to Trial and perhaps to Reproof and that I might render a Testimony of Authority to Posterity to write the Story of the present Age to the Age it self And I am not only induced hereto by the Authority of so noble an Historian but by the Reason of History For many Accidents and Circumstances which are no part of the Records of Time and which soon die and are forgotten are so interwoven in History as to make it entire and of one piece and which not only enliven it and create pleasure in reading of it but without them History becomes disjointed and is made up of broken pieces And I can in part say with the noble Nani and in his own words That to compose Histories is sacred and not to be undertaken but with an upright Mind and undefiled Hands and for that Cause the Memory of them was consigned to the Temple under the faithful Custody of the Chief Priests as the Witness or Trust of those that went before and the Treasure of those that should come after not to be handled but as a Religious Thing and with great Caution In sum the Historian taking to himself an absolute Dictatorship nay an Authority more than Human over Times Persons and Actions governs Fame measures Deserts penetrates Intentions discloses Secrets is with an undistinguished Arbitriment over Kings and People the Judg of Ages past and Master of those to come Absolves or Punishes Deceives or Instructs Whence not without Reason the Pen of Writers may be compared to the Lightning which striking out but one Letter from the Name Caesar Augustus made him a God because Praise is a thing so tender that one Dash makes Illustrious and a little Blot Infamous and the Censure of the World thereupon is so severe that it either consecrates to Eternity or proscribes to Infamy For my self I know not what else to wish but that every one would take upon him to read this Work with the same disinterested and innocent Mind with which I have wrote it confining my Confidence in this one thing that the present Age will not be so unjust to me nor so ungrateful to Posterity as to deny me the Opinion of Sincerity It was Nani's Felicity to write the Stories of the Times when the Prudence of the Venetian Senate not only preserved their State from the Tumults of War wherein Christendom was engaged but in a great measure was Arbitrator of it So that the Wars which Nani writes of were like Thunder afar off yet herein Nani expatiates his Story in a short time scarce 30 Years into a large Volume whereas without looking after any thing abroad but what relates to my Story I am contracted to the unhappy Story of my Native Country to shew from what Causes such a Train of Consequences have followed that England which before was the Ballance which turned the Scale of the Affairs of Christendom to that side it inclined not only fell from this envied Height and became the most despisable of all other States but sunk into the most miserable State of Abject and Pity I am the rather induced to write the Story of these Times because the Hackney-Writers of them at least those I have seen have not only taken things in the midst without assigning the Causes but being interested Parties their Writings have been either fulsom Flatteries or Invectives against one another tending to the fixing of the Distempers of the Parties without regard to the Publick or assigning the Cause of the Distempers But herein I except the Collections of Mr. John Rushworth who tho interested in the Factions of the late Times hath so faithfully delivered them over to Posterity and I could have wished tho I know not from whence he had it that he had not mentioned in that part of King James his Speech to the Parliament 18 Jac. that the Parliament is made up of the three States the King the Lords and Commons and this is the main part of his Collections which Franklin and Nalson so carp at yet both these differ not only from one the other in reciting it but from the Record of Parliament for I have perused them with it according to the Copy which Mr. Petit has taken For my part I can truly say that as I never complied with any of the Factions in the late or present Times so my Ancestors stood firm to the Laws and Liberties of the Nation and were Sufferers both before and in the late Troubles and Civil Wars and in these Circumstances I am less disposed to favour or fâ—atter any Party than another who is interested in any one of them I expect it will be objected against me that in writing this History I have sometimes been transported into an Heat unbecoming an Historian I answer that it may happen a Man may be angry and not sin especially when the Offence relates to the Dishonour of God the King or the publick Destruction or Distraction of the Country where Men are protected in their Lives Liberties and Fortunes but if I have erred herein I shall but be in the number of Lactantius who wrote the Relation of the Death of the persecuting Emperors of the Christians and of Suetonius and Tacitus It was the unhappy Fate of Europe that the Miseries and Calamities which succeeded the Divided Will of the four Kings of the Scotish Race from the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation were not terminated within the Limits of the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland but were the occasion of the first Rise and growing Grandure of France through the boundless Ambition of Cardinal Richlieu and the present French King both by Sea and Land as well to the Terror of Christendom as of these Nations and this Story will in some measure trace the Steps of them This Treatise I suppose will displease two sorts of Men whom I will never take care to please One who exalt the Divided Will of the Prince above his Royal Capacity in governing by the Constitutions and Laws of the Kingdom The other those which are impatient under Regal Government and the Constitutions of this Kingdom I have been more particular herein because notwithstanding the Calamities which this Divided Will of the King had brought upon the Nation in the late Civil Wars and after yet after the Restoration of King Charles the 2d the Nation was more fiercely rent into Divisions under the Names of Whig and Tory than it was before the Wars and these last having the Dominion of the Press and Favour of the Court made it their business to irritate and provoke all others not of their Faction and if any opposed them by Writing when they could not answer to persecute them for printing without a Licence tho not unlawful in it self yet unlawfully printed ADVERTISEMENTS THE General History of England as well Ecclesiastical as Civil from the earliest Accounts of Time to the Reign of his present Majesty King William Taken from the most Antient Records
and shaken that the Legions which governed Britain were recalled by Ecius the Roman General under Honorius and Valentinian the 3d to make Head against Attila the poor Britains disarmed and only made use of to serve their imperious Masters and so utterly destitute of Martial Discipline easily became a Prey to the Picts and Scots not subject to the Romans who treated them more intolerably and tyrannically than the Romans had done For Redress whereof the Britains sought Succours from the English Saxons who came to their Relief in the Year 409 as Bede says lib. 1. cap. 15. of the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation but these Saxons used the poor Britains worst of all and expelled the whole Race of them out of that part of the Island now called England Tho the Saxons had their Wills of the Britains they were before the Heptarchy at continual Variance among themselves and so after that it is almost as unaccountable to give a History of the Succession of their Kings as it was of the Britains before Julius Caesar Egbert about the Year 800 viz. 391 Years after the Saxon Invasion was called the first of the Saxon Monarchs tho the Kingdom of the Mercians was not united to his Monarchy who by Merit as well as Birth obtained the Dignity and succeeded Brithric Ethelwolph succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of Westsax but not to those of Kent Sussex and Eastsax or Essex these being given by Egbert to Egbert's younger Son Ethelwolph by his Will divided his Kingdoms between his two eldest Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert to Ethelbald he gave the Kingdom of the West Saxons to Ethelbert the Kingdom of Kent and the Eastern Southern and middle Angles But there were two other Sons Ethelred and Alfred Ethelbert after the Death of Ethelbald succeeded him in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and after the Death of Ethelbert Ethelred succeeded in the whole viz. of the West Saxons and of the Kingdoms of Kent the Eastern Southern and Middle Angles Alfred after the Death of Ethelred by universal Applause the famous the youngest Son of Ethelwolph succeeded Edward Son of Alfred was chosen by the Nobles on Whit-sunday in 901. Athelstan after the Death of Alfred tho a Bastard was elected by the Nobles of whom 't was said there was nothing ignoble in him But Athelstan dying without Issue his younger Brother Edmund succeeded him without any Opposition and tho he left two Sons Edwy and Edgar yet Edmund's younger Brother succeeded him Edwy after Edred's Death Edred's elder Brother 's elder Son succeeded but being a vicious Prince the Mercians and Northumbrians chose Edgar his younger Brother King in the Life of Edwy and Edgar after the Death of Edwy became King of the whole Nation Edward Son of Edgar after his Death was chosen by the Bishops and Nobles by the Command of his Father Edgar but he being murdered by his Step-mother Edward's younger Brother Ethelred succeeded And after his Death the Saxon Monarchy being rent in pieces by the Danes and Saxons Edmund Ironside Son of Etheldred by an obscure mean Woman tho he had two half-legitimate younger Brothers Edward and Alfred born of Etheldred's Wife was chosen King by one part of the Nobility and Canutus the Dane by another Thus the whole legitimate Race of the Saxon Kings were excluded one part chusing Ironside a Bastard the other Canutus a Stranger to the Saxon Royal Race Edmund Ironside being treacherously murdered by his Brother-in-law Edric Edmund leaving two Sons Edwy and Edward Canutus the Dane became sole Monarch of the Saxon Monarchy So that this was the beginning of the Danish Dynasty which lasted not long Harold Son of Canutus succeeded him and Hardicanute his Brother succeeded Harold neither the Issue of Etheldred Edward or Alfred nor Edwy or Edward the Sons of Edmund Ironside so much as taken notice of with this Hardicanute ended the Danish Rule with the Slaughter and Expulsion of the Danes Edward Son of Etheldred called the Confessor Uncle to Edwy and Edward Sons of Edmund Ironside after Hardicanute was advanced to the Royal Dignity principally by means of Earl Goodwin a powerful and imperious Lord upon the account of Edward's marrying the Earl's Daughter so little was the Hereditary Succession of the Saxon Kings regarded And that Edward's Reign might be more secure this Earl Goodwin caused the Eyes of Alfred the King's Brother to be put out and some say took away his Life Edward the Confessor growing old having no Issue and the Family of the wicked Earl Goodwin growing not only insolent but intolerable to him declared Edward the Son of Edmund Ironside his Cousin his Heir And to the end he might better succeed the King sent to the King of Hungary to return his Nephew Edward whom the King of Hungary had married to his Niece Agatha Daughter to Henry Emperor of Germany which the King of Hungary did and upon Edward's return the Confessor declared that he or his Sons should succeed in his Hereditary Kingdom of England But the Confessor did not long hold in this Mind for his Nephew Edward soon after dying and leaving a Son Edgar unfit for Government either as to his Body or Courage he decreed that his Kinsman William Duke of Normandy tho a Bastard should succeed him in the Kingdom of England which came to pass and so a new Race of Kings have succeeded in England of the Norman Race whose original Title was from a Grant of a King of the Saxon Race and so the beginning creates little Title to an Hereditary Succession in the Norman Race And now we 'll see how an Hereditary Succession was observed in it yet as in the Saxon so in the Norman Kings none succeeded who was not of the Royal Blood as all the Kings of Judah were of the Family or Tribe of Judah William Rufus the second Son of the Conqueror succeeded his elder Brother Robert then alive So did Henry the First his elder Brother Robert living Stephen the Son of the Conqueror's Sister succeeded Henry tho Henry left a Daughter Maud or Matilda Henry the Second succeeded Henry's Mother yet living so his Succession was not Hereditary for Haeres non est viventis Richard the First succeeded Henry the Second John succeeded Richard Arthur the Son of John's elder Brother then alive Henry the Third succeeded Arthur's Sister then alive who was Heir before him So that of seven Successions after the Conqueror but one Richard the First succeeded as Heir to his Father or the Conqueror Admit Edward the First succeeded as Heir to Henry the 3d and Edward the 2d as Heir to Edward the First yet Edward the 3d did not succeed as Heir to Edward the 2d he being then alive Admit Richard the 2d was Heir to Edward the Black Prince eldest Son to Edward the 3d yet neither Henry the 4th 5th or 6th were Heirs from Edward the 3d but the Descendants of Phillippa the Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence John of
has not now one Ship to command One would think the Covenanters had their Game sure enough now those in Scotland had got rid of Montross and full of Money and those in England had got the King in their Power and the King's Army utterly subdued and both Kingdoms united into one solemn League and Covenant so that both may sing their Requiem for many Years But see the Instability of Human Affairs where they are not founded in Truth and Righteousness for the Scots Directory Catechism and Government sorted as ill with the English Genius as Laud's Liturgy Canons and High Commission did with the Scots and the rigid Execution of them as insolent and tyrannical as the Proceedings in the Star-Chamber and High-Commission and these being general equally offended all and tho the Cavalier Party being under the Hatches said little yet the Brawls and Invectives between the Presbyterians and other Parties were as fierce as between the Arminians and Orthodox in Laud's time so that things were not like to continue long at this rate The Parliament having the King now in their Power the Scots gone yet Ireland I mean the English Interest in it in a very deplorable State and being apprehensive of the Temper of the Army whose Principles were Anti-Presbyterian and that they might in some measure ease the Countrey of maintaining the whole Army resolved that 12000 of the Army should be sent over into Ireland to be commanded by Major General Skippon and 6000 Horse 2000 Dragoons and 6000 Foot to be kept up in England and commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax Cromwel was aware of what the Members designed and the Members were as jealous of Cromwel and therefore would not dispense with the Self-denying Ordinance that he should be in the Army however Cromwel had his Agents in it and by the Ministers and other zealous Independants foment their Jealousies that the Parliament designed to disband them without Payment of their Arrears and in this Ferment they chose two out of every Regiment which they called Adjutators to whom they gave Power to hold Councils and judg what was fit to be done for the common Good These Adjutators were called Levellers who cried up Liberty and the Power of the People and assumed to themselves a Power in their Councils above what the Colonels claimed The Proceedings of the Adjutators startled the Parliament and in a great measure the Colonels and Officers of the Army so that unless Cromwel did appear in the Army and by his Authority did restrain the Licence which the Adjutators assumed they sat very loose in their Places Cromwel knew this as well as they and that the Adjutators struck at his Authority as well as the Officers so that when there was a Debate in the House of Commons how to suppress the Adjutators Cromwel professed and called God to witness That he was certain the Souldiers would at the first word of his Command if he were among them throw down their Arms at the Parliament's Feet and solemnly swore that he rather wished himself and his whole Family burnt than that the Army should break out into Sedition And the House had so little Wit as to believe him and so sent him down to appease the Army Hereupon Cromwel order'd a general Muster of the Army upon Hownslow-Heath where the Army was divided and the Levelling Party refused to come under Cromwel's Command whereupon Cromwel sent to the Levellers to send some to treat of their Grievances which they did and when they came Cromwel with an undaunted Boldness pistoll'd three of the most forward of them and seized the rest and then the Levelling Part of the Army submitted The Sectaries of which the Army was composed tho they had the Sword in their Hands yet had no face of Authority to recur to the Presbyterian Members in both Houses being three to one they therefore send Cornet Joyce with a Party of Horse to Holdenby who the 4th of June 1647 which was in less than four Months after the Members had brought the King thither take the King out of the Parliament-Commissioners Power and keep him in the Army And now this poor Prince for so he may be truly called since he who before by his absolute Will and Pleasure would take his Subjects Estates has now no Power to get his own is fallen into the Hands of another sort of Flatterers than in the former yet these intended him no more good than the former viz. only to gratify their Ambition Avarice and Treachery by making use of the King's Name These seem to lament the hard Conditions the Members impose upon him not only in his Liberty but in keeping him from his Children and Friends and allow him both professing they would never lay down Arms until they had put the Scepter into his Hands and procured better Conditions for his Friends In order hereunto they seem to join the King's Interest with theirs and in their Declaration for Redress of Grievances declare for the King and People and that the Members prefix a certain time for their sitting so that a new Parliament may be called and thereby the Nation settled upon sure Foundations Here you may observe a new Face of the Parliament's Affairs quite inverted for the Army were as much in love with their being so as the Parliament was of their sitting And now the Army which was rais'd only to do the Parliament's Journey-work would only allow the Members a certain time for their sitting And because Denzil Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Lewis Sir John Clotworthy Sir William Waller Sir John Maynard Major General Massey Mr. Glyn Colonel Walter Long Colonel Edward Harley and Mr. Ant. Nichols were the leading Men in the House of Commons for establishing the Covenant and disbanding the Army the Army charge them with High-Treason the Charge against them was Cant after the Mode of the Times That they obstructed the Business of Ireland to have acted against the Army and against the Laws and Liberties of the Subject and were Obstructers of Justice Here you may see into what a Labyrinth of Distraction and Confusion Men run when they forsake the ways of Justice and Righteousness For when Mr. Hollis and Colonel Long 4 Car. were imprisoned for performing the Trust reposed in them by their Country they had the Testimony of a good Conscience for their Support and the known Laws for their Protection and here they knew what to trust to and so they insisted upon the Laws and by them in due time were delivered from their Imprisonment but now the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation were broken down and they charged at random by the Army they had no Defence to recur to but for Safeguard fled beyond Sea What became of Colonel Long I cannot tell but Mr. Hollis never return'd till after King Charles the Second's Restoration and Sir Philip Stapleton being suspected to have the Plague was shut out of Calais and 't was said dy'd in a Ditch
and in September appoint a Conference with the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight to continue for 40 Days and to that purpose take the King out of Prison and allow him the Liberty of the Island and the King upon the Matter with Reluctancy enough grants the Scots and Members their own Demands But neither the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation nor the Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects nor the joint Desires of the Scots and Members who had brought the King to this Condition could protect this unhappy Prince from his approaching Ruin for the Army every where victorious over the Scots and Royalists draw together and make a Remonstrance against all Peace with the King that Justice may be done upon him that the Crown and Church-Lands be sold to pay their Army and that the present Parliament be dissolved and another called which they present to the Members the Twentieth of November And herein Cromwel and his Son-in-law Ireton were the principal Promoters But the Members were intent upon the King's Answer to their Propositions and laid aside the Army's Remostrance which they take as a slighting of them and then seized the King in the Isle of Wight and make him Prisoner in Hurst-Castle an unhealthy Place and march to London puâ—â—â—â— Garisons into Whitehall Noble-Mens Houses and posted themselves about the Palace Yard Notwithstanding the Memberâ—nâ—â— upon the first of December and vote the King's Concessions to be a sufficient Ground for a Peace and then adjourn for a Week But when the Members were to meet again they found all the Avenues to the House beset with Soldiers who exclude all which were not of their Faction from entring the House which were not one fourth part and make the Residue Prisoners So that if the Mayor Sir John Gage and the Aldermen his Brethren were guilty of High Treason for committing a Force upon the Parliament viz. for continuing the Militia of London in the City the Year before how much more was it High-Treason in Cromwel and his Agents to keep back by Force three Fourths of the Members from entring the House and making them Prisoners that the Rumps of the rest might do his Journey-work So farewel Presbytery and all the Scotish Trumpery in England nor shall these secluded Members ever meet more but to dissolve themselves and make room for another Parliament which shall legally persecute them and their Solemn League and Covenant as much as they by it persecuted the King and their fellow Subjects against Law Nor was Presbytery much longer liv'd in Scotland where they shall never see it restored by this now Race of Kings which shall plague them with the Exercise of Archbishops and Bishops which by their Covenant they are sworn to abolish and cut off the Head of the principal of their Faction allowing them as little place for the Exercise of Presbytery as they now do the Episcopal Party Having tho but in Epitome seen the various Accidents in War whereby the King came to be in this Distress before we declare his End and the manner of it it 's fit in short to take notice of the several Treaties of Peace between the King and Parliament and the Improbability of the good Success in any of them The first Propositions for Peace which the Parliament sent to the King was June the 2d when the King was at York before the War broke out which were Nineteen which you may read at larger in Sir Richard Baker f. 518. a. b. In these Propositions no mention is made either of the Scots Covenant or abolishing Episcopacy yet some of them were so inconsistent with Monarchy and Arbitrary in the Parliament as the King in Honour and Conscience could not condescend to them I say the King could not in Honour or Conscience condescend to the 9th Proposition 15 and 16 Propositions to settle the Militia as the Parliament have ordered without the King That all Forts and Castles of the Kingdom be disposed of by the Parliament viz. The Houses and that the King discharge all his Guards and Forces and not to raise any but in case of actual Rebellion But how could this be done by the King when the Militia and Forts of the Kingdom were in the Power of the Houses So here the King who by Virtue of his Office is obliged to preserve the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and to suppress all Disturbers of them at home and to defend the Nation from all Foreign Invasion has no means to do any of them Objection But the King had so often violated the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation by being armed with these Powers that the Nation could be in no Safety if they were continued in him Answer It 's true the Nation was in a very calamitous Estate herein But if the Members had only made it their Business how to have restrained the King herein and to have preserved the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation it would have had another Face than now when the Members are setting up themselves to do the same thing which they feared the King should act I say the King could not in Honour or Conscience agree to the 13th Proposition That the Justice of Parliament viz. the Members should pass upon all Delinquents and they to appear and abide by their Censure For Delinquent is a Word unknown to our Laws and so equivocal that it may signify whatever the Members pleased So that if the King had agreed to these Propositions he would have been a King that could neither have executed Justice nor shewed Mercy and the Houses have an unlimited Arbitrary Power to do whatever they pleased To the Propositions the King returns a sharp Answer That the Houses contrary to Law had pressed their Ordinances upon the People wrested from him the Command of the Militia countenanced the Treason of Hotham and had directed to the People Invectives against his Government and asperst him with favouring Papists and therefore protested that if he were utterly vanquished and a Prisoner in a worse Condition than any of his most unfortunate Predecessors had ever been reduced to he would never stoop so low as to grant these Demands and to make himself of a King of England a Duke of Venice But when the Covenanters in Scotland sent their Proposition to his Majesty he returned Answer he would rather die than submit to them and from a King of England make himself a Duke of Venice Yet the next Year of his own Accord went into Scotland and by Act of Parliament granted the Covenanters all they desired which yet perplext all the subsequent Treaties of Peace in England and more as the Case now stood The next Treaty was at Oxford in the beginning of 1643 which broke off the 15th of April and nothing agreed to upon this Score The Parliament Commissioners gave such Reasons for the King to assent to one of the most material Points of the Treaty that the King assented to it but
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
Men might see him the Hangman with his Hat on riding before and upon the 28th of May 1650 by a Sentence pronounced the Day before by the Lord Lowden was hanged upon a Gibbet 30 Foot high at the Cross of Edinburg for three Hours after which he was quarter'd and his Head set upon the Talbooth and his Legs and Arms over the Gates of Sterlin Glasgow Dundee and Aberdeen But see the Piety and Commiseration of these humble People They order in the Sentence that if he repented so that his Excommunication should be taken off the Trunk of his Body should be buried in the Grey-Friars otherwise in the Burrough-Moor the Common Burial of Malefactors But Vengeance shall soon overtake these cruel Proceedings For the Kirk sore afflicted for their deposed Brethren in England now in nasty Prisons whereby Heresy Schism and Profaneness raged and the Throne of Presbytery was defaced but being unable of themselves to restore their Brethren before Montross's Death had agreed to have the King proclaimed King of Scotland England France and Ireland yet so as to take the Solemn League and Covenant to give Signs of Sorrow and Repentance for his Father and Mother's Sins and banish and turn out of his Court all who had not taken the Covenant or taken up Arms for his Father But the Kirk could not have found a Plant so unlikely to produce the Fruit of Repentance or to establish the Throne of Presbytery as this King However they 'll try what 's to be done and to this end send Commissioners to treat with the King at Jersey not yet reduced by the Rump and a Treaty is agreed to to be at Breda in Holland The King was perplex'd what to do for to be a King in Fact he desired above all things but to forsake his Mother and Father's Friends was grievous to him and to come to the Stool of Repentance was full sore against his Will Yet to be a King as a Man does for a Wife he forsakes Father Mother and his dearly beloved Friends and comes to Breda There the News comes of Montross's tragical Defeat and Execution which had like to have spoil'd all but over Shooes over Boots on he goes having submitted to all the rigid Terms the Kirk-men imposed upon him And in June 1650 arrives in Scotland to be anew instructed in the Discipline of the Kirk The Rump in the mean while were not idle you must think for having spued up Presbytery in England they scorn'd to chew the Cud of it from Scotland and therefore Fairfax having refused to command an Army against the Scots they send for Cromwel out of Ireland by this time is good as reduced by him and declared him General of all the Forces of England Scotland and Ireland who about the latter end of June 1650 enters Scotland with a well-disciplin'd rather than a numerous Army and having taken many Places of small moment and often beat the Scots in Skirmishes upon the 3d of September utterly overthrows the much more numerous Kirk-Army at Dumbar commanded by their old General Lesley 3000 Scots killed 9000 taken Prisoners all their Baggage and Ammunition and above 200 Colours which as Trophies were hung up in Westminster-Hall where the English and Scots had before taken such Pains and Care to unite both Nations in their Solemn League and Covenant Whilst these things were doing the Kirk at Edinburg were close at their Devotion hourly expecting the Feet of those which should bring the glad Tidings which were at hand when Lesley the same Day brings Tidings of their utter Overthrow Now was all their Joy turned to Lamentation and Wo and the Songs of Sion are like to be sung in a strange Land To augment these Miseries the King who could not submit to the rigid Discipline of the Kirk runs from Schole to the House of the Lord Dippon intending for the Highlands where he might go to School with more Liberty Now all is in a Hurlyburley After the King runs Montgomery from the Kirk promising the King if he would return the Kirk would remit part of their Discipline upon which the King returned to St. Johnstons The King thus returned did not please the Kirk-men for being beaten by the English they rail against those that called the King in too hastily before he had given Marks of his Repentance and Conversion to God and that it was not lawful for any who were truly Godly to take up Arms for him and for the Advancement of the Kirk made Kerr and Straughan Generals of the Kirk-Forces But Straughan runs to Cromwel and Kerr is utterly defeated wounded and taken by Lambert Whilst these things were thus doing in Scotland let 's see what was doing in England In January this Year the Rump erected a High Court of Justice whereof one Keeble an ignorant Petty-fogging Lawyer was President in Norfolk upon pretence of an intended Insurrection for bringing in of the King where 24 were condemned and 20 executed whereof one Mr. Hobbard Brother or near Kinsman to Sir John Hobbard who after married Cromwel's Niece and Widow of Col. Hammond was one And in March following the Rump erected another High Court of Justice which condemned Sir Henry Hide for taking the King's Commission to be his Ambassador at Constantinople The Kirk-Party now lose their Reputation they had nothing left but to preach and pray and rail and now the Parliament and General Assembly take in all who will take the Covenant but all to no purpose For Cromwel having taken Edinburgh Town and Castle Jedworth Reslan and Tantallon Castle sends Overton and Lambert in Boats over the Frith who rout Sir John Brown and Major General Holborn kill 2000 of their Men and take 1200 Prisoners and Brown himself with 42 Colours Now though Scotland were a cold Climate 't was too hot to hold the King and his Army and therefore with them he slips into England by the Way of Carlisle leaving the Kirk in Lamentations and Woes that Heresy and Schism had overspread the Beauty of Holiness now Profaneness and Superstition had left it Harrison and Lambert followed the King and Cromwel soon after who at Worcester that Day Twelve Month after he had routed the Scots at Dunbar utterly again routs the Scots and English kills 3550 with Duke Hamilton and General Forbes and takes 5000 Prisoners with the Earls of Rothes Kanwarth Kelly the Lord Sinclare and Montgomery General of the Ordnance and soon after David Lesley who fought not or but little in the Battel is routed by Lilburn and taken Prisoner with Lauderdale who held Correspondence in England with the Covenanting Scots and the Lords Kenmore and Middleton Yet the King by a Miracle escaped to be restored King Charles II. But the same Fate did not attend the Noble Earl of Derby who coming out of the Isle of Man with about 250 Foot and 60 Horse to have assisted the King which he joined with about 1200 raised Men in Lancashire where he was highly
alone given Peace to Christendom he might reckon upon what he pleased from the Bounty and Generosity of the King their Master Sir William in a well-composed Answer acknowledged his Obligations for their King 's good Opinion of him but that his Instructions were for a general not for a private Peace For the Prince of Orange he assured them it was his Opinion That the Prince had none for his or any Man 's else further than their Arguments prevailed upon his Judgment The Attacks upon Sir William not succeeding Monsieur d'Estrâ—des turned his Battery upon Pensioner Fagel to the same purpose the Ambassadors had done to Sir William of all the Advantage to the Interest of the Prince How these wrought upon the Pensioner Sir William does not say but says all the Offers of Advantages made to the Interest of the Prince met with no other Reception than what the Prince had foretold tho at this time the Prince struggled under great Difficulty by reason of the Frenchâ—â— â—â— great Treasure and great Order of disposing it The French Magazines were always filled in the Winter so as it enabled them to take the Field as they pleased in the Spring without fearing the Weather for their Foot or expecting Grass for their Horse On the other side the Spaniards wanting Money and Order left their Troops in Flanders neither capable to act by themselves nor in Conjunction with others upon any sudden Attempt nor to supply with Provisions either Dutch or Germans that should come to their Relief and their Towns were ill fortified and worse defended so that the French King in April took Conde in four Days and in May the Duke of Orleans took Bouchain and the Prince of Orange besieged Maestricht without Success But neither the good Success of the French this Campagn nor the ill Success the French Ambassadors had upon the Prince of Orange to induce him to a separate Peace retarded the French from pursuing of it for the French by their Emissaries in Holland but especially at Amsterdam offer such a Reglement of Trade as the People could desire the Restitution of Maestricht and all Satisfaction to the Prince of Orange he could pretend to upon his Loss or their Seizures in the War This put the Mob into a Ferment of having a separate Peace nor could any thing have allayed it but the noble Constancy of the Prince of Orange which stood unshaken in opposing it in all these Difficulties However this Campagn the Elector of Brandenburg in several Encounters beat the Swede and was in a hopeful State to have expelled them out of Germany and it had been just they had been so for the King of England and the King of Sweden were Guarantees in the Triple League at Aix la Chapelle for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands against the French King whereas the King of England stood still only looking on whilst the French Arms by Piecemeals devoured them and the King of Sweden in Conjunction with the French King assisting him in the War Put not your Trust therefore in such Princes The Prince of Orange however his Constancy in opposing a separate Peace was unshaken yet in the distracted State of the Confederates and the violent Humour of the Peoples running into it saw it was impossible to keep them out of it unless the King of England would interpose his Authority further than by being a bare Mediator and acquainted the King with it But the King in a long Letter under his own hand instead of an Answer complained That the Confederate Ministers in England caballed with Parliament-Men and raised all Mens Spirits against Peace as high as they could so that it was difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a general Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador Van Beningham would put in a Memorial pressing the King from the States to do it and declared that without it all Flanders would be lost The Prince to comply with the King replied how willing he was that Van Beningham should put in such a Memorial from the States and that if the King pleased to have a sudden Peace the Prince thought it must be done upon the Foot of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more Ground for because it was a Peace which he both made and warranted Sir William at this time was at the Hague when his Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins wrote to him That there was a Negotiation of a separate Peace treating between the French Ambassadors and Beverning the Dutch Agent at Nimeguen without any Communication of it to the Mediators upon which Sir Lionel acquainted the Court of England with it Whereupon Orders were dispatched That in case a separate Peace was concluding or concluded the Mediators should publickly protest against it in his Majesty's Name This Sir William Temple wrote to my Lord Treasurer and Secretary Coventry That he could not understand the Reason of such a Protestation for if a separate Peace were thought so dangerous at Court as he knew it was in the Country the King might endeavour to prevent it and had it still in his Power as he had had a great while but if it were once concluded any other Effect of such a Protestation unless it were to irritate both Parties and bind them the faster by our being angry at their Conjunction could not be expected Nor did he know what Ground could be given for such a Protestation for tho the Parties had accepted the King's Mediation for a General Peace yet none of them had obliged themselves to the King not to treat of a separate one without his Mediation or if they had he did not see why the same Interests that could make them break through so many Obligations to their Allies should not make them as bold with a Mediator That as to prevent the thing may be a very wise and necessary Counsel so the King's Resolution in it ought to be signified as early as can be where it is like to be of that moment to France But if the thing should be first done as he could not tell how well to ground any Offence so he could as little how to seek Revenge and it would be to stay till we were struck and then trust to crying out That his Opinion was it were better to anger one of the Parties before a separate Peace than both of them after and if we must strain any Points of Controversy with them to do it rather by making a fair and general Peace than by complaining and protesting against a separate one But our Counsels at Court he says were so in Ballance between the Desires of living at least fair with France and the Fears of too much displeasing the Parliament upon their frequent Sessions that our Paces upon the whole Affair look'd all like cross Purposes which no Man at home or abroad could well understand and were often mistaken by both Parties engaged in the War as well as by both
positive Refusal that the Blow came to be eluded which could not otherwise be avoided as Sir William Temple says tho I believe it was intended even when the Prince went out of England However about the latter end of December 1677 the King sent to Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and told him he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolved to send him into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing France and Spain into a Peace upon the Terms proposed if either refused To which Sir William told the King what he had agreed was to enter into a War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfy the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home But to make such a League with Holland only would satisfy none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have such an Effect or Force as the Triple Alliance had being a great Original of which this seemed an ill Copy And therefore excused himself from going And so the King sent Mr. Thyn with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hide who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess which was done and the Treaty signed the 16th of January tho not without great Dissatisfaction to the Prince This Tergiversation of the Court set fire to the Jealousies in Holland especially at Amsterdam that the Prince by this Marriage had taken Measures with the King as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and make it there believed that by this Match the King and Duke had wholly drawn the Prince into their Interests and Sentiments The French hereupon proposed other Terms of Peace to the Dutch far short of the King 's and less safe for Flanders restoring only six Towns to the Spaniard and mentioning Lorain but ambiguously which would not have gone down in Holland but for the Suspicions raised by the Prince's Marriage among the People there who had an incurable Jealousy of our Court and thereupon not that Confidence in the Prince that he deserved If we take this Reign as one thing you 'll find it made up of almost infinite Confusions and Disorders and scarce one regular Act in it and now we are come to one which is without any Precedent which was this You heard before how the King to gratify the French Ambassador for not acquainting him with the Marriage with the Prince had prorogued the Parliament to the 8th of April next viz. 1678. And now Mr. Thyn had made this League with the States the King thought this a good occasion to get Money from the Parliament upon it and was loth to stay till the 8th of April for it and therefore by his Proclamation commands the Parliament to meet upon the 15th of January before the 8th of April Prorogations of Parliaments are new and I think were never heard of in England before the Reign of Henry VIII and are said to be the Acts of the King but Adjournments the Acts of the House to a certain Time and Place and both Houses must be sitting and in being when they are either so prorogued or adjourned I remember upon the discovery of Câ—leman's Letters the Court were mightily surprized at it and the Parliament was to have met some few days after upon a Prorogation which the King in that Surprize unwilling they should did therefore call a Council to advise whether he might not prorogue them to a further day without the Houses meeting and 't was said my Lord Chancellor Finch was of Opinion he might and thereupon Sir Edward Seymour Speaker of the House of Commons having Occasions in the Country went out of Town but some body acquainted the King of the Doubtfulness of the Chancellor's Opinion and desired the King to advise with old John Brown who had been Clerk of the Parliament for near forty Years the King did so and John Brown was positive that in case the Houses did not meet at the Time and Place appointed the King by his Proclamation could not prorogue them but it would be a Dissolution of the Parliament Whereupon the Speaker was sent for back again and so many of both Houses met as would make a Parliament which it 's said is forty Commoners and seven Lords and then the King prorogued them But this Consideration was not that I find taken notice of by either House tho both met according to the King's Proclamation The Houses thus met the King acquainted them with the League he had made with Holland and demanded Money of them to carry on the War against France in case France did not comply with the League whereupon the Parliament granted him a Tex by Poll and otherways which amounted to 1200000 l. not for Peace but to enter into an actual War with France But this Tax shall only beget another to disband an Army raised upon that Pretence tho no War was entred into against France But so far was the French King from giving up any Towns notwithstanding the Agreement the King had made with the Prince or the League he had made with Holland that about the latter end of January he had made an Attempt upon Ipre and threatned Ostend and in March following by open Force takes both Ipre and Gaunt yet the French Ambassador here continued his Court and Treaty with all the Fairness that might be The French having now taken Ipre and Gaunt were so far from proceeding in any Treaty either with England the Confederates or Holland or in the Treaty at Nimeguen that about the first of April the French King made publick Declaration of the Terms upon which he resolved to make Peace which tho very different from those agreed upon between the King and Holland and more from the Pretensions of the Allies yet this way of treating the French pursued in the whole Negotiation afterwards declaring such and such were the Conditions which they would admit and no other and upon which the Enemies might chuse either War or Peace and to which France would not be tied longer than the 10th of May after which they would be at Liberty to change or restrain as they should think fit But how imperious soever the French were abroad yet they dreaded a Conjunction of England either with the Dutch or Confederates and therefore thought fit to wheedle our Court till the Affairs of the Confederates should become so desperate as to submit to what Terms the French King should impose upon them And to this purpose Mr. Mountague now Earl sent a Pacquet to my Lord Treasurer giving an account of a large Conference Monsieur Louvoy the French King 's grand Minister of State had with him by the King his Master's Order wherein he represented the Measures they had already taken for a Peace in Holland upon the French Terms and that since they were agreed there they hoped his Majesty would not be
to preserve Fire and Water mingled together and was not the Monarchy of Scotland preserved though his Grandfather reigned twenty Years in Scotland while his Mother was alive without her and so continued after her Death That no Expedient would be entertained but a total Exclusion nor could be nor did the King ever propound any how otherwise the established Religion might be preserved That the Business of Fitz-Harris was carried to that Extremity that there were no hopes of a Reconciliation c. and put the Houses out of a Capacity of transacting Business it was upon Friday the twenty sixth of March the Commons sent up the Impeachment of Fitz-Harris and there were but Saturday and Sunday between this and the Dissolution of the Parliament and the Houses sat not on Sunday so that the King 's no Hopes or indeed Fears of a Reconciliation were very sudden Why might not the Lords if they had been permitted to have sat upon Conferences with the Commons and hearing their Reason have altered their Resolutions which is usual and it seems this Resolution of the Lords was very sudden and admitted of no great Debate to receive the Impeachment of Fitz-Harris and the same Day to throw it out which caused him to put an end to that Parliament However the King says that notwithstanding the Malice of ill Men who laboured to perswade the People that he intended to lay aside the Use of Parliaments he declared that no Irregularity in Parliament should make him out of love with them and that he was resolved to have frequent Parliaments yet lived near four Years after and never called another and in the Intervals would use his utmost endeavours to extirpate Popery and redress the Grievances of his Subjects the truth of this will best appear hereafter This Declaration which carries the Title of his Majesty's Declaration to all his loving Subjects was ordered to be read in all the Churches of England but if the Matter of it were so surprizing and amazing to the Nation the Manner of it was not less For never any King of England before as King no not this King's Father or Grandfather ever spake to his Subjects but either personally in Parliament or under the Broad Seal of England Whereas this Declaration is only Signed Francis Gwyn it might have been as well Edward Coleman and the Subjects as much obliged to have taken notice of the one as of the other And the Reason is twofold one That the Chancellor or Keeper is responsible if he puts the Seal to any Declaration or Proclamation not warranted by Law and therefore my Lord Chancellor Finch's Sagacity in not putting the Seal to this Declaration was as apparent as his Veracity which he would not expose in seconding the King's Speech at the opening the last Westminster Parliament And the other is to avoid all Impostures and Cheats which might otherwise be imposed upon the Nation under the Name of the King That we may take a better View of the rest of this King's Reign if it be worthy to be called so it 's fit we look into Scotland and see what 's doing there for the Discovery of the Popish Plot but it 's fit to look a little back and take notice that the King in his Speech at the opening of the Second Westminster Parliament told them that to take away all room for any Jealousy of his not prosecuting the Discovery of the Popish Plot he had sent his Brother beyond Sea but having by the Duke of Monmouth wholly suppressed the Kirk Party in Scotland he fairly sends for the Duke of York back again and from an Exile made him Vice-Roy or Regent of Scotland where all things lay open for him to prosecute his Designs as he pleased When the Duke came into Scotland the Earl of Argyle was one of the first that waited upon him The Earl's Story will better appear if first you take his Character He was Son of the Earl of Argyle after made Marquess by King Charles the First who so preferred him to take him off from heading the Kirk Party and thereby to oblige him to become of the King's side which had no Effect for the Marquess above any other of the Scotish Nobility was a most zealous Assertor of the Kirk's Power and was the Head of them when Montross took up Arms against them but though the Marquess was most unfortunate in it yet it no ways abated his Zeal to the Kirk nor was he less esteemed by them When Cromwel had overthrown Duke Hamilton and taken him Prisoner who came into England not to establish the National League and Covenant but to deliver King Charles out of Prison The zealous Kirk Party were highly offended at it and the Marquess of Argyle was the principal Agent to call Cromwel into Scotland to suppress the Hamiltonian Faction and to establish the Kirk which Cromwel then did though he undid it soon after and for this the Marquess was the first Year after the King's Restoration condemned and executed for High Treason upon which he lost all his Honours as well as his Estate But in all the Marquess's Actions his Son the Lord Lorn run counter to him and when this King Charles was in Scotland he was of all others the most obsequious to him and afterward when Middleton made some Incursions into Scotland for the King Lorn was most assisting in them Hereupon after the Marquess was attainted and executed King Charles restored his Son to all his Father's Estate and Honours except that of Marquess Afterward the Earl of Argyle continued constant in his Integrity to the King in all his Civil Affairs and was most zealous and forward in suppressing Tumults and Field-Conventicles so that before the Duke came into Scotland the King had so entire a Confidence in the Earl that he gloried that in thirty Years which must be computed from the King 's going into Scotland in 1650 he never received one Frown from the King how he should become such a prejured Traitor after the Duke's coming into Scotland is now to be enquired into The Earl of Argyle was one of the Lords of the Articles and by the Duke made one of the Committee for the Articles of Religion which by the Custom of Scotland and by the King's Instruction was to be the first thing treated of In this Committee an Act was prepared for securing the Protestant Religion which approved the Confession of Faith and also the Act containing the Coronation Oath to be taken by all the Kings and Regents of Scotland before their entry to exercise their Government This Act as drawn was less binding to the Successor of the Crown as to his own Profession yet did oblige as strongly the Maintenance of the Protestant Religion in the publick Profession by all others as before and added a Test to be taken by all in publick Emploiments to exclude the Popish Party out of them and because in case of a Popish Successor all Fines and
See the Life of General Monk p. 23 24. written by his Chaplain Dr. Gumble The Parliament having recruited the Earl of Essex's Army he forced his Passage and relieved Glocester the King's Army retreat to Newbury where it was charged by Essex and worsted and in the Fight the Ornament of the Age the learned and most ingenious Lord Falkland tho weary of his Life and presaging his own Destiny was slain as were the Earls of Sunderland and Carnarven If the King's Army had such bad Success before Glocester my Lord of New-Castle had worse before Hull for lying in a moorish unhealthy place in a sickly season of the Year viz. September and October the whole Army fell into Fluxes and other Distempers so as they were forced to raise the Siege having done nothing considerable in it besides at this time Lyn-Regis in Norfolk a Place near as considerable as Hull was seized by the Gentry of Norfolk and might have been relieved if New-Castle had not been engaged in besieging Hull Tho the English and Scotish Parliament agreed in their Solemn League and Covenant yet so did not Sir John Hotham and his Son with the Preferment of Sir Thomas Fairfax and others in the North so that Sir John Hotham refused to serve under Fairfax Hereupon the Parliament intended to have displaced Hotham which when he heard of both he and his Son treated with the Marquess of New-Castle to deliver Hull to the King and the Parliament suspecting the Design sent Sir Matthew Bromton Sir John's Brother-in-law to seize both Father and Son which Sir John little suspecting till it was too late fled to Beverly where he was seized by his own Soldiers and carried to Hull from whence Sir Matthew sent both Father and Son to London where soon after both lost their Heads When the Parliament sent Commissioners to invite the Scots to come to their Assistance the King sent Letters to disswade them from it urging the manifold Grants he had given to them when he was in Scotland last which compleated all they could ask and their solemn Protestations to be for ever his Majesty's most obedient Subjects See the Act cited by Sir Rich. Baker fol. 514. That it should be detestable Treason in the highest degree for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to raise Arms or any military Force upon any Cause whatever without the King's Commission But now unprovoked by the King and against his express Command they in open Hostility enter England a second time against him so little Faith or Honour was to be trusted to from these Covenanters for the Scots having made their Market with the King resolve to improve it with the Parliament and besides their Pay or Wages of Iniquity will have the Covenant and Kirk-Government imposed upon the English as well as Scots Nation and tho the King's Letters were signed by 19 Lords the Scots ordered them to be burnt by the common Hangman and in order hereunto General Lesley now Earl of Leven upon the 16th of January enters into England again with an Army of above 20000 Scots The King to add Reputation to his Arms summoned the Members of Parliament which followed him to meet at Oxford upon the 22d of January where they voted the coming of the Scots to be Treason and Rebellion but because they would not come up to the King's Desire in Voting the Members at Westminster to be no Parliament the King in great Displeasure with them and in his Letters to the Queen calls them his mungrel Parliament such was the Kindness the King shewed those Noble Lords and Gentry for sacrificing their Lives and Fortunes for his Service And to oppose the Scots the King makes a Cessation of Arms with the Irish and draws back into England the English which he sent to oppose the Irish but these were every where beaten 1500 of them cast away by Sea and the greatest Body of them commanded by Sir Michael Ernley Major General Gibson Sir Francis Boteler and Colonel Monk who shall unravel all the Parliament and Scots were now weaving were totally routed and dispersed by Sir Thomas Fairfax joining with Sir William Brereton near Nantwich and all these with Colonel Gibs Harmon Sir Ralph Dawns with 14 Captains 26 Ensigns and other inferiour Officers and 1500 common Soldiers taken Prisoners with the loss of their Cannon and Baggage So that as Serjeant Whitlock observes f. 79. a. these Irish never did the King any considerable Service But to sweeten this Prince Rupert at the close of this Year beat Sir John Meldrum a Scot who besieged Newark and his Army surrendred up their Arms Upon which the Parliament-Garisons in Gainsborow Lincoln and Sleford quitted these Places to the King's Forces And here we will end the Year 1643. and take notice how Mr. Serjeant Whitlock f. 64. b. errs in point of Time where he says the Scots passed the Tyne in 1642 under General Lesley to assist the Parliament and f. 67. a. he says the Queen was brought to Bed at Exeter of the Princess Henrietta Maria which for ought appears was before the Queen landed from Holland for she was born the 20th of June 1644. See Sir Baker's Hist f. 434. a. Anno Reg. 20. Dom. 1644. The Wonders which succeeded these two Years in England will better appear if a View be taken of the present Posture of Affairs as they stood in the beginning of this Year England and Scotland are united in one Solemn League and Covenant in January last Lesley or Leven enter'd England with an Army of 18000 Foot and 3500 Horse and Dragoons and soon after the Earl of Calendar enter'd England with an Army of 10000 Scots more these commanded by old and experienced Officers and the English Parliament's Armies were commanded by as brave and resolute Commanders as were to be found in Europe The Fleet wholly at the Parliament's Devotion and so was the City of London So that if you look upon the Superstructure nothing could appear more strong and lasting And all this time you hear little of Oliver Cromwel more than that he was a Captain of Horse and being of a bold and active Spirit secured the Town of Cambridg for the Parliament and was very diligent in obstructing several Levies for the King in Cambridgshire Essex Suffolk and Norfolk For these Services he had a Commission to be a Colonel of Horse and having an insinuating and canting way of preaching and seeming very Godly raised such a Regiment of Horse as was no where to be found the Riders spirited with Zeal to the Cause yet not of the Scots mode and to secure them without Oliver took care to provide them able Horses and to be well arm'd and accoutred so as every one of them beside Sword and Pistol had Pot Back and Breast Musquet-proof He was Nephew to Sir Oliver Cromwel who had a very great Estate but his Father being a younger Brother had not above 300 l. per Annum as was said Their
the old one And Beverning repeats the former Cant of calling God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness the sincere Affections of the States towards the Common-wealth of England and prayed that God with his Holy Spirit might preside at all their Consultations and bless their Government and the Nation with all Prosperity and Happiness and desired that the Memory of the past Actions might be obliterated and a perfect Amity and indissoluble Vnion and more entire Correspondence than ever might be established between the two Nations and concluded That the Great most Good and most Merciful God would preside in their Councils with his Spirit of Peace To this Cant the Council return'd a peremptory Answer That without Satisfaction for what had been acted against England and befitting Security that no such thing should be attempted again they could not proceed to any League or Alliance But rather than submit to this Introduction of a Treaty the Dutch resolve to try once again their Fortune by War and fit out the greatest Fleet they could to be again commanded by Van Trump These were encountred by Monk who fought them on the 29th and 30th of July and took and sunk 30 of their Men of War whereof eight were Flag-Ships and retook the Garland formerly taken by the Dutch from the English kill'd Van Trump and took above 1000 Prisoners whereof Vice-Admiral Evertson was one and 't was conjectur'd 6000 of the Dutch were kill'd and drowned no Quarter being given during the Fight In this Engagement the English had but two Ships fired whereof the Oak was one but most of her Men were saved but had 250 Men slain and 700 wounded of the slain were Capt. Cox Graves Chapman and Peacock of the wounded were Capt. Stokes Seaman Rous Holland and Cubi Between these Fights viz. July 8. Cromwel by the Title of I Oliver Cromwel Captain General and Commander in Chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth summons 144 which was twelvefold the Number of the Tribes of Israel of his own Nomination to take upon them the supream Government of the Nation These were Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy-Men Cromwel believing them to be the properest Instruments to do his Journey-work but was mistaken Upon the 4th of July 120 of these appeared at White-Hall and being set round a Table in the Council-Chamber Cromwel and the Officers of the Army standing about the middle of the Table this was such a Raâ—y-Show as ne're before was seen in fair Albion's Isle Cromwel made a Speech to them shewing the Cause of their Summons and that they had a clear Call to take upon them the supream Authority of the Commonwealth and urged divers Places of Scripture to admonish them to do their Duties Then Cromwel to manifest the Clearness of their Call produced an Instrument under his own Hand and Seal whereby he did with the Advice of his Officers devolve and intrust the supream Authority and Government of this Commonwealth into the Hands of the Persons then met It seems then the other 24 which were not yet come up had no part of the Supream Authority and Government of the Commonwealth but a less Number may do the Work For Cromwel then tells them that any forty of them are to be held and acknowledged the Supream Authority of the Nation and all Persons within the same are to yield Obedience and Subjection Yet this clear Call binds them to sit no longer than the third of November and that three Months before their Dissolution they make Choice of other Persons to succeed them who are not to sit longer than a Year and to be left to them to take care for the Succession of the Government and so Cromwel and his Officers left them But he had as good said nothing for his Supream Authority sat longer than the third of November yet never made choice of other Persons to succeed them nor took any care for the Succession of the Government However this Thing or Creature of Cromwel's calls it self a Parliament and because one Praise God Barebone a Leatherseller was a famous Member in it 't was called Barebone's Parliament and they chose one Rouse their Speaker But how Godly soever Cromwel seem'd to appear by his divers Texts of Scripture in devolving the Supream Authority of the Nation upon these Men yet he retained the Wisdom of the Serpent and by his own Authority imposed six Months Assessments upon the Nation which you may see in Baker's History fol. 618. b. which Whitlock takes no notice of and if he had not it 's a Question whether his chosen Creatures The Supream Authority of the Nation would have done it Barebone's Parliament was so highly pleased with Monk's Victory over the Dutch that they order'd a Day of Thanksgiving for it with a Narrative to be publickly read and also several Chains of Gold to be given to Blake tho he was in neither of these Fights Monk Penn and Lawson for their good Service and a Gratuity to all the other Officers and Seamen according to their Quality over and above their Pay This is observable that Cromwel himself put the Chain of Gold and the Medal with the Representation of a Sea-Fight which Barebone's Parliament had given Monk about his Neck and having invited Monk to Dinner made him wear it all the while See the History of Monk ' s Life p. 77. Whilst Cromwel and his Supream Authority were thus jolly in England all was in Confusion and Distraction in Holland I mean the Dutch Provinces the common People obey'd no longer their Government The Placarts of the States General were despised and they in danger to be ruined and plunder'd by the ignorant and impetuous Rabble The Dutch Ambassadors here could obtain no other Terms of Peace than by a Coalition Satisfaction for Damages received by the English and Security for the future that the Dutch should not do the like again and that the Dutch take a Lease for 21 Years for Fishing and to pay an Annual Rent The Council thus resolute and Plenipotentiaries tried what Terms of Peace might be had from Barebone ' s Parliament But these took the Dutch to be the Outworks of Babylon which must be taken down before there could be any coming at the main Fort They looked upon the Dutch as Carnal and Worldly Politicians Enemies to the Kingdom of Christ and such as would upon all occasions retard the Progress of the Saints and People of God in overturning the Powers of this World That Antichrist the Man of Sin could never be destroyed in Italy whilst the Dutch retained any considerable Strength in the United Neterlands They did not insist upon the Flag nor Dominion of the Seas but held it necessary in order to the Coming of Christ and his Personal Reign that the Seas should be scoured and preserved as peaceably as the Land that both ought jointly to submit to the Power of King Jesus whose Ways they and not the
Hollanders were to prepare They allowed the Procedure of the Dutch by Petition since the Power of the Council of State was all one with that of the Saints and theirs derived from him to whom all Power is given And upon that account the Dutch ought to continue their Addresses of Meseignours Tresillustâ—es Seignours to the Council of State not in the sense they are forbidden in the Gospel but that whereby our Lord Christ assumes such Titles and confers them on the Saints That the Saints therefore might tolerate them and the Dutch ought not to refuse them lest it should be a Rejection of the Kingdom of Christ which was now approaching That the Dutch ought to kiss the Son lest he be angry and should have a care how they contemn his Holy Ones lest they were chastised with the Rod of Iron See Stubbe p. 91 92. The Dutch were now more confounded and perplex'd than ever it was difficult to treat with and impossible to prevail upon these Men They were now in danger to be ruin'd as Enemies to Christ rather than England and a Coalition with England would not satisfy except they likewise annexed their Provinces unto the Fifth Monarchy In Holland the Provinces met to consult what to do the Opinion of Holland was never to enter into a Coalition with England but that a strict League defensive should be proffered that they ought to contract Foreign Amities especially with France and to equip out a Fleet with all possible Expedition Yet they had little reason to expect much Help from France being then imbroiled in Civil Wars besides they had so juggled with France and falsified their Faith since the Treaty at Munster that they had little reason to expect Help from France The other Provinces were for entring into a League with the Elector of Brandenburgh and other German Princes and giving Assistance to the Scots for at this time Major General Middleton was raising some Tumults there but their Necessities were present and these Treaties remote and dangerous they could not get any great Benefit by a Treaty with the German Princes they having except Brandenburg who had but little no Power at Sea Besides these Alliances would cost dear and the Dutch pretended they were poor and also such an Alliance would prove dangerous for the Elector of Cologne might demand the Restitution of Rhineburg Orsoy Rees and other Places which the Dutch had filch'd from that Electorate so might the Elector of Bradenburgh of Wesel and other Places wherein the Dutch kept Garisons above 40 Years besides they feared the Emperor might claim in right of the Empire and little good could be expected from assisting the Scots without being superiour at Sea and sending a Land Army which the Dutch could not spare They therefore gave Orders to their Plenipotentiaries to protract time according as they saw Disorders to encrease between Cromwel and his Supream Authority to be ample in the Generals concerning the Defence of the Reformed Religion and of the Houshold of Faith to reject the Coalition to offer to enter into a strict and intimate League but deal as tenderly as they could in point of Reparation Satisfaction or Security All these things were known to Cromwel's Council of State and they resolved to handle them accordingly and when these were communicated to Barebone's Parliament they said it was no more than was prophesied in Scripture and in course to be expected that the Gentiles should rage and the Kings of the Earth set themselves against the Kingdom of Christ but they should fall before him and be broken in pieces That they were fierce to encounter Gog and Magog and by a series of Victories inflam'd to encounter this Antichristian Host It 's tedious to set forth the manifold Tautologies recited by Stubbe and Leo ab Aitzma who could not err herein and all the Dutch Cant in securing the true Reformed Religion and of their love and desire of the Prosperity of the English Commonwealth The Council of State since the Dutch refused a Coalition and thereby became our Equals resolve to make them humble without it and therefore impose 27 Articles upon the Dutch which may be seen in Leo ab Aitzma p. 837 c. But Mr. Stubbe mentions but five viz. the third twelfth fourteenth fifteenth and seventeenth besides Satisfaction and Reparation made for several Wrongs Injuries and Depredations done and committed upon the English as well in the East-Indies as elsewhere by the People of the Vnited Provinces with Power nevertheless of the Council to add alter and enlarge the said Articles or any of them before the Conclusion of the Treaty as they shall find occasion for the same in the future Management thereof The 3d Article was That the Ships Guns and Furniture and the Goods and Merchandizes and other things which had been taken in Harbour or at Land from the Dutch by the English during the War should be accounted as part of Satisfaction and Reparation for the Charges and Damages which the English had been put to during the War And the States General should pay to the English such further Sum for Reparation as aforesaid and in such manner as shall be agreed upon by this Treaty And thereupon all Offences c. to be forgotten The 12th Article obliges them Not to permit the Prince of Orange or the Princess Mary to relieve with Counsel or Victuals any Rebels or Enemies of the Common-wealth of England c. and to seclude the Prince's Lineage from being State-holders Admiral General or Governour of any of their Towns I 'm perswaded Cromwel was the Contriver of this Article the Reason you 'll see hereafter The 14th Article That they the Dutch were not to enter or pass the British Seas but with a certain Number of Men of War to be agreed upon in this Treaty But in case the States General should have occasion to pass the said Seas with a greater Number of Ships of War that they should give Notice of their Intentions to the English and obtain their Consent before they put to Sea The 15th Article wherein Stubbe follows the English Manuscript and not Leo ab Aitzma which much differs from it As the Commonwealth of England have declared their Resolutions that they will from time to time take care to put forth upon their Seas a convenient Number of armed Ships for the Defence and Safeguard thereof and to maintain and preserve all lawful Navigation Trade and Commerce therein against Pirates and Sea-Rovers and all others that shall act or do any thing to the Disturbance thereof so for the greater freedom of Commerce and Navigation that neither Commonwealth shall give Reception to any Pirates c. The 17th Article obliges the Dutch to take a Lease for 21 Years for the Fishing and to pay an Annual Rent Here note That tho the Dutch pleaded the Grants of the Kings of England to the Dukes of Burgundy and Kings of Spain for Licence to fish upon the