Queens Ferry with 1600 Foot and four Troops of Horse having in his said passage lost but six men as soon as they were arrived they fell to intrenching themselves and at the same time the Generall with the body of the Army marched directly towards the Enemy to the end that in case the Scots should make a shew to march towards Fife he might charge their Rear before they should gain Sterling and the Scots being unwilling to let the day passe without driving the English out of Fife sent 4000 Horse and Foot under the command of Sir John Brown to set upon the English which obliged Generall Cromwell to send over a re-inforcement of two Regiments of Horse and two Regiments of Foot under the Command of Major Generall Lambert in lesse then 24 hours they were passed over and joyned to the others and immediately the Regiment of Colonel Okey advanced towards the Enemy which ingaged them to draw up into Battel-array and the English likewise did the same who though they were more in number then the Scots yet they had the advantage of the ground and the Scots being placed on a hill they remained face to face for the space of an hour and a half looking on each other the Scots not being willing to march down nor lose their advantage insomuch that the English at last resolved to march up towards them and set upon them so resolutely as that after a very slender contest they quite routed them and made such a butchery amongst them that they killed 2000 of their 4000 took 1400 Prisoners amongst whom Sir John Brown who commanded the Party Colonel Buchanam and severall other persons of quality on the English side there were but few slain but many hurt and in reference hereunto more Forces were sent over into Fyfe in case the whole Body of both Armies might chance to come to a generall Battell Immediatly after the English became Masters of Inchigarvy a strong Castle scituate upon a Rock in the midst of the Province of Fryth between Queens Ferry and North Ferry in which there were sixteen piece of Ordnance mounted On the twenty seventh of July all the English Army appearing before Brunt Island the Governour there of took such an Alarme thereat as that after a small Contest in a Parley he surrendred the same delivering unto the English together with the said Island all the Men of War which were found in the Haven all the Cannon of the place as also all the Armes Ammunition of War and the provision of Victuals which said Isle was very considerable for the English to make a Magazine and Storehouse for the Provisions and Ammunition for the Army Thence the Army marched to St. John's Town a very strong and considerable place into which the Enemy had but just before put a fresh Regiment who were resolved to have defended themselves very well but as soon as they saw that their Sluces were cut off by the English they lost their Courage and surrendred the place Meanwhile there happened a great change of Affairs for the Scots Army consisting in 16000 men abandoned their own Territories in hopes of establishing themselves in a better Country and by the way of Carlisle enter England General Cromwell being advertised hereof issued out immediatly such Orders as were requisite to pursue the Scots and with all possible speed the Army repassed the River of Fife upon a Bridge of Boats at Leith Major General Lambert the sooner to overtake the Enemies Rear with 3000 Horse and Dragoons followed after them and Major General Harrison with a Body of lighter Horse was commanded to get into the Van of the Enemy for to amuse and detain them whilst the General himself with the Body of the Army consisting in sixteen Regiments of Horse and Foot immediatly pursued the Enemy But not wholly to abandon the Affaires of Scotland Colonel Monk was left there with 7000 men with which alone he perfected the Conquest of that Kingdome taking immediatly after this Change of the Scene the strong Town and Castle of Sterling being a very considerable Place and also Aberdeen Dundee and the strong Castle of Dunnotters and Dunbarton with many others Insomuch as that after the passage into Fyfe was once gained the remaining parts of Scotland were so on entirely subdued and were made tributary unto the Common-wealth of England Mean while the divided Parties of the English Forces which pursued the Scots Army did quite and clean tire them out during their March setting upon them sometimes in the Van sometimes in the Rear sometimes in the Flank and finally on all sides as they saw their oportunity to disturb and annoy them Insomuch that their long and precipitated March did much weaken the Scots But that which troubled and vexed them most of all was the little hopes they saw of those promises of relief which were given them from England The Parliament having settled such good Orders in all parts as that no body durst stir or rise in Armes to their Aide In all places wheresoever the Scots came they proclaimed their King To be King of great Britain France and Ireland according to the accustomed Formes and in his Name they sent unto all those who had any Commands or were in any Authority in those parts through which they passed to rise in Armes joyntly with them but no body budged To the contrary by Order of Parliament the Trained Bands of severall Countries drew forth in Armes to hinder the Risings and to augment the Common-wealths Armies On the one side General Cromwells Army marched on the Heels of the Scots to their Terrour on the other side the Major General Lambert and Harrison waited upon their Designs and Colonel Robert Lilborn was left in Lancashire to hinder the Earl of Darby from levying men in those parts and to the same purpose severall other Bodies were placed in other places as the occasion required both to cut off the Enemies Provisions as well as his passage In case they should resolve to retreat back again or to fly away Finally the Scotch Army having reached the Town of Worcester pitched its Camp there having much debated where and in what manner they should fix upon a resting and breathing place after so long and tedious a march Whereof the Earl of Darby was no sooner assertained but he issued forth of his Island with 300 Gentlemen and Landed in Lancashire where he assembled at least 1200 men during which the Generals Regiment which was left at Manchester was Commanded to joyn with Colonel Lilborne to cut off the Earl of Darbies passage to Manchester whither he was marching to have faln upon the said Regiment but Colonel Lilborne observing his motion marched the very same way joyning Flank and Flank with the Earls Forces who deeming that he ought not to defer the Fight with Lilborne till he should have joyned with the Generals Regiment when as then he might have proved too
Prayers even with Tears to spare such men whose ill fortune had designed them to suffer when as this grand Heroe being transported as it were and even ravished to see his own Image so lively described in those lovely and charming Features of that winning Sex could refuse her nothing insomuch that when his Clemency and Justice did balance the pardon of a poor Criminal this most charming Advocate knew so skilfully to disarm him that his Sword falling out of his hands his arms onely served to lift her up from those knees on which she had cast her self to wipe off her tears and to imbrace her So likewise it is believed that this illustrious Princess precipitated death did not a little contribute to his late Highnesses sickning all whose noble parts were found to be very sound and whole onely his Heart which sorrow had seized and dryed up Nor did he long out-live her since it was impossible he should survive the love of so generous a dispencer of his Clemency and Generosity For brevity I shall make choice of one of the Ambassadours of this Commonwealth to denote the splendor of the glorious Ministers of this generous Prince he being in such a place where he hath more occasion then any of the rest to give far ampler marks of the most Heroical Vertue which acquires more glory to the victorious then the victory it self and which is the most assured Character of a true Christian his Excellency the Lord Lockhart Ambassador in the Court of France General of his Highness Forces in Flanders and Governour of the Town of Dunkirk who is espoused to that most renowned Lady one of his late Highness's Neeces In both which noble Personages we may behold at once shining forth those two happy and glorious Talents which most of all render persons of their Birth and Quality recommendable and famous His person seems onely to have been sent into France to charm the whole Nation and to attract and accumulate graces and did he not expose himself to so many dangers and hazards in the Wars men might easily believe that after he had long born Arms in Holland in France and ten years space for the late King of England that he onely ranged himself on the victorious sides to save the Kings Party and to re-instate them in their Lands and Goods Wherefore the Generosity Courtesie and Affability of his late Highness did so superabound as that no one person ever departed from his presence unsatisfied for he received the Petitions of all men he heard their Grievances and his charitable memory was so retentive as that he never forgot their requests but made it his chief object to bear them in minde and most tenderly to provide for them He esteemed those he had overcome and took a delight to pardon them and to make them sharers of his good Fortune provided that they would give over to make themselves unfortunate by their obstinacy He was used to say that Hearts were as well to be overcome as Fortresses and that the one were no more to be demolished then the other because they had belonged to other Masters insomuch that he esteemed it a great Conquest to have gained a gallant Man to his party And as for those who have been put to death in his time they may be said to have been their own Judges and their own executioners And however Politicians hold that in the changing of a Government all things ought likewise to be changed if possible even the very Religion it self were men prophane enough to meddle therewith and that Cruelty ought wholly to banish Clemency yet all men know that as to the point of Religion he did leave things as he found them and that he saved more lives by thousands then obstinacy and despair did cause to perish Nay he did even wish when he came to have a more absolute power towards the latter end of his dayes that those which had been put to death were yet alive protesting solemnly that if he could not change their hearts he would have changed their Dooms and convert their deaths into a banishment which is easily to be believed by the goodness which he hath exercised towards the children of such as were put to death even those who were his most implacable enemies leaving them in possession both of their Goods and Titles and whose losses he hath recompensed by such civillities as doth evidence he learned not his Politicks in Machiavils School who teacheth that the children and all the Generation were to be exterminated together with their Fathers so that many men wished that his Highnesses power had been as absolute ten years since as it was some years before his death So likewise those Alliances which he made and those Wars which he undertook had all of them motives of Generosity and were founded on Equity and Reason if so be we consider the very first whereinto he onely stept by the degree of a Captain and which may be termed a necessary evil and an inevitable one begotten by the remissness of the Political Body and by the corruption of the Clergy I do finde that two high injustices were the primitive causes thereof the first was the usurpations of the Saxons Danes and Normanns the second was the peaceful humor and dispositions of King James and the idleness and sloathfulness of the Nobility who constrained their younger brethren to serve them or to learn Trades by taking away from them the means to subsist by the way of Arms which is a priviledge more then legitimate due by the elder brother to the younger and by Princes to such Martial Spirits as live in their Dominions if the Saxons and other Usurpers or Conquerors of England did by force of Arms become Masters of the Countrey and did cast out the right Possessours thereof and by success of time falling from a Forreign Injustice into a Domestick Injustice they reduced their younger Brothers to Mecannick professions At present they demand that they may be permitted to expose their bloods and their lives for the preservation of their Brethrens That the exercise of Arms may be abolished in so Populous and Warlike a State that the banished glory which formerly with so much Pomp reigned in England may be restored again And as for the War which his late Highness declared against Spain that is so generous that a man may averre that glory was the onely motive thereof and that thereby he espoused the Interest of all the people which were oppressed and of all the Princes which the Ambition of Spain had despoyled of their States and Territories And the two most unfortunate people of the earth were the first objects of his Generosity and those which were the most of all abandoned were the first that felt the effects of that Arm which stretched it self forth to their assistance To wit the poor Indians those wretched slaves who behold no other faces save those of their tormentors and who were made
with the neighbouring States It is a thing worthy of observation and admiration both together that our Protectors Ancestors did alwayes bear this Motto in their Arms Pax quoeritur Bello which seemeth onely to belong to Soveraign Princes as if by a prophetical chance or else rather by a Divine Providence this Family which as it seems was designed to bear the Scepter and to restore and give peace unto England after so bloody a Civil War and so many other forreign broyls had received this glorious Motto as an earnest of its future Grandeur which said Motto doth in substance contain all the mystery of the Politicks and comprehend the two powers which God doth give to those whom he establisheth his Lievetenants upon Earth In effect we may observe that peace which seemed to have embraced our incomparable Oliver and as it were to have been incorporated with him hath ever since grown up with him until such time as its powerful branches which encreased and grew up to an infinite height had spread it felf so far as that this dutiful Daughter of Heaven whose growth is limitted by God being not able to follow him no longer was constrained onely to fix her self to the body of the tree and to suffer the branches to extend themselves to the other sides of the Sea-Coasts for to deprive that Nation of Peace which doth least deserve it having extended the War and her Tyrannies throughout all the inhabitable parts of the World For as soon as his late Highness our dread Protector had attained to the power by the means and force of Arms in England Scotland and Ireland Peace immediately brake forth and resplendently shown throughout all those parts and stopt those floods of Blood which could never have been stanched but by the greatest branches of our illustrious Oliver and not sooner had his Voice a transcendency in and over the Councels but Peace continually accompanied his Oracles Do but with me track the course of his fortunes and you will finde that bright Astrea doth follow or rather doth conduct and lead by the hand this blessed Deity and chains her up to the triumphal Chariot there to humble her and to make her know that this our Oliver was not the work of her hands but rather of her own since it is the end which doth alwayes Crown glorious and magnanimous Actions Now whereas the last Victory which General Blake obtained at Sea had gained a great stock of credit unto his late Highness both at home and abroad the whole English Nation began to witness a desire that he would undertake the Management of Affairs and put himself at the Helme of the Government and likewise all Strangers and Forreigners endeavoured to be in a good understanding with England The King of Portugal sent an extraordinary Ambassadour over into England with a gallant retinue the stateliness whereof savoured of the profusion of Peace which was also immediately granted them on very advantageous Conditions for England And almost at the same time two deputations were admitted from France which Kingdom was again for the second time unfortunately divided by a Civil War The French King by his Deputy demanded the restitution of those Ships which had been taken by the English as they were going to the relief of Dunkirk and on the other part the Prince of Conde sent a Deputy from Bordeaux besieged by the King to demand relief but all the Civility England could shew either of them at that time was not to assent at all to their demands and by that means remove all occasions of jealousie from each party besides that business being too much exasperated between England and France there could not so suddain an occomodation be expected and as to the Bourdelois all men know those French Quarrels are as short as violent In like manner several other forreign Princes and States sent over Deputations into England to endeavour to moderate a Peace between this Commonwealth and the Hollanders as amongst the rest the Queen of Sweeden The Cantons of Switzes the Imperial Hansiatick Towns of Hamborough and Lubeck But at that time there was such a combustion in the minde of the English who were at variance amongst themselves as that there was no appearance of thinking of any peace with strangers and forreigners Affairs being therefore thus embroyled at home his late Highness as then General seeing that in the Parliament the particular Interests overswayed the publick Good and that it was aparent all their drifts tended but to establish themselves into a perpetual Senate contrary to the ancient Customes and Liberties of England which require that Parliaments should have their successions and should onely be convocated from time to time and that therefore the members of the house wiredrawed Affairs by unnecessary Centestations which onely served to publish the designs and to retard the execution of them This our General I say who was designed by the Divine Providence to establish peace and tranquillity in England upon surer more sollid and more glorious Foundations entred the Parliament House accompanied by the Chief Officers of the Army and briefly represented unto them the Reasons why the Parliament ought to be dissolved which was also accordingly done The Speaker with the rest of the Members immediately departing the House some by force some through fear and others not without a great deal of reluctancy and murmuring No one living soul was aggrieved at this action neither was it so much as endeavoured to be questioned or redressed by any one all the world believing that in case the said change should bring no good with it at least it would not put Affairs in a worse predicament then they were so that the sovereign Senate was dissolved as you have heard and the power thereof was transferred into the hands of those who better deserved it since they acquired it by the points of their Swords and that they have since made appear that they knew how to use it with more prudence and moderation Nay the Parliament-men were even made so cheap unto the people that they became their reproach and obliquie and so were a consolation to the unfortunate who saw themselves revenged on them by those from whom they had least cause to suspect or expect it There was not so much as the least questioning nor censuring of the cause of this revolution but every one found it expedient according unto the several satisfactions which he thereby received or hoped for and as the Army was onely looked upon as Souldiers of fortune whom the necessity of the Affairs or the dangerous conjuncture of the times had enforced to take up Armes so that which was past and gone was not laid to their charge and the world could not choose but applaud them for what happened at present but expect from them for the future that generosity which the Millitary profession doth inspire into great courages as to this very day all men do enjoy
great Statesmen untill the very effects of them are ready to appear All which reasons being naturally pondered by the wisest and most zealous persons interessed in the glory of the English Nation the good and wellfare of the Commonwealth and particularly by his excellency the Lord General it was resolved that the Parliament should be dissolved in reference hereunto on the twelfth of December 1653. as soon as the Parliament was met A Member of the said House stood up and moved That the sitting of this Parliament as it was then constituted being not thought proper nor fitting for the good of the Commonwealth It was therefore requisite to deliver up unto the Lord General Cromwel the powers which they had received from him Which motion being seconded by the greatest part of the other Members the House arose and the Speaker accompanied by the major part of the House departed and went to White-Hall where they did by a Writing under their hands being the greater number of the Members sitting in Parliament resign unto his Excellency the Power which they had received from him and the which was by the Speaker presented to his said Excellency accordingly in the Name of the whole House No sooner was the Parliament dissolved and that Affairs of moment and weight came crowding in apace but that there was a necessity during the intervalls of Parliament to form as it is called in forreign parts an upper Councel and to create a superiour dignity to avoid both tediousness and confusion in the dispatch of Affairs which said dignity holding the mid-way between a Monarchial and Democratical might avoid the inconveniencies which these two extremities are subject unto and the thing it self having been well pondered and maturely deliberated the choice of the person on whom this dignity was to be conferred was soon made God having pointed him out unto them by a mark those admirable and uninterrupted Victories which he caused him to gain and by those excellent productions of a minde which had something of supernatural in it and partaked of the Divinity Wherefore the Lord General Cromwel was Elected Declared and Sworn at Westminster in the presence of all the Judges and Justices the Barons of the Exchequer the keepers of the Liberties of England the Lord Major and Aldermen of the City of London with most of the chief Officers of the Army Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Islands and Territories thereunto belonging and at the same time several Articles were presented to the Lord Protector by which he was to govern the people which being red unto him he took a solemn Oath to performe and see them kept in the presence of the whole assembly protesting moreover that he would minde nothing so much as the good of the Commonwealth the Glory of God and the Honour of the English Nation The chief heads of the Articles of Government were as followeth 1. That the Protector should call a Parliament every three years 2. That the first Parliament should assemble on the third of September 1654. 3. That he should not dissolve the Parliament till it had sate five moneths 4. That such Bills as he should not signe within twenty dayes should pass without him 5. That he should have a select Councel to assist him not exceeding one and twenty nor less then thirteen 6. That immediately after his Death the Councel should choose another Protector before they rose 7. That no Protector after him should be General of the Army 8. That the Protector should have Power to make Peace or War 9. That with the consent of his Councel he may make Laws which shall be binding to the Subjects during the intervals of Parliament c. Immediately after which the Lord General Cromwel without the devesting of himself of the Command of the Army which he preferred before all other charges took upon him the title of Highness and the dignity and name of Lord Protector A very fit appellation in regard of the Infantine and as yet growing State of England which the several Factions and Divisions as also the different Opinions in Religion would have exposed to a numberless kinde of unavoidable miseries had not a powerful Genius armed with Force and Judgement protected it from ripping up its Entrails and Bowels by its own hands And immediately after he was proclaimed Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland c. First in the Pallace yard at Westminster by the Officers of State and afterwards at the Royal Exchange by the Lord Major and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns Some few dayes after the body of the City invited his Highness the Lord Protector to a most splendid feast and gallant entertainment at Grocers-Hall not so much to treat him with their good chear as with the resplendent testimonies of their joy and with the submissive tenders of their devoires His Highness would by no means refuse to give that satisfaction to their evidences of respect and joy and the better to testifie unto them on his behalf the high value he put upon their care and love he set forth towards them in as great a pomp and magnificence as befitted a person invested with so eminent qualities and as one who having reaped so many Laurels had newly restored peace and tranquillity unto three distracted Kingdomes The manner of his Highness going to the City and reception there was on this wise His Highness's Life-guard of Horse marched in the first place after which followed the chief Officers of the Army on Horse-back and some of his Councel of State after them rode two Pages bare headed in sumptuous Apparel after them came twelve Lackeys in velvet Caps and gray Liveries with silk and silver Fringe then followed his Highness seated in a Charet of State drawn by six beautiful Horses richly trapped which by their lofty gate seemed to glory in their drawing so victorious a Hercules triumphing over so many Monsters and his Highness who alwayes preferred the little ornaments of the Soul before those of the Body was onely clad in a dark coloured Suit and Cloak the greatest part of the other Nobility attending in their Coaches and six horses At Temple-Bar his Highness was met and received by the Lord Major and Aldermen and the Recorder of the City saluted him with an excellent Speech containing several expressions of Joy Fidelity and Obeisance and of good Hopes of his prosperous and happy Government His Highness having thanked him alighted from his Chariot and quitting his Cloak put on a rich Riding Coat imbroidered with Gold and got up on Horse-back on a Palfrey richly trapped and was followed by three other led Horses of State By which change of Garments his Highness testified unto them that when as occasions of the States-service should call upon him he would descend from his Triumphal Chariot where the glory of his Conquests had set him in rest and mounting his Horse for Battel would expose
his Life as freely as he formerly had done for the peace and tranquility of their City and for the Liberty of England The Lord Major rode all the way bare-headed as also carried the City Sword drawn before his late Highness the Lord Protector By the one representing the Respect and Obedience of the City and by the other its Fidelity and Resolution to spill their Blood in the defence of the Peace of the State and for the preservation of the Life and new Dignity of his Highness The Streets were railed up and the several Companies of the City in their Liveries sate on both sides of the way with Streamers sticking up to distinguish each Company Moreover it is a thing worthy to be observed how that the Character which God doth imprint on the Forehead of those whom he hath designed to be his Vicegerents on Earth doth beget an astonishment and fear in the hearts of those where it cannot raise a respect but in the others both admiration and love so that on all sides the Divine Providence compasseth its Glory either by the means of its Justice or Mercy And thus you see his Highness the Lord Protector passing through this great City which was drawn up in Arms having his Head onely covered with Laurels and his guarded with a simple though resplendent morsel of Glory The one surrounding him to cover and protect him with her wings and the disarmed Justice which accompanied this great Heroes footsteps seemed to Lead a naked and fettered Mars by a silken thread And thus after his Highness had been most splendedly entertained by the City before he departed he conferred the Honour of Knighthood upon the Lord Major and left all the City filled with an admiration of his Heroick Vertues and with a general satisfaction of his candor and generousness their hopes being freighted with acclamations and good wishes No sooner was his late Highness settled in the Supreme degree of his Protectorship but just like the Sun elevated in a high sublime Sphere he begat an infinite number of malignant Exhalations which however were soon dissipated by his luster and resplendency and at the same time by his vertue he gave a life and being to all those glorious actions which knowing men did expect from his sage Government On the Eighteenth of February 1653. a most dangerous Conspiracy which was hatched by the Royalists was discovered several of the Conspirators were taken and sent to the Tower of London But his Highness willing to begin his Government by an Act of Clemency and to let the world see that the Grandor of his new Dignity did onely render him powerful to do good he pardoned the said Delinquents and caused them to be set at liberty Much about which time arrived Deputies from the several Counties and Shires as well of England Stotland and Ireland to congratulate his Highness happy Inauguration and to assure him of their fidelity and submission to his Commands all which his Highness received with a great deal of Candor and repaied them with Use to wit the establishing of good and salutary Orders for the Peace and Tranquility of the Commonwealth and each Member thereof in particular Nor did he forget to regulate the Spiritual Affairs and out of an infinite number of Opinions he begat a pleasant harmony the seeming dissonance and harshness whereof was onely unsavory to the ignorant and to such as had stopped their ears Mean while the Scots animated by several discontented persons here in England did levy an Army by Command from their King and began to take heart of grace again reassuming their former courage and hopes The Earls of Glencarne and Kenmore were at the Head of four thousand Horse and Foot joyning several other small parties which from all sides flocked down unto them But Collonel Morgan was so vigilant and active that before they could have time to Form a greater Body he marched with fifteen hundred Horse and Foot and on the seventh of February he arrived at Lough which was the Enemies appointed Rendezvouz where having charged them after a short but smart Fight he killed one hundred and fifty of them and defeated all the rest the Earl of Glencarne with much ado making his escape onely with forty Horse But all these small Bickerings and as it were shadows of War did onely serve as a foil to that most important and considerable Peace which both England and Holland was to reap at our Olivers hands When as most part of the Winter was well nigh passed over in this Negociation at London where the Hollanders had four Ambassadours who daily laboured to compass the same Two of them to wit the Lords Newport and Youngstall re-passed into Holland about the Moneth of February to communicate unto the High and Mighty Lords the States their Masters the Conclusion of the Treaty and to get them to ratifie the same On the third of March 1653 4. of the same Year they returned back again where they were received with all the pomp and state that could possibly be imagined and might demonstrate the Joy which the Merchants conceived of the happy effects of so happy a Reconciliation The next day they had Audience from his Highness where declaring the full powers they had from the Lords States to ratifie the said Peace which they had made they desired a speedy Cessation of Arms should be published on both sides and in conformity thereto on the fifth Day of April next ensuing the Articles of Peace were signed sealed and delivered on the behalf of both parties and were accordingly published and proclaimed to the general satisfaction of all men And his Highness the better to testifie the particular pleasure he took therein did most sumptuously treat the Holland Ambassadours witnessing unto them by his noble Noble treatment all the marks of Joy which might manifest and make good by his Conduct and Entertainment the old Motto of his Family That War hath no other end save to beget a Peace And as to the Affairs of Ireland his Highness by his good Orders and establishing the Natives in the Province of Cannaught which is in the heart of Ireland had settled all things so well in those parts as that the English needed not to fear any either abroad or at home and the Irish beginning to be sensible that the Yoke of a vigilant and absolute Protector was far more tollerable and to be preferred before the Servitude of a feeble and tottering multitude who onely heeding their own preservations and particular interests do abandon the People and their wellfares either to their own capriciousness or to the imbroils of ambitious and hot spirits who abusing of the Commonalties simplicity and sincerity run them headlong into Ruine But some enemies of the State perceiving that it was impossible to hinder the Earth from bringing forth of good fruits as long as it was animated by so sensible and feeling a warmth resolved to
second of July next ensuing and in convenient space of time arived safely at their designed Port. Within a moneth after which General Pen arrived in England having left the best part of the Fleet in those parts under the Command of Vice-Admiral Goodson a very valiant and experienced Sea-Commander and the Troops which had mastered Jamaica under the Command of Collonel Fortescue But as all prosperities are usually accompanied with some small Allayes of adversity the Almighty suffering it to be so for our instruction and precaution and to humble us in our highest transcendencies of Fortune Wherefore the said Fleet having gained the height of the Havennas in the Isle of Cuba the Paragon Frigot was fired by negligence and perished in the flames with the greatest part of its Company and Mariners before she could be succoured or relieved On the ninth of the moneth of September ensuing General Venables likewise returned from the Indies in the Frigot called the Marston-moor in so weak and dejected a condition that he was even at deaths door and nothing save the change of Air could possibly have saved him Mean while the sympathy which all great and couragious persons seem to have for each other begat a desire in his late Highness to be in amity with the King of Sweden and likewise the King of Sweden on the other side coveted the same thing so that the noble Lord Bulstrode Whitlock one of Englands Worthies having scarce his like for profound Knowledge and Sagacity after he had resided for the space of eight Moneths in Sweden terminated his Embassy by a compleat Peace and glorious Alliance which he had concluded between that Crown and England and returned himself to bring the good tydings thereof Now for the preservation of the Peace of this Commonwealth his late Highness constituted several Major-Generals in the respective Counties thereof whose Names are as followeth viz. 1. For Kent and Surrey Collonel Kelsey 2. For Sussex Hamshire and Barkeshire Collonel Goff 3. For Glocestershire Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwal General Desborow 4. For Oxfordshire Bucks Hertford Cambridge Isle of Ely Essex Norfolk and Suffolk the Lord Deputy Fleetwood 5. For the City of London Major General Skippon 6. For Lincolnshire Nottingham Derby Warwick and Leicestershire Commislary General Whaley 7. For Northamptonshire Bedford Rutland and Huntington Major Butler 8. For Worcester Hereford Salop and North-Wales Collonel Berry 9. For Cheshire Lancashire and Staffordshire Collonel Wortley 10. For Yorkeshire Durham Cumberland VVestmerland and Northumberland the Lord Lambert 11. For VVestminster and Middlesex the Lieuetenant of the Tower At this time France on her side being jealous of the several applications profers and propositions which the Spaniards made unto England to beget an alliance with us began to be sensible that it was high time to think upon her own preservation her navigation being quite ruined her subjects divided by Civil Wars and intestine troubles and her forreign Enemies as powerful as ever resolved at length to make an address to his late Highness for an Alliance of Peace Besides that his late Highness harboured a natural aversness and hatred against the Spaniards who time out of minde have alwayes been the implacable and cruel Enemies of England as well as of all mankinde besides and who under a fair pretence of Religion and Amity endeavour to withdraw the Subjects of their Allyes and make them swerve from their Allegiance and Fidelity either by the powerful operations of money gifts and such like other bewitching inducements rendring themselves the Masters of the peoples inclinations when by their Valour they cannot overcome them in Battel nor by force of Arms gain their Towns or Fortresses But his late Highness open vertue and magnanimous courage disdaining any Commerce with this kinde of insinuating and entreaguing Nation the Lion being too noble to enter into association and communication with the Fox The French policy did better jump with his humor and their manner in vanquishing their Enemies in a pitch'd Battel and forcing them upon the very Ramparts of their Fortresses did better please and second his War-like vertue and by whose good intelligence and communication the English growing discipline could not choose but attain to a rare perfection whereas the Spaniards might happily have poysoned them by their Wiles and Subilties and have corrupted them by their Hipocritical false Alloy and Mettal Besides that the Liberty which is granted by the French to those who are of a different opinion in the points of Religion was a great inducement to move his Highness rather to incline to a peace with that Nation since himself was ever so tender in matters of Religion as that he believed it did onely belong to the Almighty to force the Consciences of Men at least to enlighten and inspire them by his Graces which are onely capable to convince our reason Finally The Articles of peace with France which were so much traversed by the Spanish Faction were concluded and signed by such Commissioners as his late Highness had thereunto deputed and on the other part by his excellency the Lord Bourdeaux Ambassador of France and on the eight and twentieth day of the moneth of November next ensuing the publication of the said Treaty was proclaimed first at White-hall by the Heralds of Arms the sound of Trumpets and other formalities accustomed on the like occasions afterwards in the Palace-yard at Westminster and in the other usual places in the City of London where such like Proclamations are made and on the self-same day it was also published at Paris with a general applause and joy at least of the Merchants who by the preceding misunderstanding between England and France were quite ruined and who by this conclusion of peace found not onely the Seas open and free for them to trade in but that the English of their worst Enemies became their best friends by causing a bundance to reign in their Rivers and Territories and by begetting an assured Commerce and Navigation in all those Seas wherein the Navigation extended it self Nor was the Lord Major of the City of Paris less glad then the poor Citizens who all of them witnessed an equal joy and allacrity finding themselves indulged by this Treaty of peace from breaking their Ember-weeks their Lent and Fasting dayes as they call them since they would otherwise have been constrained by reason of the excessive rates which fish butter and cheese and such other small ratable wares were grown to to have kept more fasting dayes then the Roman Kallendar doth enjoyn them which would have been a double Penance and an intollerable mortification From all which they were freed by this happy Peace and in acknowledgement whereof the Guns and Chambers from the Market-place and Town-House called the Greve as well as those from the Bastile or Tower ecchoed forth the joy which the Monsieurs conceived of this forerunner of the peace and tranquillity which they
have since enjoyed in the heart of their Dominions and the Victories and Conquests which they may yet atchieve by this happy Union if their victorious and gallant Prince doth continue to accompany his Valour with those Vertues which are onely capable not onely to give him addition of Crowns but also to preserve them And lest I might insensibly out-slip my chief intent and purpose and engage my self in the giving of you a Relation of the chiefest and most important Wars and Transactions of all Europe should I recount unto you all the glorious Actions which have hapned since the Breach between England and Spain in which our late Protector bare away all the share at Sea and a very great part also by Land as in our joynt Conquests in Flanders and our particular ones in Lorain I shall therefore contract my pen a little and onely give you a Breviate of the chiefest Actions remitting the Reader to the more ample Histories both of France and England to peruse the Relation of those Victories wherewith Heaven hath blessed this Alliance for these late Years past In which the mature deliberations and good Councels do more concern his late Highness then the execution of those gallant Attempts which proceeded from them although in truth both the one and the other may well be attributed to his great prudence and to those Blessings which it hath pleased the Almighty to shower down upon his admirable good fortune of which take some few Instances It is apparent to all the world in what a manner his late Highness provided for the preservation of Jamaica notwithstanding all the force and attempts of Spain and the Indies to free that Island again although they never yet did set foot thereon save to their own shame and confusion having been driven thence again with the loss of all their Cannon and Baggage and the which happened two several times when as the Spaniards assembling all their Forces in the Indies came and encamped themselves in the Island with two or three thousand men had the time and opportunity to build and erect Forts and for the space of some dayes to settle themselves Notwithstanding which the English as if they were but newly arrived from England to attempt a new Conquest of the Island were constrained to imbark themselves and put to Sea again the wayes being not passable by Land and in that wise compassing the whole Island they made their descent at the very place where the Enemies were encamped and assailed them in their Forts and Breast-works with a far less number of men then theirs and drave the Spaniards quite from them and out of the Island killing and taking several of their men and retaining several of their great Guns and stately Standards as Trophies of their Victory Nor shall I enlarge upon that glorious Victory obtained by General Mountegue over the Spaniards at Sea which was the first that made this entrance into that famous War and gave the Spaniards to understand that it would cost them far more to transport their Gold from the Indies to Spain then to dig it out of the Mines or to refine it The ensuing Poem penned by one of the most exquisite Wits of England upon that subject may better suffice to satisfie the Reader of the gloriousness of the Fact and the shaming Stile which it is described by is more proper to express this Heroick Action then my low and unpolished Prose which might haply obscure and detract from the lustre and splendor of so brave an Exploit wherefore I have thought fit to insert the Poem it self Upon the present War with Spain and the first Victory obtained at Sea Now for some Ages had the pride of Spain Made the Sun shine on half the World in vain While she bid War to all that durst supply The place of those her Cruelty made dye Of Nature's Bounty men forbare totaste And the best Portion of the Earth lay waste From the New World her Silver and her Gold Came like a Tempest to confound the Old Feeding with these the brib'd Elector's Hopes She made at pleasure Emperors and Popes VVith these advancing her unjust Designs Europe was shaken with her Indian Mines VVhen our Protector looking with disdain Vpon this gilded Majesty of Spain And knowing well that Empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of Coyn Our Nation 's sollid vertue did oppose To the rich Troublers of the World's repose And now some moneths encamping on the Main Our Naval Army had besieged Spain They that the whole Worlds Monarchy design'd Are to their Ports by our bold Fleet confin'd From whence our Red Cross they triumphant see Riding without a Rival on the Sea Others may use the Ocean as their road Onely the English make it their abode Whose ready Sails with every Winde can flie And make a covenant with th'unconstant Skie Our Oaks secure as if they there took root We tread on Billows with a steady foot Mean while the Spaniards in America Near to the Line the Sun approaching saw And hop'd their European Coasts to find Clear'd from our ships by the Autumnal Winde Their huge capacious Gallions stuft with Plate The laboring winds drives slowly towards their fate Before Saint Lucar they their Guns discharge To tell their Joy or to invite a Barge This heard some Ships of ours though out of view As swift as Eagles to the quarry flew So heedless Lambs which for their mothers bleat Wake hungry Lions and become their meat Arriv'd they soon begin that Tragick play And with their smoakie Cannon banish day Night horror slaughter with confusion meets And in their sable Arms imbrace the Fleets Through yielding Planks the angry Bullets fly And of one Wound hundreds together dye Born under different Stars one Fate they have The Ship their Coffin and the Sea their Grave Bold were the men which on the Ocean first Spread their new Sails whilst shipwrack was the worst More danger now from men alone we find Then from the Rocks the Billows or the Wind. They that had sail'd from near th' Anartick Pole Their Treasure safe and all their Vessels whole In sight of their dear Countrey ruin'd be Without the guilt of either Rock or Sea What they would spare our fiercer Art destroyes Excelling storms in terror and in noise Once Jove from Hyda did both Hoasts survey And when he pleas'd to Thunder part the Fray Here Heaven in vain that kinde Retreat should sound The louder Canon had the thunder drown'd Some we made Prize while others burnt rent With their rich Lading to the bottom went Down sinks at once so Fortune with us sports The Pay of Armies and the Pride of Courts Vain man whose rage buries as low that store As Avarice had digg'd for it before What Earth in her dark bowels could not keep From greedy hands lies safer in the Deep Where Thetis kindly doth from mortals hide Those seeds of Luxury Debate and Pride
the Thames near London to wit a Whale of a prodigious bigness at least sixty foot and of a proportionable breadth was cast up This great Fish which may be stiled the King of the Sea for his bulk came to do homage to his late Highness and by his Captivity and Death to to let him see he was absolute Master of that terrible Element which had given her a being But let us again return to the Wars in Flanders and let us see how whole Armies and Cities do there submit unto his Highness power as well as the Sea Monsters here Now although taking and keeping of Mardike had been a sufficient warning to the Spaniards to provide the Town of Dunkirk with all necessaries to withstand a Siege however that changed not the English their resolution to attempt it wherefore the United Forces both of France and England under the Command of those two glorious Chieftains his Highness the Martial of Tureine Prince of Quesnoy and his Excellency the Lord Ambassador and General Lockhart besieged the place opened the approaches and with an incredible diligence perfected the Circum volution The Spaniards intending to attempt the relief of the place being the Key of all Flanders and the chief Sea Port assembled all their Forces and made up a considerable Army of sixteen thousand men with a design to have forced the Lines and to have raised the Siege To which intent on the third of June they came in a Body through Fuernes and encamped within an English mile and a half of the Martial Tureines Quarters who being aware of their intent the following night brake up his Camp and having left part of his Forces to make good the Approaches and to guard the Trenches marched all night with fifteen thousand men and ten peeces of cannon to encounter the Enemy to decide in a pitched Battle and an open Field with an equal advantage which party should be victorious The English Foot drawn up into four great Battalions and led on by his Excellency the Lord Ambassador and General Lockhart gave the first on-set upon five great Battalions of the Spanish Foot placed very advantagiously on three high and great Downs feconded by Don John of Austria himself and the best of the Spanish and Condean Forces which they had purposely opposed unto the English conceiving them to have been as yet Novices in the manner of waging War beyond Seas and that for want of Discipline and Conduct they would soon have been routed and disordered But they were suddenly deceived in their expectations and found that they had to deal with persons of courage and resolution who as well in the Military Discipline as in the Art of Courtship became perfect and absolue Masters even during their first years of Apprenticeship wherefore it was not without reason the Ancients did alwayes joyn Mars and Venus together since towards the doing of gallant Actions it is sufficient to be passionate and resolute at the very entering into the Lists of either of these Divinities The English therefore assailing the Spaniards in their advantageous stand as aforesaid in the high Downs did themselves alone severall times charge them and sustained both the burnt of their Horse and Foot without ever being seconded or relieved by the French who were so confident of their Resolution and Valour as that they would not seem to intrench upon their Honour besides that they were loath to change their Stands least thereby they might bring themselves into a disorder and finally forcing the Spaniards to quit their stations they put them to a total rout and confusion In which Charge up the Downs Lieutenant Collonel Fenwick who shewed a great deal of Gallantry in leading on his Excellency the Lord Ambassador and General Lockharts Regiment of Blue received his mortal wound by a Musquet bullet through the Body whereof he dyed some few dayes after Divers other persons of quality and note signallized themselves not a little that day at the Head of their respective Regiments as the Honorable Collonel Lillingston Lieutenant Collonel Fleetwood Captain Devaux who led up a Forelorn of three hundred Musquetiers and gave the first Charge upon the Spaniards And of the Voluntiers Collonel Henry Jones who at first charged with Lieutenant Collonel Fenwick on foot afterwards on Horseback when as engaging too far he was taken prisoner but was afterwards exchanged and by his late Highness at his return into England made Knight and Baronet Divers others did gallantly who doubtless will not be forgotten in the English Annals and would be too large to be expressed in this Epitome relating onely to his Highness The Spaniards had at first resolved to have given no English man quarter but the fortune of the day made them glad to seek to the English for quarter themselves and it was well they could have it given them although the English were generous enough to have spared their Lives had not the zeal of overcoming and their resolutions to perfect the Victory taken up all their care and passions Finally the Spanish Foot being totally routed and coming to surrender themselves to the English in whole troops the English mistrusting they had some other intentions and stratagem thereby neither understanding their Language nor designe continued charging them and enforced them to seek quarter elsewhere preferring the gaining of the Victory to their own particular interests and so reaped an intire glory in their despising and rejecting several prisoners of quality who profered themselves to them and for the which they might have had considerable ransoms And in the gaining of those high Downs on which the Spaniards were placed the English behaved themselves with so much gallantry and resolution as that envy and malice raised a report amidst the jealous and their Corivals that it savoured more of a piece of rashness then of a true valour as if Soldiers could possibly with too much zeal and readiness performe those Commands which are given them To be brief the victory wholly declared it self for the English and for the French and the whole Spanish Army was quite discomfited and pursued to the very Gates of Fuernes with the loss of three thousand five hundred men two thousand whereof were killed on the place of Suydcote a Village seated in the Downs between Dunkirk and Fuernes and the rest were taken prisoners and the whole Army dissipated and disordered which defeat having quite disheartned the besieged and depriving them of all hopes of relief besides their Govornour the Marquis De Leda being mortally wounded by two hand Granadoes as he defended the false bray and of which wounds he dyed constrained them to beat a Parley fourteen dayes afterwards and to surrender the place on the fifteenth of July 1658. after the one and twentieth day of the opening of the Approaches And in this manner this famous Sea-port was reduced under the obedience of his late Highness the Lord Protector and was by the French put
into the hands of his Excellency the Lord Ambassador and General Lockhart who was by his Highness declared Governour of the same and took possession of it with four English Regiments which compose the Garrison thereof and serve to defend the Fort Mardike and the new Fort Royal begun by the Spaniards on the Channel of Burges and perfected by the English now called Olivers Fort. The Inhabitants of which place are so much taken with the superabundancy of the generosity and goodness of their said Governour his Excellency the Lord Lockhart as that they repent themselves to have so much listned to the Spanish false perswasions and fears which they possessed them with that they should be cruelly and inhumanely treated by the English purposely to make them resist the longer It had been well they had had so much care of their Souls as they perswaded them they had of their Goods and Fortunes But it would be too great a conquest to pretend joyntly to overcome both the Consciences of men and their Town to boot the first is Gods due and the other Caesars And we may observe in Alexander the Great whensoever his Forces became Master sof any place he would alwayes sacrifice to the Gods of the Countrey thereby to gain the Inhabitants hearts and to induce their Gods to become propitious to him Numa Pompilius was a King before he was a Priest and although the Almighty hath imprinted in all men a particular inclination to adore him yet however as concerning the manner of worshipping him Policy alwayes preceded Religion and ever kept the upper hand over her as much as she possibly could King Henry the Fourth of France was a Protestant whilst he had overcome his Enemies but as soon as he was settled in the Throne and that he was to Reign as King he seemingly returned Papist and said That the Kingdome of France and City of Paris was worth a going to Mass But when as superstitious and zealous spirits counselled him to prosecute and pursue the Protestants he answered That so long as they remained faithful and true to him and continued to stand by and serve him as they were wont he would be as much a Father and Protector unto him as unto the rest of his good Subjects These Maximes are general and common and admit of no distinctions save in Schools nor need the Spaniards with all their Hypocrisie and Pious malice to doubt but that France and England understanding each other well enough and that the English themselves are prudent enough to avoid that which may prejudice them and to tollerate whatsoever may advance and further their conquests and beget a love and esteem of their government But to return to our former subject again as we have oft before alledged the joyes of this World are alwayes for the most part mingled with some allayes of sorrow the Almighty being willing to keep us mindful that there are no perfect felicities to be enjoyed here on earth and that its onely in heaven we are to expect an intire and perpetual Contentment and Bliss Wherefore the Laurels of the Victory obtained against the Spaniards and of the taking of the Town of Dunkirk were soon withered and the joyes abated by the interposing of the Cypress-tree which death planted upon the Tomb of the Illustrious and most generous Lady Cleypoll second Daughter to his late Highness who departed this mortal life to a more glorious and eternal one on the sixth day of August this present year a fatal prognostication of a more sensible ensuing loss For even as Branches of trees being cut and lopped in an ill season do first draw away the sap from the tree and afterwards cause the body thereof to dry up and dye In like manner during the declining age of his late Highness an ill season in which men usually do as it were reap all their consolation from the youth and vigor of their Children wherein they seem to ruine by degrees as they draw near to their death it unfortunately fell out that this most illustrious Daughter the true representative and lively Image of her Father the Joy of his Heart the Delight of his Eyes and the Dispenser of his Clemency and Benignity dyed in the flower of her age which struck more to his heart then all the heavy burthens of his Affairs which were onely as a pleasure and pastime to his great Soul So great a power hath Nature over the dispositions of generous Men when the tye of Blood is seconded by love and vertue This generous and noble Lady Elizabeth therefore departed this World in despite of all the skill of Physicians the Prayers of those afflicted persons whom she had relieved and the vows of all kinde of Artists whom she cherished But she dyed an Amazonian-like death despising the Pomps of the Earth and without any grief save to leave an afflicted Father perplex'd at her so sudden being taken away she dyed with those good Lessons in her mouth which she had practised whilest she lived And if there be any comfort left us in her death it is the hope we have That her good Example will raise up the like inclinations in the remainder of her Sisters whom Heaven hath yet left us I shall not at all speak of her Funerals for if I might have been credited all the Muses and their God Apollo should have made her an Epicedium and should have appeared in mourning which should have reached from the top of their Mount Parnassus to the bottom of the valley thereof But if this illustrious Personages death received not the Funeral Rites which all great Wits were bound to pay it at least the Martial men did evidence that the disgrace lay not at their doors but that they ought to reap all the glory since they were not backward to continue to brave and affront dangers in the behalf of an illustrious and glorious Cause wherefore the sad tydings of this noble Personages death touched the gallant English to the heart seeing they were bereaved of their English Pallas and of their Jupiters Daughter they therefore accused the Destinies for intrenching upon their Priviledges and evidenced that it appertained not alone unto them to dispose of the lives of men Their wrath therefore discharged it self on the first Objects which presented themselves to their eyes and the harmless Spaniards were so many Victims offered up to this Amazons shrine and as if Graveling had been her stake they were so eagerly bent to fire the Enemies out of the same as that the Spaniards were constrained to open their gates to give vent to the fire and flame which suffocated them and surrendered themselves to the Conquering French Army to whose share that place fell and by whose force it was solely gained As Physicians do agree that extreme Joy causeth Death as well as excessive Grief so may we likewise say That both these violent Passions united together must needs destroy the strongest person on earth
concerning the Government of his Estates and touching the interests of other Princes as without the entring into their Cabinets or partaking of their Counsels he discoursed very pertinently of their Affairs and foretold their several issues and events He likewise was an excellent Phisionomer and having once seriously considered any one he was seldome deceived in the opinion he conceived of him He married into the ancient and noble family of the Bourchers whence the Earls of Essex were descended his marriage bed was blessed with many Children none of which did ever degenerate from the eminent vertues of their most Illustrious Father His eldest son named Ricard hath succeeded him in the Protectorship his younger son named Henry being at this time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland both of them capable to follow their Fathers glorious footsteps and to perfect and crown such hopeful promising though difficult beginnings their Father having as it were divided shared and left by inheritance unto their youth swelling with marvellous hopes that most exquisite Quintessence of two great Talents which he had acquired by his age and by his experience so that the one of his sons may be stiled the Jupiter and the other the Mars of England He had four Daughters all of them Ladies of a most eminent and vertuous disposition The Lady Bridget first married unto the Lord Ireton in his life time Lord Deputy of Ireland a Personage of sublime worth and afterwards espoused unto the Lord Fleetwood sometimes Lord Deputy of Ireland and at present Lieutenant General of all his Highness Forces The Lady Elizabeth his second Daughter married unto the Lord Cleypoll and dyed a little before her Father of whom we shall speak hereafter The third the Lady Mary espoused unto the Lord Viscount Faulconbridge And the youngest the Lady Frances at present widow of the Lord Robert Rich Grandchilde to the late Earl of Warwick Nor did the change of his late Highness Fortunes in the least decline or diminish the tenderness and affection which he ever bare towards the worthy Mother of so numerous and hopeful an issue and that absolute power which he had over all his Dominions never gave him the least desire to captivate any heart save that which God had given him in marriage And that which is the most to be admired at and seems to be the summe of all bliss is that the Almighty lent his late Highness so much life as to see all his Children disposed to the most gallant personages and allied to the most Illustrious Families of England which are as so many props of his Fortune and Fences against the enviers of his Vertue He was an enemy to vain gloriousness ostentation and although he was all as it were fire that is of a passionate constitution yet he had so overcome his passions that he was seldome or never moved but when there was a great cause given so likewise was he more subject to repress and keep in then to give way to his passion The actions of his body denoted those of his minde his actions were in a manner without motion and without any forcings of the body in like manner his minde was not at all agitated nor his expressions precipitated sweetness and tranquillity accompanied his thoughts and his words but when there was occasion to carry a business he expressed himself with so much vigour as gave to understand that he was not easily to be disswaded from the thing he had once resolved In like manner during the whole course of the War he never harboured the least thought of changing of parties And as for Ambition which is the onely passion whereof envy it self seems to accuse him the effects thereof were so inconfiderable and unnecessary unto him nay so unpleasing and unwelcome and which is more he so often refused the pomps delights and grandours which were profered him that all the world must needs confess that where Nature could claim so small an interest the master and directer of Nature must needs have had a great share Wherefore we may aver with a great deal of reason That in case he hath hoorded and laid up Treasures it hath been in the Intrals of the Poor of all Sexes and of all Nations of all Professions and Religions both at home and abroad insomuch that it hath been computed that out of his own private instinct particular Motions and pious Compassion he distributed at least forty thousand pounds a year in Charitable Uses out of his own purse out of such Moneys as the Commonwealth did allow him for his Domestique Expences and for the maintenance of his State and the Dignity of his Person Family and the keeping up the splendour of his Court. And the better to illustrate this matter we shall insert an Essay of two examples of Generosity and Gratitude which are not to be parallel'd save in the persons of Thomas Lord Cromwell his late Highness's predecessor in Henry the Eighth's Reign and in the person of his late Highness Oliver Lord Protector In those glorious dayes when the English young Gentry endeavored to out-vie their elder Brothers by undertaking far and dangerous journies into Forreign parts to acquire glory by feats of Arms and experiencing themselves in the Military Discipline Thomas Cromwel a younger Brother to better his knowledge in Warlike Affairs passed into France and there trailed a Pike accompanying the French Forces into Italy where they were defeated at Gattellion whereupon our English Volantier betook himself to Florence designing to pass thence home again into England but having loft all his equipage and being in a necessitated condition he was enforced to address himself to one Signior Francisco Frescobald an Italian Merchant who corresponded at London and making his case known unto him Frescobald observing something remarkable and a certain promising greatness in the Features Actions and Deportment of Thomas Cromwel who gave an account of himself with so candid an ingenuity and in such terms as beseemed his Birth and the Profession he then was of whereby he gained so much upon Frescobald as inviting him home to his house he caused him to be accommodated with new Linnen and Clothes and other sutable necessaries kindly entertaining him till such time as he testified a desire to return for England when as to compleat his Generosity and Kindeness he gave Mr. Thomas Cromwell a Horse and sixteen Duccats in gold to prosecute his journey homewards In process of time several disasters and Bankrupts befalling Signior Frescobald his Trading and Credit was not a little thereby impaired and reflecting on the Moneys which were due unto him by his Correspondents in England to the value of 15000. Duccats he resolved to pass thither and try whether he could happily procure payment During which interval of time Mr. Thomas Cromwell being a person endowed with a great deal of Courage of a transcendent Wit hardy in his undertakings and a great Politician had by these his good qualities gotten himself
reflect on the loss he had sustained and how requisite it was for Princes and great Potentates to retain near their Persons Men of Knowledge Worth and Fidelity and calling to minde the action and discourse of Williams conceiving that it could not proceed but from a great soul endowed with extraordinary vertues and such a one as might be useful and serviceable to him he sent for him up to Court and commanding him to take the name of Cromwel upon himself unto whom he had testified so much Fidelity and Gratitude he invested him with all the Offices and Charges the late Lord Thomas Cromwel enjoyed near his person and re-instated him again in all his Goods and Lands which had been confiscated so that the Lord Williams assisted in the Kings Councel as his Father in Law the Lord Thomas Cromwel before had done From this Noble Lord Williams alias Cromwel and the Illustrious Daughter of the renowned Lord Thomas Cromwel his late Highness and our present Lord Protector are lineally descended in whom the Almighty hath raised up and ripened those generous vertues of their predecessors and hath elevated and spread their branches as high as their deep roots had taken profound and vigorous Foundations So that to compleat our parallel we may observe by the fruits of this Illustrious Stock from whence his late Highness is descended whether they retained their accustomed Generosity and Clemency which we will not go about to prove by the Military Acts in which they have outvied their Predecessors nor by their Politick and prudent Government of the State in which they have at least equalized them but by their private and domestick actions since the resemblance of Children to their Parents may be more observed by the Features of the Face then by the course of their lives which are subject to vary either by the inconstancy of Fortune or the Communication of other men To come therefore to his late Highness the Lord Protector and signalize his gratitude we shall instance in the person of one Duret a French attendant of his Highness during his General-ship who served him with so much Fidelity and Zeal as that he intrusted him with the managing and conduct of the greatest part of his domestick Affairs alwayes retaining him nigh his person bearing so great an affection towards him and reposing so entire a confidence in him as during his late Highness's great sickness which he had in Scotland and whereof it was thought he would have dyed he would not be served by any one nor receive any nourishment or any thing else that was administred unto him save from the hands of Duret who both day and night continued to watch by his Master tending him with a special care and assiduity not giving himself a Moments rest untill his late Highness had recovered his perfect health which long and continual watches of Duret and the pains he had taken in the administring unto his Master plunged him into a sad fit of sickness during which this faithful servant received all the acknowledgements which his good and zealous services had demerited his late Highness applying all the possible cures he could not onely by his commands but by his personal visits so oft as his urgent Affairs would permit him to comfort Duret and to see all things applyed that might conduce to his recovery but Durets hour being come he was content to lay down his life in his Masters service and the Physicians having quite given him over his late Highness would needs render him his last good offices by comforting him at his death by his sensibleness of his good services and the extream zeal and affection he had born to his person which although he could not requite unto him yet his Highness assured him he would manifest his acknowledgements thereof unto his Parents and Kindred Whereunto Duret replyed That the honour he had received in having served so good and great a Master and the glory he reaped in having laid down his life for the preservation of his Highness and of so good and glorious a Cause was extream satisfactory unto him in his death That he had a Mother and a Sister with some Kindred in France who were unworthy his Highness thoughts or reflecting on them however that he remitted them to his Highness gracious consideration And so Duret his good and faithful servant breathed his last In which contract of grief and resolution of acknowledgement his late Highness may be said to have harboured the same thoughts as Henry the Eighth did perswading himself that he had been the Author of Durets death though in a far innocenter way However his late Highness retained all the resentments and sensibleness of the acknowledgements and gratitude expressed by his generous predecessor the Lord Thomas Cromwel towards his dear Friend Frescobald For his late Highness immediately sent over For Durets Mother Sister and two Nephews out of France and would have the whole Family of the Durets to come and establish themselves here in England that he might the better manifest his Love and Gratitude in their persons towards his deceased faithful servant And whereas by reason of the continuance of the Scotch Wars his late Highness was at that time as it were confined to the North he wrote unto her Highness the now Lady Protectoress Dowager his wife that she should receive and use Durets Mother Sister and Allies accordingly as she praised the good offices of his deceased faithful servant to whose cares pains and watchings he owed the preservation of his own life and that she should proportion that kindnes which during his absence she should show unto them unto the love which she bore unto him insomuch that Durets Mother was by her Highness admitted into her own Family and seated at her own Table his Sister was placed in the rank and quality of a Maid of Honour to her Highness and his two Nephews were admitted to be her Highnesses Pages whereby the Almighty Crowned Durets good and faithful services towards his Master and his piety and observance towards his Mother and Sister whose onely support he was in his life time with the rich Flowers of Prosperity and with the Fruits of Fortune advancing them as fast as the sad destiny did his precipitated death And no sooner was his late Highness returned into England after the conquest of Scotland and the glorious Victory he had obtained at Worcester full freighted with the resplendency of his noble atchievements but he desired to see Durets Mother Sister and Nephews enquiring how they had been received and treated and whether they were well pleased to be in England and as soon as they appeared in his presence he could not retain his generous tears for the loss of Duret nor could he cease to testifie his inward grief for him comforting the good old Gentlewoman Mrs. Duret by the mouth of his Children who spake French telling her She had not lost her son although dead
to believe that perishing in the Mines of Peru they thereby did raise to themselves Thrones of Glory in Heaven since thereby they furnished Spain wherewithal to adorne and inrich Altars throughout the whole world In these torrid Climates the gallant English went to revenge the death of several Merchants and many brave Sea-men of all Nations which the Spaniards did surprize in those Seas and who they did decoy and attract by specious promises that they would not mischief them Notwithstandstanding the Law of Nations and the Faith which they had plighted they seized their ships and having tyed the men alive to trees placed this Superscription on their Breasts Who sent for you into this Countrey And let them there starve to death whilest the Birds of the Air did feed upon their flesh as they were yet alive And also Flanders the Sea whereof like unto a sharp humour did alwayes nourish the wounds and incurable evils she never was in so fair a way to recover her perfect health by the neighbourly refreshments which England at present doth profer unto her and the fresh Air which France would also have her enjoy Nor was the French letting her blood sufficient to cure her for she needed an English Physician who was accustomed to cure and treat incurable bodies so that in case this unfortunate fair one will in the least conform her self to those Remedies which are profered unto her and the which will be no violenter then she her self pleaseth she may be rendred plump and well liking as the fresh Air and Blossoms of France can make her and as the Sweets and Delicacies of England can procure unto her In like manner it was a high point of Generosity in the English since they caused France to lose Graveling and Dunkirk to help France again to re-take such places in those parts as might repay them with use and elsewhere also such as might stand them in as great stead as Montmedy which was the first considerable reduced place after this happy Alliance and the which crowned the same And truly here we may consider the Generosity of his late Highness in its most perfect dye or luster for without having regard to those Advantages which Spain might render him as to the Commerce the places of Hostage which she profered to put into his hands for secure Retreats as Graveling Dunkirk and others he was swayed by those Resentments which the English Nation ought to have harboured for the several and innumerable injuries and wrongs sustained by that Nation as the Spanish intended Invasion with their great Fleet in 88. Their Tyranny in the Indies and the Cruelties and Barbarismes which they inflict upon all those who will not acquiess unto and follow their Maximes and Opinions His late Highness therefore preferred the Alliance and League with France because it was more Christian-like permitting all men to make use of that Liberty of Conscience and Freedom which Jesus Christ hath acquired unto them by his Blood and gaining them by meekness and courteousness to his Divine example and not by Cruelties and Oppressions His late Highness sided with France the rather because she hath undertaken the Defence of all oppressed people as well Princes as Subjects And to alledge all in one word and so to compleat the height of Generosity it self because France at that time was the weakest as being abandoned by some of her ancient Allies and as it were quite disordered by an intestine War which had most violently shaken her bowels so likewise must France needs confess that without the assistance of England her Navigation was totally ruined the Pyrats of Dunkirk having blocked up all her Sea Ports in so much that Merchandizes were brought in as it were by stealth and France might have been forced to have kept but a lean Lent all their Farms and Farmers being destroyed their Butter Cheese and all kinde of Spices and other Wares of that nature being set at such rates as the Common people were not able to pay for them So that had not the English scoured their Seas and driven away and chased those Pyrats which lay lurking in such neighbouring Ports France had been in a sad condition whereas now by the means of the English all Forreign Nations come freely into the French Ports with their Ships and Goods And for to increase the courtesie of the English yet more to France by saving the French the labour charges and hazzards of going to the Indies they thence bring home unto their doors in Exchange of their Linnen and Wines all the good things and delicacies which not onely the New World but the rest of the World plentifully and abundantly affords I shall enlarge my self no further in these Political Reflections but referre the Reader to the incomparable Work lately Printed intituled History and Policy reviewed FINIS Courteous Reader These Books following with others are printed for Nath. Brook and are to be sold at his Shop at the Angelin Cornhill Excellent Tracts in Divinity Controversies Sermons Devotions THe Catholique History collected and gathered out of Scripture Councils and Ancient Fathers in Answer to Dr. Vane's Lost Sheep returned home by Edward Chesensale Esq Octavo 2. Bishop Morton on the Sacrament in Folio 3. The Grand Sacriledge of the Church of Rome in taking away the sacred Cup from the Laity at the Lords Table by D. Featley D. D. Quarto 4. The Quakers Cause at second hearing being a full answer to their Tenets 5. Re-assertion of Grace Vindiciae Evangelii or the Vindication of the Gospel a Reply to Mr. Anthony Burghess Vindiciae Legis and to Mr. Ruthford by Robert Town 6. Anabaptists anatomized and silenced or a Dispute with Mr. Tombs by Mr. J. Grag where all may receive clear satisfaction in that Controversie The best extant Octave 7. The zealous Magistrate a Sermon by T. Threscot Quarto 8. Britannia Rediviva A Sermon before the Judges August 1648. by J. Shaw Minister of Hull 9. The Princess Royal in a Sermon before the Judges March 24. by J. Shaw 10. Judgement set and Books opened Religion tried whether it be of God or Man in several Sermons by J. Webster Quarto 11. Israels Redemption or the Prophetical History of our Saviours Kingdome on Earth by R. Matton 12. The Cause and Cure of Ignorance Error and Profaneness or a more hopeful way to Grace and Salvation by R. Young Octavo 13. A Bridle for the Times tending to still the murmuring to settle the wavering to stay the wandring and to strengthen the fainting by J. Brinsley of Yarmouth 14. The sum of Practical Divinity or the grounds of Religion in a Chatechistical way by Mr. Christopher Love late Minister of the Gospel a useful piece 15. Heaven and Earth shaken a Treatise shewing how Kings and Princes their Governments are turned and changed by J. Davis Minister in Dover admirably useful and seriously to be considered in these times 16. The Treasure of the Soul wherein we are taught by dying
Parliament John Lilburn demands Protection is denied and remitted to the Law The state of Affairs in Scotland The state of Affairs in Ireland An admirable effect of his Highness Prudence and Justice Continuance of the Dutch Affairs Holland Commissioners sent over to treat A notable fight between the Dutch and English during the Treaty The Fight renewed The Dutch Admiral Van-Trump slain The Dutch put to flight The weakness of the new Parliament A motion to dissolve the Parliament The Parliament ment dissolved December 12 1653. The Lord General Cromwel chosen and sworn Lord Protector The Protector Sworn to the ensuing Articles The Lord Protector proclaimed Sir Thomas Viner Knighted A Conspiracy discovered Addresses to his Highness from all parts The Scots frame an Army The Scots defeated by Collonel Morgan Peace with Holland concluded and proclaimed The Affairs of Ireland settled A second conspiracy Mr. Vowel Hanged Mr. Gerrard Beheaded The Portugal Ambassadors Brother Beheaded The Scotch Highlanders rise in Armes General Middleton defeated by General Monk A Parliament assembly September 3. 1654. Parliament dâ—â—â—â—ved January 10. 1655. Several Conspiracies discovered A Rising at Salisbury A Rising in Shropshire A Rising in Montgomery A Rising in Nottinghamshire A Rising framing in Northumberland A rising in York-shire Wagstaff defeated and Penruddock and others executed Royalists sent toforreign Plantations The Insurrections all dissipated A Spanish Ambassador sent over to his Highness Motives inducing his late Highness to a Breach with Spain The Hispaniola expeâ—â—ion Jamaica attempted and carried General Blake demads satisfaction for wrongs sustained General Blake attempts the Turks fortresses and navy A fourth conspiracy suspected A Relief sent to Jamaica in twelve ships General Pen returns to England General Venables also returned Treaty and Peace with Sweden Major Generals constituted France seeks his Highness to perfect a Peace Reasons inducing his late Highness rather to condescend to an alliance with France then Spain A Peace with France Concluded and Proclaimed The defence and good success at Jamaica General Mountegue his victory over the Spaniards at Sea General Blakes destroying the Spanish Fleet at the Canaries May. 4. 1657. The English joyn with the French in Flanders under Sir John Reynolds His Highness Installment in the Protectorship Mardike taken by the English and French The Spaniards repulst at Mardike General Blake dyes in sight of Plimouth The Spaniards repulse again from before Mardike St. Venaut taken by the English The Lord Henry Cromwel made deputy of Ireland Sir John Reynolds and others drowned The Parliament dissolved Febr. 4. 1657 8 The City Militia settled again by his late Highness A Conspiracy discovered A high Court of Justice erected The Plot prevented Several Conspirators taken and sentenced some condemned others pardoned A Whale cast up in the Thames Dunkirk besieged by the English and French The Spaniards attempt to relieve Dunkirk The Spaniard beaten by the English and French Dunkirk taken and possessed by the English The Lady Cleypolls death Graveling taken by the French Mr. E. Waller The remarkable passages which happened on the like dayes in his Highness life His late Highness Corps removed to Somerset-House The manner of his Highness lying in State His late Highness standing in State The Funeral Solemnities performed at his late Highness's Interment The several distinctions observed in the Funeral Solemnities See History and Policy reviewed An example of gratitude and generosity in the Lord Tho. Cromwell The Lord Tho. Cromwels Seed Destiny and end How the Name of Williams came to be changed into that of Cromwell His late Highness descent An example of his late Highness gratitude See History and Police reviewed See History and Policy reviewed Which you may see in two Books viz. Teats of the Indies and the other America Painted to the life