the dores shut Cromwell sends a paper to the House of Commons requiring that the impeached Members and M. G. Brown might be secured and brought to justice and that the 90. odd Members that refus'd to vote against the Scotch Engagement and voted to recal the Votes for non-addresses and for a treaty might be suspended the House and that all faithful Members who were innocent of those Votes would acquit themselves by protestation from any such concurrence that there might be a distinction made between um The Paper was delivered in but they scorning to sta for an answer sent several guards to the House under the command of Pride Hewson and Hardres Waller and violently seized all those Members that they found two honest for their purposes The House being thus purged and brought to so small a number in so much that an Officer of the Army having secured some of the Members in the Lobby as they were going into the House the Speaker having not enough within to make up a House was forced to send to the said Officer to lend him his prisoners to make up a free Parliament in comes Cromwel out of the Countrey and brings Harry Martin that sanctified Members along with him to make up his numbers and to awe the City Garrisons Blackfriers and Pauls The secluded Members protest against their seclusion but the Cromwellian faction Vote their Protestation seditious scandalous and tending to destroy the visible and fundamental Government of the Kingdome Then like Cromwels good boyes they vote all the votes of the secluded Members for a personal treaty null and void and to try whether all were their trusty friends that voted for them Gourdon moved that a protestation be forthwith drawn up and that every Member set his hand to it in detestation of those repealed Votes which was drawn up afterwards and within a few daies after subscribed by The Lord Lisle Colonel Boswel Lord Grey Per. Pelham Colo. Iones Colonel Temple Colo. Ven. Sir Thomas Maleverer Sir Tho. Wroth Sir Io. Bourchier Col. Pet. Temple Tho. Chaloner Sir Gregory Norton Oldsworth Garland Sir Io. Danvers Dove Smith Frie Searle Nic. Love Io. Lisle Col. Rigby Holland Ludlow Greg. Clement Col. Purefoy Col. Stapely Dunch Cawley Downs Io. Carey Blackstone Scot. Hutchinson Mildmay Sir Iames Harrington Col. Harvey Penington Atkins Dan. Blackgrave Moor Millington Prideaux Roger Hill Denis Bond Col. Harrington Hodges Valentine The design being thus pritty well ripened the Counsel of War who managed the business in relation to the King ordered that all state and ceremony should be forborn the King and his attendants lessend which was done to mortifie him by degrees Now was it thought fit to have it moved in the House to proceed capitally against the King Cromwel after it was once proposed sinding it then his cue to speak stoop up and told them That if any mov'd this out of design he should think him the greatest Traytor in the World but since providence and necessity had cast them upon it he should pray to God to bless their Counsels though he were not provided on the suddain to give them Counsel The White Boys thus animated went on furiously and Scot with an unheard of impudence now dares to bring in the ordinance for tryal of the King it was read recommitted three several times and Commissioners names inserted consisting of divers Lords Commons Aldermen Citizens Countrey Gentlemen and Souldiers that the more persons of all sorts might be engaged in so damnable and treasonable a design and because this Ordinance and the proceedings thereupon had no foundation in Divinity Law nor Reason The Cromwellian Faction to give it a foundation and ground from the authority of their Votes declare that by the Lawes of the Land it is treason in the King to levy war against the Parliament and Kingdome of England This Vote together with the ordinance was carried up to the Lords by the Lords Grey of Groby The first debate was upon the Vote The Earl of Manchester told them That the Parliament of England by the fundamenttal lawes of England consisted of three Estates King Lords and Commons The King is the first and chiefest estate He calls and dissolves the House and confirms all their Acts and without him there can be no Parliament and therefore t is absurd to say The King can be a Traytor against the Parliament The Earl of Northumberland said That the greatest part of the people of England were not yet satisfied whether the King levied War first against the Houses or the Houses against him and therefore it was very unreasonable to declare Treason by an Ordinance when the matter of fact is not yet proved nor any Law extant to judge it by Whereupon the Lords cast off the debate and cast our the Ordinance Hereupon the Zealots of the House that is to say that Protestors were very angry at the Lords and therefore intend to rid their hands of them and the King both together and thereupon they presently passed a Vote should be impowred to act notwithstanding the Lords did not concurre with them and many of the most famous hot-spurs were so high as to insist that the Lords who would not give their concurrence to the Votes and Ordinance should be impeached for favouring the grand Delinquent Having thrown by the Lords they proceed to make themselves to have the shew of a legall power by passing these three Votes 1. That the people that is to say their own Faction are the original of all just power under God 2. That the Commons of England being chosen by and representing the people are the supreme Power of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted by Law by the House of Commons assembled in Parliament hath the force of a Law This was Cromwels Chain-shot whereby he swept a King and Lords putting all the Liberties of this Nation under his own and the power of fifty or sixty of his own covetous Saints By their former contrivances having now brought themselves to such a height of power and that power to a boldnesse that durst go so farre there was a necessity for them now to proceed and therefore the next thing they did was to passe the Ordinance for tryall of the King which was carried on without one negative voice There was one rub in the way that they could not use his own Great Seal against him and a new one was long a making But after consultation they agreed upon a new way for what need ceremonies when men are resolved upon the substance They therefore proceed without any Commission under Seal upon the Ordinance and every Commissioners set his own hand and seal to the publick instrument of their transactions At the same time great endeavours are made to stop the mouths of the Ministers giving them threatning admonitions not to preach against the actings of the Parliament and the Army and the Councill of Warr finding it difficult to stop the Ministers mouths did
sundry times debate to shut up the Church dores to which purpose they imprisoned Mr. Canton for praying for the King and threatened to try him at the Upper Bench for his life And to set a greater gloss upon their actions Tichbourn their own creature by their command presents a schismatical Petition directed to the Supreme Authority the Commons in Parliament demanding justice upon the capital offenders from the highest to the lowest The like Petitions were invited by them from the Countries where a dozen schismaticks and two or three cloaks represented a whole family After this Hammond presents them with a scandalous Libell called The Agreement of the People demanding nothing else but the totall subversions of the Fundamentall Laws and Government of the Nation which they ordered to be forthwith printed as if it had been the generall sence of the whole Nation When the Commissioners come to sit in the Painted Chamber the Witnesses were not farre off a company of the most contemptible persons in the world suborned for the purpose men rather told what they should say then examined what they knew for that the Grandees might do things legally they made the examinations and caused the others to put their names to them The names of the Witnesses were as followeth persons next to professed beggery the meanest that could be Henry Hartford of Stratford upon Avon Edward Roberts of Bishop Castle Ironmonger Will. Braines of Wrynxhall Gent. Robert Lacy of Nottingham Painter Rob. Loade of Cottam in Com. Nottingh Tyler Samuel Morgan of Wellington in Com. Salop Feltmaker Iames Williams of Ross in Com. Hartford Shoomaker Richard Potts of Shaepreton in Com. Northumb Vintner Giles Price of Wellington Gent. Will Arnop of Iohn Hudson of Iohn Winston of Dornorham in Com. Wilts George Seely of London Cordwainer Iohn Moore of Cork in Ireland Gent. Thom. Ives of Bosset in Com. Northampton Husbandman Iames Iresby of Dublin Barber Thom. Rawlins of Hanslop in Com. Buck. Gent. Richard Blomfeild of London Weaver Iohn Thomas of Kangallan in Com. Denby Will. Lawson of Nottingham Malster Iohn Pinegar of Damer in Com. Darby Shoomaker Humphrey Brown of Whitsundine in Com. Rutl. Yeoman David Evans of Neathe in Com. Clamorg Gent. Robert Holmes of Robert Williams of Hillary in Com. Glamorgan Atturney Samuel Worden of Limeham in Com. Wilts Gent. Thomas Read of Maidstone in Com. Kent Gent. George Cornwall of Aston in Com. Hereford Forgeman Will. Iones of Usk in Com. Monmouth Husbandman Arthur Young Citizen and Barber Chirurgion of London Diogenes Edwards of Caston in Com. Salop Butcher Iohn Bennet of Huewood in Com. Ebor Glover Will. Sutbert of Patrington in Holderness in Com. Ebor Gent. Richard Price of London Scrivener Henry Gracye stil'd of Greys Inne Gent. But the Book being examined the name of no such person was there to be found nor was he ever known there He soon spent the reward he had and lived miserably afterwards and was taken in a very low and despicable condition by which it is easie to guesse at the gentility of the rest who stile themselves Gentlemen yet were hired to mix with the basest of Mechanicks to perpetrate so great a villany Thus instead of bringing the King to his Parliament instead of bringing an end to the Treaty they bring him to a publick Tryall in Westminster-Hall The first day they urged him to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court a most unheard of piece of tyranny which had neither law president rationall debate or argument to prove it But the King with a magnanimous resolution denies it so they adjourn for that day As the King was conducted back they had so contrived it that divers schismatical souldiers and fellows were placed round about the Court to cry justice justice thinking all the rest would have bleated to the same tune but they almost all cryed God blesse Him and were some of them well cudgelled by the Army for not saying their prayers handsomely after the Army mode and one of the barbarous Souldiers spit in the Kings face the King onely saying Christ suffered more for my sake and wiped it off with his handkerchief Yet the Court took no notice of this affront so far already had they condemn'd him to sufferings The second day they urge the same thing again The King demands that he may put in his Demurrer But they over-rule his Demurrer without an Argument a thing never heard of before and against all reason But they did as good as tell him that reason was not to be heard against the remaining Faction of the Commons of England Being brought the thirdday Cook presses for judgement telling the Court among other things that the House of Commons the Supreme Authority and Jurisdiction of the Nation as he named them had declared that it was notorious that the matter of the Charge was true whereby it appears that Cromwell and his Faction had fore-judged the King before they erected their new Court to sentence him claiming a Jurisdiction as well as a supreme Authority The fourth and last day Sentence was pronounced against him The King however before Sentence urged to have them hear the reasons why he could not submit to their tyranny but could not be heard Which reasons because they are not common we have thought fit to set down as they were taken from his own original writing as followeth Having already made my protestations not onely against the illegallity of this pretended Court but also that no earthly power can justly call me who am your King in question as a Delinquent I would not more open my mouth upon this occasion more then to referre my self to what I have spoken were I alone in this case concerned But the duty I owe to God in the preservation of the true Liberty of my people will not suffer me at this time to be silent For how can any free-born Subject of England call life or any thing that he professeth his own if power without right daily make new and abrogate the old fundamentall Law of the Land which I now take to be the present case There is no proceeding against any man but what is warranted either by Gods Laws or by the Municipall Laws of the Countrey where he lives Now I am most confident that this dayes proceeding cannot be warranted by Gods Law for on the contrary the Authority of obedience to Kings is clearly warranted by Gods Law and strictly commanded both in the old and new Testament which if denied I am ready instantly to prove And for the question now in hand there it is said That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou Then for the Laws of the Land I am no lesse confident that no learned Lawyer will affirm that an Impeachment can lie against the King they all going in his name and one of their Maximes is That the King can do no wrong Besides the Law upon which you ground your
proceedings must be either new or old if old shew it if new tell what Authority warranted by the Fundamental Laws of the Land hath made it and when But how the House of Commons can erect a Court of Judicature which was never one it self as is well known to all Lawyers I leave God and the world to judge And it were full as strange that they should pretend to make Laws without King or Lords House to any that have heard speak of the Laws of England And admitting but not granting that the people of Englands Commission could grant your pretended power I see nothing you can shew for that for certainly you never asked the question of the tenth man of the Kingdom and in this way you manifestly wrong even the poorest Ploughman if you demand not his free consent nor can you pretend any colour for this your pretended Commission without the consent at least of the major part of every man in England of whatsoever quality or condition which I am sure you never went about to seek so farre are you from having it Thus you see I speak not for my own right alone as I am your King but also for the true Liberty of all my Subjects which consists not in sharing the power of Government but in living under such laws such a Government as may give them the best assurance of their lives and the propriety of their goods And for the House of Commons that the major part of them are detain'd or deterr'd from sitting so as if I had no other this were sufficient for me to protest against the lawfulness of your pretended Court. Besides all this the peace of the Kingdome is not the least in my thoughts and what hopes of settlement are there so long as power rules without Law changing the whole frame of that Government under which this Kingdome hath flourished for many hundred years and believe it the Commons of England will not thank you for this change for they will remember how happy they have been of late years under the reign of Queen Elizabeth the King my Father and my self untill the beginning of these unhappy troubles and will have cause to doubt that they shall never be so happy under any new These were the Reasons which the King intended to have delivered before sentence but they were utterly rejected by those who knew it was not their business to hear reason in a Court that was erected contrary to reason and therefore they hasten to give judgement which was brief That the King for sundry Crimes and Misdemeanours which he was never guilty of should be put to death During the intervall between his Sentence and Execution the House ordered upon moton that Doctor Iuxon Bishop of London should be permitted to be private with the King in his chamber to preach and administer the Sacrament and other spiritual comforts to him But nevertheless the Masters of the Councill of Warr appointed Iohn Goodwin of Coleman-street the Balaam of the Army to be Superintendent both over the Bishop and the King so that they could hardly speak a word together without being over-heard by the long schismaticall eares of black-mouth'd Iohn And besides all this the Guard of Souldiers that was kept within his chamber what with talking what with clinking the pots and opening and shutting the dores and taking Tobacco a thing very offensive to the Kings nature they kept him waking thereby distempering and amazing him with want of sleep that they might the more easily bring him to their termes Upon the twenty eighth of Ianuary being the last Sabbath the King kept in this life some of the Grandees of the Parliament and Army tender'd to the King a paper book with promise of life and some shadow of regality if he subscrib'd it It contained many particulars destructive to the fundamentall Government Religion Laws and property of the People one among the rest was this That the King should pass an Act of Parliament for keeping on foot the Militia of this Army during the pleasure of the Grandees who should be trusted with that Militia with power to recruit from time to time and continue them to the number of forty thousand Horse and Foot under the same Generall and Officers with power notwithstanding in the Councill of Warr to chuse new Officers and Generals from time to time as occasion shall happen and they think fit and to settle a very great Tax upon the people by a Land rate for an established pay for the Army to be levied and collected by the Army themselves and a Court-Martiall of an exorbitant extent and latitude But his Majesty having read some of the Propositions threw them aside telling them He would rather become a Sacrifice for his People then betray their Lives Laws Liberties and Estates together with the Church and Common-wealth and the honour of his Crown to so intolerable a bondage of an armed faction Saturday night and Sunday night the King lay in White-hall so neer the place appointed for the separation of his soul and body that he might hear every stroak the workmen gave upon the scaffold where they wrought all night this was a new device to mortifie him but it would not doe Tuesday the thirtieth of Ianuary was the day appointed for the Kings death His Majesty coming upon the scaffold shewed all the while an extraordinary magnanimity and Christian patience He had his head severed from his body at one stroke the Schismaticks showting presently after His Executioners though then concealed are now found to be Ioyce that bloody instrument of Cromwell's designes and Peters who lay not with a Butchers Wife so long to be ignorant of her Trade And therefore the Parliament have now sent for them to receive the condign punishment of their villany This is the relation of his Majesties Tryall by a mix'd Court of Justice erected by fifty or sixty confederate Members after all the rest of the Members above two hundred and fifty had been violently secluded secured and frighted And thus this noble Prince a Person sanctified by many afflictions after he had escaped Pistoll Poyson and pestilent Air could not escape the malice of Cromwell nor the impudence of Cook Bradshaw Steele Aske Doristaus Thus was the Shepheard smitten and the Sheep were scattered But Heaven not willing longer to endure the wickedness of such insolent Tyrants nor to see the innocent longer in affliction hath been pleased at length to restore the King to his Throne putting his Enemies to shame and confusion and herein we must admire the justice of the Parliament to whom the King unwilling to be Judge in his own cause hath referred himself What they have done their Acts declare The last week they excepted eleven of the grand Delinquents from mercy M. G. Harrison Mr. Say Mr. Scot. Coll. Berkstead M. Lisle Cornel. Holland Iones Cook Broughton Sar. Dandy M. Hulit After this in further prosecution of their intentions to bring these