the Scots stood upon their punctillioes in defence of themselves and their Covenant against this innovation how many Petitions and Messages past between them and the King how at last on dispute between their Commissioners and his Majesties at their first Treaty in the North and the aversnesse of the Kings souldiers to imbrace the quarrel the King granted them his royall Pascification and sent them home well satisfied how againe on his Majesties returne his act of Pascification was here in Court resented by the Queen and the Bishops and with what Language the King was affronted to have brought home a dishonourable Peace and obstructive to his own designes how then this needlesse and willfull quarrell was revived and the Kings Pacification vilified and burnt by the hands of the common Hangman and the King easily brought on anew to muster a second Army to subdue those stubborn and rebellious Scots as generally then especially by the Bishops they were stiled when as by the Free-quarter of his first Army most parts of the County of York were beggered and the Soldiery unpaid how the Parliament and generally the people abhor'd this war and refused to contribute towards it how thereupon quinto Maij 1649. it was suddenly dissolved how on the very same day the Cabinet Councell sate in close consultation at White-Hall how to raise moneys to defray