Interest which he could offer unto His Majesty and he would be sure of all his Men there such naked Rogues as they were is his own phrase Besides there were store of Cows in that Island for the provision of the Fleet which he appointed should not be spared Thus was the Design laid down for curbing the Scotish Insolences and layes down methodâ— for the effectuating of his design yet His Majesty firmly resolved that when-ever they returned to their Obedience he should not be inexorable The first thing for prosecuting this Design was the looking for Officers and Money for the former England was pretty scant yet the best were sought out On the second of February the King named the Earl of Arundel to be General the Earl of Essex to be Lieutenant-General of the Foot and the Earl of Holland to command the Horse Letters were also sent through the Counties for levying of Men and Advertisements given to the Nobility to meet the King at York against the first of April Antrim undertook bravely and Strafford said he should doe what was possible with all expedition The Fleet was appointed presently to be rigged out and Orders issued out for levying five thousand Souldiers under the Command of the three gallant Colonels Morton Byron and Harecoat who should go with the Fleet without knowing whither they went A Commission for the Lieutenantry of the North of Scotland was sent to the Marquis of Huntley but he was ordered to keep it up as long as was possible and carefully to observe two things One was not to be the first Aggressor except he were highly provoked or His Majesties Authority signally affronted the other was that he should keep off with long Weapons till His Majesty were on the Borders lest if he should begin sooner the Covenanters might overwhelm him with their whole Force and either ruine him or force him to lay down his Arms. As for the Marquis his Employment he told His Majesty that though he was so far from declining his Service at such a time that he should be infinitely troubled if he were not imployed yet he desired the King might choose a fitter person for the Naval Forces since he was altogether unacquainted with Sea-affairs and not fit for such an important Service But His Majesty looking upon this as an effect of his Modesty gave no hearing to it telling him that as for Affairs purely Naval Sir Iohn Pennington the Vice-admiral should go with him and would abundantly supply his defects in that But the getting of Money was the hardest part of all for two hundred thousand pound Sterlin was all the Money the King could make account of The Treasury was much exhausted and an unlucky Accident fell in at that time which put the King to much extraordinary Expence the Queen-Mother of France coming over to England yet the King found Himself able to doe well enough for the Summer following but His Purse could not weather out another year Thus did the King frame and prosecute His Design with the Secret whereof very few were trusted it being communicated to none without reserve save to Canterbury Arundel Sir Henry Vane and by Letters to Strafford but above all to the Marquis But here this Narration must be stopt that we may take a view of Scotland The Covenanters prepare for War and of the Power and Practices of the Covenanters In the beginning of Ianuary there was a full Meeting of them at Edinburgh where they first resolved to send a Gentleman to the King with the Assemblies Letter and a Petition from themselves full of Submission to the King Invectives against the Marquis and Justifications of their Procedure in all things particularly in the late Assembly which they doubted not they should make appear in the ensuing Parliament of the holding whereof they seemed to make no question With this the Earl of Argyle wrote a general Vindication of his own Behaviour and these Letters were sent to Court by Mr. Winram His Majesty received their Petition but resolved to give it such an Answer in due time as their Behaviour deserved but he wrote back to Argyle that he should be willing to receive from his own mouth a Vindication of his late Behaviour though it seemed scarce capable of any The Covenanters their next and indeed chief care was to fortifie themselves against what they knew in reason they might quickly expect Orders were therefore given through all the Shires of Scotland that a Committee of War should sit in every Shire Souldiers be listed and trained and a Commissioner sent from every County to lie at Edinburgh for receiving and transmitting of Orders Great care was also taken to provide the Country with Arms and Ammunition Merchants were sent every where to buy up all were to be had and in a short time there were Arms for above thirty thousand men brought to Scotland and particular Orders were given that none should be sold but to such as were well-affected to the Cause Strong and strict Guards were set about the Castle of Edinburgh so that it being but hitherto ill furnished little was to be expected from it wherefore Ruthwen would not shut himself up within it but went to offer his Service to His Majesty where he might be more useful They were also careful to fortifie Leith apprehending hazard from the Kings Fleet and about fifteen hundred of all Sexes yea and all Qualities for encouraging of others wrought about it till the Fortifications were compleated But of all men the Ministers were the busiest the Pulpits did ring with the Ruine of Religion and Liberties and that all might look for Popery and Bondage if they did not now quit themselves like men and are much inflamed by the Ministers Curses were thundred out against those who went not out to help the Angel of the Lord against the mighty so oddly was the Scripture applied and to set off this the better all was carried on with many Fasts and Prayers and they forgot not to pretend much Duty and Affection to the King but the Bishops and his other ill Councellours as they called them got the blame of all and none more than the Marquis By these means it was that the poor and well-meaning People were animated into great extremities of Zeal resolving to hazard all in pursuance of the Cause for they were told that the design was to reduce Scotland to a Province under the Power of the English whose Oppression they must resolve to bear if they stood not now to their own Defence Upon this it was that the Committees for War which were held in the several Shires about the beginning of February found small resistance and no difficulty of levying Men greater numbers being offered than could be either armed or maintained At Edinburgh the Session met with great trouble from the Covenanters The Session is disturbed for the greater number of the Lords of the Session being resolved not to own the Assembly all
with the like apprehensions to minister much Comfort to him only he pressed him not to give way to languishing Sorrow but to see what could be done for setting things right again and for infusing that sense of Shame and Horrour in all People for the late Action which might prepare them to a Noble Reparation of it by a generous Engaging in the Kings Quarrel And upon this much pains was taken to infuse Jealousies of the Independents in the minds of the Kirk-men though there were other violent persons as careful to refute them Most of this Year was spent in possessing all mens Minds with these Apprehensions so preparing them for what they designed to execute upon the first Opportunity The Duke and the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick were they who united most closely and cordially for the contriving and prosecuting of that Design The King was Prisoner at Holmby without any other Liberty save that of taking the air sometimes all his Servants were denied access to him and so cruel was the zeal of his Enemies that it reached to his Soul for they refused liberty for his Chaplains to wait on him a favour not denied to the worst of Malefactors but God was his Refuge who supported him in all his Sufferings and Solitudes The Two Houses wrote to the Committee of Estates in Scotland that they should take such a joynt Course with them as might tend most to bring things to a happy Peace But now the Jealousies betwixt the Parliament and the Army begun to grow visible and above board for the Presbyterian Party in the Parliament saw their Error too late Disorders rise in England most of them seemed to have intended the Kings Good only they were mistaken in Judging that the Parliament in which they were most numerous would never be disobeyed by the Army but being disappointed in this they ruined all their confidence in their Power in Parliament having been the cause why they let the Scotish Army go home for till they were gone the Independents crouched under them and trepanned them into Severities against the King and the Dismissing of the Scots who were no sooner gone but the Army acted what had been before projected but most industriously concealed from the Presbyterians Lauderdale is sent to England In April the Earl of Lauderdale was sent from Scotland to London to insist on the motion for a Settlement with the King and chiefly to hinder the adding of any new Propositions and he was also Instructed to deal for a permission to the Duke and the Earl of Dumfernline to go and serve the King in his Bedchamber But the Earl of Lauderdale found matters in great confusion at Westminster for the chief thing thought on was the Disbanding of the Army which was an unnecessary Burden to the Kingdom many grounds of Fear appearing that their Designs were to keep themselves up and govern the Nation by a Military and Arbitrary Power therefore such as were best-affected judged it necessary once to disband them before they engaged in a new Treaty with the King But for that private Proposition concerning the Duke and Dumfernline the Earl of Lauderdale seeing it would not take because there was not a Family yet settled about the King nor could it be expected that any from Scotland would be the first they would set about His Majesties Person did not present it and indeed the Duke's late Behaviour in opposing the Delivery of the King had forfeited his Credit with those of England then in Power But it is not my meaning to go on with a regular History of the irregular Transactions that past in England this Year I shall only say so much of them as will make appear what reason the Scots had for their Proceedings and to clear what may have relation to the Dukes Concerns In the middle of May the King sent a new Message to the Parliament of England in order to a Treaty but his Offers were the same upon the matter they had been at Newcastle and so not like to take and the Two Houses were then busied about Disbanding the Army They therefore ordered the Army to be disbanded and some of the Forces they kept up to be sent over to Ireland and all Satisfaction being offered The Army refuses obedience to the Parliament the time of their Disbanding was named But the Ring-leaders of the Army disposed them to mutiny against the Parliament upon pretence of want of Satisfaction in matter of Money and Reparation in point of Honour so the Army drew to a Body and erected a Court who were called the Agitators Mean-while Cromwel puts his Party in the House of Commons on the Recalling oâ— their Declarations against the Army and goes to the Army though his Commission was expired More Money was offered to the Army but nothing was accepted only divers of the Presbyterian Officers submitted and subscribed for Ireland whereupon they were by the prevailing part of the Army disbanded and takes the King from Holmby And the Army to make a sure game for their Party sent one Ioice a Taylor by Trade but now a Cornet by his Employment to Holmby who came at twelve a clock at night and forced the King to go with him against his will Upon which the Earl of Lauderdale emitted a Declaration in Name of the Scotish Nation against that Force put on the Kings Person contrary to all their Treaties and Declarations and demanded that His Majesties Person might be presently set at Liberty and brought with Honour Freedom and Safety to some of His Houses in or about London and after that he went to Newmarket to wait on the King who was there with the Army But the Army begun to abuse His Majesty into some Confidence in them And use Hiâ— civilly and used Him at another rate than had been done at Holmby They gave free access to all His Servants to come to Him they allowed His Chaplains to attend about Him and serve in their Office according to the Liturgy and permitted Him free Correspondence with the Queen and every body else and in their Discourses intimated their willingness to lay aside the Covenant and allow the Toleration of Episcopacy and the Liturgy all which though smoothly said was meant to cajole Him to his Ruine Assoon as His Majesty was at Liberty He wrote the following Letter to my Lord Lanerick Lanerick THe present condition of My Affairs is such He writes to Lanerick that I believe you and your Brother may do Me better Service at London than where you are therefore I desire that both or at least one of you would come up assoon as you could the rest I leave till meeting and so farewel Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newmarket 22th Iune 1647. To this my Lord Lanerick wrote this Answer Sir YOur Majesties Letter of the 22th of June had been immediately obeyed Lanerick's Answer if our Stay here for some time had not
Lanerick Cousin YOu will perceive by this that you cannot make more haste in obliging Me A Letter from the Queen to Lanerick than I shall on My part in witnessing My Acknowledgements of it I ascribe a great deal of the good Inclinations your Commissioners do now express to the good Offices you do of which I intreat the Continuance The testimonies of Friendship which I receive from those of your Family surprize Me less than what I met with from other Hands and I promise My Self to see further effects of it And as I have all the esteem of you that you can expect so you owe Me the Iustice of believing that I shall give evidence of it upon every occasion that shall be offered to Me nor shall I rest satisfied with that but shall diligently search out every opportunity of expressing it Therefore I entreat you to believe that I am Cousin Your very good and very affectionate Friend and Cousin HENRIETA MARIA R. Towards the end of December the Earls of Lowdon Lauderdale and Lanerick The Scotish Commissioners go to His Majesty followed the English Commissioners to the Isle of Wight and after they had protested against the Bills they concluded their Treaty with His Majesty to engage for his Rescue and Re-establishment on his Throne and to bring in an Army into England assoon as it were possible for that effect An Agreement with the King to bring an Army for His Service The King on the other hand engaged to them for all the Assistance they could demand from the Queen or Prince or any other who would obey His Authority and that the Prince should come to Scotland assoon as they found it convenient to invite him and that His Majesty should grant all the Desires of Scotland which with a good Conscience he could grant And the Commissioners having advised and agreed with His Majesty both about the Methods of carrying on their Designs and the ways of keeping Correspondence with him they resolved to return home to Scotland and so they left His Majesty at Wight in the end of the Year But upon the Kings refusing to pass the Bills he was made close Prisoner and a Vote passed in both Houses against all further Addresses to him MEMOIRES OF THE LIFE and ACTIONS OF James Duke of Hamilton c. LIB VI. Of the Dukes Engagement for the Kings Preservation and what followed till His Death Anno 1648. An. 1648. THe former Book has given the Reader a just and full Representation of His Majesties Imprisonment and the Danger his Person was in of the Force put on the Two Houses by the Army and of the breach of former Treaties with the Scotish Nation and now it cannot but be imagined that such Illegal and Unjust Proceedings must have inflamed the Resentments of all good Subjects and more signally of such who had formerly been carried away in the crowd to act against the Kings Interests but now seeing how fatal the Breach between the King and his People was likely to prove to both were much concerned to correct all former Errours and expiate all past Faults by a vigorous appearance for the Kings Rescue out of his Imprisonment In order to this Design the Duke was not idle in Scotland The Dukes endeavours in Scotland but by all the Art and Diligence he was Master of did study to rouse up and work upon the Fidelity and Loyalty of that Nation representing that now an Occasion was in their Hands to witness to the World the sincerity of their Intentions for their King when he was under so base a Restraint and Designs were hatching against his Life Would they now look on and see the King murdered the Parliament of England over-awed the City of London oppressed the whole English Nation enslaved the Treaties with Scotland so unworthily violated the Covenant and Religion so neglected and swarms of Sectaries over-run all Now or never was the time for declaring themselves and if Duty did not move them yet the apprehension of their own Danger might provoke them to look to themselves for did they think to escape the fury of the Sectaries if they were so tame as to suffer them to prevail in England therefore all Laws Divine and Humane did oblige them to look to themselves and to those Enemies of theirs And there was good reason to hope for success since besides the Blessing of God which might be expected upon so just and Noble Enterprizes the People of England were groaning under this Usurpation and would be ready to assist them and they had reason to expect a welcome from the City of London and the better part of the Two Houses These things did prevail much on the most of the Nobility and Gentry Three Parties in Scotland But at this time Three Parties begun to appear in Scotland The one was of those who would hear of no Proposition for the Kings Delivery unless he first gave satisfaction in matters of Religion and this was made up of the Preachers and a few of the Nobility and the Western Counties Others were for a direct Owning of the Kings Quarrel without any restrictions and for taking all Persons who had been in Arms for the Kings Service within it The Earls of Traquair and Calendar were the chief of these and many Noblemen were of it who called themselves the Kings Party but their Power in the Country was not great The Duke was as much for that in his thoughts as any of them but saw it impossible to effectuate the Kings business at that rate and therefore judged it best to go on in so great a Design by degrees The present Strait was that he first looked to which was the Rescue of the Kings Person and he doubted not if they once got a good Army engaged upon that account though all were at first clogged with many severe Restrictions yet it would be easy afterwards to carry things that were not to be then spoken of and this way took with almost the whole Gentry of Scotland The Scotish Commissioners spent much of the month of Ianuary at London The Commissioners return to Scotland establishing a good Correspondence with the Kings Friends in England and they had Letters from St. Germans in France in which the Queen and Prince undertook to make good to them all that had been promised by the King in their Name And in the Commissions the Prince gave to Sir Marmaduke Langdale and others for Levying of Forces in the North of England he commanded them to receive their Orders from the Earls of Lauderdale and Lanerick and follow their Commands Thus having laid down the best Methods they could think of with their Friends in England they set out for Scotland about the end of Ianuary At their coming to Scotland they found a general dissatisfaction with the Kings Message in November about Religion And though all the Duke's Friends were ready to have hazarded their Lives for His
being a necessity of searching divers Records for Precedents which required a competent time as had been allowed in former cases but the Court refused to promise it only they said they would take it into their consideration The Counsel insisted and said plainly they declined the Imployment on those terms and would be forced to declare it Monday the 26th the other two Officers that had signed the Capitulation for the Duke and his Troops The ninth Appearance who had been sent for a great way off were examined who agreed with the former Witnesses in matters of Fact and also with Lilburn that by signing the Articles they only meant the Duke should be preserved from the Violence of the Souldiers and not from the Justice of the Parliament Then the Counsel began to Plead and all four spoke on the several Heads of the Plea Mr. Heron spoke cursorily and elegantly but not very materially Mr. Parsons a young man spoke boldly and to good purpose Mr. Chute the Civilian spoke learnedly and home and Mr. Hales since the much-renowned Lord Chief Justice of the Kings Bench elaborately and at length The Heads of their Arguments follow The Duke's Counsel at Law plead for him The Duke being as was granted a born Scotch-man his Tie of obligation and subjection to that Kingdom was indispensable and indissoluble so that his late Imployment could not be refused when laid on him by the Authority of that Kingdom no more than a Native of England living in it can disobey the Commands of this Parliament whereas any Subjection the Duke owed the Parliament of England was only acquired and dispensable That since no man can be a Subject of two Kingdoms whatever Tye lay on him to the Kingdom of England it was not to be put in Competition with what he owed Scotland it being a Maxim in Law that Major relatio trahit ad se minorem and that Ius Originis nemo mutare potest That there was an Allegeance due to the King and another to the Kingdom and no Treason could be without a Breach of Faith and Allegeance due to them against whom it was committed for these Kingdoms were two distinct Kingdoms and though the Allegeance due to the King was the same in both Kingdoms yet that due to the Kingdoms was distinct nor was the Actual administration of the Kingdoms in the Kings Person when the Duke got his Imployment therefore as his Allegeance to the Kingdom of Scotland was ancienter and stronger than any Tie that lay on him in England so what he did by their Order might well make him an Enemy to this Kingdom but could not infer Treason Yet all this of the Allegeance due to the Kingdom was founded on no Common or Statute Law as Mr. Hales himself confessed afterwards but he urged this well against those who asserted it it being the universally received Maxim at that time That whether he was a Post-natus or Ante-natus did not appear but though he were it did not vary the Case nor his obligation to the place of his Nativity and so though he were Post-natus or accounted a Denizen by his Fathers Naturalization his Offence could not be Treason but Hostility at most and by that supposed Hostility he could only lose his Priviledge of a Denizen but could not be made a Traitor there being no Precedent where ever any man was attainted of Treason for a hostile Invasion and it was questionable if this Offence could amount to that nor could any case be alledged where one born in another Independent Kingdome acting by a Commission from that Kingdom and residing there when he received his Commission and raising the Body of his Army in that Kingdom and coming into this in an Open Hostile manner was ever judged guilty of Treason Naturalization was intended to be a Benefit and not a Snare so that one might well lose it but was not to be punished for it And so when France and England were under one Soveraign divers of both Nations were naturalized in the other yet when Hostility broke out betwixt them many so naturalized fought on the side of their Native Kingdom for which none were put to death though divers were taken Prisoners And in Edward the third's time though he claimed France as his by Right yet when the Constable of France invaded England and was taken Prisoner he was not tried nor put to death but sent back to France as being a Native of that Kingdom And when David Bruce King of Scotland invaded this Kingdom and was taken Prisoner great endeavours were used to find a Legal ground for his Trial he being Earl of Huntington in England but this Plea was waved for it was found that it could not be done justly that being but a less degree of Honour though King Edward claimed a kind of Homage from the Crown of Scotland That if the Duke were on that account put to death it might prove of sad consequence in case there was War any more betwixt the Kingdoms since most of the present Generation were Post-nati and all would be so quickly and yet if the Lord Fairfax who was both a Post-natus and had his Honour in Scotland were commanded to lead an Army thither and being taken were put to death it would be thought hard measure For the Duke's Father's Naturalization it was true by the Statute of the 25 Ed. 3. provision was made that Children born without the Kingdom whose Parents were then in the King's Allegeance should be Denizens but the Duke was born before his Father's Naturalization which can never reach him none but the Issue after his Father's Naturalization being included within it and the word Haeres in the Act is only a word of Limitation and not of Creation nor did his making use of the assistance of some English Forces make him a Traytor It is true if an Englishman conduct a Foreign Army or if a Foreigner come of his own head or in a Rebellious way to assist an English Rebellion it will amount to Treason for the Act of such an Alien is denominated from the crime of those he assist here where he owed a local Obedience which was the Case of Shirley the Frenchman and of Lopez but if an Alien come with a Foreign Force though he make use of English Auxiliaries that only infers a Hostility but no Treason and was the case of the Lord Harris a Scotchman 15 Eliz. and of Perkin Warbeck both having English help and though Warbeck was put to death it was by no Civil Judicatory but only by the Will of Henry the 7th who erected a Court-Marshall for that purpose The present case was yet clearer where the Alien had Authority from his Native Kingdom and was commanded by them to make use of English help so that though Langdale's assisting the Duke did make himself a Traytor yet the Duke's accepting of it only infers an Act of Hostility And whereas it was objected that the Parliament had already by
of his mind been stain'd with some ill qualities He had acquired some interest in Court by the service he did the Earl of Niddisdale in the matter of the Kings Revocation and the Commission of Surrenders which to explain were too long a digression here and needless to all who understand how the Rights of the Titles were at that time unsettled in Scotland His malice against the Marquis was hereditary he being the Son of Captain Iames Stewart who in King Iames his Minority when the Hamiltons were groundlesly and in a mock-Parliament attainted carried the Title of Earl of Arran and possessed their Fortunes Lord Reay upon what irritation I know not alledged to him that Mr. Ramsay had told him that the Marquises designs were not upon Germany but Britain and that when this Army was once gathered he purposed to pretend to the Crown of Scotland This lye was so ill told that it could take with none but those whose Judgments were blinded through malice for as that Army was very small and in no manner of capacity to prosecute such a design so it was made up of Scots and English and most of the Officers were persons of whom the Marquis had no acquaintance Reay alledged likewise the testimony of one Mr. Cleazar Borthwick Borthwick being a witness clears the Marquis to whom Mr. Meldrum should have communicated the same design but this testimony turned to his shame for that person who was of known integrity being brought from Germany and examined upon what Meldrum had said to him desired liberty to send his Deposition to the King sealed since the particulars were not fit to be publickly heard to which the King yielding he sent it The summe of it was that Meldrum had never communicated any such design to him that he had indeed spoken abominably of the King and Court but all was in his own name and that he brought no credence with him from the Marquis for his errand to the Swedish Court was onely to solicit the payment of some Arrears due to his Uncle who had served that Crown and he had no Employment from the Marquis onely he got from him Letters of recommendation for the dispatch of his business so that whatever he said was understood as his own sense and not as a message from the Marquis Reay also alledged the testimony of Lieutenant Colonel Lindsay for a great part of that he charged on Ramsay This Lindsay indeed was a brave Gentleman and Reay's Lieutenant Colonel but was killed two or three moneths before Reay met with Ochiltree at London He was in new Brandenburg with other Swedish Officers when Tilly took it in and all Reay's Regiment was cut to pieces except a very few which turned to his eternal disgrace who in such a hot time of Action left his Command to come over to England and forge lyes and after that Reay was in no esteem neither with Scots nor Swedes and irrecoverably lost himself in the K. of Swedens opinion But Reay kept himself from charging any thing on the Marquis fixing all he said on Ramsay which Caution was not observed by Ochiltree who drew a representation of the Marquis his interest in Scotland to shew what probabilities might be of such a design and reckoned up all his Kindred and Allyes by which he drew in most of the Nobility of Scotland and so fastned suspicions on them all a madness onely incident to those of Bedlam to which his malice drove him though he was no fool With this account of Reay's and his own he went to the Lord Weston Weston carries the Accusation to the King then Treasurer of England and personating great zeal for the safety of King and Kingdoms revealed this alledged Treason to him adding that it was probable all things being now ready to be put in execution that the Marquis upon his return to put things in the more fearful disorder might if admitted to wait in the Kings Bed-chamber murder him This was a Calumny than which Hell could not have forged a fouler for Lord Ochiltree judged that this would have infallibly produced one of two effects either raised such a Jealousie in the Kings thoughts as to have quite ruined the Marquis since few Princes are proof against such whispers or at least it would have stopt his voyage for a while till he were tried and the smallest delay in that would have scattered his Souldiers so that this design failing in which his Honour was now so far engaged a stain should lie on him through all Europe Lord Weston carried this Story to the King whether provoked to it out of hatred to the Marquis or moved from his zeal and duty to the King shall not be determined though the last was pretended by him and in many of his Letters to the Marquis when he was in Germany he expressed much friendship for him who gives it no good hearing But His Majesty knew the Marquis too well and understood all his motions and the progress of this Affair too exactly to give any credit to this Forgery and indeed he rejected listening to it in terms so full of affection for the Marquis as discovered he was incapable of any Jealousie either of him or any of his actions neither would he hearken to those who onely desired that upon his return he might not be admitted to his Presence at least not to lie in his Bed-chamber Within a very little while the Marquis came to Court utterly ignorant of the execrable designs of his Adversaries His Majesty welcomed him with an air of kindness beyond what he ordinarily gave him and drawing him apart immediately told him all that villainous story which had been whispered against him The Confusion this raised in his thoughts was unspeakable and opens the whole matter to the Marquis being amazed to find himself so horridly misrepresented knowing his heart to be full of duty and affection to his Soveraign he wondered how malice could be so impudent as at a time when he was hazarding Life Honour Friends and Fortune for the Kings Service to fasten such a devillish gloss on his actions but this surprize was overcome with a greater when he saw His Majesty with an unheard-of and truly Royal generosity express his confidence in him in such obliging terms as scarce to allow him to speak in his own Justification which seeming to insinuate he thought he needed to be vindicated the Marquis begged he might be presently tried and offered himself to restraint till he were cleared But His Majesty would not hear of that on the contrary commanded him to lie in the Bed-chamber that night and made him lie in the Bed-chamber that same night and he expressed his confidence and kindness for him in such a strain both of behaviour and discourse that the Marquis frequently said he looked on the kindness of that night as that which obliged him more than all the other publick testimonies of the Kings favour and
as also that many of the Covenanters were broken in their Estates so that if Justice were patent some of the most troublesom of them might be driven away but chiefly the settling them again in Edinburgh looked like a resolution of going on with a Treaty of which it was fit they should be persuaded till the King were in a good posture for reducing them He tried what assurance he might have of the Lords of the Session being fixed to their Duty Divers of them who were no ill-wishers to the Kings Authority yet durst not own it being threatned by the Covenanters of some he had all reason to hope well yet the greater part of that Court what through fear what through inclination was so biassed that he saw little hope of prevailing with the Colledge of Justice whether Judges or Lawyers to declare the Covenant seditious or treasonable and he was secure of none who sate on the Bench save Sir Robert Spottiswood President Sir Iohn Hay Clerk-Register and Sir Andrew Fletcher of Innerpeffer Halyburton of Fotherance and one or two more the first of these was among the most accomplished of his Nation equally singular for his Ability and Integrity but he was the Archbishop of S. Andrews his Son and so his Decision in that would have been of the less weight On the 16th of Iune the Covenanters came and presented their Petitions to the Marquis craving a present redress of their Grievances The Covenanters press speedy satisfaction otherwise they said they would be put off no longer by delays and they desired he would propose the matter to the Council and give them a speedy Answer He told them that His Majesty did resolve to call both an Assembly and Parliament for the redress of all Grievances but if this was not yet done they had nothing but the Disorders of the Country to blame for it which should be no sooner composed but all their Desires should be fully examined They went away no way satisfied with this Answer but the Marquis found all the Lords of Council inclined to the granting of what they demanded so that he durst call no Council about it lest they should have avowedly sided with the Covenanters of which he advertised His Majesty shewing him that persons of all ranks pressed him to represent to him that the Covenant was not illegal and that if His Majesty would allow of the Explication of the Bond of mutual Defence Many move that an Explanation of the Covenant might be received which they offered that they meant not thereby to derogate any thing from the Kings Authority for whom they were ready to hazard their Lives all might be settled without more trouble either to the King or Country and that otherwise it must needs end in Blood He desired His Majesty would consider well in what forwardness his Preparations were before he hazarded on a Rupture lest if they had the start of him all his faithful Servants in Scotland should be ruined ere he could come to their rescue England wanted not its own Discontents and they in Scotland seemed confident that they had many good Friends there France had not forgot the Isle of Rhea and had certainly a hand in cherishing those Broils in Scotland He also added the Covenanters resolution was upon the first Rupture to march into England and make that the seat of the War Upon all this he craved His Majesties Pleasure which he would punctually obey and ended begging pardon for the fair hopes he had given him in his last protesting that his desire of seeing Royal Authority again settled without a bloody Decision for which he was gladly willing to sacrifice his Life made him too easie sometimes to believe what he so earnestly desired Thus I give the most material Heads of the Marquis his Dispatches to His Majesty for though the Originals of them be in my hands yet they are not inserted both because of their being too long and too particular for publick view as also that the substance of them may be seen in the Kings Answers which for many reasons are set down at their full length But to this I shall adde a surprising thing that I find the Archbishop of S. Andrews was for accepting an Explanation of the Covenant for a draught of it yet remains under his Pen which follows The Archbishop of S. Andrews his draught of an Explanation WE the Noblemen Barons Burgesses Ministers and others that have joyned in a late Bond or Covenant for the maintaining of true Religion and purity of Gods Worship in this Kingdom having understood that Our Sovereign Lord the Kings Majesty is with this our doing highly offended as if we thereby had usurped His Majesties Authority and shaken off all Obedience to His Majesty and to His Laws for clearing our selves of that Imputation do hereby declare and in the presence of God Almighty solemnly protest that it did never so much as enter into our thoughts to derogate any thing from His Majesties Power and Authority Royal or to disobey and rebell against His Majesties Laws and that all our Proceedings hitherto by Petitioning Protesting Covenanting and whatsoever other way was and is onely for the maintaining of true Religion by us professed and with express reservation of our Obedience to His most Sacred Majesty most humbly beseeching His Majesty so to esteem and accept of us that he will be graciously pleased to call a National Assembly and Parliament for removing the Fears we have not without cause as we think conceived of introducing in this Church another form of Worship than what we have been accustomed with as likewise for satisfying our just Grievances and the settling of a constant and solid Order to be kept in all time coming as well in the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government which if we shall by the intercession of Your Grace obtain we faithfully promise according to our bounden duties to continue in His Majesties Obedience and at our utmost powers to procure the same during our Lives and for the same to rest and remain Your Graces obliged Servants c. His Majesties Answer follows Hamilton I Do not wonder though I am very sorry for your last Dispatch to which I shall answer nothing concerning what you have done or mean to doe because I have approved all and still desire you to believe I do so untill I shall contradict it with my own Hand What now I write is first to shew you in what Estate I am and then to have your Advice in some things My Train of Artillery consisting of 40 Peece of Ordnance with the appurtenances all Drakes half and more â—f which are to be drawn with one or two Horses apiece is in good forwardness and I hope will be ready within six weeks for I am sure there wants neither Money nor Materials to doe it with I have taken as good order as I can for the present for securing of Carlisle and Berwick but of this you
Peers advised a Settlement with Scotland and a Parliament in England Strafford's Advice was more severe and the Marquis pressed a Pacification But though their Opinions varied yet their Friendship continued since both had the same designs for the Kings Honour and Service A recruit of Money which was beginning to run low was not to be hoped without a Parliament and their late experience told on how uneasie terms that was to be had Earl Lowdon also assured the Marquis by his Letters that the Covenanters were well armed well commanded and very resolute nor did they doubt of a strong Party in England and therefore shewed how dangerous it would prove to His Majesties Affairs if a Treaty should not presently follow The Marquis little regarding how ill these Counsels would be represented by others used all his Industry to prevail with the King for a Pacification on any terms since none could be so bad as the hazard the King was like to run if matters continued so broken for it was now apparent how faintly His Majesties Forces did serve him and with how much resolution the Scotish Armies proceeded neither were they without fears in their own Army and that many of the Peers and People of England would have assisted the Scots if matters had run to extremities A Breach betwixt the Marquis and the Earl of Montrose But at that time a passage fell out which drew after it a tract of great Troubles on the Marquis The Earl of Montrose had in Iuly that year procured a Meeting of some Noblemen at Cumbermwald the Earl of Wigtons house where there was a Bond signed by them of adherence to one another in pursuance of the Covenant and from New-Castle he continued to keep Correspondence with His Majesty notwithstanding an Act that had passed in the Committee that none should under pain of Death write any Letters to the Court but such as were seen and allowed of by at least three of the Committee But this Correspondence of my Lord Montrose came to the knowledge of the Covenanters and there were ill Instruments who suggested that this Advertisement must have been given by the Marquis which being too easily believed occasioned a Breach betwixt them that could never be made up And Sanderson hath had the Impudence not only to fasten this on him but as if there had not been Imputation enough in it he adds that the Marquis had in the night picked His Majesties Pockets for his Letters Indeed he needed not take such Courses had he been capable of that Treachery for the Kings Confidence in him was such that he delivered all the Letters he had from Scotland to his keeping and if he had designed such a thing upon Montrose it was in his Power to have done it long before for in October and December of the former year Montrose had writ much in the same strain to the King which Letters the King gave him and are yet extant but were never heard off till now that the Writer gives this account of them But the way how that Letter was discovered was this the Covenanters sent Sir Iames Mercer to York with their Letters to my Lord Lanerick of September the 14 th with whom my Lord Montrose sent his Servant with Letters to some of his Friends at Court and these Letters had been shown to the Committee but as he sealed them up he put within one to Sir Richard Grahame a Letter to the King which had not been seen and Sir Richard opening his Letter carelesly the inclosed to the King dropt out whereupon Sir Iames Mercer being near him stooped down in civility to take up the Letter and read the Direction of it and he returning next day to the Scotish Camp told what he had seen to the General who in a Committee that sate that afternoon wherein it was my Lord Montrose's turn to preside said that the Gentleman they had sent must be examined concerning any Letters he carried to the Court and so he was called in and examined But Montrose understanding that his Correspondence with the King was discovered said that seeing others kept a Correspondence with the Court he knew not why he might not do it as well as they it was answered if others were guilty that did not excuse his fault but when that could be made out against any they were liable to the same Censure he had now incurred whereupon he was commanded to keep his Chamber and he called a great many of his Friends to him to try who would adhere to him whereupon the General bade the Earl of Calender who was then Lieutenant-General tell him that if he came not and submitted himself he would hold a Council of War upon him and proceed against him Capitally Upon this my Lord Montrose came and produced a Copy of the Letter he said he had written and craved pardon and so this Matter was passed over â—ut it was suspected that his Letter had been sent to the Covenanters by the Marquis whereas indeed they knew no more of his Letter but what they had from Sir Iames Mercer who read the Address of it and so they knew not what was in it but by the Copy he produced Yet this went current for the Marquis his Treachery though Sir Iames Mercer did often vouch the truth of this before many Witnesses and particularly particularly to Sanderson himself before Noble Witnesses who acknowledged his Mis-information and promised to expunge that in the next Edition of his Book though there are no grounds to fear the Woâ—ld will ever be troubled with another Edition of so ill a Book The Treaty at Rippon In the end of September a Treaty was agreed upon and His Majesty named the Marquis and my Lords of Traquair and Lanerick to be amongst the Commissioners who should Treat in His name But the Covenanters excepted against the Marquis and Traquair whom they intended to pursue as Incendiaries and therefore they could not Treat with them as for Lanerick they had nothing to fasten on him Upon this the King resolved to send none but English Lords conceiving it not fitting to send any Scotchman if the persons he had imployed as Commissioners were not of the number Rippon a little Town fifteen miles from York was appointed to be the place of Treaty instead of Northallertown and the King sent the English Lords thither appointing Traquair and Lanerick to wait upon them for giving them Information of Scotish Affairs but he kept the Marquis to wait upon Himself The Treaty begun at Rippon and after a few days by reason of the new Parliament the King had summoned against the beginning of November was removed to London The Covenanters Demands were the same with those contained in their Letter of the 8th of September about which they continued Treating till the Iune of the next year and so this year ended But here I shall insert a Paper all written with His Majesties hand which though it do not relate
all so that no clear Proof being brought the Parliament could come to no other Decision but that the Lords had good reason to withdraw themselves and so they were invited to return to their place in Parliament But he is again in His Majesties favour This was a tedious business and put a great stop to the Settlement betwixt the King and the Nation but further Particularities are thought needless to be set down since this Matter vanished no effect following on it The Marquis quickly recovered his former â—oom in the Kings Affection so that there remained not so much as a vestige of this cross Adventure Things in Scotland took presently a Settlement and those were called Plotters and Banders after examination and a delivering up of their Bond which was burnt by the hand of the Common Hangman were set at Liberty after some time of further Restraint but the Process of the alledged Incendiaries was to go on yet they were to enjoy their Liberty and undergo no other Censure but the loss of Publick Imployment which though yielded at London was long resisted in Scotland they pretending their Oath to bring them to condign Punishment But as the King was going on with the Settlement of one Kingdom The Rebellion breaks out in Ireland he got the saddest News that ever were heard out of Ireland of the desperate Rebellion and Massacre had broken out there whereupon His Majesty recommended to the Parliament of Scotland the Relief of his oppressed Protestant Subjects in Ireland which they undertook very willingly But because of the interest England had in Ireland Commissioners were appointed to Treat with the Parliament of England for Concluding a Peace betwixt the two Nations and Settling of Trade and particularly about the Terms upon which they should engage in the War of Ireland and so about the middle of November the King having granted to the Scotish Nation all they could demand ended the Parliament there and returned to London about the end of that month But before the Marquis left Scotland he by the Kings particular Command entred in a close Friendship with Argyle considering that besides the great Power of that Family his Interest with the Clergy and Covenanters was such that none could be so useful to His Majesties Service as he And this Friendship was to be twisted closer by a Bond of a near Alliance betwixt their Children But from all the Letters that passed betwixt them yet to be seen it is as clear as can be that all the Marquis his design in this Friendship was for the Kings Service and that all that time Argyle expressed a hearty concurrence in it To gratifie the Covenanters the more the King had created him a Marquis Lowdon was also made Chancellor Lesley Earl of Leven and Lindsay put in a fair way to be Treasurer Traquair being turned out The King at his return to London The King returns to London where he finds matters worse found the Edge he had left on some of their spirits was no way blunted but growing into more sharpness When the Marquis was in Scotland a Member of the House of Commons laying out their Grievances among other things inveighed against Monopolies and spoke so plainly that all understood he meant the Marquis as a Person that deserved to be accused as well as either Strafford or Canterbury but others of that same Cabal took him up sharply And now upon the Kings return his Enemies finding their designs against him could not take with the King in whose Favour he was as much as ever they took a strange Course to destroy him which was to set on some Members of the House of Commons to accuse him as the Incendiary betwixt England and Scotland who had engaged England into all that Expence who had also invited the Scots to march into England and had been always the third in Strafford's and Canterburie's Counsels who had advised the Dissolving of the former Parliament and had oppressed the Subjects by the grants of many Monopolies which he had This was smelled out even by some of the same Cabal who perswaded their Friends to desist shewing them That for his Carriage betwixt England and Scotland an Oblivion was passed in the late Treaty which was ratified by the Parliament of England That for other things though his Engagement in the Court had carried him along to some extreme Counsels yet they said it was well enough known how moderate his Inclinations were how great an Instrument he had been in the late Settlement of Scotland and how much he was hated upon that account and that this was a design to destroy him either out of malice or because some feared his moderate Counsels in England as much as they hated them in Scotland This seems to have flowed from the Friendship which divers of the Leaders in the House of Peers had for him whom he had often obliged and as they were not unsensible nor forgetful of his good Offices so they seem to have had a particular kindness for his Person And while he was in Scotland he kept Correspondence with Mandevil Essex and others and chiefly with the Lord Say and Seale but all their Letters shew that his greatest business with them was to prepare them to a better Correspondence with the King But when the Marquis smelled out the design against him he gave the King an account of it and told him that if His Majesty intended to go on in his Affairs in a Kingly way he would wait on his Commands and expose himself to the displeasure of the House of Commons but if His Majesty intended to settle Matters by an absolute Compliance with the Parliament then he conceived it was fit that his Servants should use their endeavours for their own Preservation that so they might be afterwards useful to his Service yet he said he would do nothing for himself but by His Majesties Allowance and Direction being it is like taught more caution by the Jealousies had been taken from his care of vindicating himself in the Parliament of Scotland The King upon this allowed him to use all means for his own Preservation which he so managed that the designed Accusation came to nothing This particâ—lar His Sacred Majesty vouchsafed to tell the Writter adding that he had it from the Queen His Mother Anno 1642. An. 1642. THe Tumults and Disorders about Whitehall and Westminster rose to that height that the King withdrew to Windsor in the beginning of the year The Scotch Commissioners continued Treating about their engaging for Ireland The Sâ—ots Commissioners animate the Houses to press the change of the Laws about Church-Government which the King pressed forward very earnestly but some of the Commissioners begun to tamper with those who were most opposite to the Court in the Two Houses and in stead of Moderating them were instigating them to persist in their Demands about Religion to get Episcopacy brought down and Presbytery set up To
receive of their Plagues and that the Lord may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdoms We shall with the same sincerity reality and constancy in our several Vocations endeavour with our Estates and Lives mutually to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms And to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with our Consciences of our Loyalty and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish His Majesties just Power and Greatness We shall also with all faithfulness endeavour the discovery of all such as have been or shall be Incendiaries Malignants or evil Instruments by hindering the Reformation of Religion dividing the King from his People or one of the Kingdoms from another or making any faction or parties amongst the People contrary to this League and Covenant That they may be brought to publick Trial and receive condign Punishment as the degree of their Offences shall require or deserve or the Supreme Iudicatories of both Kingdoms respectively or others having power from them for that effect shall judge convenient And whereas the happiness of a blessed Peace between these Kingdoms denyed in former times to our Progenitors is by the good Providence of GOD granted unto us and hath been lately concluded and settled by both Parliaments We shall each one of us according to our place and interest endeavour that they may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to all posterity and that Iustice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof in manner expressed in the precedent Article We shall also according to our places and callings in this common cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdoms assist and defend all those that enter into this League and Covenant in the maintaining and pursuing And shall not suffer our selves directly or indirectly by whatsoever combination perswasion or terrour to be divided and withdrawn from this blessed Vnion and Conjunction whether â—o make deâ—ection to the contrary part or to give our selves to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in this Cause which so much concerneth the Glory of GOD the Good of the Kingdoms and Honour of the King But shall all the days of our lives zealously and constantly continâ—e therein against all opposition and promote the same according to our power against all â—ets and Impediments whatsoever And what we are not able our selves to suppress or overcome we shall reveal and make known that it may be fully prevented or removed And which we shall do as in the sight of God And because these Kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against GOD and his Son Iesus Christ as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers the fruits thereof We profess and declare before GOD and the World our unfained desire to be humbled for our own sins and for the sins of these Kingdoms especially that we have not as we ought valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel that we have not laboured for the purity and power thereof and that we have not endeavoured to receive Christ in our hearts to walk worthy of him in our liâ—es which are the causes of other sins and transgreâ—sions so much abounding amongst us And our true and unfained purpose desâ—re and endeavoâ—r for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publick and in private in all Duties we owe to God and Man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a real Reformation That the Lord may turn away his wrath and heâ—vy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in Truth and Peace And this Covenant we make in the presence of Almighty GOD the Searcher of all hearts with a true intention to perform the same as we shall answer at that great Day when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed Most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his Holy Spirit for thâ—â— end and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his People and encouragement to other Christian Churches groaning under or in danger of Antichristian Tyranny to joyn in the same or like Association and Covenant To the Glory of GOD the Enlargement of the Kingdom of Iesus Christ and the peace and tranquility of Christâ—an Kingdoms and Commonwealths This was offered to the Assembly on the 17th of August The Censures that generally were passed on it and after it was publickly read Mr. Henderson being then Moderator had a long Speech about it Then it was read the second time and many of the most eminent Ministers and Lay-Elders were desired to deliver their Opinions about it who did all magnifie it highly and though the Kings Commissioner pressed a Delay till at least it were communicated to the King yet the approving it was put to the Vote and carried unanimously and they ordered the Lord Maitland the now Duke of Lauderdale and Mr. Henderson and Mr. Gillespy to carry it up to the Two Houses at Westminster On the same day it was also approved in the Convention Wise Obfervers wondered to see a matter of that Importance carried through upon so little Deliberation or Debate It was thougâ—t strange to see all their Consciences of such a size so exactly to agree as the several Wheels of a Clock which made all apprehend there was some first Mover that directed all those other Motions this by the one Party was imputed to Gods extraordinary Providence but by others to the Power and Policy of the Leaders and the simplicity and fear of the rest One Article of it was thought strange that one Government of the Church was abjured but none sworn to in its place for England this was not the fault of the Scots who designed nothing so much as to see Presbytery established in England But the English Commissioners would not hear of that and by that General words of Reforming according to the Word of God cast in by Sir Henry Vane thought themselves well-secured from the inroads of the Scotish Presbytery and in the very contriving of that Article they studied to out-wit one another for the Scots thought the next words of Reforming according to the Practice of the best Reformed Churches made sure game for the Scotish Model since they counted it indisputable that Scotland could not miss that Character Those of Scotland would have had Episcopacy abjured as simply unlawful but those of England would not condemn that Order which had merited so much Glory in the whole Christian Church therefore the second Article was so conceived that it might import only an Abolition of the present Model of England and it was so declared both in the Assembly of Divines and in the Two Houses of Parliament when they swore it The Scots either perceived not this Change or were
he had a Commission for it under the Great Seal of England it being contrary to the Articles of the late Treaty of the two Kingdoms which was ratified in Parliament At this time the Treaty betwixt the Two Houses in England The Treaty betwixt Scotland and England is concluded and the Convention in Scotland was closed Against the 5th of October a hundred thousand pounds Sterling was to be paid in Scotland and against the Twentieth of that Month an Army of Twenty thousand Horse and Foot was to be on the Borders from Scotland who were to have thirty thousand pounds Sterling a Month for Pay only the hundred thousand pounds Sterling was to serve for the first three Months The General was to be chosen by the Scots the Army was to receive Orders from a Commitee of both Kingdoms no Peace should be treated or concluded without the Scots and the Publick Faith was given by the Convention of Estates in Scotland that their Army should return out of England when a Peace was concluded by both Kingdoms And so the Convention Adjourned till Ianuary having chosen a Committee of Estates to whom they gave full Power in all matters Civil and Military About the middle of September the fairest opportunity of all was lost for the Parliament of England apprehending the hazard of the loss of Berwick sent down some Ships by which Berwick seized on by the Parliament with the Concurrence of the Scots it was presently Garrisoned and the Committee of Estates issued out toward the middle of September Commissions for making of Levies â—hrough the Kingdom so that nothing kept them from Marching but that they heard not of Money from England The Kings Friends were now in the greatest perplexities imaginable they saw his Affairs in a ruining Condition and themselves able to do nothing but regrate it All September passed over ere they had a return from Oxford and since the hope of Berwick was irrecoverably lost nothing remained but Despair The Church-party became daily more resolute and the Kings-party became fainter At length in the beginning of October Mr. Mungo Murray came from Court but brought no present Relief only large hopes of Assistance to follow quickly He also brought Letters from the King both to the Council and the Conservatours of the Peace that to the Conservatours of the Peace follows CHARLES R. RIght Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousins and Councellours Right Trusty and well-beloved Councellours and Trusty and well-beloved The Kings Letters to the Conservatours of the Treaty We greet you well No Industry hitherto could have so far prevailed with Vs as to gain any belief that Our Scotish Subjects would countenance much less assist this bloody Rebellion in England yet We know not how to understand the Levying of Forces both Foot and Horse within Our Native Kingdom and their entring Our Town of Berwick in an hostile manner You are particularly trusted by Vs and Our Parliament and solemnly sworn to be faithful in the discharge of that Trust of seeing the Articles of the late Treaty observed which here is most grosly violated therefore We require you as you will be answerable to God to Vs and Our Parliament to take speedy and present Order for recalling and suppressing those Forces Our most malicious Enemies must bear Vs witness how religiously We have observed these Articles on Our part whereof if We had not been more tender than the advisers of the Breach have been of the Publick Faith it is obvious to any how easily We could have secured that Town from all Rebels We have likewise thought fit to take notice of the private Preparations in that Our Kingdom of Raising an Army by a new Authority to come into Our Kingdom of England under the pretence of securing themselves from a Popish and Prelatical Army falsly alledged to be upon the Borders such Forces as We have there being only for Protecting of Our distressed Subjects from the Incursion of Rebels from their Ships at Berwick and Holy-Island and for no other end Such then as shelter themselves under that Pretext will find from thence but a slender Warrant before God who knows the integrity of Our Heart and how inviolably We intend to preserve all that We have granted to that Kingdom so long as they suffer themselves to be capable of Our Protection and those Favours We do require you not only to oppose and suppress all such unwarrantable Levies but by your Publick Declaration to disabuse those Rebels in England who endeavour to engage you in their Rebellion and expect Assistance from you in all which We look for ready Obedience and expect a present account thereof We bid you heartily farewell Given at Our Court at Oxford the 26th day of September in the 19th Year of Our Reign 1643. The Letter to the Council follows CHARLES R. The Kings Letter to the Council RIght Trusty and Right well-beloved Cousins and Councellours and Trusty and well-beloved Councellours We greet you well Whereas Our desire of preserving Peace within Our Native Kingdom and preventing such Disputes which malicious Instruments might so heighten as to divide Vs and any of Our Scotish Subjects moved Vs by Our Letter of the tenth of June to dispense with the unwarrantable Calling together of the Nobility Commissioners of Shires and Burroughs at Edinburgh the twenty second of June 1643 and so far to give way to the Meeting as to allow them to take into Consideration the best ways of Maintaining Our Scotish Army in Ireland for Suppressing of that bloody Rebellion there since Our Two Houses of Parliament here had failed in the performance of the Treaty concluded upon betwixt the Two Nations for that effect and likewise for such other Particulars as Our said Letter doth more fully contain expecting they would have limited their Resolutions thereunto and paid an equal Gratitude of Duty and Obedience to Vs and Our Iust Commands as We have so lately and so many ways expressed Our Affection to that Our Kingdom in General and so many Members of that Meeting in their own particulars all which notwithstanding they have proceeded to Resolutions as unjustifiable as their Meeting and would engage Our Subjects to an Obedience of their Arbitrary Commands beyond the Power of any of the most Free and Lawful Conventions of the Estates Our Authority and Consent being so absolutely contemned that they have exâ—eeded the Bounds We have prescribed and proceeded to Conclusions of the highest nature without so much as acquainting Vs therewith Such high Indignities to Vs and Our Authority make Vs believe they have forgot they have a King and their Oaths in preserving Vs in Our Iust Power as their King but God will discover and punish such undutiful Thoughts how closely soever they be clouded with pretences of Safety to Religion and Liberty which they know will ever be dearer to Vs than Our Own Preservation Our good Subjects will likewise suffer with Vs by their heavy Taxes upon
Discontent Constructions which are not possible for him to make but obvious to malevolent humours That although you should not be suspected to be any ways accessory to disloyal Courses it will be said you are one of those who could have best hindred them That your Countrey and Friends may say you have deserted them in their greatest Exigences and that Differences may be reconciled betwixt His Majesty and His Subjects by the endeavours of others These Commands were both peremptory and obliging so that they could not fail of conquering all his Resistance and carrying his Obedience after them which were strengthened from the Letter he had at that same time from Her Majesty which follows Cousin THe account the King hath given me of your Aâ—fection for His Interest and those marks of it which from other hands have met me do so sensibly affect me that without any difficulty or scruple I do now entertain you with my Acknowledgments and Resentments of it before I have heard from you and I assure you of the satisfaction I shall ever have of the Continuance of it from you which I shall desire may be as intire and full as the Returns I shall study to make to you being resolved to lay hold on all occasiâ—ns by which I may discover my Friendship for you and to express the Esteem I have of your Friendship by all means that may depend on my cares which I shall imploy in giving you day by day new Proofs that I am and ever shall be Your affectionate Cousin and Friend HENRIETA MARIA R. St. Germanes 22th September Upon these Intreaties and Assurances he was made to change his purpose though he could not so easily part with his Melancholy thoughts which he expressed in this following Letter May it please Your Sacred Majesty THe Reasons You were pleased to offer to my Brother And writes to the King and Sir Robert Murray for diverting my Resolution of leaving Your Majesties Dominions at this time were I confess of strength enough to have fixed me in any place of the World where Your Majesties Service was concerned but now seeing Your Majesty hath honoured me so much as by Your Gracious Letter Your Self to shew me still Your dislike thereof how dare I dispute what Your Majesty thinks unfit and now Sir the Thoughts I formerly had of leaving as it were the World because I would not be a witness of what I feared Your Majesties Fall since as I conceive I could not be instrumental to Your Service or Preservation upon the Grounds Your Majesty went on shall be changed into a Resolution of being most miserable in Your Dominions if it shall not please God to deliver You out of those Difficulties Your Majesty is in for I take God to witness upon Your Happiness depends my greatest worldly Ioy how unfortunately soever I have of late been misunderstood And though I cannot promise my self so much good Fortune as to prove useful to Your Majesty yet I dare and do engage for a cheerful Willingness and perfect Fidelity in Your Majesties Service and trust that God in his Mercy will so direct Your Majesty as by timeously granting the now necessary and most pressing Demands of Your Kingdoms the great Evils will be prevented that threaten Your Sacred Self the Queens Majesty and Your Royal Posterity and likewise that of having any other Guard to attend Your Royal Person than such as shall be approved of by You or Your Majesties being necessitated to retire into Scotland vpon the return of the Scotish Army where I apprehend Your Majesties Entertainment will not answer Your Expectation nor prove at all advantagious to Your Service More I will not presume to say but shall really study in all things to serve Your Majesty and ever give such ready Obedience to Your Commands as becometh Your Majesties most faithful most loyal and most obedient Subject and Servant HAMILTON Kinneel 6th Octob. 1646. A day or two after His Majesty received this Letter He wrote the following Letter to my Lord Lanerick the Post-script whereof seems to relate to the Letter he had received from his Brother Lanerick BEfore now I had not matter to write to you and now I have so much that I shall say the less leaving this inclosed to speak for me But thus much I must assure you of that I have herein gone the utmost length as you call it to give all possible Satisfaction for upon my word one jot further cannot be gone by Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. Newcastle 15th Octob. 1646. POSTSCRIPT Tell your Brother that it were a fault to him to trouble my Self in Complementing with him and indeed to either of you any ways to doubt but that you will make the best use you may of what I now send you for my Service The inclosed Paper is to be found among His Majesties printed Messages to the Two Houses and therefore it is not inserted here But the satisfaction the King had in the Dukes consenting to stay still in Scotland appears by the end of the next Letter he wrote to himself Hamilton THis is rather to perform my Promise to a Lady than that I believe it to be needful in respect of you for I know you naturally so much favour all my Friends and know so well the great Estimation I have of the Earl of Brainford beside what hath been told you concerning him by your Brother Lanerick by my Directions that I am certain without this you will favour his business what you can and since I am writing I must say that there is no particular Mans business wherein you can give me so much Contentment as this of which I need say no more but only that you will shew his Wife that my Recommendation to you of her Lords Affairs is real and hearty Nor can I end this without taking notice to you of the Contentment I had that my last Letter to you had the wished for operation for besides the obtaining my end which several ways is satisfactorily useful to Me I see that all men have not forsaken Reason or at least that I am sometimes in the Right as I am confident you will make appear the great Reason I have to be Your most assured real constant Friend CHARLES R. But to return to Publick Affairs the Duke at his coming to Scotland The Duke labours to engage Scotland for a Personal Treaty procured new Instructions to be sent to their Commissioners at London to press a Personal Treaty and that the King might be with Safety and Honour in England and that it might be declared that the Government of England should still continue according to the Fundamental Laws The chief business at Westminster was to be rid of their Brethren of Scotland wherefore they fell a-treating about the Removal of the Army and the Delivery of the Garrisons The Scots demanded five hundred thousand pounds Sterlâ—ng and of that Sum two hundred thousand pound
many Persons and Families otherwise exposed to Ruine might not become fuel to new Disorders or the seeds of future Troubles His Majesty desires that His Two Houses of Parliament should seriously descend into these Considerations and tenderly look upon His Condition herein and the perpetual Dishonour that must cleave to Him if He should thus desert so many persons of Condition and Fortune that have engaged themselves with Him only out of a sense of Duty His Majesty is very unwilling to enlarge Himself further upon this Subject but earnestly desires that upon Conference these Particulars may be better understood and reconciled wherein He will condescend to all that in Honour and Iustice He may do concerning the same and then they may likewise particularly consider and conclude of the best Means to discharge the Publick Debts as likewise those of His Majesties and then His Majesty will apply Himself to the Consideration concerning the Seals and any other thing now casually omitted or to which for the present without further Information or Debate His Majesty cannot give any positive Answer As for the Offices which are mentioned in the 17th Article albeit His Majesty judges that the free Disposal of them is a necessary Flower of the Crown yet he is content for the space of these next Ten Years to come to nominate such both for England and Ireland who after shall be approved of by the Two Houses to be enjoyed by these Persons Quam diu se bene gesserint so that after the said Ten Years they shall return to be disposed of as formerly His Majesty will very willingly consent to the Act for the Confirmation of the Priviledges and Customs of the City of London And now that His Majesty hath thus far endeavoured to comply with the Desires of His Two Houses of Parliament He conceives it seasonable for Him to propose some things for Himself which if consented to may be a testimony of their reciprocal Affections to Him First that an Act of Oblivion and General Pardon be passed by Act of Parlâ—ament whereby all the seeds of Discontentments and future Troubles may be quite extirpated Secondly that the Two Houses would settle upon His Majesty such a certain Revenue as may be honourable and sufficient for the support of Him His Wife Children and their Families Lastly that this Agreement may be firm and lasting His Majesty desires to come to Westminster with honourable Freedom and Safety there solemnly to confirm the same where He may both give and receive Pledges of mutual Love Confidence and of Trust with them in all things which shall concern the good and prosperity of His People Newcastle the Decemb. 1646. To this Letter with the Inclosed Message my Lord Lanerick wrote the following Answer Lanerick 's Answer to His Majesty Most Sacred Soveraign IMmediately after the receipt of Your Majesties Commands of the 4th Instant by Sir James Hamilton I imparted under a tye of Secrecy Your intended Message to the Houses of Parliament to such Persons as I knew were most tender of Your Majesties Honour and Happiness but I must humbly beg Your Majesties Pardon if my Freedom offend since I cannot conceal so important a Truth as that I cannot find many here satisfied with it nor dare I promise the least Countenance to it from this Kingdom seeing Your Majesty hath divers times verbally and now again by Your Letter assured me of Your Resolution to adhere to the Grounds contained in this Message I shall not presume to make any Objections against it having when I had the honour to wait upon Your Majesty last represented my sense of that You was pleased to send by Mr. Murray whereof this in divers Particulars comes far short for besides that it is as wanting in that Article concerning Religion Your Majesty offers far less than you did at that time by the private Instructions Your Majesty then gave Him in the Propositions about the Militia Officers of State and the Great Seal yet I find not Your Majesties Condition is much more promising at least to vulgar eyes That Clause concerning the Liberty Your Majesty would allow to Tender Consciences is one of the meanest Particulars that is misliked in Your Majesties Answer to the Proposition concerning Religion Your Majesties Preface to that Article the Limitation of time to Presbyterial Government the addition of Twenty of Your Majesties Nomination to the Assembly of Divines the particular Exception of Your Own Family and what is most of all the total omission of making any mention of the Covenant are the most insisted-on Objections But as I dare not think upon the sad Consequences in relation to Your Majesties Person and Government which will presently follow upon the Return of the Scotish Army and Your Majesties declining to allow the Covenant without which though I presume not to press it all that can be offered will not satisfie here so I will not conceal the great advantages which I conceive the doing of it would bring to Your Majesty and to those You study to preserve for I am confident it might be so managed as this Kingdom would not only declare themselves for Preserving Your Majesties just Rights in Civil Relations but likewise engage themselves for an honourable and speedy Invitation of Her Majesty to return from France Besides an easie passing of all such who during these Troubles have adhered to Your Majesty in England with what else could be expected from faithful and dutiful Subjects But I have by my impertinent Expressions exceeded both my Intention and Duty for which I humbly beg Pardon for Your Majesties most faithful most loyal most obedient Subject and Servant LANERICK Edinburgh 8th Decemb. 1646. Upon this His Majesty wrote what follows Lanerick I Like well of your accustomed Freedom nor shall I alter My stile to you and indeed as I am well satisfied with your Proceedings His Majesty writes more fully on these Heads in order to My Commands sent by Sir James Hamilton so I wonder much that My intended Answer had so ill a Reception among you for aâ—beit I could not expect that you would approve what I know is so much against your Wishes yet I thought that even Common Charity besides believe Me there is also the Interest of the Country which would be considered might make you endeavour to make the best of that yâ—u saw remediless Yet since what I sent you is so much mistaken the rest is the less wonder to Me for it amazes Me to hear that some amongst you who know every tittle that Will. Murray carried say that this is far short in divers Particulars when there is but one which is the Militia for which there is any colour and not that neither but in a much wrested sense And is it not so when private Instructions are the only ground which only permit a further Latitude to be made use of in case of absolute necessity and not otherwise it being a new kind of Incivility
their Act which constituted this Court for his Trial declared him a Traytor it was not to be disputed what the Parliament had Power to do but no Parliament had ever done the like before and the meaning of the Act must be that he should be tried whether guilty of Treason or not since if the Parliament have already declared him a Traytor further Trial was needless And it was clear the Parliament by their Act in Iuly last which declared all the Scots who entred England Enemies considered not the distinction of Post-nati nor judged that inferred Treason since most of them all were Post-nati That many of the Officers of that Army who had been taken Prisoners though clearly Post-nati were ransomed others banished others still in Prison why then should the imputation of Treason be fastned on the Duke when the rest were used only as Enemies And for the Articles they made it appear they were the Publick Faith of the Kingdom when given by persons publickly Authorized upon the observing of which inviolably depended the whole Intercourse of all Nations and their mutual Confidence which is founded on all States being bound by the Acts of their Publick Ministers That this was not a pure Rendition but a Paction concluded upon Deliberation wherein the Parliament lost nothing but on the contrary were Gainers That the Parliament had ratified this upon the matter by Voting a hundred thousand pound Sterling Fine to be the price of the Dukes Liberty That the secret sence the Treaters pretended was not to be considered since all Compacts are to be understood according to the clear meaning of the Words the universal sense of Mankind who look on Articles wherein Life is granted as a sufficient Security not only from the Souldiers but from the Civil Powers and that these Treaters when the Articles were agreed should have made known their secret meaning otherwise it was not to be regarded and it was a most dangerous Precedent to admit of collateral Averments of secret meanings against express words much more in a Case of Life and yet much more in Military Agreements wherein the Concernments of Armies and Nations were included and which concerned the Honour and Security of all Souldiers and for this divers Precedents were cited The Argument ended thus That as the Court consisted of Gentlemen Lawyers and of Martial men so the Plea consisting of three Branches was the more proper for their cognizance a part of it being drawn from the Law of England another part from the Civil Law and a Third part from the Martial Law and if the Plea in any of the three Branches was made good and they doubted not but it would be found so in them all the Court would be satisfied there was Reason Justice for preserving the Dukes life The Tenth Appearance The Court adjourned till Friday the second of March and the Duke being again brought to the Bar the Counsel for the People pleaded but so poorly that all who heard them were asham'd But they had one advantage that neither the Duke nor his Counsel were allowed to speak after them nor to discover their impertinent Allegations which made the Dukes Counsel obviate all they could imagine they might say though they said a great deal so far out of the way of Reason that none could have thought of it and yet it was so weak that it needed neither be obviated nor replied to Yet at the end of every Branch of their Pleading I shall add the Answers against them as they are set down in some Notes taken by the Dukes Counsel The Counsel for the People plead against the Duke They begun with Alienage and studied to make it appear that though he was a Scotchman born yet he was no Alien having enjoyed all the Priviledges an Englishman was capable of as being a Peer a Privy-Councellour possessing Lands and Inheritances and Marrying in England But Naturalization cannot be but by Act of Parliament and not by the Kings single Deed much less by those Priviledges of which any Stranger might participate Next they urged his Fathers Naturalization and since his Name was not in that Act as was in other Acts of Naturalization that proved him to be no Alien otherwise his Name had been put in From that it rather appeared he was an Alien since others found it necessary to insert their Childrens Names which his Father not doing proves the Son an Alien still They also urged his being Post-natus which must be held true since he brought no Evidence to the contrary and it being so his Tie of subjection was as great in England as in Scotland That Allegeance was only due to the King and not to the Kingdom That there was a King when he entred into England and that though he was secluded from the Government yet all Writs were issued in his Name so that this Expedition was a breach of the Allegeance he owed the King This was the oddest part of all their Plea since his Charge was that he assisted the King against the Kingdom and now they did plead he owed no Allegeance to the Kingdom but to the King whom they had so lately murdered the Dukes coming with his Army being only to relieve him from the Barbarous Vsage he had met with They also urged at large That an Englishman's Children in what place of the World soever they were born were Denizens of England and cited many Precedents But the Mis-application of them was gross and palpable those being of Persons who were Englishmen before their Children were born whereas the Duke's Father was naturalized after he was born so that he could not communicate that Priviledge to him which he did indeed transmit to his Children born after his Naturalization Next they pleaded that the Parliament of Scotland had no power to commissionate him to enter into England and that if some of them were there they ought likewise to suffer for it and it was fit he suffered for his Masters who employed him That it was pitty the King had not suffered sooner They also produced many Precedents of Strangers being condemned as guilty of Treason for Treasons committed in England as the Queen of Scots Lopez Perkin Warbeck the Lord Harris Shirley the Frenchman and the Spanish Ambassadour All this was obviated in the former Argument where distinction was made betwixt secret Practices and an open Invasion with a forreign Force They added That Scotland belonged to the Crown of England and so was to be look't on as some of the Counties of England But Scotland had no subjection to the Crown but only to the King of England whom they had murdered and so they had no Power to judge any Scotchman As for the Articles they pleaded it was not in the Power of the Army to absolve any from the Justice of the Parliament which being above them was not tied to their Articles and therefore though they confessed the words ought to have been less