must be called in England and Ireland and that in the mean time for the speedy raising of money the Nobility Gentry and Clergy should subscribe what sums of money they would advance to this service for the present occasion till the King could be otherwise helped by Subsidies To this purpose the Earl of Strafford first subscribed twenty thousand pounds the like did the Duke of Richmond and the Nobility according to the several values of their Estates The Clergy granted four shillings in the pound in their Convocation which presently followed to be paid for six years together only the City of London were refractory and could not be induced to lend one farthing to the carrying on of that War By these Loans however of the Kings Loyally affected Subjects he was again in a formidable posture and the Earl of Strafford besides his own personal disbursments had procured four Subsidies to maintain ten thousand foot and fifteen hundred Horse from the Parliament of Ireland he had newly called for which he was honourably brought into the House of Peers in the Parliament of England whither by his Majesties call from his Lieutenantship of Ireland he was then arrived to assist the King with his prudent Counsels Sir Thomas Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal dieth the tenth of Ianuary after he had for fifteen years behaved himself in that place like a wise and honest man Sir Iohn Finch Chief Justice of the Common Pleas succeeds him of whom more anon Anno. Dom. 1640. THe 13th of April this year being the 16th of the Kings Reign a Parliament was summoned at Westminster at the opening whereof the King acquainted them with the affronts and indignities he had received from his Scotch Subjects whom he spared not to call Rebels which was somewhat resented by the Members of the House of Commons who out of dislike of Episcopacie here did not much favour that War against them which by a nick-name was then called Bellum Episcopale Therefore upon the Kings desires to them for a supply of money by which he might be enabled to reduce the Scots they presently started their old grievances which caused a debate whether the King or the Subjects should be relieved first for so they made the Scotch War the Kings personal and distinct business This alteration and the apparent unwillingness of the House of Commons to advance any mony except their previous desires viz. of clearing the properties of the Subject and the establishing of the true Religion and Priviledges of Parliament were confirmed and granted by the King reduced his Majesty to a present necessity and dilemma either of complying with the Scots or to take mony as he could raise it by his own credit and Authority to subdue them for there was no hopes in the Parliaments delays And this was the true Reason of the dissolving that Parliament which happened May the 5th to the great grief of all good people who were sensible of the Kings difficulties and the approaching evils The Convocation of the Clergy sate at the same time and were continued beyond the Parliaments dissolution though contrary to practice and custom where as before is said they contributed and confirmed the Grant of the fifth part of their Ecclesiastical Livings for six years towards the carrying on of the War against the Scots I may not omit the concession of the King in this affair to the Parliament wherein he offered upon the granting of him some Subsidies to remit and acquit his claim of Ship-mony and other advantages of his Prerogative At this Convocation some new Canons were made with Salvoes and dispensations for some which had been strictly heretofore enjoyned but especially and mainly for Episcopacie and the Doctrine of the Church of England in opposition to Popery was hereby established by the Oath of c. As likewise in opposition to the Scotch Covenant This Convocation ended May 29. none dissenting but Dr. Goodman Bishop of Glocester who since died a Roman Catholique and owned that faith As a testimony of the sincerity of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the Protestant Religion I shall here insert therefore a passage relating to these Canons Upon the Bishop of Glocester's refusal thereof the Arch-Bishop would have proceeded to the Censures of the Church immediately and therefore gave him according to the Canons three admonitions one upon the neck of another that he should forthwith subscribe and if he had not been whispered that so weighty a matter required deliberation and distance of time he would there have suspended him from his Dignities and Office This Noble Prelate for these and the like vigorous actings both in Church and State fell into the obloquy of the male contents the Chief of whom were the Nonconformists then called Puritans who abounded in London the most whereof upon a distaste taken from the censure of Mr. Pryn Dr. Bastwick and Mr. Burton did mightily maligne him so that on the ninth of May a Paper was posted upon the Exchange animating Apprentices to rise and sack his house at Lambeth next Monday which they were the more forward to do because it was rumoured that he was the first instigator of the King to dissolve the last Parliament But he had intelligence of their designes and provided to receive them According to their appointed time in the dead of the night they came to the number of five hundred and beset his house and endeavoured to enter but were quickly beaten off and glad to retreat having in some measure vented their anger against him in railing and scandalous language such as the streets were full of before in scattered Libels and breaking his glass-windows The day following many of them upon enquiry were apprehended and imprisoned but three days after forcibly rescued from thence by their Companions who broke open the Prison-doors for which one Bensted a Sea-man was apprehended and hanged afterwards in St. Georges-fields and his head and quarters set upon the several Gates of the City The Scotch Parliament now sat again and were more violent in their proceedings than before for having notice of the discontents in England they presently advanced with their Army thitherwards about the same time that the Queen was delivered of a Son Henry Duke of Glocester of whose decease we shall speak in its place The King to be in a readiness to receive them had also appointed an Army of which he made the Earl of Northumberland General and the Earl of Strafford Lieutenant-General but the Earl of Northumberland falling sick he himself sent away part of the Army under the Command of the Lord Conway and advanced out of London with the remainder and came in person to Northallerton During his March the Lord Conway had but ill success He had drawn about 1200 Horse and 3000 Foot to secure the Passes upon Tine near Newborn So far was the Scotch Army advanced under the Command
declaring that what they had done therein was out of a desire of the Peace of the Kingdom whereas the meaning was that their safety and protection was obliged partly to that unwitting service they had done the Faction who were honourably pleased to shield those who had skreened them from the odium of that unfortunate and pernicious Escape and partly to the King who interposed himself in the matter declaring If those Gentlemen were taken and punished as evil doers for Counseling Him not to go out of the Kingdom but rather to come to the place where he now is for the ends aforesaid and for their endeavours in attending Him thither He cannot but expect to be dealt with accordingly His Case being the same The next consideration of this affair by the Parliament was a result of five Votes which forbad any Cavaliers or Papists to be admitted in the Island and left the guard of his Person and the nomination of Officers to attend Him to the General and allowed 5000 l. for the expences of his Court the last of which Hamond quarrelled at as an incompetent pittance but it 's questionable whether he meant not for himself and no doubt he was better paid for his service He also required more aid that forsooth he might be as good as his word in keeping the King in security and out of danger who having passed Per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum ad Latium tendit so many perils and discouragements gave not yet over his endeavours after Peace but with a just resolution of not being denied this time when he now granted almost the whole controversie He wooes them in this Message from His Prison at Carisbrook where He had only the liberty of the Walls under a Guard It indeed comprehends and clears all the differences between the King and Parliament CHARLES REX HIs Majesty is confident that before this time His two Houses of Parliament have received the Message which he left behinde Him at Hampton-Court the 11th of November by which they will have understood the reasons which enforced Him to go from thence as likewise his constant endeavours for the settling of a safe and well-grounded Peace wheresoever he should be And being now in a place where he conceives himself to be at much more freedom and security than formerly He thinks it necessary not only for making good his own Professions but also for the speedy procuring of a Peace in these languishing and distressed Kingdoms at this time to offer such grounds to His two Houses for that effect which upon due examination of all Interests may best conduce thereunto And because Religion is the best and chiefest Foundation of Peace His Majesty will begin with that particular That for the abolishing Arch-bishops Bishops c. His Majesty clearly professeth that he cannot give his consent thereunto both in relation as he is a Christian and a King For the first he avows that he is satisfied in his judgment that this Order was placed in the Church by the Apostles themselves and ever since that time hath continued in all Christian Churches throughout the World until this last Century of years and in this Church in all times of Change and Reformation it hath been upheld by the wisdom of His Ancestors as the great preserver of Doctrine Discipline and Order in the Service of God As a King at his Coronation He hath not onely taken a Solemn Oath to maintain this Order but His Majesty and His Predecessors in their Confirmation of the Great Charter have inseparably woven the Rights of the Church into the Liberties of the rest of their Subjects And yet he is willing it be provided that the particular Bishops perform the several Duties of their Callings both by their Personal residence and frequent Preaching in their Dioceses as also that they Exercise no Act of Iurisdiction or Ordination without the consent of their Presbyters and will consent that their Powers in all things be so Limited that they be not grievous to Tender Consciences Wherefore since His Majesty is willing to give ease to the Consciences of others He sees no reason why he alone and those of his Iudgement should be pressed to a Violation of theirs Nor can His Majesty Consent to the Alienation of Church-Lands because it cannot be denied to be a sin of the Highest Sacriledge as also that it subverts the intentions of so many Pious Donors who have laid a heavy Curse upon all such prophane Violations which His Majesty is very unwilling to undergo And besides the matter of Conscience His Majesty believes it to be a prejudice to the Publike Good many of His Subjects having the benefit of renewing Leases at much easier rates than if those Possessions were in the hands of Private men Not omitting the discouragement which it will be to all Learning and Industry when such eminent rewards shall be taken away which now lye open to the Children of the meanest persons Yet His Majesty considering the present great distempers concerning Church-Discipline and that the Presbyterian Government is now in practice His Majesty to eschew Confusion as much as may be and for the satisfaction of His two Houses is content that the said Government be Legally permitted to stand in the same condition it now is for three years provided that His Majesty and those of his Iudgement or any other who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto be not obliged to comply with the Presbyterian Government but have free Practice of their own Profession without receiving any prejudice thereby and that a free Consultation and Debate be had with the Divines at Westminster twenty of his Majesties nomination being added unto them whereby it may be determined by his Majesty and the two Houses how the Church-Government after the said time shall be setled or sooner if differences be agreed as is most agreeable to the Word of God with full Liberty to all those who shall differ upon Conscientious Grounds from that Settlement Always provided that nothing aforesaid may be understood to tolerate those of the Popish Profession nor the exempting of any Popish Recusant from the penalties of the Laws or to tolerate the publike profession of Atheism or Blasphemy contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds they having been received by and had in reverence of all the Christian Churches and more particularly by us of England ever since the Reformation Next the Militia being that right which is inseparably and undoubtedly Inherent in the Crown by the Laws of this Nation and that which former Parliaments as likewise this hath acknowledged to be so His Majesty cannot so much wrong that Trust which the Laws of God and the Land hath annexed to the Crown for the protection and security of his people as to Devest himself and His Successors of the Power of the Sword Yet to give an infallible evidence of His desire to secure the
mens Fates did usher out what their devices had introduced as great Events never go unattended the Solemn League and Covenant first invented by Arguile and his Complices which had raised such a Combustion in the three Kingdoms was Sacrificed to the Flames by a Vote in Parliament the common Hang-man in ample manner burning it in several places in London which also was done all the Kingdom over with great Acclamations which being omitted hitherto when so often unwelcome occasion hath been given to recite it take it now in this its Mittimus A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and Defence of Religion c. WE Noblemen Barons Knights Gentlemen Citizens Burgesses Ministers of the Gospel and Commons of all sorts in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland by the providence of God living under one King and being of one Reformed Religion having before our eyes the Glory of God and the Advancement of the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Honour and Happiness of the Kings Majesty and his Posterity and the true Publick Liberty Safety and Peace of the Kingdoms wherein every ones private Condition is included And calling to minde the Treacherous and Bloody Plots Conspiracies Attempts and Practises of the Enemies of God against the true Religion and Professors thereof in all places especially in these three Kingdoms ever since the Reformation of Religion and how much their Rage Power and Presumption are of late and at this time encreased and exercised whereof the deplorable Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Ireland the distressed estate of the Church and Kingdom of England and the dangerous Estate of the Church and Kingdom of Scotland are present and publick Testimonies We have now at last after other means of Supplication Remonstrance Protestations and Sufferings for the Preservation of our selves and our Religion from utter Ruine and Destruction according to the commendable practice of these Kingdoms in former times and the example of God's People in other Nations after mature deliberation resolved and determined to enter into a Mutual and Solemn League and Covenant wherein we all subscribe and each one of us for himself with our Hands lifted up to the most High God do Swear 1. THat we shall sincerely really and constantly through the Grace of God endeavour in our several Places and Callings the Preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government against our Common Enemies 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 neerest Conjunction and Vniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-Government Directory of Worship and Catechising That we and our Posterity after us may as Brethren live in Faith and Love and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us 2. That we shall in like manner without respect of persons endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy that is Church-Government by Arch-Bishops Bishops their Chancellors and Commissaries Deans Deans and Chapters Arch-Deacons and all other Ecclesiastical Officers depending on that Hierarchy Superstition Heresie Schism Prophaneness and whatsoever shall be found to be contrary to Godliness and sound Doctrine and the power of Godliness left we partake in other mens sins and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues And that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 3. We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually 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 our Consciences of our Loyalty that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just Power and Greatness 4. We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his people or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any Faction or parties amongst the people contrary to this League and Covenant that they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condigne punishment as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve or the supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient 5. And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denied in former times to our Progenitors is by the good providence of God granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and setled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all Posterity and that justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 6. We shall also according to our Places and Callings in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing thereof and shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever Combination Perswasion or Terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether to make defection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestible indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerns the Glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King but shall all the daies of our lives zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all Lets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal or make known that it may be timely prevented or removed All which we shall doe as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before God and the World our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel That we have not laboured for the Purity and Power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our Hearts nor to walk worthy of him in our Live◠which are the Causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst 〈◊〉 and our true unfaigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our Power and Charge both in publick and
of defence they could but the English in the mean while attacquing them with their Fire-ships perform'd their business with so much valour and success that they â—et the most part of the Enemies ships on fire those which escap'd the Flame were seiz'd on by the English the Men of War were the principal ships of Argier And to compleat this Victory Captain Beach brought in to the rest another ship of 40 Guns and 350 men which he had but newly taken So that now Sir Edward Sprague believing that by this loss the Algerines might be brought to an easie accomodation made a speedy return to his station before that Port. This Moneth the King minding to look after the condition of his Western Sea-port-Towns made a kinde of a Sea-progress For arriving first at Portsmouth he went in his Yacht to the Isle of Wight where he took a view of the most considerable Ports of the Island thence he return'd to Hurst-Castle thence he went to view Corf-Castle thence returning for Portsmouth again he sail'd away attended by five Frigats for Plymouth thence back to Dartmouth with an intention to return by Land to London Observing this the great Proverb of The Masters Eye The Moors and we were not yet so friendly but that Taffalette proceeding in his designe of attempting all the Christian Sea-port-Towns upon the Coast of Barbary would needs visit Tangier giving a warm attacque upon the Fort call'd Anne-Fort though at a distance firing upon our men in Rank and File and falling back while others supplied their places being the first time the Moors were observ'd to fight in such order but finding our men too hot they soon retreated And thus are the Moors become a part of the English History Then was the Parliament again Prorogu'd from the 16 th of April following till the 30 th of October 1672. The King as it afterwards appeared having now his hands full of forrein Consultations Nor was it for nothing that so many Agents and Embassadors were sent abroad Coventry Esq. for Sweden the Lord Sunderland for Spain it being the great care of Princes to draw what assistance they can from their Enemies Sir George Downing for Holland it being no less their care to offer all honourable terms of Peace if they may be obtain'd At home his Majesty to reward Valour and Vertue in consideration of that stout and memorable action perform'd by Capt. Boddison Captain of the Swallow a Merchant-man of 150 Tuns and 26 Men who had fought against an Argerine of 36 Guns and having Boarded him several times forc'd him at last shamefully to leave him and six of his men-behinde was pleased to order the Captain a Gold-Chain and a Medal Nor was the City of London having its publick Buildings recovered out of the late Ruines to a greater Splendor and Beauty than heretofore less mindful to make an Invitation to his Majesty to honour their Lord-Mayor's Feast with his presence which he did accordingly to shew how much he was pleased to see the City so reviv'd from such a sad Calamity The issue of Sir Edward Sprague's success against the Pyrates of Argier was by this known in England for he returning from the destruction of their ships to his former station before Argier it self found a strange alteration among those people for the Aga had taken off their General 's Head and soon after five of this General 's Souldiers cut off the Kingâ— Head and brought it openly in to the Divan crying out they must have Peace with the English Upon this they created a new King who seeing the inclinations of the people constrain'd by their own necessities thought it his best way to enter into a Treaty which at length ended in a Peace as honourable and advantageous as ever was made between the English and those Rovers It could no longer now be conceal'd what the secret Counsels of the Great ones had so long been aiming at For now the King publickly intending War with the Dutch openly Declared That seeing all the Princes and States his Neighbours were making preparations for War both by Sea and Land he look'd upon himself obliged for the safety of his Government and protection of his People to make such preparations as should be answerable to the preservation of both to which end he had given order for fitting and setting out a considerable Navy against the Spring but Money was wanting and his own Revenues all anticipated and deeply engaged As therefore the necessity was inevitable the Course taken was extraordinary It being thought absolutely convenient to put a stop upon the paying of any Money then brought in or to be brought in to the Exchequer during the space of one whole year To which as to the last remedy as the King himself declared nothing could have moved him but such a conjuncture of affairs when all the Neighbouring Princes and States were making such threatning preparations that his Government could not be safe without appearing in the same posture About this time died Dr. Cosens Bishop of Durham and Count Palatine there in the 77 th year of his Age and was buried at Aukland neer Durham Sir George Downing being now in Holland according to his particular Instructions was very urgent with the States in the affair of the Flag and by several Instances and several Memorials press'd for an Answer to his Demands but finding all their delays insufferable and all his endeavours consequently fruitless in a few Moneths return'd for England but after a private Examination by some of the Lords of the Council and report made thereof to the King he was by his Majesty's Warrant committed to the Tower for not having obey'd the Orders sent him It was not safe while we are going to Wars abroad to have dissention at home and therefore the King put forth a seasonable Declaration of his will and pleasure freely to indulge all Nonconformists and dissenting persons in matters of Religion asserting however his resolution to maintain the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as it was establish'd And now they who would return no answer to Sir George Downing are Summoned by Sir Robert Holmes to remember their Duty in another manner For upon the 13 th of this Moneth five of the King's Frigats crusing by the Isle of Wight met with the Dutch Fleet of Smyrna-men and others to the number of 50 Sail convoy'd by six Men of War Above 20 of their Merchant-men carried between twenty and forty Guns apiece The English Frigats coming neer shot at them to make them strike and lower their Sail which when the Dutch refus'd to do the Fight began in the Afternoon and continued till Night then three Frigats more coming in the next Morning they fought again and all that day In the Evening five of their richest Merchant-men were taken their Rear-Admiral was Boarded by Captain Iohn Holmes but was so leaky that she
their turn without Religion and such specious pretences were pleaded to the subversion of the Government therefore the Service-Book opportunely offering it self though in 1616. at Aberdeen a piece very like it had passed by the General Assembly onely altered in some places lest in totidem verbis some factious spirits might have misconstrued it as a badge of dependance of that Church upon England to the prejudice of the Laws and Liberties and by their own Bishops afterwards and revised by the King who observed many of that Nation reverently here to use it and also that it had been read in the Koyal Chappel in Scotland as aforesaid being enjoyned to be read on Easter-day 1637. in Edinburgh but deferred for some reasons though no opposition appeared then till the twenty third of Iuly on that day such a Tumult and Riot happened the heads of the vulgar being secretly prepossest as deep waters run smoothest till they come to some breach as for everlasting notice and memorial of so paltry an introduction to the grandest and miraculous change and subversions which followed it is here briefly though satisfactorily transcribed ON the Twenty third of July being Sunday according to publique warning given the Sunday before the Service-Book was begun to be read in Edinburgh in St. Giles Church called the Great Church where were present as usual many of the Privy Council both the Archbishops and other Bishops the Iustices and the Magistrates of Edinburgh No sooner was the Book opened by the Dean of Edinburgh but a number of the vulgar most of them women with clapping of their bands cursing and outcries raised such a barbarous hubbub in the place that none could bear or be heard The Bishop of Edinburg who was to Preach stept into the Pulpit which is immediately above the place where the Dean was to read intending to appease the Tumult by putting them in minde of the sacredness of the place and of the horrible prophanation thereof But then the rabble grew so enraged and mad that if a stool aimed to be thrown at him had not been providentially diverted by the hand of one present the life of that Prelate had been endangered if not lost The Archbishop of St. Andrews the Lord Chancellor with divers others offering to appease the multitude were entertained with such bitter curses and imprecations that not being able to prevail with the people the Provost Bailiffs and divers others of the Council of the City were forced to come down from the Gallery on which they usually sit and with much ado in a very great Tumult and confusion thrust out these disorderly people making fast the Church-doors After all which the Dean proceeded to read Service which was devoutly performed being assisted by the Lords and the Bishops then present Yet the clamor rapping at Church-doors and throwing of stones in at the Church-windows by the rabble without was so great that the Magistrates were constrained to go out and use their endeavours for to appease the multitude After a little pause and cessation the Bishop of Edinburgh Preached and after Sermon done in his going from Church was so invironed with a multitude of the meaner sort of people cursing and crowding him that he was near being trod to death if he had not recovered the stayrs of his Lodging where he was again assaulted and was like to have been pulled backwards if the Earl of Weems from his next Lodging seeing the Bishops life in danger had not sent his servants to rescue him who got the Bishop almost breathless into his Chamber In other Churches the Minister was forced to give over reading And so that Morning passed Between the two Sermons consultation was held how to suppress those out-rages and ' was so ordered that the Service was quietly read in St. Giles other Churches in the afternoon But yet the rabble intermitted nothing of their madness for staying in the streets at the comming home of the Earl of Roxborough the Lord Privy Seal with the aforesaid Bishop in his Coach they so fiercely assaulted him with stones that he had like to have suffered the death of the Martyr St. Stephen so that if his footmen had not kept the multitude off with their drawn Swords their lives had been very much indangered Thus the Reformation began there with such terrible profanations of the Lords day and of the Lords House an ill omen what in future would be the conclusion and this done by the same many-headed Monster that in like manner began the troubles in England nor ever was the Union more perfect and streight then in such mischiefs To prevent and redress these ills the Privy Councel set forth a Proclamation thereby discharging all concourses of people and tumultuous meetings in Edinburgh under pain of death at which time the Magistrates of the said City before the Council-Table professed their detestation thereof and profered their utmost power in the discovery of the principals in that uproar though they afterwards shamefully failed in their promise and appeared among the chief of the Covenanters even while they were glozing with the King and the Archbishop of Canterbury in England by letters full of duty and affection to his Majesty and his Churches service All businesses of note for a time seemed to be hushed and calmed by reason of the long Vacation which in that Kingdom beginneth always on Lammas-day and the Harvest which drew all sorts of people from Edinburgh except the Citizens so that all was quiet till the ensuing October and then the conflux of all sorts soon enlivened the tumults again the Ministers who undertook the reading of the second Service-book publiquely relenting their forwardness and recanting and reneging it and to that purpose presented a Petition desiring it might not be imposed on them this being backt with such an Universal rendezvous of all sorts gave the Council the fear of an Insurrection for prevention whereof a Proclamation again was published which under pain or Rebellion commanded all persons except they should show cause of their further stay about their particular affairs to depart the City and return to their Houses Seconded also with another whereby his Majesties Council and Session which is the Term were declared to be removed from Edinburgh to Dundee and a third for seizing and discovering of a certain seditious Book against the English Ceremonies which second book was ordered to be publiquely burnt upon the seizure These Proclamations were next day overtaken with another Insurrection For on the 19 of October 1667. the Bishop of Galloway and Sir William Elphinston Lord chief Justice of that Kingdom being appointed by the Lords of the Council to examine witnesses in a Cause depending before them passing through the streets to the Council-House were suddenly encountred and surrounded with an enraged multitude the Bishop hardly by the means of one of the parties in that Suit getting safe to the Council where through the like irreverence
Religion While this Army was a modelling many disorders happened which retarded their settlement it was to consist of fourteen thousand Foot and seven thousand Horse and Dragoons effective so that the Spring was well advanced before they were in any readiness Therefore the Scots Army was intreated to advance South-ward with all speed to assist the Parliament in the mean time It is to be noted that the first contrivance of Addresses was from Oliver Cromwel who having by this Model and by a Salvo to him from the injunction of the Ordinance the Regiment of Colonel Leg which had been in some muttering and discontent against the Parliament conferred on him did as soon as he had Mustered them present a Paper to them wherein they professed their future adherence to the Parliament in all duty and affection as to the utmost hazard of their lives which Precedent and leading Case was followed throughout the Army and since throughout the Times The Scots we said before were sent for to march more Southward having left all things secure behind them save Carlisle which was then Besieged for Newcastle they had taken of which we must speak a little They had layn a long while for many months a close and desperate Siege to it where several Sallies and Skirmishes had happened it proving one of the hardest resolutest Sieges in the Kingdom all sorts of policy of peace and war by Treaty by Mines by Assaults having been frequently used but to little purpose the Inhabitants resolving never if possible to fall into the Scots hands But on Saturday the nineteenth of October all the Scotch Army furiously set upon the Town and having weakened the defences thereof both as to the Fortifications and the Garrison having made three breaches by their Battery and Mines after a tedious Storm they at last mastered it Sir Iohn Morley and Sir Nicolas Cole and Sir George Baker got to the Castle where being forced by necessity they came to a Capitulation which in Articles concluded a surrender on the twenty seventh of the same month The town being taken by assault was plundered sufficiently over and over again and thanks was given solemnly at London for the giving of Newcastle up to their Brethren of Scotland And very great reason they had to do so for the poorer sort of people had been almost starved for the last two years for want of fuel Coles having risen to the price of four pound a Chaldron never heard of before in London as to the half of it Sir Iohn Hotham and his son had been prisoners in the Tower of London since Iuly 1643. Now upon the new Model several of the old strains were heard as every Change began with Outcryes the noyse was justice now against Delinquents the Sword had glutted it self almost with blood now the Ax was to tast some of it but because of order it is fit to put Sir Alexander Carew in the forlorn of those men who on the three and twentieth of December was beheaded on Tower-Hill being condemned by a Council of War held at Guild-hall for endeavouring to betray Plymouth-Fort where he was Commander to the King This unfortunate person of whom something strange as to the business of the Earl of Strafford hath been said before was brother to the more miserable Iohn Carew one of the Judges of his late Majesty On the twenty seventh of December Sir Iohn Hotham received sentence in like manner for his endeavour to betray Hull to the King and for holding and maintaining correspondence and intelligence with the Marquess of Newcastle and others the Earl of Manchester and other great persons sitting in the Hustings Court at Guild-hall as Judges He would have evaded the Charge but he could not throughly do it and so mainly insisted on the great service he had done before at Hull when he might have expected great honour and preferment He also produced some witnesses of quality on purpose to take off the testimony of the Examinants against him but they were not received for sufficient His Excecution should have been on the thirty first of December upon Tower-hill where the multitude was assembled the Scaffold his Coâ—fin and Executioner was in readiness but as he was on his way thither a Reprieve came from the Lords for four days longer which the Commons so stomacked that conceiving their Priviledge hereby invaded they ordered he should dye on the second of Ianuary which was accordingly performed his son suffered the day before for the same offence and both of them dying with great reluctancy and reflecting upon the Parliament being assisted in this sad business with no better comforter than Hugh Peters In their grave we leave them with that most excellent memorial of them in the Kings book than which nothing can be more truely or pathetically said of them give me leave for an example to posterity to transcribe a Paragraph Nor did a solitary vengeance serve the turn the cutting off one head in a family is not enough to expiate the affront done to the head of the Common-weal the eldest son must be involved in the punishment as he was infected with the sin of his father against the father of his Country Root and Branch God cuts off in one day That which makes me more pitie him is that after he began to have some inclinations towards a repentance for his sin and reparation of his duty to me he should be so unhappie as to fall into the hands of their Iustice and not my Mercie who could as willingly have forgiven him as he could have asked that favour of me Poor Gentleman he is now become a notable Monument of unprosperous Disloyaltie teaching the world by so sad and unfortunate a spectacle that the rude carriage of a Subject carries always its own Vengeance as an unseparable shadow with it and those oft prove the most fatal and implacable Executioners of it who were the first employers in the service Less than this could not be afforded to this most notable passage of the times whose ill beginning with this man brought him to this ill and unfortunate end The Assembly of Divines Convocated by the Parliament had sate a good while in consultation of Church-Government and though they were forward enough to subvert what they sound standing yet by the interposition of more moderate and learned Divines who happened to be chosen among the rest such as Dr. Featly whom at last the Parliament stifled in restraint and Dr. after Bishop Gauden and others that speed was retarded but upon this request of the Parliament to the Scots for their speedy advance in exchange of mutual kindness they demanded the speedy settlement of the Presbyterian Government and that the Orders and Ceremonies of the Church of England might not be used in the interim in any of the Churches of the places where they should happen to quarter Presently upon the receipt of this Letter the
Assembly was ordered to bring in their Model of Church-Government and those Resolves were urged afterwards by many hundred Petitions and the Covenant prest to be universally taken Towards the end of this month they had licked up the form of their Directory but could not agree about the receiving of the Sacrament which dispute was then committed Hereupon the Parliament procâ—eded and voted the abolishing of the Common-Prayer-Book which gave some satisfaction to the Scots yet not fully contended them they had in the beginning of our Troubles openly named the Archbishop of Canterbury and prosecuted him as an Enemy to their Country as the great Incendiary of the broyls between both Nations and did not desist while they had him safe in the Tower now they would have his life also as a gratification of their assistance His head must be danced off like St. Iohn Baptist's at the Musick of their Bag-pipes This they publikely demanded so that an Ordinance for the Parliament durst not venture his Tryal at the Common-Law as was thought by some because of the clause of that Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford that his Case should be no precedent and they knew the Judges though they might pack a Jury that should would never venture to condemn him And his tryal by Peers they vouchsafed not as alike dangerous passed the House of Commons whereby he was declared guilty and that sent up to the Lords for their concurrence who bogled at it as a very ill precedent so that it stuck for a while until Sir David Hawkins with his veterane Troops of Justice-cryers came bawled at the Lords House for speedy Execution of Delinquents And then a new Expedient was set on foot for the better dispatch that the Lords should come and sit in the House of Commons as to this business and make one work of it which some of them unworthily did an ill Omen or Presage what that degenerateness would come to when after some of the same persons sate there as Commoners By this trick after several brave Defences made at the Bar of the Lords House where with might and main his Enemies prosecuted his Innocence he was condemned the main Argument against him being used by Serjeant Wild That he was so guilty an offender that he wondred the people did not pull him in pieces as he came to and fro to his tryal and on the tenth of Ianuary brought to Tower-hill from a most sound and sweet repose that night till awakened by Pennington the Lieutenant of the Tower to go to his Execution whereat he was no whit dismayed his colour being as fresh in his Face as ever it was in his life which continued to his last minute At his death he made a Funeral-sermon for himself which was in lieu of a Speech where this is as he hinted it to be observed that though other Arch-bishops had lost their lives in this manner yet not the same way He being the first English-man that ever was condemned by an Ordinance of Parliament His body was decently interred in Alhallows Barkin London according to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England of which he had been the chief Defender and Assertor leaving Sir Iohn Robinson his Nephew since Lieutenant of the Tower to inherit the remains of his Estate and the rewards of his great Services and Munificences to this Church and Kingdom Abington had been made a Garrison ever since the Earl of Essex marched into Cornwal and became so troublesome a neighbour to Oxford and the Country adjacent by the continual excursions of the Horse which were never less than a Regiment that Colonel Sir Henry Gage to prevent this perpetual annoyance no man daring to travail upon any of the Roads towards Oxford with provisions or other business more especially hindering the intercourse betwixt Oxford and Wallingford resolved to build a Fort at Culham-bridge within a mile of Abington on the London-road to repress the boldness of those parties who were constantly out thereabouts upon designes In the attempt thereof and to obstruct so dangerous an obstacle to their Eruption the Abingdon-forces under Colonel Brown Sally out Engage and maintain a short fight with the Royalists with little hopes of prevailing till an Unfortunate shot wounded Colonel Gage in the head of which he dyed as soon as he came to Oxford and so that project was laid aside The King had so closely prosecuted his intentions for Peace that it being in the depth of Winter both Armies in their quarters and the two Factions of Presbytery and Independency jealous of one another the modelling of the Army requiring also some gain and advantage of time a Treaty so often proposed by the King was now admitted to be managed at Vxbridge by Commissioners on both sides The Kings Commissioners were as Follow Duke of Richmond and Lenox Marquess of Hertford Earl of Southampton Earl of Kingston Earl of Chichester Lord Capel Lord Seymore Lord Hatton Lord Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Sir Edward Hide afterwards Lord Chancellor Sir Richard Lane Sir Thomas Gardiner Sir Orlando Bridgeman Mr. Iohn Ashburnham Mr. Ieffery Palmer Dr. Stuart and Dr. Hammond Divines The Parliaments Commissioners were Earl of Northumberland Earl of Pembroke Earl of Salisbury Earl of Denbigh Lord Wenman Mr. Denzil Hollis Mr. William Pierpoint Sir Henry Vane Jun. Mr. Crew Mr. Whitlock Mr. Prideaux Mr. Vines a Minister The Scotch Commissioners Lord London Sir Charles Erskin Mr. Dundas Mr. Brackley Mr. Alexander Henderson Minister The main things first to be treated of were first Religion second Militia third Ireland For Religion the King would not alter Government by Bishops but would give way to some amendments in the Liturgie upon advice For the Militia he would consent some Forts and Garrisons should remain in the Parliaments hands pro tempore for security of the agreement the King having the nomination of half the Commissioners For Ireland the King would not abrogate the Cessation until he were sure the Rebellion here were at an end having to avoid that popular demand and to prevent any insisting upon that point given Order to the Marquess of Ormond to conclude a Peace but however to continue the Cessation for a year for which he should promise the Irish if he could have it no cheaper to joyn with them against the Scots and Inchiqueen for by that time the King said he hoped his condition would be such as the Irish should be glad to accept of less or he enabled to grant more The Parliament on the contrary side insisted as to Religion upon the taking away of the Kings Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction his Donations and Temporalties of Bishopricks his First-fruits and Tenths of Bishops Deans Deans and Chapters not offering to constitute the least dependance of the Clergy upon the King to the Presbyterian mode compensating him with Bishops Lands in lieu of all those which of
need of the Army of their brethren the Scots in this Kingdom and that the sum of one hundred thousand pounds should be advanced and paid to that Army as followeth viz. 50000 l. after their surrender of Newcastle Carlile and other English Garrisons possessed by them in England and the other 50000 l. after their departure into Scotland and order should be taken for the payment of their Arrears This was a good come on and a handsome induction to greater sums in the mean while the Scotish Commissioners with their Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile Dulci address themselves to the Parliament with their glozing oratory protesting the good intention of their Army and Nation and obtesting some speedy satisfaction of money that they might not be burdensome to the Country assuring them on one hand of their complying with the Parliament according to Covenant and offering something for the King too a la Mode the same Covenant like the man in the Fable that could blow hot and cold with the same breath But where so many words pass between buyer and seller a man may suspect little honesty or reason in either To confirm this their firm adherence in all fairness to the Covenant Mr. Alexander Henderson the Moderator formerly in that illegal Assembly at Glasgow in 1639. and Commissioner here in England afterwards a famed preacher Scholar and Presbyter was set upon the King at Newcastle whom the King handled with that acuteness both in private Conferences and Disputes as also in discussive Papers of the Controversies of the Discipline of the Church of England and so well plyed him his Majesties prudent and laborious undertaking of this person serving to stop the weaker yet more malapert assaults of his English Reformists who followed this grand Pattern by asserting the practice and universal consent of the Primitive Church beyond any private or modern opinion whatsoever that it is more than credible that Mr. Henderson convinced in his conscience of the errours he had maintained to the promoting of Schism and Rebellion from such a Church and against so excellent a Prince whose Learning Clemency and Courtesie were alike eminent not long after upon his return or rather sending home into Scotland languished with grief and anxiety of mind and with plain symptoms thereof and no other outward cause dyed Mr. Stephen Marshal another Presbyterian Minister and a famous Teacher of the Covenant was there also but the King would not be troubled with his discourses having such cause of offence at his prayers which made him afterwards wholly decline any intercourse with him the Papers wherein he had so rationally refuted the same principles with Mr. Henderson being publike and therefore he might well be disobliged from further trouble in that Controversie Nor were the disputes less between the Scots Commissioners and the Parliament which every day came in Print being politick subtile wranglings for nothing de lana Caprina each party endeavouring to cajole the other into absurd beliefs meer names of things and distinctions as the Person of the King c. wholly imploying those State-Logicians with whom Majesty and duty were nonâ—Entia Into these frivolous jars Cromwel and his Army-Fellows put in their Pleas and suborned some serious fools to throw in their considerations of the matter which reflected bitterly on the Scots not by way of Reason but bold impudent aspersions and indeed as to them ungrateful and unmannerly dictâ—ries Those the Commissioners take notice of complaining to the Parliament but in vain the Independant party laughing secretly at the pudder they made for such trifles as Religion and Government which so forwardly and designedly they themselves had overthrown and aukwardly and scrupulously they would now seem to intend and establish It being generally received by them as proclaimed by others That all was but a Juggle and the conclusion credited that report Setting aside other punctilio's between them concerning Presbytery which now laboured grievously in the birth being ready for the Midwifery of an Ordinance and was hereby retarded A Proviso for Tender Consciences being to be added as a superfaetation of that Discipline by the Independents and rejected as an after-birth inlet and receptacle of all Heresies Sects and Schisms by the Scots of which there will be occasion hereafter matter of State shall be first related as coming first to the Kings consideration in the Propositions after ten months time sent to him by Commissioners while he was at Newcastle To omit also all their disputes concerning the obligations of the Covenant as to mutual interests and polity of Government whereby the one Kingdome might not act without the concurrence of the other insisted on by the Scots and waved by the Members because these shadows and the Covenant it self is vanished and the best friends of it would be loath to have these absurdities and clashings of the said League revived the Confederates as at the building of Babel such our after-Commonwealth being divided within three years time among themselves in the very language of it and some great promoters of it then calling it now an Old Almanack I say not to rake in this unconcerning matter which is intended to be forgotten let 's proceed onely with this due insertion of another matter That Cromwel seeing how the Scots drove at money for pay to ripen a division betwixt them and the Houses set Poyntz's Souldiery and Garrison of York where he was Governour to mutiny for pay and to force it as the Scots did whose example they pleaded and with the same blow to discard Poyntz first from the affection and then from the command of his Forces one suspected to be honester than the designes of the Army could suffer On the 11 of Iuly the Propositions were finished and sent to the King by the Earls of Pembroke and Suffolk Mr. Goodwyn Sir Walter Earl Sir Iohn Hippesly and Mr. Robinson who met on the way with a Message from the King to the Two Houses in answer to their demand for the Marquess of Ormonds disbanding in Ireland wherein he desires their Propositions as the readiest and safest way to gratifie them in that and other things conducing to the Peace of the Kingdom A little while before this also Monsieur Bellieure a French Ambassador being sent to accommodate the difference between the King and Parliament received thanks from the Parliament to whom he first addressed but the interposition of his Master was wholly denyed whereupon he did the like fruitless office to the King and having had some private Audience with him after many good morrows departed To keep a punctual account of the Prince his Son's peregrination the first forrain place we find him in is about this time at the French Court in Paris of which the Queen then there also gave notice to the King by Mr. Montril the French Agent residing there The Propositions sent now to the King were quarrelled at
by the Scots Commissioners first because they were not the same with those formerly sent to Oxford and Vxbridge Secondly Because all the additions omissions and alterations made in them are in those things which concern the joynt interest and union of both Kingdomes And thirdly the danger of wholly excluding the King and his Posterity and so the Crown from their right to the Militia which was an alteration of the Fundamental Laws And fourthly the uncertainty of the Religion the Parliament would establish they refusing to give their Brethren the Scots the particulars thereof Presbytery being then piece-meal offered by the Assembly of Divines to the Parliaments consideration In this point the Scots urged how many promises of UNIFORMITY the Parliament had made at their instances to them throughout the War and that this Uniformity might be extensive and become the Discipline of the Reformed Churches every where and so be the Catholick Rule had ordered the Covenant as a Model or Pattern to be printed in most of the Forrain Languages that it should be a sin and shame to England that all sorts of Heresies Sects and Schisms should be so multiplied Liberty of Conscience not onely pleaded for but in place already and all the kindnesses done them so unhandsomly slighted And as to the Presbyterial Government to be established here Exceptions were taken at the subordination of Church-Assemblies to Parliament in the words prescribed lest it should be interpreted as if the Civil Power were not onely conversant about matters of the Church and Religion but were formally Ecclesiastical and to be exercised Ecclesiastically and be counted such a Supremacy in the Church as in the Pope and the late High-Commission of England Next they scrupled their Provincial Commissioners for judging of Scandal there being no such Warrant for such a mixture of Lay with Spiritual Officers which they suppose may be the laying of a New Foundation of the said High-Commission or Episcopacy Thirdly That admitting the Power of calling and convening a National Assembly be in the Civil Magistrates as positive yet they cannot allow it privative or destructive and that therefore such Assemblies may not be restrained to times of Session the safety of the Church being the supreme Law That therefore it should not be left ad libitum to the pleasure of the Civil Power but that fixed times for their meeting might be appointed From this the English perceived that the Scotch Yoak would not fit their necks and though they could be content with their Spirituals there was no enduring of their Temporals which consideration with those Cavils printed and published produced a Declaration of the House of Commons wherein being now in no need of further assistance having no Enemy left but that Army they come to a point and withal thus gird their gude Brethren we shall repeat onely one Paragraph Concerning Church-Government we having so fully declared for Presbyterian Government having spent so much pains taken up so much time for the settling of it passed most of the particulars brought to us from the Assembly of Divines called onely by us to advise of such things as shall be required of them by the Parliament and having published several Ordinances for putting the same in execution because we cannot consent to the granting of an arbitrary and unlimited Power and Jurisdiction to near TEN THOVSAND IVDICATORIES to be erected within this Kingdom and this demanded in a way INCONSISTENT with the FVNDAMENTALS of GOVERNMENT excluding the POWER of PARLIAMENT in the exercise of that IVRISDICTION nor have we resolved yet how a due regard may be had that TENDER CONSCIENCES which differ not in any Fundamentals of Religion may be so provided for as may stand with the word of God and peace of the Kingdom And let it be OBSERVED that we have had the more reason not to part with the Power out of our hands since all by-past Ages manifest that the Reformation and purity of Religion and the preservation and protection of the people hath been by Parliament and the exercise of this power our endeavours being to settle the Reformation 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 according to our COVENANT That 's the burden of the Ditty but how that comes to be set in opposition to the Scotch Model of Presbytery may be left to the distinguishing Expositors between Bell and the Dragon The Poets Fiction concerning Proteus was certainly a meer vaticination and prediction of this variable Monster for the King the Kirk the Parliament the Sectaries for every thing according to its present interest as the Camelion appears in the colours that are neerest it A serious Kirk-fallacy made a Parliament-Riddle Come we now to those long-hammered Propositions sent to the King at Newcastle Iuly 11. as aforesaid which were twenty three in number First That his Majesty would pass an Act for nulling all Declarations and Proclamations against both or either Parliaments of England or Scotland Secondly The King to sign and swear the Covenant and an Act for all persons in the three Kingdoms to do the like Thirdly An Act to take away Bishops c. Fourthly To confirm by Act the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Fifthly To settle Religion as the Parliament shall agree Sixthly In Vnity and Vniformity with Scotland as shall be agreed by both Parliaments Kill Episcopacy point-blank and shoot at Scotch wild-fowl at randome Seventhly An Act to be confirmed against Papists Eighthly Their Children to be educated in the Protestant Religion Ninthly For taking away part of their Estates Tenthly Against saying of Mass in England Eleventhly And the same in Scotland if they please Twelfthly For observation of the Lords day against Pluralities and Non-residents and for Visitations and regulating the Vniversities Thirteenth That the Militia of the three Kingdoms be in the hands of the Parliament for twenty years with power to raise money and suppress all Forces c. Fourteenth That all Honours and Titles and Dignities conferred on any since the great Seal was conveyed from the Parliament May 21 1642. be nulled and that those who hereafter shall be made Peers by the King shall not sit in Parliament without consent of both Houses Fifteenth That an Act be passed to confirm all the Treaties between England and Scotland and a Committee of both Houses to be nominated Conservators of the Peace between both Kingdoms Sixteenth An Act for the establishing the Declaration of both Kingdoms of the THIRTIETH of JANUARY 1643. touching Delinquents with other qualifications added now which were so comprehensive that they seemed accommodated for the fatal prognostick of that days Revolution in 1648. when accumulative treason a word invented by themselves against the Earl of Strafford was extended to other the Kings Friends as to number and in the amassed guilt of all impiety afterwards practised upon
Army he had done enough in giving them at Westminster for the Parliament sounded no more at the Head-quarters an account of Him But of this presently at large Most certain it is that this designe was laid solely by Cromwel and Ireton and personated by the Agitatours suspected many of them and that rationally for Jesuits who were as good at wicked Plots and Contrivances as either of those Catilines but most accomplished for execution having such Lawless yet most powerful Indemnity not onely to protect them but to shroud their other Conspiracies for themselves against this Church and State It is strange indeed to consider how many several interests were driven on among the Belials of this Army as then under the appearance of honest and most just ends the same pretence whereof served and was accommodate to each particular combinating against the Publike as so many lines tending to one Center with all which Cromwel wisely temporized giving secret encouragement to them all professing to intend the same things and to be of the Party but that for a while there was a necessity of concealing his resolutions To this purpose caresâ—ing the Papists upon all addresses or discourses with him as also familiarizing himself with the Levellers as the men indeed that were to do his business and were right of his complexion for the spoyl of the Kingdom to be compassed any manner of way but by setting up a Government or Laws for their projected Democracy was but a more exact method or Rule of Thievery of all which they most abominated Monarchy as the most regular and strict whose awful Authority could solely restrain their loose and licentious practises and keep the mad vulgar within their bounds from invading all propriety secured by the ancient Tenure of all Lands and Inheritances from the Crown and the Laws which their devilish intention was to abrogate and abolish and by a Wild parity lay all things in Common But for fuller satisfaction what this Intrigue or designe meant it will be requisite to consult the King's and the General 's or rather the Armies account thereof just as it was done and first from the Actors the General and Council of War Sir Thomas Fairfax his Letter MAster Speaker yesterday the King was taken from Holdenby by some Souldiers who brought him thence by his consent the Commissioners going along with Him That his Majesty lay that night at Colonel Mountagues after Earl of Sandwich and would be at New market next day That the ground of the removing the King was from an apprehension of some strength gathered to force the King from them whereupon he sent Colonel Whaley with his Regiment to meet the King and the Commissioners and to return them back again but they refused and were come to Sir John Cuts neer Cambridge Professing That this remove was without his consent or his Officers about him or the body of the Army or without their desire or Privity and that he will secure the King's person from danger Further assuring the Parliament that the whole Army endeavours Peace will not oppose Presbytery nor affect Independency or to hold a licentious freedom in Religion or interest in any particular party but will leave all to the Parliament Tiberius Letters about Sejanus were not half so mystical as these nor was there ever so daring braving an attempt done in the face of the Sun to the face and person of a Prince so covered and concealed under such obscurities and pretended ignorances which rendred the impudence of the action more dangerously fearful by how much the less it was conjecturable what it portended nor could the King himself at present well resolve himself or his two Houses in this juncture as we shall see in his acquainting of the Parliament with it by the Earl of Dunfermling where he saith contrary to what Fairfax before That he was unwillingly taken away by a strong party of Horse and desired of the Parliament to maintain the Laws of the Land and that though he might signe to many things in this condition yet he would not have them believed till further notice given by him to his two Houses The King imagined they would make use of his Authority by forcing his consent to some Proposals and designes of Government but they onely made a stalking Horse of his person keeping his interest by pretences of respect to him on foot meerly to countenance their own and outvy and awe the Presbyterian party At the news of it in London both Parliament and City were in such confusion and so distracted that they might well be excused from rightly judging of the fact therefore they first bethink of remedy the Houses order the Committee of Safety to sit all night and provide ne quid detrimenti accipiat respublica and dispatch a Messenger to the General requesting him not to come neerer London than twenty five miles for news was brought them they were upon a speedy March for the City who at the same time shut up their shops run to their Arms and make a fearful hurry for a while and then resolve to send Commissioners likewise and attend the Issue in peace in such a maze did this accident put them In the mean while the King is caressed by the Army and shown in state to the people who with great joy every where receive him and applaud the Army who to carry their business the fairer suffer some of his Majesties old Friends to have access to his person as the Duke of Richmond the two Doctors Sheldon and Hammond his Chaplains who Officiated with him in publike according to the Church of England and divers others of lesser note At this the Parliament take exceptions and send again to the General expostulating the matter and desiring him to re-deliver the King to the Commissioners aforesaid to be brought to Richmond and there to be guarded by Colonel Rossiters Regiment of Horse In Answer to this the Army declare and require after their like manner of expostulation about the Irish Expedition and Transporting the Army thither that it was against former Declarations of the Parliament the precedent case of the Kingdom of Scotland and the liberty and freedom of the People That the Houses may speedily be purged of such as ought not to sit there That such who abused the Parliament and Army and endanger the Kingdom may speedily be disabled from doing the like or worse That some determinate period of time may be set to this and future Parliaments according to the intent of the Bill for Triennial Parliaments That provision be made that they be not adjournable and dissolvable by any power but their own consent during their Respective period and then to determine themselves That the freedom of the people to present Grievances by Petition to the Parliament may be vindicated That the exorbitant powers of Country-Committees may be taken away That the Kingdom may be satisfied of the
Lords and Commons c. That they are not satisfied in the Propositions made by his Majesty in his Letter and that a Letter be sent to the Commissioners in the Isle of Wight to acquaint them that the Houses do well approve of their proceedings and do give them thanks c. requiring them still to proceed punctually according to their Instructions The Sum of His Majesties Propositions was this He expressed his Consent to the Proemial or first Proposition of acknowledging his beginning the War that he might not by denying it be refused Peace but that his Consent not to be valid till all was concluded in the Treaty Concerning the Church he will Consent that the Calling and Sitting of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster be confirmed for three years by Act of Parliament and will by Act of Parliament confirm likewise the Directory for 3 years in England Ireland and Wales and the Form of Government by Presbyters for the same term Provided that his Majesty and those of his judgment and others who cannot in Conscience submit thereunto he not obliged to comply with it And that a free Consultation may be had with the Assembly of Divines in the mean time twenty of his Majesties nomination being added to them whereby it may be determined how after the said term by his Majesty and the Parliament the said Church Government and Publique Worship may be setled and the Articles of Christian Religion now delivered him may then be considered of and care taken for tender Consciences Concerning the Bishops Lands and Revenues and to the Contracts and Purchases of them His Majesty will Consent to an Act or Acts of Parliament for their satisfaction whereby the Legal Estates for Lives or for Years at their choice not exceeding ninety nine years shall be made of those Lands at the old or some more moderate rents which if it will not satisfie his Majesty will propound and consent to some other way Provided that the Propriety and Inheritance of those Lands do still remain in the Church according to the pious intentions of the Donors and the rest that shall be reserved to be for their maintenance His Majesty will give Consent for a Reformation viz. Observation of the Lords-day and such other things in these their Propositions as they have desired as also Consents to those Propositions against Papists But as to the Covenant his Majesty is not therein satisfied that he can either Signe or Swear it or Consent to impose it on the Consciences of others nor conceives it proper or useful at this time to be insisted on Touching the Militia his Majesty conceives that their Propositions demand a far larger Power over the persons of his Subjects than hath ever hitherto been warranted by the Laws and Statutes of the Realm yet considering the present distractions require more and trusting in his two Houses of Parliament that they will not abuse the Power hereby granted his Majesty will consent to an Act of Parliament wherein it shall be declared That for the space of ten years or during his Majesties whole Reign if they shall think it more satisfactory the two Houses shall have the sole disposal of the Militia and raise Mony as in their Propositions And that neither the King his Heirs or Successors or any other but such as shall act by the Authority or Approbation of the Lords and Commons shall during the space of ten years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid nor after that term without the Advice of the Lords and Commons And Consents to the entrusting the Militia into the Cities hands according to their Propositions Provided That all Patents Commissions and other Acts concerning the Premises be made and acted in his Majesties Name by Warrant signified by the Lords and Commons or such other as they shall authorize for that purpose Touching Ireland his Majesty leaves it to the Determination of his two Houses and will give his Consent as is herein hereafter expressed Touching Publick Debts his Majesty will give his Consent to such an Act for raising of Monies by general and equal Taxations for the payment and satisfying the Arrears of the Army and Publique Engagementss of the Kingdom as shall be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and shall be ordered by them or their appointment within the space of one year after passing an Act for the same His Majesty will give Consent that all the Great Officers of State and Iudges for the said term of ten years be nominated by the Parliament to continue quamdiu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament to be nominated by such as they shall authorize His Majesty will Consent That the Militia of the City and Liberties thereof during the space of ten years may be in the ordering and Government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council assembled or such as they shall appoint whereof the Lord Major and the Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be employed and directed from time to time by the Parliament And that no Citizen shall be drawn forth into the Field without his own consent And an Act be passed for granting and confirming the Charters Customs c thereof And that during the said ten years the Tower of London may be in the Government of the City of London and the Chief Officers thereof during the said space to be nominated and removeable by the Common-Council as was desired in the Propositions His Majesty having thus far expressed his Consent for the present satisfaction and securing of his two Houses of Parliament and those that have adhered unto them touching the four first Propositions and other the particulars before-specified as to all the rest of the Propositions delivered to him at Hampton-Court not referring to those â—eads and to that of the Court of Wards since delivered as also to the remaining Propositions concerning Ireland His Majesty desires only when he shall come to Westminster personally to advise with his two Houses and to deliver his Opinion and Reasons of it which being done he will leave the whole matter of those remaining Propositions to the determination of his two Houses which shall prevail with him for his Consent accordingly And his Majesty doth for his own particular only propose that he may have liberty to repair forthwith to Westminster and be restored to a condition of absolute Freedom and Safety a thing which he shall never deny to any of his Subjects and to the possession of his Lands and Revenues and that an Act of Oblivion and Indemnity may pass to extend to all persons for all matters relating to the late unhappy differences which being agreed by his two Houses of Parliament his Majesty will be ready to make these his Concessions binding by giving them the force of Laws by his Royal assent Though these Condescentions nor indeed if they had been to the very letter of the
God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my charitie must go further I wish that they may repent for in â—eed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with St. Stephen that this be not laid to their charge And withâ—â— that they may take the way to the Peace of the Kingdom for my charitie 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 finde 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 ye 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 Pirate said to Alexander That he was a great Robber himself was but a petty Robber And so Sirs I think for the way that you are in you are much out of the way Now Sirs to put you in 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 Successor 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 Libertie and freedom as much as any body whomsoever But I must tell you that their Libertie and their freedom consist 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 Libertie 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 troath 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 Kingdome and your own Salvation Dr. Juxon Will your Majesty though your Majesties affections may be very well known to Religion yet it may be expected that you should say somewhat for the worlds satisfaction King I thank you very heartily my Lord for that I had almost forgotten it Introath 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 this honest man I think will witness it Then turning to the Officers said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good cause and I have a gracious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take care they do not put me to pain and Sir this and it please you But then a Gentleman coming near the Ax the King said Take heed of the Ax pray take heed of the Ax. Then the King speaking to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I thrust out my hands Then the King called to Doctor Iuxon for his Night-cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Does my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his Cap which the King did accordingly by the help of the Executioner and the Bishop Then the King turning to Doctor Iuxon said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side Dr. Juxon There is but one Stage more this Stage is turbulent and troublesome it is a short one But you may consider it will soon carry you a very great way it will carry you from Earth to Heaven and there you will finde a great deal of cordial Ioy and Comfort King I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where no disturbance can be no disturbance in the world Dr. Juxon You are exchanged from a Temporary to an Eternal Crown a good exchange The King then said to the Executioner Is my hair well Then the King took off his Cloak and his George giving his George to Doctor Iuxon saying Remember Then the King put off his Doublet and being in his Wast-coat put his Cloak on again then looking upon the Block said to the Executioner You must set it fast Executioner It is fast Sir King When I put my hands out this way stretching them out then After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up Immediately stooping down he laid his Neck upon the Block and then the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King thinking he had been going to strike said Stay for the Signe Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little pause the King stretching forth his Hands the Executioner at one Blow severed his Head from his Body The Head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the people which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with Black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his House at Saint Iames's where his Body was Embalmed and put in a Coffin of Lead and laid there a fortnight to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday sevennight his Corps Embalmed and Coffined in
Lead was delivered chiefly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and Iohn Ioyner formerly Cook to his Majesty they attended with others clothed in Mourning â—utes and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in hâ—t which was formerly the Kings Bed-chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with black and made dark with Lights burning round the Herse in which it remained till three in the afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester and the Earl of Lyndsey having obtained an Order from the Parliament for the decent Interment of the King their Royal Master provided the expence thereof exceeded not five hundred pounds At their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Colonel Whichcot Governour of the Castle desiring the Interment might be in Saint George's Chappel and by the form in the Common-prayer-Book of the Church of England This request was by the Governour denyed saying it was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act. To which the Lords replyed There was a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no Power so binds its own hands as to disable it self in some Cases But all could not prevail the Governour persisting in the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some pains taken therein they discovered a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as it was probably conjectured lyeth the body of King Henry the eighth and his beloved Wife the Lady Iane Seymor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being room for one more they resolved to interre the Body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the Lord Bishop of London following next and other persons of Quality the Body was committed to the Earth with sighs and Tears especially of the Reverend Bishop as denyed to do the last Duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body Upon the Coffin were these words set KING CHARLES 1648. All Elegies are useless and in vain While Charles the Second shall be King again No learned Grief can tell the Church and State What Heaven conceals in this blest Martyrs Fate Fortune may play with Scepters for a time Yet make the Peoples Liberty their Crime A CHRONICLE OF THE CIVIL WARS OF ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND THE SECOND PART BEING The Democracie THe Scepter had not departed from Great Britain nor had the Imperial Majesty of England been ever darkned or in any part so Eclipsed since the Nation first Inhabited the Island which is beyond the computation of any History Regnum Britanniae principio Regis habuere was an original and constant truth through innumerable successions nor did it ever vary in the most difficult perplexities of whatsoever Revolutions Indeed Monarchy was so congenerous with the People and Inhabitants of this Island that civil Fortune when she had given up the rest of the world to the potent Arms of Romes Senate and that victorious Commonwealth for Caesar had Conquered France and Spain as a General in their service yet reserved us to be the infallible next and immediate Omen of his future Empire when he parted hence with a resolved and facilitated Ambition of seizing the universal Soveraignty and 't is observable that the Britains were never taken into the protection of the Senate and people of Rome but of Caesar onely After the decay of that Empire we changed our Governours onely not the Government which in our British Saxon and Danish Rule was one and the same save that it was divided into several Principalities under the Heptarchy and afterwards parted among the Invading Potentates until the Norman Line successfully grasped all and united the whole Realm of England under one entire Regality In this Royal race the Crown had continued 562 years and though some of those Princes had been dispossessed and outed of the Throne yet was it but transferred to another proprietor changed onely the Temples that it might sit faster and easier and with more spreading splendor shew its self to the World Of such a veneration was the Royal right always esteemed that the Laws placed it beyond the power of Fate and made it the supreme sanction that the King never Dieth like the Sun in his Glorious Orb that perpetually shires though our interposed sight conceives him benighted Moritur Oritur In the sâ—me instance and moment he sets and riseth But oh the thick gloominess those dismal Clouds that palpable Darkness which enveloped the setting of this our Martyr'd Soveraign The Face of the Kingdom gathered blackness and we seemed to have returned to our first Chaâ—s nothing of Order Frame or Constitution remaining to be seen If we lâ—oked upwards the incensed Heavens had vailed themselves from beholding this Impiety if upon our selves our stupified senses and our despairing looks gave sâ—gnes Humanity was fled and Nature could not long continue if round about us the reproaches and derision of the world and the affronts and impudence of these flagitious Regicides pointing at and deriding us for our disloyal cowardise sharpned those stings of Conscience and made us seek Soliâ—udes and wish for a total dissolution If downwards the mournful Earth gaped for vengeance and represented us the infernal Tomb of less wicked Rebels Corah and his Tribe Nothing but horrour and amazement possest us Hope abandoned us Women miscarried and died Young people made vows of abstinence and perpetual chastity Old Mens spirits â—aiâ—ed them and they gave up the Ghost Children wept and lamented by a natural instinct for this Father of their Country an universal out-cry there was to Heaven for help and mercy those whose stronger hearts could not presently yield felt such Convulsions within them as if they were in travel with grief and knew not how to be delivered of their unwieldy burden In fine shame and anguish laid hold upon us and our Glory departed No less extasies of grief could serve to shew how sensible we were of the dissolution of that Political Machine which had so long and so happily conserved our Honour our Lives and our Liberties wherein the Princes Prerogative and the Subjects Propriety so harmoniously moved without the least jar and discordance for so many hundred of years till our unhappy Reformers took too much upon them and would be tampering with that Noli me Tangere the sacred and not to be profaned right of Princes boldly distinguiâ—â—ing betwixt the personal and political capacity of the King and so
respective Counties made them infamously known The rest were of his Partisans in the Parliament and High Court of Iustice and for credit-sake some two or three Fanatick-Noblemen excepted always the latent honour of the Renowned Monke Howard and Montague and some Knights and amongst them for honesty sake Sir A. Ashley Cooper though for all those Titles and Generosities it was better known like it self by the Name of Barebone's Parliament whose Christian-Name was Praise God a Leather-seller in Fleetstreet a Brownist or such kinde of Separatist from the Church of England long before the War and now a Member in this Convention into which these Evocati had adopted Cromwel Lambert Harrison Thomlinson and Desborough because forsooth none of the Army would intrude and generally none to be admitted but such of whom this House should be satisfied of their real Godliness and this by a preliminary Vote Iuly 5. These strangers to our Israel but Proselytes of the Good Cause and Iewish in every other respect since they obtained the Name of a Parliament are as well worth a shew as the other a Ballad and these are the Names of the Monster Berks. Samuel Dunch Vincent Goddard Thomas Wood. Bedford Nathaniel Taylor Edward Cater Buckingham George Fleetwood George Baldwin Cambridge Iohn Sadler Thomas French Robert Castle Samuel Warner Chester Robert Duckenfield Henry Berkenhead Four Northern Counties Charles Howard Robert Fenwick Henry Dawson Henry Ogle Cornwal Robert Bennet Francis Langdon Anthony Rous. Iohn Bawden Derby Iervas Bennet Nathaniel Barton Devon George Monke one of the Generals at Sea Iohn Carew Thomas Sanders Christopher Martin Iames Erisey Francis Rous. Richard Sweet Dorset William Sydenham Iohn Bingham Essex Ioachim Matthews Henry Barrington Iohn Brewster Christopher Earl Dudly Templer Gloucester Iohn Crofts William Neast Robert Holmes Southampton Richard Norton Richard Major Iohn Hildesly Hertford Henry Lawrence William Reeve Hereford Wroth Rogers Iohn Herring Huntington Edward Montague Stephen Pheasant Kent Lord Viscount Lisle Thomas Blount Wilâ—iam Kenrick William Cullen Andrew Broughton Lancaster William West Iohn Sawrey Robert Cunliff Leicester Henry Danvers Edward Smith Iohn Prat. Lincoln Sir William Brownlow Richard Cust. Barnaby Bowtel Humphrey Walcot William Thompson Middlesex Sir William Roberts Augustine Wingfield Arthur Squib Monmouth Philip Iones Northampton Sir Gilbert Pickering Thomas Brook Norfolk Robert Iermy Tobias Freere Ralph Wolmer Henry King William Burton Nottingham Iohn Oddingsels Edward Clud Oxon. Sir Charles Wolsley William Draper Dr. Ionathan Goddard Rutland Edward Horseman Salop. William Bottrel Thomas Baker Stafford George Bellot Iohn Chetwood Suffolk Iacob Caley Francis Brewster Robert Dunkon Iohn Clarke Edward Plumstead Somerset Robert Blake one of the Generals at Sea Iohn Pyne Dennis Hollister Henry Henley Surrey Samuel Highland Lawrence March Sussex Anthony Stapley William Spence Nathaniel Studeley Warwick Iohn St. Nicholas Richard Lucy Wilts Sir Anthony Ashly-Cooper Nicholas Green Thomas Eyre Worcester Richard Salwey Iohn Iames. York George Lord Eure. Walter Strickland Francis Lassels Iohn Anlaby Thomas Dickenson Thomas St. Nicholas Roger Coats Edward Gill. London Robert Titchborn Iohn Ireton Samuel Moyer Iohn Langley Iohn Stone Henry Barton Praise God Barebone Wales Bushy Mansel Iames Philips Iohn Williams Hugh Courtney Richard Price Iohn Brown Scotland Sir Iames Hope Alexander Bredy Iohn Swinton William Lockart Alexander Ieffries Ireland Sir Robert King Col. Iohn Hewson Col. Henry Cromwel Col. Iohn Clark Daniel Hutchison Vincent Gookyn Such an Assembly or Trim Tram was very unlikely to settle the Nation who though they expected all mischief imaginable from them yet could not forbear with the Sun in a Cloud to smile at their ridiculous unhappiness Indeed it was but a Cloud for it soon vanished and disappeared at the storm of Oliver's furious Ambition and therefore there needs not much more to be said of it than Astrologers do of Comets and Eclipses who reckon onely their continuance which was from the 4 of Iuly to the 12 of December in which these angry products were visible First an Act for Marriages by a Justice of Peace having been in debate by the Long Parliament the Banes to be published in the Market three several days and the words of that Sacred Ordinance onely inverted and the fashion changed with an Appendix concerning Church-Registers and a Proviso that no other Marriage should be valid and Lawful whereupon all civil people were forced to be twice joyned though but once Married Next after this Matrimonial Coupling in a wilder humour they fell upon a Consultation of Repudiating the Body of the Law by divorcing it from the People and a new Foundation to be laid and Systems of their own projections to be brought in the place of it and these were to be adequated to the measure and square of a Fifth Monarchy and those Monstrous absurdities Then in order thereunto an Act was hammering for abolishing of Tithes ejecting scandalous Ministers and constituting Commissioners to go the Circuit to enquire and visit the Parishes and most of their Debates were spent hereupon And lastly in preparation to Oliver's designe who yet managed and put them upon those enormous Whimseys to the making them most odious and all Parliameâ—ts with them though under pretence of grievance to many Godly people especially and the whole Nation in general the non-procedure at Law without subscribing the Engagement was taken away also all Fines upon Bills Declarations and Original Writs were taken off and the Chancery very neer a total subversion a Bill being ready to that purpose Those were their devices as to the Law and the Regulation of Government see the rest to the maintenance of it and the carrying on of the Affairs of the Commonwealth as their Secretaries tâ—â—med it First an Act was framed out of an Ordinance of the late preceding Council of State for a Lottery of the Rebels Lands in Ireland in which one Methuselah Turner a Linnen-draper in Cheapside and one Brandriffe a Cloth-drawer were Named Commissioners and had already sate in Grocers-Hall with such other most incompetent Judges of the affair In this Act the Rebellion was declared to be at an end and that the several Adventurers and Souldiers for their Arrears should have ten Counties set out and assigned for their satisfaction and if that should not satisfie the County of Louth should be added to make it up with many other clauses of length and restriction and this was passed as an Introduction to the Grand Grievance of Publick Faith-money undertaken by those shrimps which was able to crush their House full of such as Hercules but it was well applied to cajole the People many of whom had been very forward in supplies of Money to the Irish war and the Souldiers there that were to be made firm to Cromwel's Interest by such obligations of Lands and Estates A new Council of State was now of the same teeming but of a mightier strain Oliver and his Grand Officers and Partisans entirely constituting it not a puny of those
were rather Simon Magus his own Disciples and certainly there were never such Simoniacks in the World not a Living of value but what a Friend or the best Purchaser was admitted into to which Humane Learning even where a former Right was was a good and sufficient Bar no less to the Ruine than the Scandal of the Church of England and the Protestant Religion and professors thereof several ignorant bold Laicks being inducted into the best Spiritualities as best consisted with Oliver's Interest which depended upon the Sectaries and their hideous divisions in Religion Anno Dom. 1654. HAving thus described the Foundation of this Stratocracy or Army-power we shall not be obliged to any tedious survey of the superstructure which was onely for shew and of little duration supported with temporary shifting Props in every emergency for this great one rather inhabited a Labyrinth than a Court which shewed much variety of Art but like a House of Cards was ready to be whelmed over his Head with every gust of adverse Fortune a cross Restive Government he had of it and was never able to keep it in the right Road and true way of policy And so we proceed in a brief account of State-Occurrences The 6 of April came forth an Ordinance settling Commissioners for Probation of Wills and Administrations c. by want of which power there having been no settled Judge of the Prerogative-Court whose Name abolished the thing very great and many inconveniencies had happened to the Nation Another Ordinance prohibited Cock-matches and Horse-races and all such confluxes or meetings of people for a Plot was now a hatching at White-hall and this was the first overt-signe of it Next the Commission of the Great Seal was altered and Whitlock Lisle and Sir Thomas Widdrington were made Commissioners A Prohibition by another Ordinance to the Committee at Salters Hall concerning Prisoners which were selling of Estates though never so barred by Law to satisfie the Creditors which would have made a quick confusion of Propriety And the Dutch Peace the charge of the War being now paid by that State according to private agreement of the sum was fully concluded and in April Proclaimed A Quaking Prophetess named Hannah Trapnel a forerunner of Iames Naylor now appeared who reported her Visions and Raptures and was attended by several of the Grandees of the male-contented party as Carew and others the most of her delusions she acted in the Counties of Devonshire and Cornwal till she was with some of her Partizans secured in Prison The Scotch Affairs were reputed finished as to any War though the Bustle yet so held and encreased in the Highlands that the spoils of the Conquest were now set out and made accomptable to the Victor The Lords Estates and Hereditaments of the Scotch Nobility and Gentry who Invaded England under Duke Hamilton and came in with the King to Worcester and were yet in Arms were ordered to be sold and to that purpose were invested in the Trust of Sir William Hope Lockhart Sir Richard Saltonstall Lieutenant-Colonel Wilks and others and were actually seized into their hands and the rest of them were Fined in several sums of Money to be paid within six Months some 2000 l. some 5000 l. some few 10000 l. but none under 1000 l. amounting to a greater mass of silver than Scotland was worth in ready Cash so that those who were compell'd to obey though many complemental and humble applications and addresses as is customary to that Nation were made for mitigation were forced to take up Money at unreasonable Interest which rose at last by the like occasions to 30 in the hundred An Ordinance passed with this for uniting of Scotland into one Commonwealth with England it seems the Act of Parliament to the same purpose was not sufficient and the Arms thereof ordered to be quartered as were the Irish with our Cross and Harp and Oliver's Lion Salâ—ant was placed in the middle which is as good Herauldry as this Escutcheon deserves That Kingdom by vertue thereof to be charged no otherwise in Assessments and Tax than proportionably to England and to pay no greater Excise c. An Ordinance likewise for mending and repairing Highways and Bridges which the War had spoiled and were yet every where unrepaired a very necessary and good work for the benefit of the Nation no Waggon being suffered thereafter to travel with above five Horses nor six Oxen and one Horse and care was taken likewise about the shodding of the Wheels General Monke arrives in Scotland and Proclaims Oliver in great state at Edenburgh and Arguile plainly and openly sides with the English and foments divisions among the Scots his Son the Lord Lorn departing in a discontent and quarrel from the Earl of Glencarn and returning to the old Fox his Father The French King Crowned at Rheims having been declared Major and our Soveraign invited to the Solemnity while the Intrigues of Mazarine were driving a conclusion of peace with Cromwel The Designe now appeared which Oliver had hatched for some while and had laboured by his treacherous Agents to mature to something therefore first of all a general search is made throughout London for Cavaliers and thereupon Colonel Iohn Gerrard as before Mr. Vowel and Somerset Fox were brought before the High Court of Iustice Proclaimed the 13 and sitting the 31 of Iune in which interval they had prepared their business and provided Witnesses and drew up the Charge After twice or thrice Conventing of the aforesaid Gentlemen an Accusation was brought of their intention to assassinate the Protector with one Major Henshaw and others fled to the proof whereof they produced young Mr. Charles Gerrard against his Brother as also one Wiseman and one Mr. Hudson a blinde Minister whose Brother was that eminent person who accompanied and guarded the late King in his flight from Oxford that had been cherished by Mr. Vowel against him who yet retracted from his Examination and could not be brought by the threats of the Court to make it good and yet they made it valid Somerset Fox as he was instructed before by promise of Life confessing the Guilt thereby involving the other two innocent Gentlemen and craving mercy It availed not them to deny this Charge though never so much reason and strength of argument on their side Lisle the President summing up the prejudiced suffrages of the Court gave Sentence of Hanging which was Executed Iuly the 10 on Mr. Vowel at Charing-Cross where with a Roman Spirit tempered with Christian Patience he suffered his Martyrdom off from a Stool â—etcht from the Guard the adjacent Neighbours refusing to lend any thing to his Death the Executioner having his Ladder not in readiness Colonel Gerrard was Beheaded on Tower-hill who expresly denied the intention of the Fact and from this reason because he thought it might be far from the honour and great minde of the King whose injunction this was said
Fourth the Demeasnes and Jurisdiction whereof lay in the Dutchy of Normandy in France under the English Soveraginty and Earl of Torrington in his own native County of Devon and Baron of Potheridge his own Patrimony Beauchamp and Teyes by which he hath right of Peerage in the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he advanced and raised before himself and now most deservingly shared with them by his Investiture in these Dignities which were compleated Iuly the 13 by his taking his place in the House of Lords attended by the House of Commons and introduced by the Duke of Buckingham In the same month General Montague was created Earl of Sandwich Viscount Hinchingbrooke his famous Mannor in Huntingtonshire and Baron of St. Neots in the same County and on the 16 of Iuly took likewise his place in the House of Peers where they both shine with that degree of splendor by which the Duke reduced and the Earl dawned at the day of Englands Glory and Liberty The Duke of Ormond was likewise made Earl of Brecknock and took his place among the Peers of England he was also made Lord Steward of his Majesties Houshold as the Earl of Lindsey was made Lord High-Chamberlain the Earl of Manchester Lord Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold and the Earl of Southampton Lord High-Treasurer of England Sir Frederick Cornwallis was made Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old Grant and Sir Iohn Berkley Comptroller and other Royalists were made Officers therein Several presents were made to the King from the several Cities and Boroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and resignation of Fee-farm-rents purchased from the Usurpers among the rest the City of London with a Complement of their good Stewardship by the mouth of their Recorder Sir William Wilde rendred their like Grant of New Parke in Surrey All the Rents accruing at Michaelmas-day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Kings Queens Bishops Dean and Chapters lands for the use of the right and unquestionable Proprietors to the defeating the miserable and unjust covetousness of such undue and unwarrantable penniworths A splendid Embassy came this Month of August from Denmark to congratulate his Majesties most happy Restitution as a little before the Lord Iermyn newly made Earl of Saint Albans the Title last failing in the renowned Marquess of Clanrickard Vlick de Burgh who had so eminently asserted his Majesties Rights in Ireland and after the reduction thereof came into England and died in London in some distress far unfitting his nobleness of minde as well as former most honourable Estate a while before the Kings Return was sent to France in the quality of Lord Embassador Extraordinary to that Crown Soon after the Prince de Ligne with a right Princely Train and retinue becoming the grandeur of the Affair he was sent to Congratulate from his Majesty of Spain betwixt whom and this Kingdom a Peace after a six years War was lately Proclaimed was with great state received and had solemn Audience by the King and departed and was succeeded by the Baron of Battevile to be Resident and Embassador in Ordinary at this Court. From the French King soon after came another Illustrious and grand Personage upon the same account by name the Count of Soissons who had married the Cardinal's Neece and entred and was entertained here with all sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence In sum there was no Prince nor State in Europe who sent not or were not a sending their Embassador upon this wonderful occasion The Parliament after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finished the Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent to the regret of many injured Royalists who found no better perswasive to their acquiescence in it but their unalterable duty to the King whose special Act this was Out of this were only excepted the Regicides and Murderers of their late Soveraign as to Life and Estate besides Colonel Lambert and Sir Henry Vane and Twenty others reserved to such Forfeitures as should by Parliament be declared the principal of these were Sir Arthur Haselrig Oliver Saint Iohn William Lenthal the Speaker Mr. Ny the Independent Minister Burton of Yarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major-Generals of the Army amongst whom was Desborough Pine Butler Ireton c. They passed likewise an Act for a perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May the day of his Majesties Birth and Restauration a day indeed memorable and the most auspicious in our English Kalendar and worthy of a Parliaments Canonization Both which his Majesty gave his Royal Assent to as at the Adjournment to another for Disbanding of the Army and paying off the Navy which once looked upon us with the same feared perpetual danger as the Mamalukes or Ianizaries but by this happy conjuncture of his Majesties Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness yielded after many Modules to its last Dissolution Great sums by Pole-money and other Assessments were imposed and speedily and cheerfully levied and paid to finish this desired work which had before wasted so many Millions of Treasure Mr. Scowen Mr. Pryn Col. King and Sir Charles Doyley were appointed Commissioners to disband them to which the Souldiery very willingly and with thanks to the King submitted the King giving them a Weeks pay as a Donative and Largess The Parliament adjourned till the 6 of November These Felicities of the King we have hitherto insisted on as the course of all worldly things is guided were abated and allayed by the immature and most lamented Death of the right Excellent Prince Henry Duke of Gloucester his Majesties youngest Brother a Prince of very extraordinary hopes Silence will best become our lamentation for his vertues and our loss of them transcend expression He died of the Small-pox Aged Twenty years and two months after much Blood-letting and was Interred with a private Funeral in Henry the Seventh's Chappel at Westminster just before the arrival of his Sister the Princess of Orange who came to joy and felicitate her Brothers in their happy Restitution With the King and Monarchy the Ecclesiastical Regiment by Bishops recovered it self by his Majesties Piety and Prudence that Aphorism being most sadly verified No Bishop No King and therefore on the 20 of September Dr. Iuxon Bishop of London that antient and excellent Prelate was by the King translated from that See to the Arch-bishoprick of Canterbury which was performed with great Solemnity and not long after several new Bishops persons the most eminent and valiant assertors of the Church and Laws of England were Consecrated in the Abby at Westminster and all the Diocesses filled of which together presently in an ensuing Catalogue Divine Vengeance had with a slow foot traced the murtherers of our Martyr'd Soveraign and through several Mazes at last overtook them the iron hand of Justice delivering them to the punishment due to that grand impiety nor was it
Duke of Ormond who hath so often Governed this Realm hath given the greatest pledges of assurance of an happy Establishment whose beginning I will not trouble with the short-lived rumours of Commotions and Stirs now very frequent and rise by the Arts of our Male-Contents Thus far have I deduced the account of the Three Kingdoms from the most Funest War to a blessed and most promising Peace to us and our Posterity and may there be in the succeeding years of His Majesties and his Royal Progenies Reign which Almighty God derive through innumerable descents no other occasion of our Pens than the gratulatory Records of our undisturbed unalterable Repose Plenty and Tranquillity A BRIEF ACCOUNT Of the most Memorable TRANSACTIONS IN ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND AND Forein Parts From the Year 1662 to the Year 1675. LONDON Printed by I. C. for T. Basset at the George near Cliffords-Inne in Fleetstreet 1676. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF TRANSACTIONS IN ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND c. THere is a justice due to the Memory of Actions as well as the Memory of Men and therefore since the times of Usurpation have had the favour done them as to have the Transactions of those Years publikely recorded though to the shame of those Times that had nothing but Enormity to signalize 'em with more justice may we assay to take a short view of those great and Noble Actions perform'd in the succeeding Years Not that we pretend to a History but in short â—â—â—nals and brief Collections to facilitate the way for those that shall hereafter take a larger and more considerable pains Anno Dom. 1663. THat which the expectations of people were most fix'd upon the beginning of this Year was the Session of Parliament which beginning on the 19 th of February 1662 continued to the 27 th of Iuly 1663. The first thing remarkable was a Petition of both Houses Representing that notwithstanding his Majesties unquestionable zeal and affection to the Protestant Religion manifested by his constant prosession and practice against all temptations whatsoever yet by the great resort of Iesuits and Romish Priests into the Kingdom the Subject was generally much affected with jealousie that the Popish Religion might much encrease and the Church and State be thereby insensibly disturb'd upon which the King set forth a Proclamation Commanding all Iesuits and Irish Scotch and English Priests to depart the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales before the 14 th of May then next ensuing upon pain of having the penalty of the Laws inflicted upon them But while they are bringing other Consultations to maturity many other things preceding the Conclusion of their deliberations are to be related In April his Majesty kept the Feast of St. George at Windsor where the Duke of Monmouth and the Prince of Denmark by his Deputy Sir George Carteret Vice-chamberlain were install'd Knights of the Garter Toward the later end of May came News from Iamaica that the English under the Command of Capt. Mymms being about 800 men had made an attempt upon the City of Campeach in the Golden Territories of the King of Spain and that they took the Town though defended with four Forts and 3000 men But the Spaniards having intelligence of their coming had sent away their Women and Riches yet though they miss'd their chief aim they took the Governour brought away 50 pieces of Ordnance and 14 Ships which were in Harbor The beginning of Iune brought News of a Conspiracie of several wicked persons in Ireland who were endeavoring to raise a new Rebellion there by surprizing the Castle of Dublin The Designe was to have been put in execution upon the 21 th of May and the Dâ—ke of Ormond first to be seiz'd To which effect divers persons with Petitions in their hands were to wait in the Castle while 80 Foot in the disguise of Handicrafts-men attended without Their business it was to trifle about for an opportunity to surprize the Guards The Plot was discovered and 500 lib. a head set upon five of the Ringleaders to what persons soever should apprehend them About this time his Majesty caus'd the Earl of Middleton's Commission as Commissioner of Scotland to cease and appointed the Earl of Rothes to succeed him in the same Quality On the third of Iune His Majesty by his Commission under the Great Seal of England to the Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Duke of Albemarle Marquess of Dorchester and Lord High Chamberlain pass'd ten Bills which were all private ones but three of which the chiefest was for repair of the High-ways of Huntington Hertford and Cambridge-shires About the beginning of December Mr. Paul Rycaut Secretary to the Earl of Winchelsey came from Constantinople bringing with him the Grand Seigniors Ratifications of the several Treaties made with Argier and as a mark of the Kings satisfaction in the management of his Employment and the Message he brought His Majesty was pleas'd to honour him with a fair gold Chain and a Medal No less mindful was he of the Loyalty of his Island of Iersey and as a reward thereof muâ—â—bout the same time he order'd a stately silver Mace richly gilt to be bestowed upon the Bayliff or Chief Magistrate of the Island to be born ever after before him and his Successors as an honourable Badge of his Majesties affection to them for their constant adhering both to his Father and Himself It was received with all imaginable demonstrations of joy and the first that had the honour to have it born before him was Philip Carteret Esq. Brother to Sir George Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty But now so loud and so hainous were the rebellious Treasons daily discovered in the North that it was thought convenient to give requitals of another nature and in the depth of winter to send a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to York for trial of the most notorious Offenders in that Conspiracie Seventeen were first arraign'd ten of which appeared to have been actually in arms at Farnley-wood The Plot was excellently open'd to have been a Designe which came from the Bishoprick about a year before and that an Intelligence was settled between the disaffected there and in Yorkshire as also in Ipswich in Suffolk and other Counties an Oath of Secresie taken and Agents employ'd at London and in the West of England for assistance In Iune preceding two Agitators were sent into Scotland to reconcile the Sectaries there who were entertained at one Oldroyd's house in Deusbury commonly known by the name of the Devil of Deusbury and afterwards divers meetings were appointed at a place called Stanh-house in York-shire Whereupon Marshden and Palmer were sent to London as Agitators to the Secret Committee there and at their return brought Orders to rise the 12 th of Octob. with assurance that the Insurrection should be general and Whitehal be attempted Nottingham Glocester and Newcastle were to be seized as Passes
the Sword The Town miserably plundred Aberdeen yielded St. Andrews Fined 500 l. Scotch Nobles taken at Ellet in the Highlands and Sir John Daniel and Col. Douglas taken at Dumfreiz Aug. A New Representative debated of The High Court of Justice pardons Mr. Jenkins and others Cap. Symkins Sir Timothy Fetherstonhaugh and Col. Benbow Executed Oct. The Earl of Derby Beheaded at Bolton Octob. 15. Several other Royalists taken James Hinde the sam'd High-way-man taken and Hang'd drawn and quartered at Worcester The Estates of the Lord Craven and other Royalists exposed to sale General Popham 's Funeral Octob. 24. The Scotch Union projected Commissioners named to go into Scotland Gen. Monke protects the Marq. of Montross his Children and Family Limerick besieged by Deputy Ireton for the Parl. Hugh O Neal Gâ—vâ—râ—our tâ—ereof Ireton defeâ—ted before Limerick Limerick 〈◊〉 October 29. Sir Charles Coâ—t 〈◊〉 a party of Irish. Clare Castle taken by the English Ireton dies of the Plague at Limerick Nov. 25. Edmund Ludlow constituted in his place Ireton lies in state at Summerset house His Character Jersey surrendâ—â—d Nov. and Dec. to the Parliament Mount Orgueil and Elizabeth Castle â—urrendred Isle of Man reduced Dec. Barbadoes reduced by Sir Geo Ayscue Jan. Lord Willoughby Governour thereof St. Christophers the same The Scotch Kirk reject and declare against the Union Monarchy abolished in Scotland Jan. Dumbarton surrendered Jan. 5 by Sir Charles Erskin to the Parliament The Dutch Commerce and Fishing molested at Sea The 1 of Dec. the time limited by tâ—â— Act â—â—omacked by the Dutch The Dutch Embassadors tâ—eat January The Parliament publish an Act of Oblivion John Lilburn Banished Josiah Primate fined 4000 l. Lord Clanrickard sues to Lieu. Gen. Ludlow for a peace His Answer Arguile treats with Commissioners at Dumbarton Blackness Castle ordered to be blown up Moss-Troopers busie and mischievous Several places in Ireland taken by the English An Act for removing obstructions in the sale of Crown-lands Black-monday March 29 predicted by Will. Lilly The King at Paris April The Duke of York Renowned for this Service The King at St. Germains with the Marq. of Ormond and E. of Castlehaven Several parties of the Irish submit Lord Clanrickard takes Ballishannon and Dungal Castle Lord Muskerry yields Galloway surrendered Irelands Râ—ines Submissions and surrenders Ballishannon retaken and Slego surrendered to the Parliament The affairs of Scotland Dunotter Castle yielded May 28. Citadels built in Scotland The rise of the Dutch War A great Fire at Glascow Congleton Chuâ—â—h in Cheshire fired by Lightning The like Fire in Essex The State-house of Amsterdam burnt Sâ—a-fights seen in the Air. An Encounter between the Forces of England and Holland Capt. Young 's Letter Gen. Blake 's Letter Maj. Bourne 's Relation Admiral Trump 's Letter to the States of Holland The Datch Embassadors Paper to the Council of State The Parliaments Answer thereunto Their Demands Trump in the Downs The English and Dutch Fleets July Encounter They are scattered by a Storm Blake takes several of their Frigats and divers Prisoners De Buyter and Sir Geo Ayscue 's Engagement at Plymouth Au. 16. Sir Geo Ayscue rewarded for hâ—s service The States of Holland excite several Princes to assist them The Lord Embassador Monsieur Paw dieth of a surfeit by broyld Salmon Marq. Clanrickard lays down Arms. Cromwel 's designe upon the Parliament appears Dunkirk taken by the Spaniard and the French Fleet with relief seized by Geâ— Blake A General Assembly in Scotland Dismist by Lieu. Col. Cotterel De Ruyter with a Fleet at the mouth of the Channel De Wit joyns with him De Wit worsted by Blake Marq. of Worcester taken and committed to the Tower Mutiny in Holland Some of their Seamen Executed A Fleet of War sent to the Sound c. Lord Hopton dyes at Bruges in Flanders September The Earl of Rochester to the Diet in Germany Van Trump at Sea with a Fleet. Blake defeated in the Downs by Trump Nov. 29. The Dutch Seamen steal Sheep at Rumney Marsh and come off with loss Trump neer the Isle of Wight The Phoenix regained Nov. 30 by Capt. Cox The Parliaments three Geâ—â—rals Blake Dean and Monke A Maâ—que on the Taxes The Dutch Bravadoes The Duke of Gloucester sent away from Carisbrook to Dunkirk Feb. Conducted into France by the Lords Langdale and Inchiqueen The French Envy M. Bourdeaux owns the State c. December The Portugal Embassador concludes The Dutch forbid any to supply the English with provisions of War Torce of their Hamburgh ships laden with Plate taken A High Court of Iustice in Ireland Iustice Donelan President thereof Several persons Condemned Lord Muskerry taken and committed to Dublin Castle Sir Phelim O Neal the great Rebel hanged c. The Condition of Ireland The Priests Banished Cromwel and his Officers keep a Fast. Seamens Wages raised The Kings Houses of Hampton Court to be sold c. Moneys thereâ—pon at six per cent Agent Bradshaw to Copenhagen He is affronted and in danger English under Blake at Sea Van Trump returns through the Channel Feb. Portland fight Feb. 18 between Dutch and English Stoutly maintained on either side A Fight at Leghorn March 2. The English worsted Prince Maurice drowned in the West-India's Prince Rupert arrives in France Mar. De Wit at sea with another Fleet. The Dutch designe of weakning us by taking our Colliers Sir John Gell and several Scots released from the Tower and others preferred * Twelve Parliament-men for a penny The manner of dissolving the Parliament A Declaration of the General and Council of Officers about the Dissolution c. * An Act for filling up the Parliament Addresses to Cromwel Vice-Admiral Pen in the Downs with a Fleet of 70 sail Cromwel a Dictator A Council of State Marlborough burnt Ap. 28. Lord Digby honoured with the order of the Garter Ulster forces in Ireland submit Trump in the Downs having given the English a go-by Engaged by Gen. Monke and Dean c. June 2 Gen. Dean slain Trump defeated June 2 3. The Dutch hang out a white Flag and send a Messenger to the English in order to a Peace A new Parliament called The Summons New Scotch Troubles The Dutch Trade at a stand The last Dutch Engagement between Gen. Monke and Van Trump on the Coast of Holland July 29. Van Trump slain and the Dutch defeated July 31. Gold Chains and Meddals ordered by the Parl. to be given to the chief Commanders and Officers A Thanksgiving appointed De Wit conveys a great Fleet from the Sound Lord Opdam made Lieutenant-Admiral in place of Van Trump who was Interred at Delf in great State Little Parliament met July 4. Mr. Francis Rouse their Speaker Called Barebone 's Parliament a Leather-sellers Name in Fleetstreet one of the said Convention The Names of the Parliament men Act for Marriages A new Body of the Law to be made An Act for â—â—â—â—h Adventurers and Allotments Whitlock Embassador to Sweden A Summary of what