House upon the eighth day of June last past they refused to appear and returned a scornful Answer by a Letter under their hands directed to the Speaker of the Lords House and remaining there upon Record For which Crimes and Misdemeanours to the interruption of the proceedings of Parliament and great Affairs of the Kingdom and tending to the dissolution of the Parliament and disturbance of the Peace of the Kingdom I am commanded in the name of the said Commons to demand of your Lordships that the said Lords may be forthwith put to their Answer and receive speedy and exemplary punishment according to their demerits The Commons saving to themselves liberty at all times hereafter to exhibite any other or further Impeachment or Accusation against the said Lords or any of them Upon this Impeachment of the nine Lords the House of Peers about a month after being in their Robes entred into debate of the said Impeachment and after divers Speeches made by some Lords setting forth the greatnesse of their Offence they were censured 1. Never to sit more as Members of that House 2. That they should be utterly uncapable of any benefit or priviledges of Parliament 3. That they should suffer Imprisonment during their pleasure After which Censure it was concluded that the said Lords should be demanded in the behalf of both Houses of Parliament to submit to the said Censure About that time when the Members of both Houses of Parliament did daily forsake their station and repair to the King at York another accident fell out which gave a great wound to the Parliament and much encouragement to the King in his designes which was the carrying away of the Great Seal of England from London to York EDWARD Lord LITTLETON on whom the King when the Lord Keeper FINCH fled out of England as is before related had conferred the keeping of the Great Seal he being before Lord chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and created a Baron of the Realm had continued for some space of time after the rest were gone to York firm to the Parliament in all appearance and upon all occasions voted according to the sense of those that seemed the best affected that way and among other things gave his Vote for setling the Militia by Ordinance of Parliament insomuch that there seemed no doubt at all to be made of his constancy till at the last before the end of the month of Iune a young Gentleman one Master Thomas Eliot Groom of the Privie Chamber to the King was sent closely from York to him who being admitted by the Lord Keeper into his private Chamber when none else were by so handled the matter whether by perswasions threats or promises or whatsoever that after three hours time he got the great Seal into his hands and rid post with it away to the King at York The Lord Keeper Lâ—TTLETON after serious consideration with himself what he had done or rather suffered and not being able to answer it to the Parliament the next day early in the morning rode after it himself and went to the King Great was the complaint at London against him for that action nor did the King ever shew him any great regard afterwards The reason which the Lord Keeper LITTLETON gave for parting so with the great Seal to some friends of his who went after him to York was this That the King when he made him Lord Keeper gave him an Oath in private which he took That whensoever the King should send to him for the great Seal he should forthwith deliver it This Oath as he averred to his friends his conscience would by no means suffer him to dispense withal he onely repented though now too late that he had accepted the Office upon those terms The Parliament to prevent so sad a War sent out two Orders one to all Sheriffsâ— Justices and other Officers within 150 miles of the City of York that they should take special care to make stay of all Arms and Ammunition carrying towards York until they have given notice thereof to the Lords and Commons and received their further direction and to that purpose to keep strict Watches within their several limits to search for and seize all such Arms and apprehend the persons going with the same The other was to the Sheriff of Lancashire and other adjacent Counties to suppresse the raising and coming together of any Souldiers Horse or Foot by any Warrant from the King without the advice of the Lords and Commons in Parliament as likewise to declare all that should execute any such Warrant from the King disturbers of the peace of the Kingdom and to command the Trained Bands to be assistant to the Sheriffs in that service These Orders of the Parliament were immediately answered by a Proclamation from the King forbidding all his Subjects belonging to the Trained Bands or Militia of this Kingdom to rise march muster or exercise by vertue of any Order or Ordinance of one or both Houses of Parliament without Consent or Warrant from his Majestie The Parliament notwithstanding proceed in setling the Militia of the Kingdom having made on the second of Iune an Order for those revolted members to return to their duty again before the 16 of that month under the forfeiture of an hundred pound to be disposed to the Wars in Ireland besides undergoing such punishment as the Houses should think fit and had by this time at many places began to settle the said Militia Upon the same second of Iune also the Lords and Commons sent a Petition to the King with nineteen Propositions which the King received with great indignation as appeared in his Answer to them both in general and in divers Particulars concerning those Propositions as esteeming himself injured in restraint of his Power and Prerogative The Petition and Propositions were as followeth The humble Petition and Advice of both Houses of Parliament with Nineteen Propositions and the Conclusion sent unto His Majestie the second of Iune 1642. YOur Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament having nothing in their thoughts and desires more precious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate Service of God then the just and faithful performance of their duty to Your Majestie and this Kingdom And being very sensible of the great distractions and distempers and of the imminent dangers and calamities which those distractions and distempers are like to bring upon Your Majestie and Your Subjects all which have proceeded from the subtil informations mischievous practices add evil counsels of men disaffected to Gods true Religion Your Majesties Honour and Safety and the publike Peace and Prosperity of Your People after a serious observation of the causes of those Mischiefs Do in alâ— humility and sincerity present to Your Majesty their most dutiful Petition and Advice that out of Your Princely Wisdom for the establishing Your Own Honour and Safety and gracious tendernesse of the Welfare and
the other side who had oppressed them No commotion at all was raised from the oppressed party though it consisted of the body of the Nation and therefore strong enough to have vindicated themselves would they have risen in illegall tumults The Land was yet quiet and that storme which the people had feared before the death of the Duke of BUCKINGHAM was not in so long a time fallen upon England although the causes in Government which made them feare it had continued at the height ever since They onely wished for a Parliament but durst not hope it unlesse some strange accident not yet discovered by them might necessitate such a cure The Commons therefore But in Scotland it was once quite ruined and by degrees built up againe not without many difficulties not without great reluctancy of the Peeres Gentry and most of the Ministers not without extraordinary interposition of Regall Authority and great art used by two Kings in managing the businesse and raising it to that height in which then it stood as you may reade at large in some late Writers of that Kingdome Neither were the Peeres and Gentry of that Kingdome so impatient of this new yoakeâ— onely out of zeale to preservation of Religion in purity though that no doubt were their greatest reason that Church having been ever much addicted to the Reformation of Geneva And those other Churches as it appeared by their great unwillingnesse to receive those few Ceremonies of the English Church at their Synod of Perth but as loath also to suffer any diminution of their Temporall Liberties which could not be avoided in admittance of Episcopall Jurisdiction and was manifested in that Kingdome by divers examples of rigorous proceedings which some Bishops used against Gentlemen of quality by way of Fines and Imprisonments and the like which particulars are too large to be here inserted in this Narration In the yeare 1637. a Booke of Lyturgy was composed and sent out of England which they complained of because it was not before allowed by their Church in a Nationall Synod as was fit for a businesse of so great import with an expresse command from the King that they should reverently receive it and publikely reade it in their Churches beginning on Easter day and so forward against which time the Privy Councell of Scotland had commanded that every Parish should buy two at the least of them That Service-Booke was the same with the Common-Prayer Booke of England excepting some few alterations of which some as they observed were alterations for the better but others for the worse For the better they esteemed that so many Chapters of the Apocrypha were not appointed to be read as in the English Prayer Booke and where the English retained the old vulgar Latine Translation especially in the Psalmes that Booke followed the last Translation commonly called that of King JAMES Those alterations for the worse were divers observed by the Scots especially in the Lords Supper of which some were these The expresse command for situation of the Altar so called to the Easterne Wall together with many postures of the Minister whilest he officiated expressed in their exceptions but especially this that in the consecrating prayer those words which in the English Common-Prayer Booke are directly against Transubstantiation were quite left out in that Booke and instead of them such other words as in plaine sense agreed with the Roman Masse Booke As for example Heare us O most mercifull Father and of thy Omnipotent goodnesse grant so to blesse and sanctifie by thy Word and Spirit these creatures of bread and wine that they may be to us the body and blood of thy beloved Sonne Many other alterations the Scots have observed and expressed in their writings and in one word affirmed that wheresoever that Booke varies from the English Lyturgy it approaches directly to the Roman Missall and offered to prove that all the materiall parts of the Masse Booke are seminally there It was thought by many that if the Booke without any alteration at all had been sent into Scotland though the Scots perhaps would not have received it they would not have taken it in so evill part And it might have been construed onely as a brotherly invitation to the same service which England used But what the reasons were of those alterations I finde no where expressed but onely where the King in his Declaration concerning that businesse is pleased to say thus WE supposing that they might have taken some offence if we should have tendred them the English Service-Booke totidem verbis and that some factious spirits would have endeavoured to have misconstrued it as a badge of dependance of that Church upon this of England which we had put upon them to the prejudice of their Lawes and Liberties We held it fitter that a new Booke should be composed by their owne Bishops in substance not differing from this of England that so the Roman Party might not upbraid us with any weighty or materiall differences in our Lyturgyes and yet in some few insensible alterations differing from it that it might truly and justly be reputed a Booke of that Churches owne composing and established by Our Royall Authority as King of SCOTLAND These were the Kings expressions which as it seemed were not satisfactory to the Scots in that point For they were as is before specified not well affected to their owne Bishops whose power and jurisdiction over them was rather enforced then consented to Neither did they suppose that a conformity in Church-Worship had it been such as their consciences could well have imbraced had beene any badge of their dependancy upon England as being a people not conquered but united in an equall freedome under the same King Besides they could not relish it well that the Archbishop of Canterbury and other English Bishops who in many points of Ceremony and Worship which they accounted things tolerable did make as neere approaches to the Church of Rome as possibly they could for no other reason as they professe in their writings then that they laboured to bring union into the Christian Church if it were possible should now invite the Church of Scotland whom they accounted more puritanicall then themselves to union by a quite contrary way as in stead of framing their Service neerer to the Scottish profession and Discipline to urge them to a Lyturgy more popish then their owne So that it seemed for unity they were content to meet Rome rather then Scotland To returne to the Narration The Service-Booke according to the Kings command was offered to the Church of Scotland and the Councell there and published by Proclamation a day for the reading of it in all Churches appointed which was the Easter day following 1637. But then upon some considerations and further triall of mens minds as the King declares the first reading of it was put off untill the 23. of Iuly next ensuing to the end that the Lords of the Session
children murthered many of them with exquisite and unheard of tortures within the space of one month That which increased the amazement of most men was The consideration that the ancient hatred which the Irish a thing incident to conquer'd Nations had borne to the English did now seeme to be quite buried and forgotten forty years of peace had compacted those two Nations into one body and cemented them together by all conjunctures of alliance intermarriages and consanguinity which was in outward appearance strengthned by frequent entertainments and all kinds of friendly neighbourhood There seemed in many places a mutuall transmigration as was observed by a noble Gentleman whose place in that Kingdom gave him means to know it out of whose faithfull relation of that Rebellion and Massacre I have partly collected my discourse of it into each others manners Many English strangely degenerating into the Irish manners customers and many Irish especially of the better sort having taken up the English language apparel and decency of living in their private houses The present Government was full of lenity and moderation and some redresse of former grievances had then been newly granted by the King to his Irish subjects The same Gentleman in his History of the Irish Rebellion where the Reader may more fully enforme himself of particulars affirms that he could never hear of any one Englishman that received any certain notice of this conspiracy till that very evening before which it was to be put in execution Some intimations had been given by Sir WILLIAM COLE in a Letter to the Lords Justices Sir WILLIAM PARSONS and Sir JOHN BURLACE with the rest of the Councell concerning dangerous resorts and meetings of some persons who were judged fit instruments for such a mischief This horrid plot contrived with so much secrecy was to take effect upon the 23 of October The Castle of Dublin the chief strength of that Kingdome and principall Magazine of the Kings Armes and Ammunition where all those Armes which were taken from the late disbanded Irish Army and others which the Earl of Strafford had provided were deposited was to be seized by nine of the clock that day by the Rebels to which purpose many of the Irish Gentry of great quality were the night before come to Dublin to be in readinesse for the performing of that exploit It was further agreed among those conspirators that upon the same day all other his Majesties Forts and Magazines of Armes and Ammunition in that Kingdom should be surprized and all Protestants and English that would not joyn with them should be cut off But it pleased God to prevent the seisure of that Castle and so to save the Kingdom from being wholly lost in one day and that by a means strange and unexpected HUGH MAC MAHON Esquire grand-son to the famous Rebel TYRONE a Gentleman of a plentifull fortune in the county of Monagan and one that had served in Armes under the King of Spain as Leiutenant Colonel a principal Agent in this Rebellion and coming with others as aforesaid into Dublin the day before that great Designe was to be put in execution being the 22 of October admitted into his company at a Tavern in that City one OWEN CONALLY of Irish extract but a protestant and servant to Sir JOHN CLOTWORTHY a Member of the English Parliament To this OWEN he revealed so much as they were drinking that the honest man escaping from him though not without great danger to himself at the present informed the Lord Justice PARSONS that night about nine of the clock of a dangerous Designe upon the whole Kingdom which being taken into present consideration MAC MAHON was apprehended and after his examination the Lord MAQUIRE also another principal actor who were both committed to close custody and the Castle secured with all diligence But many conspirators of great note escaped that night out of Dublin as BIRNE MORE PLUNKET and others The Lords of the Counsel amazed at the discovery of so horrid a Treason did notwithstanding endeavour since there was no prevention for MAC MAHON had plainly told them when he was examined that by that time all the counties of Ireland were risen to use the best remedies to that desperate disease and hoping that perchance the news how the plot for seizing of Dublin castle was disappointed might somewhat dishearten the conspirators in remote parts and encourage the good Subjects with more confidence to stand upon their guard issued forth a Proclamation presently and by carefull messengers spread it into as many parts of the Kingdom as they could The effect of which proclamation was to signifie the discovery of the Treason and exhort all men to their duty in suppressing of it But the generall Designe was past prevention and that very day came in some poor English protestants and others in a short time every day and almost every hour shewing how they had been robbed their houses surprised by the Rebels whose outrage daily increased in rapine and murdering and fireing Towns and Villages in divers counties To oppose therefore the growth of that desperate malady the Lord Justices dispatching Letters to the King in Scotland and the Earle of Leicester lately made Lieutenant of Ireland by the King and yet resident at London of their lamentable condition examined with all diligence how they were provided for such a War They found in Dublin Stores Armes for ten thousand with Artillery Powder Match and Lead proportionable laid in by the late Earle of Strafford though designed by him another way yet reserved by Gods providence for this service But the Officers and souldiers of the old standing army were so much dispersed into remote places of the Kingdom for the guard of other Forts that there was scarse any possibility of drawing a considerable company together to defend Dublin or make head against the Rebels in the North. The greatest mischeif to the State and advantage to the Rebels was That there was no Money in the Exchequer besides the Kings Revenues and Rents of English Gentlemen due for that halfe year were either in Tenants or Collectors hands in the country and must unadvoidablly fall into the Rebels power so that although their disease were present the only means of cure was remote which was a dependence upon some supplies from the Parliament of England Upon the very day designed for surprisall of the Castle at Dublin the 23 of October the Northren Rebels broke out in the Province of Vlster and in few dayes got possession of so many Towns Forts and Gentlemens Houses within the counties of that Province as might seeme almost incredible if we consider only the cheif actors men of no great skill in Martiall affairs or any policy such as Sir PHELIM ONEALE and his Brother with the rest and not rather which indeed was the true reason the generall engagements of the Irish and their deep dissimulation concurring with the great credulity of the English upon the causes
Traitors came not out till the beginning of January though that Rebellion broke out in October and then by special Command from Vs but fourty Copies were appointed to be printed It is well known where we were at that time when that Rebellion broke forth in Scotland that we immediately from thence recommended the care of that businesse to both Houses of Parliament here after We had provided for all fitting Supplies from our Kingdom of Scotland that after Our return hither We observed all those Forms for that service which We were advised to by Our Councel of Ireland or both Houses of Parliament here and if no Proclamation issued out sooner of which for the present We are not certain but think that others before that time were issued by Our directions it was because the Lords Iustices of that Kingdom desired them no sooner and when they did the number they disired was but twenty which they advised might be signed by Vs which We for expedition of the service commanded to be printed a circumstance not desired by them thereupon We signed more of them then Our Iustices desired all which was very well known to some Members of one or both Houses of Parliament who have the more to answer if they forbore to expresse it at the passing of this Declaration and if they did expresse it We have the greater reason to complain that so envious an aspersion should be cast upon Vs to Our People when they knew well how to answer their own Objection This was the Kings Answer to that point of the Parliaments Declaration concerning Ireland But the House of Commons in another Declaration though long after charge the King upon the same particular with more circumstances of aggravation as That although the Rebels had most impudently styled themselves The Queens Army and professed that the cause of their rising was To maintain the King's Prerogative and the Queens Religion against the Puritan Parliament of England and thereupon both Houses of Parliament did humbly and earnestly advise His Majestie to wipe away this dangerous Scandal by proclaiming them Rebels and Traitors to His Majestie and the Crown of England which then would have mated and weakned the Conspirators in the beginning and have encouraged both the Parliaments here and good people there the more vigorously to have opposed their proceedings yet such was the power of evil counsel about him that no Proclamation was set forth to that purpose till almost three months after the breaking out of this Rebellion and then Command given that but fourty should be printed nor they published till further direction should be given by His Majestie But the businesse of Ireland was more particularly touched in subsequent Declarations which in their due time and place may hereafter be related That Proclamation against the Irish Rebels came not out above two days before the King entred the House of Commons as is before expressed by which act so great a disturbance was made and the relief of Ireland so much retarded It was likewise complained of to the King by the House of Commons within three weeks after that since the Ports by order of both Houses as is before mentioned had been stopped against all Irish Papists many of the chief Commanders then in the Head of the Rebels had been suffered to passe by His Majesties immediate Warrant Of which the King cleared himself in Answer to them that by examining his own memory and the notes of his Secretaries he could not finde himself guilty of granting any such Warrants CHAP. III The Queen passeth into Holland with her daughter the Princesse MARY Difference between the King and Parliament concerning the Militia The King goeth toward York and is followed with a Petition from the Lords and Commons to Theobalds and another Declaration to Newmarket The King is denied entrance into Hull by Sir JOHN HOTHAM IT was wonderful that nothing at all could advance or further this great and necessary work of reducing Ireland when so many courses were propounded and undertaken as about the middle of February both Houses of Parliament had found a way which they conceived to be most substantial and firm to carry on that War namely by adventuring for proportions of Land in Ireland there being by their account within the four Provinces of Vlster Connaught Munster and Leinster two millions and an half of Acres of Land forfeitable from the Rebels in those Provinces to be shared among those Adventurers in the City of London or other Counties thereabout that would bring in or subscribe such Sums of money as were thought fit and which were upon good and serious consideration set down in particular whereby if an happie Conquest were made upon those bloody Rebels a large recompence might be made to all those English who either in Person of Purse had contributed to so good a work The King was well contented with these Propositions offâ—ring withal to go himself in Person into Ireland but that was not thought sitting by the Parliament and so far it passed that an Act was made to that purpose enabling the Parliament with power to carry on that War until Ireland should be declared to be wholly subdued and that no Peace or Cessation of Arms should be at any time made with those Rebels unlesse both Houses of Parliament assented to it But while these things were acting other businesse wherein the safety and security of England was concerned fell into debate which was touching the Militia of the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales to be setled in every County upon such persons as the Parliament should approve A Petition to this purpose was sent to the King presently after they had received a Message from him dated the twentieth of Ianuary wherein the King in fair language desires the Parliament since that particular Grievances and Distractions were too many and would be too tedious to be presented by themselves that they would comprise and digest them into one entire Body that so His Majestie and themselves might be able to make the more clear Iudgement of them and that it should then appear by what His Majestie would do how for he hath been from intending or designing any of those things which the too-great fears and jealousies of some persons seem to apprehend and how ready he would be to equal or exceed the greatest examples of most indulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to the People This Message was received with thanks by the Parliament who resolved to take it into speedie and serious consideration But to enable them with security to discharge their duties in those affairs they desired the King to raise up to them a sure ground of safety and confidence by putting in the mean time the Tower with other principal Forts and the whole Militia of the Kingdom into the hands of such persons as the Parliament might trust and should be recommended to him by both Houses This Petition of theirs was not well
furnish by way of Loan unto the Committee of Lords and Commons for the defence of the Kingdom the sum of one hundred thousand pounds for the supply of the publike necessity for defence of the King Parliament and Kingdom upon the publike Faith to be repayed duely and carefully within so short a time that it shall not be diverted from that purpose for which it was intended or any way frustrate the Acts already made in the behalf of that Adventure During the time of these Paper-conflicts the King in person had often removed and visited many places To the Gentry of Leicestershire he made a Speech on the 20 of Iuly after his usual manner with Protestations of his great love to the people and care of the Kingdom And from thence removing Northward on the fourth of August he made a Speech after the same manner to the Gentry of York-shire from whence he returned back to Nottingham and there set up his Standard Royal. Very few people resorted to it Nor had the King at this time a considerable strength to guard his Person if any attempts had been to have seized upon him From Nottingham on the 25 of August the King sent a Message to the Parliament by the Earls of Southampton and Dorset and Sir JOHN CULPEPER one of the Members of the House of Commons who had deserted the Parliament and went to the King at York having not long before been made by him Chancellour of the Exchequer The King's Message to both Houses of Parliament from Nottingham Aug. 25. 1642. We have with unspeakable grief of heart long beheld the Distractions of this Our Kingdom Our very Soul is full of Anguish until We may finde some Remedy to prevent the Miseries which are ready to overwhelm this whole Nation by a Civil War And though all Our endeavours tending to the composing of those unhappie Differences betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament though pursued by Vs with all Zeal and Sincerity have been hitherto without that Successe we hoped for yet such is Our constant and earnest care to preserve the publike Peace that We shall not be discouraged from using any Expedient which by the blessing of the God of mercy may lay a firm foundation of Peace and Happinesse to all Our good Subjects To this end observing that many Mistakes have arisen by the Messages Petitions and Answers betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament which haply may be prevented by some other way of Treaty wherein the matters in difference may be more clearly understood and more freely transacted We have thought fit to propound to you That some fit persons may be by you enabled to treat with the like number to be authorized by Vs in such a manner and with such freedom of Debate as may best tend to that happie Conclusion which all good men desire The Peace of the Kingdom Wherein as We promise in the word of a King all safety and encouragement to such as shall be sent unto Vs if you shall chuse the place where We are for the Treaty which we wholly leave to you presuming the like care of the safety of those We shall employ if you shall name another place So We assure you and all Our good Subjects that to the best of Our understanding nothing shall be therein wanting on our part which may advance the true Protestant Religion oppose Popery and Superstition secure the Law of the Land upon which is built as well Our just Prerogative as the Propriety and Liberty of the Subject confirm all just Power and Priviledges of Parliament and render Vs and Our people truely happie by a true understanding betwixt Vs and Our two Houses of Parliament Bring with you as firm resolutions to do your duty and let all Our People joyn with Vs in Our prayers to Almighty God for his blessing upon this Work If this Proposition shall be rejected by you We have done Our duty so amply that God will absolve Vs from the guilt of any of that blood which must be spilt And what opinion soever other men may have of Our Power We assure you nothing but Our Christian and pious care to prevent the effusion of blood hath begot this motion Our provision of Men Arms and Money being such as may secure Vs from further violence till it please God to open the eyes of Our People The Answer of the Lords and Commons to the King's Message of the 25 of August 1642. May it please Your Majestie The Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled having received Your Majesties Message of the 25 of August do with much grief resent the dangerous and distracted state of this Kingdom which we have by all means endeavoured to prevent both by our several Advices and Petitions to Your Majestie which have been not onely without successe but there hath followed that which no evil Counsel in former times hath produced or any age hath seen Those several Proclamations and Declarations against both the Houses of Parliament whereby their Actions are declared Treasonable and their Persons Traitours and thereupon Your Majestie hath set up Your Standard against them whereby you have put the two Houses of Parliament and in them this whole Kingdom out of Your Protection So that until Your Majestie shall recal those Proclamations and Declarations whereby the Earl of Essex and both Houses of Parliament their adherents and assistants and all such as have obeyed and executed their Commands and Directions according to their duties are declared Traitors or otherwise Delinquents and until the Standard set up in pursuance of the said Proclamations be taken down Your Majestie hath put us into such a condition that whilst we so remain we cannot by the Fundamental Priviledges of Parliament the publike Trust reposed in us or with the general good and safety of this Kingdom give Your Majestie any other Answer to this Message Within few days after the King sent Instructions under his Privie Signet to his Commissioners of Array for the several Counties of England and Wales as to Marquesse Hartford whom the King had made Lieutetenant-General of all the Western Counties as is before expressed to the Earl of Cumberland Lord-Lieutenant of York-shire and the Lord STRANGE Lieutenant for Lancashire and Cheshire in which Instructions he commands them to pursue the Earl of Essex whom he again calls Rebel and Traitour Immediately after the King sent a Reply to that Answer of the Parliament to his last Message of the 25 of August which being short that the Reader may the more truely inform himself of the nature of this strange division I shall wholly insert in the very words We will not repeat what means We have used to prevent the dangerous and distracted estate of the Kingdom nor how those means have been interpreted because being desirous to avoid effusion of blood We are willing to decline all memory of former Bitternesse that might make Our offer of a Treaty lesse readily accepted We never