A SHORT VIEW OF THE LIFE and REIGN OF King Charles The second MONARCH OF GREAT BRITAIN From his Birth to his Burial Tacit. Hist. Lib. I. Alii diutius imperium tenuerunt Nemo tam fortiter reliquit LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane 1658. A SHORT VIEW OF THE Life and Reign of KING CHARLES The second Monarch of Great BRITAIN from his Birth to his Burial OUr Chronicles tell us of a Man in Queen Elizabeth's time that wrote the Ten Commandments the Creed the Pater-noster the Queens Name and the year of our Lord within the compasse of a Peny and gave the Queen a paire of Spectacles of such an Artificiall making that by the help thereof she did plainly and distinctly discern every Letter The contracting of the Life and Reign of King Charles in so narrow a compasse as I have limited to my self may seem to be a work of no lesse difficulty And yet I hope to do it in such a plain and perspicuous manner that every one who runs may read it without the help of any such Spectacles as our Chronicles speak of To Brevity I am injoyned and it must be my businesse to avoid all Obscurity though I am conscious to my self that I shall draw this Picture with too much shadow But I take the Pencil into my hand and thus form my lines 1600. CHARLES the third Son of James the sixth King of the Scots and of Anne his Wife Daughter of Frederick the second and Sister of Christiern the fourth Kings of Denmark was born at Dunfermeling one of the principall towns of Fife in Scotland on the nineteenth day of November Anno 1600. derived by a long descent of Royall Ancestors from Malcolm Conmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons So that his Title had been good to the Crown of England though he had borrowed no part of his Claim from the Norman Conquerour Which I observe the better to encounter the extravagant follies of some men in the book called Antinormanisme and some other Pamphlets of that time in which it is affirmed that this King had no other Right to the Crown then what he claimed from that Conquest and therefore that the English Nation having got the better of him by the Sword might lawfully free themselves from that subjection which by no other Title then the Sword of the Normans had been laid upon them At his first coming into the world he was so weak and unlike to live that his Christening was dispatcht in haste without attending the performance of those solemnities which are accustomably used at the Baptisme of such Princely infants And as the name of Henry was given to the Prince his Elder Brother with reference to Henry Lord Darnlie the Father of King James by Mary Queen of Scots so was this younger Son called Charles in relation to Charles Earle of Lenox the younger Brother of that Henry and by consequence Uncle to King James 1602. Having received some measure of strength he was at the Age of two years created Duke of Albany Marquesse of Ormond Earle of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanock of which four Titles the two first and the last are wholly at the Kings disposing to be bestowed on whom he pleaseth But the Earldom of Rosse falling unto the Crown in the time of King James the third was so setled in the Crown by Act of Parliament that it is not lawfull for the King to sell alienate or dispose the same unto any other then to the second Son of Scotland 1603. On the 26. of March next following Anno 1603. King James had news by Sir Robert Cary one of the younger Sons of the Lord Hunsdon who had stole a posting journey thither that Queen Elizabeth was dead contrary to the opinion of many of his Scottish Courtiers who being wearied with the tediousnesse of their expectation did believe at last that it should never be acknowledged by the Lords of England that the Queen was dead as long as there was any old woman of that Nation left to weare good Clothes and take the name of Queen upon her For bringing which news the Duke of Albany as if he were more concerned in it then all the rest of the Kings Children as indeed he was was afterwards committed to the Governance of Sir Roberts Lady and he himself from that time forwards of principall esteem and place about him This news being seconded by that of the Proclaiming of King James for her true and lawfull Successor in the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the King prepared himself for England At what time as I have been told by some Persons of Quality a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great Age came to his Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children the young Duke being then held in his Nurses Armes His Addresse unto the King consisted of Prayers for his long life and Prosperity and those Prayers intermixt with some desires that in the midst of the Felicities and Glories of the English Court he would not be unmindfull of his Native Countrey Which having said without taking any great notice of the Prince he applyed himself wholly to the Duke whose hands he kist with such an Ardency of Affection as if he meant they should grow for ever to his lips And when the King told him that he had mistook himself in his Addresses to the infant as not being his eldest Son and Prince of Scotland he answered that he knew well enough what he did and that it was this Child in whom his Name and Memory was to be perpetuated to succeeding Ages with other Speeches of like nature Which being then either unregarded or imputed unto age and dotage were called to mind after the death of Prince Henry and then believed to have something in them of a Prophetical spirit 1603. But to proceed On the fifth day of April in the year 1603. King James began his journey for England and in the end of May the Queen accompanied with Prince Henry and the Lady Elizabeth set forwards also finding at Berwick a Noble Train of Lords and Ladies sent thither from the Court to attend her coming and wait upon her in her journey 1604. The next year order was given for bringing the young Duke to the Court of England But before such as had the Charge of him could begin their journey the young Duke was taken with a feaver Which being signified to the King he sent thither Doctor Atkins one of his Physicians who in six weeks restored him to such a degree of health as made him fit to be removed to a Warmer Aire and a more comfortable Climate On the sixteenth of July this Remove began which brought him by short and easie stages in the first week of October to Windsor Castle where the King then was by whom
At first his Majesty conceived that the Bishop had made choice of that Chapter as being very agreeable to his present condition But when he understood that it was the Chapter which the Church had appointed for that day in her publick Kalendar he seemed to apprehend it with some signes of rejoycing No sooner had he done his Devotions but he is hurried to VVhite-Hall out of the Banqueting-house whereof a way was forced to a Seaffold on which he was to act the last part of his Tragedy in the sight of the people Having declared that he died a Martyr for the Lawes of this Kingdome and the Liberties of the Subjects he made a Confession of his Faith insinuating that he died a true Son of the Church of England he betook himself to his private Devotions and patiently submitted that Royal Head to an Executioner which had before been crowned with so much outward Pomp and Splendour The Members of both Houses had often promised him in their Petitions Messages and Declarations that they would make him a great and glorious King and now they were as good as their words changing his fading but painfull Crown of Thorns which they first platted for him to an immarcessible Crown of Glory At his first coming to the Crown one of his Chaplains in Ordinary and now a Bishop in this Church taking good heed unto the close contrivances of some and the seditious actings of others in his two first Parliaments thought fit to give him and his Council such an item of it as might awaken them to prevent those mischiefs which otherwise might ensue upon it And thereupon he preached before them on these words of S. Matthews Gospel viz But when the husbandmen saw the Son they said among themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Mat. 21.38 In the dissecting of which Text he made such an Anatomy of the Husbandmen whom he had in hand with reference to some Plots and Practises which were then on foot and his whole discourse upon the same that he gave the King and those about him such Remembrances as might make them have an eye unto themselves and the publick safety But then withall though he carried on the matter with great care and prudence he drew so much danger on himself from some leading Members in the second Parliament who thought themselves as much concerned in the Sermon as the chief Priest and Pharisees did in the Parable that he was upon the point of leaving the Kingdome when he had news that his Majesty had dissolved the second Parliament in no small displeasure What he then preached concerning the said Husbandmen was after practised and that he then fore-signified was accomplished now Which shewes him to have been both a Priest and a Prophet if at the least the name of a Prophet may be given unto any man who foretelleth not of things to come by Divine Revelation but out of a deep insight into businesse But we return unto the King whom if we looke on in his Children the most lively Images and Representations of deceased Parents we shall find him to have been the Father of four Sons and five Daughters 1. CHARLES-JAMES born at Greenwich on Wednesday the 13. of May 1629. but died almost as soon as born having been first christened by Dr. Web one of the Chaplains in Attendance and afterwards a Bishop in Ireland 2. CHARLES Duke of Cornwall by Birth Prince of Wales in Designation and Knight of the Garter born at his Majesties house of Saint James neer VVestminster May 29. 1630. solemnly crowned King of the Scots at Edenburgh on the first day of January Anno 1650. But being invaded by an Army from England under the command of Generall Cromwell he was forced to quit that Kingdome and try his fortunes in the other so closely followed by the Army which compelled him to that Expedition he was fought with neer VVorcester on the third of September 1651. before the Earl of Darby and some others of his party here could come to aid him with their Forces In which Battel though he acted beyond the expectation of his Friends and to the great applause of his very Enemies yet it so pleased the Divine Providence that he lost the day and being miraculously preserved notwithstanding the diligent search which was made after him he passed safely over into France to the Queen his Mother Finding that Court unsafe for him he passed into Flanders accompanied with his Brother the Duke of York Anno 1654. where they have continued ever since 3. JAMES born in the same place on the 13. day of October Anno 1633. entituled Duke of York by his Majesties command at the time of his birth created so by Letters Patents bearing date at Oxford January 27. Anno 1643. and not long after made Knight of the Garter Taken prisoner at the surrendry of Oxford June 24. 1646. he was carried to his Majesties house of Saint James and there kept under a Guard with his Brother and Sister but being attired in the habit of a young Lady he was conveyed thence about two years after by one Collonel Bamfield who brought him safely into Holland and presented him a most welcome guest to the Princesse of Orange from whence he past afterwards into France to his Mother and Brother 4 HENRY born on the eighth of July designed to the Dukedome of Glocester and so commanded to be called Left by his Majesty at the House of Saint James the place of his birth at such time as he withdrew towards the North Anno 1642 he remained there till the Death of his Father and some years after and then upon the promise of an Annual pension was permitted to go into France to his Mother and the rest of the Kings Children But in the year 1654. almost as soon as his two elder Brethren had removed themselves into Flanders he found a strong practise in some of the Queens Court to seduce him to the Church of Rome whose Temptations he resisted beyond his years and thereupon was sent for by them into Flanders 5. MARY born on the fourth of November 1631. and married to Count VVilliam of Nassau Eldest Son to HENRY Prince of Orange on Sunday the second of May Anno 1641. conveyed by the Queen her Mother into Holland in February following where she stil remains Her Husband having succeeded his Father in all his Titles and Estates died young and left her the hopefull Mother of a Son now Prince of Orange 6. ELIZABETH born the twenty eighth of January 1635. survived her Father but died with hearts grief not long after 7. ANNE born the seventeenth of March 1637. died before her Father 8. KATHARINE who died almost as soon as born 9. HENRIETTA born at Exceter June the sixteenth 1644. conveyed not long after into France by the Lady Dalkeith to the Queen her Mother where she still remains It is observed of the VVolf that as
the mystery of iniquity appeared in its proper colours For whereas it was formerly given out by the Houses of Parliament that they had undertaken the war for no other reason but to remove the King from his evill Counsellours those evil Counsellours were left at Oxford unmolested and the Kings Person onely hunted But the King understanding of this division thought himself able enough to deal with Waller and giving him the go by returned towards Oxford drew thence the remainder of his Army and gave him a sharp meeting at a place called Cropredy bridge where he obtained a signal victory on the twenty eighth of June and entred triumphantly into Oxford This done he marched after the Earl of Essex who had made himself master of some places in the West of good importance During this march it happened that one of the Carriages brake in a long narrow lane which they were to passe and gave His Majesty a stop at a time of an intollerable shower of rain which fell upon him Some of his Courtiers and others which were neere about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvelled at the patience which he shewed in that extremity His Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him Afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his Afflictions A speech so heavenly and Divine that it is hardly to be paralell'd by any of the men of God in all the Scripture The carriage being mended he went forward again and trode so close upon the heels of the Earl of Essex that at last he drave him into Cornwell and there reduced him to that point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Sir Philip Stapleton and some others and left his whole army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Canon Baggage and Ammunition being of very great consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this successe his Majesty dispatch'd a message from Tavestock to the two houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable condition of the Kingdome remembring them of those many messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommondation of the present Differences and now desiring them to be think themselves of some expedient by which this issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom setled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happinesse To which Message as to many others before they either gave no answer or such an one as rather served to widen than close the breach falsely conceiving that all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weaknesse and irresolution of his Counsels So that the Trage-Comedy of the two Harlots in the first of Kings may seem to have been acted over again on the Stage of England The King like the true Mother compassionately desired that the life of the poor infant might be preserved the Houses like the false Mother considering that they could not have the whole voted that it should be neither mine nor thine but divided betwixt them But if instead of this Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched with his Army towards London it was conceived that in all probability he might have made an end of the War the Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern service But sitting down before Plimouth and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by the Earl of Manchester and Sir William VValler made a stand at Newbery where after a very hot fight with variable success on both sides each party drew off by degrees so that neither of them could find cause to boast of the victory Winter comes on which though it be not ordinarily a time of Action will notwithstanding afford us some variety which will not be unworthy of our observation And first a Garrison is formed at Abington a Town within five miles of Oxford by order from the two Houses of Parliament under the command of Colonell Brown the King and Councill looking on and suffering the Intrenchments to be made the Works to be raised and the Ordnance to be planted on the same It cannot be denyed but that Sir Henry Gâ—ge Governour at that time of Oxford and many of the chief Commanders which were then in and about that City offered their service to the King and earnestly desired leave to prevent that mischief which by the Intrenchments of this Town must needs fall upon them But the Lord George Digby not long before made principall Secretary of Estate had perswaded the King unto the contrary upon assurance that he held intelligence with Brown and that as soon as the Town was fortified and furnished with Victuall Arms and Ammunition at the charges of the Houses of Parliament it would immediately be delivered into His Majesties hand In which design he was out-witted and consequently exposed unto some losse of reputation with all sorts of People For Brown having brought his project to the highest round of the ladder as himself expressed it thought it high time to turn it off and to declare himself for the two Houses against the King printing not long after all the Letters which passed between him and the Lord Digby upon this ocasion After this followed the taking of Shrewsbury a place of very great importance to the King as the Gate which opened into Wales situate on a rising ground and almost encompassed round about by the river Severn that part which is not invironed by water being wholly taken up and made good by a very strong Castle By the loss of which Town the Kings former entercourse with His loyall Subjects of North-Wales was not onely hindred but a present stop was given to an Association which was then upon the point of concluding between the Counties of Salop Flint Chester Worcester c. to the great prejudice of the Kings Affairs in those Parts of the Kingdome Then comes the lamentable death of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept for four years a prisoner in the Tower of London as before was said but reserved onely as a bait to bring in the Scots whensoever the Houses should have occasion for their second coming as formerly on the like temptation they had drawn them in with reference to the Earl of Strafford The Scots being come and doing good service in
the North it was thought fit they should be gratified with that blood which they so greedily thirsted after And thereupon the Archbishop being voted guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons was condemned to die in such a slender House of Lords that onely seven viz. the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook the Lords North Gray and Brewes were present at the passing of the sentence of his condemnation Which being past he was brought unto the Scaffold on Tower-hill on the tenth of January where he ended his life with such a modest confidence and so much piety that his greatest enemies then present who came to behold the Execution with hearts full of joy returned back with eyes as full of tears Last of all comes another Treaty sollicited by the King consented to by the Houses with no small difficulty and that upon condition to have the Treaty held at Uxbâ—idge a Town about fifteen miles from London and more then twice as much from Oxford According unto which appointment the Commissioners met on the thirtieth of January accompanied with some Divines for debating the point of Church Government when it came in question But this Treaty proved as unsuccessefull as that at Oxford had done before the Commissioners for the Houses offering no expedient for an Accommodation nor hearkening unto such as were tendred to them in the name of the King So that there being no hope of bringing the Warre unto an end this way both parties were resolved to proceed in the other The King having wintered his Army at Oxford and the Towns adjoyning it was thought fit to send the Prince into the West to perfect the Association which had been begun in the end of the last summer and in those Countries to advance such further forces as might not onely serve for the defence of themselves but give some reasonable increase to His Mâ—jesties Army In the beginning of April he set forwards towards Bristol accompanied with the Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hide as his principall Counsellours and some of the chief Gentry of the West who were of most authority in their severall Countreys But before he had made himself Master of any considerable strength news câ—me of the unfortunate successe of the Baâ—tel of Nasby which much retarded his proceedings and hearing afterwards that Sir Thomas Fairfax with his victorious Army was marching towards him he quitted Somerset-shire and drew more Westward into the middle of Devonshire Bristol being taken and his Majesties affairs growing worse and worse both there and elsewhere he sent a Message unto Fairfax desiring a safe conduct for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpeper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights deliberation he receives an answer the eight of November to this effect That if he would disband his Army and apply himself unto the Parliament the Generall himself in person would conduct him thither No hopes of doing good this way and lesse the other Exeter being besieged and Barnstable taken by the enemies forces he leaves his Army to the Lord Hopton and withdraws into the Dukedome of Cornwall But finding that Countrey unable to protect him long he passeth into the Isle of Scilly and from thence unto the Queen his Mother whom he found at Paris not doubting but to receive such entertainment in that Court as might be justly looked for by the eldest Son of a Daughter of France Which passages I have laid together in this place that I might follow his Majesties affairs elsewhere with the less interruption The Prince being gone for Bristoll as before is said his Majesty resolved on the approch of Summer to relieve such of his Northern Garrisons as had been left untaken the year before and from thence to bestow a visit on the associated Counties But being on his march and having stormed the Town of Leicester in his way he returned again so far as Daventry upon the news that Sir Thomas Fairfax newly made Generall in the place of Essex was sate down before Oxford Concerning which we are to know that not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents of which the Presbyterians at the first carryed all before them The Independents growing up by little and little and being better studied in the arts of dissimulation easily undermined the others and outed their Lord-Generall and all that commanded under him of their severall places under colour of an Ordinance for Self-denyall That done they conferred that command on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man of more Precipitation then Prudence not so fit for Counsell as Execution and better to charge on an Enemy then command an Army With him they joyned Collonel Oliver Cromwel whom they dispensed with in the point of self-denyall by the name of Lieutenant General but so that he disposed of all things as Commander in chief and left Fairfax to his old trade of Execution to which he had been accustomed The like alteration happened also in the Kings Army Collonel Sir Patrick Ruthen a man of approved valour and Fidelity being by his Majesty made Earl of Forth in Scotland was on the death of the Earl of Lindsey made the Lord Lieutenant of his Armies and the next year made Earl of Brentfort for the good service he had done in that place Having both fortunately and faithfully discharged that office for two years and more he was outed of his place by a Court-contrivement made in the favour of Prince Rupert who a little before Christmas last was declared Generallissimo of his Majesties Forces which he most ambitiously aspired unto and at last obtained notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston-Moor his squandring away so brave an army and his apparent want of Age Experience and Moderation for so great a trust By these new Generals the fortune of the War and the whole estate of the Kingdome which lay then at stake came to be decided For Fairfax hearing that the King was come back as far as Daventry which was the matter he desired made directly towards him with an intent to give him battel and at a place neer Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies met on Saturday the 14. of June The King had the better at the first but Prince Rupert having routed one wing of the enemies Horse followed the chace so unadvisedly that he left the foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Canon and amongst other things of his Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which were after publisht with little honour to them that did it For whereas the Athenians on the like successe had intercepted a packet of Letters from Philp King of Macedon their most bitter enemy unto severall friends all the rest of those Letters