Speech shewing them some reasons for the necessity of their being dissolved he peremptorily declared them to be dissolved But the Speaker refusing to leave the Chair Cromwell began to huff and fall into a passion telling them they were a company of drunkards whoremasters Hipocrites Knaves and Oppressors and commanded that the Bauble the Mace should be took from them and no more carried before them and Harrison taking the Speaker by the Arm lifted him out of his Chair and having thus turned them out of doors he lock'd them up and set a Guard of Soldiers at them and at all the Avenues that they might not meet again in that place and thus exeunt Tyranni one Devil driving out another to make way at last for their Lawful Prince This done Cromwell returning to his Council of Officers told them of his Exploit and let them know that now they must go hand in hand with them and justifie it by their lives and fortunes they having advised him to it He told them that when he went to the House he did not think to do it but perceiving the Spirit of God so strongly upon him he would no longer consult Flesh and Blood for the Parliament intended to have perpetuated themselves This Action of his tho arbitrary illegal and tyrannical was generally applauded by all sorts of people these Rumpers were grown so very odious by their tyrannick Usurpation And the King's Friends both at home and abroad were not a little joyful to see this Turn and to behold them dethroned and trampled on even in the midst of their Laurels obtained for their Victories over the Dutch Grievous Muttering they kept for this violence done to them by their Servant as they stiled him thinking it none when he did the like to those secluded Members that would not vote with them against the King but as mad as they were they saw no help for it and it was not possible for them to get together tho they would not own themselves dissolved and thus our usurping Junto went out like a Snuff with a Stink smelling very unsavourly in the Nostrils of the whole Nation Thus far have I traced out to you the Lines of the Image of Arbitrary and Tyrannick Usurpation and how ugly and grim a Representation it is you who have seen it truly delineated may judge You have seen this Titular Parliament unjustly seize upon the Government by murthering their King and against all Laws thrust out two of the States of the Land the Lords Spiritual first and then the Lords temporal and having now grasp'd the Government with rapacious hands with the like Injustice and Arbitrariness turn the greater part of their own Members out of Doors and rule by a few bloody and tyrannical Usurpers You have likewise seen after what manner they have swayed the three Nations by their own Arbitrary Wills and Pleasures as so many lawless Tyrants upholding an Army only to cut the Peoples Throats and to over-awe them burthening them with Taxes and oppressing them with a standing Army and free Quarter taking away their lives by an Arbitrary Court of Justice contrary to the known Laws of the Land and robbing and spoiling all men of their Estates that opposed them filling the Jayls thorowout the three Kingdoms with Prisoners The Liberties of the Subject overthrown Magna Charta and all the Laws and Ancient Constitutions of Parliaments trodden under foot and disregarded so as no man could call any thing his own And in fine all the People of England made Slaves by these the Keepers of their Liberties so that it was no wonder that there was a general rejoycing at their fall tho as yet it was but out of the Frying-pan into the Fire having exchanged two hundred Tyrants for one as Lawless Boundless and Arbitrary as they or a Rump for an Oliver I should now proceed to give a further Display of this Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government under the Usurpation of Oliver Cromwell who had pull'd these down only to set up himself but before I enter upon it I think it will not be ungrateful to the Reader and not impertinent to my Design to shew you what a sort of men these were who had thus long usurped by a brief Character of some of the chiefest of them and what benefit they made of their pretended Godliness giving one another Estates out of the Kings Queens Bishops Deans and Chapters and Delinquents Lands And I will begin with Oliver Cromwell the Lucifer of the rest who out-witted them all and ruled by himself with greater Power and more absolute Sway than ever any Monarch of England did He was very well descended of a Knightly Family in the County of Huntington being born in S. John's Parish in the Town of Huntington the twenty fifth of April 1599 being the Son of Mr. Robert Cromwell who was the third Son of Sir Henry Cromwell a Gentleman of great worth honored and beloved in Court and Country whose eldest Son Sir Oliver Cromwell a Gentleman well known for his Loyalty and Uncle to this our Oliver was his God-father and gave him his Name His Mother was thâ—â— Daughter of Sir Richard Steward of Ely They therefore were much mistaken who said he was the Son of a Brewer tho indeed his Mother even in his Father's Life-time did manage a Brew-House by their Servants and after her Husbands death continued the same as an honest means of Livelyhood the Patrimony of a younger Brother being but small He was observed in his Youth to be ambitious willful and head-strong which improved with his years and always and upon all occasions exercised the Impostor under the mask of Hypocrisie However he was bred at School where he got some smattering in the Rudiments of Learning but was so violent and head-strong and so very prone to robbing Orchards and Dove-Houses that he grew the terror of the Country and past his Tutor's Correction It was about that time he dream'd he should be King of England if it were not more than a Dream a suggestion of some evil Spirit for he would often confidently report it in his Youth tho rebuked by his Father for it and flash'd by his Master Dr. Bernard for his constant avouching it And acting in a Play in the School going beyond his Cue he took a Crown and put it on his own Head and as if inspired spake some big words with great authority Thence he was translated to Cambridge where he was more noted for Foot-ball Cudgelling and Wrestling than for his Studies to which he little gave his mind and after his Father's death left the University and returning home fell to all manner of Licentiousness and Debauchery and grew so distastful to his Mother and Neighbourhood that she sent him away to London and enters him into Lincolns-Inn intending to make him a Lawyer but finding this place not agreeable to his humor he stayed not long before he returned back into the Country where he fell to his
of Clouts or in Show or a meer Duke of Venice Then their own Declaration printed and published shewed how well Arbitrariness thrived when they owned That their Votes were not to be questioned either by King or People That no Precedents could bound their proceedings That the Soveraign Power resides in the two Horses That the King hath no negative Voyce That a levying War against the personal Commands of the King tho he were present is not a levying War against the King but that a levying War against his Laws and Authority is levying War against the King which was levying War against them That Treason could not be committed against the person of the King otherwise then he was intrusted That they had power to judge of his Actions and whether he discharged his trust or not and that they were only judges of the Law Their Arbitrary putting to death of Yeomans and Boucher at Bristol and others at London for endeavouring to shew their Royalty to their King and Acting against them and their illegal Authority Voting and making a new Seal and breaking all the Kings old Seals Privy Signets of the King's bench Exchequer Court of Wards Admiralty c. Beheading of several persons by a Court martial against Law and Equity Putting Arch-Bishop Laud to Death after four years Imprisonment Their taking the Scotch solemn League and Covenant for the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the alteration of Religion â—sâ—â—blished by Law contrâ—ry to Law and according to their own illegal and Arbitrary proceedings With many more Acts of the same nature which plainly declared to all the World how far they had deviated from their first more plausible Pretexts But all this while I say by the Kings great Concession in yielding to pass that Act which wrought him so much Mischief they seemed to have a shadow of Power from the King and acted as an House tho contrary to the King the Laws of the Land the Liberty of the Subject and against Equity Conscience and Religion But now after the King had been delivered up to them from the Scots and that they had subdued all his Forces and Garrisons Ragland Castle in Wales being the last that held out for his Majesty then they shewed their power more manifestly and that their Intentions were to usurp the Regal Authority altogether having thus far tasted the sweetness of it and thrived in their Rebellion On the 4 th of June 1647. a Party of Horse under Cornet Joyce seized the King at Holdenby where he was under restraint by the Parliaments order and Carried him away to the Army and thence by them brought to Hampton Court about the middle of August where both the Parliament and Army make to him their several unjust Proposals after the insolent manner of Victors which the King could in no ways grant being contrary to his Conscience his Crown and Dignity At the same time the Independant Officers of the Army kept their chief Cabals at Putnâ—y where it was proposed among them That it was not safe for them nor the Kingdom to grant any Power to the King That it was not for them to set up a Power which God had determined to pull down That the power of Kings was grown a burthen to the Nation and that the reason of all their Distractions in their Counsels was from their Compliance to save that man of Bood and to uphold the Tyranny which God by their many Successes had declared against Where also Major General Harrison made a speech pressing them to the taking off the King Who having notice of these wicked Agitators Actions makes his escape from Hampton Court leaving a Letter behind him intending to get over to the Islâ— of Jersey but being in the Isle of Wight he put himself under the Protection of Collonel Hammond a Parliament man and Governour there who sending â—otice thereof to the Parliament they Vote That he should be continued in the Castle of Cowes That no Malignants shall stay in the Island That no Delinquent or Forreigner should be permitted to come to him without the Parliaments leave That five Thousand pounds should be advanced for his Accommodation and That tâ—eâ— would consider who should attend his Person In the mean time the Independent party of the Army cause a Mutiny which tho quelled by the Industry of Cromwel and his Son-in-Law Ireton yet it caused them to alter their Councels and to joyn with them against the Parliament and all accommodation whatsoever with the King The King sends a Letter to the Parliament from the Isle of Wight dated November 18. 1647. superscribed to the Speaker of the House of Lords to be communicated to the House of Commons In which he granted for Peace-sake the setling of Presâ—ytery for three years And the Militia in the hands of the Parliament during his Reign with a Proviso by Patent that then it should return again to his Successors And also that they should have the Choice of his Privy Councellors and desired earnestly to have with them a personal treaty in London After a long debate upon this Letter the Commissioners of Scotland also pâ—â—ssing them to comply with the Kings just desires on the 26 th of November they concluded That four Previous Acts should be drawn up and sent to the King to which if he would sign they Voted That they then would admit of a personal Treaty with him These unreasonable Proposals drawn into form of Acts were these First an Act for raising settling and maintaining Forces by Sea and Land c. In which they fully and wholly divested the King of the Militia his 〈◊〉 and Successors for ever and gave an unlimitted power to the two houses to raise what Forces they please for Land or Sea and of what persons they please and what Money they please to maintain them The second was that all Declarations Oaths Proclamations against the Parliament might be recalled or against all or any that adhered to them The third an Act that those Peers that were made after the great Seal was carried away from the Parliament might be made uncapable of sitting in the house of Peers And lastly That Power may be given to the two Houses to adjourn themselves as they think fit By these you may easily perceive to what height they were come of all unreasonableness These were presented to the King at Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight on the 24 th of December 1647 by the Earl of Denby the Lord Mountague Lisle Goodwin Bunkley and Kemp Commissioners from both Houses of Parliament The King it may well be thought having no desire to dethrone himself and enslave his Subjects refused the Bills and desired to Treat personally sending them his reasons in Writing Whereupon Sr. Tho. wroth moves the House That the King who had Acted like a Mad man should be secured in some inland Castle with sure Guards That Articles of Impeachment should be drawn up against him That he should be wholly lay'd by
on by the secret and forcible Machinations of Oliver and his Cabal The second day being Monday the 22 d. of January the Court met again and the Solicitor Cook urged extreamly for judgment against the Prisoner unless he would own the Authority of the Court which the King constantly denyed to do and offered his reasons against them but they would not be heard The 3 d. day being January 23 d. the King was brought again before the Court who had in the Painted Chamber the day before Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction and had ordered That in case he offer'd to dispute the Authority of the Court that the President should let him know that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have Constituted this Court whose Power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him And that in case he should refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President should let him know his Contumacy should be recorded But the King still persisted in the denyal of their Authority upon which the Clark reads Charles Stewart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of Confession or denial of the Charge But the King told them he could not acknowledge a new Court set up contrary to the Priviledges of the People to alter the fundamental Laws of the Land The 4 th and last day was the 27 th of January 1648. where appeared about fifty six of those Commissioners who sate when judgment was given against the King by their President Bradshaw But the King having moved to be heard before the Lords and Commons in the painted Chamber promising after that to abide the judgement of the Court they withdrew for half an hour and returning they told the King This was but another denial of the Courts jurisdiction and therefore if he had no more to say they would proceed to Judgement Upon this after Bradshaw had made a long Speech endeavouring to justifie their Proceedings on this false point That the People are the supream Power whom the Commons represented he commanded the Clark to read the Sentence which was drawn up in Parchment in these words Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament have appointed them an High Court of Justice for the trying of Charles Stewart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and the first time a Charge of high Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Here the Charge at length was read after which the Clark proceeds which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid He the said Charles Stewart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge the said Charles Stewart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick Enemy shall be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body After this wicked Sentence passed by these Miscreants the King was had away to Sr. Robert Cotten's and thence to St. James's the rude Soldiers in his passage by them blowing Tobacco in his Face and one spit on it which he wiped off with his Hand-kerchief without taking notice of it But when he heard some of them to Cry out Justice Justice he said alas Poor Souls for a piece of Money they will do as much for their Commanders On the 29 th a Committee met in the paintâ—d Chamber to consider on the time and place of the Kings death which they ordered to be the next day before his own Palace Gate which was approved of by the Commissioners and a Warrant Signed and Sealed by them directed to Hacker Hunts and Phare and order that Marshal Nye Caryl Salway and Dell should attend on his Majesty and to administer to him spiritual help but the King would not be troubled with them and at his desire Doctor Juxon Bishop of London was admitted to Pray with him in private in his Chamber and to administer to him the Sacrament and his Children permitted to come to see him But John Godwin was also sent to be an over-looker of their Actions In the mean time the Junto Pen a Proclamation which they afterwards caused to be published making it high Treason for any man to proclaim or publish Charles Stewart the Son to be rightful Heir and Successor to the Crown of England after his Fathers death or any other of that Line King of England and that no man under Pain of imprisonment or other Arbitrary punishment which they should think fit to inflict shall Preach Write or speak any thing contrary to the present Proceedings of the supream Authority of this Nation the Commons of England assembled in Parliament The Sunday before the King dyed it is reported that some of the chief of the Army and Parliament tendred the King a paper to sign with promise of Life and some shew of a King the Power being wholly invested on themselves and was Destructive to the Fundamental Laws of the Land to the Religion established to the Liberties and Properties of the People one Proposition whereof was To continue the Power of the Sword to the Army and to have as a standing Force under the same general Officers forty Thousand Horse and Foot they to have the Choice of their own Officers among themselves by a Councel of War and to settle a constant Tax upon the People by way of a Land rate for the payment of the said Army and to be collected and levyed by themselves and a Court martial to be Erected of an exorbitant Extent and Latitude But his Majesty disdaining to read them all flung them aside and told them He should rather become a Sacrifice for his People and dye by their Hands than so to betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates the Church and Honour of his Crown and so to make all Slaves to the Arbitrary Will and Tyranny of an Army O Glorious Prince Oh height of Impudence of armed Arbitrariness See yet how they proceed on the 29 th of January the Junto Vote That it be enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same That in all Courts of Law Justice Equity and in all Writs Grants Patents Commissions Inditements Informations Suits Returns of Writs Fines Recoveries Exemplificationr Recognizances Processes and Proceedings at Law c. Within the Kingdom of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales c. Instead of the Name Style or Title of King heretofore used should thence forward be used and no other than the Name Style or Title Custodes Libertatis Aâ—glie Authoritate Parliamenti The keepers of the Liberty of England by Authority of Parliament and the date of the Year of our Lord and no
by his Writ to confer with him as his Parliament Arduis negotâ—is or about urgent Affairs was Resolued 1 Hen. 4. Rot. Parl. n. 14.14 Hen. 4. Cook 4 th Institut p. 46. c. For it is not natural to suppose and impossible That the Lords and Commons should be a Parliament and make Acts and Laws without the King as for a Body to move and Act without an Head and therefore had there been any such thing intended to have been Enacted it was void because impossible for the Kings Royal assent could not be had after his Death and there is no Clause in the Act that obliges his Successor to Consent which clearly shews they never had any such intention at the making of this Act. And therefore on the death of the King all Commissions both of the Judges and others cease and all Proceedings determined tho the King is said to sit in the Court of the Kings-Bench in his politick Capacity which indeed never dyes so as to cause an Interregnum but other wayes as to the Continuance of Commissions Writs c. which must be renewed Consider also that if these men after the Death of the King could be a Parliament they must be so either by the Common Law and Custom of Parliaments which is clearly against them or by this Statute which as little Countenances them for they would then be another thing distinct from the Parliament which was summoned in the Kings Life for the Country had no Power to elect their Representatives but by the King 's Writ and therefore could receive no more Power from them than the Tenour of the Kings Writ granted which determining with the Kings Life their Representative-Power was also determined and by Consequence they could be no longer a Parliament If it could be thought they could be yet so by that Act then it follows That a Parliament by their Act might create another Parliament to exist after themselves were dissolved which is most absur'd and alters the Root and Foundation of all the Liberties of the Subject for they become no longer their Representatives but a Parliament by their own Act and it will never be thought that the people intended to entrust them with their Authority to change the Government and deprive them of their Fundamental Priviledges The Parliament cannot De jure do any thing against natural Equity quia jura naturae sunt immutabilia And also by the judgement of a Parliament this could not be being against the Law and Custom of Parliament for Ro. Parl. 42. E. 3. no 7. it is declared by the Lords and Commons in full Parliament upon demand made of them in the behalf of the King That they could not assent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disherision of the King and his Crown to which they were Sworn Now this Act of the 17 th of Caroli Primi is expresly against the Kings Successors Prerogative to call his own Parliament and therefore they could not make such an Act to the Disherision of his King and Crown A Parliament may be three ways Dissolved by the Declaration of the Kings pleasure or for want of entring their Continuances or by the Kings death whereby the Kings Writ which gives them their Authority is determined These words That this Parliament shall not be Dissolved unless by Act of Parliament is a general Negative which cannot extend to all Causes of Dissolution but have a respect only to that most usually hapning the Pleasure of the King till the pretended Grievances of the time were satisfied Now in all Times the judges have excepted particular Cases out of the general Negative or Affirmative Words of Statutes By the Star of Magna Charta C. 11. 'T is enacted That Common pleas shall not follow or be sued in the Kings-Bench which is a general Negative yet it is holden to be clear in Law That the King is not within these general Words and may sue in his Bench or any other Court at his Pleasure The Statute of Winchester is a general Statute That the Hundred c. shall make Satisfaction for all Robberies and Fellonies within the Hundred yet it is Resolved That the Hundreds shall make no Satisfaction for the Robberies of an House because the House was the owners Castle and he might have defended himself and preserved his Goods Besides this Clause in the said Act That all and every thing done or to be done for the Proroguing or Dissolving of this present Parliament contrary to this present Act shall be utterly voyd and of none Effect By which it appears That the cause of Dissolution which they intended to prevent was something that should consist in Action by the words Thing or Things done or to be done which words can only be applicable to an Actual dissolution by the Kings pleasure And the King's death is not a thing done but a Cessation of his personal being and of the Dependants thereupon And is not an Action but a Termination or Period So that it is most Clear these men could no longer by any the least Colour of Law or Reason pretend to sit and Act as a Parliament But alas What are Arguments to them who had usurp'd the Throne and Power of their Soveraign and had the vain and idle Hopes to keep it And to the strengthening themselves with all the Arbitrary and Tyrannical ways imaginable they proceed First they issue out their spurious Act before mentioned against proclaiming the King tho by the Law of the Land instantly upon the King's decease the imperial Crown of the Kingdom of England was by his inherent Birthright and by an undoubted Succession and Descent Actually vested in our now Soveraign eldest Son to the murthered King and next Heir of the Blood to his Royal Father and that before any Ceremony of Coronation as by Stat. of 1. Jacobi Ch. 1. And that all Peers of the Realm Majors Sheriffs and other chief Officers in all the Cities and Corporations of England are oblig'd by their places and Allegiance to proclaim him under pain of High Treason and forfeiting their City and Corporation Charters And notwithstanding the Junto's Prohibition there were several Proclamations printed and scatter'd about the City which proclaimed and asserted the Right of the Prince as next Heir to the Crown and by Birthright to be the lawful King of Great Britain c. Dated the 1 st of February Then also in like manner was privately scatter'd about another Paper in which were four Propositions briefly declaring That the House of Commons had no Power of themselves alone and without the Concurrance of the King and House of Lords to make any Act of Parliament Ordinance or to impose any Tax Oath Forfeiture or Capital Punishment on any Secondly That the few Members now sitting were no Court of Justice in themselves and could Erect no such Court for the Tryal of any person nor had Power to hear and determine any Civil or Criminal Causes and that
with whom Cromwell by private Messengers held them in hand of a Treaty putting them in hopes of reconciling the Business without blows which made them neglectful till Fairfax and Cromwell fell upon them in their Quarters unsuspected their Horses being most at Grass at twelve a Clock of the night routed them and took about four hundred Prisoners of which only three were shot to Death the rest pardoned by Cromwell's Intercession to ingratiate himself with the Army One Thomson and two more dyed very Resolutely This business being over the General and Cromwell come to Oxford where they are feasted and made Doctors of the Civil Law And now the Army were fain to submit and accepted their Lots for going to Ireland which were these following Ireton's Scroop's Horton's and Lambert's Regiments of Horse Collonel Abot's of Dragoons And of Foot Collonel Eure's Cook 's Hewson's and Dean's to which were added three new ones Cromwell's Venable's and Phayer's Cromwell was made Commander in Chief with the Title of Lord Governour of Ireland and Fairfax was left at home to attend the Junto In the mean time the Keepers of the peoples Liberties were as fast as they could taking away the Lives of several Persons in several places whose Loyalty and Consciences had engaged them for their King as Lievtenant Collonel Moris and Cornet Blackborn who â—uffered at York the former having been Governour of Pomfret and one Beamount a Minister was hanged at Pomfret by Sentence of a Court Marshal Major Monday was shot to Death at Leicister Poyer a brave Gentleman in Covent-garden for the Welch Insurrection Sr. John Stowell and Judge Jenkins were arraigned at the Kings-Bench Bar as Traytors against the Government for their Loyalty to their King but they would not own the Courts jurisdiction yet they were not yet Sentenced but their Estates seized and Judge Jenkins kept long a Prisoner And that the people might the better see their Freedom and Liberty this Rump lay upon them a standing Tax of ninety thousand pound a Month for the maintenance of the Army these were the Persons who made such a stir about Ship-money The Lord Major of London Reynoldson is fined two thousand Pound for refusing to proclaim their Act for abolishing Kingly Government Then upon a report from the Councel of State they order The Kings's and Queens Lands to be sold Thirty thousand Pound to be taken out of it for the use of the Fleet and the rest to be distributed amongst the most considerable among them for Satisfaction of Losses sustained Thus they had killed and were now taking possession and several of the Kings Houses and Mannors were bestowed amongst them And besides this they had twenty thousand Pound a month out of the Fee-Farm Rents Now that the World might perceive what Liberty should be granted to the people they Order That no Minister in his Pulpit should meddle with State affairs and this in others was Oppression and tying up mens Consciencâ—â— But for all that new Lights as they called them increased and about this time one that was a Soldier came to Walton upon the Thames in Surry and in the Church-yard having a Candle and Lanthorn with him met the Minister and People coming out of the Church and told them he had a Vision and five new Lights were shewed him which they were to receive from him under pain of Damnation The first was That the Sabbath was abolished The second That Tythes were abolished Third That Ministers were abolish'd as Antichristian Fourth That Magistrates were abolish'd as useless and Fifthly That the Bible was abolish'd for Christ was come in the Spirit and Glory and so drawing a little Bible out of his Pocket he set it on Fire before them The War with Holland being now about to break forth the Earl of Warwick's former Commission is made voy'd and three Generals of the Fleet were made who were Popham Blake and Dean Before Cromwel's going to Ireland a Fast was kept at White-Hall where among the Militant Preachers Oliver stood up and in his Prayer he desired God to take off from him the Government of this mighty people of England as being too heavy for his shoulders to bear About this time also a third Book of John Lilburn's came sorth Called The Picture of thâ— Councel of State wherein he fully set forth all the illegal Arbitrary Violent and Tyrannical Proceedings of that Councel Lilburn Overton Walwin Prince and others had been before Clapt into the Tower intending to try them for their Lives Lilburn was ordered to be brought to the Kings-Bench Bar upon his Habeas Corpus but Cromwell sent to the Lieutenant of the Tower that he should not be brought who was obey'd not the Judges By which may be seen of what force the Laws were with them Then some thousands well affected Women petition the House in behalf of Lilburn but the Junto answered them He should be tryed by the Law for his Book called Englands new Chains discovered and they bid to go home and wash their Dishes Who reply'd they had neither Dishes nor Meat left This John Lilburn was tryed by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer in October 1649. where he so notably pleaded his Cause shewed the illegality of the Parliaments Proceedings and so punctually cited all the Statutes and Laws of the Land in the behalf of the Liberties of the Subjects and so bafled the Judges the Attorney general Prideaux and their Councel that they could not Effect what they desired the taking away his Life upon an Inditement of High Treason put in against him but was found Not Guilty by his Jury to the great disappointment of his Enemies Their chief business now was to give one another Estates out of the Delinquents Lands as they called the Loyal Party whom they now sequester and made an Order That no Malignant or such as had been in Arms against them should come within twenty miles of London or go five miles from their own habitations Bishops and Deans and Chapters Lands sold and disposed to one another at easie Rates some got for three years Purchase for none but themselves would buy them About this time they send their Embassadors Oliver St. Johns and Walter Strictland into Holland for Satisfaction for Doctor Dorislaus who drew up the Charge against the King his being Assassinated in Holland by some Cavalier's but they were there affronted and forced to return Re infecta in great Discontent which exasperated our new States against the Dutch Ascham another of their Creatures was murthered also in Spain And tho the Dutch sent afterwards their Agent Myn heer Joachim with Complements and excuses our Junto could forget it and by it took an occasion to forgo their Friendship and prohibited their Fishing upon the English Coasts and the importing of any forrain Commmodities except in English bottoms or such as were of the Countrey whence the Commodities came This brought on the ensuing War commenced the next year between these two
King perswaded returns to St. Johnstons where the Committee of Estates being somewhat more Compliant thank Cromwell for that many of the Kings friends were admitted to him This made many dissatisfied Ministers withdraw themselves into the West as Guthery Gelaspy Rutherford and others where they put forth a Remonstrance against the Proceedings of the Assembly in the Admission of Malignants to Power and Employment and with these Ker Stranghan Laird Warreston Sr. John Cheisley Sr. James Stewart and others joyn in Confederacy These Broils made well for Cromwell who found small Opposition He took Ken Prisoner and Edenborow Castle was surrendred to him on the 24 th of December 1650. This very much troubled the Scots for after that Cromwell succeeded so well that he took in all the Forts on this side of Sterling In January the Scots Crown the King at Scoon the accustomed place for the Coronation of the Kings of Scotland which is not far from St. Johnstons with great Pomp and Solemnity In the mean time the Junto in England still sat and Voted Liberty of Conscience to all which was a most distasteful thing to the Presbyterians Also they fell to levying of Souldiers giving the Command to Harrison now made Major General a fâ—fth-Monarchy man most of these men being raised by those sort of men and the other Sectaries with which this Army swarmed and the Presbyterian Interest daily declined every where being called a most horrid Tyranny and worse than the Prelacy They also about this time formally receive Embassadors from Portugal and Spain who for Interest acknowledge their Power All they did besides was the constant Persecution of the Royal Party after their Tyrannical manner Collonel Eusebius Andrews a constant Loyalist and firm to the interest of his King being by Profession a Councellor of Grays-Inn having been underhand Contriving some Insurrection in the behalf of the King was betray'd by some of his Confederates and taken at Gravesend and after sixteen Weeks being Prisoner in the Tower and several times examined he was brought to his Tryal before their bloody High Court of Justice Bradshaw sitting as President Where he admirably pleaded his Cause but the Attorney General Prideaux over-ruled all and told him the Court was not to take notice of his Law Cases but of his Confession and tho he had Acted no Treason yet he had an Affection for Treason and therefore deserved Death An excellent Mark of the Liberty of the Subject under Usurpers And upon this learned distinction the Bloody Court proceeded to Sentence against him that he should be Beheaded Thus the Will of Usurpers is become Law This Heroick Gentleman suffered accordingly on the 22 d. of August 1650 on Tower-Hill where he dyed with much Constancy Magnanimity and Christianity In October following one Benson involved in the same Design with Collonel Andrews was tryed and Condemned by the aforesaid Tyrannical Court and on the 7 th was Executed being Hanged for his Loyalty At the same time was an Insurrection in Northfolk which being suppressed many suffered for the same in several places In March following the Grandees at Wâ—stminster by the same Arbitrary Power after the Turkish Precedent put to Death the Loyal Sr. Henry Hide before the Exchange It was Crime enough that he was a Royalist and Brother to the afterwards Earl of Clarendon then with the King But his pretended Crime was That he had been an Agent from the King after the Death of his Royal Father to the grand Signior He was bred a Merchant and had a repute amongst the Turkish Company and was by them made their Consul at Morea and this Gentleman the King sent to the Port in order to some private concerns and not for the Confiscation of the Merchants Estates as the people were made to believe but he being there the Visiere was privately tampered with who betray'd him and sent him to England a Prisoner in the Ships thence bound for Smiâ—na in one of which he was brought to London and Committed to the Tower convented before the aforesaid Court by whose Power he was Condemned and Beheaded as aforesaid on the 4 th of March 1650. And now their Hands were in all went to Pot that came in their way the April following Captain Brown Bushell was the next Criminal they Murthered for his Loyalty he had long lain under restraint in the Tower and almost starved for want of Sustinance and at last being put into their Bloody Roll of such as were to be Tryed he was called to their Bar and Condemned But his Wife solicited very hard for a Reprieve which at last hey promised her with which joyful News she repaired to her Husband Comforting themselves together till four a Clock in the Afternoon but had no sooner left him with those flattering Hopes but the Warrant came for his present Execution they finding it seems that he was too well beloved by the Seamen and wree in Fear of him and so about six of the Clock at Night they put him to Death on the Ground under the Scaffold on Tower-Hill which he suffered with much Resolution In the mean time Cromwell was very watchful and Diligent and endeavoured all he could tho not with any success to engage the Scots Army which was drawn up at Sterling where the King was with them But the King having a Design to pass into England waved engaging with as much Care as the other flush'd with Victory and Success sought it who was come within sight of the Scotch Army In Lancashire several expected his coming and were ready to rise upon his approach tho disappointed by the Rumps Vigilancy Cromwell for want of Provisions was forced to remove and attempted to get over to Fife side It was about this time that several rude fits of an Ague shook him so shrewdly that there was an equal engagement of Hopes and Fears on the side of either party of his marching into another world Doctor Write and Dr. Bates two eminent Physicians being sent from London to administer Physick to him being brought very low But at last by the help of these Doctors who had the charge of him by the Junto's order he recovered to the sorrow of the Royal Party At last the English under Collonel Overton with about fifteen or sixteen thousand Foot and four Troopâ— of Horse with much difficulty forced their Landing Cromwell drawing up close to the Scots at the same time with all his Forces with an intention to fall upon their Rere if they should attempt to beat them out of Fife Yet the Scots sent four thousand Horse and Foot under Sir John Brown which Cromwell having notice of sent over Lambert and Okey with two Regiments of Horse and Foot and engaging with him defeated him took him with many others prisoners having slain about two thousand of the Scots This gave the English firm footing in Fife and they easily took in several places on that side the Frith And now the King was necessitated to
odious to the people by their bloody tyrannous and arbitrary Actions that he knew it would be very grateful to them to have them dissolv'd Ireton was dead in Ireland who had been a great Assistant to him in promoting him but it was thought he was so true a Common-wealths-man that he would not have suffered Cromwell to have grasped the Scepter and to have set up himself in the place of the Monarch he had pull'd down and since he was now able to act himself without his Councils he was but a Rub out of his way almost all Ireland being subdued and under his subjection Ludlow being Lieutenant General of thâ— Army there and one active in the reducing the Remainder left unfinished by Ireton On the other hand General Monk whom he had left in Scotland with seven thousand men had taken Sterlin Dundee Perth and all the strong Holds in Scotland S. Andrews Aberdeen and all the Castles surrendred upon Summons so that Scotland as well as Ireland was at his devotion and three Kingdoms he hoped to make a prey of and to make them more sure and to unite them into one they enter'd upon the project of having each Kingdom incorporated with England like Wales by causing them to elect their several Members to sit in the English Parliament And now that he might yet make the Junto more odious he puts them on the ordinary Drudgery of taking away the lives of such of the Royal Party as he thought might be any hinderance to his Designs by their arbitrary way of Tryal in their High Court of Injustice or by a Court-Marshal and thus as the saying is he killed two Birds with one Stone rid his Opposers out of the way and made his Instruments odious that he might with the more safety lay them aside when he saw his time The Earl of Derby was the first that felt the bloody severity of these Rulers at Westminster who appointed a Court-Marshal to sit at Chester for his Tryal and several others that were taken at the Battel of Worcester where he was sentenced to be beheaded tho he had surrendred himself upon Articles and promise of his life to one Captain Edge but notwithstanding his plea the arbitrary Court condemn'd him and he was executed at Bolton in Lancashire the fifteenth of October 1651. And by the same Court Sir Timothy Fetherstone-haugh was condemned and for the same crime of Loyalty for endeavouring to bring in Charles Stewart as they called the King and to possess him of his Right the Crown of England who was beheaded at Chester the twenty second day of the same month likewise by the same Court Captain Benbow was condemned and according to their Sentence shot to Death at Shrewsbury And Captain Symkins in another place Many more of note were put into the Tower and reserved for a further Exercise of their Cruelty And now the way to the Crown did not seem very Difficult for Jersy Isie of Man and the Barbadoes yield to their Power and Oliver in the next place bent all his thoughts to turn this â—ump of a Parliament out of Doors having done with them as much Mischief as he well could He looks now very big upon them and had shewn by his behaviour the Resentment he had of their former sawcy Expostulation of his management of the Affairs in Scotland and when he came into the House they all Crouch'd and the fauning Speaker made his Panegyrick with palpable Flattery notwithstanding it was moved in the House by some of his Creatures that this House should be dissolved and Care taken for another to be Chosen but this was a bitter Potion they knew not how to swallow And upon this the Levellers are again set to work and Countenanced who before were so much Cry'd down that they might bait them to a Dissolution and that he might be Lord Paramount in Nomine as well as he was already in Re. But yet there were two Obstacles in his Way The first was the Duke of Gloucester was too near him he was yet a Prisoner in Scarborow Castle him he causes to be removed and sent away into Holland which was done by the order of the Junto to the no small joy of his Friends that he had escaped out of the cruel Claws of these Bears with Life This rub being removed another more Difficult appeared which was the War with Holland and he very Rationally concluded it would be too hard a Task for him to make War both abroad with them and at home with his own Common-wealth which he intended to pull down Considering what a small share he had of the Love of the people and that he was to â—et up himself and Establish his rule and Arbitrary Sway by the Power of the Army only and for this Reason he was forced to let his Journy-men continue their Seats a little longer and wait the Issue of this War This War being foreseen to quiet the Peoples minds they pass an Act of Grace or Oblivion a Pardon for all Hostilities past with an Intention of forgetting all Injuries but upon Condition of taking an Ingagement which they imposed upon the People wherein they promise and Ingage To be true and Faithful to the Common-wealth of England as then Established without King or House of Lords But out of this Act The Lord Goring and his Sons Sr. John Webster The executors of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the Murtherers of Dorislaus and Ascham were excepted Still several Addresses Petitions Declarations and Desires came from divers Counties and Places to the Parliament for the putting a Period to their sitting and for providing for future Representatives which Perplext them and were very distastful seeing them so pressing and after many put offs and Reasons for their Continuance they were forced to comply and resolved that the longest Day of their Sitting should be the 5 th of November in the Year 1654. two years too long as Cromwell thought for he intended their Reign should be shorter but his Projects being not yet Ripe he awaited his oportunity About the latter end of this year they made an Act to banish John Lilburn who was very troublesome to them and whom it seems Oliver was much afraid of Knowing him to be an Enemy to his Ambitious Proceedings and very popular It was provided by this Act that if he returned without leave from the State he should suffer as a Felon Preparations for War being made on both sides the States of Holland seeing the English make an Act so Prejudicial to their Trade and to prepare to maintain it against them being somewhat fearful of the Event sent over their Embassadors Myn Heeren Cate Vander-Peer Sharp and Newport who found our English States very high and made such demands that the Dutch could not yield to and so in the beginning of the year 1652 they get their Fleets to Sea well Man'd and Equipped Marten Harpers Vantrump being the Admiral for the Dutch Popham being Dead Dean
Smithfield he was reprieved the like hapned to John Summer who was condemned to dye in Bishopsgate-street and Oliver Allen in Gracechurch-street who had their Reprieves brought them Baron Manly Mansel with one Seymour and Carlton all imprison'd on the same account made their escape but were arraigned though absent and condemned But Edward Ashton John Bettely and Edward Stacy were also tryed before this Court for the same Crime of raising War and seeking the Death of Cromwell where all three were Condemned with little or no proofs against them Col. Ashton was a known Cavalier and a Prisoner for Debt in Newgate but being permitted by favour to go abroad fell into the company of one of Cromwell's Trepanners who went stroling about for prey who informs the Secretary of dangerous words spoken by this Ashton for which he was tryed and condemned though he denied them at his Death and was hang'd drawn and quarter'd in Tower-street the Tyrant making all parts of the City his Shambles of humane flesh for the greater terror this was his bloody policy Mr. Bettely was in like manner betray'd and falsly accused by these Ruffians the Emissaries of Cromwell and Thurlo condemned upon their Oaths though he protested his Innocency and was executed in the midst of Cheapside being hang'd drawn and quarter'd After he had been a long time dead as they thought on a sudden he lift up his hands and pulling off his Cap looked upon them staring with his eyes to all their amazements till the Executioner dispatch'd him These suffer'd on the 2 d of July 1658. and two dayes after Mr. Stacy was only hang'd Many more who were imprisoned and designed to death escaped by Oliver's Death which was not very long after He was no sooner rid of the fear of this Plot by these Executions but he was again troubled by Lambert's Cabal who had inveigled both Fleetwood and Desborow Cromwell's near relations with their Commonwealth Principles though Lambert intended only the setting up of himself in Cromwell's stead But Cromwell now dallies no longer with them but takes away Lambert's Commission and lays him aside and disposes his Regiments to others whom he could better trust and sends into the Army several Spies and Eves-droppers to let him know the temper and behaviour of the Officers and of their inclinations whereby he might the better reform them This bloody Tyrant becoming Sanguinary as all other Tyrants doe grows very fearfull and suspicious and began to dread every strange face that came near him which he would fix his eyes upon and intentively view for fear of an assassination for that Book of Killing no Murther still ran dreadfully in his mind and made him to take all the care he could of himself oftentimes shifting his Lodgings to which he passed by twenty several locks and usually had four or five ways out of them He seldom went and came the same way between White-Hall and Hampton-Court and always by private and by-ways and in a great hurry his Guards before and behind still on the Gallop and his Coach especially the boots filled with armed men and began to be of very difficult access to all persons Yet this year he had success in Flanders and Dunkirk was surrendred into his hands and Lockhart General of the Forces there and his Kinsman made Governor thereof And now the Exit of this great Tyrant and Usurper draws near being ushered in with a Prodigy three Months before for on the 2 d of June a great Whale came up as far as Greenwich and was there killed His beloved Daughter Cleypool not long before him also dyed with an Ulcer in her Bladder which caused such acute pains that put her into a Feaver and in her raving Fits she much call'd upon that bloody Tyrant her Father for she had been a Suitor for Dr. Hewet's life knowing his Innocency but was denied which gave her a great disturbance being sensible of her Father's Tyrannick sway and Murtherous projects and of the Peoples hate towards him Her Death as they say went near his heart being about the beginning of August which with the troubles he saw were about to rise from the Officers of the Army fomented by Fleetwood who had Married his Daughter and Desborow who had Married his Sister gave him a fit of sickness being at Hampton-Court which he thought at first would pass over being only a Tertian feaver and his private Chaplains fasted and prayed with him and Goodwin openly declared that God had heard his prayers for him and he was assured he should not dye that bout but he was a false Prophet for his Feaver continuing with very ill symptoms the Physicians not so confident as the Priests caused him to be removed to White-Hall and he had been there but few dayes when they saw very plainly that he had but few dayes to live and this being made known to his Privy-Council they were all very much startled he finding himself now drawing towards his end on the 31 of August he caused all people to go out of his Chamber but Goodwin and Thurlo to whom he declared that he nominated his eldest Son Richard Cromwell to succeed him but these thinking it too great a thing to be communicated to them alone advised him to have more Witnesses lest they should not be credited in so great a concern He then bid them to send for the Council of 9 which were those he privately managed his more secret concerns by and these were Fleetwood Fiennes Desborow Whaly Thurlo Lawrence Berry Cooper and Goff most of this Junto being come to him he declared that it was his will that his Son Richard should succeed him as Protector Fleetwood bit his lips having been fool'd into hopes of the Protectorship as well as Lambert but little was then said and on the 3 d day of September 1658 memorable to Oliver for two great Victories Dunbar and Worcester he yielded to the great Victor Death and march'd off the Stage of this World in peace after he had trod it in Blood War Rapine Oppression Cruelty Usurpation and Tyranny Though the report went the Devil fetch'd him away in the storm which the night before his Death was so violent that many of the great Trees in St. James's Park were blown up by the Roots and that he had seven years before made a Compact with the Devil that he might obtain the Dominion of the three Kingdoms and not be prevailed against but these are Stories and God's Providence unsearchable I have already given a character of this Man and a short account of some passages of his Life before he ascended to his Greatness He was no doubt a man of extraordinary parts and raised up by God for such great undertakings as a scourge to this Nation which was full of evil humours and had entertained a spirit of Rebellion against both God the Church and the King and that they might behold their errors by those dismal effects that followed upon their unnatural Rebellion
all Acts by Pretext of such Power were illegal and the adjudging any Person to death and Executing them was Treason and wilful Murther Thirdly That the said Commons had no power to make any great Seal of England and that all Commissions granted under their great Seal were illegal and all Proceedings in Law upon such Writs null and voyd to all intents and purposes Lastly That the denyal of the King's Title to the Crown and the plotting to deprive him of it and the setting it upon the Head of another was High Treason and within the Stat. 25 th Ed. 3. Ch. 2. as likewise their Subverting the fundamental Laws of the Land and introducing an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government was High Treason at the common Law c. This was all the Loyalists could do at present by these weak Indeavours to assert the Kings right and shew the people what Slaves they were become but this affrighted not these Men who in the next place February 1 st Vote That all such Members who assented to the Vote of the 5 th of December 1648. That the Kings Concessions were a Ground for the House to Proceed to a Settlement should not be admitted into the House until they had declared their disapproval of that Vote before they sit and that such as were now in the House should enter their dissent to that Vote being only those who had before Voted in the Negative The Lords were yet sitting but no notice taken of them by the Commons for having overthrown the Monarchy they now lay aside the Lords and therefore Vote them dangerous and useless Frebruary 5 th and so Voted them down with this Proviso That they might be capable to be Elected Knights of the shire and Burgesses and so sit among the Commons Three of them only so debased themselves viz. The Earls of Pembroke Salisbury and the Lord Howard of Estrick The rest of the Peers put forth their Protestation against these Proceedings of the Commons which came forth on the 8 th of Frebruary in which they asserted their own Priviledges and the fundamental Laws of the Nation disclaiming the Votes of the Commons for Erecting an high Court of Justice for the Tryal of the King and altering the Government Law Seal c. and against their Traiterous murthering their Soveraign and disinheriting the Prince the Lawful Heir of the Crown of England and also protesting against their Vote of the 6 th of Frebruary for the abolishing the House of Peers as destructive to the beings of Parliament the Fundamental Laws of the Realm and the Lives Liberties and Properties of the people whom they had made Slaves to their Tyrannical and Arbitrary Government But this affrights not the Commons and to keep the Lords from meeting the Army set a Guard at their Doors of their House and the House now proceeds to set up a Common-wealth and to abolish Monarchy and therefore they formed an Act intituled an Act for the Exheredation of the Royal Line the abolishing of Monarchy in this Kingdom and the setting up a Common-wealth which they ordered to be published in all places And to Vindicate these their most horrid Proceedings they had their Pulpit-Trumpeters who justified their Impious Acts in all places and John Godwin and Milton to write in their Defence of putting the King to death declaring in Print That the King suffered on just Grounds and according to his Demerits And now instead of one King these Common-wealth Rumpers set up forty Tyrants as a Committee of State But the people generally seemed displeased at this Alteration of the Government and Reineldson Lord Major of the City refused to publish their Act for abolishing of Monarchy for whâ—ch he was discharged of his Office and with two Aldermen sent to the Tower and Andrews was chosen in his stead upon this the Rumpers put forth a new Declaration to justifie their Proceedings calling them A Deliverance of the people from the Bondage that was brought in by the Norman Conquest and their Maintenance of the ancient Laws notwithstanding their Alteration of some forms of the Regality which ancient Laws might consist very well with a Republick and that they had only abolished their Abuses promising to establish a safe and firm Peace and to advance the true Protestant Religion the Encouragment of a Godly ministry and of Trade and the Maintenance of the Poor thorowout the Realm Then their Great Seal came forth having on one side a Cross and Harp for the Arms of England and Ireland with this Inscription â— The Great Seal of England And on the other side was the Picture of the Commons with these words In the first year of Freedom by God's blessing restored 1648. Likewise they caused a new Coyn to be minted and stamped their Money with a Cross and Harp instead of the King's Effigies with this Motto God with us Then they took away all Clauses in any former Acts for the taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and made them null and a new Oath framed and tendred to all that were to have any publick place of Trust and assumed to themselves both Judicial and Legislative power of the King and both Houses of Parliament and the Executive power they committed to a Council of State of forty Persons of the most Active men in the Army and others of desperate Fortunes Six of the Judges viz. Justice Bacon Brown Beddinfield Creswell Trevor and Atkins quitted their places not being able to bring their Consciences to Act under this Arbitrary and illegal power six other of them continued who were Justice Rolls St. Johns Pheasanâ— Baron Wild and Baron Yates To their new Council of State they gave Power tâ— Command and settle the Militia of England and Irâ—land Power to set forth Ships and such a Considerable Navy as they should think fit Power to appoinâ— Magistrates and stores for England and Ireland and tâ— dispose of them for the Service of the Nation Anâ— power to Execute all the powers given them for a whole Year to come They had two Seals appointed a great Seal and a Signet Cromwell was made Chaiâ—-man of this Committee and an Oath framed for eveâ—â— Member to take to be true to the Parliament as they termed themselves not to disclose their Secrets anâ— to adhere to the present Settlement of the Government 〈◊〉 a Republick without King or House of Lords Abouâ— this time the Officers of the Army at a Councâ—â— of War debated Whether they should not put to the Sword all that were of the King's Party to secure the Nation to themselves and it was carried in the Negative but by two voyces so near were they to a general Massacre And many Petitions came from several Counties that at least three of the most eminent of the King's party in each County might be put to Death to free the Land from Blood-Guiltiness Cromwell by this as you may perceive had gotten all the executive Power of the Kingdom into his own