asked why His Majesty had called him the King said to be a Witness of what was done and because he had been before acquainted with the proceedings of that business he was also to be informed of what passed thereafter Then the Marquis desired to know what the Bishops expected he could doe they answered nothing but procure the Peace of the Country and good of the Church he desired they would contribute their assistance for reclaiming the Ministery who were once conformable and for the Ministers that were censured but were now stirring he should deal with them They answered their power was small at that time and their danger great and so inclined to stay still at London but that was overruled the Marquis undertaking that so far as in him lay he should stand betwixt them and danger The Archbishop of Canterbury said much and well on this head so it was agreed that they should go home Next the King expressed how necessary he conceived it was that every one of them should live in their own Diocese Canterbury seconded this and the Bishops acknowledged it was the best way Much was said concerning General Assemblies and that Ecclesiastical matters ought to have been introduced by them and the Marquis was ordered to give assurance that in all time coming nothing substantial should be introduced in the Church but by them Much debate passed about the Oath of admission of Ministers and it was concluded it should be no other than what was warranted by the Law and the Bishops were required to be sparing and moderate for the present both in urging that and the Ceremonies All this His Majesty concluded with his wishes for good success adding that the Marquis had been so far from seeking this Imployment that he had commanded him much against his will to undertakâ— the journey This was in the beginning of May and upon the 7th of May Letters were directed to Scotland giving notice of the Resolutions taken to the Nobility the Marquis wrote also to all his Friends and Dependers to meet him at Hadington the 5th of Iune The next thing that was taken into consideration was the drawing up of his Instructions A Commission in the ordinary form being first drawn there were two Proclamations signed by the King both which are extant the one written with the Earl of Traquair's hand the other by the Marquis the first whereof follows CHARLES R. CHARLES by the Grace of God King of Scotland England The Proclamation sent by the Marquis France and Ireland Defender of the Faith to our Lovits our Sheriffs in that part conjunctly and severally specially constitute Greeting Forsamiekle as We are not ignorant of the great Disorders which have happened of late within this Our ancient Kingdom of Scotland occasioned as is pretended upon the introduction of the Service-book Book of Canons and High Commission thereby fearing Innovations of Religion and Laws for satisfaction of which Fears We well hoped that the two Proclamations of the eleventh of December and nineteenth of February had been abundantly sufficient nevertheless finding that Disorders have daily so increased that a powerful rather than a persuasive way might have been justly expected from Vs yet We out of Our innate Indulgence to Our People grieving to see them run themselves so headlong into Ruine are graciously pleased to try if by a fair way We can reclaim them from their faults rather than let them perish in the same And therefore once for all We have thought fit to declare and hereby to assure all Our good People that We neither are were nor by the Grace of God ever shall be stained with Popish Superstition but by the contrary are resolved to maintain the true Protestant Christian Religion already professed within this Our ancient Kingdom And for further clearing of Scruples We do hereby assure all men that We will neither now nor hereafter press the practice of the aforesaid Canons and Service-book or any thing of that nature but in such a fair and legal way as shall satisfie all Our loving Subjects that We neither intend Innovation in Religion or Laws and for the High Commission We shall so rectifie it with the help of advice of Our Privy Council that it shall never impugn the Laws nor be a just Grievance to Our Loyal Subjects And as hereby it may appear how careful We are to satisfie the foresaid Fears how needless soever of Our good Subjects * So We do hold Our Selves obliged both in Conscience and Honour to hinder the course of that which may prejudge that Royal Authority which God has endued Vs with wherefore understanding that many of Our Subjects have run themselves into seditious and undutiful courses and willing to reduce them rather by a benign than forcible mean because We hope that most of them are drawn thereto blindly out of fear of Innovations are content hereby to declare and promise upon the Word of a King to pardon what is past and not to take notice of the by-gone faults no not so much as of those factious and seditious Bonds upon condition that they seek to Our Mercy by disclaiming the same and in testification of the true sense of their Misdemeanors that they deliver up or continuâ— with their best endeavours to procure the delivering up of the said Bonds into the hands of Our Council or such as Our Council shall appoint Declaring always likeas We by these presents do declare all these to be esteemed and reputed as Traitors in all time coming that shall not renounce and disclaim the said Bond or Bonds within after the publication hereof that is to say Whosoever will from henceforth be thought a good Subject and capable of Our Mercy must either deliver up the same in case he have it or concur with his best endeavours to the delâ—vering up thereof or at least must come to some of Our Privy Council or chief Officers in Burgh or Land and testifie to him that he renounces and disclaims the said Bonds Our Will is therefore and We charge you straitly and command that incontinent this Our Letteâ— seen c. C. R. The other Proclamation penned by the Marquis agrees with the former to the place that is marked * after which it follows thus Another Proclamation So We expect that their behaviour will be such as may give testimony of their Obedience and how sensible they are of Our Grace and Favour that thus pass over their Misdemeanours and by their future carriage make appear it was onely the fear of Innovations that caused those Disorders that have happened of late in this Our Kingdom which now cannot but by this Our Declaration be removed from the hearts of Our loving Subjects but on the contrary if we find not this performed with that chearfulness and alacrity that becomes good and obedient Subjects We declare and hold Our Self obliged in Honour and Conscience to make use of those forcible means which God hath armed Royal Authority with
Peers advised a Settlement with Scotland and a Parliament in England Strafford's Advice was more severe and the Marquis pressed a Pacification But though their Opinions varied yet their Friendship continued since both had the same designs for the Kings Honour and Service A recruit of Money which was beginning to run low was not to be hoped without a Parliament and their late experience told on how uneasie terms that was to be had Earl Lowdon also assured the Marquis by his Letters that the Covenanters were well armed well commanded and very resolute nor did they doubt of a strong Party in England and therefore shewed how dangerous it would prove to His Majesties Affairs if a Treaty should not presently follow The Marquis little regarding how ill these Counsels would be represented by others used all his Industry to prevail with the King for a Pacification on any terms since none could be so bad as the hazard the King was like to run if matters continued so broken for it was now apparent how faintly His Majesties Forces did serve him and with how much resolution the Scotish Armies proceeded neither were they without fears in their own Army and that many of the Peers and People of England would have assisted the Scots if matters had run to extremities A Breach betwixt the Marquis and the Earl of Montrose But at that time a passage fell out which drew after it a tract of great Troubles on the Marquis The Earl of Montrose had in Iuly that year procured a Meeting of some Noblemen at Cumbermwald the Earl of Wigtons house where there was a Bond signed by them of adherence to one another in pursuance of the Covenant and from New-Castle he continued to keep Correspondence with His Majesty notwithstanding an Act that had passed in the Committee that none should under pain of Death write any Letters to the Court but such as were seen and allowed of by at least three of the Committee But this Correspondence of my Lord Montrose came to the knowledge of the Covenanters and there were ill Instruments who suggested that this Advertisement must have been given by the Marquis which being too easily believed occasioned a Breach betwixt them that could never be made up And Sanderson hath had the Impudence not only to fasten this on him but as if there had not been Imputation enough in it he adds that the Marquis had in the night picked His Majesties Pockets for his Letters Indeed he needed not take such Courses had he been capable of that Treachery for the Kings Confidence in him was such that he delivered all the Letters he had from Scotland to his keeping and if he had designed such a thing upon Montrose it was in his Power to have done it long before for in October and December of the former year Montrose had writ much in the same strain to the King which Letters the King gave him and are yet extant but were never heard off till now that the Writer gives this account of them But the way how that Letter was discovered was this the Covenanters sent Sir Iames Mercer to York with their Letters to my Lord Lanerick of September the 14 th with whom my Lord Montrose sent his Servant with Letters to some of his Friends at Court and these Letters had been shown to the Committee but as he sealed them up he put within one to Sir Richard Grahame a Letter to the King which had not been seen and Sir Richard opening his Letter carelesly the inclosed to the King dropt out whereupon Sir Iames Mercer being near him stooped down in civility to take up the Letter and read the Direction of it and he returning next day to the Scotish Camp told what he had seen to the General who in a Committee that sate that afternoon wherein it was my Lord Montrose's turn to preside said that the Gentleman they had sent must be examined concerning any Letters he carried to the Court and so he was called in and examined But Montrose understanding that his Correspondence with the King was discovered said that seeing others kept a Correspondence with the Court he knew not why he might not do it as well as they it was answered if others were guilty that did not excuse his fault but when that could be made out against any they were liable to the same Censure he had now incurred whereupon he was commanded to keep his Chamber and he called a great many of his Friends to him to try who would adhere to him whereupon the General bade the Earl of Calender who was then Lieutenant-General tell him that if he came not and submitted himself he would hold a Council of War upon him and proceed against him Capitally Upon this my Lord Montrose came and produced a Copy of the Letter he said he had written and craved pardon and so this Matter was passed over â—ut it was suspected that his Letter had been sent to the Covenanters by the Marquis whereas indeed they knew no more of his Letter but what they had from Sir Iames Mercer who read the Address of it and so they knew not what was in it but by the Copy he produced Yet this went current for the Marquis his Treachery though Sir Iames Mercer did often vouch the truth of this before many Witnesses and particularly particularly to Sanderson himself before Noble Witnesses who acknowledged his Mis-information and promised to expunge that in the next Edition of his Book though there are no grounds to fear the Woâ—ld will ever be troubled with another Edition of so ill a Book The Treaty at Rippon In the end of September a Treaty was agreed upon and His Majesty named the Marquis and my Lords of Traquair and Lanerick to be amongst the Commissioners who should Treat in His name But the Covenanters excepted against the Marquis and Traquair whom they intended to pursue as Incendiaries and therefore they could not Treat with them as for Lanerick they had nothing to fasten on him Upon this the King resolved to send none but English Lords conceiving it not fitting to send any Scotchman if the persons he had imployed as Commissioners were not of the number Rippon a little Town fifteen miles from York was appointed to be the place of Treaty instead of Northallertown and the King sent the English Lords thither appointing Traquair and Lanerick to wait upon them for giving them Information of Scotish Affairs but he kept the Marquis to wait upon Himself The Treaty begun at Rippon and after a few days by reason of the new Parliament the King had summoned against the beginning of November was removed to London The Covenanters Demands were the same with those contained in their Letter of the 8th of September about which they continued Treating till the Iune of the next year and so this year ended But here I shall insert a Paper all written with His Majesties hand which though it do not relate
should I be an undertaker to the Parliament for either having neither my Instructions nor Directions from Him to mention to the Parliament or any Member there But these Reports proceed from such who perhaps if the matter were looked into have said what probably they will not make good and so endeavour to make other men bear the Burthen I am not sorry they have joyned you with me in this since it cannot prove your disadvantage the thing being so eminently false I see my Enemies malice will have no end and when they want other grounds Sickness is enough for them to take advantage of but if they had been in the Condition that I have been in these three weeks they would have been more charitable and so I leave them The uncertainty of my Recovery hath made me write thus much to you and truely not without trouble that you may let His Majesty know my Innocency in these particulars and that I still continue in a Condition not able to attend Him which is a great grief to Your faithful Friend and Servant HAMILTON Whitehall 7th April 1642. In the middle of April the King signified to his Council in Scotland his Design of going in Person against the Rebels in Ireland The King thinks of going to Ireland which he purposed both to put more vigour in the Army by his Presence as also to refute those Calumnies were spread upon him as if he inclined to Popery and had been accessory to the late Rebellion with which damnable Calumnies his Enemies were beginning to asperse him But the Scotish Council as well as the Two Houses but that motion is disliked by both Nations interceded earnestly with him against this Design pretending the Hazard his Sacred Person would be in Some judged that they were afraid lest by such a real Argument the Calumnies were cast on His Majesty and scattered among the Vulgar for carrying on their Designs might be refuted and some feared lest His Majesty had he gone to the Army might have gained too much upon their Hearts whereby he might have been in a Condition to have over-awed the Two Houses In May the Scotish Council sent up the Lord Chancellor to offer a Mediation for a better Understanding betwixt the King and the Two Houses but the King was much irritated The Chancellor of Scotland sent to mediate betwixt the King and the Two Houses by the Affront he had lately received before Hull from Hotham He likewise found the Chancellor insisting on Vniformity of Church-Government therefore he ordered his return into Scotland and gave him a full account of all had passed betwixt him and his Two Houses requiring him to give a true representation of it to his Council there In the end of the Month the Marquis had recovered so much Strength as to come and wait on the King at York where he would gladly have prosecuted his former Counsels for advancing a Settlement betwixt the King and his Two Houses but he knew not how to advise the King to grant more than he had already yielded to which as the King said to him was more than had been granted by all the Kings of England since the Conquest adding that though he had gone a great length in Concessions to them they had not obliged him by one favourable Vote so that nothing remained for the Marquis but to lament the Kings Misfortune yet he offered the uttermost of his Services to him and subscribed for the pay of threescore Horse in the Kings Army But he represented to His Majesty the Hazard of Scotland's concurring with the Two Houses which the King might easily apprehend both from the late carriage of their Commissioners and from what he knew of their Temper especially of the Ministers Zeal and Power with the People For his own part he said he was able to do the King small Service any where but having neither Interest friends nor followers in England he would be but a burden to His Majesty there but if he could signifie any thing it was in Scotland where he should use his utmost Endeavours to divert them from assisting the Kings Enemies for to expect Aid from them was not to be thought upon His Majesty judging this most expedient sent him to Scotland without any positive Instructions recommending only to him his Service in General of which he was so confident that he wrote the following Letter after him Hamilton and is sent by the King to Scotland I Have no time to write Particulars and to perswade you to serve me I suppose that I have less need than time therefore in a word this is a Time to shew what you are assuring you that at all times I will shew that I am Your most assured and constant Friend CHARLES R. MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James Duke of Hamilton c. LIB IV. Of the Duke's and his Brother the Earl of Lanerick's Negotiation in Scotland till their Imprisonment THE Marquis came to Edinburgh in the beginning of Iuly Great Jealousies of the King in Scotland and found very many disgusted with him for his late concurrence in the Council at York as a Peer of England He studied by all means to remove the wicked Insinuations which some in England had sent to Scotland against the King the most hurtful of them was about his favouring of Popery and his Designs of falling upon Scotland by Force as soon as he had mastered the Two Houses These were zealously propagated by the Emissaries from England and all Places sounded with the danger Religion was in so that he found his Negotiation was like to prove again unfortunate The only means by which he had any hopes of engaging Scotland in the Kings Quarrel was to move that an Invitation might be sent from Scotland to the Queen for her return whom the Tumults at London had driven beyond Sea that she might mediate for a Settlement betwixt the King and the Two Houses This he judged might insensibly draw them on to own the Kings Service for if the Queen came upon their Invitation they would be obliged in Honour to protect her and see that she met with no Injuries and to resent such as should be done her and therefore he sent a confident Friend to give His Majesty an account of the Posture things were in according to the following Instructions SHew His Majesty with what a prejudicated Opinion I was received by reason of what I have done at York which I still lie under Shew in what Temper I found this Kingdom occasioned as I conceive by the apprehension they have of His Majesties not observing what He hath already granted if He shall be in a Condition to force them seeâ—â—g it is believed that what He hath given was against His Will Next divers eminent Persons apprehend that if He obtain His ends by Force they will be neglected and Persons obnoxious to this Kingdom cherished Shew that some activâ— mâ—n will not lie
more Messages as may be most for His Majesties Honour and Peace of His Kingdoms which if they shall refuse or despise I hope we will not then forget that it is our King that is reduced to this necessity and that we will never look on unconcerned where he is so deeply engaged I hope you will pardon the Trouble I give you in reading this long ill-written Letter for had I not been Commanded to it by a Power which God willing I shall never disobey it had not been hazarded on by Your most humble Servant LANERICK Nottingham the last of August 1642. The Marquis took all the pains imaginable on Argyle and Lowdon to perswade them to a cordial owning of the Kings Service Much pains taken to engage Scotland to the Kings Service as the only way to give Scotland a lasting Interest in the Kings Affection which also would make them famous all the World over And since the Scotish Troubles had involved the King in all His difficulties it was just they should study to extricate him and for the pretence of Religion with which the English were cajoling our Scotish Clergy he said he was to be pardoned if he presumed to know them better than they could assuring them that Religion was only pretended by them He took also a great deal of pains in many others to prepare them against the day in which the Conservatours were to meet to which Lanerick came with the following Letter from His Majesty Right trusty c. The Kings Letter to the Conservatours of the Peace HAving been informed that upon Petition of the Commissioners from Our late General Assembly Our Council thought fit that you should meet for discharging of that Trust imposed on you by Vs and Our Parliament whereby all fair means may be used to prevent such Troubles and Divisions as may interrupt or endanger the common Peace of Our Kingdom And as it ought to be the continual study of all Good and Pious Princes to preserve their People so certainly it is the Duty of all Loyal and Faithful Subjects to maintain the Greatness and Iust Authority of their Princes so that without this reciprocal Endeavour there can be no Happiness for the Prince nor Security for the People We are sure Our late Actions in Scotland will to all posterity be an acceptable witness of Our Care in preserving the Liberty of those Our Subjects and Our Desire to settle perfect Peace in that Our Kingdom And We are also confident that the many good Acts We have past here since the Sitting of this Parliament indeed denying none but such as denyed Vs any Power at all and were never so much as demanded from any of Our Predecessors will bear the like Testimony of Our Affection to the Good and Peace of this Kingdom though the success hath not been alike For though We have used Our best Endeavours to prevent the present Distractions and threatning Dangers yet so prevalent have been the opposers of Vs and the Peace of Our Kingdoms that not so much as a Treaty can be obtained though by Our several Messages We have descended to demand and press it unless upon such Conditions as would either by taking all Power of Government from Vs make Vs as nothing or by forcing Vs to quit the Protection of such as for obeying Vs according to Law and their Oath of Allegiance they would have Traytors and so make Vs do an Act unworthy of a King Yet so desirous We are to save Our Subjects Blood which cannot but be prodigally spent if We be necessitated by force of Arms to decide these unhappy Differences that no sooner any such Treaty shall be offered unto Vs by them which with Honour and Safety We can receive but We shall chearfully embrace it This We have thought fit to acquaint you with that from Our Selves you may know Our love to Peace and We doubt not but your Meeting at this time will produce something which will witness your tender respect to Our Honour and Safety and so much We do confide in your Affections as We shall absolutely leave the ways and means of expressing it to your selves So We bid you heartily farewell From Our Court at Stafford the 18th of September This so far prevailed with them at their first Meeting The Conservatours incline to serve the King that all things went very fairly so that they sent a Return to the Kings Letters without making any Judgement on the Differences betwixt Him and the Parliament They also resolved to Mediate betwixt the King and the Two Houses and for that end designed to send the Marquis to Holland with an Invitation from Scotland to Her Majesty for her Return to mediate a Peace betwixt the King and Parliament and to invite the Queen And the Marquis got a Paper signed by almost all the Lords not only those who were the best-affected but by Lowdon Argâ—le Waristoun Mr. Alexander Henderson and the other Leaders of the Party containing an Invitation for Her Majesty to come to Scotland with assurance of Security for Her Person and the free exercise of Her Religion for Her Self and Family so that no others were admitted to share in it and that they should concur with Her Majesty in mediating a Peace betwixt the King and the Two Houses which if it were rejected by the Two Houses they obliged themselves to engage for the King against them This was carried with great Address and managed so prudently that wise men called it the Master-peece of the Marquis his Life Lanerick carried it to the King to receive His Pleasure about it a Note whereof follows written by Lanerick in general Terms DIvers of the most considerable of the Nobility of Scotland and send Lanâ—rick to the King have by the Earl of Lanerick humbly offered unto His Majesty their sense of the present Differences betwixt Him and His Parliament of England which they conceive will hardly be reconciled so long as Her Majesty is at so great a distance and therefore are perswaded it would conduce much for Settling these Distractions if Her Majesty might be moved to return and mediate in so good a Work for which end the Marquis of Hamilton if His Majesty think fit and conceive it may be acceptable to Her Majesty will be ready to go to Holland humbly to invite Her Majesty hereunto in Name of this whole Kingdom of Scotland who will as dutiful and faithful Subjects humbly joyn their Endeavours and Mediation with Her Majesty that His Majesty may have Honour and Contentment and His People Happiness and Security under His Royal Government But the King was jealous of them The King at first welcomed this Proposition with a great deal of Joy but upon other grounds he thought not fit to listen to it for his Affection to the Queen made him fear the hazard of Her Person so much that this Proposition was not entertained which the Marquis often regrated as a Loss
against Vs and others have been seduced to whom We had formerly denied Imployment as appears by the examination of many Prisoners of whom We have taken Twenty and Thirty at a time of one Troop or Company of that Religion What Our Opinion is of that Religion Our frequent Solemn Protestations before Almighty God who knows Our Heart do manifest to the World And what Our Practice is in Religion is not unknown to Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom And as We have omitted no way Our Conscience and Vnderstanding could suggest to be for the promoting and advancing the Protestant Religion so We have professed Our readiness in a full and peaceable Convention of Parliament to consent to whatsoever shall be proposed by Bill for the better Discovery and speedier Conviction of Recusants for the Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion for the prevention of the Practices of Papists against the State and the due Execution of the Laws and true Levying of Penalties against them so We shall further embrace any just Christian Means to Suppress Popery in all Our Dominions of which Inclination and Resolution of Ours that Our Native Kingdom hath received good evidence For the other malicious and wicked Insinuations that Our Success here upon the Rebellious Armies raised to destroy Vs will have an influence upon Our Kingdom of Scotland and that We will endeavour to get loose from those wholsom Laws which have been enacted by Vs there We can say no more but Our good Subjects of that Kingdom well remember with what Deliberation Our Self being present at all the Debates We consented to these Acts and We do assure Our Subjects there and call God Almighty to witness of the uprightness and resolution of Our Heart in that point that We shall always use Our utmost Endeavours to defend and maintain the Rights and Liberties of that Our Natiâ—e Kingdom according to the Laws established there and shall no longer look for Obedience than We shall govern by the Laws And We hope that Our zeal and carriage only in Defence of the Laws and Government of this Kingdom and the subjecting Our Self to so great hazard and danger will be no argument that when the Work is done We would pass through the same Difficulties to alter and invade the Constitutions of that Our other Kingdom We find disadvantages enough to struggle with in the Defence of the most upright innocent just Cause of Taking up Arms and therefore if We wanted the Conscience we cannot the Discretion to tempt God in an unjust Quarrel The Laws of Our Kingdom shall be always Sacred to Vs We shall refuse no hazard to defend them but sure We shall run none to invade them And therefore We do conjure all Our good Subjects of that Our Native Kingdom by the long happy and uninterrupted Government of Vs and Our Royal Progenitors over them by the Memory of those many large and publick Blessings they enjoyed under Our dear Father by those ample Favours and Benefits they have received from Vs by their Own Solemn National Covenant and their Obligation of Friendship and Brotherhood with the Kingdom of England not to suffer themselves to be misled and corrupted in their Affections and Duty to Vs by the cunning Malice and Industry of those Incendiaries and their Adherents but to resist and look upon them as Persons who would involve them in their Guilt and sacrifice the Honour Fidelity and Allegiance of that Our Native Kingdom to their private Ends and Ambition And We require Our good Subjects tâ—ere to consider that the Persons who have contrived fomented and do still maintain these bloody Distractions and this unnatural Civil War what pretence so ever they make of their Care of the true Reformed Protestant Religion are in truth Brownists and Anabaptists and other Independent Sectaries and though they seem to desire an Vniformity of Church-Government with Our Kingdom of Scotland do no more intend and are so far from allowing the Church-Government by Law established there or indeed any Church-Government whatsoever as they are from consenting to the Episcopal and We cannot but expect a greater sense of Our Sufferings since the obligations We have laid on that Our Native Kingdom are used as arguments against Vs here and Our free consenting to some Acts of Grace and Favour there which were asked of Vs by reason of Our necessary residence from thence have encouraged ill-affected Persons to endeavour by Force to obtain the same here where We usually reside To conclude We cannot think that Our good Subjects there will so far hearken to the Treason and Malice of Our Enemies as to interrupt their own present Peace and Happiness and God so deal with Vs and Our posterity as We shall inviolably observe the Laws and Statutes of that Our Native Kingdom and the Protestations We have so often made for the Defence of the true Reformed Protestant Religion the Laws of the Land and the Iust Priviledges and Freedom of Parliaments With these Publick Orders His Majesty also sent the Marquis a Patent to be a Duke The King sends the Marquis a Patent to be Duke as a recompence of the great Services he was then doing and had formerly done him Scarce were these Lords come to Scotland when one Walden an Agent sent from the Two Houses to Scotland The Lords pursued as Incendiaries upon the pretence of the Treaty about Ireland gave in a Complaint to the Council against them on the account of a Letter that was intercepted signed by them all at Latham the Earl of Darby's House in Lancashire where they were as they came down in which they gave the Queen some Informations and Advices about the State of the Kings Affairs in that County This was charged on them as Incendiarism and Walden desired liberty to pursue them on that Head whereupon they first drew some Defences but because these would have been found more guilty of the alledged fault than the Letter it self they being made up of a Justification of the Kings Armes in England they answered this Complaint by a Petition wherein they declared they had never instigated the King into a Breach with his Two Houses and that there was nothing on earth they desired more earnestly than to see a happy Settlement betwixt them therefore they intreated that no Misrepresentations might be received or listened to against them The Church-party saw this would be a good way to be rid of the Trouble and Opposition they feared from these Lords and â—efore cherished Walden's Motion but they were told that they could not fix any Censure on that Matter without judging of the whole Business for if the Kings Quarrel was just those Lords acted as became faithful Subjects whatever might be in that none in England could challenge them for Serving him in it till themselves had declared against it which was not yet done The force of this Reasoning constrained them against their
with the like apprehensions to minister much Comfort to him only he pressed him not to give way to languishing Sorrow but to see what could be done for setting things right again and for infusing that sense of Shame and Horrour in all People for the late Action which might prepare them to a Noble Reparation of it by a generous Engaging in the Kings Quarrel And upon this much pains was taken to infuse Jealousies of the Independents in the minds of the Kirk-men though there were other violent persons as careful to refute them Most of this Year was spent in possessing all mens Minds with these Apprehensions so preparing them for what they designed to execute upon the first Opportunity The Duke and the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick were they who united most closely and cordially for the contriving and prosecuting of that Design The King was Prisoner at Holmby without any other Liberty save that of taking the air sometimes all his Servants were denied access to him and so cruel was the zeal of his Enemies that it reached to his Soul for they refused liberty for his Chaplains to wait on him a favour not denied to the worst of Malefactors but God was his Refuge who supported him in all his Sufferings and Solitudes The Two Houses wrote to the Committee of Estates in Scotland that they should take such a joynt Course with them as might tend most to bring things to a happy Peace But now the Jealousies betwixt the Parliament and the Army begun to grow visible and above board for the Presbyterian Party in the Parliament saw their Error too late Disorders rise in England most of them seemed to have intended the Kings Good only they were mistaken in Judging that the Parliament in which they were most numerous would never be disobeyed by the Army but being disappointed in this they ruined all their confidence in their Power in Parliament having been the cause why they let the Scotish Army go home for till they were gone the Independents crouched under them and trepanned them into Severities against the King and the Dismissing of the Scots who were no sooner gone but the Army acted what had been before projected but most industriously concealed from the Presbyterians Lauderdale is sent to England In April the Earl of Lauderdale was sent from Scotland to London to insist on the motion for a Settlement with the King and chiefly to hinder the adding of any new Propositions and he was also Instructed to deal for a permission to the Duke and the Earl of Dumfernline to go and serve the King in his Bedchamber But the Earl of Lauderdale found matters in great confusion at Westminster for the chief thing thought on was the Disbanding of the Army which was an unnecessary Burden to the Kingdom many grounds of Fear appearing that their Designs were to keep themselves up and govern the Nation by a Military and Arbitrary Power therefore such as were best-affected judged it necessary once to disband them before they engaged in a new Treaty with the King But for that private Proposition concerning the Duke and Dumfernline the Earl of Lauderdale seeing it would not take because there was not a Family yet settled about the King nor could it be expected that any from Scotland would be the first they would set about His Majesties Person did not present it and indeed the Duke's late Behaviour in opposing the Delivery of the King had forfeited his Credit with those of England then in Power But it is not my meaning to go on with a regular History of the irregular Transactions that past in England this Year I shall only say so much of them as will make appear what reason the Scots had for their Proceedings and to clear what may have relation to the Dukes Concerns In the middle of May the King sent a new Message to the Parliament of England in order to a Treaty but his Offers were the same upon the matter they had been at Newcastle and so not like to take and the Two Houses were then busied about Disbanding the Army They therefore ordered the Army to be disbanded and some of the Forces they kept up to be sent over to Ireland and all Satisfaction being offered The Army refuses obedience to the Parliament the time of their Disbanding was named But the Ring-leaders of the Army disposed them to mutiny against the Parliament upon pretence of want of Satisfaction in matter of Money and Reparation in point of Honour so the Army drew to a Body and erected a Court who were called the Agitators Mean-while Cromwel puts his Party in the House of Commons on the Recalling oâ— their Declarations against the Army and goes to the Army though his Commission was expired More Money was offered to the Army but nothing was accepted only divers of the Presbyterian Officers submitted and subscribed for Ireland whereupon they were by the prevailing part of the Army disbanded and takes the King from Holmby And the Army to make a sure game for their Party sent one Ioice a Taylor by Trade but now a Cornet by his Employment to Holmby who came at twelve a clock at night and forced the King to go with him against his will Upon which the Earl of Lauderdale emitted a Declaration in Name of the Scotish Nation against that Force put on the Kings Person contrary to all their Treaties and Declarations and demanded that His Majesties Person might be presently set at Liberty and brought with Honour Freedom and Safety to some of His Houses in or about London and after that he went to Newmarket to wait on the King who was there with the Army But the Army begun to abuse His Majesty into some Confidence in them And use Hiâ— civilly and used Him at another rate than had been done at Holmby They gave free access to all His Servants to come to Him they allowed His Chaplains to attend about Him and serve in their Office according to the Liturgy and permitted Him free Correspondence with the Queen and every body else and in their Discourses intimated their willingness to lay aside the Covenant and allow the Toleration of Episcopacy and the Liturgy all which though smoothly said was meant to cajole Him to his Ruine Assoon as His Majesty was at Liberty He wrote the following Letter to my Lord Lanerick Lanerick THe present condition of My Affairs is such He writes to Lanerick that I believe you and your Brother may do Me better Service at London than where you are therefore I desire that both or at least one of you would come up assoon as you could the rest I leave till meeting and so farewel Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newmarket 22th Iune 1647. To this my Lord Lanerick wrote this Answer Sir YOur Majesties Letter of the 22th of June had been immediately obeyed Lanerick's Answer if our Stay here for some time had not
to depend upon His Settlement on his Throne they fell upon their Treaty with the Parliament But the Army was beginning to take off their Mask and change their Stile for having now seated themselves in the Power they begun to contrive how to execute what they had always designed which was the Ruin of the King and the Subversion of Monarchy And a new Party among them called the Levellers did avowedly own Principles contrary to all Order and Government so that there was great ground to apprehend Danger to the Kings Person My Lords of Lowdon Lauderdale and Lanerick represented to the King that if He would give satisfaction in the point of Religion he was Master of Scotland on what terms as to other things He would demand but without that they feared their Design of serving Him should meet with great Opposition yet they resolved once to rescue Him out of the hands of the Army or to perish in the Attempt and offered to rescue Him from the Army A little after this His Majesty being to hunt at Nonsuch the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick came thither on pretence of waiting on His Majesty accompanied with 50 Horse which struck no small terrour in the little Guard that was about the King whereupon these Lords told His Majesty that they were come to rescue Him from His Captivity and they with all these they brought with them were resolved to die at His feet wherefore they intreated Him to make His Escape But the King told them He had engaged His Honour not to leave the Army without giving them Advertisement and till He freed Himself of that He would die rather than break His Faith But the Leading men of the Army were now weary of the Kings being with them and wished to have Him in some secure Place under a good Guard whereupon they made reports be brought to Him that the Levellers were designing against His Life The King therefore called again the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick to Him some days before His Escape and told them He had freed Himself of the Engagement He had given not to leave the Army The King advises with Lauderdale and Lanerick what to do He therefore desired their Advice what to do The Earl of Lauderdale said things being driven to such extremities it was not safe to give Advice but would His Majesty suggest any thing he would with all candour deliver his Opinion about it The King first spoke of His Going to Scotland the Earl of Lauderdale said that except He resolved to comply with their Desires about Religion He might expect no better Usage from the Church-party there than He had met with at Newcastle Next the King moved His Going to London the Earl of Lauderdale answered that formerly that had been a safe Course but now the City was so over-awed by the Army that he durst not advise His trusting His Person to them for the Tumults there were already great and would undoubtedly grow upon His coming The King asked if He came was He sure of the Scotish Commissioners that they would stick to Him in Name of the Scotish Nation the Earl of Lauderdale answered that all of them to a man should wait on Him and own His Service at all hazards but without Instructions from Scotland they could do nothing as Commissioners but only in their own Names as His Subjects and they had great reason to fear the Church-party in Scotland would not own Him nor order them to do it Next the King spoke of His going to Berwick whereupon the Earl of Lanerick who till then had stood silent begged of His Majesty that for Gods sake he would follow that Motion for if He left England the Army would pretend He was deserting His Kingdom and so depose Him but Berwick was a strong Place which at that time lay ungarrisoned the Country about it was generally well-affected and so He might easily get a good Garrison to go in with Him and by that means he was near Scotland for the encouragement of those who resolved to serve Him This was also backed by Lauderdale and the King seemed fully resolved on it so they left Him of this the Author had his Information from the Earl of Lauderdale A few days after this His Majesty went to the Isle of Wight The King goes to the Isle of Wight and on the 16th of November sent a Message to the Parliament which is Printed with the rest of the Messages declaring the reason of His Going to that Place and inviting them to a Treaty As for Religion he insisted on His Judgment about Episcopacy as a Government settled by the Apostles but was content it should be limited so that the â—ishops should act nothing in Ecclesiastical matters without their Presbyters whereby they should be no burden to Tender Consciences and that they should be obliged to reside and labour and preach in their Diocesses Besides He continued His Offer for the Settlement of Presbytery for Three Years till things were freely debated and considered adding a Liberty to all Tender Consciences except Popish Recusants As for the Militia He offered to yield it up to the Parliament during His whole Reign and in other Particulars insisted on His former Concessions and some days after that he wrote what follows to my Lord Lanerick Lanerick AS My coming hither will be variously scanned so I believe that My Message to the Two Houses will have divers Interpretations for neither of which I mean to make any Apology and wrâ—tes from thence to Lanerick for honest Actions at last will best interpret themselves only I must observe to you that what I have sent to London the end of it is to procure a Personal Treaty for which if I have striven to please all Interests with all possible equality without wronging My Conscience I hope no reasonable man will blame Me. Nor am I so unreasonable as to imagine that this My Message can totally content My Own Party but for the end of it a Personal Treaty I hope that all the reasonable men on all sides will concur with Me as I expect your Scotish Commissioners should do though I know you must dislike many Passages in it And yet I must tell you that in substance it differs very little from My Message of the 22th of May. This I thought necessary to write to you that you might assure your fellow-Commissioners that change of Place hath not altered My Mind from what it was when you last saw Me. So I rest Your most assured constant Friend CHARLES R. Carisbrook 19th November 1647. POSTSCRIPT This is a safe Messenger wherefore you or any other of My Friends may write to Me by him desiring much to hear from you To this Letter the three Commissioners from Scotland wrote joyntly this Answer May it please Your Majesty The Scotish Commissioners write to the King YOur Message left behind You at Hampton-Court gave great hopes that Your Majesty was
negarunt But I go on from this sad subject to the tragical Conclusion of the Duke's Life The News of that Murder sunk the Duke's thoughts into a deep Sorrow which he carried with him to his Grave he well saw his own Danger knowing that those who had broken all the bonds of Loyalty and Duty were not to tie themselves to the faith of a Capitulation or Articles though granted by a person impowered by them and therefore he designed an Escape from Windsor that night which was contrived by his faithful Servant Mr. Cole afterwards one of the Kings Quirries who during his imprisonment had liberty to go and return from London which he did very frequently bringing him an account of what passed And the Duke having gained his Keeper ordered Mr. Cole to send a trusty Servant with two Horses to Windsor which accordingly he did advertising the Duke not to come to the City till seven a Clock in the Morning and then Mr. Cole was to come to him near London and bring him to some secure House in the City whereupon at night about the time of shutting the Gates The Duke makes an Escape from Windsor the Duke made his Escape freely out of the Castle without suspicion and came to the Place appointed where his Servant and Horses waited for him But he fatally went from the Resolutions he had laid down with Mr. Cole and would needs go in the night to Southwark thinking to have got to Mr. Owen's House who was acquainted with the business not considering what had been told him of the Guards were about the City all the night so that there was no coming to it but in the day and all things concurring to hasten him to his Grave there was that night a Party of Horse and Foot in Southwark searching for Sir Lewis Dyves and another who had escaped the night before but is re-taken in Southwark Some of them meeting the Duke in the Streets about four in the morning where he had long knocked at a door took him and examined him he told them a very formal Story of himself and his business which at first satisfied them but they observed that as he took a pipe of Tobacco by them he burned several great Papers to fire it whereupon they searched him and found such Papers about him as discovered him It was not before the next morning that he was missed at Windsor for that night he made his Escape there came an Order from Cromwel to the Governour of Windsor to make him close Prisoner and put all his Servants from him who thereupon ordered the Captain of the Guard to go about it but he hearing the Duke was a-bed delayed it till next morning and then found he was gone It being discovered that Mr. Cole had ordered the Duk 's Escape many advised him to go out of the way but he resolved rather to die than to leave his Master at such a time and made a shift to come at him that same evening When the Duke saw him he lifted up his hands and said It was Gods will it should be thus That night Mr. Cole was also taken and Sir Hardress Waller examined him but drew nothing from him whereupon he was made close Prisoner yet when the Duke was brought to his Trial he procured his Liberty for the Averment of some particulars of his Plea The Duke being thus unfortunately retaken he was committed to Prison at St. Iames's and is kept in St. Iames's in the same Room where the Earl of Norwich the Lord Capel and Sir Iohn Owen were Prisoners and then all saw in what danger his Life was whereupon great endeavours were used and strong applications made in Scotland to the Marquis of Argyle who had then the chief Powâ—r there that the Committee of Estates would so far study his Preservation as to own that what he did was by the Authority of that Kingdom that so whatever other Punishment they would lay on him his Life might not go for it And it had been faithfully promised by all the Leaders of that Party at the Pacification at Sterlin either to save his Life or to make his Death a National Quarrel But the Marquis of Argyle would not interpose These who had the power in Scotland refuse to move for him and though the Dukes Daughter the present Dutchess of Hamilton left no means unessayed to prevail on him yet all was in vain for he pretended that since those in England had murdered their King notwithstanding their Commissioners protesting against it it was not to be expected their interposition in other things could be of any weight nor was it fit they should any more address to the Murderers of their Soveraign So all hopes of any Mediation that way failed and not only that but Lambert being prevailed on by the offer of a good Sum to claim the Duke as his Prisoner some Letters came from Scotland about it upon which Lambert was advised not to insist on that Demand This was vouched to the Writer from several hands who had it both from Lambert himself and some other considerable men in the Two Houses But now his Majesties Blood not having satisfied the Cruelty of the New Usurpers their next design was against those who had served him faithfully and therefore the Duke was brought to his Tryal and honoured to be the first of those who followed his Master in that Glorious Martyrdom The Usurpers ordained the pretended Court of Justice to proceed against him so in the 6th of February he was brought to a Tryal It will not be hard to perswade the Reader without further inquiry that those who embrued their hands in the Blood of their Soveraign thereby breaking loose from all Ties Sacred and Humane could not stand much at the effusion of meaner Blood no their Consciences were feared with their former Crime so that nothing could be so wicked but they were stout enough for attempting it yet they chose to varnish over their perfidious Cruelty with some Colours and Appearances of Justice but the Disguise was so thin that it served them to no other purpose but to add hypocrisie to their former Villany which will evidently appear from the following Tryal drawn partly from the Journal of the Court and partly from Notes of what passed taken by some Eye-witnesses Steel and Cook the Counsel for the People of England did exhibit on the 6th of February being Friday the following Charge That the Earl of Cambridge about the 19th of July last Traiterously invaded this Nation in a Hostile manner The Charge given against him and levied War to assist the King against the Kingdom and People of England and had committed Sundry Murders Outrages Rapines Wastes and Spoiles upon the said People and particularly about the 20th of August near Preston did make War joyn Battle and fight against the Forces of the Parliament and therein did murder and kill Collonel Thornley and others To this the
being a necessity of searching divers Records for Precedents which required a competent time as had been allowed in former cases but the Court refused to promise it only they said they would take it into their consideration The Counsel insisted and said plainly they declined the Imployment on those terms and would be forced to declare it Monday the 26th the other two Officers that had signed the Capitulation for the Duke and his Troops The ninth Appearance who had been sent for a great way off were examined who agreed with the former Witnesses in matters of Fact and also with Lilburn that by signing the Articles they only meant the Duke should be preserved from the Violence of the Souldiers and not from the Justice of the Parliament Then the Counsel began to Plead and all four spoke on the several Heads of the Plea Mr. Heron spoke cursorily and elegantly but not very materially Mr. Parsons a young man spoke boldly and to good purpose Mr. Chute the Civilian spoke learnedly and home and Mr. Hales since the much-renowned Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench elaborately and at length The Heads of their Arguments follow The Duke's Counsel at Law plead for him The Duke being as was granted a born Scotch-man his Tie of obligation and subjection to that Kingdom was indispensable and indissoluble so that his late Imployment could not be refused when laid on him by the Authority of that Kingdom no more than a Native of England living in it can disobey the Commands of this Parliament whereas any Subjection the Duke owed the Parliament of England was only acquired and dispensable That since no man can be a Subject of two Kingdoms whatever Tye lay on him to the Kingdom of England it was not to be put in Competition with what he owed Scotland it being a Maxim in Law that Major relatio trahit ad se minorem and that Ius Originis nemo mutare potest That there was an Allegeance due to the King and another to the Kingdom and no Treason could be without a Breach of Faith and Allegeance due to them against whom it was committed for these Kingdoms were two distinct Kingdoms and though the Allegeance due to the King was the same in both Kingdoms yet that due to the Kingdoms was distinct nor was the Actual administration of the Kingdoms in the Kings Person when the Duke got his Imployment therefore as his Allegeance to the Kingdom of Scotland was ancienter and stronger than any Tie that lay on him in England so what he did by their Order might well make him an Enemy to this Kingdom but could not infer Treason Yet all this of the Allegeance due to the Kingdom was founded on no Common or Statute Law as Mr. Hales himself confessed afterwards but he urged this well against those who asserted it it being the universally received Maxim at that time That whether he was a Post-natus or Ante-natus did not appear but though he were it did not vary the Case nor his obligation to the place of his Nativity and so though he were Post-natus or accounted a Denizen by his Fathers Naturalization his Offence could not be Treason but Hostility at most and by that supposed Hostility he could only lose his Priviledge of a Denizen but could not be made a Traitor there being no Precedent where ever any man was attainted of Treason for a hostile Invasion and it was questionable if this Offence could amount to that nor could any case be alledged where one born in another Independent Kingdome acting by a Commission from that Kingdom and residing there when he received his Commission and raising the Body of his Army in that Kingdom and coming into this in an Open Hostile manner was ever judged guilty of Treason Naturalization was intended to be a Benefit and not a Snare so that one might well lose it but was not to be punished for it And so when France and England were under one Soveraign divers of both Nations were naturalized in the other yet when Hostility broke out betwixt them many so naturalized fought on the side of their Native Kingdom for which none were put to death though divers were taken Prisoners And in Edward the third's time though he claimed France as his by Right yet when the Constable of France invaded England and was taken Prisoner he was not tried nor put to death but sent back to France as being a Native of that Kingdom And when David Bruce King of Scotland invaded this Kingdom and was taken Prisoner great endeavours were used to find a Legal ground for his Trial he being Earl of Huntington in England but this Plea was waved for it was found that it could not be done justly that being but a less degree of Honour though King Edward claimed a kind of Homage from the Crown of Scotland That if the Duke were on that account put to death it might prove of sad consequence in case there was War any more betwixt the Kingdoms since most of the present Generation were Post-nati and all would be so quickly and yet if the Lord Fairfax who was both a Post-natus and had his Honour in Scotland were commanded to lead an Army thither and being taken were put to death it would be thought hard measure For the Duke's Father's Naturalization it was true by the Statute of the 25 Ed. 3. provision was made that Children born without the Kingdom whose Parents were then in the King's Allegeance should be Denizens but the Duke was born before his Father's Naturalization which can never reach him none but the Issue after his Father's Naturalization being included within it and the word Haeres in the Act is only a word of Limitation and not of Creation nor did his making use of the assistance of some English Forces make him a Traytor It is true if an Englishman conduct a Foreign Army or if a Foreigner come of his own head or in a Rebellious way to assist an English Rebellion it will amount to Treason for the Act of such an Alien is denominated from the crime of those he assist here where he owed a local Obedience which was the Case of Shirley the Frenchman and of Lopez but if an Alien come with a Foreign Force though he make use of English Auxiliaries that only infers a Hostility but no Treason and was the case of the Lord Harris a Scotchman 15 Eliz. and of Perkin Warbeck both having English help and though Warbeck was put to death it was by no Civil Judicatory but only by the Will of Henry the 7th who erected a Court-Marshall for that purpose The present case was yet clearer where the Alien had Authority from his Native Kingdom and was commanded by them to make use of English help so that though Langdale's assisting the Duke did make himself a Traytor yet the Duke's accepting of it only infers an Act of Hostility And whereas it was objected that the Parliament had already by
of his mind been stain'd with some ill qualities He had acquired some interest in Court by the service he did the Earl of Niddisdale in the matter of the Kings Revocation and the Commission of Surrenders which to explain were too long a digression here and needless to all who understand how the Rights of the Titles were at that time unsettled in Scotland His malice against the Marquis was hereditary he being the Son of Captain Iames Stewart who in King Iames his Minority when the Hamiltons were groundlesly and in a mock-Parliament attainted carried the Title of Earl of Arran and possessed their Fortunes Lord Reay upon what irritation I know not alledged to him that Mr. Ramsay had told him that the Marquises designs were not upon Germany but Britain and that when this Army was once gathered he purposed to pretend to the Crown of Scotland This lye was so ill told that it could take with none but those whose Judgments were blinded through malice for as that Army was very small and in no manner of capacity to prosecute such a design so it was made up of Scots and English and most of the Officers were persons of whom the Marquis had no acquaintance Reay alledged likewise the testimony of one Mr. Cleazar Borthwick Borthwick being a witness clears the Marquis to whom Mr. Meldrum should have communicated the same design but this testimony turned to his shame for that person who was of known integrity being brought from Germany and examined upon what Meldrum had said to him desired liberty to send his Deposition to the King sealed since the particulars were not fit to be publickly heard to which the King yielding he sent it The summe of it was that Meldrum had never communicated any such design to him that he had indeed spoken abominably of the King and Court but all was in his own name and that he brought no credence with him from the Marquis for his errand to the Swedish Court was onely to solicit the payment of some Arrears due to his Uncle who had served that Crown and he had no Employment from the Marquis onely he got from him Letters of recommendation for the dispatch of his business so that whatever he said was understood as his own sense and not as a message from the Marquis Reay also alledged the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay for a great part of that he charged on Ramsay This Lindsay indeed was a brave Gentleman and Reay's Lieutenant Colonel but was killed two or three moneths before Reay met with Ochiltree at London He was in new Brandenburg with other Swedish Officers when Tilly took it in and all Reay's Regiment was cut to pieces except a very few which turned to his eternal disgrace who in such a hot time of Action left his Command to come over to England and forge lyes and after that Reay was in no esteem neither with Scots nor Swedes and irrecoverably lost himself in the K. of Swedens opinion But Reay kept himself from charging any thing on the Marquis fixing all he said on Ramsay which Caution was not observed by Ochiltree who drew a representation of the Marquis his interest in Scotland to shew what probabilities might be of such a design and reckoned up all his Kindred and Allyes by which he drew in most of the Nobility of Scotland and so fastned suspicions on them all a madness onely incident to those of Bedlam to which his malice drove him though he was no fool With this account of Reay's and his own he went to the Lord Weston Weston carries the Accusation to the King then Treasurer of England and personating great zeal for the safety of King and Kingdoms revealed this alledged Treason to him adding that it was probable all things being now ready to be put in execution that the Marquis upon his return to put things in the more fearful disorder might if admitted to wait in the Kings Bed-chamber murder him This was a Calumny than which Hell could not have forged a fouler for Lord Ochiltree judged that this would have infallibly produced one of two effects either raised such a Jealousie in the Kings thoughts as to have quite ruined the Marquis since few Princes are proof against such whispers or at least it would have stopt his voyage for a while till he were tried and the smallest delay in that would have scattered his Souldiers so that this design failing in which his Honour was now so far engaged a stain should lie on him through all Europe Lord Weston carried this Story to the King whether provoked to it out of hatred to the Marquis or moved from his zeal and duty to the King shall not be determined though the last was pretended by him and in many of his Letters to the Marquis when he was in Germany he expressed much friendship for him who gives it no good hearing But His Majesty knew the Marquis too well and understood all his motions and the progress of this Affair too exactly to give any credit to this Forgery and indeed he rejected listening to it in terms so full of affection for the Marquis as discovered he was incapable of any Jealousie either of him or any of his actions neither would he hearken to those who onely desired that upon his return he might not be admitted to his Presence at least not to lie in his Bed-chamber Within a very little while the Marquis came to Court utterly ignorant of the execrable designs of his Adversaries His Majesty welcomed him with an air of kindness beyond what he ordinarily gave him and drawing him apart immediately told him all that villainous story which had been whispered against him The Confusion this raised in his thoughts was unspeakable and opens the whole matter to the Marquis being amazed to find himself so horridly misrepresented knowing his heart to be full of duty and affection to his Soveraign he wondered how malice could be so impudent as at a time when he was hazarding Life Honour Friends and Fortune for the Kings Service to fasten such a devillish gloss on his actions but this surprize was overcome with a greater when he saw His Majesty with an unheard-of and truly Royal generosity express his confidence in him in such obliging terms as scarce to allow him to speak in his own Justification which seeming to insinuate he thought he needed to be vindicated the Marquis begged he might be presently tried and offered himself to restraint till he were cleared But His Majesty would not hear of that on the contrary commanded him to lie in the Bed-chamber that night and made him lie in the Bed-chamber that same night and he expressed his confidence and kindness for him in such a strain both of behaviour and discourse that the Marquis frequently said he looked on the kindness of that night as that which obliged him more than all the other publick testimonies of the Kings favour and
the World is in so much mis-understanding of me but now be your Lordship pleased to admit me to resort to your noble Expressions and former Friendship that I may carry forth of the â—ourt with me the belief and tokens of it It is told me that the Lords are inclinable to preserve my Life and Family for which their generous Compassions the great God of Mercy will reward them and surely should I die upon this Evidence I had much rather be the Sufferer than the Iudge All that I shall desire from your Lordship is that devested of all Publique Imployment I may be admitted to go home to my own private Fortune there to attend my own Domestick Affairs and Education of my Children with as little asperity of words or marks of Infamy as possibly the Nobleness and Iustice of my Friends can procure for me with a Liberty to follow my own occasions as I shall find best for my self This is no unreasonable thing I trust to desire all considered that may be said in my case for I vow my fault that should justly draw any heavy Sentence on me I yet do not see yet this much obtained will abundantly satisfie a Mind hasting fast to quiet and a Body broken with afflictions and infirmities And as I shall take my self highly bound to any that shall further me therein so I more particularly desire to receive an obligation therein froâ— your Lordship than from others as being purposed in the truth of my former Professions to express my self Your Lordships humbly to be Commanded STRAFFORD Tower 24th of April 1641. But since all His Majesties most vigorous Intercessions were not able to preserve that Great man it is not to be imagined any good Offices done by meaner persons could succeed yet the Marquis acted in it with Great Candor and Friendship but that preserved him not from being suspected of having advised the King to consent to Strafford's Death and for his Vindication I shall only refer the Reader to his own words in the Speech he delivered the morning before he died to be inserted in its proper place The Scotish Bishops who were now at London thought themselves undone and complained of the Marquis as the cause of their Ruine Many complain of the Marquis and yet he had been careful to get them all either provided with Places or relieved with the Kings Money so that all of them in their Letters to him acknowledged him to be their only Patron about the King Traquair was worst pleased of any and complained that the Marquis had opposed the Article of Incendiaries till his own Name was dashed out and then had deserted the rest but his Name was not struck out alone Huntley's and many others being dashed out with him besides the prejudice of that Process was only to be put out of Imployment in Scotland by which the King was engaged in Honour to make up that loss another way wherein the Marquis engaged to serve him faithfully Others of the Court who hated and envied him were glad to find colours of Censure in any of his Actions and it was loudly talked that the King was now to part with his Crown of Scotland with his own hands by granting Concessions so derogatory from Kingly Authority but the King who understood his own Affairs better than any of these Censurers saw the necessity of settling with Scotland immediately For the Marquis represented to His Majesty that though those Acts did very much diminish his Authority yet the Scotish Parliament being governed but by a few Heads who influenced the rest there was no doubt but the gaining of the Leading-men might so prepare things that ere a few years went about all might be brought to a greater Temper for the King was firmly resolved to make good what he now promised and never to violate these Concessions unless he could get them rescinded in Parliament And let me once for all say freely this was the great Measure of all the Marquis his Counsels about Scotland that except when he saw at the beginning as hath been said that the Kings Interest and Honour required his utmost Resentments and that a forcible Redress seemed not improbable and promised success way should be given to the present heats for some time in hope of recovering of them by such Concessions The Earl of Rothes is gained and soon after dies and in pursuance of this design Rothes was much caressed by the King and intirely gained but as he was recovering to his Duty he was overtaken by sickness of which he died at Richmond and was much regrated both by those of the Court and the Covenant being a man of great Abilities and much Honour In Iune the Earl of Dumfermline and Lowdon were sent from London to Scotland with the Articles of the Treaty and a desire that the Parliament there might yet be prorogued for some time since the Affairs of England put a stop to the Kings present Journey They also carried down a Submission from Traquair and were to deal that the Acceptance of it might stop the further agitation of the Pursuit against him All this while there had been divers Meetings of Parliament in Scotland but by reason of the dependence of the Treaty they were still prorogued The Parliament of Scotland is oft prorogued but goes on with the Process against Incendaries Their greatest business was to prepare the Process against the Incendiaries both the President Spotswood and the Clerk of Register Hay being Prisoners in the Castle of Edinburgh since the former Winter The Covenanters required the Kings Advocate to concur with them according to his Place which obliged him to assist in the Pursuit of all Publick Crimes but Lanerick in the Kings Name commanded him to deny his concurrence and this made much ado as also in all the Kings Orders for proroguing the Parliament mention was made of my Lord Traquair as Commissioner against which they always protested But at this time the Parliament would not consent to Prorogue of new only they declared they should be preparing matters and not go on to the Determining any thing before the middle of August against which time the King purposed to be in Scotland As for Traquair's Submission it was rejected and many begun to complain aloud that whereas they signed a Bond to prosecute the Incendiaries yet many were dispensed with and much pains was taken by distinctions to satisfie their Consciences that they meant not to set up an Inquisition by that Oath and that it was only meant of those that were declared and avowed Incendiaries but others said that the words were general and tied them without respect of persons to pursue all equally The Earl of Montrose is made Prisoner for corresponding with the Court. At this time there was a Gentleman seized at Broxmouth with Letters to my Lord Montrose which discovered a new Correspondence of his with the Court for my Lord Traquair's Preservation and with this
all so that no clear Proof being brought the Parliament could come to no other Decision but that the Lords had good reason to withdraw themselves and so they were invited to return to their place in Parliament But he is again in His Majesties favour This was a tedious business and put a great stop to the Settlement betwixt the King and the Nation but further Particularities are thought needless to be set down since this Matter vanished no effect following on it The Marquis quickly recovered his former â—oom in the Kings Affection so that there remained not so much as a vestige of this cross Adventure Things in Scotland took presently a Settlement and those were called Plotters and Banders after examination and a delivering up of their Bond which was burnt by the hand of the Common Hangman were set at Liberty after some time of further Restraint but the Process of the alledged Incendiaries was to go on yet they were to enjoy their Liberty and undergo no other Censure but the loss of Publick Imployment which though yielded at London was long resisted in Scotland they pretending their Oath to bring them to condign Punishment But as the King was going on with the Settlement of one Kingdom The Rebellion breaks out in Ireland he got the saddest News that ever were heard out of Ireland of the desperate Rebellion and Massacre had broken out there whereupon His Majesty recommended to the Parliament of Scotland the Relief of his oppressed Protestant Subjects in Ireland which they undertook very willingly But because of the interest England had in Ireland Commissioners were appointed to Treat with the Parliament of England for Concluding a Peace betwixt the two Nations and Settling of Trade and particularly about the Terms upon which they should engage in the War of Ireland and so about the middle of November the King having granted to the Scotish Nation all they could demand ended the Parliament there and returned to London about the end of that month But before the Marquis left Scotland he by the Kings particular Command entred in a close Friendship with Argyle considering that besides the great Power of that Family his Interest with the Clergy and Covenanters was such that none could be so useful to His Majesties Service as he And this Friendship was to be twisted closer by a Bond of a near Alliance betwixt their Children But from all the Letters that passed betwixt them yet to be seen it is as clear as can be that all the Marquis his design in this Friendship was for the Kings Service and that all that time Argyle expressed a hearty concurrence in it To gratifie the Covenanters the more the King had created him a Marquis Lowdon was also made Chancellor Lesley Earl of Leven and Lindsay put in a fair way to be Treasurer Traquair being turned out The King at his return to London The King returns to London where he finds matters worse found the Edge he had left on some of their spirits was no way blunted but growing into more sharpness When the Marquis was in Scotland a Member of the House of Commons laying out their Grievances among other things inveighed against Monopolies and spoke so plainly that all understood he meant the Marquis as a Person that deserved to be accused as well as either Strafford or Canterbury but others of that same Cabal took him up sharply And now upon the Kings return his Enemies finding their designs against him could not take with the King in whose Favour he was as much as ever they took a strange Course to destroy him which was to set on some Members of the House of Commons to accuse him as the Incendiary betwixt England and Scotland who had engaged England into all that Expence who had also invited the Scots to march into England and had been always the third in Strafford's and Canterburie's Counsels who had advised the Dissolving of the former Parliament and had oppressed the Subjects by the grants of many Monopolies which he had This was smelled out even by some of the same Cabal who perswaded their Friends to desist shewing them That for his Carriage betwixt England and Scotland an Oblivion was passed in the late Treaty which was ratified by the Parliament of England That for other things though his Engagement in the Court had carried him along to some extreme Counsels yet they said it was well enough known how moderate his Inclinations were how great an Instrument he had been in the late Settlement of Scotland and how much he was hated upon that account and that this was a design to destroy him either out of malice or because some feared his moderate Counsels in England as much as they hated them in Scotland This seems to have flowed from the Friendship which divers of the Leaders in the House of Peers had for him whom he had often obliged and as they were not unsensible nor forgetful of his good Offices so they seem to have had a particular kindness for his Person And while he was in Scotland he kept Correspondence with Mandevil Essex and others and chiefly with the Lord Say and Seale but all their Letters shew that his greatest business with them was to prepare them to a better Correspondence with the King But when the Marquis smelled out the design against him he gave the King an account of it and told him that if His Majesty intended to go on in his Affairs in a Kingly way he would wait on his Commands and expose himself to the displeasure of the House of Commons but if His Majesty intended to settle Matters by an absolute Compliance with the Parliament then he conceived it was fit that his Servants should use their endeavours for their own Preservation that so they might be afterwards useful to his Service yet he said he would do nothing for himself but by His Majesties Allowance and Direction being it is like taught more caution by the Jealousies had been taken from his care of vindicating himself in the Parliament of Scotland The King upon this allowed him to use all means for his own Preservation which he so managed that the designed Accusation came to nothing This particâ—lar His Sacred Majesty vouchsafed to tell the Writter adding that he had it from the Queen His Mother Anno 1642. An. 1642. THe Tumults and Disorders about Whitehall and Westminster rose to that height that the King withdrew to Windsor in the beginning of the year The Scotch Commissioners continued Treating about their engaging for Ireland The Sâ—ots Commissioners animate the Houses to press the change of the Laws about Church-Government which the King pressed forward very earnestly but some of the Commissioners begun to tamper with those who were most opposite to the Court in the Two Houses and in stead of Moderating them were instigating them to persist in their Demands about Religion to get Episcopacy brought down and Presbytery set up To
may be had and He and all His Subjects may discern what is to be left or brought in as well as what taken away He knows not how to consent to an Alteration otherwise than to such an Act for tâ—e ease of Tender Consciences in the matter of Ceremonies as His Majesty hath often offered And His Majesty hath formerly expressed Himself and still continues willing that the Debates of Religion may be entred into by a Synod of Learned and Godly Divines to be regularly câ—osen according to the Laws and Customs of this Kingdom to which end His Majesty will be very willing that some Learned Divines of the Kirk of Scotland may be likewise sent to be present and offer their Reasons and Opinions This was the Success of that Negotiation but because the Reader may wonder how Lowdon and the Marquis came to be in such terms I shall set down the occasion of their Breach When Lowdon was to go up the Marquis resolved on a Course that should either stop his Journey or make him so obnoxious to the King that he should not dare to act contrary to his Duty which was this Lowdon had purchased from the King a Right to the Annuities of the Tythes that was confirmed to His Majesty by Act of Parliament whereupon the Marquis caused the following Petition to be drawn by Traquair's Advice To the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Humble Petition of the Noblemen Barons and Gentlemen occasionally met at Edinburgh Humbly Sheweth THat whereas Your Majesty at Your late being in Scotland being humbly moved to disburden and liberate the Subjects of this Kingdom of the Annuity due to Your Majesty out of the Tythes The Petition against the Annuities were pleased in that only Particular to delay to give us our Hearts desire and now out of the sense of the great Burdens that lye on us and in Confidence of the Continuance of Your Majesties Fatherly Care of the Good of Your Subjects we presume humbly to supplicate Your Majesty to be Graciously pleased in this Particular to dispense with Your Own Benefit or at least till Your Majesty be informed of the true state thereof to discharge Execution against us for the said Annuities And for Your Majesties incomparable Goodness and Gracious Favours we shall as in duty bound behave our selves in every thing as becometh Loyal and Faithful Subjects As we have unanimously endeavoured so shall we still continue to return such thankâ—ul Acknowledgment as may give to Your Majesty a real Testimony of our zealous Affections to Your Majesties Sacred Person Honour and Greatness derived upon Your Majesty by so many unparalelled Descents and as Your Majesty may expect and justly challenge from the Allegiance of us Your Majesties most obedient and obliged Subjects 16th February 1643. The last words of this Petition were by the first draught so conceived as would have amounted to a Bond of Mutual Defence and Adherence which the Marquis thought might draw on a Rupture and occasion a pursute as against Plotters therefore since this Paper was to be avowed and publick he judged such Expressions as were smooth and general were fittest for their Design This Petition was signed by him and a great many of the Nobility he also sent it up and down all the places where he or his Friends had Interest to get Subscriptions to it This was generally lookt upon as a well-couched Bond both by such as took it and those who refused it and yet this smoothing of the Expressions of it was represented by the Marquis's Enemies as done in prejudice to the Kings Service These Petitions were sent immediately to the King upon which great Complaints were made as if by these immediate Addresses the Judicatories of Scotland had been neglected but the King justified that part of it in an Answer he wrote to the Council and for the thing it self he resolved to keep Lowdon under the fear of it and therefore delayed to make any Answer In the end of February Her Majesty landed at Burlingtown whither the Earl of Montrose went to represent to Her the hazard of a new Rebellion in Scotland The Queen lands in England and Montrose waits on Her and offers his Service and that the only way to prevent it was to take the start of them before they were ready and with a great deal of forwardness offered his Service in that Design adding that he had great Assurances of a considerable Party who he knew would own the Kings Quarrel but he did not condescend on the particular way of prosecuting it so that the Queen was not satisfied of his being able to effectuate what he undertook Mean-while the Marquis hearing of Her Majesties Landing went to wait on Her to whom She proposed the Earl of Montrose's Offer but he studied by all means to divert Her from listning to it upon the following Grounds The King had settled a Treaty with Scotland The Marquis goeâ— to Her and disâ—wades the precipitating a Rupture with Scotland and till that were violated on their part he knew His Majesty would never consent to a Rupture on his part and the King had so often and so lately in his Letters and Declarations protested he was resolved unalterably to adhere to the late Settlement that if he should now authorize the first Breach it would bring an indelible stain upon his Honour and create a perpetual Difâ—idence in his Subjects of all his Concessions and Assurances He confâ—ssed he had great Fears of Scotland and therefore would undertake for nothing but his own Faithfulness and Diligence yet he hoped to get things kept in Agitation all that Summer so that for that Year there should not be a Scotish Army in England But that was the utmost of his Hopes yet it was much fitter to spin out things as long as could be than to precipitate them by an over-hasty Rupture besides he could not see how any Hopes could be conceived from that design of Force There was never a Castle nor Strength in Scotland in the Kings Power to which they might retire The Vulgar were still at the Ministers devotion and by late and fresh experience they saw them all as one man resolved to die in the Defence of the Covenant and any handful of Gentry could be gathered together would signifie nothing but to expose their own Throats to their Enemies Rage and the Kings Authority to their Hatred and Scorn so there remained no hopes but in the Highland-men which he accounted as good as none Their two chief Heads where the Marquisâ—es of Huntley and Argyle the former was not to be much rested on being unable to do what so brisk an Undertaking required and they knew well what to expect from the other Besides any Companies could be brought down from the High-lands might do well enough for a while but no Order could be expected from them for assoon as they were loaded with Plunder and Spoil they would run away home to their
receive of their Plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms 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 and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just Power and Greatness 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 condign 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 And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled 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 Iustice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article 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 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 â—o make deâ—ection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continâ—e therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all â—ets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be fully prevented or removed And which we shall do 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 unfained 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 to walk worthy of him in our liâ—es which are the causes of other sins and transgreâ—sions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desâ—re and endeavoâ—r for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heâ—vy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for thâ—â— end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant To the Glory of GOD the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquility of Christâ—an Kingdoms and Commonwealths This was offered to the Assembly on the 17th of August The Censures that generally were passed on it and after it was publickly read Mr. Henderson being then Moderator had a long Speech about it Then it was read the second time and many of the most eminent Ministers and Lay-Elders were desired to deliver their Opinions about it who did all magnifie it highly and though the Kings Commissioner pressed a Delay till at least it were communicated to the King yet the approving it was put to the Vote and carried unanimously and they ordered the Lord Maitland the now Duke of Lauderdale and Mr. Henderson and Mr. Gillespy to carry it up to the Two Houses at Westminster On the same day it was also approved in the Convention Wise Obfervers wondered to see a matter of that Importance carried through upon so little Deliberation or Debate It was thougâ—t strange to see all their Consciences of such a size so exactly to agree as the several Wheels of a Clock which made all apprehend there was some first Mover that directed all those other Motions this by the one Party was imputed to Gods extraordinary Providence but by others to the Power and Policy of the Leaders and the simplicity and fear of the rest One Article of it was thought strange that one Government of the Church was abjured but none sworn to in its place for England this was not the fault of the Scots who designed nothing so much as to see Presbytery established in England But the English Commissioners would not hear of that and by that General words of Reforming according to the Word of God cast in by Sir Henry Vane thought themselves well-secured from the inroads of the Scotish Presbytery and in the very contriving of that Article they studied to out-wit one another for the Scots thought the next words of Reforming according to the Practice of the best Reformed Churches made sure game for the Scotish Model since they counted it indisputable that Scotland could not miss that Character Those of Scotland would have had Episcopacy abjured as simply unlawful but those of England would not condemn that Order which had merited so much Glory in the whole Christian Church therefore the second Article was so conceived that it might import only an Abolition of the present Model of England and it was so declared both in the Assembly of Divines and in the Two Houses of Parliament when they swore it The Scots either perceived not this Change or were
he had a Commission for it under the Great Seal of England it being contrary to the Articles of the late Treaty of the two Kingdoms which was ratified in Parliament At this time the Treaty betwixt the Two Houses in England The Treaty betwixt Scotland and England is concluded and the Convention in Scotland was closed Against the 5th of October a hundred thousand pounds Sterling was to be paid in Scotland and against the Twentieth of that Month an Army of Twenty thousand Horse and Foot was to be on the Borders from Scotland who were to have thirty thousand pounds Sterling a Month for Pay only the hundred thousand pounds Sterling was to serve for the first three Months The General was to be chosen by the Scots the Army was to receive Orders from a Commitee of both Kingdoms no Peace should be treated or concluded without the Scots and the Publick Faith was given by the Convention of Estates in Scotland that their Army should return out of England when a Peace was concluded by both Kingdoms And so the Convention Adjourned till Ianuary having chosen a Committee of Estates to whom they gave full Power in all matters Civil and Military About the middle of September the fairest opportunity of all was lost for the Parliament of England apprehending the hazard of the loss of Berwick sent down some Ships by which Berwick seized on by the Parliament with the Concurrence of the Scots it was presently Garrisoned and the Committee of Estates issued out toward the middle of September Commissions for making of Levies â—hrough the Kingdom so that nothing kept them from Marching but that they heard not of Money from England The Kings Friends were now in the greatest perplexities imaginable they saw his Affairs in a ruining Condition and themselves able to do nothing but regrate it All September passed over ere they had a return from Oxford and since the hope of Berwick was irrecoverably lost nothing remained but Despair The Church-party became daily more resolute and the Kings-party became fainter At length in the beginning of October Mr. Mungo Murray came from Court but brought no present Relief only large hopes of Assistance to follow quickly He also brought Letters from the King both to the Council and the Conservatours of the Peace that to the Conservatours of the Peace follows CHARLES R. RIght Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousins and Councellours Right Trusty and well-beloved Councellours and Trusty and well-beloved The Kings Letters to the Conservatours of the Treaty We greet you well No Industry hitherto could have so far prevailed with Vs as to gain any belief that Our Scotish Subjects would countenance much less assist this bloody Rebellion in England yet We know not how to understand the Levying of Forces both Foot and Horse within Our Native Kingdom and their entring Our Town of Berwick in an hostile manner You are particularly trusted by Vs and Our Parliament and solemnly sworn to be faithful in the discharge of that Trust of seeing the Articles of the late Treaty observed which here is most grosly violated therefore We require you as you will be answerable to God to Vs and Our Parliament to take speedy and present Order for recalling and suppressing those Forces Our most malicious Enemies must bear Vs witness how religiously We have observed these Articles on Our part whereof if We had not been more tender than the advisers of the Breach have been of the Publick Faith it is obvious to any how easily We could have secured that Town from all Rebels We have likewise thought fit to take notice of the private Preparations in that Our Kingdom of Raising an Army by a new Authority to come into Our Kingdom of England under the pretence of securing themselves from a Popish and Prelatical Army falsly alledged to be upon the Borders such Forces as We have there being only for Protecting of Our distressed Subjects from the Incursion of Rebels from their Ships at Berwick and Holy-Island and for no other end Such then as shelter themselves under that Pretext will find from thence but a slender Warrant before God who knows the integrity of Our Heart and how inviolably We intend to preserve all that We have granted to that Kingdom so long as they suffer themselves to be capable of Our Protection and those Favours We do require you not only to oppose and suppress all such unwarrantable Levies but by your Publick Declaration to disabuse those Rebels in England who endeavour to engage you in their Rebellion and expect Assistance from you in all which We look for ready Obedience and expect a present account thereof We bid you heartily farewell Given at Our Court at Oxford the 26th day of September in the 19th Year of Our Reign 1643. The Letter to the Council follows CHARLES R. The Kings Letter to the Council RIght Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousins and Councellours and Trusty and well-beloved Councellours We greet you well Whereas Our desire of preserving Peace within Our Native Kingdom and preventing such Disputes which malicious Instruments might so heighten as to divide Vs and any of Our Scotish Subjects moved Vs by Our Letter of the tenth of June to dispense with the unwarrantable Calling together of the Nobility Commissioners of Shires and Burroughs at Edinburgh the twenty second of June 1643 and so far to give way to the Meeting as to allow them to take into Consideration the best ways of Maintaining Our Scotish Army in Ireland for Suppressing of that bloody Rebellion there since Our Two Houses of Parliament here had failed in the performance of the Treaty concluded upon betwixt the Two Nations for that effect and likewise for such other Particulars as Our said Letter doth more fully contain expecting they would have limited their Resolutions thereunto and paid an equal Gratitude of Duty and Obedience to Vs and Our Iust Commands as We have so lately and so many ways expressed Our Affection to that Our Kingdom in General and so many Members of that Meeting in their own particulars all which notwithstanding they have proceeded to Resolutions as unjustifiable as their Meeting and would engage Our Subjects to an Obedience of their Arbitrary Commands beyond the Power of any of the most Free and Lawful Conventions of the Estates Our Authority and Consent being so absolutely contemned that they have exâ—eeded the Bounds We have prescribed and proceeded to Conclusions of the highest nature without so much as acquainting Vs therewith Such high Indignities to Vs and Our Authority make Vs believe they have forgot they have a King and their Oaths in preserving Vs in Our Iust Power as their King but God will discover and punish such undutiful Thoughts how closely soever they be clouded with pretences of Safety to Religion and Liberty which they know will ever be dearer to Vs than Our Own Preservation Our good Subjects will likewise suffer with Vs by their heavy Taxes upon
Discontent Constructions which are not possible for him to make but obvious to malevolent humours That although you should not be suspected to be any ways accessory to disloyal Courses it will be said you are one of those who could have best hindred them That your Countrey and Friends may say you have deserted them in their greatest Exigences and that Differences may be reconciled betwixt His Majesty and His Subjects by the endeavours of others These Commands were both peremptory and obliging so that they could not fail of conquering all his Resistance and carrying his Obedience after them which were strengthened from the Letter he had at that same time from Her Majesty which follows Cousin THe account the King hath given me of your Aâ—fection for His Interest and those marks of it which from other hands have met me do so sensibly affect me that without any difficulty or scruple I do now entertain you with my Acknowledgments and Resentments of it before I have heard from you and I assure you of the satisfaction I shall ever have of the Continuance of it from you which I shall desire may be as intire and full as the Returns I shall study to make to you being resolved to lay hold on all occasiâ—ns by which I may discover my Friendship for you and to express the Esteem I have of your Friendship by all means that may depend on my cares which I shall imploy in giving you day by day new Proofs that I am and ever shall be Your affectionate Cousin and Friend HENRIETA MARIA R. St. Germanes 22th September Upon these Intreaties and Assurances he was made to change his purpose though he could not so easily part with his Melancholy thoughts which he expressed in this following Letter May it please Your Sacred Majesty THe Reasons You were pleased to offer to my Brother And writes to the King and Sir Robert Murray for diverting my Resolution of leaving Your Majesties Dominions at this time were I confess of strength enough to have fixed me in any place of the World where Your Majesties Service was concerned but now seeing Your Majesty hath honoured me so much as by Your Gracious Letter Your Self to shew me still Your dislike thereof how dare I dispute what Your Majesty thinks unfit and now Sir the Thoughts I formerly had of leaving as it were the World because I would not be a witness of what I feared Your Majesties Fall since as I conceive I could not be instrumental to Your Service or Preservation upon the Grounds Your Majesty went on shall be changed into a Resolution of being most miserable in Your Dominions if it shall not please God to deliver You out of those Difficulties Your Majesty is in for I take God to witness upon Your Happiness depends my greatest worldly Ioy how unfortunately soever I have of late been misunderstood And though I cannot promise my self so much good Fortune as to prove useful to Your Majesty yet I dare and do engage for a cheerful Willingness and perfect Fidelity in Your Majesties Service and trust that God in his Mercy will so direct Your Majesty as by timeously granting the now necessary and most pressing Demands of Your Kingdoms the great Evils will be prevented that threaten Your Sacred Self the Queens Majesty and Your Royal Posterity and likewise that of having any other Guard to attend Your Royal Person than such as shall be approved of by You or Your Majesties being necessitated to retire into Scotland vpon the return of the Scotish Army where I apprehend Your Majesties Entertainment will not answer Your Expectation nor prove at all advantagious to Your Service More I will not presume to say but shall really study in all things to serve Your Majesty and ever give such ready Obedience to Your Commands as becometh Your Majesties most faithful most loyal and most obedient Subject and Servant HAMILTON Kinneel 6th Octob. 1646. A day or two after His Majesty received this Letter He wrote the following Letter to my Lord Lanerick the Post-script whereof seems to relate to the Letter he had received from his Brother Lanerick BEfore now I had not matter to write to you and now I have so much that I shall say the less leaving this inclosed to speak for me But thus much I must assure you of that I have herein gone the utmost length as you call it to give all possible Satisfaction for upon my word one jot further cannot be gone by Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 15th Octob. 1646. POSTSCRIPT Tell your Brother that it were a fault to him to trouble my Self in Complementing with him and indeed to either of you any ways to doubt but that you will make the best use you may of what I now send you for my Service The inclosed Paper is to be found among His Majesties printed Messages to the Two Houses and therefore it is not inserted here But the satisfaction the King had in the Dukes consenting to stay still in Scotland appears by the end of the next Letter he wrote to himself Hamilton THis is rather to perform my Promise to a Lady than that I believe it to be needful in respect of you for I know you naturally so much favour all my Friends and know so well the great Estimation I have of the Earl of Brainford beside what hath been told you concerning him by your Brother Lanerick by my Directions that I am certain without this you will favour his business what you can and since I am writing I must say that there is no particular Mans business wherein you can give me so much Contentment as this of which I need say no more but only that you will shew his Wife that my Recommendation to you of her Lords Affairs is real and hearty Nor can I end this without taking notice to you of the Contentment I had that my last Letter to you had the wished for operation for besides the obtaining my end which several ways is satisfactorily useful to Me I see that all men have not forsaken Reason or at least that I am sometimes in the Right as I am confident you will make appear the great Reason I have to be Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. But to return to Publick Affairs the Duke at his coming to Scotland The Duke labours to engage Scotland for a Personal Treaty procured new Instructions to be sent to their Commissioners at London to press a Personal Treaty and that the King might be with Safety and Honour in England and that it might be declared that the Government of England should still continue according to the Fundamental Laws The chief business at Westminster was to be rid of their Brethren of Scotland wherefore they fell a-treating about the Removal of the Army and the Delivery of the Garrisons The Scots demanded five hundred thousand pounds Sterlâ—ng and of that Sum two hundred thousand pound
presently but four hundred thousand were Voted to them and only one hundred thousand presently and upon this they stood long The Two Houses having on the 24th of September Voted that the Kings Person should be demanded from the Scotish Army their Commissioners at London gave in long Papers against that The Scotish Commissioners at London complain of the Kings ill Usage and the harsh Votes of the Two Houses which were Printed and so need not be here inserted In them they shewed That the King being Soveraign of both Kingdoms was not to be disposed by the Parliament of one Kingdom That this was destructive to the Relation and Interest the Scotish Nation had in Him and contrary to the nature of Soveraignty and to the Covenant and Treaties of both Kingdoms by which it was agreed That His Majesties just Power and Greatness should not be diminished which by such a Demand of His Person was very signally done It was also agreed that all things in order to Peace to which the Disposal of the Kings Person did relate in a signal manner should be done by the Ioynt Councils of both Kingdoms After this in the Month of October begun the Treaty betwixt the Scotish Commissioners and the Committee appointed for that end by the Two Houses of Parliament Many Conferences are betwixt the Two Houses and them which was managed in the Painted Chamber in the presence of all the Members of the Two Houses The Scotish Commissioners who were the Earls of Lowdon and Lauderdale and the Lord Wariston declared in all their Papers and Speeches that they were not to Treat about His Majesties Person nor the Disposing of it but only about the Removal of the Army the Delivery of those Garrisons that their Army had in England and the Payment of Arrears due for their Armies both in England and Ireland and they continued to press that whereas the Two Houses had in all their former Declarations laid the blame of the Breach betwixt the King and them on His Majesties Withdrawing from His Parliament that therefore they would invite His Majesty to come with Honour Freedom and Safety to some of His Houses in or about London in which they still insisted to the last And so far were they from Treating about the Disposing of His Majesties Person that in the end of their Treaty when they had finally agreed on all things it was expresly declared in the first Article of the Treaty that pass'd under the Great Seal that nothing relating to the Kings Person was concluded on by it so that after that was ended the Scotish Parliament might have still preserved the King and brought him with their Army to Scotland But the Houses turned the Propositions to Bills The Houses press a speedy Answer to their Propositions and passed a Vote that new Commissionerâ— should be sent to the King with the concurrence of those of Scotland to press a satisfactory Answer with this Sanction that if it were not granted they should be forced to look to the Security of His Person And the English Army fell upon a most destructive Resolution of adjourning the Parliament neither were they over-awed by any thing so much as the fear of the Scotish Army The great point now debated in the Councils of Scotland was whether a final Settlement with the King should be the Condition of the Armies Retiring or not The Duke with all his Friends pressed this vigorously as that which was agreed on by their Covenant and Treaties But the Church-men still influenced all Counsels and finding the King irreconcileable to their Way were still full of their Jealousies of Him and it was said down-right that they ought not to meddle betwixt the King and the Parliament of England but leave Him and them to their own Counsels so strangely did their Language vary from what it was Anno 1643. At this time the King sent Mr. Murray of the Bed-Chamber to London Mr. Murray is sent by the King to London who carried another Message but it was so displeasing that it served only to put his Neck to a new hazard for the Kings Service and he durst scarce stir out of doors all the while he was there In the beginning of November a new Session of the Triennial Parliament of Scotland did hold The Parliament of Scotland meets but little was done for some Weeks save that there came to them a Remonstrance from the Assembly wherein in the first place Complaints were made of the Committee of Estates for their Agreement with Montrose and his Followers which was represented as a great Crime especially they being excommunicated Next they complained of His Majesties constant adherence to Prelacy and of the danger Religion was in by the Malignants for so was the Kings Party then called who were beginning to set up their Heads again wherefore they recommended to their Care both the Preservation of Religion and of the Treaties with England Upon this the Transaction of the Committee of Estates in the Agreement with Montrose was examined and it was put to the Vote Approve or Exoner them only the former was carried by twenty Votes but all the Pulpits thundered against it wherefore to stop the mouths of the Ministries it was enacted That in any Treaty that should be thereafter with those who were in Arms the Commission of the Kirk should be consulted about the Lawfulness of the Conditions For at this time both the Marquis of Huntley was in Arms in the North and Antrim was also come over to Kintyre in Iuly the former year and continued still there His Majesty sent Mr. Robert Lesley with Orders to my Lord Huntley for laying down of Arms with whom he wrote the following Letters to the two Brothers Hamilton A Trusty Messenger requires but a short Letter and brevity is the more convenient for Me who have much to do and but few helpers wherefore I shall say no more but hear and trust Robin Lesly for he is come from Your most assured real faithful constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle Nov. 12th 1646. Lanerick HEaring that Marquis Huntley expects My Commands for his laying down of Arms I have thought fit to send this Trusty Bearer Robin Lesly to him but thought it necessary to address him first to you that you in My Name might acquaint the Parliament with this My Intention which if they approve of he may go on accordingly if not there is no hurt done Yet howsoever I have expressed My Desire for the Peace of the Country but in case they shall permit Robin to obey My Commands then I expect that they give him Power to assure Huntley of the same Conditions that he might have had before All which I command you to represent to My Parliament in My Name leaving the particular expressions to you having only set down the sense Other things I have intrusted little Nobs to tell you too long for a Letter but of no small Consequence by which at
Lanerick Cousin YOu will perceive by this that you cannot make more haste in obliging Me A Letter from the Queen to Lanerick than I shall on My part in witnessing My Acknowledgements of it I ascribe a great deal of the good Inclinations your Commissioners do now express to the good Offices you do of which I intreat the Continuance The testimonies of Friendship which I receive from those of your Family surprize Me less than what I met with from other Hands and I promise My Self to see further effects of it And as I have all the esteem of you that you can expect so you owe Me the Iustice of believing that I shall give evidence of it upon every occasion that shall be offered to Me nor shall I rest satisfied with that but shall diligently search out every opportunity of expressing it Therefore I entreat you to believe that I am Cousin Your very good and very affectionate Friend and Cousin HENRIETA MARIA R. Towards the end of December the Earls of Lowdon Lauderdale and Lanerick The Scotish Commissioners go to His Majesty followed the English Commissioners to the Isle of Wight and after they had protested against the Bills they concluded their Treaty with His Majesty to engage for his Rescue and Re-establishment on his Throne and to bring in an Army into England assoon as it were possible for that effect An Agreement with the King to bring an Army for His Service The King on the other hand engaged to them for all the Assistance they could demand from the Queen or Prince or any other who would obey His Authority and that the Prince should come to Scotland assoon as they found it convenient to invite him and that His Majesty should grant all the Desires of Scotland which with a good Conscience he could grant And the Commissioners having advised and agreed with His Majesty both about the Methods of carrying on their Designs and the ways of keeping Correspondence with him they resolved to return home to Scotland and so they left His Majesty at Wight in the end of the Year But upon the Kings refusing to pass the Bills he was made close Prisoner and a Vote passed in both Houses against all further Addresses to him MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James Duke of Hamilton c. LIB VI. Of the Dukes Engagement for the Kings Preservation and what followed till His Death Anno 1648. An. 1648. THe former Book has given the Reader a just and full Representation of His Majesties Imprisonment and the Danger his Person was in of the Force put on the Two Houses by the Army and of the breach of former Treaties with the Scotish Nation and now it cannot but be imagined that such Illegal and Unjust Proceedings must have inflamed the Resentments of all good Subjects and more signally of such who had formerly been carried away in the crowd to act against the Kings Interests but now seeing how fatal the Breach between the King and his People was likely to prove to both were much concerned to correct all former Errours and expiate all past Faults by a vigorous appearance for the Kings Rescue out of his Imprisonment In order to this Design the Duke was not idle in Scotland The Dukes endeavours in Scotland but by all the Art and Diligence he was Master of did study to rouse up and work upon the Fidelity and Loyalty of that Nation representing that now an Occasion was in their Hands to witness to the World the sincerity of their Intentions for their King when he was under so base a Restraint and Designs were hatching against his Life Would they now look on and see the King murdered the Parliament of England over-awed the City of London oppressed the whole English Nation enslaved the Treaties with Scotland so unworthily violated the Covenant and Religion so neglected and swarms of Sectaries over-run all Now or never was the time for declaring themselves and if Duty did not move them yet the apprehension of their own Danger might provoke them to look to themselves for did they think to escape the fury of the Sectaries if they were so tame as to suffer them to prevail in England therefore all Laws Divine and Humane did oblige them to look to themselves and to those Enemies of theirs And there was good reason to hope for success since besides the Blessing of God which might be expected upon so just and Noble Enterprizes the People of England were groaning under this Usurpation and would be ready to assist them and they had reason to expect a welcome from the City of London and the better part of the Two Houses These things did prevail much on the most of the Nobility and Gentry Three Parties in Scotland But at this time Three Parties begun to appear in Scotland The one was of those who would hear of no Proposition for the Kings Delivery unless he first gave satisfaction in matters of Religion and this was made up of the Preachers and a few of the Nobility and the Western Counties Others were for a direct Owning of the Kings Quarrel without any restrictions and for taking all Persons who had been in Arms for the Kings Service within it The Earls of Traquair and Calendar were the chief of these and many Noblemen were of it who called themselves the Kings Party but their Power in the Country was not great The Duke was as much for that in his thoughts as any of them but saw it impossible to effectuate the Kings business at that rate and therefore judged it best to go on in so great a Design by degrees The present Strait was that he first looked to which was the Rescue of the Kings Person and he doubted not if they once got a good Army engaged upon that account though all were at first clogged with many severe Restrictions yet it would be easy afterwards to carry things that were not to be then spoken of and this way took with almost the whole Gentry of Scotland The Scotish Commissioners spent much of the month of Ianuary at London The Commissioners return to Scotland establishing a good Correspondence with the Kings Friends in England and they had Letters from St. Germans in France in which the Queen and Prince undertook to make good to them all that had been promised by the King in their Name And in the Commissions the Prince gave to Sir Marmaduke Langdale and others for Levying of Forces in the North of England he commanded them to receive their Orders from the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick and follow their Commands Thus having laid down the best Methods they could think of with their Friends in England they set out for Scotland about the end of Ianuary At their coming to Scotland they found a general dissatisfaction with the Kings Message in November about Religion And though all the Duke's Friends were ready to have hazarded their Lives for His
was at that time much influenced by the Dukes Enemies yet Bellandin got many promises made him of a large supply of Mony and Ammunition Upon these Expectations the Earl of Lanerick was against a speedy March into England but much pressed by others but this was opposed by the Earl of Lauderdale who pressed a present Dispatch They were called upon so earnestly from their Friends in England that to linger still was to lose the Kings Party there for now the Kentish men were broken and some of them had passed over unto Essex where many rose with them and carried Colchester and made a good Body both of Horse and Foot but were not able to hold out long against the Army yet they gave them divers foils But that of the greatest Importance was that most of the Navy had declared for the King and desired a Correspondence with Scotland and Willoughby who was made Vice-Admiral by the Prince was a great Friend to the Scotish Nation The Earl of Inchequin also with his Army in Ireland had declared against the Parliament and sent to Scotland a very kind Message for a good Understanding with that Parliament and finally a part of the English Army being much sollicited by the Church-party in Scotland who complained that they were now exposed by them to Ruin was coming North-ward under the Command of Lambert and Langdale had written to them that he could not be able to stand long before Lambert if he were not speedily relieved and that Carlisle also would be in great hazard neither was the hazard only the loss of Carlisle of which they made less account but the Army which was with Langdale whose Wives and Children were in Carlisle did threaten to leave him and Capitulate if that Place were not preserved Besides all this they at Westminster to temper the general Hatred against them had called back the Secluded Members of both Houses and were Levying new Forces and had Voted a Personal Treaty with the King at which time also one Osburn avouched that there were Designs against the Kings Person and that himself had been sollicited to assist in the poysoning him All these Considerations were pressing and could admit of no delays wherefore Lauderdale insisted for a present March and that the Dukes Carriage might shew it was the Kings Service and not a Faction he was designing nor Resentments against these who withstood him in Scotland for so did Lauderdale mistake Lanerick's advice for curbing of the Church-party and punishing their Leaders The Duke saw great reason on both sides and is resolved on and though his own Judgment went along with his Brothers Advice knowing well it was easie for him to have forced all Scotland very soon into a Compliance with their Design which being once done he could have marched into England upon greater advantages and with a far better Army yet he was content to be over-ruled believing that if they were prosperous in England upon which depended all their hopes it would be no great Work to Master any Opposition might be made in Scotland And thus did the unripened forwardness of those in England force the Duke on a fatal Precipitation of Counsels The resolution was taken and a General Rendezvous appointed to be at Annan near the Borders of England on the 4th of Iuly All this while my Lord Lanerick had not forgotten the Kings Commands about the Marquis of Huntley but the ill Opinion the Church-men had of them was such that to have proceeded roundly in that matter would have given greater grounds of Jealousie to that Party therefore the Iunto sent him word to the Castle of Edinburgh where he was then Prisoner that though at that time it was not fit to set him at liberty by an Order yet they were willing he should make his Escape and they offered their Assistance for conveying him safe away But he said he was brought thither by Order and he would not steal out as a Thief and from this fatal stiffness they could not get him removed yet they resolved to liberate him openly when they should be better able to avow their Actions The Opposition the Church-men made to the Raising of the Army An Insurrectâ—on at Mauchlin did still retard the Levies and discourage the Souldiers though the Officers were generally resolute Some Forces were sent West-ward under the Command of Sir Iames Turner to keep that Country quiet who found a little Authority vigorously managed did quickly tame some of the most unruly But at Mauchlin there was a great Gathering under the Colour of an Assembly to a Solemn Communion and many went thither Armed pretending hazard from the danger of that time Turner got notice that an Insurrection was designed there and advertised the Duke of it who ordered Turner not to stir till the Earls of Calander and Middleton should come to assist him who came to Pasely on the Saturndy before that Communion they drew out the Forces that lay there consisting of two Regiments of Foot and fourteen Troops of Horse and marched to Steuarton where the Earl of Glenâ—airn and others of the Nobility met them Some advised a March of the whole Forces others thought a few Troops were sufficient for dispersing that Multitude whereupon Middleton was commanded out with six Troops who found them near two thousand strong Horse and Foot but being ill-commanded they were soon disordered Middleton and Hurry gave the Charge and were briskly encountered so that they were made to retreat with the loss of some men and both Middleton and Hurry got slight Wounds but the Party that had given them this rude Shock having cleared a way for themselves made their Retreat The report of this Disorder was brought hot to Calender who leaving the Foot at Kilmarnock went with the eight Troops he had with him to assist Middleton but upon his appearing all run away The Horse were not pursued sixty Foot Souldiers were taken and five Officers and some Ministers who were all dismissed only the Officers were condemned to dye by a Council of War but were afterwards pardoned by Calander Some Forces were sent towards the Borders After this before a General Rendezvous was possible the Duke for animating those of Carlisle who began to be sore put to it sent Collonel Lockhart with some Regiments of Horse to lye at Annan and Collonel Turner with five or six Regiments of Foot to lye at Dumfrice hoping thereby to hinder Lambert from coming near Carlisle wherein his expectation did not fail him for no sooner came Lockhart to Annan but Lambert drew his Troops nearer and Sir Marmaduke Langdale got air a while for Provision both for his Men and Horses and against the day appointed the General came from Edinburgh to Annan with Calander Middleton and Baylie and several Regiments of Horse and Foot The Army enters England Turner also came to him from Dumfrice with the Regiments that lay there and some Ammunition and abundance of Meal
could to the Army but he was first to go to Holland where he intended to stay some few days The Earl of Lauderdale had got Instructions from Scotland to go to the Prince of Orange and the States General to give them an account of their Affairs and to crave their Assistance in Money Arms Ammunition and Shipping to see also what Money could be borrowed upon the Publick Faith of Scotland for the prosecuting the Engagement and to desire from them the three Scotish Regiments that were then in the States Service and to settle a firm Alliance with them and from them he was to go to France with Letters to the Queen and to treat with the Queen Mother of France for the Assistance of that Nation according to the ancient Alliances between the Crowns of France and Scotland All these Instructions being communicated to his Highness he judged the Imployment might be of good use but would not let the Earl of Lauderdale leave him intending to carry him with him to Holland and was very well pleased that Sir Robert Murray was appointed to go to France in case the other went not yet he resolved to carry him along likewise to Holland Upon which the Earl of Lauderdale sent advertisement to Scotland to make ready for his Highness Reception This was done on the 20th of August and as the Prince was making ready the sad news of the Defeat of the Army was brought him so that Design vanished But in Scotland the news of the routing of the Army was received by the opposite Party with all the insultings of Joy they adding infamous opprobries to their Invectives Some observing that the Division of the Duke's Army which was its Ruin was on the 17th day of August the day in which the Covenant was first made which from thence some used to call Saint Covenants day this Conjuncture of Affairs was held a visible Declaration of Gods Displeasure for their breaking the Covenant and their Juggling in it by those who took upon them to expound all Gods Providences The Western Counties were commanded and animated to an Insurrection by the Lord Chancellour and the Earl of Eglinton together with their Ministers who came leading out whole Parishes with such Arms as could be had and when these failed with Staves and Pitch-forks and Sythes When the Resolutions for raising an Army were taken in the Parlialiament divers of the Nobility did dissent from them An Insurrection in Scotland the chief of whom were Lowdon who was then Lord Chancellour and Argyle and now Lowdon upon the notice of the misfortune in England gave out Orders for raising the Western Counties and all others who would zealously own the Covenant against the late Engagement Those that were raised were at first commanded by the Earl of Eglinton and the Marquis of Argyle made all the haste he could to come down with his Highlanders the Earl of Cassilis was slowest with his men for though he had dissented from the Engagement yet he was long unsatisfied with the Tumultariness of the Insurrection but after some times consulting about it he came up to them at Linlithgow This together with the sad account of Affairs from England did not a little disorder the Committee of Estates who as they drew a few Troops that were kept in the Country for their Guard nearer them so were not well resolved what to do They looked on the business as desperate by the ruin of the Army in England Many in the Committee of Estates incline to yield to them and though it was easie to scatter the confused Bodies were coming from the West yet they apprehended that certainly they finding their own weakness would call for the Assistance of the English Army before which they knew they could not stand Most of the Committee were men of good Estates who apprehending certain ruin to their Fortunes were resolved to see to their own Preservation the best way they could Others were much addicted to the Ministers and though they had gone along with the Service notwithstanding the opposition of the Clergy yet now that they knew they were resolved to excommunicate all who were for the Engagement their hearts failed them Many of the Ministers did also represent to them and some of their Friends that their Designs being blasted by God why should they fight any longer against him and assured them that if they would lay down Arms and accommodate matters without Blood all should go well that they would all own the Kings Quarrel according to the Covenant but if on the other hand they persisted in their opposition to the Church the English Army would be called in which would undoubtedly destroy both the Country and them These things prevailed with most of the Committee of Estates But the Earl of Lanerick opposed all these Resolutions judging it base and dishonourable to treat with those Rebels and abandon so good a Cause because of a Misfortune He thought it therefore necessary to recall Sir George Monro with his Forces and secure themselves of Sterlin and St. Iohnstoun and then to raise all the North by which they might gather a new Army and the time of the Year told them that Cromwel durst not stay long in these Parts so that upon his going to London they might make themselves Masters of Scotland and force a new Army into England the next Year Yet in this he was almost alone and many of the Committee of Estates plied him hard especially with one Argument that if more Bloud were shed in Scotland their Enemies would undoubtedly revenge themselves on his Brother and then all the World would say his Ambition to succeed him had made him contribute to his Ruin But on the other hand the Ministers and their Adherents gave great Assurances that they should procure his Brother's Liberty if matters were packt up This being constantly pressed on him he yielded to be passive and let them be doing and so after some days Debate they resolved to prosecute the Engagement no more and to pack up the business if it were possible therefore they sent the Lords of Lee and Humby to the Western Forces who were come in their March the length of Hamilton to see what their Demands were and to propose a Cessation in order to a Treaty they also sent Orders to Sir George Monro to return to Scotland But here I shall stop a little to give account of the motions of his Army in England The account of the Irish Army Musgrave had got intelligence that Cromwel with his Army was upon his March to stop the Duke's progress and had advanced the length of Skipton-Castle in Yorkshire which Advertisement was instantly dispatched to the Duke at Preston and a small Party of about forty Horse was sent under the Command of one Galbreath to examin the truth of these Reports who returned with this Account That having concealed their Party within a Hedge near that Place some of them came to a
their Act which constituted this Court for his Trial declared him a Traytor it was not to be disputed what the Parliament had Power to do but no Parliament had ever done the like before and the meaning of the Act must be that he should be tried whether guilty of Treason or not since if the Parliament have already declared him a Traytor further Trial was needless And it was clear the Parliament by their Act in Iuly last which declared all the Scots who entred England Enemies considered not the distinction of Post-nati nor judged that inferred Treason since most of them all were Post-nati That many of the Officers of that Army who had been taken Prisoners though clearly Post-nati were ransomed others banished others still in Prison why then should the imputation of Treason be fastned on the Duke when the rest were used only as Enemies And for the Articles they made it appear they were the Publick Faith of the Kingdom when given by persons publickly Authorized upon the observing of which inviolably depended the whole Intercourse of all Nations and their mutual Confidence which is founded on all States being bound by the Acts of their Publick Ministers That this was not a pure Rendition but a Paction concluded upon Deliberation wherein the Parliament lost nothing but on the contrary were Gainers That the Parliament had ratified this upon the matter by Voting a hundred thousand pound Sterling Fine to be the price of the Dukes Liberty That the secret sence the Treaters pretended was not to be considered since all Compacts are to be understood according to the clear meaning of the Words the universal sense of Mankind who look on Articles wherein Life is granted as a sufficient Security not only from the Souldiers but from the Civil Powers and that these Treaters when the Articles were agreed should have made known their secret meaning otherwise it was not to be regarded and it was a most dangerous Precedent to admit of collateral Averments of secret meanings against express words much more in a Case of Life and yet much more in Military Agreements wherein the Concernments of Armies and Nations were included and which concerned the Honour and Security of all Souldiers and for this divers Precedents were cited The Argument ended thus That as the Court consisted of Gentlemen Lawyers and of Martial men so the Plea consisting of three Branches was the more proper for their cognizance a part of it being drawn from the Law of England another part from the Civil Law and a Third part from the Martial Law and if the Plea in any of the three Branches was made good and they doubted not but it would be found so in them all the Court would be satisfied there was Reason Justice for preserving the Dukes life The Tenth Appearance The Court adjourned till Friday the second of March and the Duke being again brought to the Bar the Counsel for the People pleaded but so poorly that all who heard them were asham'd But they had one advantage that neither the Duke nor his Counsel were allowed to speak after them nor to discover their impertinent Allegations which made the Dukes Counsel obviate all they could imagine they might say though they said a great deal so far out of the way of Reason that none could have thought of it and yet it was so weak that it needed neither be obviated nor replied to Yet at the end of every Branch of their Pleading I shall add the Answers against them as they are set down in some Notes taken by the Dukes Counsel The Counsel for the People plead against the Duke They begun with Alienage and studied to make it appear that though he was a Scotchman born yet he was no Alien having enjoyed all the Priviledges an Englishman was capable of as being a Peer a Privy-Councellour possessing Lands and Inheritances and Marrying in England But Naturalization cannot be but by Act of Parliament and not by the Kings single Deed much less by those Priviledges of which any Stranger might participate Next they urged his Fathers Naturalization and since his Name was not in that Act as was in other Acts of Naturalization that proved him to be no Alien otherwise his Name had been put in From that it rather appeared he was an Alien since others found it necessary to insert their Childrens Names which his Father not doing proves the Son an Alien still They also urged his being Post-natus which must be held true since he brought no Evidence to the contrary and it being so his Tie of subjection was as great in England as in Scotland That Allegeance was only due to the King and not to the Kingdom That there was a King when he entred into England and that though he was secluded from the Government yet all Writs were issued in his Name so that this Expedition was a breach of the Allegeance he owed the King This was the oddest part of all their Plea since his Charge was that he assisted the King against the Kingdom and now they did plead he owed no Allegeance to the Kingdom but to the King whom they had so lately murdered the Dukes coming with his Army being only to relieve him from the Barbarous Vsage he had met with They also urged at large That an Englishman's Children in what place of the World soever they were born were Denizens of England and cited many Precedents But the Mis-application of them was gross and palpable those being of Persons who were Englishmen before their Children were born whereas the Duke's Father was naturalized after he was born so that he could not communicate that Priviledge to him which he did indeed transmit to his Children born after his Naturalization Next they pleaded that the Parliament of Scotland had no power to commissionate him to enter into England and that if some of them were there they ought likewise to suffer for it and it was fit he suffered for his Masters who employed him That it was pitty the King had not suffered sooner They also produced many Precedents of Strangers being condemned as guilty of Treason for Treasons committed in England as the Queen of Scots Lopez Perkin Warbeck the Lord Harris Shirley the Frenchman and the Spanish Ambassadour All this was obviated in the former Argument where distinction was made betwixt secret Practices and an open Invasion with a forreign Force They added That Scotland belonged to the Crown of England and so was to be look't on as some of the Counties of England But Scotland had no subjection to the Crown but only to the King of England whom they had murdered and so they had no Power to judge any Scotchman As for the Articles they pleaded it was not in the Power of the Army to absolve any from the Justice of the Parliament which being above them was not tied to their Articles and therefore though they confessed the words ought to have been less
inclinations over England should prove too hard for them but Mr. Marshall Great Disorders in England who was sent back from the English Commissioners in Scotland comforted them the best he could giving them all assurance that the Designs there would meet with vigorous Opposition wherefore it was moved that some of the Forces might be presently sent down before the Army were drawn together who might hope for good Assistance in Scotland But he also told them that nothing would be so likely to divide them in Scotland as to declare for the Covenant and the Propositions sent to Newcastle and indeed this was much dreaded by the Duke and his Friends since there was nothing so popular in Scotland as that the Parliament and Army of England had fallen from the Covenant but they resolved though that were granted to accept of no Treaty till the Army were presently disbanded for which the former Years Transactions did furnish them with very good reasons Mr. Marshall did what he could to reconcile the Presbyterians and Independents in London and that they might not fall out about Religion it was Voted that the Kingdom should be first settled before Religion was fallen upon The City of London was generally well-affected to the Scotish Design though some studied to alienâ—te them from it by telling them that those in Scotland were in Correspondence with the Cavaliers in England The City was inconstant and the Citizens feared the Armies falling on them to plunder them so that they were easily over-awed and at that time the Agitators of the Army were upon the Fining of the City in a Million of English Mony A general Answer was returned to the Scotish Demands by the day they had prefixed with the Promise of a more particular one to follow shortly which was looked on as a Design to shift them off by Delays At this time the Two Houses were much lifted up with a Defeat given to Langhorn in Wales which was represented to be greater than indeed it was But to allay their Joy there came in Petitions from many Counties of England for a Personal Treaty with the King and for being disburdened of the Army one came from Essex which was subscribed by twenty four thousand Hands and eight thousand men came out of Surrey with their Petition upon whom the Souldiers fell barbarously and killed about Twenty of them wounding above an Hundred Next the Kentish men rose in a formidable number but it was more terrible that the Navy was staggering and many of the Captains of the Ships declared against their Proceedings This was sad News for London by reason of their Trade which was like to be blockt up And now Cromwel to please the City of London drew the Forces out of it and left the Militia of London in their own Hands only he got Skippon who was of their own Cabal made Major-General of their Trained Bands and there was no small Disorder in the Army the Agitators being for the most part Levellers and against Cromwel as was by some supposed With all this Tragical visage of things they at Wâ—stminster were not a little mortified A Fast at Westminster so they appointed a Day of Humiliation and when they were naming the reasons for the Fast one of the Members had a singular opinion that notwithstanding the Self-denying Ordinance they had past yet they had ingrossed all Places of Power and Profit to themselves by which Juggling God was mocked wherefore he moved that they might devest themselves of these but the rest were not of his mind And if three Sermons and a great many long Prayers would reconcile God to them they would be at the cost but were resolved to quit none of their Power nor Places All these Tumults in England as they had hindered the Two Houses from sending down their Forces to Scotland so they called aloud for hasty Relief from the Scotish Army which from all places was called for But the Oppositition the Clergy and their Party made had so fore-slowed their Levies that they could not overtake this fair opportunity but were forced to leave the poor People in England to be knockt down by the insulting Army The Parliament of Scotland re-assembled in Iune The Parliament adjourns and after few days Sitting and the emitting of new Declarations both for Scotland and England but of a milder strain than their former of April had been being now weary of their hopeless courting of the Clergy they adjourned for Two Years having chosen a Committee of Estates sure to their Designs and they were drawing their Army together with all possible diligence But the great matter now debated in Scotland was A present March is disswaded by some whether they should first make all sure at home or leave things in that disordered posture and make haste into England Lanerick was for taking order with the Opposite Party and the Lords that headed them before they stirred out of Scotland lest otherwise assoon as they were gone the Ministers might blow up the People into Sedition which would either force them to send back a part of their Army for curbing them or lose Scotland totally by their Tumults while their Army should be strugling with an uncertainty in England Besides they were neither well-furnished with Arms Ammunition nor Mony but had good Assurances of large Supplies from the Queen and Prince by Sir William Fleeming and the Prince though much disswaded by these who were both Enemies to the Scotish Nation in General and the Duke in particular continued still firm to his first Resolutions of going to them when all things were brought to that Posture that it were fit for him to hazard himself amongst them and therefore in the middle of Iune Sir William Fleeming was dispatched again from his Highness to Scotland with the following Letter directed For the Lord Duke Hamilton and the Earls of Lindsay Roxburgh Lauderdale Lanerick and Calender My Lords YOu will receive by Sir William Fleeming who is amply instructed the full account of My Intentions and he is not more particularly charged with any thing than to let you know the sense I have of Your Affections yet I thought fit to reserve unto My Self the assuring you that as I conceive I am not capable of being more obliged than I have been by you so I shall be most exactly just in the discharge of my Acknowledgments when it shall please God to make My Condition fit for it In the mean time I have nothing to say but to desire you to be intirely confident of it and that I am most truly My Lords Your Affectionate Friend CHARLES P. Sir William Bellandin met with more Opposition in Holland for Judgments were passed on the Scotish Proceedings from their Declarations and all he could say was not able to take off those Impressions so that no good was expected from Scotland The States of Holland had no great inclination to the Kings Party and the Prince of Orange