according to Law that sometimes he moderates the rigour of the Law according to Equity pardons Malefactors and in cases that are not decided by any Law interposes his Imperial Sentence Lastly that I may assert nothing rashly but all upon the credit of Lawyers the life force and authority of every thing that is acted in England is to be found in the King alone But because the King of England has not like Briareus an hundred hands nor can he like the Sun view all things at one glance he hath been accustomed to create from amongst the Nobility Bishops Judges and Commons of the Kingdom without the envy and emulation of any such and so many Counsellors as he pleases to assist and ease him in the weighty care of the Government Having named these Prerogatives of a most August and Imperial Crown what shall I call that barbarous and inhumane Principle and Purpose of bringing the King to Judgment before the Kings Tribunal and then to smite him with the Sword which he alone is to draw the King I say whom the Law it self openly declares can never die There is no necessity of curbing arbitrary government by such inhumane Tyranny upon the sacred Person of the King since whatever may be done in the administration of the Government either against the Laws of the Country or inconsistent with the good and profit of the People the blame and punishment of it is cast upon the publick Ministers so that it was not flattery but the highest Justice which gave ground to this noted maxime That the King cannot err nor do any wrong because the whole blame and all the punishment is wont and ought to fall upon the publick Ministers and Counsellors whose duty it is to admonish the Prince and to deny their concurrence with him in any thing that is unjust and to resigne their place rather than obey him when he commands any thing contrary to Law Nay the Laws are so sollicitous for the safety of the Prince as of him who is to maintain and preserve the Law that the next Heir to the Crown whatsoever Crime he might be guilty or accused of whilst he was a private person yet by the death of his Predecessor as by a certain postliminious Absolution he is freed from all taint and guilt and his stepping up into the Throne purges him from all defects It is enough to curb him that holds the Reins of the Government That he must expect the Judgment of God Nevertheless it is not lawful for the King to rule arbitrarily in England oppress his Subjects or make and abrogate Laws by his sole Authority But as the Law allows a decorous administration of absolute Authority in some things to the King so does it assigne to the Commons others and those no inconsiderable Priviledges in the Kingdom in common with the King that so the joynt Authority in Government might the more easily engage the Subjects to obedience For for the making and repealing of Laws and the interpreting and explaining former ambiguous Statutes for raising of Money out of the ordinary course when there is occasion for it legitimating of Bastards naturalizing of Strangers altering and setling the Rights of Possessions confirming by civil Sanctions the Divine Worship after it hath by the Convention of the Clergy been formed according to the Word of God setting Rates upon Weights and Measures and the like that the people may not seem to suffer any thing without their own consent and concurrence the Votes of Parliament which is the supreme Court of England and in conjunction with the King under God hath a certain Omnipotence in this little World are necessarily required The Parliament is an Assembly of the States of the Kingdom consisting of the Bishops Lords and Representatives of the Commons called by the King who is the Head of it who meet and sit in two distinct places called the Upper and Lower Houses in respect of dignity not of scituation The Upper House which is called the House of Lords contains two Estates to wit the Spiritual Lords who are the Bishops and the Temporal who are Dukes Marquesses Earls and Barons the Judges of the Kingdom assisting to give advice in matter of Law but not to vote The Lower House consists of the third Estate of the Kingdom who are the Commons and is therefore called also the House of Commons they are chosen by the plurality of Voices of the Freeholders of the Counties and Freemen of Corporations two Knights for each County or Shire and two Burgesses for the most part for every City and Corporation-Town according to the use and custom of the place The day and place of the meeting of the Parliament is appointed by the King by him also it is prorogued transferred and adjourned to another place or dissolved at his pleasure The Peers are summoned to attend in Parliament by Writs severally directed to them and signed by the King To the rest the Sheriffs of the several Counties by virtue of a Writ out of the Chancery give notice that the King within a certain time orders an Election to be made of Knights and Burgesses which he commands to be made by the Sheriff in time and place convenient Vetus Rescripti formula ad Dynastas Rescriptum Regis ad Dynastas seu Pares sic sonat Carolus Dei gratiâ c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri c. si Episcopos compellet Consanguineo nostro si Duces Marchiones vel Comites alloquatur Dilecto fideli nostro si Barones Quia de advisamento Concilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis Nos Statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus quoddam Parlamentum nostrum ad Westmonast c. teneri ordinavimus ibidem vobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostri Angliae colloquium habere tractatum vobis in fide Dilectione si ad Episcopos mittatur Rescriptum per fidem Allegiantiam si ad Pares quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungendo mandamus quod consideratis dictorum negotiorum arduitate periculis imminentibus cessante quacunque excusatione die loco dictis personaliter intersitis Nobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus super dictis negotiis tractaturi vestrúmque Consilium impensuri hoc sicut Nos honorem nostram ac salutem Regni praedicti Ecclesiae sanctae Expeditionémque dictorum negotiorum diligitis nullatenus omittatis si ad Episcopos scribat praemonere Decanum Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae tolúmque Clerum vestrae Dioeceseos quod idem Decanus Archidiaconi in propriis personis ac dictum Capitulum per unum idémque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero habentes praedictis die loco personaliter
Argile with the Forces he had raised being no less an Army at home than Cromwel was abroad reduced them in a short time to such streights that the Army which had been raised by order of Parliament was forced to lay down Arms and submit to the discretion of Argile's Faction Then was a new Parliament called all being excluded who had taken up Arms or voted for engaging in a War for the delivery of the King In this the Acts of the last Parliament were recinded the War declared to have been unlawful Cromwel had the publick thanks and Argile privately engaged as Cromwel himself boasted that he would concur with the Oligarchicks of England and root out Monarchy when occasion offered in Scotland as well as in England Besides many Ships the Tyde turning according to the innate levine of Seamen prepare to make defection from the Prince casting themselves into the protection of the Earl of Warwick who had won their hearts by frequent Largesses and who was set over a new Fleet for a time that he might draw over the Seamen again to the obedience of the Parliament but being beset with the Spies Of the Oligarchick Rebels and having done their job he justly received the usual Reward from these Masters that is he was turned out and laid aside Whilst the Army is busied in these Wars the Members of Parliament being a little rid of the yoak of the Army and Cromwel that were now at a distance and seriously considering how ill all the People of the Kingdom would resent the injuries done to the King and how ticklish their own affairs stood they begin to think of Peace and growing wise behind hand against the advice of the Oligarchick Republicans they rescind the Votes of None Addresses by the unanimous consent of both Houses They appoint a Conference with the King for composing Differences but by Commissioners and that in the Isle of Wight For this purpose they commissionate five Lords for the Vpper House and ten Commoners for the Lower The Propositions to be debated in that Conference are prescribed to the Commissioners ¶ That the Translator relates all which verbatim though it be contrary to the designe of this Work and of the Author who hath onely entred the short Articles marked with the numbers I. II.III I hope the Reader will not dislike since the Articles at large contain so excellent a description of the Changes that were then intended to be made in the Government of England that it is thought very fit to publish them according to the perfect Copy printed by order of both Houses the 29th of August 1648. May it please your Majesty WE the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Commissioners of the Parliament of Scotland in the name and on the behalf of the Kingdom of Scotland Do humbly present unto your Majesty the humble desires and Propositions for a safe and well-grounded Peace agreed upon by the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively unto which we do pray your Majesties Assent And that they and all such Bills as shall be tendered to your Majesty in pursuance of them or any of them may be Established and Enacted for Statutes and Acts of Parliament by your Majesties Royal Assent in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively I. WHereas both Houses of the Parliament of England have been necessitated to undertake a War in their just and lawful defence and afterwards both Kingdoms of England and Scotland joyned in Solemn League and Covenant were engaged to prosecute the same That by Act of Parliament in each Kingdom respectively all Oaths Declarations and Proclamations heretofore had or hereafter to be had against both or either of the Houses of the Parliament of England the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland and the late Convention of Estates in Scotland or Committees flowing from the Parliament or Convention in Scotland or their Ordinances and Proceedings or against any for adhering unto them or for doing or executing any Office Place or Charge by any Authority derived from them and all Judgments Indictments Outlawries Attainders and Inquisitions in any the said Causes and all Grants thereupon made or had or to be made or had be declared Null suppressed and forbidden And that this be publickly intimated in all Parish-Churches within his Majesties Dominions and all other places needful II. That his Majesty according to the laudable example of his Royal Father of happy memory may be pleased to swear and signe the late Solemn League and Covenant and that an Act of Parliament be passed in both Kingdoms respectively for enjoyning the taking thereof by all the Subjects of the three Kingdoms and the Ordinances concerning the manner of taking the same in both Kingdoms be confirmed by Acts of Parliament respectively with such Penalties as by mutual advice of both Kingdoms shall be agreed upon III. That a Bill be passed for the utter abolishing and taking away of all Archbishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans and Sub-Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons Canons and Prebendaries and all Chaunters Chancellors Treasurers Sub-Treasurers Succentors and Sacrists all Vicars Choril and Choresters old Vicars and new Vicars of any Cathedral or Collegiate-Church and all other their under-Officers out of the Church of England and Dominion of Wales and out of the Church of Ireland with such alterations concerning the Estates of Prelates as shall agree with the Articles of the late Treaty of the date at Edenburgh 29 November 1643. and joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms IV. That the Ordinances concerning the calling and sitting of the Assembly of Divines be confirmed by Act of Parliament V. That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses have agreed or shall agree upon after consultation had with the Assembly of Divines For as much as both Kingdoms are mutually obliged by the same Covenant to endeavour the nearest Conjunction and Uniformity in matters of Religion That such Unity and Uniformity in Religion according to the Covenant as after consultation had with the Divines of both Kingdoms now assembled is or shall be joyntly agreed upon by both Houses of the Parliament of England and by the Church and Kingdom of Scotland be confirmed by Acts of Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively VI. That for the more effectual disabling Jesuits Priests Papists and Popish Recusants from disturbing the State and deluding the Laws and for the better discovering and speedy conviction of Popish Recusants an Oath be established by Act of Parliament to be administred to them wherein they shall abjure and renounce the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Purgatory worshipping of the Consecrated Hoast Crucifixes and Images and all other Popish Superstitions and Errours and refusing the said Oath being tendred in such manner as shall be appointed by the said Act to
Church Those Bishops who had survived the fury of the Hereticks he restored to their Sees and chose others conspicuous for Primitive Piety Learning and a good Life in place of those that were dead who with the same Piety and Humility that they had suffered the Reproaches of Sectarians and born the Calamities of a Civil War now in their old age carried the Miter and governed the Church of God The King made Juxon Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England a Prelate of Primitive Piety venerable both in his books and words heretofore Confessor to Charles the Martyr and his Assistent to the last whilst amidst the fury and reproaches of bloudy Traytors he took his leave of this world Et nullo gemitu consensit ad ictum Despexitque nefas When without sighing he received that Blow And bravely scorn'd the Villanies below And now it was no small comfort to many that they to whom the Parricides had formerly been liberal were as poor as those whom they had robbed but it was fit that Clemency should usher in the new Administration of the Government and therefore Charles imitating God Almighty in mercifulness past in Parliament an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion for all his Subjects except those who had embrewed their hands in his Fathers Bloud the rest of the guilty Rebels being wonderfully pardoned but whether with greater Policy or Mercy let Posterity judge The King now secure in his own Majesty and the Loyalty of his Subjects resolved to disband the Army which for so many years had been the Burden and Grievance of the Nation for the paying of which a Tax by way of Poll was imposed on every head in England The Souldiers had also a Donative bestowed upon them and many of the Officers were rewarded according to their merit Amidst the Joys wherewith the first three months of his Majesties government was blessed Henry Duke of Gloucester fell sick and was fatally too soon snatched out of this world by the Small Pox so much the more lamented by the King his Brother and by the Kingdom that at twenty years of age he had given such sublime proofs of his Princely Accomplishments And this alone may seem an Eclipse of the Glory of Charles that almost in his own triumph he beheld the Funeral of his dear Brother Manibus date Lilia plenis Purpureos spargam flores Bring plenty of white Lillies to his Herse Whilst sad there the purple Rose disperse The affairs of England being setled Scotland and Ireland were to be taken care of The King therefore appointed Privy-Councils of the most Loyal Subjects of both Kingdoms to manage the Government till he might advise about calling a Parliament in Scotland and sending over a Lord Lieutenant into Ireland After the dutiful Addresses of his Subjects at home the neighbouring Kings of France Sweden Denmark and many Princes of Germany by honourable Embassies congratulate the Kings happy Restauration all which were outdone by the pompous and splendid train of the Prince Ligny Embassadour from the Catholick King And now it was time to bring the Murderers of Charles the Martyr to their Tryals many of whom were before clapt up in Prison others fled away secretly and wandered in foraign and distant Countries and some trusting to the hopes of a Pardon obeyed the Kings Proclamation and freely surrendred themselves Therefore on the tenth of October Harrison Carew Clements Jones Scot and Scroop who had been of the number of the Judges that condemned the King Cooke Attorney-General the famous infamous Peters Chaplain to the Traytors Axiell and Hacker Commanders of the Guards were brought to the Bar not before an accursed and new-made High Court of Justice but according to the ancient Laws of the Kingdom before the chief Justices and the rest of the Kings Justices to be tryed by a Jury of Twelve men after the usual manner of England They were chiefly charged by the Attorney-General and the Kings Council That they the aforesaid Traytors and others guilty of High-Treason conspiring with an accursed Army of Fanaticks had carried away to Prison King Charles securely treating a Peace with the two Houses of Parliament which was almost concluded in the Isle of Wight So that the House of Lords being abrogated and the founder Members of the Commons six and forty Villains that remained took to themselves the name of a Parliament invaded the Government and decreed to bring the King to a Tryal By whose authority these Parricides an High Court of Justice being impudently constituted had condemned and caused to be put to death the King of England who was above the Laws contrary to the will and to the great grief of the People To their Indictment rightly laid and fully proved having made many false and frivolous Answers concerning the supreme authority of the Parliament which indeed in this case had no authority at all they were by the Verdict of a Jury of Twelve men found guilty of and condemned for High-Treason The same Verdict past also upon nineteen other of the Kings Judges but with a different event as shall be mentioned in the proper place On the third of October a Gibbet was set up at Charing-cross near Whitehall whither in the morning Harrison being brought the first of the surviving Regicides both in guilt and punishment with the same madness and obstinacy as he had behaved himself at his tryal the cruel Traytor affecting an undauntedness at his death was hang'd and quarter'd as he well deserved CAROLE tuis jam Victima mittitur umbris Nec satis hoc fortuna putat procul absit ut ista Vindictae sit summa tui Great CHARLES a Victim to thy Ghost does fall And yet thy Fates are not appeas'd no all That just Revenge is not yet paid that shall Harrison rather of a base than low Birth was the Son of a Butcher bred at first a Pettifogging Country-Attorney but in the heat of the Civil Wars when the onely way to get into Power was Fanaticism and Treason he fled to the Rebellious Army and there turning a furious Anabaptist and advanced to be a Colonel he grew very intimate with Cromwel and his Competitor in Villany But being a proud and haughty fellow and a most desperate Republican he fell out and was highly displeased with Oliver when he was made Protector not that he hated the Tyrant Cromwel but disdained to be outstripped and to submit to one who from a fellow-Souldier was become his Prince Carew came next and suffered the like death but his Relations who had served the King in the Wars obtained as a mark of favour the liberty of burying his body which was the same night obscurely performed The day following Cook and Peters in the same place suffered the same punishment where Peters by a drunken and base death disgraced his infamous life Cook was an obscure ragged beggarly Lawyer and ambitious to get a
onely for conveniency but even for Ostentation and Luxury Trade increasing dayly both in compass and profit had already enlarged it self to both the Indies onely unhappy in this that with the Wealth of Strangers foreign Vices were also imported Arts of all sorts never look'd gayer in Colledges Courts and Shops nor were the wealthy Inhabitants ever prouder Justice was administred according to Law nor was any man deprived of Life or Goods but by the lawful Verdict of a Jury of his Country-men to whom these things ought to be of highest value all the parts of Government were so administred that they seemed to conspire together for the publick good save onely in this that they could not repress the insolency and wantonness that sprung from so great prosperity and which is not to be dissembled being long unaccustomed to War we had been unfortunate in some foreign expeditions and the people were incensed at some impositions at home which though very moderate and countenanced by publick necessity and good reason in Law yet gave occasion to the people to pretend that the Right and Property of the Subject was opprest and to outcries of Injustice and also the imprisonment and lopping off the ears of four or five seditious persons sentenced by the Judges of the Star-Chamber seemed to be punishments too severe for those halcyon days of Peace and Tranquillity To this may be added that the Jurisdiction and Censures of Spiritual Courts wrought pity in some and indignation in others Besides the muster of Malecontents was made greater by some scrupulous Puritans who interpreted the enjoyning of Ceremonies and things indifferent in the Worship of God in the Canons of the Church to be the Fore-runners of Popery We may also take along with us the Zeal of the Archbishop in exempting the Clergie from the Suits and Injuries of Laicks and preferring them to civil employments which drew a great deal of envy and ill will not onely upon himself but upon all the Church-men also as also his endeavouring to bring into the Church of Scotland the use of the Service-book of England which though his designe was laudable that these three neighbouring Nations being under the government of one and the same King might also be joyned in an uniform manner of Worship was yet unseasonable and ill timed as we shall a little more fully relate Matters in Scotland were then ripe for a Rebellion for many took it ill that the King denied them the Honours and Titles to which they aspired others were vexed that they were forced to part with some portion of the Tythes though but moderate which they had upon the dissolution of the Monasteries in the minority of King James obtained from the Crown for making a competent Stipend for Ministers who then served the Cures at what easie rates the Patrons were pleased to allow them but most could not digest that the absolute Authority which they had for a long time usurped over their Vassals and Tenants should be taken from them and annexed to the Crown These chusing rather to shake the State than quit their hold those again rather to get Titles of Honour by the seditious Acclamations of the Mobile than to want them took occasion of the Liturgie and Ceremonies to buz the people in the ear that the reformed Religion was to be overturned to make way for Popery so that having taken up Arms and born down all that were of a contrary opinion they new model Church and State according to their own humour The King resolving to reduce those by Arms whom he could not reclaim by the milder causes of admonition being accompanied by the Flower of the Youth and Nobility of England who voluntarily and at their own charge set out upon the expedition marches to the borders but having by clemency and concessions brought them over to obedience which he preferred before Hostility and Arms he condescended to Articles of Peace and disbanded his Army The Scots afterward insisting upon Articles different from those that were agreed upon occasion new Broils and Dissensions which when neither Commissioners Messengers nor mutual Letters could compose both sides prepare afresh for a new War On the Kings side the Earl of Strafford then Deputy of Ireland raised an Army of eight thousand men with the assistance of the Parliament of Ireland being to be paid by them and being come over again into England bestirs himself in raising another Army here A Parliament is called wherein a certain Courtier making bad use of his instructions did purposely as most believed that he might confound affairs and increase Animosities betwixt the King and Parliament somewhat haughtily demand twelve Subsidies when the House of Commons had offered six in lieu of the Ship-money and this raised new discontents and grievances for putting a stop to which in those troublesome times the Parliament was sooner dissolved than many could have wished In the mean time the Scots whose Forces were not so dispersed but that they might be speedily drawn together into a body nicking the opportunity and by Agents entring into a Combination with the factious of England under pretext of petitioning the King came in a hostile manner into England and having beat some Troops that guarded the passage of the River Tine put all into fear and consternation took Newcastle and other Towns unprovided for defence and fortified them And though Strafford with the new-raised Army under his command had undertaken to drive them out of the Kingdom yet the most merciful King chose rather to refer the matter to a Parliament than without publick consent to pollute the Kingdom with bloud and slaughter A Truce was therefore made whereby the Scots were allowed a free Trade and Commerce with liberty to raise Contributions in the Counties where they lay and so a Parliament was called by whose prudence and Loyalty it was hoped all roots and Fibres of Animosities might be extirpated The Parliament being met the Factious who in great numbers had got into the House of Commons trusting now to the Patronage of the Scots and the Disorders of the times set about their business manfully they represent Grievances both publick and private accuse Courtiers and Magistrates and dart obliquely reproaches against the King himself exaggerating all with the highest strains of their Rhetorick Under pretext of reforming these Abuses they labour to overturn both Church and State and in imitation of the Scots to new-model the Government and that by these steps If in the first place they could deprive the King of the Counsels and Assistance of his most faithful Subjects and by loading him with Reproaches and false Crimes render him odious to the People and strip him of all Power and Authority they would next screw themselves into publick Offices and the power of the Militia and then with absolute dominion give Laws both to the King and People The Earl of Strafford and
Lloyd now called Sir Rich. Lloyd Mr. David Jenkins Sir George Strode George Carteret Esq now called Sir Geo. Carteret Sir Charles Dallison Kt. Richard Lane Esq now called Sir Rich. Lane Sir Edward Nicholas John Ashburnham Esq Sir Edward Herbert Kt. his Majesties Attorney-General Lord Rae George Gourdon sometime Marquess of Huntly James Graham sometime Earl of Montross Robert Dalyell sometime Earl of Carnewath James Gordon sometime Viscount of Aboyne Lodowick Linsey sometime Earl of Crawford James Ogley sometime Earl of Airby Alester Madonald Gordon Younger of Gight Col. John Cockram Graham of Gorthie Mr. John Maxwell sometime pretended Bishop of Ross And all such others as being processed by the Estates for Treason shall be condemned before the Act of Oblivion be passed 2 Qualification All Papists and Popish Recusants who have been now are or shall be actually in Arms or voluntarily assisting against the Parliaments or Estates of either Kingdom and by name The Marquess of Winton Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Brudnell Carell Mollinex Esq Lord Arundel of Warder Sir Francis Howard Sir John Winter Sir Charles Smith Sir John Prestan Sir Bazil Brooke Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven in the Kingdom of Ireland William Shelden of Beely Esquire Sir Henry Beddingfield 3 Qualification All persons who have had any hand in the plotting designing or assisting the Rebellion of Ireland except such persons who having onely assisted the said Rebellion have rendred themselves or come into the Parliament of England 4 Qualification That Humfrey Bennet Esq Sir Edward Ford. Sir John Penruddock Sir George Vaughan Sir John Weld Sir Robert Lee. Sir John Pate John Ackland Edmond Windham Esq Sir John Fitzharbert Sir Edw. Lawrence Sir Ralph Dutton Henry Lingen Esq Sir Hen. Fletcher Sir Rich. Minshall Laurence Halestead John Denham Esq Sir Edmund Fortescue Peter Sainthill Esq Sir Tho. Tildisley Sir Hen. Griffith Michael Wharton Esq Sir Hen. Spiller Mr. Geo. Benyon now called Sir Geo. Benyon Sir Edw. Walgrave Sir Edw. Bishop Sir William Russell of Worcestershire Thomas Lee of Adlington Esq Sir John Girlington Sir Paul Neale Sir William Thorold Sir Edward Hussey Sir Tho. Lyddell Sen. Sir Philip Musgrave Sir John Digby of Nottinghamshire Sir Robert Owseley Sir John Many Lord Cholmley Sir Tho. Aston Sir Lewis Dives Sir Peter Osbourne Samuel Thornton Esq Sir John Lucas John Claney Esq Sir Tho. Chedle Sir Nicholas Kemish Hugh Lloyd Esq Sir Nicholas Cripse Sir Peter Ricaut And all such of the Scottish Nation as have concurred in the Votes at Oxford against the Kingdom of Scotland and their proceedings or have sworn or subscribed the Declaration against the Convention and Covenant and all such as have assisted the Rebellion in the North or the Invasion in the South of the said Kingdom of Scotland or the late Invasion made there by the Irish and their Adherents be removed from his Majesties Councils and be restrained from coming within the Verge of the Court and that they may not without the advice and consent of both Houses of the Parliament of England or the Estates in the Parliament of Scotland respectively bear any Office or have any Employment concerning the State or Commonwealth And in case any of them shall offend therein to be guilty of High-Treason and incapable of any pardon from his Majesty and their Estates to be disposed as both Houses of the Parliament of England or the Estates of the Parliament in Scotland respectively shall think fit And that one full third part upon full value of the Estates of the persons aforesaid made incapable of Employment as aforesaid be employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages according to the Declaration Branch 1. That the late Members or any who pretended themselves late Members of either House of Parliament who have not onely deserted the Parliament but have also sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford called or pretended by some to be a Parliament and voted both Kingdoms Traytors and have not voluntarily rendred themselves before the last of October 1644. be removed from his Majesties Councils and be restrained from coming within the Verge of the Court. And that they may not without advice and consent of both Kingdoms bear any Office or have any Employment concerning the State or Commonwealth And in case any of them shall offend therein to be guilty of High-Treason and incapable of any pardon by his Majesty and their Estates to be disposed as both Houses of Parliament in England or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively shall think fit Branch 2. That the late Members or any who pretended themselves Members of either House of Parliament who have sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford called or pretended by some to be a Parliament and have not voluntarily rendred themselves before the last of October 1644. be removed from his Majesties Councils and restrained from coming within the Verge of the Court and that they may not without the advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament bear any Office or have any Employment concerning the State or Commonwealth And in case any of them shall offend therein to be guilty of High-Treason and incapable of any pardon from his Majesty and their Estates to be disposed as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall think fit Branch 3. That the late Members or any who pretended themselves Members of either House of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves before the last of October 1644. be removed from his Majesties Councils and be restrained from coming within the Verge of the Court and that they may not without the advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament bear any Office or have any Employment concerning the State or Commonwealth And in case any of them shall offend therein to be guilty of High-Treason and incapable of any pardon from his Majesty and their Estates to be disposed as both Houses of Parliament in England shall think fit 5 Qualification That all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof be incapable of any place of Judicature or Office towards the Law Common or Civil And that all Serjeants Counsellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates Proctors of the Law Common or Civil who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof be incapable of any practice in the Law Common or Civil either in publick or private and shall not be capable of any preferment or employment in the Commonwealth without the advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament And that no Bishop or Clergy-man no Master or Fellow of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere or any Master of School or Hospital or any Ecclesiastical person who hath deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof shall hold or enjoy or be capable of any preferment or employment in Church or Common-wealth
but all their said several preferments places and promotions shall be utterly void as if they were naturally dead nor shall they otherwise use their Function of the Ministry without advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament Provided that no Laps shall incurr by such vacancy until six months past after notice thereof 6 Qualification That all persons who have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof are disabled to be Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors or other head-Officers of any City or Corporation Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer or to sit or serve as Members or Assistants in either of the Houses of Parliament or to have any Military employment in this Kingdom without the consent of both Houses of Parliament 7 Qualification The persons of all others to be free of all personal censure notwithstanding any Act or thing done in or concerning this War they taking the Covenant 8 Qualification The Estates of those persons excepted in the first three precedent Qualifications and the Estates of Edward Lord Littleton and of William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury to pay publick Debts and Damages 9 Qualification Branch 1. That two full parts in three to be divided of all the Estates of the Members of either House of Parliament who have not onely deserted the Parliament but have also voted both Kingdoms Traytors and have not rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 2. That two full parts in three to be divided of the Estates of such late Members of either House of Parliament as sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 3. That one full moity of the Estates of such persons late Members of either of the Houses of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 10 Qualification That a full third part of the value of the Estates of all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil and of all Serjeants Counsellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors of the Law Common or Civil And of all Bishops Clergy-men Masters and Fellows of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere And of all Masters of Schools or Hospitals and of all Ecclesiastical persons who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves to the Parliament before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom That a full sixth part on the full value of the Estates of the persons excepted in the sixth Qualification concerning such as have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof and are disabled according to the said Qualification be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 11 Qualification That the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of England who in Lands or Goods be not worth two hundred pounds sterling and the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of Scotland who in Lands or Goods be not worth one hundred pounds sterling be at liberty and discharged Branch 1. This Proposition to stand as to the English and as to the Scots likewise if the Parliament of Scotland or their Commissioners shall so think fit Branch 2. That the 1 of May last is now the day limited for the persons to come in that are comprised within the former Qualifications Provided that all and every the Delinquents which by or according to the several and respective Ordinances or Orders made by both or either of the Houses of Parliament on or before the 24th day of April 1647. are to be admitted to make their Fines and Compositions under the rates and proportions of the Qualifications aforesaid shall according to the said Ordinances and Orders respectively be thereto admitted and further also that no person or persons whatsoever except such Papists as having been in Arms or voluntarily assisted against the Parliament have by concealing their quality procured their admission to Composition which have already compounded or shall hereafter compound and be thereto admitted by both Houses of Parliament at any of the rates and proportions aforesaid or under respectively shall be put to pay any other Fine than that they have or shall respectively so compound for except for such Estates or such of their Estates and for such values thereof respectively as have been or shall be concealed or omitted in the particulars whereupon they compound and that all and every of them shall have thereupon their Pardons in such manner and form as is agreed by both Houses of Parliament That an Act be passed whereby the Debts of the Kingdom and the persons of Delinquents and the value of their Estates may be known and which Act shall appoint in what manner the Confiscations and Proportions before-mentioned may be leavied and applied to the discharge of the said Engagements The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of Parliament or such as shall have power from them shall think fit XIX That an Act of Parliament be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace or any Articles thereupon with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament And to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by them and the King to assist and to do no act to discountenance or molest them therein That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled in the Kingdom of Ireland by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses of the Parliament of England have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines here That the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland and the Presidents of the several Provinces of that Kingdom be nominated by both the Houses of the Parliament of England or in the intervals of Parliament by such Committees of both Houses of Parliament as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall nominate and appoint for that purpose And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Vice-Treasurer and the
tenth man he might have said of the thousandth of the Kingdom The President interrupting him again as before takes him up now more insolently bids him be mindful of his condition tells him that the Court is sufficiently satisfied and do affirm their own Jurisdiction and that no Reasons were to be heard that declined the Authority of the Court But shew me that Court answered the King where Reason is not to be heard We shew it you here replied the President and the next time you come you 'll know more of their pleasure But the King urged That at least he might be permitted to give in his Reasons in writing to which if they could give him satisfaction he would not decline their Jurisdiction Here the President not satisfied to deny his modest suit but falling also into a heat commanded the Prisoner to be carried away who made no other return but this Remember it is your King whom you refuse to hear it will be in vain for my Subjects to expect Justice from you when you will not hear your King make his lawful defence Now the King is the fourth time brought before this unjust Court of Justice where the President in his Scarlet-robe bitterly taxes the King of Contumacy and runs out in commendation of the Patience of the Court He bids him at length submit to the Court or to expect his Sentence But the King constantly refuses to plead before them telling them however That he had something to say that concerned the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject wherein he desires to be heard before the Lords and Commons Yet they refuse to grant him that favour which is not wont to be denied to men of the meanest condition pretending it would delay and put a stop to Justice To which the King replied That it would be better to admit the delay of a day or two than to hasten a Sentence that might bring on that trouble and perpetual inconvenience to the Kingdom that the Child that is unborn might repent it For if I had had said he respect to my Life more than the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberties of the Subject certainly I should have made a particular defence for my self for by that at leastwise I might have delayed an ugly Sentence which I believe will pass upon me and that the Zeal to my Country had not overborn the care that I have of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work than I have done Now since a hasty Sentence once past may be sooner repented than recalled I desire that having something to say more for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject than for my own particular I may be heard before Sentence be given Upon which Colonel Downs one of the Judges being prickt in Conscience contrary to what had been privately agreed upon amongst the Judges desires that they may withdraw and debate that Proposal privately Though this extreamly vexed the President Cromwel and most of the rest yet that they might not seem publickly to quarrel among themselves they all withdraw into an adjoyning Chamber where Downs being paid off with flouts and jeers intermingled with no small threats they return wonderfully unanimous and agreeing into Court Then the President with the same inhumane barbarity that he began proceeds to Sentence having premised a long Speech wherein he aggravates the Contumacy of the King and the haynousness of the Crime he asserts the Power of Parliaments producing instances both foreign and domestick especially from Scotland how aptly the Scots are to look to it wherein the People have punished their Kings and that the Power of the People of England over their King was not less than that of other Nations that the King's guilt was greater than that of all others seeing that according to the wish of Caligula he had endeavoured to have cut off the head of the whole Nation by undertaking a War against the Parliament Having ended his Harangue he orders the Sentence to be read in these words That whereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an High Court of Justice for the trying of Charles Steuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at first time a Charge of High-Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid he the said Charles Steuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do c. For all which Treasons and Crimes the Court doth adjudge That he the said Charles Steuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and a publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his Head from his Body The Sentence being pronounced sixty seven Judges that were present as lifted up by the conscience of the Villany they had conspired in at the desire of the President the thing having been privately concerted stand up and confirm the same the rest amongst whom was Fairfax for the horrour of the Crime not daring to be present Then was his sacred Majesty hurried away by the Souldiers to be by them most like to his Saviour scoffed at before he suffered who laying aside all reverence to the name of a King as if they led their Captive in triumph with cruel barbarity the aforesaid Peters setting them on whereas in the beginning they cry'd Justice Justice so now they cry Execution Execution like the Jews of old Crucifie him Crucifie him They spit upon his Clothes as he passed by nay one or two had the boldness to spit in his majestick face which one of his Judges a Colonel took notice of to many then present commending the bravery of his Souldiers and more beheld with horrour They blew the smoak of Tobacco a thing which they knew his Majesty hated in his sacred mouth throwing their broken Pipes in his way as he passed along They also enjoyn inhumane rudeness to others beating those who with a hat or bow saluted him as he passed nay whilst one more compassionate than the rest sighing said God have mercy upon him they knockt him down dead Rushing into his Chamber both by day and by night they allowed him no retirement nor any private discourse not so much as with his Chaplain When with much ado they had suffered one Bishop onely I mean of London to have access unto him with loud laughing they interrupt him in paying his Devotions according to the Rite of the Church of England and even then when he was preparing for his last they disturb him with scoffs and frivolous and impertinent Questions But he with great presence of mind whilst they cried out Justice and Execution turning to those that were about him said Alas poor Souls for a piece of money they would do so for their Commanders Wiping off the Spittle when they spit upon him all that
and the suspicion of a sudden Insurrection again amongst the Irish because they parted so easily with their Inheritances is laid at their door as a ruine We purposely pass by matters of less importance least what we are about by the by should swell up to too vast a bulk The Officers of the Army what by craft and what by force turning Richard out of the Supream Power and the Rump-Parliament after five years interment being raised again from the dead the eyes of all are fixed upon Henry It was thought by some that he would defend his own Authority and vindicate that of his Brother Others hoped that he would favour the Royal Cause and so make his interest with the King the Navy especially giving no obscure marks of their inclination and the Army and Kingdom of Ireland being ready enough to promote such an Enterprize Nor dare I swear that he entertain'd no such Projects But the Lord Broghill and Coot deserting him in dubious Affairs and Steel and Tomlinson old Commissioners managing and Waller and Corbet new ones continually solliciting him he at length resigns himself to the Will and Pleasure of the Rump-Parliament and returns into England there to give an account of his administration rump- Hitherto we have dwelt in Ireland that without interruption we might give the Reader an account of the Affairs of that Kingdom Now bringing our discourse back to former years we must return to the Democratical Republicans who after the murder of the King swayed Affairs in England under the Olygarchicks These being upstarts promoted for the most part men of their own Edition to places of honour and profit Which the Londoners took so ill that the Mayor and Aldermen came and petitioned the rump-Rump-Parliament that the cheif Citizens or that some of them at least might be again admitted into the common Council of the City These were about three hundred whom either age or wealth at least recommended But the year before the Rump-Parliament had turned a great many of them out and judged them unworthy of carrying any office in the City for no other reason but because they had signed the Petition making Peace with the King which the greater and sounder part of the Parliament were also for But that desire of the Mayor and Aldermen though they seriously alledged the want of ingenious and honest men of moderate Estates for discharging the offices of the City is rejected with contempt nor would they have any but the Riff Raff and inconsiderable rable to manage Publick Affairs as being such who measured good and evil according to the will and pleasure of their Masters Whil'st these things are carried on at London CHARLES the Second was not asleep nor did he neglect his Affairs though the Regicides carried all before them in England but moves every stone and leaves nothing unessayd that the wit and power of man could devise or execrate for resetling the undone Nations asserting the publick Liberty and the Regicide being revenged recovering his ancient Inheritance He implores the assistance of Foreign Kings and Princes who are all equally concerned according to the Supream Power they have received from God and their common duty to give Sanctuary to the oppressed but especially to Kings whom above all men living they ought to protect not only upon the account of Kindred and Cognation but also for fear of Contagion least the horrid example of Rebellion might have an influence upon their own Subjects that if perchance they should be reduced to the like streights they might likewise obtain the like help and assistance He sends Ambassadours to the Emperour and German Princes to the Grand Signior the great Duke of Moscovie the Kings of Poland Denmark and Sweden to the republick of Venice and the States General of the united Provinces He sends into Spain from whence he had the greatest expectation the Lord Edward Hide who had formerly been Lord cheif Baron of the Exchequer and was afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Clarendon whose Iuvenile and vegete wit might put life into the aged head of Cottington In France besides a particular Ambassadour the Queen Mother and Duke of York were there and the King himself to sollicite his own affairs But alass almost every where unsuccessfully the distance of place hindering the aid of some and either the want of money domestick seditions or dangers from neigbours obstructing the assistances of others None are touched with the sence or pity of the Calamities of another The Ottoman Court dealt barbarously in that for a little money they delivered up the Ambassadour Henry Hide a most accomplished Gentleman into the hands of the Rump-Parliament who being brought over into England for his unshaken Loyalty without any pretext of ancient Law he was beheaded before the Royal Exchange in London France with promises gives hope of large assistance so long as they could procure any help from the Subjects of the King of England especially from James Duke of YORK who commanding the English and Irish that served the French in Flanders had given many Noble and Illustrious proofs of his Heroick Valour and Courage Until that Blake had beaten the French Fleet under the Command of the Duke of Vendosme which came to the relief of Dunkirk at that time besieged by the Spaniards Then they sent Burdex to treat of peace at London whil'st the Regicides expected no less than a declaration of War And having afterwards entred into a strict allyance they inwardly rejoyced that the Kings Majesty was deluded and no small stop put to the fury of the Rebels The Spaniard seemed to be grieved at the Kings Murder but excused himself that it did not belong to him to determine about the controversies of England nor did he take pleasure to meddle in other Peoples Affairs out of his own Terrritories but that in the mean time he should be ready to do the King all the kindness he could within his Countries Nevertheless not long after Ascham being killed which I shall shortly relate he was the first King who Commanded his Hedge Ambassadour Don Alonso de Cardenas to Worship the rising sun of the Common-wealth wish the Parrcides all happiness intreat the continuance of Friendship and good Correspondence betwixt his Kingdomes and the New Common-wealth and promised severely to punish the Wicked Murderers of Ascham Now there are some not obscure Reasons why the great Mind of so Wise a King was by so unexpected a change that rather discovered than altered his Inclinations brought over to the contrary side For besides Ancient and Paternal enmities with Queen Elizabeth Philip himself had particular Quarrels against Charles It wounded him deep that his Sister being courted in Marriage even so far as to have had an interview and conference with her she should afterwards be slighted for a Daughter of France though a Princess of extraordinary Worth Besides the old offence
of the Council That the Christian Religion as it is contained by Holy Scripture should be the Publick Profession of the Nation and that those who were to have the Care thereof should have their Support from the Publick so that it be with some other more convenient Maintenance and less subject to Envy than by Tythes That no Man shall be by any Fine or Penalty whatsoever forced to Comply with the said Publick Profession otherwise than by Persuasions and Arguments That no man Professing Faith in Christ should be prohibited the Exercise of his own Religion so that he disturb not any other but that neither Popery or Prelacy should be permitted the least Favour or Licence and that all Laws to the contrary should be void That all Agreements made by Parliament should be firm and stable All Articles of Peace made with Domestick Enemies made good That all Protectors in their Order should be obliged by Oath at their first taking upon them the Government by all means to procure the Peace Welfare and Quiet of the Commonwealth by no means to violate the present Agreements and lastly to his Power to administer all things according to the Laws Statutes and Customs of England To these Conditions Cromwell swears and then cunningly chuses his Privy-Counsellors which he so dexterously pack'd that though they differed in Quality and Inclinations amongst themselves yet all were equally at his devotion Of every Sect he chuses some Leading Men by whose means he might gain the rest of the same Stamp Officers also of the Army especially the Higher and those who were most in Favour and Authority with the People Amongst them were Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians Irish and Scots all sorts of Republicans and until all Liberty of Ingenuous Minds was restrained some Royalists also The Reins of these so many and different Opinions Factions Nations and Sects the skilful Driver being himself of no Faith nor certain Profession took into his Hands and turned them at his pleasure now inclining to one side now to the other sometime approving the greater and sometime the smaller number of Votes being ready at every turn to dismiss those that were head-strong And thus assisted by his Counsellors he takes upon him the Administration of the Commonwealth Out of fear few withstand this so great a Change in Affairs and many applaud it Those who are of a contrary Opinion stand in amaze and conceal their Thoughts Presbyterians Independents Royalists Neutralists and all chuse rather to acquiesce under his Government than eternally to be enslaved to the Pleasure of mad Fanaticks The exulting Soldiers are cock-a-hoop Now Colleges are freed from the fear of Ruine the Common-Laws are secured from danger the Nobility though maimed yet still seemed to be in being the Presbyterians secure of their Tythes and Discipline though not coactive triumph nor are the Royalists much grieved being now sure of a Single Person and hoping that the Scepter and Crown after one or two Turns more would at length be setled upon the right Basis the Royal Family Every Commander of the Army talks of Golden days as if now their Places were to last for ever nor does the meanest Soldier despair but that by degrees he may mount to the top of the Government But Lambert and other Chief Officers besides the plentiful Estates wherewith they are enriched at present skip for joy that they are admitted into a share of the Government hoping within a little after the death of the aged Protector to be raised higher Amidst these Domestick Revolutions at home England wanted not a Foreign Enemy they had a heavy War with Holland upon their Shoulders which being begun two years before and till then continued seemed like to terminate in the Ruine of one of the two Nations had not God othewise decreed The Dutch were netled at the Letters of Reprisal which being promiscuously granted Pyrats from all Places who liked better to live by Rapine than by honest Courses infesting the Seas had taken above Fourscore Sail of Ships as also at the Order of Parliament That no Goods should be Imported from abroad unless in English Bottoms or Ships of the Country where the Commodities were originally to be had And that People were too late foolishly bent upon War For when it was in their Power to have assisted the King against His Rebellious Subjects then would they neither aid Him with Counsel Money Intercession Credit nor any other way nay I wish it might not be said that some of them assisted the Rebels But now when the Princes of Europe vailed their Crowns and Scepters before the Parricides they think themselves able to make Head against them and vie for Pre-eminence Nothing now is to be heard amongst them but forthwith resisting Force by Force The Publick Places resound with Ballads and Songs against the Villanous Regicides and Sectarians and Booksellers Shops are adorned with Pictures The Flushingers exceeded all the rest in Folly who boasted that their own Ships alone were able to beat the English But the High and Mighty States were not of that Judgment they were divided into Three Parts One Part was not onely for entertaining a Peace and good Correspondence with the Regicides but also for Leaguing into a stricter Amity Others favouring the Popular Opinion did all that lay in their power to thwart that and that Confederating with Neighbouring Princes they should endeavour to restore the King of Great Britain to the Throne of his Ancestors A third Party taking a middle way thought it best to mind their own Interests carry fair and civilly with the Rebels thereby to secure their Trade and the free use of the Seas but in the mean time if the Parricides carried it high and slighted their Friendship that with a well-appointed Fleet of an hundred and fifty Men of War they should forthwith quell them The last Opinion prevailing Four Embassadours for Pacification are appointed to go into England the Heer 's Catz Schaep Vandeperre and Neuport who had long been resident there They renew the Treaty which St. Johns had broken up beginning at the same Article where he had left off The Oligarchicks hereupon seem sorry for what was past and presaging a future Coalition with the English into one Commonwealth carry very civilly and kindly receive them Then the Dutch Ambassadors without denouncing of War make some mention of an hundred and fifty Men of War which they had in readiness to scowr the Seas from Pyrates and securing Navigation but without any Intention to molest us which was far from their thoughts But in the heat of the Treaty it unluckily fell out that a great Fight hapned betwixt Blake and Trump the Admirals of both Nations but I am uncertain who gave the first Provocation We alledged That the Dutch refused to strike Sail which is a Mark of Prerogative and Dominion that we demand of all Foreign Ships and that Trump being warned to do
Rights and Privileges of the People all the rest agree to the Petition The Army thus leading the Dance some Corporations and Counties follow and these possessed by what Spirit I know not heap so many and so great Elogies upon the Man that striving to outdo others in Hyperbolical Cant and Flattery they fall into Blasphemy and blush not most profanely to attribute to this Man Titles that are peculiar to God Almighty In the mean time to give the Devil his Due he restores Justice as well Distributive as Commutative almost to its ancient Dignity and Splendour the Judges without Covetousness discharging their Duties according to Law and Equity and the Laws unless some few that particularly concerned Cromwell having full and free course in all Courts without hindrance or delay Mens Manners also at least outwardly seemed to be reformed to the better whether by really substracting the Fewel of Luxury or through fear of the Ancient Laws now revived and put in execution His own Court also was regulated according to a severe Discipline here no Drunkard nor Whoremonger nor any guilty of Bribery was to be found without severe Punishment Trade began again to prosper and in a word gentle Peace to flourish all over England He studied also to gain an Opinion of extraordinary Sanctity among the Church-men for no Man affected to seem more tender of the Clergy than he though he would not list himself in any particular Sect nor espouse particular Opinions He was indeed more inclined towards the Independents his Affairs so requiring but a severe Enemy to all the Orthodox Clergy of England He gave it out That it was his onely wish and desire to see the Church in Peace and that all would gather together into one Sheep-fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ and mutually love one another whilst under-hand he set them together by the Ears and promoted their Dissentions He projected some specious Proposals of Reconciliation betwixt the Presbyterians and Independents but when they were upon the point of agreement he put them again at greater variance Under pretext also of moderating and pacifying the Divisions of the Scottish Remonstrators and Assembly-men he blows up the Embers and kindles greater Flames amongst them By turns he used to countenance all sorts of Fanaticks that the hair-brain'd People might the more obstinately stick to their Whimseys and Scruples of whom if he could frame any one to his own Temper by prying into his Secrets he shewed himself easie and tractable to the Opinions and Punctilio's of any Religion He had moreover the knack of wheadling and alluring all with hopes of Favours and fawning Offices but so as they must know there was no resisting of the Bridle if otherwise he would break out into Anger and thunder Threatnings If he perceived that the Presbyterians began to raise their Crests be troublesom to their Neighbours seem uneasie under the Government or meddle in Civil Affairs then would he threaten and denounce all Evils to the Sect and let loose against them the Anabaptists Quakers and the rest of the Fanaticks who took pleasure in disputing with the Preachers and interrupting them in their Divine Worship and by such Brutes he created no small trouble to the swelling Presbyterians Nay he was heard by many to glory that he had curbed that Insolent Sect as he used privately to call it which would suffer none but it self so that they had humbly begg'd his leave and thanked him for granting them permission to Preach and perform Divine Worship after their manner in their own Congregations and to those who were willing to submit to their Government Though the Publick Use of the Service-Book was denied to the Episcopal Party yet in Private Houses he allows them the Use of their Rites He not onely cherished but seemed also mightily to love Dr. Brownrigg a Bishop and other Learned Men whom heretofore he was acquainted with at Cambridge whilst they were suffered by the Parliament to live there and commanded them to visit him often yet it was his custom so soon as they were gone to forget calumniate and deride them If any were suspected by him to promote the Royal Cause or to contrive against himself they must be sent to Foreign Plantations chained and imprisoned severely checked interrupted in their Sermons haled before Officers or Justices of the Peace and not dismissed till they found Security for their Good Behaviour and the keeping of the Peace Nevertheless though the State of the Church seemed now sad and deplorable yet it is not to be denied but that milder Courses were used than under the rigid Tyranny of others that went before The Independents get into the Chief Places of Honour and Profit whom he countenanced with his own Familiarity and at length gave them liberty to call an Assembly at the Savoy that the Preachers or Prelates of the Independent Churches in all Counties meeting there might make a Confession of their Faith and justifie themselves from absurd Opinions with which they were branded by some but especially and indeed that they might shew their Numbers and Strength and by knowing one another associate together into a stricter Union Though this Meeting was not celebrated till Richard was possess'd of the Government yet the Grant of it was obtained in Oliver's time He allows a Toleration of Religion to all sorts of Fanaticks Though publickly he detested and seemed an implacable Enemy to the Papists yet he was very familiar with some of them and very obliging towards them Nay once he set afoot a Treaty with them about a general Toleration of Religion converting the third part of their Rents wherein by our Laws they are fined into a certain Sum of Money But because they could not agree upon the Money-consideration and that he smelt out that it would be ungrateful to the People and give occasion of Stirs and Commotions he thought it more expedient for that time to desist But what success soever that Affair had he gave to all Liberty of Mass privately and Priests and Jesuits who by the Law are guilty of Death if they set foot in England had never greater freedom nor did they ever more boldly carry on their Designs in the Camp Courts and Pulpits some of them being even raised to Promotion so that amongst the unstable and ill-grounded they reaped no small Harvest of Proselytes He appointed a Convention of Lay-men and Church-men as well Presbyterians and Independents as also Anabaptists who had power to judge of Promotions and the Collation of Ecclesiastical Benefices vacant by Death or Deposition to call before them and examine Competitors put Questions to them concerning their Manners and Learning and especially about the Marks of the In-dwelling of the Holy Spirit and sometimes about Civil Matters as If they liked a Popular State It was lawful to these either to admit to or debar from the Cure of Souls whom they pleased
his Genius was so far from affecting Rule having observed that though in the worst of time the factious prevailed and the Republicans proudly insulted especially over the Cavaliers yet Justice used commonly to follow such Practices at the heels that he would have been content rather to have led a private Life in Peace free from hatred and danger But Allurements and the fawnings of Fortune blassing his Youthful Mind and being tickled as it is natural to Man with the splendour of Government he at length complies with the temptation I know not what madness of the People spurred him likewise on to it who in a kind of a Phrensie brought him from all parts to the number of ninety Congratulatory Addresses that they might worship the Rising-sun Richard makes a magnificent Funeral for his Father Oliver Cromwell at a vast charge which his Counsellers advised him to for this end that being already sufficiently burdened with Debts he might be reduced to greater want of Money But it was debated amongst the Officers whether they should accompany the Funeral in deep and close Mourning for fear that being pestered in that Habit a Regiment or two of Cavaliers dropping out of the Clouds to disturb the Solemnitie they might not be able to defend themselves though Soldiers were planted all along on both sides of the way for their security He was buried in Westminster Abby Church which is so Conspicuous for the Monuments of our Kings that Europe cannot exceed it in stately and sumptuous Tombs as if he were there to give Laws to the Ghosts of Princes whom he prosecuted with so much hatred whilst alive Ireton Bradshaw and all the crew of the Regicides aspired also to that Burial amongst the Royal Ashes This Farce is no sooner ended but another presently comes upon the Stage For the Republicans Plot and undermine and by degrees attempt the ruine of Richard which they had before hatched in their Minds First they repair to Fleetwood's House upon pretext of Duty and of joyning together in Prayers after their accustomed manner they glance at things first aâ— a distance and reconcile Lambert and other disbanded Officers to Desborough and those that still were in Office in the Army By and by they discourse of the Charge of Protector as if by right it belonged to Fleetwood and by Cromwells last Will whilst he was Compos mentis designed for him but that Richard was in a surreptitious manner and by the craft of some of the Council substituted when his Father had lost his Senses that it concerned them to be governed by a Pious and Expert Leader such as had been tried in many difficulties So the Firebrand of Contention being once thrown in amongst them they proceed by all ways to blow it and by fresh Fewel to raise it to a Flame The Relations being by this means put at variance and mutually incensed one against another the Private Soldiers are tamperred with to side with them and that they might not seem to lose their labour for their sakes they desire that the Soldiers may have their full pay which in latter times was cut short by two pence a week The next thing brought under debate is the Government of the Army Cromwell had ruled Arbitrarily by meer Despotical Authority turning out any Officer or Soldier at his pleasure and putting others in their places no Man must now take so much upon himself nor enjoy so unlimited a Prerogative Therefore the Soldiers come to a Petition wherein they humbly desire that for the future No Soldier be turned out of place without a Council of War nor that any Action be brought against a Soldier but according to Martial Law that no Soldier be brought to Tryal for Murder Theft Sacriledge or Robbery but in a Court Marshall and that the Soldiers have the power of choosing their own General These things are argued verbally before the Protector and afterwards by Publick Writings and Declarations When Richard perceived that the Council of State and Government were tossed with these storms he though it safest to betake himself to a Parliament and try the aid thereof in his difficulties Therefore a Parliament is called to consist of two Houses according to the Model of the Instrument of Government Commissioners from Scotland and Ireland being likewise admitted who no sooner meet but they begin to quarrel at the new made Lords These again are inveighed against and it is called in question by what Right or Law they sat in that House Nor is there less heat in the House of Commons betwixt the Republicans and Court-Party the first contending that both the Scots and Irish ought to be turned out of the Parliament of England as having no right to Vote there by any Law being meer Slaves to the Protector and no ways representing the Commonwealth At length after much Jangling and many Reproaches the Members of the lower House for Reconciliation sake Vote a present Conference with those of the Other House for they studiously avoided the name of the Vpper House about Publick Affairs provided that should be no prejudice to the True and Antient Peers and those who during the War had not abandoned the Commonwealth Afterwards a Recognition in favour of Richard being moved occasioned no small stir 's in the House the Courtiers who were devoted to his Party and the Republicans clashing mightily about it taking occasion thereupon they inveigh against the Instrument of Government as being extorted from a Lame Parliament that was neither full nor free and examining all the Articles of it they let fly against Cromwell's Ghost Not a few who favoured the Kings Intrest struck in with these that the contrary parties being equally ballanced nothing might on either side be agreed upon Nevertheless they repeal the order for Imprisonment of Overton the Republican as heretofore made by Oliver Cromwell against the standing Laws and having sent for him from the Isle of Jersey where he had been detained in Prison they suffered him to shew himself near Whitehall in a trumphant manner Berkstead also Lieutenant of the Tower of London and Butler Major General of the Army a most insolent haughty Man are accused of High Treason which they thought sufficient to be done at present In the mean time the Officers of the Army obstinately urge their Proposals whose Councils were for the most part guided by many Republican Parliament-Men When some perswaded Richard and offered their assistance to quell these Men by suddenly seizing the Leaders of them when they came together to hold a Council he would not condescend partly out of Cowardise as not daring to oppose the raging Officers and partly also out of too much credulity as being perswaded by Fleetwood his Sisters Husband and his Uncle Desborough that the Army though they desired to enjoy their Priviledges and that the form of Government might be a little altered yet would not do any
and the Officers of the Army to the Mayor and Common-Council of London and to Montague Admiral of the Fleet. Which were received with so universal a Joy and Applause that the Parliament forthwith ordained him to be proclaimed KING in the City and all over England with the accustomed Solemnities having made a Proclamation to this purpose Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the death of his most Royal Father of glorious memory without the ceremony or solemnity of a Proclamation yet since Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testifie their duty and respect and since the armed violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That immediately upon the decease of our late Soveraign King CHARLES the First the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to his most Excellent Majesty King CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Bloud-Royal of this Realm and that by the goodness and providence of Almighty God he is of England Scotland and Ireland the most potent mighty and undoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities The King being proclaimed throughout the City with the joyful shouts and acclamations of all and all things being prepared for his reception both Houses of Parliament appointed an honourable body of Commissioners to be sent to the King with their Letters all men of great Quality and Birth Obery Earl of Oxford Charles Earl of Warwick Lionel Earl of Middlesex and Hereford Viscount of Leicester the Lords Berkley and Brooks for the Lords The House of Commons chose Fairfax Bruce Falkland Castletown Herbert Mandiville all Lords Ashley-Cooper Townsend Booth Holland Chumley and Hollis Knights Who besides Letters carried Instructions with them humbly to beg that his Majesty would be pleased to hasten his long wished-for return into England And because they knew that the Exchequer of their exiled King could not be very full they order them to carry him a Present of fifty thousand Pieces of Gold and also ten thousand to the Duke of York and five to the Duke of Gloucester Clerges a person in great favour with the King carried General Monk's and the Armies Submission and Letters The City of London also sent twenty Commissioners chosen out of the Flower of the Citizens and the wealthy Citizens present the King and his Illustrious Brothers with twelve thousand pounds All things now succeeding beyond expectation Monk was secure in his fortune having so dexterously managed things with such innocent and harmless Arts defeated the Snares and Arms of the Parricides and procured the publick safety without bloud that the same Virtue of the General was both hated and admired whilst the praying Sectaries in vain called upon God who was not certainly the Lord of their Hosts now The Eleventh of May the Commissioners set sail from England and with all dutifulness waited upon the Kings Majesty at the Hague where they were gladly and kindly received by him Clarges had been with him before whom the King having first knighted sent back into England as a Messenger of his coming and having sent Letters to Monk full of expressions of good will and gratitude towards the General and Army he designed Dover for his place of landing In the mean time by the Kings command Admiral Montague since Earl of Sandwich came with the Fleet upon the Coast of Holland and waited for the King before Scheveling And now all things being in a readiness for his departure the best of Kings with the Dukes of York and Gloucester came on board the Admiral Thither they were attended by the Queen of Bohemia their Aunt their Sister the Princess of Orange and the young Prince their Nephew where after they had taken a glad Farewel with a joyful Huzza of the Sea-men they set sail Charles the Second now in possession of his Fleet the first Pledge of his Government which was speedily to waft him over to that of his Kingdoms with a prosperous Gale directs his course to Dover Monk having received Letters by Clarges accompanied with a numerous train of Nobility and Gentry hastened thither to welcome him on the shore and to pay Honour to that Virtue at home which he had reverenced at so great distance abroad So soon as the Fleet with full sail came in sight innumerable crouds of over-spied Spectators flocked to the shore and Sea-coast and to every other place from whence they might have any prospect being desirous to see and congratulate their restored Prince The Troubles of England Composed by his Majesties happy Restauration On the 25th of May amidst the roaring of all the Canon in the Fleet ecchoed and answered from the Castle and shore and which was a more glorious sound amidst the joyful and louder Acclamations of his Subjects AVGVST CHARLES landed at Dover with so much Piety Gravity and Gracefulness in his Countenance that he seemed to be come to pay his Vows to God the Protector of the Government His department shew'd no Vanity nor Pride but a mind rather above the reach of them yet capable of any fortune and so great was his Majesty in all his actions that he seemed more to deserve than to desire a Crown Here Monk falling upon his knees to welcome the King was by his Majesty embraced kissed and raised from the ground the rest of the Nobility having also performed their duty the same night the best of Kings advanced to Canterbury and next morning created Monk Knight of the honourable Order of the Garter the most illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Gloucester putting the George about his neck Here the King spent Sunday and restored the service of the Church in the Metropolitan Church of England Setting forward from hence he lodged all night at Rochester and next day upon Black heath he viewed the Forces drawn up with much military pomp and splendour Forces heretofore onely brave in shedding of Civil Bloud whose Trophies and Triumphs were then disgraced with horrid Crimes but now upon the return of Charles loyally and deservedly triumphant The Regiments drawn up in a most lovely order made an Army worthy of King Charles The King having by the
Lord Bishop of Winchester the Worthy Nicholas Oudart Secretary and Counsellour to the Prince of Orange by Sir John Wederburn Knight by Dr. Richard Owen Professor of Divinity and Rector of St. Swithins in London by Dr. George Ent heretofore Physician to Charles the First and now to the present King and also by Fabian Philips an Attorney who was my Assistant in searching the Rolls Offices and Monuments of the Law that I may not mention Dugard who printed it men above all exceptions although there is an insolent Defamer who pretends I have fathered another mans Work whose Calumnies I neither value nor fear This Passage is inserted by him onely to prove he was the Author of it but is at the same time a strong proof of his integrity for it is very well known these Persons were not all of one side in our late Distractions The first Part of this Piece was first printed about the year 1651 without his name for the information of Strangers and therefore he premiseth a short account of the Prerogatives of the Crown and the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject here which had been so abominably misrepresented to Forreigners that they stood generally in great doubt on which side the right lay and considering the time when it came out first nothing could be of greater use and benefit to the then-oppressed interest of our late Soveraign Nor was it onely useful abroad but at home also for the People of England were then so distracted by the Contradictions betwixt the Royal and the Rebel Party that they at least many of them did as little know on which side to give their Verdict as the Neighbour Nations Hence the Learned and Ingenuous Mr. Henry Foulis in his Preface to his History of the wicked Plots of our pretended Saints gives us this Account of himself As for the Author saith he whilst a School-boy he was too much sway'd to Presbytery and delighting in the Stories of our Times had none to peruse but May Vicars Ricraft and such-like partial Relators by which means believing with the ignorant all things in print to be true he was perswaded to encline to the wrong side But a little before his going to theVniversity lighting by chance upon Dr. Bates 's judicious Book Elenchus Motuum he found the Laws and true Government to be opposite to his former Readings and therein the Knavery and Jugling of their Opposers strange things which he had never heard of before Which with some other assistance so far prevail'd with him that in a short time he threw off Father Schism and ever since like little Loyal John in the Epitaph For the King and Church and Bloud-Royal He went as true as any Sun-Dial There are some others who have acknowledged to the World in print the benefit they and the Government received from this first Part. The Second Part was added by Dr. Bates after his late Majesties Restitution to inform the World of the manner of his Majesties Escape from Worcester and how things were carried till the deposition of Richard Cromwel wherein is an excellent account of the bloudy War in Ireland and the just Judgment of God upon the Scotch Covenanters for joyning with our English Parliamentarians upon pretence of setting up Presbytery here but indeed to inrich themselves the second time with the Spoils of England the effect of which was that Presbytery was ruined even in Scotland by O. C. and his victorious Independant Army and they lost at the same time all their Civil Priviledges and were treated till the Kings return as a conquered People by their fellow-Rebels The Third Part was written by one Dr. Tho. Skynner another Learned Physician to continue and bring down the Story and shew the Joy of our Nation at the Restitution of his late Majesty It is in the Original written in a florid stile and full of curious and ingenuous Reflections The Translations of all these have been managed with great care to make them both true to the Originals and delightful to the Reader onely the Translator thought fit to supply some Papers which are but hinted at or wholly omitted in the Author as the Treaty of the Isle of Wight in the First Part the Coronation-Oath in the Third and others And also when there are any Papers or Expressions mentioned to publish the original Papers and words when he could find them but when not he hath humoured the Translation as near the Latin as the sence of the Author and idiome of the two Languages would permit There is great hope that this short account of our late horrible Confusions here in England which is so acceptable in the Original to all Forreigners and Learned English-men may now translated be no less acceptable to all those who either cannot read the Latin or care not to give themselves so much trouble and that it may contribute something to the interest of the Government by forewarning men how they betake themselves to those courses again which produced such dreadful Effects heretofore A TABLE To the First Part. A. ACcusations against the Lord Keeper and Judges pag. 24 Army fall off from the Parliament and seize the King out of their possession 82. Seem to comply with the King ibid. but relapse 87. The Assembly set up Presbytery 57 B. Beginning of the Troubles 17 Bishops accused 24. Their Lands sold 59 C. Covenant and Solemn League 60. Its fruits 62 Courts several abrogated 28 Cromwel Oliver 77 E. Episcopacy abrogated 56 F. Fairfax Sir Thomas 77 Fasts the noted fore-runners of some mischief 134 H. High Court of Justice falsely so called its beginning and proceedings 139. and inf Hotham Sir John 38 I. Independents 61 71. and inf work the Presbyterians out of power 76 79 Intercessions for the King 142 Ireton's Remonstrance 133 Irish Rebellion its beginning 45 The Junto or Rump of the House of Commons 138 K. King Charles the First goes into Scotland 31. Goes to the House of Commons 34. Withdraws to Windsor and thence towards York 35. Goes to the Scots Army 65. Designed to be murdered 88. Escapes to the Isle of Wight 91. He is murdered 158. His excellent Character 161. Keepers of the Liberties or Council of Forty 166 L. Laud Archbishop 23 Lords House in Parliament abolished 163 M. Militia 33 36 41 Monarchy of England and the Rights thereof 1. Abolished by the Rebels 163. O. oxford-Oxford-Parliament 63 P. Parliaments what their Power and Customs 5. and inf Parliament-Factions 22. To sit as long as they please 30. Their scandalous Declaration 32. Their unreasonable Demands 39. Modelled by the Army 137. Peters Hugh 133 143 Prerogative abated 29 The Presbyterian Model 57 Prynn William 137 Q. Queen goes into Holland 35 R. Religion the pretence of the Rebellion 43 S. Scots Rebellion 20. They come into England 62. The King puts himself into their hands 65. They sell him 67. Take up Arms for the Kings deliverance 100. Are defeated 101. Sects and Sectaries
House of Lords onely save onely in making Laws or imposing Taxes and Subsidies unless when it shall otherwise seem fit to the Kings Majesty to require their particular counsel and assent for dispatching the publick Affairs of the Nation Nay it was of old the custom also that if any Controversie or Doubt arose about the validity of the Election of the Members of the House of Commons the matter was not determined by the other Members of the same House but either by the Lords in the Upper House or by the Judges in Chancery And if any of them also departed from the Parliament without leave from the King and both Houses he was brought before the Kings Privy-Council or Kings-Bench to receive sentence for his faults but he was never punished at the will and pleasure of his own House This also is peculiar to the House of Commons that we may again return to their Priviledges that it belongs to them first to debate and form the Bill for raising Money from the People Such therefore is the wonderful temper of our Monarchy that the King Lords and Commons have their several parts in the publick administration of Affairs yet with that harmonious proportion that All can help but none of them hurt the Publick For the Prerogative of the King that gives him the supreme power of Government and of Peace and War tends to this that he may have strength enough to defend the Laws against the Factions of the Nobility and the Tumults and Insurrections of the people whilst the Nobles by the high Authority they have in giving Judgment and making Laws can on the one hand put a stop to tyrannical attempts if any should be offered by the King and on the other curb the insolence of a tumultuous and seditious common People Nor are the Commons through the priviledge they have of accusing any man and giving or denying Money unprovided of means of restraining the licentiousness of the Lords and Privy-Counsellors and of preventing the arbitrariness of the Prince The Laws are very careful that the liberty of Debating and Voting be not obstructed through fear and the insolence of wicked men for it is enjoyned under severe penalties that no Member of Parliament come to the House with hidden or open Arms nor that any other person armed with a Sword or any other Weapon presume to walk in the Palace-yard or near the House thereby to give cause of terrour and apprehension or to lessen the reverence of the place Yea it hath been the custom that the Members of Parliament and their menial Servants should during the sitting of Parliament be protected from arrests for debt or other slight crimes but the Priviledge of Parliament excuses no man that is guilty of Treason Felony or Breach of the Peace from the ordinary prosecution of Law Yet if by the mistake either of the Magistrate or Officer any Parliament-man or their Servants happen to be arrested they cannot be set at liberty according to Law but by a Writ assigning the cause directed out of the Chancery So much heretofore did both Houses contain themselves within the bounds of modesty that if any one inconsiderately offended against the received customs or spake any way irreverently of the King he was severely punished for the fault and that at the suit and instance of the House of which he was a Member The Kings also did very seldom unless it were for weighty causes act any thing that might give offence to so August an Assembly Yet sometimes upon high provocations some of our mildest Princes have severely rebuked the whole Parliament and caused some Members to be brought to the Bar to answer for their offences and have punished others by Fine Imprisonment or Death according to the nature of their crimes These were the old customs and those the men that made England for many Ages past to flourish being happy at home and renowned abroad until too much happiness as often happens in humane affairs with Luxury and all sorts of Vice brought in amongst us Pride Ambition and the contempt of the Laws both of God and man so that with mutual emulation and envy men began to covet and invade the Rights of one another to despise and set at nought rather than to reverence and obey the King Religion and Laws and to gape after Novelties rather than to acquiesce in what was most excellently established Of late some perverse men and they at first but a few who had screwed themselves into the Lower House being desirous of changes and crafty Promoters of publick Debates began to clamour about the Rights and Liberties of the People and Power of Parliaments to arrogate to themselves unheard-of Priviledges to be very busie where they were no ways concerned take upon them what they were not capable of effecting and at length breaking out into insolent Expressions and Invectives against the the Kings power calling into question the Tunnage and Poundage which the Kings of England in all times enjoyed and forbidding them to be payed to the King nay and to offer violence to their Speaker within the very walls of the House and in a word to shake off their ancient modesty all reverence which they ought to bear to the Majesty of their King and to trample under foot the sacred Customs of the Kingdom and Priviledges of Parliament Hence arose mutual Heart-burnings and Jealousies that the King designed to invade the Liberties of the Parliament and the Parliament to encroach upon the Prerogative of the Crown For this reason the King put an end to several Parliaments much sooner than many desired but not without precedents in former times and checked the rashness of some by imprisonment Being some time afterward sollicited he refused to call new Parliaments that so the Heats and Animosities might be allayed and that they might learn for the future to bring along with them Modesty and greater Gravity to so great a Council But that gave occasion to crafty and restless men of spreading their poyson all over England so that every where they gave it out That Religion was ruined the publick Liberty opprest and the Laws in danger of being subverted hoping that it would be no difficult matter to perswade credulous people of this who were greedy of Novelties and prone to listen to Calumnies and Slanders especially of the great men They reproached the King with bitter Railings calling him uxorious imprudent addicted to the Popish Religion covetous and what else they knew to be infamous and hateful to the People They censured the best of his actions and strained them to the worst sence They wonderfully aggravated his Misfortunes and Failings and were more injurious than ill fortune her self in their horrid constructions Amongst so many Complaints and Outcries if you demand what real calamity happened Britain was never in a more flourishing condition stately Buildings both publick and private every where reared not
Counties to wit of Buckinghamshire and Essex are egg'd on that being armed in several bodies they might come and petition that their Members might have free liberty of voting and that their Priviledges might be kept inviolate Although the Kentish-men who came to supplicate on the other side were denied liberty to enter the Gates of London and others who were about to do the like were restrained by threats and reproaches So that by polling and in a manner mustering the people they give the signal to War The accused Members abscond in London until they might feel the pulses and stir up the Citizens to draw out for their Guard and conduct them to the House in arms and triumph The King being advertised of this though at that time by the care and contrivance of Gurney the then Lord Mayor many valiant and loyal men offered themselves to mix with the Croud and being scattered through the streets like Spectators to oppose the Army if they attempted any thing against the King yet his Majesty hoping that these storms might break and spend themselves by giving way to them he with the Queen removed to Windsor-Castle But afterwards the Quarrel rising higher having sent the Queen beyond Sea under pretext of accompanying her eldest Daughter lately married to the Prince of Orange over into Holland but in reality that she might pass the Winter secure from the future storm and having sent for the Prince whom as he was informed the Factious did intend to seize by authority of Parliament he moves towards York but not before he wrote to the Parliament giving them the reasons of his departure perswading them by all means to Peace and desiring them That whatever it was they so much desired that he would grant and do for them they would set it down in writing that without ambiguiety they would state what the Parliament and People claimed and what on the other hand was to be granted to the King and he religiously protests that he would have the Rights of others no less to be inviolate than his own and that he would most willingly give his consent to all things that might contribute to the restoring of Peace and the just Rights of his Crown and Kingdom They not onely slight but caluminate this goodness of so gracious a King as if it were contrary to the Priviledges of Parliament to be informed what was fit to be done and that their consultations should be interrupted by Letters It can hardly be exprest how much the House of Commons proud of the favour of the Multitude pretended to be scared at these admonitions to Peace as portending new dangers and ruine in disguise Hence laying hold of the opportunity the House of Commons being onely the third and lowest Estate of the Kingdom the Lords being as yet averse from so unjust a desire had the boldness to demand that the power of all Castles and Forts and of the Militia should be put into their hands When they could not obtain this from the King they move all the Towns and Corporations that sided with them that as of their own accord they should make musters train up the Youth in Military Discipline and divide them into Companies which was afterward confirmed and approved in the House of Commons as done according to Law They pass also a Vote in their own House that by Authority of Parliament Deputies should be named in each County To exercise arm draw out and muster the Youth and those that were fit to carry Arms that they might be ready upon the future Orders of Parliament for suppressing Rebellions resisting Invasions c. Having at length by their known Arts prevailed with the Lords to give their consent both Houses joyn in an Address to the King That it was a thing not onely expedient but necessary to be done as well for himself as for the State pretending fears from France Germany and Spain who then were all in Arms and the intelligence they had from Paris Venice and Rome that the restless Papists and ill men were plotting and contriving how they might overset the Parliament of England and the reformed Religion The King willing to grant any thing for Peace sake yields them a share in the power of the Militia for a certain time reserving to himself the supreme Authority whereby he might be able to maintain the Dignity of the Crown and the Rights of Parliament He approves also the Deputies appointed by them some Londoners excepted and does pathetically exhort and adjure them That at length laying aside vain fears and mutual jealousies they would calmly and seriously consider by what means the troubled State divided into several Factions and torn almost into pieces by it self might be united again into one and that since no former Prince had made greater Concessions to his Subjects they would peaceably enjoy them But they slighting this Indulgence of the King and his sound Admonitions impose upon the rest with their bugbears of Fears and Jealousies They ordered strict Watch to be kept in suspected places the Beacons to be watch'd and prepare Pilots as for a War The People are dayly stirred up with false Rumours spread amongst the Multitude On Sundays when they are in Church at their Devotion they are put into panick fears as if the Papists who were to come no man knew whence were ready to burn their houses and to mingle their Bloud with their Prayers and by and by again that their throats were to be cut by enemies lurking in the Woods and Vaults under ground And many though not the wisest of the Londoners were perswaded that the River of Thames was to be blown up by Gunpowder to drown the City in the night-time so ridiculous were the surmises that gave occasion to most fatal changes By these and such-like tricks the Populace is frightened out of their senses and resolved to do any thing to rid themselves of these apprehensions Amongst the other preparatiss to War all the particulars whereof it is not our designe to trace the cunninger sort smelt a Plot as if the King in his progress to the North intended to seize the Town and well-provided Magazine of Hull which might be of great consequence in carrying on the War That they might prevent this the Factious of their own head without any authority from both Houses give the government of the place to Sir John Hotham which he instantly secured with a Garison and the assistance of some Towns-men So soon as the King had notice of this he marched thither attended with his Nobles and Servants but the Gates being shut and Souldiers planted upon the Walls he is denied entrance The King being highly offended commands the Governour to let him enter attended onely with twenty Gentlemen on horseback but he refusing to let him in unless alone is proclaimed a Traytor and the King by Letters to the Parliament
after the Victory that the goodness of the Cause made them not doubt of distributed amongst the Purchasers and many thousand English listed themselves for the service Nevertheless such was the misery of this Nation that that which is wont to procure some short Peace at least amongst those who are at greatest variance served onely to inflame our Broils On the one hand they who were altogether given to changes buzzing I know not what fears and jealousies into the ears of those who were but too prone to make the worst of things obtain in Parliament that the War be not carried on in the name of the King nor that any Souldier who had shew'd his Loyalty to the King or had served in the Scottish Expedition should be admitted into this War And for managing the War they also prefer factious men and such as were ungrateful to the King On the other hand the King intended to lead the Army against the Rebels in person urging and insisting That he might use the right and power of War which the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom entrusted him with The King at length desiring to overcome his Competitors by courtesie and yielding if he could not by power and strength consents that the War be carried on in his own and the Parliaments name and that the Commissions should run in the name of the King and Parliament granting the Parliament the power of levying and arming the Army and of chusing the Generals and Commanders and the King reserving to himself no liberty of making Peace or pardoning the Rebels without the consent of Parliament Yet neither so did the swellings of the Parliament abate for not long after the Civil War breaking out in England the Parliament make use of an hundred thousand pound raised for the Irish War and two or three Regiments of men that were to be sent over for suppressing that Rebellion for oppressing of the King here at home Nay and they make no scruple to employ the money that was charitably collected for the relief of the poor distressed Protestants and for building of Churches in paying their own Souldiers On the other side the King's Souldiers seize the Ammunition sent by the Parliament towards Chester which so soon as they gave it out that it was designed for the War in Ireland the King commanded to be restored The Parliament that by putting indignities upon the King they might raise their own Reputation alleadging some silly slight suspicions are not ashamed to impute the Irish Rebellion to the King as the Author of it But as the truth was his Majesty retorts the crime and infamy of it with far better reasons upon the factious Members of Parliament Yet these things hinder not but that our Auxiliary forces bâ—at the Irish Rebels and put them to flight in all places kill plunder burn and destroy many thousands of the Natives and by a great slaughter revenge the murder of their Country-men But at the same time they lay all the Country waste and desolate which at length was no less prejudicial to themselves than to the Natives for the War increasing in England the Souldiers wanting Corn Ammunition Clothes Pay and indeed all things necessary and at length being unable to support their wants it is hardly to be exprest what miseries and calamities our Country-men suffered in Ireland and having long struggled with these difficulties and with all importunity but in vain begg'd assistance from the Parliament The Privy-Council of the Kingdom Commanders of the Army and the Souldiers themselves write to the King earnestly begging to be disbanded or employed in other service where they might have any Enemy but Hunger to fight with The King at length seeing the Scots were coming with assistance to the Parliament-forces being too weak to make head against the Rebellion moved on the one hand by his own necessities and on the other by the importunate Prayers of his Subjects commands a Truce to be made with the Irish for a year that in the mean time if it were possible he might make Peace upon good terms A Truce being made with the Irish and Forces being left sufficient for maintaining the Garrisons the Souldiers return from Ireland to the assistance of the King whose fortune against the Parliament at home manifestly declined But the Scots who inhabited the greatest part of Vlster supplied with Pay and Ammunition by the Parliament refuse the Truce as also some English in Connaught and Vlster who lived in good correspondence with the Scots A little after the Lord Inchiqueen who commanded the Munster-Forces having brought over some thousands of men to the Kings assistance when he thought himself not treated according to his dignity and merit flying over secretly into Ireland tampers first with those of Cork and then with all such of the Province of Munster as were on the English side and having drawn them over to the Parliament he rejects the Truce and is presently assisted by the Scottish Forces and supplied with Money Provisions and Ammunition from the Parliament Ireland being now delivered from the English Souldiers the Natives lay hold on the opportunity of recovering the whole Kingdom under the command of Owen Ro General of the Rebels and having broken the truce which they had solemnly made and arming of a sudden they had surprized and seized the Marquess of Ormond not dreaming of any such thing had he not being informed of it a little before by by-ways mays made his escape to Dublin Having afterward joyned their Forces those who were willing to keep the Truce being instigated to the contrary by the Nuncio who produced the Popes Bull they all together besiege the City of Dublin by Land whilst at the same time the Parliament-Ships shut up the Haven The Marquess being overmatched by the Forces of three Nations acquaints the King with his condition who sends him instructions that if he could not defend the City he should rather deliver it up to the Parliament than suffer it to fall into the hands of the Irish Having therefore agreed upon Articles amongst which it was one That he should have liberty to go to the King that he might give his Majesty an account of all the affairs of Ireland the Marquess returned into England and found the King at Hampton-Court environed by the Parliaments Rebel-Souldiers where being informed that he was to be apprehended by Order of Parliament he secretly withdrew into France that he might escape their Snares Not long after when the King was committed to Prison in the Isle of Wight and that the Rebels had cut off all hopes of restoring Peace and Liberty by their Vote of no more addressing to the King of which more hereafter having received new instruction he returned in quality of Lord-Lieutenant into Ireland where he endeavoured with all care to make the best Peace he could and to unite the English Scots and Irish for
interposeth and very often whilst the Presbyterians were at the helm disturb the religious meetings of the other Sectarians by hurling of Stones amongst them The liberty of a great many being contrary to expectation restrained the Parliament settle the Presbyterian government onely for three years that in that time they might have a tryal how it would fadge This Novelty set mens humours wonderfully a working The Politicians and Lawyers were highly offended that there were as many Judicatures established as there were Parishes in England and these almost arbitrary putting the Rule into the hands of unskilful men and for the most part incapable of government and began to foresee at a distance I know not what calamities ready to spring from thence in Families Parishes Counties nay and in the whole Kingdom also Most part of the people grumble to be put again to School and to be taught the Rudiments and Principles of their Religion wherein they thought themselves already very well instructed Those that were zealous for Episcopal government and the Service-book bite the bit But none repined more than the Independants Anabaptists and the other Sects who saw their beloved liberty of Conscience in danger for which they had at first taken up Arms against the King hazarded their lives in so many battels and suffered so much labour cost watchings and danger Nevertheless the Government went bravely on in London but so and so in the other Cities and populous Towns and but very coldly in the Country so that the triennial Essay being over and no new Act made to confirm it it had much ado to keep life And thus far concerning Church-affairs which we thought fit to relate together though they happened not all at the same time Let us now return to the other arts whereby they wheadled the Scots Amongst which it was of greatest moment no less for endearing the Scots to them than for raising their power and authority amongst the Natives to sell the Bishops Lands at very easie rates so that Purchasers flocked in from all quarters who with the materials of demolished Palaces and the Timber they cut down having paid for their Purchases got large and entire Mannors almost for nothing And that once for all I may tell it they lay Excise Customs and such heavy and continual Taxes and Impositions upon the people as none of all the Kings that ever sat upon the Throne of England durst ever before that time impose and such as were not onely sufficient to defray all publick expenses but in some measure also the insatiable avarice and voraciousness of their Factors and Agents besides what they got by plundering sequestration and other ways The Scots being allured by these Morsels are tooth and nail for the interests of the Parliament The Scots the declared enemies of Episcopacy fearing the worst if the King should obtain the victory over the Parliament and being drawn in by the aforementioned baits enter into Articles of a Confederacy among which to give a colour of honesty and integrity to the rest the chief was That no hurt be attempted against his Majesties person nor prejudice done to the Rights or Heirs of the Crown an Oath being likewise taken by the Members of both Houses and all the Inhabitants of both Kingdoms being forced to do the same This they call the Solemn League and Covenant and in it promise That according to their Places and Callings they shall endeavour the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government The reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion c. That they shall also endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. That they shall mutually endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with their Consciences of their Loyalty that they have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness That they shall endeavour to discover all Incendiaries and Malignants branding with those aspersions all that favoured the Kings Party that they may be brought to publick tryal and receive condign punishment That they shall endeavour that the Kingdoms may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to Posterity shall assist and defend all those that enter into that League and Covenant and shall zealously and constantly all the days of their lives continue therein No inconsiderable Authors of entering into this Covenant were the Independents Anabaptists and Republicans and the chief and most severe in forcing it upon others who were unwilling to take the same though many of themselves purposely refrained from swearing it lest upon that account they should oblige themselves to the defence of the Kings person It is also to be observed that the clause of defending the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was by their artifices foisted in contrary to the sence and tenour of the Covenant under colour forsooth that the safety of his Majesties person was sufficiently secured by other Oaths that the repetition of the same promise would but harden the Kings mind against the Parliament and make the People scrupulous in obeying the same But in reality as appeared afterward that all obstacles being as much as might be removed they might make way for the murther of the King These things being contrived and carried on betwixt the factious Scots and English those who took that Covenant with an honest purpose as many good men did being won over by fear delusion or false hope called themselves Presbyterians other Factious of less note as Independents Anabaptists and other Fanaticks not disdaining to list themselves in the same Cause These cruelly persecute all Dissenters who will not engage in that holy Covenant though they had acted nothing before against the Parliamentary Faction though they had not refused to pay any Taxes and Impositions nay though they had freely contributed for the pay of the Parliament-forces The Parsons especially who enjoyed fat Benefices are sequestrated and deprived of their Houses Goods and Livings put into Prisons and Dungeons for many years together nay and put on board of Ships upon the Thames in the heat of Summer in order to transportation without being either accused or heard where they suffered all the incommodities of hunger watching and nastiness By the Religion of this Covenant Children were taught to persecute inform against and
rob their Parents Fathers their Children Servants their Masters Wives their Husbands so that the mutual Offices to which men are bound in society were denied to those that differed from them in opinion For these reasons many contrary to the Dictates of Conscience run into the noose of the Covenant and at length whether that they thought themselves obnoxious to the Kings Laws or really bound in conscience by their Oath they seriously espoused the Party of the Parliament Against this many learned and pious men took up the Cudgels and in several Treatises amongst which was the Judgment of the University of Oxford an unanswerable piece in Latin confuted it as contrary to the Laws both of God and man the Covenanters in the mean time making no answer but with force and the sharper Arguments of the Sword The Scots who faithfully promised the King to give him no trouble in his affairs in England having by those previous artifices cleared their way into that Kingdom with twenty thousand men come to the assistance of the Parliament But first for forms sake they send Commissioners to the King to perswade him being inclinable enough of himself to make peace with the Parliament and to offer themselves as Mediators of the Controversie but the King having rejected them as unjust and partial Judges and commanded them to mind their own affairs at home they call a Parliament against all Law in the Kings name and then declare War The King foreseeing the Storm that was like to fall upon himself and Party had provided against it as well as possibly he could The Lords and Members of the House of Commons who though they were excluded the Houses thought it their duty still to stand by the Publick came over to the Kings side and the former to the number of forty with the Lord Keeper of the great Seal and the latter above two hundred transfer the Parliament to Oxford where being called to Council before they were admitted to take Arms by the King they held a Session of Parliament by the Kings authority nothing being wanting to the power and dignity of a Parliament but Walls and the place appointed by the Kings Writ To these the King gave strictly in charge that they would do what lay in their power to avert the Storm or at least consult how they might be able to resist it This Parliament wrote to the Scots that they would not in an hostile manner invade the King and Kingdom of England nor violate the Pacification formerly made They declare it Treason to take up Arms against the King or without his consent to call a foreign Nation into the Kingdom and that therefore the rump-Rump-Parliament sitting at Westminster were upon both accounts guilty of High-Treason They also pass an Act for raising as much money as could reasonably be expected from the exhausted Counties and Towns which still continued in obedience to the King for defraying the charges of a double War now approaching The King also by Letters earnestly dehorted the Scots from that unlawful attempt and prohibits them by Proclamation That being his Subjects and obliged by so many bonds they would not come to the assistance of Rebels But this being signed by the hands of nineteen Lords the prevailing Rebels of Scotland with matchless insolence in Subjects cause it publickly to be burnt by the common Hangman The Marquess of Hamilton is commanded to keep the Scots at home that they might not meddle in the affairs of another Kingdom who being discovered to have unfaithfully discharged that Office having under pretext of danger fled out of Scotland to the King was afterward committed to Prison The Marquess of Montross being made General and Commissioner of Scotland is dispatched thither that by giving them a diversion at home they might be kept from invading England This Commission was valiantly discharged by the Marquess having with a handful of men and those raw and undisciplined put whole Armies to flight and every-where wasted the Country However the Scots pursuing their point left not England before by the help of Fairfax they had routed no small part of the Kings Army which they had long diverted from quelling the Parliamentarians elsewhere taken Newcastle and other strong places and handed on the Victory into the more Southern parts Henceforward the Kings affairs do dayly decline and were at length totally ruin'd Victory everywhere smiling upon the Rebels The Republican Rebels having obtained many Victories began to vent their hatred and indignation against the Lords and especially after the last Newberry-Fight they grew sick of the Earl of Manchester For he in a Council of War giving his opinion and exhorting them to Peace which he judged more expedient to the State seemed not so thorough-paced and fierce upon the War as they could have desired and being therefore in a long Speech accused by Cromwel in the Lower House he defends himself in the Vpper retorting the accusation So that both Houses thought it more convenient to compose the difference betwixt them than to enter into the merits of the Cause The Kings Forces being at length scattered and broken by the Scots on the one hand and the Parliament-Rebels on the other Pay and Provisions being wanting and Factions arising betwixt the Commanders of the Army and the Lords that all things might conspire to draw down Judgments upon us His Majesty had in his mind first to come to London and trust himself in the hands of the Parliament next to cast himself into the arms of the English Army but being rejected by both and his affairs in a very doubtful condition he ventured to betake himself to the Scots the French Embassadour who then was in the Scottish Army and some Scottish Commanders having obtained from them promises of honour safety and freedom for his Majesties person This revived former Grudges betwixt the English and Scottish Rebels which had almost broken out into a War It was likewise given out that the Earl of Essex who from a General was now become a private person would joyn with the Lords and Commons that conspired for their ruine in new Articles and Resolutions with the Scots but his sudden death occasioned by lying on the ground when he was all in a sweat after hunting dissipated all those rumours Nevertheless the Rebels thought fit at publick cost to humour him with magnificent Funerals as being more for their interest to shew gratitude to a dead friend than to have him perhaps a living enemy Upon this they began to deny the Scots their Pay put a necessity upon them of exacting Money and free Quarters from the Counties where they lay expose them to hatred extenuate their merits undervalue the courage of the Nation call them mercenary Souldiers of fortune whilst they in the mean time paid them onely with Reproaches threaten to drive them out of the Kingdom by force of Arms publickly provoke
them and at length march Northward against their Brethren Nor durst the English Presbyterians who favoured the Scots say much to the contrary lest they should seem more concerned for the insolence of a foreign Nation than the honour of their Country-men At length after long Debates the Scots pretending that it was contrary to the Laws of Nations and Hospitality to deliver up the King who of his own accord put himself under their protection into the hands of the Parliamentarians our Republican Rebels on the other hand urging in the name of the Parliament That the Scots serving and receiving pay in England ought not to have received the King into their Army and much less keep him there against the will of the Parliament but after some formal previous Treaties that might serve to enhaunce the price it was resolved that the King should be delivered up to the Parliamentarian-Rebels And that they might have a specious colour for so horrid an action They urge the King to take the Covenant pretending that without that they could not lawfully take him with them into Scotland The King promises to take that Oath provided he were satisfied in some scruples of Conscience concerning Church-government which Province was committed to the Minister Heuderson the then Oracle of the Kirk who weakly and unsuccessfully attempted it for in their disputes the King in the judgment of all had the better on 't but money prevailed The Scots having received an hundred thousand pounds English in ready money and the promise of an hundred thousand more to be paid within a year draw out of England leaving the King to the mercy of the Parliament but with this condition That no injury should be offered to his Majesties person and that he might be received in one of his houses in or about London with honour safety and freedom that so he might be prevailed with by Arguments from both Nations to confirm and approve their Propositions The King being received at Newcastle by the Parliament-Commissioners four Lords and eight Commoners was with a guard of Souldiers conducted to Holmeby house in Northamptonshire where he suffered a splendid indeed but close imprisonment all who had either actually been or suspected to be of his Party being removed from him nay and his domestick Chaplains also whose assistance he had often desired of the Parliament The Conquerours now in striving for the Booty and Government did no longer dissemble their opinions but divide themselves into various Sects and Names which hitherto we called by the common name of Factious or Rebels but shall now divide them into their several Classes and Forms as likewise shewing by what cunning and degrees they who got into power advanced to the Supremacy Which that we may the more clearly do it will not be amiss to look into some past Ages It is not to be denied but that the seeds of Faction were sow'd in England from the very beginning of the Reformation Nor are the Roman Catholicks to be proud of this since they have given the examples to others by subjecting the Crowns and Scepters of Kings to the Mitre of the Pope and Keys of St. Peter and are no less dangerous to Kings whom they have pulled from their Thrones and exposed to the Daggers of Assassinates From that time some but in no great number are for shaking off Rome in every thing and not leaving the least monument of the ancient Church-government or Liturgie But the greater number and those the wiser thinking it enough to retrench what was superfluous and superstitious are for retaining Episcopal government and a publick reformed Liturgie the one because it suited well with Monarchical government and civil interest of the State and the other because it seemed pious and adapted to the publick Worship of God Both these as being consonant to primitive Constitutions Kings and Parliaments wisely to prevent the inconveniencies that happen from skipping from one extreme to another thought fit to establish by Laws and to inflict severe Penalties upon Dissenters This at first gave ground to heart-burnings afterwards to reasonings about the matter and the licentious humour of disputing prevailing to more bitter Controversies so that at length as it usually happens amongst Brethren who differ in points of Religion they fell to Contentions and invective Disputations the common enemy egging them on on both sides And thus the Quarrel being managed with mutual hatred and animosity the Anti-Episcopal Party or the Jesuits in their name defame the established Church with Reproaches and scandalous Libels which forced from the Bishops and Ecclesiastical Courts Suspensions Deprivations Imprisonments and Banishments But that severity though executed according to the prescript of Law drew hatred upon the Prelates and made the Anti-Episcoparians to be pitied and the rather that they seemed to suffer for Conscience-sake and the purity of Gospel-worship being otherwise in appearance men of strict lives and conversations zealous Preachers fervent in Prayer ready to do pious Offices and in a word in all things else very good men And this made many Towns Noblemen and Gentlemen take them into protection make very much of them and at length joyns with them in opinion and conspire together against the Hierarchy or Church-government Who despairing to procure the abolition of it from the Kings they hope to compass it by Parliament and therefore they endeavour to lessen the Royal Authority by magnifying a Parliamentary power wherein being assisted by all the other Sects of Fanaticks the seditious and turbulent off-scourings of Christians and Subjects they begin to make a distinction betwixt and divide the Royal Prerogative from the Liberty of the People two things that are very consistent together that laying hold on that pretext they might set up for publick-spirited men and be thought the Patriots of the Nation Having by this means at length raised their Authority amongst the common People so as to be chosen Members of Parliament they set all their Engines at work for accomplishing their intended Project there is nothing in their mouths but the Rights of the People Priviledges of Parliament and the publick Liberty they lay open to the quick the faults of the Magistrates and Courtiers in scandalous Pamphlets they inveigh against Episcopacy and the established government of the Church censure the Manners and Pluralities of Church-men they expose the administration of publick government and make it their care and study in all things to weaken the Kings Power and lessen his Reputation To these their cunning contrivances a commodious occasion happened Whilst in the Reign of King James Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhyne the Kings Son-in-law having been engaged in the German War was with his whole Family by the Imperial Forces driven out of his Territories To defend the Cause of the Protestant Religion which seemed to be in danger and to restore this banished Prince so nearly allied to the King
were made specious pretexts for their following ill designes And by these pretences they endeavour but in vain to engage that wise King in a War until Prince Charles seconding their Addresses and the Emperour refusing to agree to reasonable terms of Peace he was rouzed up to Arms. War being thereupon proclaimed whilst preparations were making and all Europe expected great matters from England the Parliament upon I know not what slight Grievances Jealousies and Suspicions leave the King in the lurch so that unless King Charles upon the death of his Father would make himself ridiculous to the World he was necessitated to raise money by his own authority laying on unusual Taxes and Impositions by virtue not onely of old dormant Laws but also of new interpretations without calling a Parliament which is customary on more urgent occasions This incensed the People and afforded a plentiful crop of Murmurs and Complaints and inclined good and honest Subjects who were far from any thoughts of Innovations but alarmed with the fears of Arbitrary Government and the loss of the Liberty of the Subject as they imagined to plot and combine with the Factious Malecontents for curbing the power of the King All these Sects at first though differing in opinions and designs were called by the name of Puritans During the rage of the Civil War after that the Scots came to the assistance of the Parliament and many had been noosed into the Solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterians were powerful both in wealth and number raise their heads above the rest Nor can they be excused from Rebellion who having abolished the Church-government and Liturgie introduced the Presbytery and Directory in place thereof aiming at the change of Civil Government also from Monarchy to an Aristocracy though they pretended to retain the name and person of a King and making use of the assistance of the other Sects who fought openly under their Banners though they cunningly concealed their designes Next came into play the better sort of Independents and some of the Tribe of Anabaptists who wished for no setled National Church-government and who liked a Democracy best yet still retaining the name and person of a King But the chief was a Faction most properly so called consisting of the rigidest sort of Presbyterians and a medly of many other Fanaticks who having destroyed the Monarchy and the Royal Family root and branch were some of them for an Oligarchy others for Anarchy and most for a Democracy I may also adde a Christocraty that Fifth-monarchy which not a few longed for wherein worldly Powers Magistrates and all profane Authority being brought down and trodden under foot Christ with his Saints might exercise dominion over the wicked and ungodly of the Earth These are they who are in a more particular sence to be called Rebels and Traytors to the Government who though they all looked different ways and served in the Presbyterian Armies for some time yet they were the fire-brands that kindled civil Dissensions among them till getting the power in their hands into which by degrees they had screwed themselves they had the boldness to fall off from the rest set up for themselves in their own names and publickly to magnifie their own Atchievements At first whilst the clouds of Troubles were but a gathering these factious Rebels were hardly distinguished by any name but skulk'd under the cloak of good Patriots and the godly Party But in the mean time they carefully watched all occasions of blowing up the fire of a Civil War and so soon as the War flamed out and the State was all in disorder lest differences might be taken up they used all arts to make the King jealous of his Parliament and the Parliament again of the King every where throwing in Bones of Contention and as it is the custom of all Demagogues distracted the thoughts of the giddy and light-headed Multitude with jealousies and fears By this their indefatigable industry in calumniating the King and exposing of him in all things to the hatred of the people they first alienate the minds of the Multitude from their Prince and then from Peace When they observed any Proposals made by the Parliament to the King or by the King to the Parliament which in probability might heal the wounds of Contention and War and restore a solid Peace they slily perplex and disturb the Negotiation when they prosper they swell in their demands lest what they had already got by force of Arms they might seem to acquire precariously and by concession but if fortune frowned upon them then were they for rouzing despondent minds That in that condition they would not think of making Peace when in their low fortune they must of necessity submit to harder Conditions nor that they would so far abase the honour of Parliament as to seem to do any thing through fear or force Nay and by false Reports counterfeit Letters and suborned Witnesses they pretend to discover strange Plots and monstruous Dangers disguised under the specious mask of Friendship They adjure others by the bowels of love and pity to the Commonwealth by their affection to the publick and the Cause of Christ and in long Speeches and Arguments plead That in carrying on the War they should rather expect to know the will and pleasure of God so they thought fit to speak in a matter of so great consequence than to make Peace with the King upon unsure Conditions prejudicial to the Publick The easie and credulous who are apt to suspect any thing and those also who were conscious of their own guilt being intangled by these Artifices they propose so hard Conditions to the King that he could not with a safe conscience honour and the safety of his Friends consent to them whilst they slighted and rejected his Majesties Letters and most just Proposals almost twenty times sent to them In the mean time these good men whilst they boast of their extraordinary zeal for the publick Liberty and the pure reformed Religion making use of the War for their own private advantages step into the greatest and most profitable places of the State And then having got deeper rooting by degrees they win upon others and draw them into the Conspiracy making great progresses both in the Parliament and Country in this stirring up the Mobile to prefer Petitions or rather putting the peoples names to Petitions framed by two or three of their own Faction and in the other by cunning and knavery accommodating the Authority of Parliament to their own arts and devices By this means it was no difficult matter either at midnight or early in the morning when the other Members that differed them appeared not or were absent about their own private affairs to snatch an opportunity of carrying things by vote and to lay hold on occasion by the forelock so that the less but more
an opportunity did not trifle away their time but were busie in all places running up and down exhorting and sometimes preaching to the Souldiers that they might gain their affection by whose favourable assistance they make way for themselves to be elected into the vacant places in the House of Commons For when the Freeholders and Inhabitants of Corporations were about by a free election to chuse new Burgesses in place of the dead or excluded Members with Souldiers in Arms they were forced through fear to chuse the Officers of the Army or such at least as they approved of So that in a short time many of these being admitted into the Parliament-house and the Self-denying Ordinance being laid aside all Offices and Affairs both Civil and Military were managed by the self-same persons And that popular applause and fame might not be wanting to celebrate their excellent undertakings hackney Presses and mercenary Scriblers are set a work to publish all their actions with wonderful Encomiums and Elegies which in weekly Mercuries and Peny Diaries are exposed to the perusal of the News-greedy people and every line swollen with the praises of Cromwel So soon as they perceived the Royal interest almost reduced to a pinch and the Parliament-Rebels in a manner secure of victory they bend their designs against the Presbyterians their rival Faction which though predominant in number of Voices yet began to totter and shake They endeavour to lessen their Reputation and by degrees to weaken their Force publish Libels to disgrace and ridicule the Church-Discipline enveighing against the right of Tythes and the avarice pride and severity of the Preachers Nay and that they might heap more hatred upon their heads they charge them who of their own accords too officiously hastened to bring all into confusion and disorder with the more rigid parts of Reformation that were most ungrateful to the people such as to press their Covenant with rigour upon those that refused to take it exact Fines squeeze money from the people and that they might entail infamy upon them to Posterity under colour of visiting Colledges to banish the most learned men out of the Vniversities Upon pretext of friendship they steal into all the Presbyterian Cabals that by raising scruples and delays their Consultations might turn to Smoak and themselves be exposed to publick Derision Having pretty well succeeded in this they resolve to go thorough-stitch with it by turning out of the government of Garrison-towns and Forts all those who declared for Presbytery They likewise cause all the Forces that were almost in every County though but in small numbers to be disbanded except the Army commanded by Fairfax They send the Scots home out of England by bribes or fear they draw over the leading-men amongst the Presbyterians that they would either openly own their Cause or secretly under the name and badge of Presbyterians diving into their secrets usefully and securely serve the ends of the Republicans amongst whom the two chief were Philip Skippon and Stephen Marshal the first Major-General of the Army and the other a Minister and the Oracle of the Presbyterians both cunning Knaves who under pretext of moderating and reconciling differences minded their own advantages fooled the Presbyterians and not a little promoted the affairs of the Independents The Presbyterians having made sure of Victory and which is more of the King and being as yet more numerous in both Houses are now in greater fear from their own Servants the Army in pay than heretofore from the enemy and being sollicitous how to rid themselves from that Yoke after much debate they appoint That for easing the Country of charges twelve thousand of them should be sent over into Ireland the rest to be disbanded except six thousand Horse two thousand Dragoons and six thousand Foot These to be carried over by Skippon into Ireland and those under the command of Fairfax to be divided into the several Counties of the Kingdom with intent as they said They might be in a readiness to stifle all Tumults in the bud and that they themselves being in a body together might not attempt any Innovations Many Officers and all the private Souldiers that were Sectarians smelling a far off that by that trick they would be wormed out of the power which they had got and the Military authority fall wholly into the hands of the Presbyterians put the rest of the Souldiers in fear that they were to be disbanded without their Pay or all transported into Ireland there to be consumed with labour sickness hunger and nakedness Hence the Souldiers began to mutiny object their little Reasons to the contrary and at length to break out into Sedition The Officers in the mean time pretended in shew to be angry at these things to repress and by all means resist the mutinous common Souldiers but secretly they encourage them in the business and industriously foment their fury And the Sedition succeeding according to their wishes they lay aside the Mask withdraw from London to head the Mutineers in the Camp and all together enter into a Confederacy against the Parliament amongst whom Cromwel was the chief who lately calling God to witness had professed That he was certain the Souldiers would at the first word of command throw down their Arms at the Parliaments feet and had solemnly sworn That he rather wished himself and whole Family burnt than that the Army should break out into Sedition And so they turn out of place about an hundred Captains and Officers who chose rather to be true to the Parliament than to enter into that Confederacy The private Souldiers had opportunity to begin this attempt by means of the Adjutators These by connivance of the Officers were chosen two out of every Regiment of Horse and Foot and had power from their fellow-Souldiers to keep Councils judge what was fit to be done for the common good and by Spies dispersed through all quarters and Garrisons inform the rest These Adjutators at length usurp the authority of Colonels not thinking it enough to have meetings amongst themselves but in Councils of War challenge place amongst the principal Officers nor barely concerning themselves in the interest of the private Souldiers they meddle in the ordering and government of the whole Army and not onely so but bestir themselves also in the affairs of the whole People as well of England as Ireland and in reforming the government of both the chief Officers till the Parliament was by their mutual Conspiracy ruined scarcely mustering against it These men have nothing in their mouths but the Liberty and Power of the People and professedly labour to erect a Democracy giving being birth and name to a popular Commonwealth another sort of Republick The Souldiers grown thus insolent and bold stand not in awe to seize and carry away the King out of the Parliaments custody who upon the
the Citizens had long ago laid aside their Arms and their resolution yet the Works and Fortifications of the City should be demolished under pretext that the Kingdom was now in Peace and then the Posts and Chains in the streets removed that the Horse might have freer passage into all the corners of the Town and no hold left to the Citizens and the women from which they might in probability kick Moreover that they might establish their Government both by Sea and Land Rainsborough the Bell-weather of the Republicans is set over the Fleet. Fairfax is appointed General of the Forces not onely in England but in Ireland also that that Country might the more speedily be succoured The Army has the thanks not onely of the Parliament and of the Ministers from the Pulpit but likewise of the honest Citizens who now entertain and feast in their houses the very men whom a little before they intended to drive from their Walls A months Pay besides as a token of kindness is appointed for the Souldiers for their good services to the Parliament It was for a long time hotly disputed to which side the Parliament should adhere whether the Acts of the Army or Parliament ought to be annulled since both of them according to the different number of Voices had by turns been resciended and being uncertain how to get out of that Labyrinth that the Parliament might not seem to be interrupted or force put upon them whereby their authority would be weakened or that they might seem to approve the right of changing sides which they had long ago condemned in the Members that followed the King They are now for both by and by again for either of the two and of a sudden again for neither However they resolve that the separation of the flying Members and their conjunction with the Army is altogether to be approved as being lawfully done for the publick good By which successes the Commanders of the Army and Ring leaders of the Faction were so puft up that they quite forgot their old Friends and fellow-Souldiers There was no more mention now of dissolving the Parliament calling a new one nor of the Promises whereby they had so often imposed upon the King and People All their care is to mind their own advantage and how to settle that Oligarchy which now they seemed to be in possession of But the Adjutators and all the popular Republicans are no less busie and sollicitous to have that Parliament dissolved and a new one under the name of a Representative by the free election of the People called with a limitation of their power and time of sitting that so they might introduce a Democraty Both Parties being out of dread of the Presbyterians equally conspire the ruine of the King and Monarchy It had been long before privately proposed amongst some to assassinate the King whilst he was in the Scottish Army that they might at the same time glut their malice and throw the odium of the fact upon the Scots Afterwards one Rolf a Shoemaker instigated by some armed himself for the Regicide That Fellow being informed that the King intended to make his escape out of a window when he was in the Isle of Wight lay in wait with a Musket several nights that he might shoot him as by accident But now several fiercely urge that he should be forthwith and secretly dispatched or at least that being condemned by a Council of War he should be beheaded But it seemed more generous and safe to the leading Rebels to protract time and manage the matter gradually by wiles and crafty fetches until being countenanced by a colour of Authority they might under a sham of satisfying publick Justice perpetrate the matchless Villany And thus they ordered it Conditions of Peace were to be proposed to the King but such as if he consented to them he himself would renounce the Crown and if he refused he would be deposed by the Votes of others and so be over and above reckoned obstinate by the people which would give them a more specious pretext for accomplishing their designe For this end it is contrived and obtained that the Parliament should again send to the King Propositions but such as were rather imperious and hard Commands than Conditions of Peace to be treated about which being granted he would pluck off his Crown with his own hands To which though the Commanders of the Army and Cromwel in the first place had given their Votes in the Parliament yet in the Camp they advised the King not to condescend to them promising that they would either obtain or command more reasonable Conditions for him and seemed to detest those as proceeding from the hautiness and severity of the Presbyterians His Majesty being deluded by that artifice makes answer to this purpose That the Propositions were such as he could not in honour and conscience consent to them being such as could not reconcile all interests nor settle a lasting Peace in the Kingdom He appeals rather to the Proposals of the Army as much more conducing to the satisfaction of all interests and a fit subject for a personal conference betwixt himself and the two Houses which he earnestly desired for which cause his Majesty would have Commissioners from the Army admitted Cromwel and the rest of the Commanders of the Army were extreamly well satisfied with this Answer as if the King himself gave greater honour to the Army than to the Parliament and therefore on their parts they promise all good Offices to his Majesty In the mean time they take all courses to incense the rest against the King pretending themselves much ashamed that they could not perform all they promised and excuse themselves sometimes because of the reverence that was due to the Parliament and sometimes again because of the peremptoriness of the Adjutators at length they began to juggle and quite fall off to give a contrary sence to their promises and to suggest apprehensions to the King as if the Adjutators and Republicans designed his Majesties death whose insolent attempts they could not moderate nor at present repress mingling with all promises that if they could cut the combs of the Adjutators and restore the lost Discipline of the Army they would without delay perform what they had undertaken With which his Majesty being moved seeing it was worse to distrust than to be deceived he privately made his escape from the Army and as sate would have it fled to the Isle of Wight the government of which as it seems probable was just before put into the hands of Colonel Hammond a dear friend to Cromwel that there he might play his part in this business To this mans protection the King commits himself running of his own accord into the Snare which the Rebels had long ago laid for him But that he might not be wanting to the
publick whilst the Parliament were at a stand wondering whither he might have fled his Majesty wrote to them sending therewith Concessions that were too easie and great to be expected or indeed to be wished for by any adding thereto invincible Arguments why he could not consent to the Proposals lately sent him by the Parliament He proposes his own Concessions and the Demands of the Army as a fit subject for a personal Treaty and for the sake of the People and Kingdom earnestly desires it being willing on his own part to condescend to any thing that by any means he might procure Peace and Tranquillity to his languishing Kingdoms The Republicans of both sorts as well they that were for a few as for a many-headed Commonwealth endeavouring by all means to put a stop to the Peace proposed and offered by the King take hereby occasion to oppose to his Majesties most just desires four unreasonable Demands as preliminary cautions which if his Majesty would consent to they promise to treat about the rest I. That the Parliament should have power to raise settle and maintain the Forces by Sea and Land within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland c. without the Kings consent it being declared High-Treason for any others to the number of thirty to meet together without the authority of Parliament II. That it should be lawful to the two Houses to sit and adjourn themselves when and where they pleased III. That all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other proceedings against either House of Parliament during the War should be declared void and null IV. That all Titles and Honour of Peerage conferred on any by the King since his Majesty left the Parliament and since the great Seal was carried away should he declared void All these things they demand that the King would consent might be past into Law if not that things must remain as they were In the mean time the Scottish Commissioners who were then at London give in their Reasons in writing against these Demands and when nevertheless they saw that they were sent to the King they protest against them in his Majesties presence as being flatly opposite to Religion the Crown and the Agreements made betwixt the Kingdoms of England and Scotland What can the King do to get out of these streights If he grant the Demands he voluntarily resignes up the Government and if he refuse he must be deposed with the ignominious brand of Obstinacy The King though wanted neither greatness of Soul nor Wisdom and therefore sends presently back an Answer That the necessity of complying with all engaged interests in these great distempers for a perfect settlement of Peace his Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties he hath met with since the time of his afflictions which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them so that were nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference his Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great end A Perfect Peace And when his Majesty farther considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of his two Houses since the onely ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by his Majesties personal assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his great Seal of England he cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of address which is now made unto him unless his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a great Seal made without his authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many of both Houses in sending those Bills before a Treaty was onely to obtain a Trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his conscience or honour yet his Majesty believes it's clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not onely the divesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his Successors except by repeal of these Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy for Land and Sea-service of what persons without distinction and quality and to what numbers they please and likewise for the payment of the Arrears to levy what moneys in such sort and by such ways and means and by consequence upon the Estates of whatsoever persons as they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them so that if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills his Majesty leaves the world to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto and if not what a strange condition after passing those four Bills his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well of the manner of their proceeding that when his Majesty desires a personal Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essential part thereof to be first granted a thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares that neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what shall befal him in case his two Houses shall not afford him a personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole be concluded Yet then he intends not onely to give full and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16th of Novemb. last which he thought would have produced better effects than what he finds in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace will bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a well-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices
be a sufficient Conviction of Popish Recuâ—ancy An Act or Acts of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII An Act or Acts for the true Levie of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that his Majesty shall have no loss IX That an Act or Acts be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the Saying or Hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ireland The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit X. That the King do give his Royal assent to an Act for the due observation of the Lords Day XI And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovasions in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God XII And for the better advancement of the preaching of Gods holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom XIII And to the Bill against the enjoying the pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency XIV And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton XV. And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give his Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that his Majesty give assurance of his consenting in the Parliament of Scotland to an Act acknowledging and ratifying the Acts of the Convention of Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservers of the Peace and the Commissioners for the common Burthens and assembled the two and twentieth day of June 1643. and several times continued since and of the Parliament of that Kingdom since convened XVI That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of July 1646. arm train and discipline or cause to be armed trained and disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their Judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and that neither the the King his Heirs or Successors nor any other but such as shall act by the authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of twenty years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years be employed managed ordered and disposed by the said Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 3. To conjoyn such Forces of the Kingdom of England with the Forces of the Kingdom of Scotland as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years judge fit and necessary To resist all foreign Invasions and to suppress any Forces raised or to be raised against or within either of the said Kingdoms to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the said Kingdoms or any of them by any authority under the Great Seal or other Warrant whatsoever without consent of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively And that no Forces of either Kingdom shall go into or continue in the other Kingdom without the advice and desire of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland or such as shall be by them appointed for that purpose And that after the expiration of the said twenty years neither the King his Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise arm train discipline employ order mannage disband or dispose any of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed Nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities in the precedent Articles mentioned and expressed to be during the said space of twenty years in the said Lords and Commons Nor do any act or thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained That after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdom to be concerned and shall thereupon pass any Bill or Bills for the raising arming training disciplining employing mannaging ordering or disposing of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms
of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any part of the said Forces or concerning the Admiralty and Navy or concerning the levying of Moneys for the raising maintenance or use of the said Forces for Land-service or for the Navy and Forces for Sea-service or of any part of them and if that the Royal Assent to such Bill or Bills shall not be given in the House of Peers within such time after the passing thereof by both Houses of Parliament as the said Houses shall judge fit and convenient That then such Bill or Bills so passed by the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid and to which the Royal Assent shall not be given as is herein before expressed shall nevertheless after declaration of the said Lords and Commons made in that behalf have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto Provided that nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary legal power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Bayliffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being Military Officers concerning the administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Bayliffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers nor any of them do levy conduct employ or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from his Majesty his Heirs or Successors without the consent of the said Lords and Commons And if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disband themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so disbanding themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High-Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding And he or they that shall offend herein to be incapable of any pardon from his Majesty his Heirs or Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and employing the Forces of that City for the defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the making of the said Act or Proposition To the end that City may be fully assured it is not the intention of the Parliament to take from them any priviledges or immunities in raising or disposing of their Forces which they have or might have used or enjoyed heretofore The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XVII That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the one and twentieth day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament And that all Honour and Title conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the twentieth day of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Council intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared Null and Void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Parents were passed the Great Seal before the fourth of June 1644. XVIII That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the two Kingdoms viz. the large Treaty the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the setling of the Garrison of Barwick of the 29th of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6th of August 1642. for the bringing of ten thousand Scots into the Province of Vlster in Ireland with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the two Kingdoms and whereunto they are obliged by the aforesaid Treaties And that Algernon Earl of Northumberland John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembrooke and Mungomery Theophilus Earl of Lincoln James Earl of Suffolk William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick Edward Earl of Manchester Henry Earl of Stanford Francis Lord Dacres Philip Lord Wharton Francis Lord Willoughby Dudly Lord North John Lord Hunsdon William Lord Gray Edward Lord Howard of Estrick Thomas Lord Bruce Ferdinando Lord Fairfax Mr. Nathaniel Fines Sir William Armine Sir Philip Stapilton Sir Henry Vane senior Mr. William Perpoint Sir Edward Aiscough Sir William Strickland Sir Arthur Hesilrig Sir John Fenwick Sir William Brereton Sir Thomas Widdington Mr. John Toll Mr. Gilbert Millington Sir William Constable Sir John Wray Sir Henry Vaine junior Mr. Henry Darley Oliver Saint John Esq his Majesties Sollicitor-General Mr. Denzel Hollis Mr. Alexander Rigby Mr. Cornelius Holland Mr. Samuel Vassell Mr. Peregrin Pelham John Glyn Esq Recorder of London Mr. Henry Martin Mr. Alderman Hoyle Mr. John Blakiston Mr. Serjeant Wilde Mr. Richard Barwis Sir Anthony Irby Mr. Ashurst Mr. Bellingham and Mr. Tolson Members of both Houses of the Parliament of England shall be the Commissioners for the Kingdom of England for conservation of the Peace between the two Kingdoms to act according to the Powers in that behalf exprest in the Articles of the large Treaty and not otherwise That his Majesty give his Assent to what the two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30th day of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1 Qualification That the persons who shall expect no pardon be onely these following Rupert Maurice Count Palatines of Rhine James Earl of Darby John Earl of Bristol William Earl of New-castle Francis Lord Cottington George Lord Digby Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Kt. Dr. Bramhall Bishop of Derry Sir William Widdrington Col. George Goring Henry Jermin Esq Sir Ralph Hopton Sir John Biron Sir Francis Doddington Sir John Strangewayes Mr. Endymion Porter Sir George Radcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Henry Vaughan Esq now called Sir Hen. Vaughan Sir Francis Windibanke Sir Richard Greenvill Mr. Edward Hide now called Sir Edw. Hide Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddel Jun. Sir John Colepepper Mr. Richard
Treasurers at Wars of the Kingdom of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue Quam diu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by the afore-mentioned Committees to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the nomination of the Lords of the Privy-Council Lords of Session and Exchequer Officers of State and Justice-General in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fit That the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof may be in the ordering and government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be employed and directed from time to time in such manner as shall be agreed on and appointed by both Houses of Parliament That no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Forces of the said City shall be drawn forth or compelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free consent That an Act be passed for the granting and confirming of the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Nonuser Misuser or Abuser That the Tower of London may be in the government of the City of London and the chief Officer and Governour thereof from time to time be nominated and removeable by the Common Council And for prevention of inconveniencies which may happen by the long intermission of Common Councils it is desired that there may be an Act that all by-Laws and Ordinances already made or hereafter to be made by the Council assembled touching the calling continuing directing and regulating the same Common Councils shall be as effectual in the Law to all intents and purposes as if the same were particularly enacted by the Authority of Parliament And that the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council may adde to or repeal the said Ordinances from time to time as they shall see cause That such other Propositions as shall be made for the City for their further safety welfare and government and shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament may be granted and confirmed by Act of Parliament That all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process proceedings and other things passed under the Great Seal of England in the custody of the Lords and other Commissioners appointed by both Houses of Parliament for the custody thereof be and by Act of Parliament with the Royal assent shall be declared and enacted to be of like full force and effect to all intents and purposes as the same or like Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things under any Great Seal of England in any time heretofore were or have been And that for time to come the said Great Seal now remaining in custody of the said Commissioners continue and be used for the Great Seal of England And that all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by any authority of any other Great Seal since the 22th day of May Anno Dom. 1642. or hereafter to be passed be Invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes Except such Writs Process and Commissions as being passed under any other Great Seal than the said Great Seal in the custody of the Commissioners aforesaid on or after the said 22th day of May and before the 28th day of November Anno Dom. 1643. were afterward proceeded upon returned into or put in ure in any the Kings Courts at Westminster And except the Grant to Mr. Justice Bacon to be one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench And except all Acts and proceedings by virtue of any such Commissions of Goal-delivery Assize and Nisi prius or Oyer and Terminer passed under any other Great Seal than the Seal aforesaid in custody of the said Commissioners before the first of October 1642. And that all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or Hereditaments made or passed under the Great Seal of Ireland unto any person or persons Bodies politick or corporate since the Cessation made in Ireland the fifteenth day of September 1643. shall be null and void And that all Honours and Titles conferred upon any person or persons in the said Kingdom of Ireland since the said Cessation shall be null and void That the several Ordinances the one intituled An Ordinance of Parliament for abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales and for seâ—ing of their Lands and Possessions upon Trustees for the use of the Common-wealth the other intituled An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for appointing the sale of Bishops Lands for the use of the Commonwealth be confirmed by Acts of Parliament These were the Conditions of Peace proposed by the Parliament as the subject matter of that Conference which all passionately wished and a great many fought for They were the very same that had been heretofore sent to the King when he was at Hampton-Court and not onely rejected by his Majesty but by the Army also as being too unreasonable they onely differed in this that in those last there was no mention made of the Scots In the mean time the Pacificators are invested with no other authority but that of answering the Royal Arguments and of returning Reasons to induce the King to assent they had no power of softening any Proposition or altering the least word nay nor so much as of omitting the Preface Their Instructions likewise bear that they are to acquaint the Parliament with the Kings Concessions and the whole progress of the Negotiation to treat altogether in writing nay and to debate the Propositions as they lay in order not descending to a new Proposition until the former was adjusted Nor was it thought enough that the Conditions and Commissioners were so strictly limited they confine the Conference also to the Town of Newport in the Isle of Wight and the continuance of it to the space of forty days The King also who was to be present at the Conference was so far well treated as to be permitted to come out of his Prison and have that Island allowed him for a larger confinement but upon promise given that he would not depart out the Island within forty days after the conclusion of the Conference and the sly Oligarchick and Democratick Republicans who had a hand in the Councils were the Authors of those scruples and restrictions With great caution the Parliament permitted some of his Majesties necessary Servants by name some Lawyers Divines and a Secretary to be present but not to be admitted into the Conference onely to be without behind the Curtain in the Lobby So that the King alone was singly to sustain the person of a Politician and Divine against the
of the Army as an Act and Deed approved by all and order it to be presented to the Parliament in the name of the Army and People of England who if they had been called to give their votes scarcely one of a thousand would have consented to it and all the rest could not but have cursed the perfidious Author of the villany with all his Adherents as the Bane and plague of mankind But the Lower House making a virtue of the necessity of the times take the courage to lay aside for some time that Remonstrance and to apply themselves to the examining and discussing of the Royal Concessions which then lay before them The Commanders of the Army taking it very ill to be thus slighted by them who ought to have thanked them for all the honour and dignity they enjoyed sent some Troops into the Isle of Wight who having seized the King removed him out of the Island and clapt him up prisoner in Hurst-Castle opposite to the Island on the main-land-side a narrow nasty and unwholsome place by reason it is incompassed by the Sea At the same time they march to London and put Garrisons into the Kings Palace and the Noblemens houses adjoyning the Palace-yard and Houses of Parliament having posted the Army in the neighbouring places about The Souldiers hoped that this beginning would put the dissenting Members into such a fear that they would hide in holes and corners which had been very usual with them and that men of their own Faction being sole Masters of the Parliament they might do what they pleased under the cloak of the Authority of Parliament which would justifie their Violence and make what Laws soever might conduce to their profit and advantage But the event answered not their expectations for most part of the Members as if at that time they had been assisted by divine inspiration not at all terrified by the muttering and anger of the Souldiers nor the clashing of Arms thinking themselves sufficiently secure by their character of Parliament-men meet to consult in a greater number than ordinary Both that day and the following the Lower House debated hotly about the Kings Concessions whilst in the mean time the Republicans of both sorts raise scruples jangle make parties and with long Speeches protract the time about Presbytery and the Covenant neither of which they liked amongst whom no man was so fierce as Sir Henry Vane who in the Isle of Wight had perswaded the King to grant no more seeing he had already yielded so many and so great Priviledges to the Parliament as he thought it neither lawful for them to expect nor take which he promised also publickly to assert This man I say inveighed bitterly against the Conditions of Peace as if under the mask of Concessions and the shew of setling Peace Danger lay hid and that his Majesty laid a Snare for subverting the publick Liberty of Parliament and People and all this that he might gain time for the whole Army to post themselves in the City At length a Vote is passed That the Kings Concessions were a sufficient ground for Peace This past by the voices of two hundred hardly threescore opposing it The Lords having next day assented to it in the same terms the Parliament was adjourned for a week till that Commotion might be somewhat appeased Commissioners are forthwith sent from the House of Commons to acquaint Fairfax and the Commanders of the Army with the matter This so incensed the Oligarchick Rebels that the Speaker of the House of Commons who had already greedily swallowed down their poyson or at least temporized and turned to either side as the Faction prevailed threatned forthwith publickly in the House That they would never be suffered any more to meet in Parliament if they obstinately persisted in that opinion And indeed the day appointed for the next Session some Colonels guarded by a Regiment or two of Foot and a Regiment of Horse beset all the avenues to the House of Commons apprehend forty Members of the more resolute and wise who dissented from them debar about one hundred and fifty more from entering the House and suffer none to go in but such as they knew to be devoted to their Faction Some had slipt in undiscovered by a Note they call out under pretext of speaking with some Friend or Client at the door and though they alleadged the authority and priviledge of Parliament yet they seize and hurry them away in the very Court The captive Members being many ways tossed and abused are exposed to derision and the miseries of a long and nasty imprisonment amongst whom were many who having asserted the Parliament-Cause as Generals Governours and Colonels were thus thanked for their good services Nay and William Prynn a fierce Asserter of the Opinions he once entertained that indefatigable Author of voluminous Writings for the Parliament stuck fast in the same mire with the rest the Spectators every where admiring the inscrutable Judgments of God who suffered them to be so unworthily treated by their Slaves and Servants who themselves were the Subjects that first took up Arms against their King and audaciously laid hands on him All this was done under the honest and specious colour of purging and reforming the House Thus the Lower House is reduced to a Junto of a few men to wit the eighth part of the just number and these wholly enslaved to the Army whose Commanders coming as freely into the House as the Rumpers went into the Camp they daily conferred Notes together and it is first resolved in a Council of War what was to be proposed to be enacted in Parliament which then served under the Army and lent them Authority to palliate their Machinations Of so many hundred Members there scarcely remained forty in the House a number unfit to bear the name of the Commons of England and these not onely the least but the most part consisting of a remnant of the dregs of the House and many of them Commanders in the Army So that there remained nothing of a Parliament but the name the rest abominating such horrid wickedness and shunning their company and conversation amongst whom were some who being deluded with the sham of Conscience had espoused the Party of the Republicans Thus a few fellows about twenty of them for the most part continually dissenting blush not to usurp to themselves alone the supreme power of ordering the affairs of England of bringing the King to a tryal making and abrogating the Laws of their Country and overturning the ancient and fundamental Government of the Nation They confirm the Vote for Non Addresses which had been craftily and surreptitiously made and afterwards repealed by both Houses in full number But the other Votes for having a Conference with the King and especially that which declared the Kings Concessions to be a sufficient ground for a Peace they rescind
some time prevail with them to delay the execution of the Villany Nor was Bradshaw the bloudy President secure from violent hands for one Burghill armed with sword and pistol watched him one night behind Gray's Inn-gate when he was to come home late but missing of his designe that night because Bradshaw did not come home next day being betrayed by one Cooke to whom he had discovered the matter he was brought before the Parricides However his Guards being drunk finding an occasion of an escape he saved his own life having onely laid in wait for another mans But all was in vain for the Rebels slighting these things pretend Gods providence and the motions of the Holy Ghost for their warrant and security Peters a brazen-faced Hypocrite who being disgracefully whipt out of Cambridge ever after that clove close to the Schismaticks bids them from the Pulpit Go on and prosper that now was the time When the Saints should bind Princes in chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron so lewdly did that profane Knave interpret holy Scripture telling them That they need not question but this Prophecy was to be fulfilled by them and in the Sermon he addresses himself to the holy Judges the title he thought fit to give them and protests that he was certain there were in the Army five thousand men no less Saints than those that conversed with God himself in Heaven Then kneeling in the Pulpit with flouds of forced tears and lifted up hands he earnestly begs in the name of the People of England That they would do Justice against CHARLES and not suffer Benhadad the enemy to escape Nay he most insolently inveighed against Monarchy it self and straining his virulent wit he relates the History How the Trees chusing a King and the Vine and Olive-tree refusing the office they submitted themselves to the sharper government of the bramble and compared Kingly government to briars By such kind of Arguments he stirs up and confirms those new Judges who of their own nature were already but too much enraged and fiercely bent against the King There was another besides Peters the Preacher an Herald one Serjeant Dendy also employed who being environed with a Guard of Horse for fear of being stoned by sound of Trumpet cited all those to appear who had any crime to object against the King and this he did first in Westminster-hall and then in the most publick places of the City Before these Judges of the new Court the most August Charles already stript of three most flourishing Kingdoms by the Rebels and having now no more but Life to be deprived of is brought without the least signe in his countenance of any discomposure of mind His indictment is read wherein he is accused In the name of the People of England of Treason Tyranny Murders and of all Rapines that were occasioned by the War with the highest aggravations of the Crimes But the whole stress of the Indictment lay in this That he had made War against the Parliament which the Army under the Parliaments pay had long ago trampled under foot scarcely any shadow of it remaining Great was the company of Spectators who with groans sighs and tears lamented the condition of the best of Princes Nor without injustice can I pass over the brave action of the heroick Lady Fairfax Daughter to the Lord Vere who out of a Belcony that lookt into the Court cried out publickly That that was a lye that the tenth part of the People was not guilty of that Villany but that it was a contrivance of the Traytor Cromwel And this she did with great danger of her life The King having heard this Indictment with a majesty in his looks and words that cannot be exprest puts the question to those new Judges By what Authority they brought their King to the Bar contrary to the publick Faith which was very lately made to him when he entered into a Conference with the Members of both Houses By what lawful Authority said he emphatically He knew indeed there were many unlawful and powerful Combinations of men in the world as of Thieves and Robbers by the High-ways He desires they would tell him by what Authority they had taken that Power such as it was upon them and he would be willing to answer but if they could not he bids them think well upon it before they go farther from one sin to a greater That he had a Trust committed to him by God by an ancient and lawful Descent and that he would not betray it by answering to a new and unlawful Authority The President replying That he was brought to answer in the name of the People of England of which he was elected King The King made answer That England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for near these thousand years That he did stand more for the liberty of the People by rejecting their usurped Power than any of them that came to be his pretended Judges did by supporting it That he did not come there as submitting to the Court That he would stand as much for the Priviledge of the House of Commons as any man there whatsoever but that he saw no House of Lords there that might together with a King constitute a Parliament That if they would shew him a legal authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom he would answer for that he did avow that it was as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a tyrannical or any ways unlawful Authority The President in the mean time often interrupted him and at length commanding him to be carried back to Prison Yet was the good King a second and a third time brought before the Bar of the Common People where the President puts him in mind of his Indictment and commands him to answer to the Articles brought against him or otherways to listen to his sentence But the King still protested against the Authority of the Court affirming That his life was not so dear to him as his Honour Conscience the Laws and the Liberties of the People which that they might not perish all at once there were great reasons why he could not make his defence before those Judges nor acknowledge a new form of Judicature for what power had ever Subjects or by what Laws was it granted them to erect a Court against their King That it could not be warranted by Gods Laws which on the contrary command obedience to Princes not by the Laws of the Land since by them no Impeachment can lie against the King they all going in his name nor do they allow the House of Commons the power of judging the meanest Subject of England And that lastly that pretended Power could not flow from any Authority or Commission from the People since they had never asked the question of the
should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free of this Guilt but I believe that ill Instruments between them and me have been the chief cause of all this Bloudshed So that as I find my self clear of this I hope and pray God that they may too Yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods Judgments are just upon me many times he doth pay injustice by an unjust Sentence that is ordinary I will say this That unjust Sentence that I suffered to take effect is punished by an unjust Sentence upon me So far I have said to shew you That I am an innocent man Now to shew you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good man here pointing to the Bishop of London that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the world and even those in particular that have been the chief Causers of my death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish they may repent for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their charge and withal that they may take the way to the Peace of the Kingdom for my charity commands me not onely to forgive particular men but to endeavour to the last gasp the Peace of the Kingdom So Sirs I do wish with all my Soul I see there are some here that will carry it further that they endeavour the Peace of the Kingdom Sirs I must shew you both how you are out of the way and put you in a way First you are out of the way for certainly all the ways you ever had yet as far as I could find by any thing is in the way of Conquest certainly this is an ill way for Conquest in my Opinion is never just except there be a just and good cause either for matter of Wrong or a just Title and then if you go beyond the first Quarrel that ye have that makes it unjust at the end that was just at first for if there be onely matter of Conquest then it is a great Robbery as a private Souldier said to Alexander That he was a great Robber himself was but a petty Robber And so Sirs for the way you are in I think you are much out of the way Now Sirs to put you into the way believe it you shall never go right nor God will never prosper you until you give God his due the King his due that is my Successour and the People their due I am as much for them as any of you You must give God his due by regulating rightly his Church according to the Scripture which is now out of order and to set you in a way particularly now I cannot but onely this A National Synod freely called freely debating among themselves must settle this when every Opinion is freely heard For the King indeed I will not the Laws of the Land will clearly instruct you for that therefore because it concerns mine own particular I onely give you a touch of it For the People truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as any body whomsoever But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having government under those Laws by which their lives and theirs may be most their own it is not in having a share in the government that is nothing pertaining to them A Subject and a Soveraign are clean different things and therefore until you do that I mean that you put the People into that liberty as I say certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs it was for this that now I am come hither for if I would have given way to an Arbitrary way for to have all Laws changed according to the power of the Sword I need not have come here and therefore I tell you and I pray God it be not laid to your charge that I am the MARTYR of the People In troth Sirs I shall not hold you any longer I will onely say this to you That I could have desired some little time longer because I would have put this what I have said a little better digested than I have done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that are best for the good of the Kingdoms and your own salvation Being thus about to conclude his most innocent and meek Speech the Bishop of London gave him a hint That if his Majesty thought fit he would say somewhat as to his Religion not that any man living suspected that of which he had given so clear proofs during the whole course of his life but that he might according to custom satisfie the People To which the King replied I thank you very heartily my Lord for I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my Conscience in Religion I think is very well known to all the World and therefore I declare before you all That I die a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as I found it left me by my Father and that honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good Cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more But a little after I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the World Afterwards kneeling down by the Block as at a Desk and having said a short Prayer he most humbly resigned his sacred head to his Maker to be struck off by a masked Executioner which was quickly done at one blow So fell CHARLES and so with him expired the Honour and Soul of Great Britain Nor are they satisfied to have exercised their Rage and Cruelty against him whilst he was alive they dishonour his martyred Body wash their hands and dip their sticks in his Bloud set to sale the Block cut into pieces and the Sand underneath it moistened with Royal Bloud and make money also of his Hair All which were by the Spectators bought up upon different motives some as dear Pledges and Relicks of a Prince whom they adored others that they might never want a Cure for the Kings Evil a Prerogative which our Kings are believed to enjoy but many also that they might have and shew in triumph the Spoils of their Enemy Cromwel that he might to the full glut his traiterous eyes with that Spectacle having opened the Coffin wherein the Body was carried from the Scaffold into the Palace curiously viewed it and with his fingers severed the head from the shouldiers as we have been informed by Eye-witnesses Afterwards they give the Body to
and France as being divided at home and many of them had the confidence openly to glory that they would break that Yoke wherewith the Kings of the Earth oppress the People Nor truly could any man have told where the fierceness of this Scourge would have ended and where that Floud would have spent it self unless the divine Majesty which hath hollowed a channel for the Sea set bounds and limits to it and said Hither shalt thou come and no further had not opposed the over-swelling pride of these Waters and commanded his Angel to sound the Retreat A Chronological INDEX FOR This First Part. Old Stile MDCXXV KIng James being dead CHARLES the First succeeds King of Great Britain He marries Henrietta Maria Sister to Louis XIII King of France MDCXXV VI VII VIII The King calls three Parliaments and little or nothing done as often dissolves them MDCXXX Prince CHARLES is born MDCXXXIII James Duke of York is born MDCXXXVII Prin Burton Bastwick having lost their ears are put in prison The Scots grow rebellious MDCXXXIX The King meets the Scots intending to invade England but having made a Pacification disbands his Army MDCXL The Stirs of the Scots occasioned the Kings calling of a Parliament at Westminster which was dissolved without any success So the Scots invade England and take Newcastle The King marches against them but having made a Truce calls a Parliament at Westminster The Parliament meets and under pretext of Reformation put all into Confusion Thomas Wentworth Earl of Strafford Deputy of Ireland and William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury are accused MDCXI The Deputy of Ireland condemned by a Law made for the purpose is beheaded The King also by Act of Parliament grants That the Parliament shall not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses William of Nassaw Son to Frederick Prince of Orange is married to Mary Daughter to K. Charles The Scots full of money return into their own Country The King follows them into Scotland The Irish conspire against the English and cruelly fall upon them The King returns to London from Scotland A Remonstrance of the Lower House offered to the King MDCXLI MDCXLII The King accuses five Commoners and one Lord of High-Treason The King goes into the House of Commons The King withdraws from London Sends a Pacificatory Letter to the Parliament Sends the Queen into Holland with her Daughter He himself goes towards York Sir John Hotham shuts the Gates of Hull against the King Vnjust Propositions of Peace are made by the Parliament to the King The Parliament raising an Army the King at length sets up his Standard at Nottingham Both Armies engage at Edge-hill and both challenge the Victory MDCXLIII A Treaty of Peace appointed at Oxford comes to nothing The Earl of Newcastle gets the better of Fairsax Commander of the Rebels in the North. In the West Waller a Commander of the Rebels is routed by the Kings Party Prince Rupert taketh Bristol Maurice his Brother takes Exeter In the mean time the King himself besieges Gloucester Essex General of the Rebels relieves Gloucester The King meets Essex upon his return and fights him at Nubury The English Rebels put to a streight call in the Scots and take the Covenant The King therefore makes a Truce with the Irish for a year MDCXLIII IV. James Marquess of Hamilton is committed to prison The Scots again enter England The King holds a Parliament at Oxford The Earl of Montross is sent Commissioner into Scotland Essex and Waller Generals of the Rebels march towards Oxford The King defeats Waller at Cropredian-bridge Then pursues Essex into the West The Scots in the mean time joyned with the English defeat the Cavaliers at Marston-moore And then take York by surrender In the West the King breaks all Essex his Forces Vpon his return he is met by Manchester at Newbury where they fight a second time Alexander Carey is beheaded MDCXLIV V. Hotham the Father and Son are beheaded William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury is beheaded Macquire an Irish Lord is hanged The Treaty of Peace at Uxbridge comes to nothing Fairfax General of the Parliament Forces defeats the King at Naseby Henceforward all by degrees fell into the hands of the Parliament MDCXLVI The King having in vain tried the English departing privately from Oxford commits himself into the hands of the Scots Fairfax takes Oxford by composition Robert Earl of Essex dies MDCXLVI VII The Scots sell the King to the English and return fraighted with Money The King is made close Prisoner in Holdenby-Castle The Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland delivers up Dublin to the English The Army take the King out of Prison And march against the Parliament The Speakers of both Houses with fifty other Members flie to the Camp The Souldiers attend the Members that fled to West-minster Vnjust Conditions of Peace are proposed to the King at Hampton-court The King makes his escape to the Isle of Wight From thence writing Pacificatory Letters they propose to him four Demands as preliminary to a Conference The King is made close Prisoner MDCXLVII VIII The Parliament votes no more Addresses to the King The Counties everywhere stir the Kentish Essex-men and some others take up Arms. The Duke of Buckingham Francis his Brother and Earl of Holland in vain take up Arms. The Fleet comes over to the Prince of Wales The Scots commanded by Duke Hamilton advance into England They are defeated by Cromwel and Hamilton taken Fairfax takes Colchester upon surrender Rainsborough a Commander of the Parliament Army killed at Duncaster A Conference appointed with the King in the Isle of Wight The Marquess of Ormond returns Lord Lieutenant into Ireland The Remonstrance of Ireton is approved in a Council of War And is presented to the Parliament in name of the Army and People of England The King is carried from the Isle of Wight to Hurst-Castle Nevertheless the Parliament votes That the Kings Concessions are a sufficient ground for a Peace Many Parliament-men are made Prisoners by the Souldiers MDCXLVIII IX The rest amongst other and unheard things vote That all Power is originally in the People Then That the King himself is to be brought to a tryal The King therefore is brought to the Bar. The King is brought a fourth time and condemned CHARLES the best of Kings by unparallel'd Villany is beheaded James Duke of Hamilton Henry Earl of Holland and the generous Arthur Lord Capel are beheaded Lastly Monarchy it felf is abolished by the Regicides The Act is proclaimed by the mock-Mayor of London
The Democratical Republicans stirring in Arms are routed Solemn Thanksgivings appointed for the Victory and the Conquerours feasted by the Londoners MDCL The Lady Elizabeth Daughter of Charles the Martyr dies in her Fathers Prison FINIS A short HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress OF THE Late Troubles IN ENGLAND AND ALSO Of the KING's Miraculous Escape after the Battel at Worcester The Second Part. NOW are the Cruel Regicides Masters of England but of England alone The Scots were in suspence not being as yet fully resolved whether they should settle Charles the Second in his Fathers Throne or usurping the Soveraignty should Govern Scotland as a Common-wealth themselves Ireland almost entirely for the King was ready utterly to shake off the Yoke of the Mock Parliament The Islands belonging to England not only the adjacent as Jersey Man and Silly but the more remote also in America to wit Bermudos the Caribbe Islands Virginia and New-England upon the Continent which had been heretofore planted with English Colonies refuse to obey the Usurpers Ireland was to be the first Seat of War shortly to be subdued whilst the Scots were for some time left to themselves They think it enough at present to discharge all Trading with the Islands and Plantations that no Sugar Indico Tobacco and Cotton should be from thence imported into England nor any Cloaths and other necessary Provisions for Life be transported from England thither hoping by this Fetch that either being glutted with their own Commodities or at least pinched through the want of ours they would be forced to comply Nor was it doubted but some time or other as occasion offered they would bring them under the Yoke Now there was one thing mainly necessary for their future Designs which as they were pleased to flatter themselves was easie to be obtained The Friendship and Alliance of no Nation nor People seemed more commodious and necessary to them than that of the Dutch both in respect of Neighbourhood and Situation of the Country and of the Humour and Inclination of the People nor did they want a pretext of making application to them For Strikland who from the beginning of the Troubles had been Ambassadour or Envoy with the States of the Vnited Provinces being kindly treated by them They thought fit to send over Dorislaus who had had a chief hand in framing the Kings Indictment as their Ambassadour to Complement and Thank them in their Name assure them of mutual good Offices justifie to them by Reasons their Proceedings against the King and to colour the Villany by the specious Authority of what Laws he could scrape together Besides he had it in Instructions if he found it convenient to let fall some mention of a Coalition or Conjunction and to offer and press it seeing if it could be effected by the Consent of both Nations they might laugh at all Designs and Attempts of Foreigners and share betwixt themselves the Trade of the whole World But that Negotiation proved unsuccessful the Prince of Orange being Stat-holder and the People detested the Murder of the King Some Scots also who though at a distance had speedy notice of his Arrival entering his Lodgings before he had had Audience with many Wounds killed Dorislaus and made their escape before they could be apprehended Thus the shedding of Royal Blood is punished by Bloody hands and by the just Judgment of God whatever may be the Injustice of Men the Crime is brought home to the Author The Regicides often demanded of the States Reparation for the Fact but without any success But the Democratical Party in England managing things now somewhat more cautiously laid not aside their discontents Walwin Prince Lilburn Overton and others of that Gang prefer a Petition to the Rump Parliament wherein they propose many good things which might be useful to the Publick mingling with them Reproaches that were not altogether false For which they were committed to Prison there to lye by it till the fierceness of their tempers were allayed Nevertheless the private Souldiers of Ingoldsby's Regiment grow Seditious at Oxford under pretence of Petitioning That the Rump-Parliament might be dissolved a lawful Representative chosen in place of it that the Laws might be rendered into the vulgar Language and those that were superfluous abolished that there might be a Register kept of all Mens Lands and Estates that every one might know what Title they had to what they possessed that the Excise and all unlawful Exactions might be abolished To which they added over and above to increase their Party not that they repented for the Kings Murder that Charles the Second might be chief Magistrate of the Kingdom But the Collonel hastening thither and having caused some few to be shot to death by a timely remedy stifled the Tumult in the Birth Yet from these Embers a new Flame broke out for some Officers in Fairfax his Army present a smarter Petition to the same purpose though in different words To the former they add That the Tithes being abolished or converted to another use the Ministers might have more certain Stipends that the publick Money might be more sparingly distributed amongst the Parliament Men and that the Souldiers should have their pay The Rump-Parliament durst not slight this but gives them good words and being conscious to themselves how often they by Declarations had promised and how many times they had been reproached with unfaithfulness and breach of Promise they set apart a day weekly for deliberating about these Proposals First Concerning the Government and Representative where having examined and considered the Nature of all States and Republicks from that of Rome even to Ragusa they pretend to search out a kind of Government which might be best and most suitable for England But they could find none that was exquisit enough nor that seemed adapted to the Genius of this People And so like Penelope weaving and unweaving their Web they put off the time until the matter might be forgotten or something of greater moment intervene I know not whether it be worth the while here to mention the Prohibition made by the French at that time of any Trade with us in Wollen and Linen Manufacture which drew from the Regicides a reciprocal Prohibition that no Wine nor Silk Stuffs should from thence be Imported into England It was likewise to our advantage Ordered in Flanders that no Ships nor Goods taken by Privateers should be Condemned or Sold in their Harbours But it is worth taking notice of that a severer Inquisition was appointed against the Ministers all England over under pretext of Reforming the Church and introducing the Orthodox Religion and all were cruelly persecuted not only they who stuck close to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England but even they who wished well to it or had any Conversation with Men of
that Perswasion Ignorant men in the mean time I speak of the generality Laicks Shepherds and men void of all Learning being put into the Ministry and some of them preferred to two or three Livings at a time which before they cryed out against as abominable Let North-Wales be one Instance for all of that Reformation where about some hundreds and of these not a few Good Grave and very Learned Divines were turned out of their Livings And Powell Cradock Floid and a few other Ignorant Vagabonds that had no certain Habitation going about in the mean time as Itinerant Evangelists Preaching or rather Canting from the Pulpit devoured vast Revenues for the Commissaries let out for a trifle the remnant of the Tythes for feeding such Ravens who were to be accountable to the Rump-Parliament for them at Neversmass Moreover the Regicides distribute amongst their own Clergy the Augmentations which were the residue of the Tythes and of Bishops and Deans Rents that could find no Purchasers especially amongst those who had not an hundred Pounds a year But that only during pleasure and for a time that they might have them at their beck and buy the Endeavours Voices and Affections of so many men and that they also being more vigilant Spies over suspected Persons might pry into their Faults their Expressions and Councils and inform them of all And now England is wholly taken up in preparations for a War in Ireland whither Cromwell is sent as General of the Army He having Mustered his Men hastens his March to the Coast and filling Bristol Chester and Milford-Haven with Souldiers prepares for his Expedition The Reader therefore must pass over with me into Ireland that he may be able to give a Judgment of the Inhabitants and how to dispose them into their several Ranks that he may discover their various dispositions and the ends they drove at The Inhabitants of Ireland are either Natives or Planters And these last either Ancient or Late Those I call Natives who first of all Inhabited the Island or were descended from them and are either Noblemen and Gentlemen Yeomen and Husbandmen the Roman Catholick Clergy and Bishops with other Free Denizens The Native Nobles either wholly enjoy their Ancient Lands or being subdued by the Kings of England and for their Rebellion forfeiting part of their Lands enjoy what remains and Rent the rest of the Proprietors for a small matter These live in the Mountains and Woods where they imperiously domineer over their Tenants and Vassals and know exactly the Bounds and Limits of their Lands trusting to this that in future Revolutions whatsoever they challenge for their own will again as by a Postliminous Right return to them as to the lawful Proprietors and Masters The Titular Clergy and Bishops for we must know that those of the Roman Communion have their own Clergy Priests and Bishops secretly appointed by the Pope who live only upon Charitable Contributions privately perform the Duties of Religious Worship after the manner of the Church of Rome in the same manner as if they were authorised by Law and were not contrary to our Customs His Majesty conniving at the Errours of an obstinate and stiff-necked Nation But for all this we must know that there is an Orthodox Clergy also all over Ireland consisting not only of English but of Irish men born who every where enjoy the Tythes But after the first breaking out of the Rebellion both as well the English as Natives were forced to flye and withdraw The greatest part are Strangers but Free Denizens who though they are sprung from English Race yet partly by Marriage partly being Naturalized through long Conversation and Custom having forgot their Original Stock are in Cloaths Humour and Carriage transformed into the Manners of the Natives The Chief and Head of all these though a Stranger was John Baptista Renuncio Prince and Bishop of Firma the Popes Nuncio who passing through France on his Journey to Ireland did not wait upon the Queen of England being then there and openly threatned that he would suffer no man to remain in Ireland that wished well to the King or who should be found to favour the English or their Affairs These kindled and in all places blew the Coals of Rebellion and that the Breach might not be made up again used all means by Rapine Murder and all sorts of Villany to put things into confusion to overthrow the Government renounce the King chuse a King of the Ancient Race or of some new Family whether the Pope or King of Spain or to erect a new Common-wealth of the Clergy and Deputies of the Nobles Yet I must except Clanricard Taff and some few more who though they were zealous Roman-Catholicks yet persevered in their Loyalty and Obedience to the King Planters I call all those who being of the Roman Catholick Religion from the time of Henry II. went over from England into Ireland and in a continued Succession continued there until the Reign of Queen Elizabeth These also being privy to the Conspiracy whether that they might maintain the Roman Catholick Religion in security and at the same time increase their civil Jurisdictions and Immunities or carried away with the Tide of Rebellion or in a word that they might secure themselves and their Estates in a common Rapine had already joyned with the other Papists who nevertheless before that time could never be endured to pollute themselves with such barbarous Cruelty and so many unparallell'd Murders or to fall off from the Government of England They who lately went over into Ireland about the latter end of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth either for the Wars or for Planting and Setling there were for most part faithful to the King except those who were deluded by the Authority of Parliament or infected with Presbytery by the Neighbouring Scots A Colony of Scots transported into Vlster by Authority from King James had encreased to the number of forty thousand Families These in the beginning of the Troubles following the Ceremonies of their Country-men sided with the Parliament But King Charles being beheaded and the English Monarchy quite overturned they changed their minds and set themselves valiantly upon revenge under the Command of the Earl of Ards Collonel Monro Audley Mervin and Sir Robert Stewart Coot Governour of Derry Monck of Dundalk and Principally Jones Governour of Dublin stood for the Rump-Parliament But O-brian Earl of Inchiqueen Governour of Munster with that whole Province and all his Forces who had sworn to be true to the King and Parliament jointly after the Murder of the King renouncing the Rump-Parliament declare now for the King alone Hitherto we have taken pains to describe the various Inclinations Designs and Purposes of the Irish now let us see by what Orphean Harp or Charm they were united into one In the first Part we told you how the Marquess of Ormond was forced by
Peace But on the third day when it was Calm they began to thunder on both sides with their great Guns on the one hand from Threscoe and the other Islands and on the other from St. Mary's Grimsby Haven being betwixt them But the Governour Greenvill now Earl of Bath wanting supplies at length upon pretty good Conditions surrenders the Island Shortly after that continual Victories might drop into to the lap of the Rebels news was brought from the Caribbe Islands that Barbadoes the richest of them had delivered it self up into the power of Aisckew according to the example of which the rest would take their measures He with eighteen or twenty Sail of Men of War had steered his Course to the West Indies to reduce those Islands once more under the yoak of England and setting upon them unexpectedly he took twenty or thirty Dutch Ships who in contempt of two Acts drove a Trade with them cruising off and on in sight of the Island he blocked it up for the space of six Months and at length a Sedition arising amongst the Planters he forced the Lord Willoughby whom the King had made Governour of it to surrender Whilst these things are acting in the Indies they erect of new in England a High Court of Justice as they were pleased to call it not upon the account of a present Emergent but to continue for six Months which if it could pass without the envy of Tyranny and Oppression might be adjourned de die in diem Keeble is by the Rump-Parliament made President of this Court being assisted by others and fifty Assessors of the popular Faction Most of these being Souldiers were ready at the beck of the General to smite the Prisoner as an Enemy all the rest were Creatures of the new Common-wealth whose hopes and whole Estates depended upon the favour of the Parricides except perhaps one or two who had more Zeal than Judgment And this horrid Violence unheard of under the Government of our Kings past in all Ages is imposed upon the ignorant multitude under the specious name of Justice These Men had Power to bring before them try and punish without appeal any that had held Correspondence with the King Queen Duke of York the Royalists or Irish that had assisted them by Word or Deed or received them into their Houses or that had delivered up any Castle Town or Ship or had attempted any such Surrender besides many other Crimes of the same nature Now if you inquire into the constitution of the Court and whence it derived its Authority you must know that it was first appointed against the Kings Majesty by those who were so far from having any Power of administring Justice that by our Laws and Customs they had not the Power to condemn the meanest Slave then against the Nobles afterwards as occasion offered it was of ten made use of but now was turned into a custome If any man was suspected of plotting and contriving against the Publick he was presently dragged before this supreme Tribunal and exposed to the Calumnies of pettifogging Lawyers who for a little Reputation and Profit sold their Souls in pleading against him who having none to defend his Cause and being terrified or shamed out of Countenance without the Evidence of two Witnesses or the Verdict of a Jury of twelve men which has onely force in England he is Condemned and why should not I say Murdered It was indeed no small matter of terrour to see a drawn Sword hanging as by an Hair over all mens naked Heads at every minute ready to fall upon them About that time especially and afterward when Cromwell had got the chief administration of the Government whole swarms of informers wandered about in all places both publick and private sacred and prophane They listned in Churches sneaked into companies in Taverns and Alehouses and went to wrestling in the Rings Noblemen and Gentelmens Servants were corrupted that they might discover what their Masters talked at Table the chief Vintners or their Drawers at least were feed to hearken to the free discourses of their Customers over their Wine either in the room or skulking behind the Hangings or thin partition Walls Such kind of Spies and eave-droppers Hiero the Tyrant of Syracusa used to employ who were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In a word Prisons were full of accusers that they might accuse so that there was no Village free from snarlings nor snares The Cities themselves were filled with solitude silence trembling and fear All flocked into the Countrey not for pleasure or the Society of their Neighbours but where they could find solitude and retreat where the Barrenness and desertness of the place might neither allure Soldiers nor secure Informers where they might neither be known nor have acquaintance and where avoiding the company of men they might have the satisfaction of being secure without the pleasure of the Countrey or company All Neighbourhood Society and intimacy were suspected Those who where naturally averse from ill things yet often deceived because they had been deceived before Into such confusion had the Rout the disturber of common Peace put all things With observant eyes do curious Spies run about and were not idle when they had nothing to do They tope it stoutly that by a gentle rack they may pump out the secrets of the heart They pry into words and actions but much more into mens looks the interpreters of the mind It is their business to hanker about for Rumors and spread reports to rouze the drooping hopes of the credulous and to foment them with strange stories which afterwards vanishing into smoak they might be cowed and rendered more pusillanimous for the future The Noblemen and Gentlemen who had been of the contrary side are pursued with secret whispers and calumnies wherever they could be pickt up onely to vex them the more moderate are obnoxious to Suspicions Those who were found any way to have assisted or corresponded with the King were either forced to bribe lustily or to stand a Tryal There were also a kind of Duckoys and Trapans of all men the most accursed whose chief study was to teaze the more hot-headed and cholerick and draw them thereby into Capital snares and when they had thus caught them inform against them that they might be brought to a Tryal or oppress them with secret Calumnies Colonel Andrews thus circumvented lost his Head Nor was the president Bradshaw ashamed openly to declare in Court that by counterfeit Letters he had corresponded with him in the name of the King Thus was the Estate of the Lord Craven confiscated though being no way obnoxious but for a large Estate which he possessed in England he lived beyond Seas in Holland Whither one Faulkner of that Gang a turn-coat to the Kings Party being sent but for what end I dare not affirm laid a snare for him One single
so many dangers under the protection of Almighty God they all safely arrived in the Spey The People were not a little gladded by the Kings Landing in Scotland testifying their Joys with Shouts and Acclamations and Bonefires But the Commissioners that with shew of greater Honour they might conduct him to Edinburrough put back those that in sense of Duty came to salute and honour him and beat off others with Fists and Sticks that more importunately approached He was splendidly entertained by the Magistrates of Aberdeen who for a pledge of their Love presented him with fifteen hundred Marks which he distributed amongst his indigent and almost famished Servants And that occasioned a Proclamation for securing their Money That such as thought fit to bestow any thing for the interest of the King it should only be brought into the publick Treasury The Magistrates of Dundee entertained him likewise magnificently saving that a Member of Montross was to be seen upon a Poll on the top of the Town Hall and that the Estates urged him to sign new Articles Afterwards he came to Edinburrough amidst the reiterated and joyful Acclamations of all the People and is again by the Heralds proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland The Kings Majesty is managed according to the pleasure of some Commissioners access is allowed to such as they thought fit all others being kept back His Guard is Commanded by the Lord Lorn Son to the Marquess of Argile by whom all the avenues are observed that no man might envy that splendid custody In the mean time the Presbyterian Ministers talk of nothing but Crimes now inveighing against the Sins of his Father and by and by again against the Idolatry and Heresie of his Mother and the obstinacy of both towards the Reformation the Government and Church of Christ They never rest telling him of Wars Slaughter Bloodshed of his Education and living amongst Bishops Men of no Religion and that in a saucy manner without the least sense of reverence or shame Labouring to make him a new Creature by lessons of Repentance and Humility severe rebukes and admonitions that he might carry his Cross before he put on his Crown and mount by the Valley of Bacha to the Throne of regal Authority And all these things they so absurdly and clownishly set about that their Doctrins and Instructions were more apt to make him nauseate and eternally hate their ways than to gain him to a liking or assent to their Opinions The King one evening walking in the Garden a couple of dapper Covenant Levites making up to him and very severely chid him for profaning the Lords Day by a Walk though he had heard two Sermons and been publickly at Morning and Evening Prayers that day besides other private Meditations that he was much given to The Laity also instead of a Crown of Gold shining with Jewels which they bragg'd they would Crown him with the precious Stones being secretly and by degrees pick'd out of it give him one of Feathers such as Demetrius truly said no man in his senses would stoop and take up from the ground by allowing him his Robes the Name of Majesty and Ensigns of a King with the troubles and difficulties of doing Justice though that also must be administred after their way whilst they invaded and reserved to themselves the substantial Prerogatives of making Laws and Peace and War But these things could not be so kept up from the Regicides though the Parliaments claw'd one another with mutual signs of good-will by Conferences and Messengers at least no Hostility as yet appears but that by their Friends and Emissaries in Holland and Scotland who were well paid for their pains they were informed of the whole series of the pacification And therefore they consult how they might provide before hand against a storm that haug over their heads There was an Army in readiness under the Command of Fairfax but that General was not very prone to enter into a War with the Scots who had not as yet provoked the English by any injuries they suspected him rather to have a kindness for that Nation and to be inwardly displeased at the Murder of the King and subversion of the Government They therefore recal Cromwell out of Ireland to give him the charge of the Scottish War He quickly returning home Crowned with Victories and Success in a triumphant manner entred London amidst a crowd of Attendants Friends Citizens and Members of the Rump-Parliament Guarded by a Troop of Horse and a Regiment of Foot and amongst them Fairfax himself went out two miles to meet him and congratulate his Arrival But when they were come to Tyburn the place of publick Execution where a great croud of spectators were gathered together a certain flatterer pointing with his finger to the Multitude Good God! Sir said he what a number of People come to welcome you home He smiling made answer But how many more do you think would flock together to see me hanged if that should happen There was nothing more unlikely at that time and yet there was a presage in these words which he often repeated and used in discourse The Regicides and he having consulted it is thought fit to ease the Lord Fairfax of the burden and Cromwell is declared Captain General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland who undertakes the War against the Scots having ordered Souldiers and Provisions to be sent towards Berwick The Scots instantly send Letters to the rump-Rump-Parliament Cromwell and Haselrigg Governour of New-Castle wherein they complain that the Rump-Parliament design an Invasion of their Country and that contrary to the Vnion agreed upon betwixt both Nations and the publick Faith mutually given no War being denounced the Cause not published nor their Answers expected without giving them time to repent if they had offended in any thing But that the Scene might be continued The English Officers give an Answer The summ of which that the Genius of these times may the better appear to Posterity I shall here shortly relate And after a Preface it was to this purpose We are blamed for the Murder of the King for which we are bound rather to give God thanks and applaud the Parliament since the King was guilty of more bloodshed than the cruelty of all his Predecessours an obstinate Enemy of Reformation and of all good men who besides taught his Son to follow his footsteps Him the sounder part of the People the timorous and bad Members being secluded justly put to death God Almighty show'd them the who way at first approving it by wonderful successes and continual benedictions What is on the other hand objected that the Treaty the Law of Arms and the League and Covenant are violated by a War made before it be denounced but that Treaty is already abrogated by Hamilton at the Command of his own Parliament unless it be thought that the English
place standing in the middle of the Forth leaving behind them sixteen piece of Cannon and Blackness Brantiland also on the other side of the Frith over against Leeth surrenders no less disgracefully delivering up the Guns Ammunition and Ships Cromwell being informed of these successes would not lose time by waiting the motions of the King's Army Wherefore he passed over to Brantiland whence sending Whaley to take in the smaller Garrisons which lay upon the Coast of Fiffe he himself marches towards St. Johnston which the King had entrusted to the defence of the Lord Duffus with twelve hundred men though to no purpose For Cromwell having drained the water out of the Mote and Ditches and battering the Walls with his Cannon forces a surrender of the place Cromwell being now at a great distance from Sterling and wholely taken up about these matters the King having given the best Orders he could about the Affairs of Scotland sets out upon his march into England that in that Kingdom of his he might try his fate which had been very cross to him in the other Therefore on the last of July one thousand six hundred fifty one at Carlisle he enters England with about fourteen thousand men Horse and Foot But the Soldiers march with so much hardship and so severe discipline that hardly any Age hath seen the like so that from Carlisle to Worcester about two hundred Miles distant from one another no man much less any house received the least injury if you 'l except the breaking of one Orchard and the taking of four or five Apples for which notwithstanding the Soldier that committed it was presently shot to Death In all places on their march the Garrisons are summoned in the Kings name to surrender but without any success And in the more eminent places by Heralds CHARLES the Second is proclaimed King of England Scotland France and Ireland the people in the mean while being in great Consternation So soon as the news of this expedition was by Post brought to the rump-Rump-Parliament and the report flying that the King having mounted his Soldiers on Horses which he found upon the Rode hastened his March towards London as it is common to fear to make dangers far greater than they are such Horror and Consternation invaded the minds of the Parricides and Rebels that in despair they began to cast about for lurking holes and places of escape and accused Cromwell of rashness and precipitancy Until they had notice that the King had diverted to Worcester and received fresh comforts from Cromwell's Letters who bad them be of good cheer and use their utmost force to obviat that last danger and wholely destroy the Enemy Harrison on the left hand with three thousand Horse waited the motion of the King's Army being for that end left behind on the Borders of England after followed Lambert with two thousand both as occasion offered harassing and hindering them in their March At Warrington Bridge they made the chiefest attempt to hinder the King's Forces to pass it But before the Bridge could be cut Lambert's men being engaged and forced to retreat the Scots get over And now leaving London Rode they resolve to rest at Worcester a City scituated upon the Savern from whence they hoped to receive succours from Wales and make great levies in Glocester and Oxford shires by the means of Muffey who heretofore had with reputation been Governour of Glocester for the Parliament Thither therefore they march and having met with one repulse from some of the Paliament Souldiers that were there by chance they possess the City but were much weakened and impaired in strength by the tediousness and length of the march From hence the Kings Majesty by Letters invites the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London to Arm for his Defence and for their own just Liberties promising Pardon to all for what was past except the Murderers of his Father But these Letters are burnt at the Royal Exchange by the Hand of the Common Hangman a Copie of them is also burnt by the Hand of the Speaker Lental at a general Muster of the Trained-bands of London in Moor-fields The King presently after his arrival in Pitchford-field near Worcester by Proclamation Commands all from sixteen to sixty years of Age according to the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom to come to his Assistance In obedience to that Proclamation shortly after Francis Lord Talbot eldest Son of the Earl of Shreusbury with sixty Horse Thomas Hornihold with fourty John Mashburn with fourty John Parkinton Walter Blunt Ralph Clair and many more both Knights and Esquires besides two thousand common People come in this desperate State of Affairs to hazard their Lives in the Kings Service The conjunction of these makes in all fourteen thousand two thousand Scots either for fear or because of the tediousness of the March having dropt off by the way Why more did not come into the Kings Camp any Man may guess at the reason of it to wit That the late suppression of the Insurrection of the Welsh Londoners and Norfolk and Suffolk Men and the cruelty of the Rump-Parliament in punishing the fruitless attempts of rising run in all Peoples Minds Besides the sudden and unexpected coming of the King gave no truce to the well affected of animating one another and of associating for his Service Nor lastly could the injuries done by the Scots not long before in England be got out of the Minds of the English it seeming much the same to them whether they suffered Bondage under the Tyranny of their Countrey-men or the Insolence of the Scots And above all we are to consider the great diligence of the Republicans of both sorts in stirring up the Countries encreasing their Forces and in observing and suppressing those who were Loyal to the King Cromwell who left Monck in Scotland with Eight thousand Men to carry on his Victories there being now come back into England animates with new Vigour the Forces of the Rebel-Parricides and presently joyning his Men with Lambert Harrison Gray and Fleetwood and those who from all parts came flocking in partly voluntarily and partly by compulsion he made up an Army if some be not mistaken in their reckoning of fourscore thousand Men and more whom he posts round the City of Worcester But the brave though unfortunate attempts of the Earl of Derby which happened about that time are not to be past over in silence He with a small handful of two hundred and fifty Men from his own Isle of Man arrived at a little Town in Lancashire and in that Countrey raised almost fifâ—n hundred Men with whom he marches to â—chester there to joyn five hundred more bâ— to his misfortune he met with Lilburn a Colonel of the Rump-Parliament Forces with sixteen hundred Men. For coming presently to blow up the Town of Wigan after a smart conflict the
having sent before him five thousand Prisoners who being sufficiently exposed to the Scoffs and derision of the People are either clapt up in Prisons or sent to the New World there to drudge in the Sugar Mills In the mean time Monck who was deservedly afterwards Created Duke of Albermarle being made General of the English Forces to the number of six thousand which Cromwell had left behind him in Scotland attacques Sterling-Castle and takes it by surrender with all the Guns Ammunition much Provision five thousand Arms the Registers Coffers Jewels and several Monuments and Relicks of Kings together with that lofty Inscription Nobis haec invicta dedere centum sex proavi Colonel Alured surprised and took the Aged Earl of Levin the Earl of Crawford-Lindsey Lord Ogilby and many other Noblemen whilst they were met for raising of Soldiers at Ellet a Town in Pearthshire Sir Philip Musgrave also the Provost of St. Johnstone and others being about the same business are taken at Dumfrise But Dundee because it had the boldness to hold out was stormed and taken by assault and the whole Town left to the mercy of the Soldiers who kill'd and plunder'd all they found Aberdeen and other Towns and Forts being warned by this sad example of their own accord yielded to the Enemy A little after the Marquess of Argile made a shew of maintaining the Interest of the Kingdom as also the Highlanders but having obtained indifferent good Conditions they also yield and submit their necks to the English Yoke Afterward four Citadels are built strong both by Art and Situation to which by Sea men and Provisions might easily be transported from England to wit at Air Innerness St. Johnston and Leith besides Sterling Castle standing on the Brow of a Hill and Edingburrough Castle which we described before Nay in every County they keep a Garison in some Castle or other that if any new Rebellion should arise they might have opportunity to suppress it where-ever it happened in Scotland Nor could the main Land of Scotland put bounds to the Victory of the English who slighting the dangers of those raging and voracious Seas carry their Victories over to the Isles Orkney and Shetland But as when the Serpent is bruised in the Head he often threatens with his Tail so the Marquess of Huntley Earls of Glencairn and Athol Midleton and others stir the Embers and raise new flames of a War But Morgan easily reduced them having before they could joyn routed the chief of them Henceforward they who had been accustomed to be most unruly and disobedient when occasion of Kicking offered are fain to bite upon the Bit and upon capitulation promise to live quietly for the future Now are Judicatures and Courts of Justices opened in Scotland for which end amongst other Itinerary Judges are sent from England George Smith John Marss Edward Moseley to whom were added of the Scots the Lord Craighall Lockhart and Swinton not to be forgotten A Council of State is also made up of English not of the best Quality who were matched by some Scots mingled with them nay in every Shire a Meeting is called wherein renouncing the King they are obliged to subscribe to the English Government and to unite into one Common-wealth with the English And at length they are commanded to send thirty Commissioners to the Parliament of England Nor is it to be denyed but that they were English though from Scotland who were appointed to that Office except the Marquess of Argile and Laird of Swinton which two were the only Scots that hearded themselves into that Parliament The use of Arms is likewise denyed to that Nation nay and of Horses also except only for some necessary ends and uses Besides their Commerce and Negotiations with Foreigners are narrowly observed lest under that pretext they might hatch mischief against the Common-wealth of England So much they got by disturbing the quiet of England and by medling in the stirs and troubles of others nay and by being the Authors of the innumerable Calamities which we suffered So they fell into the Pit that they dug for us and were taken in the Snares which they had laid for the Innocent nor was there any hopes of a Deliverer or an Avenger till God should think fit to look down from his Mountain and having chastised the perverseness of the People have Mercy upon them But so much for Scotland let us therefore leave it and return to matters that properly concern our selves Jersey must now come upon the Stage for the subduing whereof Hains with great preparations of Soldiers and all things necessary is empowred who passing over thither with about seventy sail of Ships great and small for three days space was beat off from several places of the Island by Sir George Cartright Governour of the Island since deservedly Vnder Chamberlain of the King's Houshold though sooner than was expected he afterward obtained the Victory For making a descent in the night time and Bovil who commanded the Cavalier Party doing his utmost to hinder the Enemies Landing being killed in the first Encounter the rest seized with a sudden fear and Consternation are put to flight The Inhabitants after that submitted to the will and pleasure of their new Masters Elizabeth Castle also standing upon a Rock and at high water encompassed by the Sea being battered and torn with great Guns and Mortar-Peeces one of which was so fatal as at one blow to kill or mangle eight and forty Soldiers after two Months siege capitulates upon Condition that the Governour and Garison with Bag and Baggage should have liberty to pass over into France Next follows the Isle of Mann this place though defended by Feminine Valour to wit by the Countess of Derby yet vied so much in honour with men that it was doubtful whether in the Royal Cause Sir George Cartright or she fell the last Victim under the Hands of the Traytors All the Provinces thus subdued an Act of Oblivion passes whereby the memory of what was past being abolished all Crimes whatsoever are pardoned But this was hampered with so many Limitations Restrictions Exceptions and ensnaring Clauses that there was little hopes for true Penitents to expect any good from it But such however as it was Cromwell alone was to be thanked for it by him chiefly it was proposed and by his means and endeavours it past in the Rump-Parliament that by so doing he might by a shew of kindness claw the suffering and vanquished People and at the same time heap hatred and indignation upon the Heads of his fellow Traytors For now forsooth it was time to put an end to Rapine and Violence Did they take so much pleasure in undoing Estates and ruining Families There was enough allowed to anger and revenge That it was altogether fit to shew Clemency and Mercy to the Guilty who having sufficiently payed for their faults
purpose spake to the Speaker You have sufficiently imposed upon the People and provided for your selves and Relations you have long cheated the Country by your sitting here under pretext of settling the Commonwealth reforming the Laws and procuring the Common Good whilst in the mean time you have onely invaded the Wealth of the State screwed your selves and Relations into all Places of Honour and Profit to feed your own Luxury and Impiety Then stamping with his Foot which was the Signal to the Soldiers without For shame said he get ye gone give place to honester Men and those that will more faithfully discharge their Trust But whilst all surprised by this sudden Consternation held their tongues one had the boldness to tell him It suits ill with your Excellencies Justice to brand us all promiscuously and in general without any Proof of a Crime At which being a little more heated taking hold of one by the Cloke Thou art a Whoremaster says he to another Thou art an Adulterer to a third Thou art a Drunkard and Glutton to a fourth Thou art an Extortioner And the Musquetiers rushing in he excludes them all and commands the Parliament to be dissolved whilst Harrison gently pulled the Speaker out of his Chair being unwilling to rise and sent him going So that that vast horrid and many-headed Monster whose Bellowing had made all Europe to shake is by one single Puff of Cromwell's Breath dispersed and scattered no body regretting but rather all the People rejoycing at it So Government basely got is basely lost Nay to compleat their Punishment they were ridiculed a Bill being set upon the Door with This House is to be Let. They were also Lampoon'd by the Ballad-singers about Town who cried publickly about the City Twelve Parliament-men for a Peny Next day the Council of State and Privy Council are in the same manner sent packing by Cromwell lest if any remained the Rooks might breed again By this so acceptable an Action he so blotted out the Memory of his past Villanies that for a time he was rather look'd upon as a Saviour the Shouts and Bonfires that were made sufficiently expressing the Joys of the People for being delivered from so cruel a Yoke They praise the Freedom the General took in not fearing to charge his Impotent Masters to their Faces with the Vices that were publickly talked of some few in the mean time observing that whilst he himself now accused those whom before he had commended he had then preferred such as he might afterwards most justly accuse For he had so purged the Parliament as casting away the Flower he had for his own purpose reserved the Bran to be likewise thrown away when he had a mind to it The Rump-Members loaded with publick Hatred and sad Hearts departed home as they were commanded for there was a Necessity that they must fall at the Pleasure of those at whose Pleasure they chose to stand and since they could not thrive in their Trade without obeying their Guardians the Injuries of the Soldiers were to be born with and onely whispered But they find no other Patron The Publick indeed grieved not at their Disaster as if the Office of the Laws had been shut but triumphantly insulted over them as a Den of Thieves now broken up and dispersed But the Commonwealth was still reserved to sadder Bondage Cromwell now as General of the Army arrogating to himself the Supreme Authority Yet that he might remove all suspicion of any such ambitious Design and render the same more secure and stable by gradual and crafty Insinuations as also that he might gull the Demotratical Republicans it is decreed in a Council of the Officers That the Supreme Power should be committed to Godly and Pious Men to the number of an hundred and forty four during the space of six Months who should have power to moderate and with such Prudence settle all things that all Sin and Vice being rooted out Peace and Concord might flourish in the Nations Therefore the Officers of the Army with Consent of Cromwell call out of every County and Corporation a proportionable number of the holiest Men whom either they knew or could find out the civiller or rather most pragmatical sort of the Private Soldiers being permitted to name some whom they place at the Helm of Government to consult about the difficult Affairs of Three Kingdoms Illiterate Men for the most part and the Off-scowrings of the People and these also Bigots Anabaptists Fifth-monarchy-men Democraticks Fanaticks and in a word the most villanous Incendiaries of all the Sects But with those were mingled Cromwell's cunninger Adherents whom being most obnoxious he had endeared to himself by Favour that as occasion offered they might sway the rest and check their mad Counsels These being met in the Parliament-house their first Care is to chuse one Rous a Smatterer in Letters for Speaker and then to give themselves a Title which after much Preliminary Dispute was at length concluded to be The Parliament of England This done they set to work But Good God! what strange Confusion presently arose Which Cromwell and the other cunning Rogues foreseeing would undoubtedly happen laughed in their Sleeve that they being hampered and entangled in Difficulties would with universal Applause and Gratulation deliver up to Cromwell alone the sole Administration of Government They resolved to make way for the Monarchy of Christ upon Earth prophesying his Personal Presence to be at hand Therefore they pronounce Priesthood to be Popery paying of Tythes Judaism the Laws of England the Remains of the Norman Yoke Schools and Colleges Heathenish Seminaries of curious and vain Learning Nobility lastly and Honours contray to the Law of Nature and Christianity all which they would have wholly abolished and pluck'd up by the Roots and without doubt had done so had not the few of Sense that were amongst them put a stop to it However in effect they abolish the Court of Chancery and all the Judicatures that were wont to be kept in Westminster-hall By one or two Acts was that prodigious Parliament renowned For Marriage which from the very Birth of the Church of England was never celebrated but by Church-men they commit to the Care of Justices of the Peace as if in an Affair of so great moment there were no need of Solemn Prayers nor of the Benediction of the Church They leave also the Publication of the Bans of Matrimony which used always thrice to be made in time of Divine Service to the choice of the Parties either to have it made in the Church or Market-place A Register also is appointed to be kept not of the Christnings but of the Birth of Children so that from hence you may guess what a kind of new Reformers these were But when Cromwell had suffered them to give the People sufficient Proofs of their Madness and to work Fear and Hatred also in their
Fellow-Subjects some of them who had more sense upon a day appointed went with their Speaker to attend him earnestly beseeching him to take upon himself the Supreme Authority now again fallen at his Feet Cromwell made a shew of wonder denying utterly and rejecting it but at length with much ado suffered himself to be prevailed upon but with this Condition That an Instrument or Form of the Thing under Hand and Seal should be given him This being done though the Inferiour Officers of the Army and the Republicans were against it who promised to themselves profitable Places under that Government and a Licencious Liberty of domineering or at least constant and standing Commands in the Army yet Lambert who at present promised himself the Second Place in the Government and afterterwards the First hiding a proud Ambition under a Cloke of Humility by Words and by his Example persuaded the other Officers not onely to comply with that Monarchy but also to stickle for and desire it So now the Name of a Commonwealth stinks and the Popular State which heretofore they gloried in is despised The Single Government of One Person onely pleases them and what heretofore they had cursed with so many private and publick Imprecations after a Consultation with the Officers is declared to be the Government of this Nation Yet Cromwell would not accept of it by the Title of KING though he was persuaded to it by many lest he might seem to make Shipwrack of all Modesty and too openly to prevaricate But joyning together a Common-wealth and Single Government which formerly were inconsistent under the Title of Protector he takes into his Hands the Reins of Government modelled according to the Conditions of an Instrument which here we shall insert THE Instrument of Government THat the Supreme Legislative Authority should be in a Single Person and the People in Parliament but the Administration thereof to be left to the Lord Protector and to his Council whereof the Number was not to be above Twenty and one That all Charters Patents Writs and Commissions should be passed by the Protector All Power of Magistracy Honours and Titles to be deriv'd from him Likewise the Pardon of all Offences excepting Treason and Murder He also to have the Administration of all things with the Advice of his Council and according to the Tenor of this Instrument That the Militia sitting the Parliament should be in the disposal of the Protector and the Parliament but in the Intervals in the Protector and his Council The Power also of making Peace and War with Foreign Princes to be in the Protector and his Council but he to have no Authority of Repealing or Making any Laws without the Consent of Parliament That the Parliament should be called before the end of Six Months then next ensuing and afterwards once in Three years or oftner if need require and that it should not be in the Protector 's Power to Dissolve the same for the first Five Months without the Consent of the House That the Number of Members for England should consist of full Four hundred Elected according to an equal Distribution for Scotland Thirty and for Ireland the like Number the Number for each County and City to be also assigned That the Calling of such Parliament should be under the Seal of the Commonwealth by Writs to the Sheriff in the Protector 's Name But if the Protector should not call the same within the times limited the Chancellor then to do it under the Penalty of High Treason and if he should fail therein then that the Sheriffs should peform it And after such Election should be made to be transmitted by the Chief Magistrate by Indenture to the Chancellor signed with his Hand Twenty days before the Sitting of the same Parliament Also if the Sheriff or Mayor should make a false Return that he be fined in Two thousand Marks That none should be capable to Elect who had ever born Arms against the Parliament or been Actors in the Irish Rebellion Nor that any Papist should ever be capable to give his Voice And that all Elections against these Rules should be void and the Transgressors fined at Two years Value of their Revenues and a third part of their Goods That no Person under the age of One and twenty years should be capable of being Elected nor any other than of known Credit fearing God and of good Behaviour No Man likewise to have Power of Electing whose Estate should not be worth 20 l. per An. Sterling That the Return of the Persons Elected should be transmitted by Prothonotary in Chancery unto the Council of State within two days after they should come to his Hands to the end that Judgment might be made of the Persons if any Question should arise touching the Lawfulness of the Choice That Sixty Members should be accounted a Parliament in case the rest be absent Nevertheless that it should be lawful to the Protector to call a Parliament when he shall see cause That the Bills agreed on in Parliament should be presented to the Protector for his Assent thereto and if he should not give his Assent to them within Twenty days that then they should have the force of Laws without it That if any Counsellor of State should die or be outed of his Place for Corruption in the Intervals of Parliament the Protector with the rest of the Council to substitute another in his stead That a certain Annual Tax should be made throughout the Three Commonwealths for the Maintenance of Ten thousand Horse and Fifteen thousand Foot which Tax should also supply the Charge of the Navy And that this Rate should not be lessened or altered by the Parliament without the Consent of the Protector and his Council But if it should not be thought necessary hereafter that any Army should be maintained then whatsoever Surplusage of this Tax should be to be kept in the Treasury for sudden Emergencies That if there might happen to be occasion of making extraordinary Choices and to raise new Forces it should not be done without Consent of Parliament but that in the Intervals of Parliament it should be lawful for the Protector and his said Council both to make new Laws and to raise Monies for the present Exigencies That all the Lands Forests and Jurisdictions not then sold by the Parliament whether they had belonged to the King Queen Prince Bishops or any Delinquents whatsoever should thenceforth remain to the Protector That the Office of Protector should thenceforth be Elective but that none of the King's Line should be ever capable thereof and that the Election should belong to the Council That for the present Oliver Cromwell should be Protector That the Great Offices of the Commonwealth viz. Chancellor Keeper of the Seal Governour of Ireland Admiral Treasurer in case they should become void in Parliament-time to be filled up by the approbation of Parliament and in the Intervals by the like approbation
this Honourable Assembly to remedy all these Disorders shewed That the Wars with Portugal France and the Dutch do and did eat up the Assessments That swarms of Jesuits are crept in to make Divisions which were grown so wide that nothing but his Government could remedy them And let Men say what they will he could speak it with comfort before a Greater than any of them Then he shewed what he had done during his Government First his Endeavours of reforming the Laws having joyned all Parties to assist in that great Work Next his filling the Benches with the Ablest Lawyers Then his Regulation of the Court of Chancery and his Darling Ordinance for the Approbation of Ministers which hindred all that list from invading the Ministry by Men of both Persuasions Presbyterians and Independents c. And lastly his being Instrumental to call a Free Parliament which he valued and would keep it so above his Life Then he shewed the Advantage of the Peace with the Dutch Dane and Suede and the Protestant Interest which he would have them improve and intend chiefly That they were now upon the Edge of Canaan That he spoke not as their Lord but their Fellow-servant And then bad them go and chuse their Speaker Cromwell having spoken to this effect the Members without returning him Thanks as is usual went to the House Lenthall being again chosen Speaker they fall first upon the New Instrument of Government all the Clauses and Articles whereof they thorowly sift and examine The Officers of the Army who were Privy-Counsellors and all who depended on Cromwell vigorusly oppose that saying That that Instrument was to be taken for the Basis and Foundation of the Government no ways to be called in question since by the Authority thereof the Parliament met and that it would be contrary to the Dictates of Natural Reason to bring it to a Trial. Nay many and particularly Lambert threaten That if the Parliament did not approve and confirm it they themselves would call another nay a third and a fourth till it should be at length established by Publick Consent But the Republicans stood stiff to the contrary making answer That the Government was usurped by Craft and Force not procured by Right nor confirmed by the Free Votes of the People that it laid Snares for the Liberty of the Commonwealth and made way for a most grievous Tyranny One amongst the rest in the heat of the Debate was so bold as to say That since they were approaching so near to Monarchy it were better to call one of the Royal Family to the Government than that Cromwell should usurp the Scepter and Crown Cromwell being informed of these Debates comes in great rage to the Parliament and tells them to this effect That they were not called together that they might confound and turn all things again into the former Chaos but that they should build upon the Foundation and Ground-work already laid down and not to be altered That his Authority could not be called in question unless at the same time they invalidated their own Power since the present Parliament was called by him and by him had liberty to consult That he alone had the Right of setling Fundamentals upon which they had power to raise and beautifie Superstructures That he was resolved to maintain the Government and Supreme Power in a Single Person to call a Parliament once in Three years not to sit above Five months without his Consent c. That to violate or innovate these things should neither be in the Power of the Protector nor Parliament That in other things they might consult and enact as they pleased for the Publick Good But because Admonition might not be sufficient he thinks fit to apply Force Next day a Guard of Soldiers being set before the Door of the House no Man was suffered to enter unless he signed the following Recognition I shall be faithful to the Lord Protector and shall not endeavour to change the Government of a Single Person Many who could not swallow that Bit are debarred from the Privilege of Sitting Nevertheless so many Republicans took the Recognition as made the Cromwellian Faction and Republican almost equal some who underhand favoured the King joyning themselves to each Side enflaming Animosities and as much as might be setting the Parties who seriously treated these Affairs at greater variance Insomuch that after five Months continual jangling and debate Cromwell was not able to bring his Affairs to any good issue in this Parliament Nor do the Republican Spirits onely prevail in the Parliament but also in the Army For these consult and plot together how they might apprehend Cromwell and bring him before the Parliament to be accused and condemned of Treason thinking with themselves that if they could lay Hands upon him and make him Prisoner there would be a sudden change of Affairs and that his Favourers and Adherents being thereby baulked would sculk and shift for themselves The truth is the Officers of Three thousand Horse and of no inconsiderable number of Foot frequently met in Somerset-house and elsewhere about the contriving and carrying on of that Design But before the Matter came to maturity by the Treachery of Pride it came to Cromwell's Ears who by a hasty Dissolution of the Parliament prevented all those Machinations and disbanded those Officers In the mean time Cromwell having received a splendid Embassie from Sueden with equal Magnificence he concluded a Peace with that Crown and dismissed the Embassadors with hopes of a nearer Alliance He makes Peace also with France and promises to send over Assistance thither if the Affairs of England would permit him But all this while the specious Pretext of Supreme Authority was wanting to these Attempts The Parliament had denied their Collective Votes to make that up therefore it remains that the Distributive Votes of all the People be had and that the Officers break the Ice Wherefore Gratulatory Petitions or Addresses are sent by the Commanders of the several Regiments of the Army in Scotland whereby they thank the Lord Protector for having changed the Form of Publick Government to the better They pray him to go on in the discharge of that Province which by Providence he hath undertaken promising with their Lives and Fortunes to maintain and defend him in all difficulties But amongst the English Officers there was a necessity of a wheadling Pretext to wit That the Malignants and Enemies of the Country now triumphed as if the Army breaking into Discords and Divisions would presently renounce their General Cromwell That therefore a Petition of that nature must needs be framed wherein by applauding the Protector they would convince those that were of a contrary Opinion With much ado he obtained that amongst the Republicans but at length some refusing to sign it as venturing rather Cromwell's Displeasure and Revenge than by a sneaking Compliance to betray the
that they seemed rather to decline than promote the Determination of the Controversie by opposing this rapid Motion However he resolved to connive and allow them liberty to trade in England with an Indulgence of their Religion according to the Rites of Moses without any publick Examination going before or as it is usual amongst Catholicks coming yearly after and without teaching or catechising them But this Year was famous for the Actions of Mountague since Earl of Sandwich and of Blake For they with a Joynt-Commission commanding the Fleet whilst they were cruising upon the Coast of Spain without the Straits Mouth met with Eight great Spanish Ships whom Stainer presently engages with Three Frigats onely for the rest could not come up because of the Wind but with so much Bravery and Resolution he plied them with his Broadsides that within three or four Hours space he mastered them all one being sunk another burnt two escaping into Cadiz and two more forced ashore and broke to pieces wherein were lost Sixty thousand Wedges of Silver besides other rich Goods of vast Value However two of them fell into the hands of the Victorious with a great deal of Coyned Gold to the quantity of Six hundred thousand Pieces much Silver curiously-wrought Plate and other things of value together with two Sons of the Marquess de Baydexio Don Joseph de Savega and Don Francisco de Lopes the Marquess himself with his Lady and Daughter who was to be married to the Son of the Duke of Medina Sidonia being burnt The two Brothers that remained alive were by Cromwell discharged without any Ransom England now being sufficiently plagued by those petty Tyrants whom they called Major-Generals who as we said before began to be uneasie to all another Parliament is called but not after the ancient manner but onely made up of the Commoners or People Thirty being called out of Scotland and as many from Ireland Cromwell tampering with many and the Major Generals hindring the Elections and Votes of several that the House might not be filled with Republicans In the mean while no Man is suffered to enter the House till first he subscribed to the Authority of the Protector so that by that means most of the Republicans of either sort are excluded from sitting Sir Thomas Widdrington is chosen Speaker Many things passed here in favour of Cromwell as That it should be Treason to conspire his Death and That the Royal Family should be renounced Nor is it in this place to be omitted that about this time many things were publickly talked of to the prejudice of the King as That he was Consumptive and could not live long That he was also Melancholy and inclinable to a Monastick Life laying aside all desire of Government and that the Duke of York was a Professed Papist that by that means they might wheadle over the credulous and unwary to their Party by removing every thing that might curb and keep them in awe The Customs are renewed a vast Triennial Tax also imposed upon all Houses built upon new Foundations in London and witbin Ten miles round that every one of them should pay a years Rent At length at the Motion of a certain Citizen of London the Parliament resolves to give Cromwell the Title of King with most of the Ensigns of Royalty which he had already long ago usurped and many Members apply themselves to him beseeching him that he would vouchsafe to accept of it which he sometimes made a shew as if he would embrace but by and by again appeared doubtful and at length shifted it off I think it will not displease the Reader if I give in this place a short hint at the main Reasons whereby the Members of Parliament endeavoured to incline Cromwell to accept of the Title of King which inwardly he was most ambitious of though outwardly he affected a reluctancy This Affair was by the Parliament committed to the diligent management of six or seven of their number These Men urg'd That the name of King had always been in vogue from the very beginning in this Nation for the space of above thirteen hundred years that the Person of the King had sometime displeased the People but that the Title was never before abrogated that moreover the same was fitted to our Laws and the Humour of the People and approved not onely by the Votes of the preceding but of this present Prarliament also Cromwell answers That these were persuasive but no cogent Arguments that the Title of Protector might be adapted to the Laws that Providence was against them which hath now altered the Name and that he could not without a Crime displease so many Godly and Religious Men. But the Commissioners reply That the Title ought to be fitted to the Laws not the Laws to Titles nay that the Innovation of Titles is suspected as a Cloak for Vnderhand Tyranny and that the disadvantages of such a kind of change are never felt in in the same Age for which very Reason when King James came to the Crown of this Kingdom the Parliament would not give way that in his Title instead of England and Scotland he should insert Great Britain That by refusing the Title of King he does not derogate so much from himself as from the Nation whose Honour it is to be governed by a King That the supreme Magistrate was never designed by the Name of Protector unless for a time during the Nonage of the King for the Administration of the Government and a Title for the most part unfortunate That that Name at present having its Original from the Souldiers sounded Victory and might be lawfully rescinded by another Parliament That the Title of King being once abolished the Government would become mutable and unsafe not durable if the Foundation tottered that in the space of five years it had been three or four times altered and was yet as wavering as heretofore the alteration of Title was ominous to the Roman People who neither could endure the Name of Prince nor of Perpetual Dictator nor of the Prince of the Senate till at length the Pleasure of Caesar went for Law But the strongest Argument of all was The Statutes of the Ninth of Edward the Fourth and of the Third of Henry the Seventh wherein it was enacted That no Man carrying Arms though unjustly for the King in being shall be punished for it and that in the late Wars more trusting to that Law were in Arms for the King than of those who loved his Cause That as to Providence it was no less conspicuous in changing the Government again into Monarchy for avoiding confusion and quelling a tumultuous People than in changing the Name of a Monarch into that of Protector That lastly Good and Godly Men would submit to a Decree of Parliament though perhaps they might seem to differ in private A great deal of time is spent betwixt Cromwell and the Committee in
Army that he might shew him not onely to the People but to the Soldiers and that he might insinuate with all and as much as he could make himself Friends by Conversation And now the day was come when the whole Parliament was to meet as well the Republicans who in the beginning of the Parliament had been excluded by Cromwell for refusing to subscribe to the Condition required as the Lords or Peers who by Oliver's Writ filled the Upper House But the Reader cannot but wonder how disdainfully the Members of the Lower House looked upon those new Lords asking them with scorn By what Authority they sate to what end and for what purpose were they called hither Nay they could not refrain from ridiculing and scoffing at them nor be induced to have any thing to do or consult in common with these Men. On the contrary the Lords as they were instructed by Cromwell fawned complied wheadled and courted their Friendship leaving no means unessayed whereby they might soften and make them more gentle But they continue to be morose untractable and refractory to every thing Which Cromwell observing and especially because he understood that the Cavaliers were hatching new Designs that the King was in a readiness with I know not how many thousand Men to invade England and that the Marquess of Ormond was really in the Land secretly labouring to raise the Country for these Reasons he forthwith dissolved that fictitious and as I may say Comical Parliament It was not long before the Stirs began more clearly to appear one Corkar a Parson in Sussex who nevertheless had heretofore had a hand in killing Rainsborough at Doncaster Sir Richard Willis and many others who had served and been well rewarded by the King and had opportunity of passing to and again betwixt Cromwell and His Majesty and discovering all secret Intrigues having basely betrayed the Design A General Insurrection was designed almost all over England especially in Hull London Sussex Surrey and many other Places which the King himself with Foreign Forces commanded by Marsin intended to Head But all proved in vain the Matter as we have said having been discovered to Cromwell by treacherous and clandestine Spies The Marquess of Ormond with much ado made his Escape having by the Assistance of Doctor Quarterman procured a Boat in Sussex And now a vast number of Persons apprehended are loaded with the suspicion of guilt and therefore the High Court of Justice a true Object of Derision had it not been polluted with Blood is again appointed Lisle being President Before this Court are brought Mordant Son to the Earl of Peterborough two Stapleys Woodcock Sir Henry Slingsby Hewet Doctor of Divinity Mallory Rivers Dyke and many more Hewet is condemned for Contumacy in not acknowledging the Authority of the Court Slingsby because being formerly a Prisoner in Hull he had treated with Waters about the Delivery of Hull-Fort into the hands of the King Mordant is absolved by the Majority onely of one Voice when within a quarter of an hour after Pride came in who would certainly have voted to the contrary so near he seemed to the very Jaws of Death Woodcock defended himself so ingeniously that he came off The rest were either not found Guilty or obtained Cromwell's Pardon for accusing of others or in short were condemned of High Treason Hewet and Slingsby were both beheaded But four others were drawn hanged and quartered their Privy Members and Bowels burnt their Heads set up upon London-Bridge and their Quarters upon four Gates of the City The Common sort being safe by their Number after a long Imprisonment at length denying the Fact upon Oath are dismissed Thus they who for attempting to slay a Tyrant deserved a Triumphal Arch and highest Honours falling into the bloody Hands of their Enemies suffer a cruel and ignominious Death But that he might provide against such Stirs for the future and more securely settle his ill-got and unsafe Government besides the Soldiers of the Army he levies Troops of Horse in the several Counties which for the most part were made up of Voluntiers whom either ambition of domineering hope of Preferment prospect of Booty or at least the tediousness of an idle and lazy Life allured into the Service Of these he gave the Command to some of his Relations and fast Friends Though at present their Pay was but small Eight pound a year yet by getting into profitable Places and plundring the Cavaliers upon all occasions they were in good hopes of feathering their Nests Their Duty was to watch over the Counties to be present at Publick Fairs and other numerous Meetings to hinder private Assemblies and Concourses of People to exact the Taxes from those who were either slow or unwilling to pay them by Free-Quarters and Fines imposed upon them to seise besides suspected Persons search their Houses take from them the Arms which they might have for defending themselves against Thieves in the Night-time and in a word to suppress instantly all Stirs if any hapned in the bud Blake is again but now the last time to appear upon the Stage He being this year sent to cruise in the Atlantick Ocean had Intelligence that the Spanish Fleet richly laden with Silver and Plate had out of fear put into the Island of Tenariff resolving to keep in the Port of Sancta Cruce until Blake should be forced to return home either by the Winter Weather or the want of Victuals and Provisions Wherefore steering his Course thither he found the Harbour in shape of a Crescent defended by seven Forts lying round it and two Castles placed at the Points with seventeen Ships riding therein their Heads standing towards the Mouth of the Harbour that they might fire with greater certainty upon those that offered to enter nor could the Governour forbear to jear and slout at the English Blake therefore entring the Mouth of the Harbour with his Frigats thunders Broadsides and small Shot against the Castles till the Soldiers flying from thence he Manned his Boats with Seamen and sent them in who destroyed and burnt all the Spanish Ships that were there Which being done he made use of a favourable Wind which as it had brought him thither so carried him off again more satisfied with his Revenge than Booty But farewell to Blake who in that Expedition died of a Scurvey and Dropsie A Man deserving Praise even from an Enemy who having heretofore diligently plied his Studies took his Degree of Master of Arts in Wadham-College in Oxford and lived long a quiet and Country-life in Somersetshire till afterward the Civil War breaking out he was engaged into the Service by some Parliamentarians and defended Lime and Taunton even to a Miracle against the King Then being advanced to a Command at Sea he subdued the Isles of Silly at home after which being honoured with the Title and Place of Admiral he became famous by many Actions abroad For he
been subject unto seeing for at least thirty years he had at times heavily complained of Hypochondriacal indispositions Though his Bowels were taken out and his Body filled with Spices wrapped in a fourfold Cerecloath but put first into a Coffin of Lead and then into a Wooden one yet it purged and wrought through all so that there was a neâ—ssity of interring it before the Solem◠〈…〉 â—rals But still his Character is wanting which without prejudice and waving what we before observed in the series of the History thus take He was born of honest Parents in Huntingtonshire and from a Child gave no obscure proofs of Enthusiasm For as I have had it from credible Persons when he was a Child he reported that one appeared to him in the likeness of a Man who told him that he should be a King which his School-master being acquainted with whipt him for it by his Fathers direction He laid an unsolid Foundation of Learning at Cambridge but he was soon cloy'd with Studies delighting more in Horses and in Pastimes abroad in the Fields However from one Indecent Action the Reader may conclude of the extravagance of his Youth Sir Oliver Cromwell his Uncle an honest good Gentleman far from the Humours of the Nephew after the old manner kept Christmas with Musick Dancing and the other Diversions of a chearful heart a Master of the Revels as the Custom was presiding in their Plays when my Gentleman observing a great many got together daubs over his own Boots and Gloves with Ordure and crouding in amongst the rest whilst they were a Dancing besmears the Clothes of the Master of the Revels and other Guests so that the whole House was perfumed but not with the scent of Frankincense Therefore the Master of the Revels caused him to be Horsed upon a Pole carried upon the Shoulders of some of the stronger Youths and so plunged over Head and Ears in the next Pond there to be throughly rinsed I would add a great many more of such his nasty pranks if I were not afraid to offend the Readers Modesty After the Death of his Father in his Youth he married a Gentlewoman but by his profuse and luxurious way of living in a short time he squandered away both his own and Wives Estate so that he was almost reduced to Beggary Afterward playing the Penitent he gave himself wholly over to the hearing of Sermons reading of Godly Books and Works of Mortification and having hired a Brewhouse as if he would now Brew better than he had Baked he plied the Brewing Trade and Husbandry After that by means of Sir Robert Steward some Royalists and Clergy-men he was reconciled to his Uncle who could not before endure him so that he made him his Heir But shortly after having again run out of all he resolved to go to new-New-England and prepares all things for that end In the mean time by the help of Sectarians he was chosen a Member of Parliament where finding fit Companions mad partly through Ambition and partly through Zeal and Religion he omitted no opportunity of fomenting Debates and raising Calumnies to the prejudice of the King inventing Tales stirring up the Embers and blowing about Sparks of Division till at length he put all into a fair Flame and Combustion The War afterwards breaking out he served as a Captain and really was so against his own King Charles the First a Prince of ever Blessed Memory But reflecting with himself on the continual Victories of the Cavaliers he told the Parliamentarians that the Rabble would never be able to fight against the King whose Army consisted of Gentlemen because of the disparity of the Cause and Motives Honour moving the one and Pay the other but if they desired to fight with equal Courage and overcome the Enemy they must look out for and raise good honest Soldiers that would fight meerly for Conscience sake or at least place such Officers of their Forces Many have often heard him glory of that Advice Having therefore obtained leave from the Parliament to raise a Regiment by Letters or Messengers he invited the Honest Men as he was pleased to call them from among all the Soldiers in the several Counties with whom he had had any acquaintance and persuaded them to take on with him Wherefore Independents Anabaptists Quakers and in a word all the Sink of Fanaticks come flocking to him so that he made up above a thousand Horse who in the beginning being unskilful either in handling their Arms or managing a Horse by Diligence and Industry became in process of time most excellent Soldiers for Cromwell used them daily to look after feed and dress their Horses and when it was needful to lie together on the ground and besides taught them to clean and keep their Arms clear and have them ready for Service to chuse the best Armour and to arm themselves to the best advantage Trained up in this kind of Military Exercise they excelled all their Fellow-Soldiers in Feats of War and obtained more Victories over their Enemy This was the beginning of the New Model as they called it These were preferred to be Commanders and Officers in most part of the Troops of the Army the places of Private Soldiers being filled up with lusty strong Fellows whom Oliver trained up and kept in very strict Discipline Afterward he was made Major-General of the Horse then Lieutenant-General and at last General till after all he raised himself to the Dignity of Protector and invaded the highest Place of Honour and Authority When he was thus mounted to the top of Preferment his first care was to break down the Steps by which he ascended lest Rivals might climb up by the same means Few have hitherto applied greater Industry than he in the Administration of the Commonwealth What is Philosophically said of others I may with probability affirm of him to wit That he had two Assistant Spirits a good and a bad and that when he knocked his Breast poured out his Prayers Sighs and Tears promising all things that were good he was acted by his good Genius but when by Lying and Fallacies he carried on his Cheats his wicked and Traiterous Designs then was he prompted by his bad Genius or Spirit He was not unworthy of Government had he not invaded it by Villany Fraud Treachery and the Blood not onely of others but of his own Prince also Next day Richard his eldest Son is by the Privy-Counsellors after mutual Consultation saluted Protector and is by a Herald proclaimed first in the conspicuous Places in London and then all over England Scotland and Ireland Nay the Officers of the Army though they hatched in their Breasts contrary Counsels which were not as yet come to maturity came to Congratulate him and under their Hand-writing promised to be true to and defend him But he was far from aspiring to it out of Ambition and
States make and unmake Laws Prosâ—ribe Forfeit and take to themselves the absolute Power over the Lives and Fortunes of all The Articles or Engagements that they entered in were to this purpose That all should enjoy their Liberties and Properties That there be a fixed and determinate proceeding in Law That all Crimes relating to the change of Government be abolished That all Statutes and Ordinances remain in force until the contrary be Enacted That Publick Debts be punctually paid That no Man believing in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and acknowledging the Holy Bible for the Word of God be debarred from the profession of his Religion except Episcopal-Men and Papists That a Zealous and Powerful Ministry be by all means cherished That Colledges and Schools be reformed That at present Fleetwood have the chief Command of the Forces both by Sea and Land That for the future the Parliament have the Legislative Power and the Council of State the Executive That the Protectors Debts be paid and that he have a Liberal Pension of Ten thousand pounds yearly during Life and ten thousand more in Inheritance And that his Mother also during Life have eight thousand pounds yearly out of the Exchequer The Parricides being bound to these Articles take their Seats again in the Parliament-House but how much they valued them they make it quickly manifest In the mean time many of the old Members to the number of above three hundred who had been secluded heretofore by the Officers of the Army though they believed the Parliament to be dissolved by the Death of Charles the First and the Abrogation of the House of Lords yet that they might avoid other Inconveniencies desiring to be readmitted are carefully kept out Some few Days after they send Commissioners to Richard to ask him the Question How he liked the change of Government and what Debts he owed that wheadling him with the hopes of kind usage they might draw from him a voluntary renunciation of the Authority He makes answer That he thought it reasonable that he should submit to their Authority from whom he must expect protection that his Steward should give them an account of his Debts But nothing but a formal and express resignation would please them to which he seemed chearfully to give his assent And now at length he is commanded to deliver up all the Goods and Houshold Furniture not so much as reserving to himself any Gold or Silver Jewels or Hangings Linnen or any other Goods that might have been pack'd up in a small bulk all are adjudged to the Exchequer Thus stript of all he is commanded to depart out of Whitehall liable to the Actions of all his Creditors and perhaps to have been tried for his Life had they not had other Fish to fry Behold the perfidiousness of Mortal Men and a wonderful instance of Divine Providence which presides over and alters Humane Affairs and Governments as it seemeth Good to the Amighty He who just now swayed the Scepter of three Kingdoms forced by the Calamities of a tedious Civil War to truckle under his Vicegerents three old Commanders to wit his Brother Brother-in-law and a third whom Cromwell had obliged by many and great Favours he I say in the short space of one year is craftily turned out of all and now stript of his borrowed Plumes he becomes the object of the Raillery of Poets and Painters and being sufficiently lasht with the giibes and reproaches both of the Parricides and Rabble as of old the Dictator was called from the Plough so now the Protector is sent back to the Plough A Chronological Table FOR THE SECOND PART MDCXLIX DOrislaus by some Scots killed in Holland The Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland makes a Truce with the Irish Having raised an Army he besieges Dublin Jones routs his Forces and raises the Siege Cromwell General of the Rebels in Ireland arrives at Dublin Cromwell takes Drogheda cruelly abusing his Victory MDCL Cromwell takes Kilkenny the Seat of the Irish Council by a Surrender Leaving Ireton his Son-in-Law in Ireland he returns to England Ascham Embassador from the Regicides is killed at Madrid The Marquess of Montross Commissioner of Scotland overcome in Battel is betrayed and taken And basely used by the Scots is put to death at Edinburgh King CHARLES having Articled with the Scots sails into Scotland Fairfax laying down his Comission Cromwell is declared General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland Cromwell leads an Army into Scotland Eusebius Andrews is beheaded at London Cromwell defeats the Scots in a bloody Battel at Dunbar William Prince of Orange dies MDCL LI CHARLES the Second is Crowned in Scotland He enters England with an Army of Scots Easily possesses himself of Worcester James Earl of Derby is by Lilburn routed at Wiggan The Scots being beat by Cromwell at Worcester the King escapes Cromwell in triumph enters London The King after many dangers at length arives in Normandy The Isle of Jersey reduced by Haines James Earl of Derby Lord of Mann is put to death His Lady Carlotta generously but in vain defends the Isle of Mann Henry Ireton Son-in-law to Cromwell dies at Limerick in Ireland MDCLI LII Aiskew takes the Island of Barbadoes by surrender An Act of Oblivion is past in the Rump Parliament St. Johns and Strickland are sent to Holland The first fight at Sea between Blake and Trump Aiskew beats the Dutch at Sea near Plimouth Blake beats the Dutch again MDCLII LIII The English and Dutch fight in the Streights Cromwell dissolves the Rump Parliament after twelve years Tyrannical Vsurpation Yet he calls a new one to which he commits the Government The Dutch send four Embassadours into England to treat of Peace Monck in a great Sea-engagement beats the Dutch Trump being slain Some Portuguese commit a Riot in the New Exchange in the Strand The Mock Parliament resigns up the Government to Cromwell Oliver Cromwell with the Title of Protector takes upon him the Administration of the Government MDCLIV Cromwell makes Peace with the Dutch Don Pantaleon Sa brother to the Portugal Embassadour and John Gerard are beheaded Cromwell calls a Mock Parliament which meets at Westminster Cromwell makes the Members swear Fealty to him King CHARLES leaving France goes to Colen He sends for his Brother Henry Duke of Glocester MDCLIV LV. Cromwell dissolves his Mock-Parliament The Cavaliers stir but in vain in several places of England Wagstaff possesses himself of Salisbury Penruddock and Groves are beheaded at Exeter Henry Cromwells younger Son made Deputy of Ireland The Marquess of Leda the Spanish Embassadour comes to London Pen and Venables Commanders of the Fleet and Army take the Island
of Jamaica Ten Major Generals are set over the Provinces Cromwell makes Peace with the French The Jews sue for liberty to come and live in England MDCLVI Cromwell makes Peace with the Portuguese The Swedish Embassadour is feasted by Comwell at Hampton-Court Blake and Montague beat eight Spanish Ships and take two of them richly laden A mock-Mock-Parliament of the three Nations England Scotland and Ireland is held at Westminster James Naylor a false Christ enters Bristol MDCLVI LVII Sundercome who conspired Cromwells death is condemned He is found dead in his Bed in the Tower of London Harrison Lawson and others are committed to Prison Blake burns the Spanish Fleet in the very Harbour of Santa-cruce Cromwell refuses the Title of King offered him by the Parliament He is solemnly inaugurated Protector And the Parliament is adjourned for six Months Richard Son to Cromwell is made Chancellour of Oxford Jepson is sent to Sweden and Medows into Denmark Mardike-Fort taken by the English and French The Vicecount Falconberge marries Mary Daugh-to Cromwell MDCLVII LVIII A Parliament is again held consisting of two Houses Suddenly dissolved by Cromwell Slingsby and Hewet are beheaded Dunkirk is yielded to the French Cleypole Cromwell's Daughter dies at Hampton-Court Oliver Cromwell Protector dies in Whitehall Richard Cromwell publickly declared Protector Oliver is buried in Westminster MDCLVIII LIX Richard calls a Mock-Parliament which is held at Westminster Overton is recalled from his Banishment The Lower-house vote Richard to be Recognised Protector of England Scotland and Ireland And Vote also a present Conference with those of the Other House about Publick Affairs The Officers of the Army present a Remonstrance to Richard and he to the Parliament The Parliament make an Ordinance That the Officers of the Army meet not to hold Consults The Officers beset Whitehall and Richard by Proclamation dissolves the Parliament Richard being turned out the Rump-Parliament is again revived FINIS A TABLE To the Second Part. A. ADdresses and gratulatory Petitions to Cromwel pag. 190 Ascham the Rebel Embassadour in Spain killed there 72 B. Blake his Death and Character 228 C. Cavaliers conspire to rise for the King but disappointed 182 225 Church of England her Ministers persecuted 5 Cromwel Oliver 6 98. He procures a kind of Amnesty to be past by the Rump 156. Turns out the Rump 161. Is made Protector 165 166. The Instrument 166. His Arts and Cunning 184. Calls a House of Commons under the name of a Parliament 186. But cannot work 'em to his will 189. The manner of his Government in some matters 190 191 192. His fears and mistrust 198. Enters into a League with France 210. Treats with the Jews about a Toleration 210 211. Calls a pickt Assembly of the three Nations 212. The point debated whether he should take the Title of King 214 215. The manner how he was inaugurated Protector and the Speech thereat 218. Falls sick 233. Dies 236. His Character 237. His Funeral 341. Cromwel Richard 217 223. He becomes Protector 240. Callâ— a Sham-Parliament 243. Dissolves it 246. He is advised to be for the King but refuses the advice 247. Turn'd out of his Protectorship by the Rump 250. D. Dorislaus sent by the Regicides into Holland 2. Is killed there 3. Dunbar defeat 106 Dunkirk taken by the English 231 Dutch War 171 G. Gloucester Duke sent for to Cologn by the King 197 H. Hereticks in Gromwel's time 219 Hewet Dr. 225 High Court of Justice another erected 79. And does a world of mischief 80. inf I. Jamaica taken by the English 209 Jersey subdued 155 Ireland Expedition thither under Cromwel 6. inf Subdued 55. Juries endeavoured to be abolished by Cromwel 203 K. King Charles I. the state of Affairs after his death 1 King Charles II. seeks help from foreign Princes 67. Proclaimed in Scotland 83. Crowned there 117. His march into England 120. His Escape from Worcester 128. inf Arrives in France 150. Removes to Cologn 180. His Restoration foretold by an Astrologer 198. L. Lambert John his Character 55 Lane Jane 136 Lords of Cromwel 's making 222 Love 's Conspiracy 115 M. Major-Generals and their Tyranny 200 Man-Island subdued 156 Marriages by Justices of Peace 164 Montross the noble Marquiss his Story 90 N. Nayler James his Pranks 220 P. The Pendrils 128 Petty Sir William 61 Portugal Embassadour's Brother beheaded 178 R. Rump-Parliament and Army disagree 156 Turned out by Cromwel 161 Brought again into play 249 S. Scotland Expedition thither under Cromwel 98 Subdued 152 Slingsby Sir Henry 183 225 Sundercome and the Republicans conspire against Cromwel 220 221 V. Van Trump kill'd 176 Vowel a condemn'd Royalist cites Cromwel and his Judges to appear before the Judgment-seat of God 179 W. War against the Spaniards in America 206 Between the Danes and Swedes 228 Worcester-Fight 125 Part the Third OR THE HISTORY OF THE Composing the Affairs of England By the Restauration of King CHARLES II. And the Punishment of the Regicides And the Settlement of the Church and State as they were before the Rebellion THE Civil War of England begun by a pernicious and fatal Parliament raged for the space of eight years with various successes of Battels till the Royalists being in all parts worsted and not able to keep the Field Charles the First the best of Kings a Prince of most exalted but persecuted Virtue to avoid the victorious Arms of the English Independants moved by ill fate or bad counsel cast himself into the arms of the Presbyterian Scots by whom he was for a round sum of money treacherously delivered up into the hands of English Traytors Nor was it long before he was a sad instance that the Prisons of Kings are but little distant from their Graves For what the flagitiousness of past Ages never attempted and future Will hardly believe the unfortunate Prince to make way for the Usurpation of the Traytor Cromwel was forced by a scenical and mock-form of Law and Justice to lay down his sacred head to be struck off upon a Block The boldest Villany that ever any Nation saw and a Parricide that all the World was astonished at But this Villany succeeding so prosperously and Britain at length and Ireland being subdued by victorious Rebels as the Forces of Charles the Second were entirely routed by the defeats at Dumbar and Worcester Cromwel the Traytor delayed no longer the execution of his long-projected Wickedness He knew full well that the name of the Parliament was grown odious to the people through the uneasiness of their flagitious and usurped Dominion Turning therefore his Arms against his hauty Masters he turned them out of the House as Objects first of his own contempt and then of the peoples scorn The onely grateful action he did to the Kingdom And now
would produce a durable obedience The Colonels of Fleetwood's Army at London despising the Authority of the Rump more haughtily demanded the same thing But the cunninger Members smelt afar off these Camp-designes of the Officers well foreseeing what these Councils drove at at long run And this made them fret rage and threaten Haselrigg a hot-headed man and a great Stickler formerly in the War now no less concerned in the Faction of the Democraticks lays it out confidently That the Authority of the Parliament was a precacious thing that Lambert following Cromwel 's steps endeavoured alterations and that his modesty at long run would prove but a Decoy to easie Fleetwood or to this purpose In the mean time the Army was divided into two Factions The far greater part were for giving Laws to the Parliament though the rest submitted to their Authority And this so netled the Members that they could not endure the insolence of the Souldiers but come on 't what would they resolved to vindicate their supreme Authority and not to suffer any Power in the Army above their own Thus venturing upon a revenge whilst the Scales were as yet a turning if the Colonels intended to use force they resolved to leave the Traytors a poor Game to play and discharge the publick from paying any Taxations by passing a Vote That no money shall be raised without consent of the Parliament and that he who did to the contrary should be guilty of High-Treason against the Commonwealth And this seeing the Army wanted money was the neck-break of the Colonels Nor could any thing content the discontented Rump but the debarting of some of the boldest Colonels disbanded to wit Lambert Desborough Berry Kelsey Ashfield Cobbet Crede Packer and Barrow In the mean time the Rump appoints a Supreme Council of War over the Army without any name of a General consisting of Fleetwood Monk Haselrigg Ludlow Walton Morley and Overton the Souldiers in the mean time laughing in their sleeve at the vain and impotent anger of the Members For Lambert and the rest of the cashered Colonels upon mature deliberation resolved That seeing their interest and authority was still in force in the Army they would take the Field persist in their Resolutions and if it came to a push try the fidelity of the Souldiers And because they found by experience that Richard lost all by delaying they resolved to hasten their Undertaking The Rump in the mean time had intelligence of the violent designs of the Colonels and seeing hands were more necessary than heads Moss and Morley's Regiments are ordered next day to keep guard in Westminster The same morning Lambert with undaunted boldness and a strong body pickt out of the Forces that were best affected towards him hastens into the old Palace-yard and before the Members were come set Guards upon all the entries into the House Lambert stops the Speaker Lenthall coming out of his Coach and attended by a Troop of Guards and presently changing the Captain sends him back again into the City more like a Prisoner than a Speaker of the House and so with little ado he terrified and dispersed the rest of the Knaves And now Moss and Morley's Regiments guarding the silent and empty House are themselves beset by Lambert Both Parties looked big and seemed ready to come to blows but the night approaching they drew off without bloud whilst the Rump and Colonels full of anger and hatred mutually reproached each other and justly too with Treachery Villany and Tyranny But the Rump being now sent packing and the Parliament-doors shut the Officers of the Army became no less inconstant Masters and Ficklers in ruling than they had been in obeying Next morning a great confluence of Colonels met in Wallingford-house to consult about setling the Government and having first modelled the Army as being more considerable than the Commonwealth by unanimous consent they appoint Fleetwood to be General Lambert Lieutenant-General and Desborough heretofore a blunt Country-clown Major-General of the Horse The Supreme Power in Civil Affairs was committed to three and twenty Vane Fleetwood Ludlow and the rest of that odious Crew too long to be named whom they were pleased by a new and unheard-of Title to call the Committee of Safety Thus having erected a new Scheme of Government at London they disperse themselves into all places endeavouring to secure themselves by associated Villany Barrow they send to Ireland Cobbet to Scotland allure the Forces abroad into their Party but all in vain For the Army in Ireland whilst Ludlow was at London declared for the Rump Parliament Monk in the mean time writing to Fleetwood and Lambert sharply taxes the Army in England with Treachery and Ambition of governing and professes also that for the future he 'll stand by the Parliament refuses to admit of Cobbet as an Embassadour but commits him to custody as a Traytor Monk in the mean time being as yet uncertain what to do had many anxious thoughts He foresaw indeed greater security under the Rump but if the Army in England had the better on 't inevitable ruine having long ago had experience of the hatred of Lambert and Fleetwood though disguised in their looks And besides the usual competition in rule they were also looked upon as men of different humours and manners Monk was for a plain and modest Religion but they turbulent and violent in their pernicious Heresie Wherefore seriously weighing with himself the strength of the English Army on the one hand and on the other the weakness of his own Forces the perfidiousness of many of the Officers and the fickleness of the Souldiers he thought still that he might do better in War than in Peace and so having resolved against the worst he hastened his march into England When he had consulted about these things with his most intimate Friends at Delkeith he goes to Edinborough and there in a full Council of Colonels he represents the new Troubles of England How that the Parliament was turned out of doors by the Officers in England without any provocation but through levity and an ambition of governing That the London Colonels having attempted many bad things resolved not onely to bear rule over their own but the Forces abroad also That it would be disgraceful to them to submit to the Commands of another Army That he himself was a General neither inferiour to Fleetwood nor Lambert nor was the Army of Scotland that had outlived so many Battels less to be accounted than that of England That therefore he was firmly resolved to march into England to revenge the Right and Honour of the Parliament that the Authority might remain in their hands who gave them their Pay and Rewards When with much authority and greatness of mind which do better than eloquence in a Souldier he had spoken to this purpose the Souldiers were inflamed with Zeal and Resolution
and under the command of so great a General desire the signal to march Having now confirmed the Souldiers and the Garrison of Edinburough-Castle he put the command of Berwick Leeth Air St. Johnston and other Castles and Citadels into the hands of trusty Officers He turned out in the mean time all suspected Sectarians especially the Anabaptists the Plague of Mankind whilst many of his Horse addicted to the errour or humours of the English Army of their own accord desert him and leave the Foot and the rest who were truer to their Trust He remaintained in their places many of his own Officers who had been lately casheered by the London Council of War which gained him their affection and Fleetwood and Lambert their hatred The report of this Storm coming from the North was quickly brought to London and all things made greater as it is usual at such a distance than really they were This distracted the Councils of the Rulers and put them into no little anxiety However they arm against Monk and appoint Lambert elevated by the overthrow of Booth's Party General of the War and Head of their Faction who was now to engage in another kind of a War and with anothergets General But seeing they stood much in awe of the prouess and conduct of Monk and had him in great admiration they thought fit first to essay him by Treaty Wherefore Fleetwood sent unto him Clarges nearly allied to him and Colonel Talbot who served in the Scottish Army and in great favour with the General to mediate a Peace and Reconciliation With the same purpose of Pacification Colonel Goff and Colonel Whaley followed after with Carril and Barker the great Oracles of the Independents that the Artifices of Preachers might not be wanting in laying of Snares Monk received them all civilly He had many secret Conferences with Clarges To the rest he publickly professed that he had no Quarrel with the Colonels commanding in England about Religion That his whole designe was to revenge the Indignity done to the Parliament and to proceed no farther That if they had rather take up the matter at London without bloud he was willing to allow time for Conferences The Ministers with affected flattery preached up the advantages of Peace presaging from more than one instance that the divisions of fellow-Souldiers would be pernicious to themselves and very advantageous to the publick Enemy intimating the King and indeed their Presage proved afterward to be true But the mercenary and canting Tongues of those preaching Mediators wrought no effect upon an old Souldier who was so well acquainted with their juggling tricks He civilly sends back these Agents of Peace with the same security as they came Clarges in the mean time was before gone to London with more secret Instructions And though Monk now perceived that all Agreement with the Colonels of the English Army would prove fallacious and unsafe yet all things not being as yet sufficiently ordered for securing the more remote Garrisons of Scotland he made his advantage of what was cast in his way by chance and labours for the convenience of his own affairs to protract the time of Treaty He therefore dispatches to London Wilks Knight and Cloberry as Commissioners for the Treaty from the Army in Scotland with Instructions how to delay time where for some time we 'll leave them in Wallingford-house with more complement than freedom debating with Fleetwood's Officers though I am not apt to believe that the desire of Pacification was sincere on both sides Lambert marching against Monk was already got as far as York with twelve Regiments of men he was weak in Foot but strong in Horse Here he found Morgan Major-General of Monk's Army recovering out of a fit of the Gout a man that at that time was judged inferiour to none in Military skill Lambert who was his old friend and knew him to be dear to Monk sent him into Scotland to promote the business of Peace He having followed Monk to Edinburrough in a military manner declared his business and what he was come about but preferring Monk's cause and honesty he took command under him when because of the many Commanders lately turned out and others that had deserted he was made very welcome Monk in the mean time having pretty well composed the affairs of his Army invites the Scottish Nobility to Council first at Edinburrough and then at Berwick where he discovered his designes unto them beseeching them for the sake of their Country and of himself that they would keep Scotland in peace and raise moneys to pay the Army that now was upon the march into England The Scottish Nobility very readily promised him money nay and to assist him with men and Arms in the expedition which was an accession to Monk's good fortune that when he might have made use of so great assistance from Scotland he did not stand in need of it For being a man of a sharp wit he was not willing that Scotland should come under the power of another the Inhabitans being armed nor that they accompanying him into England might render his coming ungrateful at home Trusty Officers being left to command the Garrisons of Scotland the Souldiers rightly modelled and all things in a readiness for the expedition of a sudden news is brought to Edinburrough that the Peace was confirmed but upon so hard and uneasie terms that Monk with anger in his looks severely checked the Authors of the hateful Reconciliation upon their return telling them That if the honesty of some certainly the prudence of all of them was to be suspected and committed Wilks to prison for transgressing his Commission The truth was Monk's Commissioners being by Fleetwood's Officers with a shew of honour narrowly observed and in a manner confined ignorant of the Stirs abroad and imposed upon by false reports of the diminution of Monk's Forces with more haste than judgment had clapt up an unjust Peace In the mean time Monk having had certain intelligence from Clarges a faithful man that Fleetwood was daily more and more despised at London that at York Lambert 's Army was divided and full of Faction judging a delay more convenient for himself than for the Enemy industriously protracted the Treaty Having therefore sent Letters to Fleetwood he acquainted him That the news of a Pacification was very acceptable to him but that he found some things doubtful in the Conditions and other matters not rightly transacted by his Commissioners that therefore that the agreement might be more solid all Officers being removed he desires the number of Commissioners to be increased and Newcastle as a more proper place for their meeting Fleetwood condescended more out of fear than choice but Lambert whose whole ability consisted in charging an Enemy rashly and fatally deluded to his own ruine accepted also of the delays of Treaty Lambert in
triumphant march he advanced amidst the Applause and Congratulation of all men and everywhere was met by the people who to the grief of the Commissioners petitioned him for a full and free Parliament as the onely Remedy to their Evils The same the Commissioners from the City of London desired upon their meeting the General at Harborough At Northampton he met with the like And most part of the neighbouring and more remote Counties of England sent him Deputies and Petitions to the same effect all which Monk that kept his own counsel civilly received but cautiously answered Now was Monk arrived at St. Albans within twenty miles of London wholly intent upon his entering the City Therefore by Colonel Lidcolt he prudently wrote to the Rump to acquaint them with his approach And that seeing he had brought with him an Army true to the Parliament and most observant of Discipline he intimated to them that it would be unsafe to mingle his honest and faithful Souldiers with the treacherous Forces in London who were so lately endeavouring changes and their fierceness not as yet wholly laid aside that therefore for the safety of the Parliament he earnestly intreats them that sending forthwith Fleetwood 's Forces out of Town they would order them Quarters to be appointed by the Quarter-Master-General This was the reason alleadged in publick but in secret there was another The Rump consented to Monk's desire whether cordially or rather out of fear I shall not determine And therefore Fleetwood's men are ordered to leave the City and to go and quarter in the Country at a distance But the Pretorian Bands being long pampered in London angrily and with a threatning carriage left the City rage being mingled with their obedience and the hatred of the Parties still remaining after the War Monk in the mean time came from St. Albans to Barnet and the day following being the third of February marched into London in order He himself in military pomp lead the Horse through the streets of London and not without a presage took his Lodgings in Whitehall The Parliament had been so often garbl'd and curtail'd that it was then by the People in derision called the Rump But these Senatorian Conspirators the shame and scorn of all honest men being of insolent tempers and now the third time got into power blown up with prosperity began more and more daily to insult over the Publick and being in fear on both hands from their friends as well as foes and knowing that their strength consisted more in Fame than in Force they resolved to establish their Tyranny by a new Oath and that the desperation of all Pardon might adde strength to this Bond of Iniquity to compel the People to swear not onely that they should bear Faith and true Allegiance to the Commonwealth of England and the present Parliament but that they should also renounce and abjure all Allegiance to Charles the Second and the whole Royal Family Which was the last effort of their expiring Fortune In the mean time the Rumpers being themselves employed in perpetrating the highest Crimes let those of Booth's Party and of the revolting Regiments pass unpunished as below their notice And now the Council of State consisting of the most villanous Republicans renders the Oath to Monk which he as taking time rather to consider than refusing it prudently avoided The third day after Monk had entred the City being attended by Scot and Robinson he went to the House where the Speaker Lenthall a mighty man at words and nothing else having commended his fidelity and good services rendred to the Parliament in restoring them by his Arms to their Authority gave him the publick Thanks of the House And now what Speech he again made to the Rump I shall in his own words relate Mr. Speaker AMongst the many Mercies of God to these poor Nations your peaceable Restitution is not the least it is as you sad his work alone and to him belongs the glory of it And I esteem it as a great effect of his goodness to me that he was pleased to make me amongst many worthier in your service some way instrumental in it I did nothing but my duty and deserve not to receive so great an honour and respect as you are pleased to give me at this time and place which I shall ever acknowledge as a high mark of your favour to me Sir I shall not now trouble you with large Narratives onely give me leave to acquaint you That as I marched out of Scotland hither I observed the People in most Counties in great and earnest expectations of a Settlement and several Applications were made to me with numerous Subscriptions to them The chiefest heads of their Desires were for a free and full Parliament and that you would determine your sitting a Gospel-Ministry encouragement of Learning and Vniversities and for admittance of the Members secluded before the year 1648. without any previous Oath or Engagement To which I commonly answered That you are now in a free Parliament and if there be any force remaining upon you I would endeavour to remove it and that you had voted to fill up your House and then you would be a full Parliament also and that you had already determined your sitting and for the Ministry their maintenance the Laws and Vniversities you had largely declared concerning them in your last Declaration and I was confident you would adhere to it But as for those Gentlemen secluded in the year 1648. I told them you had given judgment in it and all people ought to acquiesce in that judgment but to admit any Members to sit in Parliament without a previous Oath or Engagement to serve the Government in being it was never done in England But although I said it not to them I must say with pardon to you That the less Oaths and Engagements are imposed with respect had to the security of the common Cause your settlement will be the sooner attained to I am the more particular in these matters to let you see how grateful your present Consultations about these matters will be to the people I know all the sober Gentry will close with you if they may be tenderly and gently used and I am sure you will so use them as knowing it to be the common concern to accomplish and not lessen our interest and to be careful that neither the Cavalier nor the Fanatick Party have yet a share in your Civil or Military Power of the last whose impatience to Government you have lately had so severe experience of I should say something of Ireland and Scotland indeed Ireland is in an ill settled condition and made worse by your interruptions which prevented the passing an Act for the settlement of the Estates of Adventurers and Souldiers there which I heard you intended to have done in a few days and I presume it will be now quickly done being so necessary
not now avail them That it was madness after the slaughter of so many Royalists the killing of so many Nobles and the unparallel'd Crime of the Murder of Charles the First to expect from a young banished man and exasperated by a long Exile a Pardon which God Almighty would hardly give for so many Villanies That there remained then no remedy for them but a daring boldness whilst as yet neither the Authority of the Parliament in the House nor that of Monk in both the Armies was firmly enough setled Let us therefore dare say they and re-attempt Murders Rapines Disturbances of State and all those Villanies that for twenty years past have so well succeeded with us rather than tamely and cowardly deliver up our Liberty purchased by our blouds into the power of an Enemy who will the more cruelly be revenged upon us that he hath been so often baffled and defeated by us Let us either by greater Crimes justifie the past or bury our misfortunes with our lives in the ruine of the Common-wealth Trahere omnia secum Mersa juvat gentesque suae miscere ruinae If we must sink we 'll drown the State And involve Nations in our Fate Having thus concerted a Conspiracy there wanted onely an opportune Leader but then Lambert being the person of greatest reputation amongst the Fanaticks was thought the fittest to undertake that Charge Having therefore corrupted his Keepers he made his escape out of the Tower by night then lurking privily in the City and consulting with the Ring-leaders of the Party they concluded amongst themselves O damnable madness by corrupting the English Regiments and raising Sedition in the Army to renew a Civil War And so Lambert secretly posts to Warwick the place appointed for their meeting Thither came Axtell Okey Cobbet Crede and other bloudy Traytors where being joyned by Turncoats and the disbanded Souldiers of the English Regiments whom they had allured into their Party they suddenly make up an Army and so the unhappy General is once more in command The first that gave Monk intelligence of Lambert's Insurrection was Colonel Streater who was with a Regiment of Foot quartered in Northampton The Council of State hearing of the escape of the Conspirators proclaim Lambert and his Adherents Traytors Monk in the mean time lest leaving the City of London he might bring the publick safety in danger resolved to reserve his main Force for greater occasions and to send in all haste some Horse after Lambert to crush the designe in its Infancy Richard Ingoldsbey acquitted himself like a brave man retrieving by a bold attempt the faults that being a Colonel under both the Cromwels he had formerly committed He having Orders from Monk with a body of Horse hastened to joyn Streater's Foot at Northampton and on the two and twentieth of April being Easter-day within two miles of Daventry came in sight of the Enemy in an open Country fit for a Horse-fight and no less for flight Lambert before his Forces were ripe for Action being thus unexpectedly beset for a last proof of his Valour drew up his men in order to fight leaving the rest that was not in his power to destiny and Ingoldsbey did the like both for some hours mutually expecting the charge Whilst thus they delayed to engage it was reported that Lambert made some overtures of restoring Richard Cromwel whom he knew Ingoldsbey to have been much affected to that so he might save Stakes But he disdaining to see the force of that scenical Prince plaid again they must come to blows Providence appeared in the engagement for hardly had they begun to skirmish but that many of Lambert's Horse turned to Ingoldsbey's side the rest either daunted at the desertion of their Companions or the force of the Enemy took quarters and yielded Which when the Commanders perceived they began to think of running Ingoldsbey charging then home put Lambert hard to it who far below the great fame that he had acquired in Arms his Courage sinking with his Cause and forgetting his former Reputation tamely yielded himself Prisoner With Lambert Cobbet and Crede were taken but Axtell and Okey making their escape delayed but avoided not their deserved punishments And now again Lambert forsaken of his Friends and a Prisoner became sensible of his fortune Yet this fresh madness of Rebels had it not been seasonably quelled by Ingoldsbey and Streater would have again embrewed the Nation in Bloud and Slaughter and turned all things into new Disorders The very day that Monk mustered the Militia of London Ingoldsbey brought his Prisoners to Town who were now led in triumph where they had so often triumphed by their Villanies passing disarmed through armed Souldiers And thus the Civil Wars had an end Not long before March the 17th the Long and Black Parliament dissolved themselves a Parliament infamous for such havock made in the State so many impudent and unwarrantable Undertakings and for the murder of Charles the Martyr being twice garbl'd twice turned out twice restored and at length much more happily ended than begun And now on the five and twentieth of April a new and more auspicuous Parliament assembled being made up according to the ancient English custom of Lords and Commons The Earl of Manchester was Speaker of the House of Lords and Sir Harbotle Grimstone of the Commons And this conjunction of both Houses seemed a natural Prelude to the Kings Restauration For the English accustomed to Kingly government cried that there remained no other way of remedying the publick Distempers but a submission to the rightful government of Charles the Second So was it ordered above that God and man should concur in recalling the King to his Throne And so great was the fame of the Virtues and Accomplishments of this August young Prince that though by reason of a long Exile he was by face almost unknown to all and though he had not had a lawful and hereditary Title to the Crown yet they would have courted him to accept of the Government Nor was he less desirable when compared and put into the balance with those bloudy Vsurpers Nay the compassionate sense of his adverse Fortune and tedious Exile kindled also in his Subjects an affectionate desire of recalling him to his Right And the inconsiderate mistakes of the imperious Traytors at length came to this That the Common-wealth no less desired the King than the King the Government and the languishing condition of the Publick made it as if not more necessary for the English to have a Prince than for him to have a People While these things were a doing Charles wholly intent upon the motions of England leaving Brussels a Town under the Spanish dominion came to Breda which belongs to his Nephew the Prince of Orange from whence he dispatched Sir John Greenvile with Royal Letters to both Houses of Parliament and Letters also to General Monk
Name by any kind of Villany Peters a Fanatical Tub-preacher and the Jack-pudding of the Ordinances Sometimes he was Presbyterian and sometimes Independant as the several Factions prevailed He was the first of the Jugglers that from the Pulpit sounded the Trumpet to Civil War a fellow full of talk and had a knack of sporting the People into Sedition with an insipid kind of Buffoonry and Lying which past with them for Eloquence and became a Crony of Oliver's by a flagitious compliance October the seventh Clements Scot Jones and Scroop suffered the same death upon the same Gibbet without any regard had to a decent end Clements was heretofore a Merchant in London a lustful mercenary Traytor who abused his Parliamentarian Authority to Whoredom and Leachery Jones brought nothing with him out of Wales his native Country but Infamy and an ignoble Extraction he was first a Robber and for his excessive wickedness preferred to be a Colonel he married Cromwel's Sister who then enriched his Relations with the Spoils of the Commonwealth nor was he less related to Oliver by Affinity than Villany and to many men prejudicial by his ill nature Scot sprung out of a Brew-house and amongst other Calamities of the Civil War was admitted into the Parliament-house and of all the Traytors perhaps was the most inveterate Enemy to Charles the Martyr of which Villany he bragg'd to the last and so rejoyced in the Kings Murder that he would have Posterity remember him as an Author of so great a Crime and besides the murder of the King was guilty of many other horrid Villanies Of all the Regicides that surrendred themselves Scroop onely was hanged for whether by indiscretion or obstinacy he drew upon himself this ill fortune or that a mans destiny is not to be avoided I shall not determine for after that he had surrendred himself he seemed so much to justifie the Murder of the King that he chose rather to be looked upon as a Criminal than an humble Supplicant Then Hacker and Axtell at Tyburn had the reward of their Treason Hacker formerly in London and Axtell in Bedford had kept shops The Quarters of the Traytors their Bowels being burnt and their Heads were set up upon the Gates and publick places of London The fugitive Regicides being summoned by Proclamation to appear were afterwards by Act of Parliament declared guilty of High-Treason and their Estates forfeited Nor did the just severity of the Parliament so punish the living as to quite forget the dead for the like Sentence of High-Treason was pronounced against the deceased Ireton Cromwel Bradshaw and Pride who having whilst alive usurped the Government of the murdered King they with no less impudence when dead were pompously buried in Henry the Seventh's Chappel the burying-place of Kings of England The Parliament therefore ordered their Bones and stinking Carcasses to be raised and buried under Tyburn and in this posthumous disgrace being dragg'd through the City they had a Gibbet-interment I think it will not be amiss to give the Reader an account of the Original of the last named Traytors so famed for enormous Villanies which here I shall once for all subjoyn Ireton of a mean Extraction was Cromwel's Son-in-law and the Confident and Counsellor of all his secret Villanies who though to all others he was most hidden and reserved yet to this man he opened his heart as he on the other hand was reported not onely to have kept his Counsels but also to have advised him to act many of his worst Villanies He was esteemed the best Orator of all the Colonels and had a canting kind of preaching Rhetorick more copious than eloquent Pride descended of unknown Parents and was Dray-man to a Brewer but within a short time the affairs of England being in confusion the rough-hewn Clown was dignified and made proud by the Title and Authority of a Colonel nor is it certain whether he was the greater Knave or Fool. Bradshaw was of the fatal High Court of Justice the more fatal President a Lawyer of no account at the Bar till being bribed by money he got himself a name by a most execrable Villany The Scarletrobed Brauler and hardly more innocent than Pilate surpassed the wickedness of all the rest of the Kings Murderers by his boldness in condemning an innocent Prince and adding malicious scoffs to the impudence of the Fact without any Reverence to Captive Majesty Cromwel indeed came of a better Race but which he himself for ever disgraced The ancient dignity of his Family by the name of Williams changed afterward by his Ancestors in the time of Henry the Eighth to that of Cromwel had its original from a Blacksmith His Youth was loose infamous and debauched but having run out his Estate and from a prodigal Rogue turning Puritan and then Fanatick like another Cataline incited by Beggary he ventured upon the overthrow of the State Bearing a mind above a private condition he still appeared as a private person and had the art to set himself off undiscerned He had a wonderful dexterity amongst the Fanatick Rout in whose opprobrious friendship he chiefly delighted of winning upon the minds of the Rebels shaking his bald pate and smiling with a deceitful Countenance he was by Nature and Art excellently disposed for alluring the affections of the Dissenters nor do I know whether amongst mortal men there was even a cunniner Artist in pretended Piety a wickeder or more crafty man and bolder in attempting any Villany But by what deceitful grinning Arts having overturned the Parliament and murdered the King he raised himself to Supreme Power many great Wits and able Pens have already described Much he did in War but more by Perfidiousness Hypocrisie Perjury and Falshood More cruel he was than the ancient Tyrants whose Manners and Examples he imitated with Tiberius he was subtile and suspicacious He had a crafty disposition with a jealous head and delighted in none of his Virtues so much as in Dissimulation more easily concealing Hatred than Fear Nero he acted in the slaughter of his best Country-men nor was he unlike him in driving a Coach His Countenance carried the bloudy complexion of Domitian and a redness that fortified him against Blushing But that he might not onely appear famous through Crimes and Villanies by intervals he made a shew of some great actions not from a principle of Goodness but Ambition nor out of love to Virtue but Vanity and future Glory This alone was wanting to his fortune and our slavery that he had neither a Son nor Successour able to match him Pity it was that that bold Orator or rather Bagpiper was out of the way at the shameful Obsequies of the Traytors that the same hand which reproaching all Kings in Latin vindicated the Party and justified in writing the Crimes of the Parricides now might though a surley lookt School-master have either made a Funeral-Oration
the Duke of Ormond with unanimous consent of the Heads Fellows and Students of Colledges is chosen Chancellour of the University of Oxford and so being taken off from the care and troubles of the Irish affairs he had the direction of the softer and more peaceful Muses About the beginning of September Mary the Queen Mother of England having for two and twenty years in Banishment and Widowhood lived without the enjoyment of the King her Husband and with the comfort of a flourishing Off-spring having beheld her Son setled in the Throne died at Paris in France full of years and of glory in all the changes of humane condition About the end of this and beginning of next year the Duke of Albemarle also finished his course And being now to speak the last of a man born for the publick good famous in a high and famous in a lower degree I shall take a short review of his Birth Manners and Fortune George Monk the Son of a Knight was born in Devonshire in the West of England in the year One thousand six hundred and eight He had an elder Brother who inherited his Fathers Estate and Honour and a younger who being bred a Scholar after the Restauration of the King was made Bishop of Hereford George the middlemost pushing his Fortune in the Camp followed the Wars wherein he was first initiated in his youth at Cadis against the Spaniards and shortly after in an Expedition against the French at the Isle of Ré both unfortunate in their issue but with better success he served under the Earl of Oxford in Holland The Civil Wars afterwards breaking out occasioned first by the accursed madness of the Scottish Presbyterians he returned into England and listed himself under Charles the First who then marched against the Scots and next year after was made a Colonel in the Army against the Irish Rebels But the Civil War of England raging more furiously afterwards whilst the Parliament called in the Scots their Brethren in Iniquity to their assistance the King on the other hand having made a Truce with the Irish Rebels called over his Forces from Ireland for his own defence at home and Monk being one of the Commanders of that Army with the rest joyned the King at at Oxford but whilst by orders from the King he mustered the Irish Forces in the Camp he was unexpectedly surprized and taken by Fairfax who served the Parliament and being carried to London lay there almost four years Prisoner in the Tower Whilst he was there shut up and in distress the King sent him secretly an hundred Pieces of Gold which considering the streights his Majesty was then put to was no small Argument of his Royal Affection towards him But being at length tired out with an irksome imprisonment and for the sake of liberty changing sides he took in with the Parliament and went again over into Ireland where he did many brave actions against the Irish Rebels not without Presages of becoming sometime a great General as being the onely person who seemed to have carried with him Honesty and Civility to the Civil War Here it was that first of all he gained the good esteem of Cromwel who then commanded the Parliament-Forces in Ireland having performed an action more advantageous to his General than honourable to himself The Irish War being ended the Summer following he marched with Cromwel against the Scots and did not a little contribute to his fortunate Successes in Scotland Having been so often victorious at Land and now an old Commander he tried his fortune at Sea and under the Rump-Parliament was very successful against the Dutch having in two Engagements beaten them and put them to flight At length when Cromwel got into Supreme Power he was made Governour of Scotland which Trust with equal reputation of Equity and Prudence he discharged during the space of almost five years until Quarrels and Animosities happening at London betwixt the Rumpers and Colonels of the Army he laid hold on the occasion for restoring of the King But at what time first he framed the designe of restoring Charles to the Throne I shall hardly presume to determine Cavillers and those that make the worst of things gave it out that his dutiful services to the King were but fortuitous but they who judge impartially affirm that it was a designe laid many years before Certainly the best of Kings more mindful of the effects of his Loyalty than of its beginning received the duty of Albemarle as extraordinary and kind services and honourably and liberally rewarded them The year before his death he fell into a Dropsie and being weary of the ordinary methods and advice of Physicians he made use of a certain Quack-Medicine which in appearance recovered him but his body being opened after his death a great deal of Water was found in his Bowels and much congealed Bloud in both the Ventricles of his Heart and other neighbouring Vessels For the motion both of the Heart and Bloud being weakened by an inveterate Dropsie gave occasion to the stagnating of the chylous juyce about the Heart which stopping the Fountain of the circulating Bloud put at length a stop to his last breathings for life The Marriage of his onely Son was in a manner the last thing he minded in this life who a few days before his death was married to the Daughter of the Earl of Ogle and Grand-daughter to the Duke of Newcastle thereby to settle as well as honour his Family by an Alliance with so Noble a House After he had seen Britain rejoycing in Triumphs beheld Charles confirmed in the Throne by ten years happy Reign and after he had administred the greatest Offices of Trust under the King both in Peace and War being upwards of sixty years of age he yielded to Destiny which he willingly and undauntedly submitted unto that after the Trophies of a past Life he might at length triumph over Death He left but one onely Son the Illustrious Inheritour of his Fathers Fame hopeful to the State and cherished by the King as his own Charles who had often visited and condoled with him in his sickness was with him to the last and expressed the same affection for dying Albemarle that he had testified to him during his life From Somerset-house where he had lain in state he was with a splendid pomp of solemn Funerals at the Kings charges conveyed to Westminster-Abbey and there amidst the Tears and Condolings of all good men interred amongst the August Monuments of Kings being the last Triumph due to his memory They who are curious to have a description of the shapes and countenance of so great a man may know that he was a person more graceful than beautiful of a middle stature strong and well comparted with a comely presence and of a composed rather than severe or stern aspect He may easily be reckoned a
most valiant General in War not onely to be compared to the chief Commanders of his own age but to the most renowned Warriours of elder times and of so great reputation he was in Military affairs that the modestest do acknowledge too great a Courage in Albemarle He spent almost his whole life in Arms and at length growing old amidst Victories he became gray-headed under a Helmet In Britain and Ireland by Sea and by Land so happy was Albemarle that Fortune traced out for him Honour Renown and Titles He had indeed a hidden and a silent kind of Sagacity in the management of affairs and improved almost all the Arts of Prudence by Silence He had a Modesty that set off all the other Virtues of his Mind nor was he ever heard to brag of what he had done or deserved The Fame of so great a man doubtless inferiour to no other Mortal will propagate it self to Posterity who without Pride or Ostentation gratified a banished Prince with so signal Services and onely rejoyced in the conscientious performance of his Duty and Obedience Nor after the Restauration of Charles did he behave himself as a Colleague in the Government as Mucianus was of old reported to have done to Vespasian but as a Servant neither did he ever boast that having the Power in his own hands he had bestowed it upon another whereby he burned to his glory the Arrogance of the Rump and the Impudence of Cromwel his Loyalty inclining him more to give up than his Ambition to retain the Government We may moreover reckon Albemarle happy not onely in the greatness of the Action but also in the seasonableness of the Service That he brought back the Government to a Prince of so just and good a temper who put so true an estimate upon his Loyalty and under whom it would never be unsafe nor dangerous to deserve the most For good Offices are acceptable especially to Kings so long as the obliged think they may be able to requite them but when they are too great to be rewarded instead of Thanks they procure Hatred And it is rare and almost unusual for Princes to think themselves obliged or if they think so to love their Benefactors Peace being now established at home and Janus his Temple shut Albemarle departed the more joyfully out of this life that when he left no Troubles in Britain yet he left behind him a Love for himself in the hearts of all good men so much the more wanted that he had taken care that nothing should be wanting having left nothing in the State but his own death to be bewailed the King flourishing in his Government and the Loyalty of the Parliament as yet vieing with the modesty of the Prince Every one enjoyed the happiness they desired at home and Peace with all Nations abroad till the League-breaking Dutch again provoked the English Arms. But the Actions of that War the steddy Fortune of the British Nation and the future Triumphs of CHARLES I have set aside as a subject for my more advanced years FINIS A Table to the Third Part. A. ALbemarle vid. Monk Army disbanded 52 B. Bishops restored 51 Booth Sir George his Insurrection 8 C. Committee of Safety 13 Commissioners from the Parliament wait on the King at Breda 44 Conventicles supprest 73 Covenant burnt by the Hangman 66 Cowley Abraham 99 D. De Wit 76 Dutch War beginning and occasion 74. The first Engagement 81. The second 87. The third 88. the fourth 90. The fifth 92. Their Attempt at Chatham 98. Peace concluded 98. F. Fanaticks rise but are supprest 72 G. Gloucester Duke dies 52 K. King Charles 2. Comes to Breda 42. Lands at Dover 46 Enters London 47. His Coronation 61. Marries the Infanta of Portugal 69. L. Lambert proclaimed a Traytor 40. Committed to the Tower 41. Condemn'd but obtains mercy 71. Libels 73 The Liturgie and Ceremonies of the Church confirm'd and establish'd by Act of Parliament 71 London the great Plague there 84. The great Fire there 94. Rebuilt 99 100. M. Monk Sir George 6 13 inf His famous march into England 25. Enters London 28. Admits the secluded Members 36. Receives Letters from the King 37. Created Duke of Albemarle 51. A short account of his Life and Death 102 inf His Character 105. O. Oblivion Act 52 Great Officers upon the Kings Restoration 51 Orange Princess dies in England 60 Oxford the Court and Term there 85. The new Theatre there built 101. P. Parliament the long one dissolved 41. A new one meet 42. A new one call'd by the King 66. Physicians Colledge visited by the King 78 Q. Queen-Mother dies 101 R. Recapitulation of things past 1 Regicides brought to Tryal 53. Their several Characters 54 55 56 57 58 67 68 70. Rump-Government 5. inf Rump and Army at variance 10. S. Solemn League and Covenant burnt by the Hangman 66 V. Uly-Island and Ships there burnt by the English 93 Y. York Duke made Lord High Admiral 50. His great Victory at Sea 81. The Right of Kings in England In the person of a Monarch for above a thousand years And he hereditary And never dying To him all swear Allegiance and Supremacy The Prerogatives of the K. or chief marks of Majesty and the Regalia belong onely to the King So that all Estates and Possessions are derived from him and to him return at last He hath the care of Pupils and Lunaticks The power of coyning Money He confers all Honours and Offices Which are to be administred in his name alone His power in matters of War Also in Ecclesiastical affairs He moderates the rigour of Laws And judges in undecided cases He chuses his own Counsellors He that mounts the Throne is never to be brought to the Bar since the Law says he cannot die Nor can he err or do wrong But as he offends by his Ministers so is he punished The Heir of the Crown is by the death of his Predecessor ipso facto cleared from all guilt Yet it is not lawful to rule arbitrarily VVhat Rights belong to Parliaments To make and repeal Laws Impose Taxes Legitimate Bastards Enact the VVorship of God Set Rates on VVeights and Measures VVhat the Parliament of England is The Vpper House of it The Lower The time and place appointed by the King They are called by VVrits The manner of meeting The King declares the causes of their meeting in the Vpper House All and every one of the Members of the House of Commons take the Oath of Allegiance to the King And of Supremacy They chuse a Speaker whom they accompany to the King beseeching his Majesty to approve their Election And not to be offended with their freedom in speech ☞ All may petition but by the mediation of Deputies The way of debating and communicating opinions betwixt both Houses By the Kings consent the Bills are made Laws Or otherwise rejected Religious matters aâ—â—ommitâ—ed by the Kiâ—g to
the Clergy Which by the Deans Archdeacons and Deputies of the Clergy are holden in the Convocation Their Acts bind not the People without the consent of the King and Parliament The Rights Priviledges of the Vpper House Of the Lower The providence of the Law thae the Members might debate freely and without fear The modesty of the Parliament What honour Kings were wont to shew the Parliament But when occasion required reduced them into order The happiness of the Kingdom under this Government VVhat were the beginnings of the Troubles raised by some Members of the House of Commons Hence mutual Jealousies betwixt the King and Parliament And then the dissolution of Parliaments This gave occasion of stirring the people up against the King And yet the Kingdom in a most flourishing condition Though unfortunate in War abroad and some Taxes imposed at home Some seditious persons are punished New Ceremonies startle the Puritans The Archbishop endeavouring to impose the Liturgy of England upon the Scots offends them Vpon which pretext but for other causes they grow turbulent They take Arms alter the Government both in Church and State The King marches against them And upon Articles makes Peace with them The Scots innovating the Articles cause a new VVar. A Parliament is called in England And dissolved The Scots making a secret Combination with the Factious invade England Having made a Truce the Judgment of the Parliament is expected The Parliament meets The Factious in it Who under pretext of reforming Grievances endeavour to new-model the Government both in Church and State And by what steps Many are accused the E. of Strafford and Arshb of Canterbury The L. Keeper Judges And twelve Bishops The terrified Judges are freely discharged The Bishops also being deprived of the right of voting in the House of Lords Strafford is brought to his tryal before the House of Lords the King over-hearing The Earl in his defence clears himself of the Accusation The House of Commons make a new Law whereby they make him guilty of Treason Not without opposition many dissenting The Lords deliberating more seriously The Rabble beset the House And hinder the Lords and Bishops from entering it then they break into Westminster-Abbey And afterward run in tumult to White-hall And answer the K. sawcily Whilst the Justices of Peace repress the Tumults they are imprisoned by the factious House The factious Members of Parliament consult with the Apprentices and teach them the time and manner of tumultuating Whereby the Members being frightned forbear coming to the House and are therefore excluded Whence the Authority of Parliament wears out of date The Lords pass the Bill against the Earl of Strafford The Kings consent is very hardly obtained Till the Judges pronounced it lawful the Bishops removed his scruples And Strafford advised him to it The King by Letters desires the execution may be delayed The Lords deny it Courtiers fearful of their condition freely resigne their places The Sheriffs Justices of the Peace comply with the times In that thing alone the King withstood the will of the Parliament In the rest he left himself in a manner at their discretion He suffers the Jurisdiction of the Court of Stannaries of the Court of the President of Wales to be lessened The extent of the Forests also be abridged The Court of the Star-Chamber And of the High Commission to be abrogated As also that of the Lord President and Council of the North. He allows Monopolies to be rescinded He yields up also his right of levying Souldiers Ship-money Tunnage and Poundage Allows also a Triennial Parliament And that the present Parliament should not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses Yet with these the Factious are not pleased But are thereby emboldened to raise Animosities and Divisions The Scots are sent home The English Irish Armies are also disbanded The K. follows the Scots into their Country And upon his return is feasted by the Londoners The Factious congratulate the Kings return by a defamatory Declaration ☞ To which the King shortly answers New Tumults for snatching the power of the Militia out of the K.'s hands The K. obviates the Sedition by accusing the Heads of it of Treason Whom the House of Commons takes into protection Wherefore the K. enters the House of Commons in person That he may demand them Who fled The K. afterward desisted and in a manner acknowledged his fault But the Factious take thence occasion of slandering and of raising jealoâ—sies stirs Buckinghamshire Essex petition The accused Members abscond in London and with a Guard of Citizens are conducted to the Parliament-house The K. withdraws to Windsor-Castle Sends the Q into Holland Sends for the Prince Moves towards York Having first sent pacificatory Letters to the Parliament VVhich notwithstanding the House of Commons misinterpret as contrary to the Priviledges of Parl. and pretend to be in great fear Daring alone to demand the power of the Militia VVhich when they could not obtain they stir up the Corporations to take up Arms of their own accord The House of Commons pass a Vote for ordering the Militia by Deputies and having prevailed with the Lords with joynt address they demand the Militia of the King upon pretence of dangers The K. allows a share in the power of the Militia reserving to himself the supreme Authority he exhorts them to moderation and peace But the Factious slight these things fill the rest with idle fears and by them stir up the People Fearing that the K. might possess himself of the Magazine of Hull They send Sir John Hotham to prevent it Who shuts the Gates against the King And is proclaimed Traitor He is justified by the House of Commons Afterward repenting of what he had done and being about to deliver up the Town to the K. he is taken with his Son beheaded The Parl. sends Proposals of Peace to the King The Parl. Propositions to the King The King answers The matter comes to nothing as all future Treaties Propositions The Parl. proposing most rigid Conditions The mediation of the K. of France the States of the United Provinces and of the Scots is rejected The Parl. seizes the Militia The K. commands the contrary citing Laws that are against it They answer And the K.'s Majesty replies And opposes the Aggressors They skirmish on both sides in Apologies and Manifesto's wherein the K. has the better The Parl. levies an Army Having deceived the People by wheedles And the Ministers They raise Pay Who favour the King By their assistance and his own authority the King raises an Army such as he could The Irish Rebellion intervenes Macquire and Macmahon the Incendiaries of the Irish Rebellion are taken carried to London There to be punished with the utmost rigour Macquire upon the brink of death Constantly asserts the innocence of the K. Vpon whom nevertheless the Rebels charge the Crime Who were the Authors of it And what opportunities they
made use of By what arts they stir up the Colonies to joyn with them in Rebellion The zeal of the English for the revenge defence of their Colonies Is eluded by the intestine Broils betwixt the King and Parliament And mutual Accusations Which at length are quieted upon the K.'s yielding his Right They break out again The English thrice beat the Irish And laid the Country so waste that for want of necessaries they suffered a great deal of misery And desire to be recalled Wherefore the K. commands them to make a Truce with the Irish and the Scots marching into England He calls over the Souldiers for his own defence By whom the Truce is broken The K's Forces are attacked both by the Irish and the Parliamentarians And being overmatched whatever was on the K.'s side in Ireland is delivered up to the Parl. The K. afterward being imprisoned the Marquess of Ormond returns with new inâ—tructions authority whereby he joyns all Parties into one for delivering the King With whom many English Some Irish And Scots joyn But the Parliament Governour resisting Associates with the Irish Rebels The discourse returns to the Troubles of England The King and Parl. fight and the Victory inclining to the King the Rebels lose Courage And invite the Scots to their assistance By what Arts they confirm the people in their errours by calumnies to wit against the K. spread amongst the Rabble Some Sacrifices being offered to publick Justice Prayers Fasts and Thanksgivings appointed superstitious Pictures burnt Crosses and Images pull'd down Episcopacy Service-book being abrogated An Assembly is called Which makes a Confession of Faith And a new Presbyterian Government in the Church * These Expectants were young men who stood candidates for the Ministry and sought to obtain Orders Many Politicians Lawyers being highly displeased And others also Bishops Lands are sold at easie rates The Scots consent Having entered into Covenant Wherein the Independents are Ring-leaders Who take the Covenant with an honest designe are called Presbyterians They cruelly persecute Dissenters The fruit of the Covenant Learned men dispute against it The Scots again come into England The King looks to himself The Parliament at Oxford The K. writes to the Scots Sends the Marquess of Hamilton to draw them back into Scotland Being deluded by him he sends the Marquess of Montross The Scots nevertheless pursue the War against the K. and prevail The K.'s Party goes to wrack His Majesty having in vain essayed the English Casts himself into the hands of the Scots Former grudges are revived betwixt the English Scottish Rebels Provocations given to the Scots The Presbyterians holding their peace Debates betwixt the Scots Parliament of England The Scots having got money deliver the K. up to the Parl. upon pretext that he would not take the Covenant The K. being received by the Parliament-Commissioners is conducted to Holmely house The Rebels disagree amongst themselves An account by way of digression of the beginnings progress sects and opinions of the Factious The seeds of them sown in the very reformation Concerning Church-government the Liturgie and Ceremonies which were established by Kings and Parliaments Hence arose Disputes and Controversies scandalous Libels from the Anti-Episcoparians suspensions depravations c. from the Bishops VVhereby the Bishops got hatred and the Anti-Episcoparians pitie which ended in a Conspiracy against the Hierarchy VVherein all the Sects and Factions agree raising scruples betwixt the K. and Parl. that seeming to stand up for the Parl. they might be esteemed popular men and be chosen to serve in Parl. when occasion offered VVherein they censure the publick administration of the Government They take occasion from a VVar to make division betwixt the K. and Parl. The K. being engaged in a VVar and frustrated of assistance from the Parl. is necessitated without a Parl. to raise money This incensed the people occasioned fears combinations against the K. VVhen the Presbyterians first challenged publickly that name Aristocraticks Democraticks Oligarchicks· Christonaticks or Fifth-monarchy-men Who deserve most the name of Rebels and Traytors The original and artifices Whereby they put all into confusion Raise up VVar. Oppose all Vnion Peace By what Arts In the mean time they make their own advantage of the VVar. Their growth Indefatigable industry in the Parliament And in Cabals Having got into power they take the title of Independents They enlarge their Party by complying with the humours of all men They prosecute their opposers Protect all sorts of men Try to bring over the E. of Essex and other Nobles to their Party But in vain Vnder pretext of the Self-denying Ordinance they over-reach the Presbyterians deprive them of all Places Civil and Military Which they their Adherents invade New Commanders of the Army Fairfax Cromwel Colonels Captains c. Schismaticks Their industry To get men of their Party into the Parl. And celebrating their mighty deeds They more openly attack the Presbyterians By publishing defamatory VVritings against them And setting them upon duties that were ungrateful to the people Mingling themselves in their Cabals Turning them out of governments Disbanding the Forces that befriended them dismissing the Scots and drawing over the Ringleaders to their Party Philip Skippon and Stephen Marshal The series of the History is again continued The Presbyterians still prevailing in the Parl. they resolve to lessen and divide the Army The Souldiers mutiny the Officers secretly applauding them though vexed in shew who the seditious succeeding to their mind joyn with them Cromwel among the first They who were true to the Parl. being disbanded This they attempt by means of the Adjutators They designe a Common-wealth They carry away the King out of the Parliaments custody sooth him with fair promises and kind Offices They frame Propositions whereby they would provide for the interest of the King of themselves and of the Publick and soften them for the Kings sake By Declarations they envy against the Parliament Accuse several Members of Treason Command the Parl. to be dissolved They propose useful things to the people and pretend to mind the K.'s interest But in ambiguous words They march against the Parliament The Parl. prepares for defence But the Speakers of both Houses with many Members flying to the Camp the Citizens are appeased upon the fair promises of the Army And without any previous Articles open their Gates to the Souldiers The fugitive Members are restored the accused Presbyterians flie others temporize all lose courage Some Commoners the Mayor and Leading-men of the City with some Lords are clapt up in Prison A new Lieutenant Garrison are put into the Tower of London The Colonels and Officers of the Army changed The Posts and Chains of the City being pulled down A popular Republican is set over the Fleet. Fairfax made General of the Forces both in England and Ireland Thanks are given to the Army And Pay It 's long in suspence to what side the
several Ambassadours especially of the Spaniard by Hide afterwards Chancelour of England and Earl of Clarendon And the French in person But with little success every where The Turk delivering up the Ambassadour Hide brother to the Chancelour into the hands of the rump-Rump-Parliament who being brought to London is beheaded The French flattering with vain hopes And at length making a league with the Regicides The Spaniard declining to meddle in other peoples business And being the fiâ—st of all that owned and complemented the Common-wealth of England For what Reasons chiefly instigated thereunto The King of Portugal being able to do little And Sueden fickle The Duke of Holstein brought some succours The Dane indigent of money The Pole engaged in domestick troubles Others benevolent but not much to the purpose The King 's chief hope in his own Subjects Of whom a great many extreamly well affected but very weak in strength Ascham who he was An envoy from the Rump-Parliament to the King of Spain He is privately killed with his Interpreter One of the Murderers taken making his escape suffers for it The King of Portugal offends the Regicides because he would not force Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice cut of his Harbours when Blake desired to fight them Blake therefore takes some Porteguese Ships laden with Suger and sends them into England The Princes hardly escaping sail to America Where Maurice was unhappily cast away Rupert returning back to the Coast of France The Portuguese Ships are restored Strickland the Ambassadour being slighted in Holland returns home The Dutch Ambassadour is commanded to depart England To whom another presently succeeds from Amsterdam St. Jones and Strickland are sent into Holland with great Equipage Who nevertheless being fooled by the States And exposed to continual dangers They return without doing of any thing This enraged the Parricides And made them give out Letters of Reprisal Whitlock Sails to Sweden with a splendid Embassy for the Queâ—n Who resigning the Crown the King sends ovâ—r Bond Ambassadour to Cromwell An expedition for reducing the Isles of Silly Of which two after a conflict of three houres continuance are taken The rest at length surrender upon articles As also upon Barbadoes an Island in America A high Court of Justice is again erected and that a standing Court. A lively description of the sad faee of affairs Informers swarm in all places Nothing secure from Spies Who had a thousand tricks to do mischief A New set of Trapans come in play Who amongst others are fatal to Colonel Andrews By the craft of these the Lord Craven is forfeited And others brought into the danger of their lives Whilst the accursed authors are secure As being put upon these tricks by the Regicides The Scots consent to Monarchy and that in the person of Charles the Second those that were of a contrary opinion not daring to resist Yet they disagree about the conditions At length CHARLES the Second is proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland And Windram is sent to the King from the Convention of Estates That he might inform him upon what conditions he was to be admitted Which were to this purpose The King having read the Letters writes back to the Scots by Fleeming Afterwards by the same Windram And appoints Breda in Holland for a Treaty Then deliberates with his Friends Of whom some dread all concord with the Scots Others perswade him to listen to the Scots As the Queen-Mother also did ☞ The King acquaints Montross with the Treaty to be held with the Scots at Breda And presently leaves the Isle of Jersey The convention of the Estates of Scotland chuse Commissioners And agree upon Articles to be sent to the King Which proposed at Breda And presently after a few more by other Commissioners especially against Montross The deplorable fate of that Excellent Hero is related Who wâ—th a small handful of men arrives too soon in Scotland He is sadly disappointed of his hopes the Nation being now worn out with troubles and inclinable to peace He takes Dumbeath And hastens to pâ—ssess himself of a Pass But Straughan was at hand with three hundred Horse Who perceiving his opportunity falls upon him easily routs and puts his men to flight Montross betakes himself to flight and being spent with three days fasting confiding in a treacherous man is brought to Leslie And from thence into the Jaws of his Enemies and is basely used at Edinburrough Next day he is in Parliament accused of hainous Crimes Which he shortly answered and refuted Nevertheless he is Condemned by Chancellour Loudon to suffer in a most horrid manner Next day he suffered a barbarous and inhumane death The King was extreamly grieved at this misfortune and expostulates with Murrey Yet he conceals his Anger The Scots labour to soften and appease the King Who at length consents to their Articles And together with the Commissioners that in different Ships he puts out to Sea by whom he is on Board plied with new Proposals about the Solemn League and Covenant Which with reluctancy he subcribes in presence of Witnesses And at length after many dangers arrives in the Spey With the general applause of the People He is splendidly entertained at Aberdeen And at Dundee also And when he came to Edinburrough he was solemnly proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland There he is managed at the pleasure of Commissioners and continually vexed by the Ministers By the Laicks also almost divested of his Royal Power The Regicides informed of all that past look to themselves Therefore passing by Fairfax who favoured the Sâ—ots Cromwell is recalled from Ireland who with much solemnity and applause returns to London And is presently declared Captain General of the Forces in place of Fairfax for an immediate Invasion of Scotland The Scots send Dehortatory Letters To which the English Officers answer ☜ Cromwell also wheadles the common people of Scotland with sweet words But in vain seeing all fled leaving no victuals behind them Cromwell having entered Scotland The Scots encamp betwixt Leeth and Edenburrough Cromwell shews himsâ—lf and provokes them to Battel Then thinks of falling in upon their Camp but thinks it safer to march back to Musselbrough to refâ—esh his Souldiers Lambert beats back the enemy in pursuit of the English Straughan offers great matters relying not only on the Prayers but also the Horse of the Clergy He falls upon the English But is beat off and loses his Horse The King reduces the terrified Souldiers into order For which the Souldiers shew him very great Honouâ— The Commanders are angry The Ministers pray him to withdraw To whom with much ado he at length listens The Prisoners are sent home in Cromwells Coach Cromwell returns to Dunbar And from thence suddenly marching back again disturbs the joys of the Scots The Kirk and States renounce the defence of Malignants Cromwell takes two Forts in view of the Scots Who budg not for all that And to wash off the
Royalists whom he spoils of the tenth part of their Goods Withot any distinction He sets Major Generals over Provinces Who had great power given them over suspected persons Especially over Ministers turned out of their Livings who are not permitted so much as to teach little Children At length their Exorbitant Power being suspected to Cromwell himself they are wholly abolished Some Imprisoned for the Royal Cause For a Murder afterward committed are brought to a Tryal and acquitted by a Jury After the same manner Lilburn escaped Death and Stawell thrice The Tyrant objects against the Ancient Custom of a Jury of twelve Men. This wholesom Custom is justied Cromwell assists the Protestants oppressed by the Duke of Savoy An Expedition into the Mediterranean Sea under Blake Who easily agreeing with the Algerines He chastises the Pride of those of Tunis by burning their Ships in the very Harbour Another greater into America The first reason of it The second The third The fourth The fifth Penn Admiral at Sea and Venables General at Land The Spaniard being afraid They arrive first at Barbadoes Afterwards they saile to Hispaniola with a design to proceed to Carthagena after they had taken St. Domingo But they are first overcome by the heat and thirst Then by the Inhabitants And at length by a Plague in Jamaica whither they had betaken themselves The Spaniard declaring War Cromwell assists the French upon these Conditions King CHARLES and the Duke of York being invited go into Flanders Where the Duke serves the Spaniard Manasses Ben Israel a Jew desires liberty for his Nation to live and Trade in England To which Cromwell listens in hopes of gain But having first consulted Divines Of whom some contrary to his expectation are of a contrary Opinion The English Fleet Commanded by Montague and Blake Defeats eight Spanish Ships richly laden whereof two were taken A second Parliament câ—nsisting onely of Coâ—moners wherein Scots and Irish are admitted Suits better with Cromwells Interests Since they would have made him King Alledging these Reasons for it To which he answering They strongly reply The chief Argument Who they were that would have had him take the Title of King And who on the other hand as fiercely opposed it The Cavaliers for several reasons were for the first Advice Cromwell rejecting the Crown which be so earnestly coveted With much ado he obtained from the Parliament the Title of Protector And is solemnly Inaugurated by the Speaker The sink of Hereticks of these times Of whom Naylor had the impudence to give himself out for Jesus Christ Vntil he was Whipt and Imprisoned who deserved a thousand times to be put to Death Sundercome a Republican plots against Cromwell Who being betray'd by another Conspirator is brought to a Tryal and condemned But he prevented the Executioner by a sudden Death The Republicans rising are apprehended Lambert being Disbanded Fleetwood is put in his place Cromwells Lords of the very dregs of the People Some of the Nobility being mingled with them who disdain such companions Falconberge also his Son-in-law and both his own Sons Of whom he sends Richard to lead a Countrey Life Who at length is made Chancellour of the Vniversity of Oxford and one of his Fatherâ—s Privy Council A Parliament of two Houses who agree ill betwixt themselves the Bastard Peers being despised by the Lower-House And therefore that Parliament is dissolved New Designs of the Cavaliers are disappointed by Cromwell they being discovered by secret Spies Many are brought to Trial for their Life Two of the more remarkable are beheaded Four others drawn hanged and quartered Cromwell for greater security levies new Troops of Hâ—rse consisting of Voluntiers Blake with unparallell'd boldness burns the Spanish Fleet in the very Harbour of Sancta Cruce His Death Character and Actions The Dane makes War against the Swede â—ow victorious in Poland The Swede hastning his return invades Denmark revenges himself on the Dane and reduces him to extremity Afterward he demands Assistance from the English and the Dane from the Dutch Cromwell sends thither a Fleet and two Mediators The Dutch likewise assist the Dane having fought the Swedes at Sea The French by the assistance of the English take Montmidy and presently after Mardyke Fort which is given to the English to be defended The Duke of York in vain attempts it Graveling being taken Dunkirk is Besieged For the relief of which Don John of Austria comes The French fight and overcome Shortly after the Governour being shot the Town is takâ—n And given to the Engllsh as a Reward for their Service Cromwel began to be sick first in Mind For the Death of his dearest Daughter And the Republicans that grew daily grew stronger Presently after being taken with a slight Fever Which at length confined him to his Bed Though he was secure of recovering Trusting rashly to his silly Ministers and Flatterers Who feed the Dying-man with vain hopes and mock God himself with their Thanks-givings From Hampton-Court he is brought to London The Disease growing more dangerous He is advised by his Counsellors to name his Successour And so his Son Richard nominated shortly after he died Sept. 3. 1658. The Spleen of all other parts of his Body when opened being most affected Cromwells Character His Birth Childish Enthusiasms And Scurrility His youthful Luxury and Repentance His Penury and Want His Prejudice against the King He advises the Parliamentarians His Military Discipline His Command and Rule His way of Ruling Richard takes into his Hands the Reins of Government Not so much out of his own Ambition as indeed by the Allurements of others Cromwells expensive Funeral And Enterment amongst Royal Ashes The 〈…〉 â—ill 〈◊〉 tâ—rds Richaâ—d â—y endâ—avour 〈◊〉 Fâ—twood and him together by the Ears The Soldiers challenge to themselves extravagant Priviledges A Parliament is called wherein much time is spent in jangling without any fâ—uit Yet they are reconciled The Instrument of Government is sifted They recall Overton from Banishment They accuse Berkstead and Butler of Treason The Commanders of the Army urging their Proposals Richard is wanting to himself And is forsaken of his Friends The Officers publish a Remonstrance And are by the Parliament discharged to keep Consults This made them draw into the Conspiracy the Lâ—eutenancy and Officers of the Militia of Londâ—n Presently they beset Whitehall And Richard being overcone by their Prayers and Threatnings dissolves the Parliament He being sâ—rrounded with these dangers Is perswaded to espouse the Kings Cause â—eetwood diâ—wading him The Officers agan raise the Rump from the Dead And what sort of Men they were And bound to these Articles Send them into the Parliament-house Richard out of fear having resigned up his Authority Stript of all departs out of Whitehall And being made a laughing stock betakes himself again to a Country Life May 3. June 21. August 2. August Sept. 11. June June June April 29. May 1. May 21. June June 26. July 22. August 22. Septemb.