concluding Conference having agreed to the Bill without further amendments and therefore desir'd the concurrence of the Commons Thus at length the Commons agreed to the amendments made by the Lords and sent a message to acquaint the Lords therewith This was done upon the fourteenth day of this month But upon the sixteenth a Message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the night before the Earl of Danby had render'd himself to the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod and that being call'd to the Bar they had sent him to the Tower Thereupon a Committee was appointed to prepare and draw up further Evidence against him and such further Articles as they should see cause Soon after his Majesty was pleas'd to dissolve his Privy Council and to make another consisting of no more than thirty persons And for the management of the Treasury and Navy five Commissiones were appointed for the Treasury and seven for the Admiralty Then the Commons took into consideration the disbanding of the Army and having voted a supply of 264602 l. 17 s. 3 d. to that intent they then voted that Sr. Gilbert Gerrard Sr. Thomas Player Coll. Birch and Coll. Whitley should be Commissioners to pay the disbanded forces off But now to return to the Earl of Danby upon the 25th of this month a message was sent by the Lords to acquaint the Commons that the said Earl had that same day personally appear'd at the Bar of their House and had put in his plea to the Articles of Impeachment against him The Articles were these as they were deliver'd into the House of Lords in the name of the Commons of England by Sir Henry Capel December 23. 1678. I. That he had traiterously encroacht to himself Regal Power by treating in matters of Peace and War with Foreign Ministers and Embassadors and giving instructions to his Majesties Embassadors abroad without communicating the same to the Secretaries of State and the rest of his Majesties Council against the express Declaration of his Majesty in Parliament thereby intending to defeat and overthrow the provision that has been deliberately made by his Majesty and his Parliament for the safety and preservation of his Majesties Kingdoms and Dominions II. That he had traiterously endeavour'd to subvert the ancient and well-establish'd form of Government of this Kingdom and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical form of Government and the better to effect this his purpose he did design the raising of an Army upon pretence of a war against the French King and to continue the same as a standing Army within this Kingdom and an Army so rais'd and no war ensuing an Act of Parliament having past to disband the same and a great sum of money being granted for that end he did continue the same contrary to the said Act and mis-imploy'd the said money given for the disbanding to the continuance thereof and issued out of his Majesties Revenues great sums of money for the said purpose and wilfully neglected to take security of the Pay-master of the Army as the said Act required whereby the said Law is eluded and the Army yet continued to the great danger and unnecessary charge of his Majesty and the whole Kingdome III. That he trayterously intending and designing to alienate the hearts and affections of his Majesties good Subjects from his Royal Person and Government and to hinder the meeting of Parliaments and to deprive his Sacred Majesty of their safe and wholsom counsel and thereby to alter the constitution of the Government of this Kingdom did propose and negotiate a peace for the French King upon terms disadvantagious to the Interest of his Majesty and Kingdom For the doing whereof he did procure a great sum of money from the French King for enabling him to maintain and carry on his said traiterous designs and purposes to the hazard of his Majesties Person and Government IV. That he is Popishly affected and hath traiterously concealed after he had notice the late horrid and bloody Plot and Conspiracy contriv'd by the Papists against his Majesties Person and Government and hath suppress'd the Evidence and reproachfully discountenanc'd the Kings Witnesses in the Discovery of it in favour of Popery immediately tending to the destruction of the Kings Sacred Person and the subversion of the Protestant Religion V. That he hath wasted the Kings Treasure by issuing out of his Majesties Exchequer several branches of his Revenue for unnecessary Pensions and secret services to the value of 〈…〉 within two years and that he hath wholly diverted out of the known method and Government of the Exchequer one whole branch of his Majesties Revenue to private Uses without any accompt to be made of it to his Majesty in his Exchequer contrary to an express Act of Parliament which granted the same And he hath removed two of his Majesties Commissioners of that part of the Revenue for refusing to consent to such his unwarrantable actings therein and to advance money upon that branch of the Revenue for private uses VI. That he hath by indirect means procured from his Majesty to himself divers considerable gifts and Grants of Inheritances of the ancient Revenues of the Crown contrary to Acts of Parliament For which matters and things the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons in Parliament do in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England impeach the said Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England of High Treason and other high Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences in the said Articles contained And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other accusation or Impeachment against the said Earl and also of replying to the answers of which the said Thomas Earl of Danby shall make to the Premises or any of them or any Impeachment or Accusation which shall be by them exhibited as the cause according to proceedings of Parliament shall require Do pray that the said Thomas Earl of Danby may be put to answer all and every the Premises that such proceedings Tryals Examinations and Judgements may be upon them and every one of them had and used as shall be agreeable to Law and Justice and that he may be sequester'd from Parliament and forthwith committed to custody To these Articles the Earl of Danby soon after put in his Plea as follows The Plea of the Earl of Danby late Lord high Treasurer of England to the Articles of Impeachment and other High Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences Exhibited against him by the name of Thomas Earl of Danby Lord High Treasurer of England THE said Earl for Plea saith and humbly offers to your Lordships as to all and every the Treasons Crimes Misdemeanors and Offences contained or mention'd in the said Articles That after the said Articles exhibited namely the first of March now last past the Kings most excellent Majesty by his most gracious Letters of Pardon under his
setting up a Pardon to be a Bar against an Impeachment defeats the whole use and effect of Impeachments and should this point be admitted or stand doubted it would totally discourage the exhibiting any for the future Whereby the chief Institution for the preservation of the Government and consequently the Government it self would be destroy'd And therefore the case of the said Earl which in consequence concerns all Impeachments whatsoever ought to be determin'd before that of the five Lords which is but their particular case And without resorting to many Authorities of greater Antiquity The Commons desire your Lordships to take Notice with the same regard they do of the Declaration which that Excellent Prince King Charles the I. of blessed Memory made in this behalf in his Answer to the nineteen Propositions of both Houses of Parliament Wherein stating the several parts of this Regulated Monarchy He says The King the House of Lords and the House of Commons have each their particular Priviledges And among those which belong to the King he reckons Power of pardoning After the Ennumerating of which and other his Preaogatives His said Majesty adds thus Again that the Prince may not make use of this High and perpetual Power to the hurt of those for whose good he hath it and make use of the Name of public Necessity for the Gain of his private Favourites and Followers to the Detriment of the People the House of Commons an excellent preservative of Liberty c. is solely entrusted with the first Propositions concerning the Levying of Mony and the Impeaching of those who for their own ends though countenanc'd by any Surreptitiously gotten Command of the King have violated the Law when he knows it which he is bound to protect and to the protection of which they are bound to advise him at least not to serve him to the contrary And the Lords being entrusted with a Judiciary power are an excellent Skreen and Bank between the Prince and People to assist each against any encroachments of the other and by just Judgment to preserve the Law which ought to be the Rule of every one of the three c. Therefore the Power plac'd in both Houses is more then sufficient to prevent and restrain the Power of Tyranny c. III. Untill the House of Commons have right done them against this Plea of Pardon they may justly apprehend that the whole Justice of the Kingdom in the Case of the five Lords may be obstructed and defeated by Pardons of the like nature IV. And Impeachments are virtually the voice of every particular Subject of this Kingdom crying out against Oppression by which every member of that Body is equally wounded And it will prove a matter of ill consequence that the Universality of the People should have occasion minister'd and continu'd to them to be apprehensive of utmost danger from the Crown from whence they of right expect Protection V. The Commons exhibited Articles of Impeachment against the said Earl before any against the five other Lords and demanded Judgment upon those Articles Whereupon your Lordships having appointed the Tryal of the said Earl to be before that of the other five Lords and now having inverted the said Order gives a great cause of doubt to the House of Commons and raises a jealousie in the Hearts of all the Commons of England That if they should proceed to the Tryal of the said five Lords in the first place not only Justice will be obstructed in the case of those Lords but that they shall never have right done them in the matter of this Plea of Pardon which is of so fatal Consequence to the whole Kingdom and a new device to frustrate the public Justice in Parliament Which Reasons and Matters being duly weigh'd by your Lordships the Commons doubt not but your Lordships will receive satisfaction concerning their Propositions and Proceedings And will agree That the Commons neither ought nor can without deserting their Trust depart from their former Vote communicated to your Lordships That the Lords Spiritual ought not to have any Vote in any proceedings against the Lords in the Tower c. This Narrative and the Reasons being deliver'd as is already mention'd were the next day read and debated and then the Lords read their own Vote of the 13th of May and their Explanation thereupon and the Question being put whether to insist upon those Votes concerning the Lords Spiritual it was Resolv'd in the Affirmative Eight and twenty of the Lords dissenting What the issue of the dispute would have been is not here to be disputed but this is certain that while both Houses were thus contesting His Majesty himself put an end to their Debates For that very day being come in His Royal Robes into the House of Lords and seated in His Throne the Commons also attending His Majesty was pleas'd to give His Royal Assent to A Bill for the better securing the Liberty of the Subject A Bill for reingrossing of Fines burn'd in the late Fire in the Temple And A Private Bill concerning Charles Dale of Rutlandshire Esq And then having intimated His Resolution to the two Houses to Prorogue them till the 14th of August The Lord Chancellor Prorogu'd them accordingly by His Majesties Command Little else of moment was done this Sessions onely the House of Commons having order'd a Committee to inspect the Miscarriages of the Navy upon their report of the Heads of an Information against Sir Anthony Deane and Mr. Pepys Members of the House they were both by Order of the House committed to the Tower by virtue of which commitment they still remain under Bail Presently after the Prorogation of the Parliament came the News of the Rebellion that was broken out in the West of Scotland where they Proclaim'd the Covenant and set up a Declaration of which the substance was That AS it was not unknown to a great part of the World how happy the Church of Scotland had been while they enjoy'd the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in their Purity and Power of which we had been deplorably depriv'd by the reestablishment of Prelacy So it was evident not only to impartial Persons but to profess'd Enemies with what unparallell'd Patience and Constancy the People of God had endur'd all the Cruelty and Oppression that Prelates and Malignants could invent or exercise And that being most unwilling to act any thing that might import Opposition to lawful Authority though they had all along been groaning under Corruptions of Doctrine slighting of Worship despising Ordinances Confining Imprisoning Exiling their faithful Ministers Fining Confining Imprisoning Torturing Tormenting the poor People Plundering their Houses and Selling their Persons to Forraign Plantations whereby great Numbers in every Corner of the Land were forc'd to leave their Dwellings Wives and Children and to wander as Pilgrims none daring to Supply or Relieve them nor so much as to speak with them upon their Death-beds for fear of making themselves obnoxious
ten miles from the City of London And the third was a Proclamation that no Officers or Souldiers of his Majesties Guards should be a Papist His Majesty also observing the affection of both His Houses towards His Royal Person and their zeal for the security of the Nation was pleased to make them a most Gratious Speech wherein he gave them thanks for the care which they took of his Government and Person promising to pass all Acts which they should make for preservation of the Protestant Religion During these Proceedings of Parliament and Council one Staley having out of the abundance of his Heart on the fourteenth of November 1678. spoken most desperate treasonable words against the King and being the next day apprehended for the same was brought publicly to his Tryal at the King's Bench Bar in Westminster Hall upon the twenty first of the same Month. This Staley was a Goldsmith in Covent-Garden and the reason of his inveteracy against the King is said to be for that being a Papist and a Goldsmith that dealt in money he found his Trade decay because the Catholicks with whom his chiefest dealings were call'd in their money faster than he desir'd upon the discovery of the Plot. The Treason urged against him was this that being at the Black Lyon in King-street in the new Buildings between High Holborn and Long-acre with one Fromante his Friend the said Fromante among other discourse was saying That the King of England was a great Tormentor of the people of God Upon which the said Staley flew out into a violent Passion and made answer with the addition of other irreverent words That the King was a great Heretick there 's the heart and here 's the hand I would kill him my self These words being spoken in French were distinctly understood by two English Gentlemen that over-heard and saw the said Staley when he spoke them the door of the Room being open And this also in the presence of another that did not understand French to whom the others immediately interpreted the words He was endited for Imagining and Contriving the Death of the King The Jury were Sr. Philip Matthews Sr. Reginald Foster Sr. John Kirk Sr. John Cutler Sr. Richard Blake John Bifield Esq Simon Middleton Esq Thomas Cross Esq Henry Johnson Esq Charles Umphrevil Esq Thomas Egglesfield Esq William Bohee Esq The Witnesses swore the words positively upon him and the Statute of this Kings Reign making desperate words to be Treason was read and urged against him But his defence was weak while he only endeavoured to evade the Crime by alledging a mistake of the Expression as if he had said I will kill my self instead of I will kill him my self But that shift would not serve for the Jury soon brought him in Guilty whereupon he was condemn'd to be hang'd drawn and quarter'd which Sentence was upon the 26th of the same month executed accordingly So that he had this honour to be the Popes first Martyr for the Plot. It was his Majesties pleasure that his Relations should have the disposal of his Quarters to give them a decent and private burial but they abusing his gracious favour with a publick and more than ordinary funeral Pomp his buried Quarters were ordered to be taken up and to be disposed by the Common Executioner upon the Gates of the City 1678. Next to him Coleman became the publick spectacle of his own conceit and Ambition He had been committed to Newgate by the Council upon the 30th of September which was the next day after Dr. Oates's first Examination He was brought to his Tryal upon the 27th of November before the Judges of the Kings Bench. The Jury were Sr. Reginald Foster Sr. Charles Lee Edward Wilford Esq John Bathurst Esq Joshua Galliard Esq John Bifield Esq Simon Middleton Esq Henry Johnson Charles Umphrevile Thomas Johnson Thomas Egglesfield William Bohee The general Charge of the Enditement was for an intention and endeavour to murder the King for an endeavour and attempt to change the Government of the Nation for an endeavour to alter the Protestant Religion and instead thereof to introduce the Romish Superstition and Popery The particular Charges were one or two Letters written to Monsieur Le Chaise Confessor to the King of France to excite and stir him up to procure aid and assistance from a Forreign Prince Arms and Levies of Men. That this Letter was delivered and an Answer by him received with a promise that he should have Assistance That he wrote other Letters to Sr. William Throckmorton who traiterously conspired with him and had intelligence from time to time from him The main things insisted upon for the Evidence to prove were first That there had been a more than ordinary design to bring in the Popish and extirpate the Protestant Religion That the first On-set was to be made by a whole Troop of Jesuites and Priests who were sent into England from the Seminaries where they had been train'd up in all the Arts of deluding the people That there was a Summons of the principal Jesuits the most able for their head-pieces who were to meet in the April or May before to consult of things of no less weight than how to take away the Life of the King That there was an Oath of Secrecy taken and that upon the Sacrament That there were two Villains among them who undertook that execrable work for the rewards that were promised them Money in case they succeeded and Masses for their souls if they perished That if the first fail'd there were also four Irish men recommended to the Caball men of mean and desperate Fortunes to make the same attempt when the King was the last Summer at Windsor That Forces Aids and Assistances were prepared to be ready both at home and abroad to second the Design That Mr. Coleman knew of all this and encouraged a Messenger to carry money down as a reward of those Murderers that were at Windsor That there were Negotiations to be maintain'd with publick persons abroad money to be procured partly from friends at home and partly beyond Seas from those that wish'd them well in all which Negotiations Mr. Coleman had a busie hand That this Conspiracy went so far that General Officers were named and appointed and many engaged if not listed and this not only in England but in Ireland likewise That the great Civil Offices and Dignities of the Kingdom were also to be disposed of and that Coleman was to have been Secretary of State and had a Commission from the Superiours of the Jesuits to act in that Quality That he had treated by vertue thereof with Father Ferrier and La Chaise Confessors of the King of France for the Dissolution of the Parliament and Extirpation of the Protestant Religion to which purpose he had penned a Declaration with his own hand to justifie the Action when the Parliament was dissolved That he kept intelligence with Cardinal Norfolk with Father Sheldon and
attempt the killing of the same Prelate in the chief street of Edenburgh in the face of the Sun and of all the multitude Who dying for the fact and with an obdurate and sear'd zeal owning and justifying the fact led others so far astray into the violation of the Law of Nature that upon the third of this month deluded Devotion adventur'd to murther the Arch-bishop in the ensuing manner The Arch-bishop it seems was returning in his Coach from a Village in Fife called Kennoway toward the City of St. Andrews it self and was got within two miles of the place near to another small village called Magus There it was that the Coachman having spy'd several Horsemen gave his Lord notice of them and ask'd him whether he should not drive faster But the Arch-bishop not dreading any harm thought it not convenient to mend his pace When they drew near the Arch-bishops daughter look'd out and seeing them with Pistols in their hands cry'd out to the Coach-man to drive on And he had certainly out-driven them had not one Balfour of Kinlock being mounted upon a very fleet horse cunningly got before the Coach into which they had already discharg'd several shot in vain This Balfour finding he could not wound the Coachman because the Coach-mans whip frighted his Horse wounded the Postillian and disabled the fore horses Upon which the rest coming up one of them shot the Arch-bishop with a Blunderbuss as he sate in the Coach while others reproachfully call'd to him in these words Come forth vile Dog who hast betray'd Christ and his Church and receive what thou hast deserv'd for thy wickedness against the Kirk of Scotland While he was in the Coach one ran him through with a Sword under the shoulder the rest pulling him violently out of the Coach His daughter went out fell upon her knees and beg'd for mercy to her father but they beat her and trampl'd upon her The Primate with an extraordinary calmness of spirit said to 'em Gentlemen I know not that I ever injur'd any of you and if I did I promise ye I will make you what reparation you can propose To which they return'd no better Language than this Villain and Judas Enemy to God and his people thou shalt now have the reward of thy enmity to Gods people which words were follow'd with many mortal wounds of which one was a deep one above his eye He labour'd to make them apprehensive that he was a Minister and pulling off his Cap shew'd them his grey hairs intreating them withal that if they would not spare his life yet that they would at least allow him some little time for prayer But their barbarous and inhumane answer was That God would not hear so base a Dog as he was and as to the desire of Quarter they told him That the strokes they were then about to give were those which he was to expect Notwithstanding all which inhumane usage and a shot that pierc'd his body above his right Pap and several blows that cut his hands while he was holding them up to Heaven in prayer he rais'd himself upon his knees and utter'd these few words God forgive you all After which by reason of many gashes that cut his scull in pieces he fell down dead At which time some of the Murtherers believing that they heard him groan return'd saying he was of the nature of a Cat and therefore they would go back and hack him a little better for the Glory of God And so having stirr'd about his brains with the points of their Swords they took an oath of the servants not to reveal their names and then bidding them take up their Priest they rode back to Magus crying out aloud That Judas was kill'd and from thence made their escape All this while at London the Parliament continue their prosecution of the Earl of Danby and in order thereunto the lower House resolve that the Pardon of the Earl of Danby was illegal and void and not to be allow'd in Bar of the Impeachment of the Commons of England Thereupon the whole House with the Speaker went up to the Lords to whom the Speaker made this following Address My Lords The Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament assembled are come up to demand Judgement in their own names and in the names of all the Commons of England against Thomas Earl of Danby who stands by them impeach'd before your Lordships of High Treason and diverse high Crimes and Misdemeanors To which he has pleaded a Pardon which Pardon the Commons conceive to be illegal and void and therefore they do demand Judgement accordingly Thereupon the Lords appointed a short day for hearing the Earl what he could say to make good the plea of his Pardon Nor was his Majesty himself less careful of the safety of the Nation who finding or at least fore-seeing the ill consequences of these continu'd debates thereupon sent a Message to the Commons wherein he desir'd them to secure the Fleet to proceed in the discovery of the Plot the Tryal of the Lords in the Tower and the Bill for securing the Protestant Religion For all which they appointed a certain day of consideration but before they proceeded they made an Address to his Majesty against the Duke of Lauderdale as a person who being in high trusts and employments about his Majesty had by his arbitrary and destructive Counsels tending to the subversion the rights and liberty of of the subject endeavour'd to alienate the hearts of his Majesties good subjects from his Majesty and Government and more particularly had contriv'd and endeavour'd to raise jealousies and misunderstandings between England and Scotland And therefore they most humbly besought his Majesty to remove him from his Counsels both in Scotland and England from all Offices Imployments and places of Trust and from his Majesties presence for ever And to shew that they did not this out of disobedience but affection presently after they declar'd in a full house That in defence of his Majesties person and the Protestant Religion they would stand by his Majesty with their lives and fortunes and that if his Majesty should come to any untimely end which God forbid they would revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists And now the Bill for the disbanding of the Army being compleated and having pass'd both Houses was confirm'd and receiv'd its last consummation by the Kings Royal Assent So that the Commissioners appointed by the house for that purpose had liberty to attend that particular service In the mean time the Commons perceiving that there was a day appointed for the Earl of Danby to make good the plea of his Pardon by Council order'd that no Commoner should presume to maintain the validity of the Pardon pleaded by the said Earl without the consent of the House and that the person so doing should be accompted a betrayer of the liberty of the Commons of England Next day the Earl appear'd and put in his