granted to Five Bishops to Execute his Office After which the Bishop Published a Narrative of the Cause and Manner of his Suspension Five of those Gentlemen who were Imprisoned about the Loan had their Habeas Corpus granted and were brought to their Tryal before Sir Nicholas Hyde Lord Chief Justice where after arguing the Case between Council on both sides the L. Chief Justice concluded That since they were Committed by the Kings Authority the Court could not Free them so that they were remanded to Prison till the Order came out for a General Release The Irish Papists in hope of some Remission of the Penal Laws offered to Furnish the King at their own Charge with a standing Army of 5000 Foot and 500 Horse and a large Contribution for securing the Narrow Seas which was opposed in England by Sir John Savil and in Ireland by the Lord Primate of Armagh and divers others as tending to preserve the Papists Interests and sinking the Protestants upon which the L. Deputy moved the Primate to endeavour to prevail with the Protestants to supply the Kings Necessities which he attempted to do in a very learned Speech though not with the expected Success In 1627 being the Third Year of his Majesties Reign the Duke of Buckingham to clear his Reputation as to the Charge of Negligence in his Admiralship with much ado compleated his Naval Forces consisting of Six Thousand Horse and Foot in Ten Ships Royal and Ninety Merchant Men with which he set Sail from Portsmouth June 27 and published a Manifesto of the Kings Affection to the Reformed Churches in France and his displeasure against the last misimploying of his Ships against the Rochellers But by several Accidents this great Design miscarried with the Death of near Two Thousand common Souldiers Thirty Prisoners of Note and Fourty four Colours taken But notwithstanding this Expedition of the Isle of Rhe miscarried yet at Sea there was somewhat better Success a great French Ship was taken upon the Coasts of Holland Laden with great Guns Arms and Ammunition of all sorts to a very considerable value Sir John Pennington likewise took Thirty Four Rich French Merchantmen homeward bound which were all safely brought to England the poor remains of the Army which came from the Isle of Rhe most of them Irish and Scots and consequently rude and boisterous were quartered in the Countrey Villages which was very troublesome to the People At this time the Exchequer was very low and several late Enterprizes having miscarried the Rochellers being also now more distressed than ever the causes of these evils were gravely represented by Sir Robert Cotton to several Lords of the Councill whereupon it was resolved on by the Council that a Parliament should be called and Writs were presently Issued out A Commission likewise passed under the Great Seal for raising Moneys through the Kingdome in Nature of an Excise and the Lord Treasurer was ordered to pay Thirty Thousand Pound to Philip Burmelack a Dutch Merchant to be returned to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier in the Low Countreys for raising a Thousand Horse which caused strange jealousies and suspicions among the People as if these German Horse were designed to inforce the payment of the Excise There was some discourse about Levying Ship money but it was declined at that time because of the Parliament approaching In the mean time a company of Jesuites were apprehended in an House at Clerkenwell which was designed for a Colledge of that Order where among other Papers a Letter was found discovering their secret Designs they had laid for imbroiling Church and State Upon the 17th of March 1627 the Parliament Assembled the Commons chusing Sin John Finch Speaker the King in a Speech tells the two Houses That the greatness of the danger was such as required a speedy Supply and that therefore they might rest assured it was the principal cause of their Meeting wherein he hoped they would shew themselves such true Patriots of the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and the just defence of their Friends and Allies now in such hazard by Popish Enemies as not to deceive his Expectations which were very great though indeed somewhat nipt by Remembrance of the Distractions of the last Meeting The Lord Keeper likewise Inforc'd the Kings Speech and earnestly pressed them to consider of some speedy way for Supplying his Majesties Necessities Before the Parliament began any debate a Letter came to them Directed To the Members of the House of Commons called A Speech without Doors discovering the Grievances and Inconveniences of the State from one who had been a Member of the former Parliament The first thing taken into Consideration by the Commons was the Grievances of the Kingdom and the first thing Insisted on was the Case of those Gentlemen for refusing the Loan and who notwithstanding their Habeas Corpus were Remanded to Prison and after a long Debate between several Members who asserted the Illegality of the Loan and also their Imprisonment for refusing it the Lord Chief Justice Hyde and several other Judges were desired to declare themselves who justified their own proceedings alledging That if they had granted them Bail upon Habeas Corpus it would have reflected upon the King as if he had unjustly Imprisoned them But in conclusion it was resolved upon the Question in the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente 1. That no man ought to be restrained by the Command of the King or Privy Council without some Cause of the Commitment 2. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus ought to be granted upon Request to every Man that is restrained though by the Command of the King the Privy Council or any other 3. That if a Freeman be imprisoned by the Command of the King the Privy Council or any other and no Cause of such Commitment expressed and the same be returned upon an Habeas Corpus granted for the said Party then he ought to be delivered or Bailed Then the Parliament proceeded to draw up a Petition against Popish Recusants consisting of these particulars 1. That all Laws and Statutes against Jesuites and Popish Priests be put in power and Execution 2. That a strict course be taken for the Apprehending and Discovering of them 3. That all Popish Recusants be prohibited from coming to Court or within Ten Miles of London 4. That no place of Trust or Authority shall be committed to Popish Recusants with several other particulars to the same purpose which Petition was presented from the Lords and Commons to the King by the Lord Keeper who gave a full and satisfactory Answer to every Article after which Five Subsidies were granted to the King which gave so great satisfaction to his Majesty that he sent them Word He would deny them nothing of their Liberties which any of his Predecessors had granted A Petition was then presented against Quartering Souldiers in the Countries to which the King promised an Answer in convenient time
acquainted them with a Declaration which he had procured of the King That he did discharge the Service Book Book of Canons and high Commission and likewise did annul and rescind all Acts for establishing them and did discharge the urging the Practice of the Five Articles of Perth and that all Persons whomsoever shall be liable to the Censure of Parliament General Assembly or any other Judicatories according to the Nature of the Offence That the Ancient Confelsion of Faith and Band annexed shall be subscribed and received as in K. James time That a General Assembly be holden at Glafcow Nov. 21. 1638 and a Parliament at Edenbourgh May 15. 1639 All former Offences to be pardoned and a General Fast appointed This Declaration being published the Marquess and Council subscribed the Covenanters Confession of Faith c. yet still some matter remained for a Protestation which was read by one Johnson wherein the People were exhorted to consider with whom they had to deal and exceptions were made against Bishops and their Voting in the Assembly After this they Elect Commissioners for the Assembly whom they moved to cite the Archbishops and Bishops to appear there as Guilty Persons which being refused they themselves present a Bill of Complaint against them to the Presbytery at Edenbourgh who accordingly warned them to appear at the next General Assembly At their Meeting the Bishops sent in a Protestation against their Assembly which the Covenanters would not vouchsafe to read but presumed to forbid Six Lords of the Privy Council to fit in their Assembly though nominated by the King His Majesty having notice of their proceedings as to the Bishops and other matters ordered their Assembly to be dissolved which was done accordingly Nov. 21. 1638 and the Covenanters immediately according to their usual method Issued out a Protestation against it and likewise declared 6 former Meetings which were opposite to their ways to be void and of none Effect and soon after they abolished Episcopacy and then prepared for a War as being sensible that the King would maintain the Rights of the Bishops and would likewise strictly call them to Account for their late Transactions About this time a Letter was sent by the Scots to the King of France to implore his Assistance Signed by several of the Nobility The King of England prepares an Army for Scotland with which in the year 1639 he marcheth in Person into the North but while he stayed at York some of the Scots Nobility tampered with the Eaglish telling them that the ruin of the Scots would enable the King to be more severe toward his English Subjects by which Intelligence and Correspondence it was evident that the English had no mind to Fight though their Army was much stronger than the Scots whereupon by the Mediation of some Persons a Treaty of Peace was begun and soon finished wherein it was agreed That His Majesty should publish a Declaration whereby all should be confirmed which his Commissioners had promised in his Name That a General Assembly and a Parliament be held at Edenbourgh in a short time And lastly That upon disbanding their Forces dissolving their Councils and restoring the King to his Forts and Castles c. the King was to recall his Fleet and Forces and make restitution of their Goods since the Breach The Kings Declaration was no sooner published but the Covenanters set forth another Protestation for adhereing to there Assembly at Glasco and their Covenant whereupon the King who intended to be present at their General Assembly not finding the Scots punctual in performing Articles and perceiving they would treat of some matters distasteful to him goes into England after which the Assembly sate at Edenbourgh and abolished Episcopacy the Liturgy High Commission and Book of Canons and then made several demands of the King of a various nature His Majesty understanding how things went and that the Scots levyed Taxes and prepared Arms he commanded by his Commissioner the Earl of Traquair that their Parliament should be Adjourned for some time but the Covenanters declared against this Command and sent a Remonstrance to the King and afterward Hamilton and Traquair likewise came to London where there were such proceedings as did the more exasperate the jarring parties against each other In this year 1639 a Spanish Fleet of near Seventy Sail and Twenty five thousand Men designed to be landed at Dunkirk for the relief of Flanders were set upon by the Dutch in the Downs and Eleven of them taken and sent into Holland three perished upon the Coast of France one near Dover and five were sunk in the Fight What the real intent of this Fleet was is yet uncertain for it seemed unlikely that Twenty five thousand Men should be sent only for a Recruit and the Admirals refusing to shew his Commission when required thereto by the King makes it seem yet mon suspicious The Scots Commissioners having delivered their Message return home to Edenbourgh Nov. 19. 1639. the same night that a great part of the Castle Walls fell down and the Anniversary of the King Birth day A while after the King sent the Lord Estrich and others to tepair the Walls who were resisted by the Covenanters as not judging the Lord Estrich to be a fit Governour for the Castle which Office was designed him by the King The King being hereat extreamly offended resolved since fair means would not prevail to force the Scots to reason and to that end considers how to make provisions for Men and Money and calling a secret Cabinet Council consisting only of Archbishop Laud the Earl of Strafford and Duke Hamilton who drove on his own particular interest it was concluded That for the Kings supply a Parliament must be called in England and another in Ireland but because the Debates of Parliament would take up some time it was resolved that the Lords should subscribe to lend the King money The Earl of Strafford subscribed Twenty thousand pound the Duke of Richmond as much but Hamilton pretended poverty preserving his money for other uses the rest of the Lords Judges Officers and other Dependants and many of the Gentry yea even several Popish Recusants contributed according to their ability The Scots on the other side fore-seeing the storm prepared for their own Defence making Treaties in Denmark Sweden Holland and Poland and the Jesuits who are never idle did likewise endeavour to foment the differences to which end Con the Popes Nuncio Sir Toby Matthews Read and Maxwell two Scots endeavoured to perswade the discontented People That the King designed to iuslave them to his will and pleasure Which practices of theirs were discovered by Andreas Habernsfield a Nobleman of Bohemia who declared That many of the Nobility of England and chief Favourites at Court were consenting to these Transactions and particularly the Earl and Countess of Arundel Secretary Windebank and Endymion Porter Con also performed the part of a Firebrand as all his Successors
December 3. they presented their Petition against their Prosecutors And now the Papists began to fear a Cloud for Justice Howard was to deliver up a Catalogue of all Recusants within the Liberties of Westminster to prevent which he was stabbed by one Mr. John James in Westminster hall for which he was imprisoned in the Gate-house in order to a more severe punishment But Sir Francis Windebank Secretary of State fearing to be called to Account by the Parliament for reprieving Jesuits and Priests which he knew would be produced against him if not worse matters fled privately into France December 7th the Commons Voted Ship-money with the Opinion of the Judges thereupon to be Illegal and a Charge of High Treason was ordered to be drawn up against eight of them and they resolved to begin with the Lord Keeper Finch December 11th Alderman Pennington and some hundreds of Citizens presented a Petition subscribed by 15000 Hands against Church Discipline and Ceremonies and a while after the House of Commons Voted That the Clergy in a Synod or Convocation have no power to make Canons or Laws without Parliaments and that the Canons are against the Fundamental Laws of this Realm the Kings Prerogative the Property of the Subject the Right of Parliaments and tend to Faction and Sedition In pursuance hereof a Charge was ordered to be drawn up against Arch-bishop Laud as the principal framer of those Canons and other Delinquencies which Impeachment was seconded with another from the Scotch Commissioners upon which he was committed to the Black Rod and 10 weeks after Voted Guilty of High Treason and sent to the Tower The Scots likewise prefer a charge against the Earl of Strafford then in Custody requiring Justice against them both as the great Incendiaries and Disturbers of Church and State and Sir George Ratcliff the Earls Bosom Friend had Articles also drawn against him to this purpose That he had conspired with the Earl to bring Ireland under an Arbitrary Government and to subvert the Fundamental Laws and to bring an Army from Ireland to subdue the Subjects of England That he perswaded the Earl to use Regal Power and to deprive the Subjects of their Liberties and Properties That he countenanced Papists and built Monasteries to alienate the Affections of the Irish from England That he withdrew the Subjects of Scotland from their King And lastly That to preserve himself and the Earl of Strafford he laboured to subvert the Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament in Ireland The Lord Keeper Finch was the next Person designed to be censured and notwithstanding a Speech made in his own Vindication he was Voted a Traytor upon several Accounts and among the rest for soliciting perswading and threatning the Judges to deliver their Opinions for raising Ship-money and for several ill Offices done in moving the King to Dissolve the last Parliament and causing the publishing the Kings Declaration thereupon Next day he was accused before the Lords but he foresaw the Storm and went over into Holland The Parliament having now removed their Enemies and increasing in Reputation were designing a Bill for a Triennial Parliament for promoting which Petitions came from divers places one whereof was subscribed with 800 Hands directly against Episcopacy which the King took notice of and calling both Houses together tells them Of their slowness and the charge of Two Armies in the Kingdom and that he would have them avoid two Rocks the one about the Hierachy of Bishops which he was willing to Reform but not to alter The other concerning frequent Parliaments which he liked well but not to give his Power to Sheriffs and Constables About this time one Goodman a Popish Priest condemned at the Sessions in London was reprieved by the King upon which both Houses petitioned to know who were the Instruments of it and receiving an unsatisfactory Answer they Remonstrated against the Toleration of Papists and the Popes Nuncio Rosetti and this Goodman whom they desired might be left to the Justice of the Law To this the King answers That the increase of Popery and Papists in his Dominions is extreamly against his mind and that he would use all possible means for the restraining of it As for the Popes Nuncio Rosetti he had no Commission but only to preserve Correspondence between the Queen and the Pope which was allowed her by the Articles of Marriage however he had prevailed with her to remove him and is contented to remit the particular Case of Goodman to both Houses The Scots had been now quartered in England five months during which a Cessation had been concluded at Rippon but the full Pacification was reserved for London where Commissioners sate on both Parties to hear the Demands of the Scots and to make answer thereunto After which the Scots presented the great Account of their Charges which was Five hundred fourteen thousand one hundred twenty eight pounds nine Shillings besides the loss of their Nation which was Four hundred and forty thousand pounds This Reckoning startled the English Commissioners till the Scots told them They did not give in that Account as expecting a Total Reparation of their Charges and Losses but were content to bear a part of it hoping for the rest from the Justice and Kindness of England There was some opposition made to the Demands however Moneys were raised for the present from the City of London for the Supply of both the Northern Armies as the Parliament had done once before At this time a Match was propounded between the young Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary Eldest Daughter to the King which his Majesty liked well of and communicated it to the Parliament with whom it found an unanimous and general Reception in regard of the Alliance to be thereupon concluded with the States General and likewise that he was of the same Protestant Religion with England so that the Marriage was soon concluded Presently after four Members of the Commons delivered a Message to the Lords of a Popish Design of Levying an Army of Fifteen thousand in Lancashire and Eight thousand in Ireland and that the main promoters thereof were the Earls of Strafford and Worcester In February Sir Robert Berkly one of the Judges about Ship-money was accused of High Treason and committed Prisoner to the Black Rod. In this Month the King passed that Act for a Triennial Parliament and to let them know what value he put upon this great favour his Majesty told the Two Houses That hitherto they had gone on in those things which concerned themselves and now he expected they should proceed upon what concerned him The King then likewise signed the Bill of Subsidies which gave them such universal content that Sir Edward Littleton Lord Keeper was ordered To return the Humble Thanks of Both Houses to his Majesty at Whitehall Upon which there were Bonefires and Bells ringing in and about London in the same manner as formerly upon granting the Petition of Right March 1 1640
done His Character is Expressed by the King his Master in his Eikon Basilike who said He looked upon the Earl of Strafford as a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to Imploy him in the greatest Affairs of State The fall of this powerful man so startled other great Officers of State that several resigned their places About the same time some discontents arose between the Parliament and the English Army in the North but a while after both Armies were disbanded The payment of Tonnage and Poundage had been much questioned since 1628 but now the King at the request of the Commons was content to relinquish his Claim to it and afterward pasied a Bill for Pole-money and two others for putting down the Star chamber and High Commission Courts which had proceeded with too much severity having so far out grown the power of the Law that they would not be limited nor guided by it July 5. A Charge was brought into the House of Commons against Dr. Wren Bishop of Ely being accused of some Treasonable Misdemeanors in his Diocess who thereupon Voted him unworthy and unfit to hold or exercise any Office or Dignity in Church or State and desired the Lords to join with them to request the King for his Removal from his service and so he was committed to the Tower and about the same time the Writs for Ship money and all the Proceedings therein were by the Kings consent adjudged void and 5. of the Judges that gave their Opinions for it were Impeached of high misdemeanors that is Bramston Trevor Weston Davenport and Crawly and Berkly another of the Judges was accused for Treason but no further prosecution was made therein August 6. Both the English and Scotch Armies were disbanded and four-days after the King went toward Scotland and was entertained with great demonstrations of Affection by that Nation and conferred several Places of Honour and Power upon divers of them confirming likewise the Treaty between the two Nations by Act of Parliament October 23 1641. A Horrid and Notorious Rebellion broke out in Ireland which was managed with such secrecy that it was not discovered till the night before it was to have been put in Execution which was in divers places carried on with such fury that Two hundred thousand English Men Women and Children were in a short space barbarously murdered by all manner of most cruel torments that their Devlish minds could invent And this was chiefly occasioned by the Instigation of the Irish Popish Priests Monks and Fryers who every where declaimed loudly against the Protestants saying That they were Hereticks and not to be suffered any longer to live amongst them That it was no more sin to kill one of them then to kill a dog and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them Yea the Priests gave the Sacrament to divers of the Irish upon Condition they should spare neither Man Woman nor Child of the Protestants saying That it did them a great deal of good to wash their hands in their blood and that they were worse than Dogs and if any of them died in the Quarrel before their bodies were cold their souls should be in Heaven without ever calling in at Purgatory by the way This bloody Rebellion happened in a time wherein the Irish had all the Priviledges and Liberty they could reasonably expect and the ancient hatred which the Irish had born to the English did now seem to be forgotten Forty Years of Peace having compacted and cemented them together both by Alliances and Marriages which were all now miserably broken and destroyed The Castle of Dublin wherein were Ten thousand Arms and all other Forts and Magazines in the Kingdom were to have been surprized and all the English Protestants that would not joyn with them were to be murdered but the seizing of the Castle was happily prevented by one Owen Conally from some discourse accidentally in a Tavern with one Hugh Mac Mahon Grandson to the Great Earl of Tyrone the night before the intended Execution Upon this Discovery Mac Mahon and Lord Mac-Guire were seized by the Lord Chief Justices of Ireland and many Principal Conspirators escaped that night out of Dublin so was Dublin saved that all Ireland might not be lost in one day But the horrid Design was past prevention as to the General for the Conspirators were in Arms at the day appointed in all the Counties round about and poor English Protestants daily arrived there robbed and spoiled of all they had giving lamentable Relations how their Houses were seized the Towns and Villages fired and in all parts all manner of cruel Outrages and Villanies committed The Lords Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir John Burlace taking those Arms which they found in Dublin and Arming whom they could to defend themselves sent Sir Henry Spotswood to the King then in Scotland with an Account of all that happened who dispatched Sir James Stuart with Instructions to the Lords of the Privy Council in Ireland and to carry all the Money his present Stores would supply He likewise moved the Parliament of Scotland as being nearest for their assistance but they excused it because Ireland was a dependant upon the Crown of England but if the State of England would use any of their men for that service they would make Propositions in order to it At the same time likewise the King sent Post to the Parliament of England and a while after Owen O Conally the First Discoverer of the Plot came to London and brought Letters to the Earl of Leicester who was chosen Deputy but not yet gone over wherein the Lords Justices desired some Reward might be given him upon which the Parliament Voted him a Gift of 500 l. and an Annuity of 200 l. a year and at a Conference of both Houses they passed several Votes for the Relief of Ireland yet little was done till the Kings return from Scotland which was about the end of November The Irish to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged That the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them also and asist them That they did but maintain his Cause against the Puritans That they had the Kings Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old Broad Seal which had been taken from an Ancient Patent out of Farnham Abby by one Plunket in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of several That the Scots were in the Confederacy with them And to seem to confirm this last they abstained for some time from destroying the Estates or murdering any of that Nation And on the otherside to incourage the Irish they produced pretended Letters wherein they said they were informed from England That the Parliament had passed an Act all the Irish should be compelied to the Protestant worship
And that as soon as his Majesty and both Houses may be secured from such Tumultuous Assemblies as to the High dishonour of the Parliament had awed the Members of the same which he conceived could not otherwise be done but by adjourning the Parliament to some place Twenty miles from London such as the Houses should agree upon His Majesty most chearfully and readily would consent to the disbanding of the Armies and would return speedily to his Two Houses of Parliament according to the Time and Place which they should agree upon Upon this Message the Parliament resolved to call back their Commissioners and so April 15. the Treaty ended About the beginning of last March the L. Brook marched toward Northampton and seizing the Ammunition there he went from thence to Warwick and so to Stratford upon Avon and beat Coll. Crockers and Lt. Coll Wagstaff's Forces out of that Town after which Besiegeing Litchfield one of the Kings Party shooting at a venture at the window of his Chamber the bullet pierced him in the Eye of which he immediately dyed yet his Souldiers being heightned with Revenge took the Close with the E. of Chesterfield and all his Souldiers and Ordnance after which Prince Rupert and the Earl of Northampton joining their Forces fell upon the Parliamentarians at Lichfield where the E. of Northampton was slain in the head of his Troop yet Lieut. Coll. Russel who commanded it despairing of succour yielded up the Place to Prince Rupert upon Honourable Conditions and marched away to Coventry April 17. 1643. the E. of Essex sate down before Reading and made two assaults but was repulsed The King marched from Oxford to Wallingford for its relief but Essexes Army increasing daily with fresh supplies from London both Parties happened to Skirmish at Causum Bridge where many of the Kings Forces were slain and forced to retreat whereupon the Town was a while after surrendred by Coll. Fielding who was made Deputy Governour in the room of Sir Arthur Aston who was disabled by a bruise he received in his head with a Brick-bat Fielding was for this Sentenced by a Council of War at Oxford to lose his Head but by the Intercession of Friends was pardoned May 3. Cheapside Cross was demolished a Troop of Horse and two Companies of Foot waiting to see it done and at the fall of the Top Cross Drums beat Trumpets blew and a great shout was made Charing-cross and all other Crosses in and about London were likewise pulled down about the same time In the mean time the breach between the King and Parliament became wider than ever so that they proceeded to draw up Articles of High Treason against the Queen some of which were That she had pawned the Crown Jewells in Holland That she had favoured the the Rebellion in Ireland That she had endeavoured to raise a Party in Scotland against the Parliament and that she had gone in the head of a Popish Army in England Several other Articles were framed against her upon which Mr. Pym carried up an Impeachment to the Lords who seemed at first surprized therewith but they afterward agreed to the Charge The Queen had about this time raised an indifferent Army of Horse and Foot and leaving some Horse and Foot with Sir Charles Cavendish for defence of Lincoln-shire and Nottingham-shire she with 3000 foot three Companies of Horse and Foot six Canons and two Mortar pieces met the King at Edge-hill and goes from thence with him to Oxford Several Encounters happened in the West between Sir Ralph Hopton for the King and Sir G. Chudleigh then Commander of the Parliaments Forces where sometimes one Party was Victorious and then the other Collonel Nath. Fines Governout of Bristoll about this time discover'd a design of Robert Yeomans and George Bouchier to deliver up that City to the Kings Forces upon which they were Condemned by Council of War and hanged May 30 notwithstanding the Kings Letter to the Maior and Citizens and General Ruthens to the Governour on their behalf And so ends this month famous by the Death of Mr. John Pym that active Person in the House of Commons In June 1643. Mr. Waller a Member of the House of Commons Mr. Tomkins Mr. Challoner Mr. Hasel Mr. Blinkhorn Mr. White and others were Arraigned at Guild-Hall London they being charged For designing to seize into their Custody the Kings Children some Members of Parliament the L. Mayor and Committee of the Militia all the Cities Outworks and Forts the Tower of London and all the Magazines and then to let in the Kings Forces to surprize the City Upon this Indictment they were Tryed and Condemned but Tomkins and Challoner onely were hanged Some Skirmishes passed between the E. of Essex and P. Rupert who ingaging about Tame in Oxfordshire The Prince routed a body of Horse in Chalgrave Field where Mr. John Hambden recieved his mortal wounds but in the West the Parliaments Forces had better success where they took in the Towns of Taunton and Bridgewater At this time finding the want of a Great Seal the Parliament after long debates Voted That a new Seal should be made for Confirmation of their Acts and Ordinances which was forthwith done and thereon was Ingraven the Picture of the House of Commons and Members sitting and on the other side the Arms of England and Ireland but between the Voting and making this Seal they passed this Order That if the L. Keeper Littleton upon Summons did not return with the great Seal within fourteen dayes he should lose his Place and whatsoever should be Sealed therewith by him after that time should be null and void in Law And presently after Mr. Hen. Martin a Member of Parliament seized upon the Regalia which were reposited in Westminster Abby telling some of his Accomplices That the time would come wherein there would be no need of Crowns and Scepters July 5. 1643. Sir Will. Waller meets with Sir Ralph Hopton's Forces at Landsdown near Bath who though fewer than Sir Williams yet maintained the fight from two in the afternoon till one the next morning and then Sir Williams Party forsook the Field Hopton himself was hurt and lost divers Gentlemen of note but the Parliaments loss was more Hopton marches to the Devizes in Wilt-shire and Waller after him whereupon the King sent 1500 Horse from Oxford to Hoptons relief Waller draws off to Roundway Down and there the Fight began in which the Parliamentarians were defeated and fled leaving the Foot to the mercy of their Adversaries by whom hundreds of them were Slain and more taken with four brass Guns Ammunition and Baggage 28 Colours and 9 Cornets Waller having thus lost his Army posts to London with a few followers for Recruits This Fight happened July 13. Some difference arising in the North between L. Fairfax General for the Parliament and Sir John Hotham Governour of Hull who refused to submit to the L. Fairfax the Parliament designed to displace Hotham which he
much the more acceptable especially since his Majesty required but the Sum which few men would deny a Friend and has a mind resolved to expose all his Earthly Fortune for Preservation of the General The Sum which His Majesty requires by these presents is which His Majesty promiseth in the Name of himself his Heirs and Successors to repay to them or their Assigns within Eighteen Months after the payment thereof to the Collector The Person whom his Majesty hath appointed is to whose hands his Majesty doth require them to send it within Twelve days after they have received this Privy Seal which together with the Collectors Acquittance shall be sufficient Warrant to the Officers of Receipt for their payment thereof at the time limited And the Collectors of the Loan were ordered to pay the Sums received into the Exchequer and to return the Names of such as went about to delay or excuse the Payment of the Sums required And now about the beginning of October the Fleet set to Sea the Lord Cecill second Son to the Earl of Exeter commanding the Land Forces and the Earl of Essex being Vice Admiral at Sea but they were surprized by so violent a Storm that the greatest part of the Navy which in all made up Fourscore Ships some being Dutch were dissipated and scattered for seven days together and an excellent Ship with an 170 Passengers in her were all cast away and lost the Design was to have furprized Cadiz in Spain to burn the Ships in the Harbour and to have taken the Spanish Plate Fleet which was daily expected from the Indies but by reason of the Plague amongst them and some other miscarriages of the Commanders the business was wholly disappointed and the Fleet returned home but four days before the Plate Fleet came Upon the Second of February was the Coronation at which the King did not pass through the City in State from the Tower as was usual but went by Water from Whitehall to Westminster for fear of the danger of a Concourse of People the Pestilence which raged the year before not being quite ceased The Bishop of Lincoln as Dean of Westminster should have performed the chief part of the Ceremony but being under displeasure Dr. Laud then Bishop of St. Davids supplied his place Divers considerable Forces had been raised both for Sea and Land for the better Discipline of whom 150 old Souldiers were sent for from the Netherlands by whose Industry they were brought into some good order against the meeting of the next Parliament which was summoned to sit Feb. 6. And being met accordingly the House of Commons chose Sir Henage Finch for their Speaker The first business they insisted upon was the rendring thanks to the King for his gracious Answer to their late Petition concerning Religion then they debated of the Publick Grievances viz. The miscarrying of the Fleet at Cadiz the evil Councellors about the King misimploying the Kings Revenue an Account of the Subsidies and three Fifteens granted in the 21 Year of King James And in the Committee of Grievances these four particulars were insisted on 1. The state of the King in the constant Revenue of the Crown and how much it had been diminished by Gifts of Lands Grants of Pensions Fruitless Embassies the Privy Purse and other ways 2. The Condition of the Subject in his Freedom about laying new impositions multiplying Monopolies Leuying of Customs without Act of Parliament and wasting the Treasure 3. The Cause of the Nations good success in former times whereby it was feared Victorious and Renowned abroad which they judged was occasioned by the Wisdom and Gravity of Counsel who ordered nothing but by publick Debate whereby there arose a readiness in the People to Assist their Soveraign in Purse and Person 4. The present Condition of the Kingdom wherein was represented the loss of its wonted Reputation through the ill success at Algier in the Palatinate in Count Manfields Expedition and at Cadiz and this was imputed to the want of such Counsels as were formerly used since for fear of not succeeding men were now afraid of venturing either there Persons or Purses There was likewise a Committe concerning Religion and the growth of Popery wherein Mr. Richard Montagues two Books before mentioned were again questioned and Articles drawn up against him charging him with several Passages for encouraging Popery and drawing his Majesties Subjects from the true Religion Established into Error and Superstition with other passages dishonourable to the late King and full of injurious and railing Language against other Persons as likewise that he endeavoured to raise Factions in the Kingdom by casting the scandalous Name of Puritan upon such of his Majesties Subjects as conformed themselves to the Doctrine of the Church of England upon which the House of Commons ordered that he should be brought to Exemplary Punishment and to have his Books burnt nor do we find that he ever made any Defence or Answer to those Articles that were brought against him It is affirmed that a while before the sitting of the Parliament Dr. Laud understanding from the D. of Buckingham that the King intended to leave Mr. Montague to a Tryal was heard to utter these words Iseem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God in his Mercy dissipate it After this the Commons questioned several persons who were of the Council of War upon the Affairs of the Palatinate concerning the management of that business complaint was likewise made in the House of the Scotch and Irish Nobility for claiming precedency of the Peers of England of which redress was promised but a while after the Lord Martrevers Eldest Son and Heir to the Earl of Arundel Married the Daughter of the late Duke of Lenox contrary to the Kings Mind who intended her for the Lord Lorn Son and Heir of the Earl of Argile whereupon the Earl of Arundel was committed to the Tower which upon the Peers Petitioned to the King alledging That no Peer sitting in the Parliament is to be imprisoned without Order from the House of Lords unless for Felony Treason or denying to give security for the Peace Upon this there arose a Dispute which lasted for the space of two Months and then the Earl was set at Liberty In which time the House of Commons were very busie in searching the Signet Office for the Original of a Letter under the Signet written to the Mayor of York for reprieving divers Jesuites Priests and other Popish Recusants This was reported by Mr. Pim Chairman to the Committee for Religion but their proceedings therein were interrupted by a Meffage from the King sent by Sr. Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer demanding a supply for the English and Irish Forces This was so highly resented that Mr. Clement Cook one of the Members openly Protested That it was better to die by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home And Dr. Turner another of the House seconded him with
the Popes Nuncio's that came after him did likewise and had formerly offered a Cardinals Cap to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Popes Name In the year 1640 and the Sixteenth of the King a Parliament was called at Westminster April 13. in which the Earl of Strafford was highly honoured for his good service in Ireland in obtaining four Subsidies to maintain Ten thousand Foot and Fifteen hundred Horse And that England might follow this Example the King tells the Parliament that if they would supply him so as to suppress the Insolencies of the Scots he would acquit his claim to Shipmoney and giue satisfaction to their just Demands By which Proposals the Parliament were sensible of the Kings Necessities and therefore required satisfaction 1. For clearing the Property of the Subject 2. For establishing the True Religion 3. For Priviledges of Parliament But whilst they were debating whether the Grievances of the People or the Kings Supply should be first considered and Matters were in an hopeful posture Secretary Vane either accidentally or on purpose overthrew all at once by declaring that the King required Twelve Subsidies whereas he at that time only desired Six which so much inraged the House and made things so ill that by the Advice of the Junto the Parliament was dissolved having only sate Twenty two days however the Privy Councel likewise advised their Dissolving being assured the heats in the House of Commons were so great that they intended that very day to have voted against the War with Scotland whereby the King would have been in a worse condition than before their sitting About the same time a Convocation of Bishops sate with Commission to make such Canons as they judged for the peace of the Church and amongst other things they imposed an Oath called c. Et cetera as an Anticovenant against the Scots which because it occasioned much difference may not be unfitly inserted I A. B. Do swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that so established nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Archbishops Deans and Arch Deacons c. Et cetera and so forth as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things do I plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to the plain and common sense or understanding of the same words without any Equivocation mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ This Oath was imposed upon all Ministers and gave great Offence This was the chief business of this Convocation which ended May 26 1640. Arch Bishop Laud by his earnest proceedings against Nonconformists and such as were called Puritans and by his strict enjoyning of Ceremonies especially reviving old Ceremonies which had not been lately observed procured much hatred to himself from the People particularly the Londiners who had a particular disgust against him for his severity upon Mr. Burton Pryn and Bastwick insomuch that upon May 9 1640 a Paper was fixed upon the Royal Exchange inciting the Apprentices to rise and sack his House at Lambeth the Monday after which they were the more inclined to do because it was reported that he was the chief instigator of the King to dissolve the last Parliament but the Arch Bishop had notice of their Design and provided accordingly however upon Monday at midnight about Five Hundred of them beset his House and endeovoured to enter but were repulsed and forced to depart having in some measure vented their Spleen in words and breaking his Glass-Windows The next day many of them were apprehended and imprisoned but three days after they were forcibly rescued from thence by their Companions who broke open the Prison doors for which one of the Ring-leaders was drawn hanged and quartered and his head and quarters set upon London-Bridge The King grew daily more offended against the Scots and calls a Select Juncto to consult about them where the Earl of Strafford delivered his mind in such Terms as were afterward made use of to his distruction War against them was resolved on and Money was to be procured one way or other the City of London was invited to lend but refused and pleaded poverty being distasted iâ— seems at some proceedings in the Star Chamber about their Plantation of London Derry in Ireland which was judged to be forfeited for some alledged misdemeanors and the Undertakers fined yet the Citizens were willing to offer a large Sum for the building a Magnificent Pallace for the King in St James's Park which took no effect The Gentry contributed indifferent freely so that with their Assistance the Royal Army was compleated the King himself being Generalissimo the Earl of Northumberland General and the Earl of Strafford Leiutenant General Northumberland falls sick and therefore the King takes the Command upon himself and sends away part of the Army Horse and Foot under the Lord Conway into the North. July 20th 1640. the Queen was delivered of a Son who was Châ—istened Henry afterward Created Duke of Glocester In the mean time the L. Conway had but ill Success for having drawn about 1200 Horse and 3000 Foot to secure the Passes upon the Riveâ— Tyne the Scotch Army under their General Lesly advanced thither better provided then before and August 27 Lesly desired leave of the L. Conway for his whole Army to pass to the King with their Petition which was denied whereupon about 300 Scotch Horse attempted to pass the River but were beaten back by the English Musquetiers who were placed under a Breast-work Lesly comes on with his Horse and charges Commissary General Wilmot who maintained the ground very stoutly till overborn with multitude and Canon they were put to a disorderly Retreat both Horse and Foot upon which the L. Conway hastes to the King with the unwelcome News Sir Jacob Astly Governor of Newcastle finding himself unable to deâ—end the place deserts it sinking the great Guns â—n the River whereby Newcastle and Durham came â—n a short time into the hands of the Scots And now Strafford comes up with whom the King retreats â—o York and stays there while Strafford who was â—ow sole Commander charges the whole miscarâ—iage upon Conway who as stoutly denies it The King had formerly declared the Scots to be Rebels and Traytors by Proclamation and commanded that publick Prayers should be put up against them in all Churches but at this time he is contented to treat with them and to that end he receives a Petition from them complaining of their Grievances To which he answers by
Protestation to maintain with Life Power and Estate the True Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations Which was ordered to be printed and published through the Kingdom May 5. The Lords acquainted the Commons That they thought it the safest course to lay by the Bill of Attainder because it brought in the King for Judge And the next day they debated the several Articles of his Impeachment and voted the Earl guilty of High Treason upon Two of them that is the 15th For Levying of moneys in Ireland by force in a Warlike manner And the 16th For Imposing an Oath upon the Subjects of Ireland The Commons had now finished a Bill For the Continuance of the Parliament which having passed the Lords was tendred to the King to be signed together with the Bill of Attainder His Majesty answered That on Monday following he would satisfie them and on the Sunday before the King spent the whole day in consulting about the Earl of Strafford with the Judges and Bishops The Judges told him That in point of Law according to the Oath made by Sir H. Vane of the Earls advice to raise Horse to awe this Nation he was guilty of Treason In the evening the Five Bishops viz. of Armagh London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle were called in to the King to satisfie his Conscience about it who all agreed That the King might shew mercy without any scruple and that he could not condemn the Earl if he did not think him Guilty This was to matter of Fact but as to matter of Law He was to rest in the Opinion of the Judges Monday May 10. The King gives Commission to several Lords to pass Two Bills one the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford The other For Continuing the Parliament during the pleasure of both Houses Which last Act was occasioned for satisfying the Scots who required Vast Sums of Money and for disbanding both the Armies whereby great Taxes were laid upon the People by Act of Parliament which could not possibly be levied in a short time and therefore there needed a present Supply from the City of London who as it was alledged would not part with their money least a Dissolution of the Parliament should happen before payment upon which Account the King was pressed to pass this Act. The same day the Bill was passed against the Earl of Strafford the King sent Sir Dudley Carlton Secretary of State to acquaint the Earl with what was done and the motives thereto whereat the Earl was greatly astonisht but the next day the King being troubled writes a Letter with his own hand to the House of Lords and sent it by the Prince of Wales telling them That whereas Justice had been satisfied in his Condemnation an intermixture of mercy would not now be unseasonable and therefore he desired them that if it might be done without any discontent to the People the Earl might be permitted to fulfil the Natural Course of his Life in close Imprisonment sequestred from all Publick Affairs provided he never attempted to make an Escape however he thought it a work of Charity to repreive him till Saturday But nothing could be obtained in favour of him but that the Lords said Their Intention was to be suitors to His Majesty to shew favour to his innocent Children and that whatever provision himself had made for them it might be confirmed Some Designs were said to have been laid for his Escape however May 12 1641 the Earl of Strafford was conveyed from the Tower by a Guard consisting of the Trained Bands Marshals men Sheriffs Officers and Warders of the Tower Before him went his Gentleman-Usher bare headed and he himself followed accompanied with the Archbishop of Armagh and others As he went along he passed by Arch-bishop Lauds Lodging and spying him at the Window he called to him for his Prayers and his Blessing but the Bishop at the sight of him was so surpriz'd that for some time he could not recollect himself and being reprehended by his Friends of an undecent Pusillanimity He Replyed That he doubted not but when that bitter Cup should come to his turn he should taste it with a most Christian Courage The Earl being come to the Scaffold upon Tower-hill addrest himself to the Arch-bishop of Armagh to this Effect That he was come to pay the laâ—â— Debt he owed to Sin with a good hope of rising agaiâ— to Righteousness That he dyed willingly forgave alâ— and submitted to Justice He professed himself guiltless as to the matter for which he dyed He wished aâ—â— prosperity to the King and People and acquitted him from the guilt of his death as having acted thereiâ— no otherwise then as constrained He advised his Adversaries to repent of their Violent Proceedings againâ—â— him and telling them that he thought it a strange waâ— to write in Blood the beginning of Reformation and Settlement of the Kingdom However he wished that hiâ— Blood might rest and not cry against them He declared He died in the Faith of the Church of England for whose happiness he prayed and concluded his Speech with intreating the Spectators to pray for him After which he kneeled down to Prayer and rising up again took his last leave of his Brother Sir George Wentworth and all his Friends sending his Love to his Wife and his Blessing to his Children with a most strict Injunction to His Onely Son Never to meddle with the Patrimony of the Church And theâ— giving the sign to the Executioner his head waâ— severed from his body at the first stroke This was the end of that Great and Able Minister of State who is reported when he heard the King had consented to the Bill of Attainder to have lift up his Eyes to Heaven and clapping his hand upon his heart to have cried out perhaps in immitation of Cardinal Woolseys Complaint Put not your Trust in Princes nor in the Sons of Men for in them is no Salvation And indeed it seemed very hard that he shou'd be made guilty of High Treason by a Bill framed on purpose without former President and to which His Majesties Consent was in a manner extorted and which he afterward bewailed with great remorse of Conscience though it is said the King was not so much convinced by any thing said to him but the chief Motive was a Letter from the Earl wherein he thus concluded Sir To set your Majesty's Conscience at Liberty I do most humbly beseech you for the Preventing of such mischiefs as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but this Unfortunate Thing forth of the way towards that blessed Agreement which God I trust shall forever establish between You and Your Subjects My consent herein shall more acquit you to God then all the world can do beside To a willing man there is no injury
and for the first offence in refusing to forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives And besides this they presented them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be stricken off That they should have a King of their own Nation and that then all the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided amongst them With these Motives of Spoil and Liberty which were strengthned by the former of Religion the Rebellion increased The Rebels in Ulster commanded by Sir Phelim O Neal assisted by his Brother the Brother of the Lord Mac Guire Philip O Reley and several others had possessed most of the strong places in that Province and many other which they could not take by force nor treachery were delivered to them by the English upon Articles which they afterwards like true or rather false Papists most perfidiously broke Butchering and Massacring the poor English without pity or compassion to Age or Sex though they still spared the Scotch Plantations in Ulster because of their Numbers and likewise for fear of the Scotch Army so easily to be transported to the North parts of Ireland But now their General Sir Phelim O Neal one of the Race of the late Bloody Earl of Tyrone a pretended Protestant till some time before having got together a vast number of the Natives fell upon them and destroyed their Houses and Goods and though they did not exercise that Cruelty on their Bodies yet they stript them and drove them Naked to the Scotish Shore from thence he marched into other parts and took Dundalk incamping at Arde near Tredagh The King finding his stay to be longer than he thought left the whole business of Ireland to the Parliament who declared a speedy and vigorous Assistance and Voted Fifty thousand Pound for a present Supply By which time the Lords of the Council of Ireland had Armed as many as were able and given Commissions for raising several Regiments of whom the Earl of Ormond was made Lieutenant General and a Regiment was sent from England under Sir Simon Harcourt about which time the King returned out of Scotland and was Entertained and Feasted at London and from thence Conducted to White-Hall after which the King Treated several Chief Citizens at Hampton Court where divers of the Aldermen had the honour of Knighthood December 2. The King Summons both Houses together and tells them That he had staid in Scotland longer than he expected yet not fruitlesly for he had given full satisfaction to that Nation but cannot chuse but take notice of and wonder at the unexpected Distractions he finds at home and then commends to them the State of Ireland next he publishes a Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws in force concerning Religion and the performance of Divine Service without Innovation or Abolishing of Rites and Ceremonies January 20 His Majesty makes another Speech to them and Conjures them by all that is dear to him or them to hasten the business of Ireland After which the Commons ordered a Select Committee to draw up a Petition and Remonstrance to the King the Petition was thus Most Gracious Soveraign your Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do with joy acknowledge the Favour of God in your safe return into England where the dangers and distempers of the State have caused them to desire your Presence and Authority to your Parliament for preventing of imminent Ruin and Destruction to your Kingdoms of England and Scotland fomented by a malignant party for alteration of Religion and Government the increase of Popery by the Practice of Jesuites and other Engineers and Factors of Rome corrupting the Bishops and Privy Council they being the cause of the late Scottish War and the Irish Rebellion Now for prevention they pray That your Majesty would concur with your Parliament to deprive the Bishops of their Votes To take away Oppression in Religion Church Government and Discipline To purge your Councils of such as are promoters of these Corruptions and not alienate any Escheated Lands in Ireland by reason of the Rebellion and these being granted we will make you happy This was followed by a large Remonstrance containing all the Miscarriages and Misfortunes which they termed Pressures since the beginning of his Majesties Reign As 1. The root and ground of these dangers 2. Their Maturity and Ripeness 3. The effectual means used for their Extirpation and the progress therein made 4. Thâ— Obstructions and Oppositions interrupting 5. Thâ— best means for removing these Obstacles and foâ— accomplishing the Parliaments good Intentions for restoring this Nation to its Ancient Renown The Actors and Promoters of these Evils werâ— described to be 1. The Jesuited Papists 2. Thâ— Bishops and corrupted Clergy 3. Interesteâ— Counsellors and Courtiers The root of the miâ—chief was the Malignant Party whose Practiceâ— were branched into four particulars 1. To foment differences and discontents between thâ— King and People about Prerogative and Priviledge for their own Advantages 2. To suppress thâ— purity and power of Religion 3. To Unite and Conjoyn Papists Arminians and Libertines and out of them all to compose a Body sufficient to carry on their Designs And 4. To disaffect the King to the Parliament by Slanders and by putting him upon other ways of Supply than by Parliament and that the Intentions of these Malignants were to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government They then charge this Malignant Party more particularly as chiefly occasioning the Dissolution of three several Parliaments without Relief of Grievances The Imprisoning and Fining several of the Members raising great Sums of Money by Loan Privy Seals and Excise and blasting The Petition of Right The succesless Attempts upon France and Spain and Peace made with the Spaniard without consent of Parliament The loss of Rochel occasioned by lending part of our Fleet to the French King deserting the cause of the Palatinate charging the Kingdom with Billeting Souldiers and the Design of bringing in German Horse to inslave this Nation to Arbitrary Contributions Lastly they reflect upon Scandalous Declarations published against the Parliament upon Injustice Oppression Violence Illegal Inlargements of Forrests Coat and Conduct Money Corrupt Councils and Designs Projects Monopolies Illegal Proceedings in Courts of Judicature and Council Table charging the Bishops likewise with many Enormities particularly for contributing to raise an Army for constraining the Scots to conform to their Superstitious Ceremonies concluding with what they have done for the Reformation of these Abuses To their Petition the King returned this Answer That he knows not any Wicked or Malignant Persons whom he doth either countenance or imploy That he would concur with his People in a Parliamentary way against all Popish Designs but would not consent to deprive the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament That he judged the power of the Clergy sufficiently moderated by taking away the High Commission Court and
resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgment and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought This said Mr. Cook Solicitor General for the Common-wealth standing within a Bar on the right hand of the King offered to speak but the King having a Staff in his hand held it up and laid it upon the said Mr. Cooks shoulder two or three times bidding him hold Nevertheless the Lord President ordering him to go on he said Cook My Lord I am commanded to charge Charles Stuart King of England in the name of the Commons of England with Treason and high Misdemeanours I desire the said Charge may be read The said Charge being delivered to the Clerk of the Court the Lord President ordered it should be read but the King bid him hold Nevertheless being commanded by the Lord President to read it the Clerk begun The Charge of the Commons of England against CHARLES STUART King of England of High Treason and other High Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice THat the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a Limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise And by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties Yet nevertheless out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannical Power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People Yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the Peoples behalf in the Right and Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National meetings in Councel He the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his Designs and for the protecting of himself and his Adherents in His and their wicked practices to the same end hath traiterously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament and the people therein represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the Count of York And upon or about the thirtieth day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the Town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of War and upon or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edge-Hill and Keinton-field in the County of Warwick And upon or about the thirtieth day of Nov. in the same year at Brainford in the County of Middlesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of Aug. in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham-bridge neer Reding in the County of Berks And upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or near the City of Glocester And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newberry in the County of Berks and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and four at Cropredy-bridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the last year mentioned at Bodmin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the last year mentioned at Newberry aforesaid And upon or about the Eighth of June in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester and also upon the fourteenth day of the same month in the same year at Naseby-field in the County of Northampton At which several times and places or most of them and at many other places in this Land at several other times within the years aforementioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and six He the said Ch. Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and insurrections within this Land by Invasions from Foreign parts endeavoured and procured by him and by many other evil wayes and means He the said Charles Stuart hath not onely maintained and carried on the said War both by Land and Sea during the years before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said War against the Parliament and good people of this Nation in this present year One thousand six hundred forty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surrey Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by Sea and particularly He the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by Him or His Agents Corrupted to the betraying of Their Trust and revolting from the Parliament have had entertainment and Commission for the continuing and the renewing of War and Hostility against the said Parliament and people as aforesaid By which cruel and unnatural Wars by Him the said Charles Stuart levyed continued and renewed as aforesaid much Innocent Blood of the Free-People of this Nation hath been spilt many Familie have been undone the publick Treasury wasted and exhausted Trade obstructed and miserably decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the Land spoyled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of his said evil Designs He the said Charles Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forreigners and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked Designs Wars and evil practices of him the said Charles Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the personal Interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to Himself and his Family against the publick Interest Common Right Liberty Justice and Peace of the people of this Nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the Occasioner Author and Contriver of the said Unnatural Cruel and Bloody Wars and therein guilty of all the Treasons Murthers Rapines Burnings Spoils Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said Wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by protestation saving on the behalf of the people
the Court. Sir it will be taken notice of that you stand in contempt of the Court and your contempt will be recorded accordingly King I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent not by any Law that ever I heard of all men Delinquents or what you will let me tell you they may put in Demurrers against any proceedings as Legal and I do demand that and demand to be heard with my Reasons if you deny that you deny Reason President Sir you have offered something to the Court I shall speak something unto you the sence of the Court Sir neither you nor any man are permitted to dispute that point you are concluded you may not demur the Jurisdiction of the Court if you do I must let you know that they over-rule your Demurrer they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them King I deny that shew me one President President Sir you ought not to interrupt while the Court is speaking to you this point is not to be debated by you neither will the Court permit you to do it if you offer it by way of Demurrer to the Jurisdiction of the Court they have considered of their Jurisdiction they do affirm their own Jurisdiction King I say Sir by your favour that the Commons of England was never a Court of Judicature I would know how they came to be so President Sir you are not to be permitted to go on in that Speech and these Discourses Then the Clerk of the Court read as followeth Charles Stuart King of England You have been accused on the behalf of the People of England of High Treason and other high Crimes the Court have determined that you ought to answer the same King I will answer the same as soon as I know by what Authority you do this President If this be all that you will say then Gentlemen you that brought the Prisoner hither take charge of him back again King I do require that I may give in my Reasons why I do not Answer and give me time for that President Sir 'T is not for Prisoners to require King Prisoners Sir I am not an ordinary Prisoner President The Court hath considered of their Jurisdiction and they have already affirmed their Jurisdiction if you will not answer we shall give order to record your default King You never heard my Reasons yet President Sir your Reasons are not to be heard against the highest Jurisdiction King Shew me that Jurisdiction where Reason is not to be heard President Sir We shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought you will know more of the pleasure of the Court and it may be their final determination King Shew me wherever the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature of that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisoner King Well Sir remember that the King is not suffered to give his Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of all his Subjects President Sir You are not to have liberty to use this language how great a friend you have been to the Laws and Liberties of the people let all England and the World judge King Sir under favour it was the Liberty Freedom and Laws of the Subject that ever I took defended my self with Arms I never took up Arms against the People but for my people and the Laws President The command of the Court must be obeyed no Answer will be given to the Charge King Well Sir Then the Lord President ordered the default to be recorded and the Contempt of the Court and that no answer would be given to the Charge And so was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cotton's house Then the Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber on Tuesday at twelve a clock and from thence they intended to adjourn to Westminster-Hall at which time all persons concerned were to give their attendance Resolutions of the Court at their meeting in the Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 22. 1648. This day the King being withdrawn from the Bar of the High Court of Justice the Commissioners of the said High Court of Justice sate private in the Painted Chamber and considered of the Kings carriage upon the Saturday before and of all that had then passed and fully approved of what the Lord President had done and said in the managing of the business of that day as agreeing to their sence And perceiving what the King aimed at viz. to bring in question if he could the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Authority thereof whereby they sate and considering that in the interim he had not acknowledged them in any sort to be a Court or his Judges and through their sides intended to wound if he might be permitted the Supream Authority of the Commons of England in their Representatives the Commons assembled in Parliament after advice with their Councell learned in both Laws and mature deliberation had of the matter Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction of that which constituted them a Court of which debate they had not proper Conusance nor could they being a derivative Judge of that Supream Court which made them Judges from which there was no Appeal and did therefore order and direct viz. Ordered That in case the King shall again offer to dispute the Authority of the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court have taken into consideration his demands of the last day and that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have constituted this Court whose power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him That in case the King shall refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court will take it as a Contumacy and that it shall be so Recorded That in case he shall offer or answer with a saving notwithstanding of his pretended Prerogatives above the jurisdiction of the Court That the Lord President do in the Name of the Court refuse his protest and require his positive Answer whether he will own the Court or not That in case the King shall demand a Copy of the Charge that he shall then declare his intention to Answer and that declaring his intention a Copy be granted unto him That in case the King shall still persist in his contempt the Lord President do give command to the Clerk to demand of the King in the name of the Court in these words following viz. Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the People of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court requires you to give a positive Answer to confess or deny the Charge having determined that you ought to Answer the same At the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. O yes made
been stories will tell you if you go no higher than the time of the Conquest if you do come down since the Conquest you are the 24th King from William called the Conqueror you shall find one half of them to come meerly from the State and not meerly upon the point of Descent it were easie to be instanced to you the time must not be lost that way And truly Sir what a grave and learned Judge said in his time and well known to you is since printed for posterity That although there was such a thing as a Descent many times yet the Kings of England ever held the greatest assurance of their titles when it was declared by Parliament And Sir your Oath the manner of your Coronation doth shew plainly That the Kings of England and though it 's true by the Law the next person in blood is designed yet if there were just cause to refuse him the people of England might do it For there is a Contract and Bargain made between the King and his People and your Oath is taken and certainly Sir the Bond is reciprocal for as you are the liege Lord so they liege Subjects and we know very well that hath been so much spoken of Ligantis est duplex This we know now the one tye the one Bond is the bond of perfection which is due from the Soveraign the other is the bond of Subjection that is due from the Subject Sir if this bond be once broken farewel Soveraignty Subjectio trahit c. These things may not be denyed Sir I speak it the rather and I pray God it may work upon your heart that you may be sensible of your miscarriages For whether you have been as by your Office you ought to be a Protector of England or the Destroyer of England let all England judge or all the world that hath look'd upon it Sir though you have it by Inheritance in the way that is spoken of yet it must not be denyed that your Office was an Office of Trust and an Office of the highest trust lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were as your Delegates to see it done throughout your Realms if your great Office were to do Justice and preserve your People from wrong and instead of doing that you will be the great wrong-doer your self If instead of being a Conservator of the Peace you will be the Grand Disturber of the Peace surely this is contrary to your Office contrary to your Trust Now Sir if it be an Office of Inheritance as you speak of your Title by Descent let all men know that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year and for your life Therefore Sir it will concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this kind Truly Sir I shall not particularize the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they are famously known it had been happy for the Kingdom and happy for you too if it had not been so much known and so much felt as the story of your miscarriages must needs be and hath been already Sir That that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to Trie and Judge you for great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a Murtherer and a publick Enemy to the Common-wealth of England Sir it had been well if that any of all these terms might rightly and justly have been spared if any one of them at all King Ha President Truly Sir we have been told Rex est dum bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimet and if so be that be the definition of a Tyrant then see how you come short of it in your Actions whether the highest Tyrant by that way of Arbitrary Government and that you have sought to introduce and that you have sought to put you were putting upon the People whether that was not as high an Act of Tyrannie as any of your Predecessors were guilty of nay many degrees beyond it Sir the term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily agree it must denote and suppose a breach of Trust and it must suppose it to be done by a Superiour and therefore Sir as the People of England might have incurred that respecting you if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of Law so on the other side when you did break your Trust to the Kingdom you did break your Trust to your Superior For the Kingdom is that for which you were trusted And therefore Sir for this breach of Trust when you are called to account you are called to account by your Superiors Minimus ad Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the People of England cannot be so far wanting to themselves which God having dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having power in their hands and their great Enemy they must proceed to do Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire That you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amiss That you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are your high crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third thing too if those had not been and that is Murther which is laid to your charge All the bloody Murthers that have been committed since this time that the Division was betwixt you and your People must be laid to your charge that have been acted or committed in these late Wars Sir it is an heinous and crying sin and truly Sir if any man will ask us what punishment is due to a Murtherer Let Gods Law let Mans Law speak Sir I will presume that you are so well read in Scripture as to know what God himself hath said concerning the shedding of Mans blood Gen. 9. Num. 35. will tell you what the punishment is and which this Court in behalf of the Kingdom are sensible of of that innocent blood that has been shed whereby indeed the Land stands still defiled with that blood and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but with the shedding of the blood of him that shed this blood Sir we know no Dispensation from this blood in that Commandement Thou shalt do no Murder we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest Peasants the meanest of the People the command is universal Sir Gods Law forbids it Mans Law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of exception nor even in mans Laws for the punishment of Murther in you 'T is true that in the case of Kings every private hand was not to put forth it self to this work for their Reformation and punishment But Sir the People represented having power in their hands had there been but one wilful act of Murther by you committed had power to have convented you
among them His Majesty having received it returned this short Answer thereunto That he would have them in the first place Consult about Matters of the greatest Importance and that they should have time enough for other things afterward This happened in the year 1626 and in the Second Year of his Majesties Reign about which time the Earl of Bristoll being ordered by the King to be Examined by a Committee of Lords concerning his Negotiation in Spain and having been in Prison and prohibited access to His Majesty ever since his return received a Letter from the Lord Conway wherein in order to his Relief he propounded to him from His Majesty this Choice Whether he would be quiet and not be questioned for what was past and enjoy the benefit of the late Gracious Pardon or whether he would stand upon his Justification To which he Answered That he did humbly acknowledge and accept of his Majesties Grace and Favour And at the same time he Petitioned the House of Lords for his Liberty or to come to a Tryal who apylying themselves to his Majesty he granted a Writ for the Earls coming to Parliament but with a Proviso That his Personal Attendance should be forborn whereupon the Earl sent another Petition to the Lords that he might be heard both as to his Restraint and of what he had to say against the Duke At which the King was much concerned and signified to the Lords That it was his Royal Pleasure that the Earl of Bristol might be sent for as a Delinquent to answer his Offences to the House and his scandalizing the Duke of Buckingham and his Majesty likewise by Reflection Upon this the Earl was accordingly brought to the Bar and being ready to be impeacht of High Treason by the Attorney General he besought their Lordships That as he was a Freeman and Peer of this Realm untainted and had something to say of high Consequence for his Majesties Service he might have liberty to speak Which being granted him he said I accuse that Man the Duke of Buckingham of High Treason This unexpected procedure of the Earl occasioned the Attorney General to draw up a Charge against him consisting of Eleven Articles containing Matters of divers Natures whereupon the Earl afterwards gave a large Account of the Duke of Buckinghams proceedings towards him and then preferr'd Twelve Articles against him and besides these Articles against the Duke the Earl of Bristol exhibited Eleven others against the Lord Conway the Earl likewise gave in his Answer to each particular Article of his Impeachment Now whilst these two Peers were thus contesting the House of Commons presented an Impeachment to the Lords against the Duke consisting of Twelve Articles to each of which the Duke made Replies and the last of them being a matter of general Discourse it may seem necessary to insert it with the Dukes Answer thereto That the Duke being a Sworn Servant of the the late King did cause and provide certain Plaisters and Potions for his late Majesty K. James in in his last Sickness without the Privity of his Majesties Physicians and that although those Plaisters and Potions formerly applied produced such ill Effects as many of his Sworn Phisicians did disallow as prejudicial to his Maiesties Health yet the Duke did apply them again to his Majesty whereupon great Distempers and dangerous Symptoms appeared in him which the Physitians imputed to those Administrations of the Duke whereof his late Majesty also complained which is an Offence and Misdemeanor of so high a Nature as may be called an Act of Transcendent Presumption And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberties of exhibiting hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the Duke and also of Replying unto what the Duke shall Answer unto the said Articles do pray That the said Duke may be put to Answer all and every the Premises and that such Proceeding Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon every of them had as is agreeable to Law and Justice To this Article the Duke of Buckingham Replyed That his late Majesty being sick of an Ague a Disease out of which the Duke recovered not long before asked the Duke what he found most Advantagious to his Health The Duke replyed a Plaister and Possit Drink administred unto him by the Earl of Warwick 's Physician whereupon the King much desired the Plaister and Possit drink to be sent for and the Duke delaying it the King commanded a Servant of the Dukes to go for it against the Dukes earnest request he humbly D Buckingham stab'd by Felton Mr Pryn Burton Bastnich in the Pillory The Tumult in Scotland upon Reading the Comon pray r craving his Majesty not to make use of it without the Advice of his own Physicians and Experiment upon others which the King said he would do and in confidence thereof the Duke left him and went to London and in the mean time he being absent the said Plaister and Posset Drink were brought and at the Dukes return his Majesty commanded the Duke to give him the Posset Drink which he did the Physicians then present not seeming to mislike it afterwards the Kings Health declining and the Duke hearing a Rumour as if his Physick had done his Majesty hurt and that he had administred Physick without Advice the Duke acquainted the King therewith who with much discontent replyed They are worse then Devils that say so About this time the King again earnestly pressed the House of Commons for a speedy Supply by their Speaker Sir Heneage Finch giving them to understand That if there did not pass the Bill of Subsidy by the end of the week following it would inforce him to take other Resolutions and if by their denial or delay any thing of ill consequence should fall out either at home or abroad he called God and Man to witness that he had done his part to prevent it by calling his People together to advise with him whose sitting if they dispatched this according to his desire he resolved to continue for the dispatch of other Affairs and after their Recess to bring them again together the next Winter Before the Commons sent an Answer they drew up a Petition to his Majesty That he would be pleased to Remove from all places of Trust and Authority all such Persons as were either Popish Recusants or according to the Direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected to be such And herewith they likewise sent a large Scrowl of the Names of all such Noblemen and others as continued in places of high Trust in the several Counties of England The Answer to the late Articles against the Duke of Buckingham being by him delivered into the Lords House he desired their Lordships to send to the Commons for a speedy Reply whereupon the Commons required a Copy of his Answer But the Duke fearing what might be the Effect thereof humbly applyed himself to the Lords whom he intreated
Son and Heir for Rape and Sodomy many unnatural and beastly Actions being proved against him whereupon he received Sentence to be Hanged but had the Favour to be Beheaded at Tower-hill This Earl was born of a very honourable Family and educated in the Protestant Religion but turned Papist to have the more liberty to commit wickedness in which he grew to so great aheight that he impudently declared in the presence of some Lords As others had their several Delights some in one thing some in another so his whole Delight was in damning Souls by enticing Men to such Acts as might surely effect it About this time Sir Giles Allington was Convented for Marrying his own Niece and was fined Twelve thousand Pound to the King and to give Twenty thousand Pound Bond never to cohabit or come in private with his Niece again and both of them to do Penance at St. Pauls Cross or St. Maries in Cambridge which they accordingly did The Protestants were very much discontented in Ireland that the Papists were discharged from paying the State Penalty of Twelve Pence a Sunday for not going to Church whereby their Number was wonderfully increased Whereupon the King recalled the Lords Justices who then governed that Kingdom and sent Viscount Wentworth afterward Earl of Strafford thither as Lord Deputy as judging that these distempers would be better composed under a single Government In the year 1633 and the 9th of his Majesties Reign the King made a Journey into Scotland attended with several of the Nobility and Persons of Quality and June 18 was solemnly Crowned King at Edenbourgh which Solemnity being finished the King calls a Parliament and passeth an Act for Ratification of the old Acts though some affirmed That the Confirmation of Episcopacy was intended thereby and therefore though in vain opposed it upon which some of those Persons became a while after principal Men among the Covenanters In this Scottish Parliament that Nation shewed then some signs of diaffection to the King by Reason of several Acts which then passed and the generality of the People who without doubt were influenced by the greater Malecontents would not suffer the Bishop of Dumblain Dean of the Kings Private Chappel there to perform Prayers twice a day after the English manner neither durst they receive the Communiou on their knees nor wear a Surplice upon Sundays and Holy days Not long before his Majesty went to Scotland being desirous if possible to have prevented that Trouble the King writ to a Scottish Lord who was intrusted with that Crown to bring it into England that he might be Crowned here but the Lord returned Answer That he durst not be so false to his Trust but if his Majesty would be pleased to accept thereof in Scotland he should find those his People ready to yield him the highest Honour but if he should long defer that Duty they might perbaps be inclined to make choice of another King A very strange and unusual Answer from a Subject to a Prince October 13 1633. The Queen was delivered of her Second Son who was Baptized James and designed Duke of York and about that time died George Abbot L. Archbishop of Canterbury and William Laud Bishop of London was Elected into his place In the Year 1634 the English Coasts were very much Infested by Pyrates and the Fishing Trade almost ingrossed by the Hollanders and his Majesty having occasion for Money to Regain his Absolute Dominion over the Brittish Seas the Design of Shipmoney was first set on foot and Attorney General Noy being consulted about it he out of some old Records finds an Ancient President of Raising a Tax upon the Nation by the Authority of the King alone for setting out a Navy in case of danger which was thereupon accordingly put in Execution and by this Tax the King raised by Writ above Twenty thousand pound a Month though not without great discontent both among the Clergy and Laiety The Discontents in Scotland began to increase and a Book was published charging the King with indirect proceedings in the last Parliament and a tendancy to the Romish Belief and to blow up these Scoth Sparks to a Flame Cardinal Richlieu sent over his Chaplain and another Gentleman to heighten their Discontents The Author of that Book was seized and found to be abbetted by the Lord Balmerino the Treacherous Son of a perfidious Father who was thereupon Arraigned by his Peers and Sentenced to Death but Pardoned by the King At this time Gregory Panzani a Priest was sen over by the Pope with a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to decide the difference between the Jesuites and Secular Priests and Insinuating himself into the Favour of the Lord Cottington and Secretary Windebank he endeavours to discover how far the King might be perswaded about giving Toleration to the Popish Religion as to allow them a Popish Bishop to reside here but nominated and limited by the King and that the Pope might send a Nuncio to the Queen but having made some agreement between the Jesuites and Priests Panzani returned to Rome and left the further transacting of Business to Seignior Con who staid in his room In the year 1635 A Noble Fleet was fitted out by the Supply of Shipmoney consisting of Forty Sail under the Earl of Lindsey to scour the Seas from Pyrates at which time the French and Hollanders had confederated against the Spaniard in Flanders both by Land and Sea but the English Fleet removed the Hollanders from before Dunkirk and the Common People inraged by the French insolencies at Land rose up against them and Assisted the Spaniard to expel them the Countrey One Robert Par of Shropshire a Man almost an Hundred and threescore years old was this year brought to London by the Earl of Arundel as a Rarity or Miracle where he dyed soon after though it is very probable he might have lived much longer if he had continued at home for his removal from his own Air change of Diet and the tediousness of so long a Journey may be supposed to have hastned his end December 23 1635. the Lady Elizabeth the Kings Second Daughter was born and to Congratulate the Queens happy delivery the Hollander sent an Ambassador with a present of an extraordinary value that is a Massy Piece of Ambergreece Two large and almost Transparent China Dishes a Clock of most excellent Workmanship which was made by Rodulphus Emperour of Germany and likewise several curious pieces of Painting Dr. William Juxon Bishop of London about this time was made Lord Treasurer in the place of the L. Weston Earl of Portland deceased And now great differences arose about Church matters chiefly occasioned by Arch Bishop Lauds strict and zealous Enjoyning of Ceremonies as placing the Communion Table at the East end of the Church upon an Ascent with Rails Altar fashion with many other things not formerly strictly insisted on and now vehemently opposed by those who were usually called Puritans and
his Secretary of Scotland that he expects their particular demands which he receives in three days all tending to require a Parliament to be called in England without which there could be no satisfactory redress for them they had likewise before their March into England published a Declaration called The Intentions of the Army viz. Not to lay down Arms till the Reformed Religion were setled in both Nations upon sure grounds and the Causes and Abbettors of their present Troubles that is Arch-Bishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford were brought to publick Justice in Parliament At the same time Twelve English Peers that is the Earls of Bedford Hartford Essex Warwick Mulgrave Bristol Bullingbrook Say and Seal Mandevil Howard Brook and Paget drew up a Petition which they delivered to the King for the sitting of the Parliament After which divers others were presented to the same purpose from the City of London and several other parts of the Kingdom all centring in this that nothing could relieve the Pressures of the Kingdom but a Parliament To this the King condescends in part giving hope likewise of further satisfaction ere long and 〈◊〉 the present Summons the Lords to appear at Yorâ— Sep. 24. which they did and upon the first day oâ— their meeting it was agreed That a Parliameâ—â— should be called to meet November 3 following anâ— then for the relief of the North sorely suffering under Leslies Army the Bishoprick of Durham beinâ— then taxed 360 l. and Northumberland 300 l. a day it was resolved that a Treaty should be set on Fooâ— and that Sixteen English Lords should meet with as many Scots and York was proposed for the placâ— of Treaty which the Scotch Commissioners refused as not judging it safe by reason of the presence oâ— the Earl of Strafford who hath proclaimed them Traytors in Ireland and was now chief Commander of the Kings Army and a Capital Enemy to their Nation and against whom they had matter of high Complaint therefore it was concluded to be held at Rippon where among other things it was agreed that the Scotch Army should be maintained by the English till the Treaty was ended and peace secured that there should be a safe Convoy for all Letters between the Scots and the Parliament of England The first of these Articles seemed unreasonable and dishonourable to the English Nation and the Earl of Strafford was so offended thereat that he desired leave of the King to give them Battel and was willing as he writ to Arch-Bishop Laud to undertake upon the Peril of his Head with his Army of English Grashoppers to beat those Sons of Anak home again for so much Superlour were the Scots then accounted to the English as to matter of Souldiers but October 16. the English Commanders whether through Fear Favour or out of a Political Maxim not to fight against the Scots condescended to Articles of Agreement which were afterward signed by the King himself This Treaty of Rippon was but previous to another of higher Importance at London for a general concluding and making up all differences between the King and his Subjects of Scotland during which Treaty James Earl of Montross made several Applications to the King and by Letters offered his service to him testifying his disslike of the Scotâ—ish Proceedings but these his Letters were said to have been secretly taken out of the Kings Pockets and conveyed to the Covenanters by the means of Hamilton who understanding Montross his design used all means to render him odious to the People and so unserviceable to the King And now the time approached for the sitting of the Parliament who accordingly met November 3. 1640 which was looked upon by Arch-Bishop Laud as a fatal day for Summoning of Parliaments in reference to Church matters the Parliament in King Henry the Eighths time which pulled down Abbies and Monasteries being likewise Assembled upon November 3. Whereupon he advised the King for lucks sake to put off their meeting for 2 or 3 dayes but the King not minding any such Observations did not regard it To give some Account of the temper of those times it may not be amiss to repeat the words of a Person of Honour who was then a Member of the House of Commons and hath lately published some Passages concerning that Parliament Never Parliament saith he was assembled when the People were in an higher discontent then at this time such a general Diffidence there was as they thought themselves sure of nothing the increase of Ceremonies made them fear the approach of a Religion hateful to them the laâ—â— business of Ship-money together with some Impâ—sitions without the consent of Parliament causeâ— them to apprehend the loss of Property in the Estates and they had little hope of Redress 〈◊〉 Parliaments because his then Majesty had beeâ— so unhappy as to be put upon a sudden Dissolutioâ— of all Parliaments formerly by him called Theâ— wanted not Persons ill disposed and seditious 〈◊〉 trumpet these things in the ears of the generalty whereby they incensed them so far as thereâ—â— they found means to raise a Power against theâ—â— Soveraign Mr. William Lenthal was Chosen Speaker of thâ— House of Commons and the King in a Speech tâ—â—â— them that the Scottish Troubles were the Cause oâ— their present Meeting and therefore requires theâ— to consider of the most expedient means for caâ—â—ing them out and then promises that he will heaâ—tily and clearly concurr with them for the satisfying their just Grievances After which he gaâ—â— them an Account of his want of Money for thâ— Maintaining of his Army and how dishonourablâ— it would be to the English Nation if his Armâ— should be disbanded before the Scots were put ouâ— of the Kingdom and desired them to consider oâ— the Oppression of the Northern Countreys during thâ—… Treaty It was ill resented by many that the King should call the Scots Rebels whereupon he took occasion to tell them that he must needs call them Rebels as long as they have an Army which did invade England The Commons then Voted down all Monopolies and all such Members as had any benefit by them were expelled out of the House Complainâ— was made in the House of Lords against Sir William Beecher one of the Clerks of the Council for violating their Priviledges in searching the Earl of Warwicks and the Lord Brooks Studies Cabinets and Pockets upon the dissolving the last Parliament upon which he was committed Prisoner to the Fleet though he pleaded the Command of the Secretary of State for his so doing The Earl of Strafford is Impeached of High Treason by the Commons in the House of Lords whereupon he is sequestred from the House and likewise his Friend Sir George Ratcliff is sent for out of Ireland by a Serjeant at Arms In the mean time the Bishop of Lincoln who was Prisoner in the Tower is released and likewise Mr. Pryn and Mr. Burton who are brought in great Triumph to London and
Archbishop Laud upon an Accusation of High Treason by the Commons was committed to the Tower And now Episcopacy it self was called in question and though the Lord Digby made a witty and weighty Speech in Defence of it and Archbishop Usher gave his Judgment for the Moderation and Emendation of it and the Liturgy not the Extirpation thereof yet the Wings of Episcopacy were shrewdly clipt for March 10 the Commons Voted That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial power in the Star Chamber nor be concerned in any Temporal matters and that no Clergy-man should be a Justice of Peace Upon Monday March 26 1640. the Earl of Straffords Tryal began in Westminster-hall the King Queen and Prince being present and the Commons likewise being there as a Committee at the managing their Accusation the Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward and the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Constable the Earl of Strafford though he had but short warning yet had gotten his Defence ready against the time The Accusation was managed by Mr. Pym consisting of Twenty eight Articles to most of which the Earl made Particular Replies But the Commons were resolved to prosecute him to the utmost and had therefore procured the Parliament of Ireland to prosecute him there also as guilty of High Treason which being unexpectedly produced extorted from the Earl this passionate Expression That there was a Conspiracy against him to take away his Life At which the Commons cryed out against him That standing Impeached of High Treason he durst accuse the Parliament of two Kingdoms of Conspiracy against him But besides all these certain notes were produced against him which were taken by Sir H. Vane in a close Committee of select Counsellors whom the King had chosen to consult about his second Expedition against the Scots out of which it was alledged against the Earl That he had given the King advice to borrow an Hundred thousand pound of the City of London To levy Ship-money rigorously and that his Majesty having tryed the Affections of his People was absolved and loosed from all Rules of Government and might do what power would admit and having an Army in Ireland might imploy it for the reducing of this Kingdom which he was sure could not hold out five months And London being full of the Nobility the Commission of Array was to be set on foot and all Opposers thereof to be severely dealt with To this the Earl replyed That he conceived it lawful for a Privy Counsellor to have freedom of Voting with others and as to the matter of the English Army he thought that the single Testimony of one man Secretary Vane was not of Validity in Law much less in Life and Death and that the Depositions of Secretary Vane was doubtful as appeared by several Examinations and that there were present at the Debate but eight Privy Counsellors whereof two were not to be produced and four others declared upon their Honours that they never heard him speak those words or any like them and lastly that if he had spoken them which he yet granted not that the word This Kingdom could not imply England the debate being concerning Scotland there being not the least intention of Landing the Irish Army in England and concluded his Defence with telling the Lords that he was accused as guilty of Treason for endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land but it seemed strange to him that it should be Treason together which was not Treason in any part and lastly desired the Lords to consider how their own Priviledges and other Ministers of State would suffer by his Condemnation The Commons must now justifie their Charge by Law to which end they produced the Salvo annexed to the Stat. of 25 Ed. 3. The words were these Because all particular Treasons could not be then defined therefore what the Parliament should declare to be Treason in time to come should be punished as Treason And so this Salvo was to be the Ground work of the Bill of Attainder This being a point of Law the Earl had Council allowed him who answered on his behalf That the Statute which they cited was but a Declarative and a Penal Law awd would no way admit of such Consequential and Inferential Constructions and that this Salvo was repealed by an Act of Parliament in the Sixth of Henry the fourth And so the Court Adjourned without prefixing any time of Meeting for the Commons proceeded to dispatch their Bill of Attainder and April 19 1641 they Voted the Earl Guilty of High Treason upon the Evidence of Secretary Vane and his Notes And upon the 25th they passed the Bill and sent to the Lords for their Concurrence to whom it seemed at first so perplext a business that the Commons were forced to send Mr. Saint John the Kings Sollicitor to confer with them about it who gave them such satisfaction that thence forward they shewed greater propensity to the Earls Condemnation In the mean time the Commons petitioned the King 1. To remove all Papists from Court. 2. For disarming of them generally throughout the Kingdom 3. For disbanding the Irish Army To which the King answered 1. They all knew what Legal Trust the Crown hath in that particular therefore he shall not need to say any thing to assure them that he shall use it so as there shall be no just cause of scandal 2. As for the second he is content it shall be done by Law And for the last he had entred into Consultation about it finding many difficulties therein and doth so wish the disbanding of all Armies as he did conjure them speedily and heartily to joyn with him in disbanding those two here Scots and English The House of Commons having finished their Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford and the King fearing the Conclusion and being willing to do some good Office to him His Majesty May 1 1641 calls both Houses together and in a Speech tells them That he had been present at the hearing of that great Cause and that in his Conscience positively he could not condemn him of High Treason and yet could not clear him of misdemeanours but hoped a way might be found out to satisfie Justice and their fears without oppressing his Conscience And so he dismissed them to their great discontent which was propagated so far that May 3. near a Thousand Citizens most of them armed with Swords Cudgels and Staves came thronging down to Westminster crying out for Justice against the Earl of Strafford especially applying themselves to the Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain by whose perswasions and promises their fury was partly abated However they posted upon the Gate at Westminster a List of the Names of those who would have acquitted the Earl whom they stiled Staffordians The Parliament being Informed that some endeavours were used to raise a Disgust in the English Northern Army against their Proceedings they now enter into a National
the publick Treasury exhausted Trade decayed and thousands of People murthered and infinite of other mischiefs committed For all which High and Treasonable Offences the said Charles Stuart might long since justly have been brought to exemplary and condign punishment Whereas also the Parliament well hoping that the restraint and imprisonment of his Person after it had pleased God to deliver him into their hands would have quieted the disturbers of the Kingdom did forbear to proceed judicially against him But found by sad experience that such their remissives served only to encourage him and his Complices in the Continuance of their evil practices and in raising of new Commotions Designs and Invasions For prevention therefore of the like greater inconveniencies and to the end that no Magistrate or Officer whatsoever may hereafter presume traiterously and malitiously to imagine or contrive the inslaving or destroying of the English Nation and to expect impunity in so doing Be it Ordained and Enacted by the Commons is Parliament assembled and it is hereby Ordained and enacted by the Authority thereof That Thomas L. F. O. C. c. shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners and Judges for the Hearing Trying and Judging of the said Charles Stuart and the said Commissioners or any Twenty or more of them shall be and are hereby authorized and Constituted an High Court of Justice to meet at such convenient times and places as by the said Commissioners or the major part or twenty or more of them under their Hands and Seals shall be appointed and notified by publick Proclamation in the great Hall or Palace-yard of Westminster and adjourn from time to time and from Place to place as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting should hold fit and to take Order for charging of him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above-mentioned and for the receiving his Personal Answer thereunto and for Examination of Witnesses upon Oath if need be concerning the same and thereupon or in default of such Answer to proceed to final Sentence according to Justice and the merit of the Cause and to be Executed speedily and Impartially c. Presently after this was published Proclamation was made That those who had any thing to say against the King should have a hearing given them This was proclamed first in Westminster-Hall by the Serjeant at Arms to the Commissioners Riding into the Hall with his Mace attended with six Trumpeters and other Officers who likewise rode bare into the Hall with him the Drums of the Guard beating in the mean time without in the Palace-yard And the day after Proclamation was made to the same effect in Cheapside and at the Old-Exchange And in order to this grand Tryal Hillary Term which usually begins Jan. 23. was adjourned for fourteen dayes The House of Lords refusing to concur with the Commons in their Ordinance for the Kings Tryal the Commons resolve and Vote That all Members and others appointed to Act in any Ordinance are impowered and enjoyned to Sit Act and Execute notwithstanding the House of Peers joyn not with them And now the Ministers in general and the Presbyterians likewise who had been active against the Kings Cause declare themselves both in their Pulpits and by earnest Petitions to the Parliament to be zealous abhorrers of the Kings death and every where publickly protest against this Tryal The Nobility likewise offer themselves Pledges on the Kings behalf and the People universally seem greatly troubled and astonisht Notwithstanding all which the House of Commons and the Army went desperately on and a New and Illegal Tribunal called An High Court of Justice was erected the Commissioners whereof met in the Painted Chamber to consult what course to take about the Tryal of the King Fryday Jan. 19. 1648. The King was brought with a strong Guard of Horse from Windsor to St. James's and the next day Serjeant Bradshaw President of the pretended High Court of Justice with about seventy of the Members of the said Court having Coll. Fox and sixteen Gentlemen with Partizans and a Sword born by Coll. Humphrey and a Mace by Serj. Dandy with their and other Officers of the faid Court marching before them came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the West end of the Great Hall in Westminster where the Lord President in a Crimson Velvet Chair fixed in the midst of the Court placed himself having a Desk with a Crimson Velvet Cushion before him The rest of the Members placing themselves on each side of him upon the several Seats or Benches prepared and hung with Scarlet for that purpose and the Partizans dividing themselves on each side of the Court before them The Court being thus set and silence made the great Gate of the said Hall was set open to the end That all persons without exception desirous to see or hear might come into it upon which the Hall was presently filled and Silence again ordered This done Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of the King as a Prisoner was commanded to bring him to the Court who within a quarter of an hours space brought him attended with about twenty Officers with Partizans marching before him there being Coll. Hacker and other Gentlemen to whose care and Custody he was likewise committed marching in his Rear Being thus brought up within the face of the Court the Serjeant at Arms with his Mace receives and conducts him streight to the Bar where a Crimson Velvet Chair was set for the King After a stern looking upon the Court and the people in the Galleries on each side of him he places himself not at all moving his Hat or otherwise shewing the least respect to the Court but presently rises up again and turns about looking downwards upon the Guards placed on the left side and on the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the said great Hall After Silence made among the people the Act of Parliament for the Trying of CHARLES STVART King of England was read over by the Clerk of the Court who sate on one side of the Table covered with a rich Turkey Carpet and placed at the feet of the said Lord President upon which Table was also laid the Sword and Mace After reading the said Act the several Names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his Call The King having again placed himself in his Chair with his face towards the Court Silence being again ordered the Lord President stood up and said President CHARLES STVART King of England The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the Principal Author of them have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves They have
of his Staff fell off the which he wondered at and seeing none to take it up he stoop'd for it himself and put it in his pocket 2. That as the King was going away he looking with a very austere countenance upon the Court without stirring of his Hat replyed Well Sir when the L. President commanded the Guard to take him away and at his going down he said I do not fear that pointing with his staff at the Sword The people in the Hall as he went down the stairs cryed out some God save the King and some for Justice O yes being called the Court adjourned till Monday next January 22. at 9. in the morning to the Painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again in Westminster Hall January 21. being Sunday the Commissioners kept a Fast at White-Hall there Preached Mr. Spigge his Text was He that sheds Mans blood by Man shall his blood be shed next Mr. Foxeley his Text Judge not least you be judged Last was Mr. Peters his Text was I will bind their Kings in Chains and their Nobles in fetters of Iron At the High-Court of Justice sitting in Westminster-Hall Monday Jan. 22. 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called and answered to their Names Silence commanded upon pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guard to apprehend all such as make disturbance Upon the Kings coming in a shout was made Command given by the Court to the Captain of the Guard to fetch and take into his custody those who make any disturbance Mr. Solicitor May it please your Lordship my Lord President I did at the last Court in the behalf of the Commons of England exhibit and give into this Court a Charge of High Treason and other high Crimes against the Prisoner at the Bar whereof I do accuse him in the name of the People of England and the Charge was read unto him and his Answer required My Lord he was not then pleased to give an Answer but in stead of answering did there dispute the Authority of this High Court My humble Motion to this High Court in behalf of the People of England is That the Prisoner may be directed to make a positive Answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse to do that the matter of Charge may be taken pro confesso and the Court may proceed according to Justice President Sir You may remember at the last Court you were told the occasion of your being brought hither and you heard a Charge against you containing a Charge of high Treason and other high Crimes against this Realm of England you heard likewise that it was prayed in the behalf of the People that you should give an answer to that Charge that thereupon such proceedings might be had as should be agreeable to justice you were then pleased to make some scruples concerning the Authority of this Court and knew not by what Authority you were brought hither you did divers times propound your Questions and were as often answered that it was by Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament that did think fit to call you to an account for those high and capital misdemeanours wherewith you were then charged Since that the Court hath taken into Consideration what you then said they are fully satisfied with their own Authority and they hold it fit you should stand satisfied with it too and they do require it that you do give a positive and particular Answer to this Charge that is exhibited against you they do expect you should either confess or deny it if you deny it is offered in the behalf of the Nation to be made good againsts you their Authority they do avow to the whole world that the whole Kingdom are to rest satisfied in and you are to rest satisfied with it and therefore you are to lose no more time but to give a positive Answer thereunto King When I was here last 't is true I made that Question and truly if it were onely my own particular case I would have satisfied my self with the Protestation I made the last time I was here against the Legality of this Court and that a King cannot be tryed by any Superiour Jurisdiction on Earth but it is not my case alone it is the Freedom and the Liberty of the people of England and do you pretend what you will I stand more for their Liberties For if power without Law may make Laws may alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom I do not know what Subject he is in England that can be sure of his life or any thing that he calls his own therefore when that I came here I did expect particular Reasons to know by what Law what Authority you did proceed against me here and therefore I am a little to seek what to say to you in this particular because the Affirmative is proved the Negative often is very hard to do but since I cannot perswade you to do it I shall tell you my Reasons as short as I can My Reasons why in Conscience and the duty I owe to God first and my People next for the preservation of their Lives Liberties and Estates I conceive I cannot answer this till I be satisfied of the legality of it Here the King would have delivered his Reasons All proceedings against any man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that what you do is not agreeable to the proceedings of any Court of Justice you are about to enter into Argument and dispute concerning the Authority of this Court before whom you appear as a Prisoner and are charged as an high Delinquent if you take upon you to dispute the Authority of the Court we may not do it nor will any Court give way unto it you are to submit unto it you are to give in a punctual and direct Answer whether you will answer to your Charge or no and what your Answer is King Sir by your favour I do not know the forms of Law I do know Law and Reason though I am no Lawyer professed yet I know as much Law as any Gentleman in England and therefore under favour I do plead for the Liberties of the People of England more than you do and therefore if I should impose a belief upon any man without Reasons given for it it were unreasonable but I must tell you That by that Reason that I have as thus informed I cannot yield unto it President Sir I must interrupt you you may not be permitted you speak of Law and Reason it is fit there should be Law and Reason and there is both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament it is the Reason of the Kingdom and they are these too that have given that Law according to which you should have ruled and reigned Sir you are not to dispute our Authority you are told it again by
Silence commanded The Court called Seventy three Persons present The King comes in with his Guard looks with an austere countenance upon the Court and sits down The second O Yes made and silence commanded Mr. Cook Solicitor General May it please your Lordship my Lord President This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any Issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England that a King of England trusted to keep the Law That had taken an Oath so to do That had Tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of a wicked design to subvert and destroy our Lawes and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defiance of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against his Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the People of England that he might speedily be required to make an answer to the Charge But my Lord instead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High Court your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive answer either by denying or confession of it but my Lord he was then pleased for to demurre to the Jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then overrule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of Justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgment against him My Lord I might presse your Lordship upon the whole That according to the known Rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable plea Guilty or not Guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryal That as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the Prisoner at the Bar has done but besides my Lord I shall humbly presse your Lordship upon the whole Fact the House of Commons the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom they have declared That it is notorious That the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clearas Chrystal and as the Sun that shines at noon-day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the people of Englands behalf several witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confess it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is very great for justice and judgment and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgement be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what is moved by the Councel on the behalf of the Kingdom against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what dilatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands you were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolutions upon them You were told over and over again That the Court did affirm their own jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of obedience nor did you acknowledge any Authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court That they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus Authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withall and that they might in justice if they pleased and according to the Rules of Justice take advantage of these delayes and proceed to pronounce judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of persons you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not President Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a Nature against you your Work was that you ought to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Court and to Answer to your Charge Sir if you Answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to Answer to your Charge when you have once Answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the Matter that is Charged upon you King For the Charge I value it not a Rush it is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for for me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an example to all the people of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it you spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon me by God to the maintenance of the Libertyes of my People The same Obligation you speak of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to my people to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore until that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Answer If you will give me time I will then shew you my Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me how I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was lately in a Treaty upon the publick Faith of the Kingdom that was the known the two Houses of Parliament that was the
Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Here the President interrupted him and said Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. King By your favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into these discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court craves it not of you and once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty King Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of confession or denyal of the Charge King Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the people of England of the clearness of my proceedings not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their Priviledges to alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Sir you must excuse me President Sir this is the third time that you have publickly disowned the Court and put an affront upon it how far you have preserved the Priviledges of the people your Actions have spoke it but truly Sir mens intentions ought to be known by their Actions you have written your meaning in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdom but Sir you understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default and Gentlemen you that took charge of the Prisoner take him back again King I will onely say this one word to you If it were only my own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and you are notwithstanding you will not understand it to find that you are before a Court of Justice Then the King went forth with his Guard and Proclamation was made That all persons who had then appeared and had further to do at the Court might depart into the Painted Chamber to which place the Court did forthwith adjourn and intended to meet in Westminster-Hall by Ten of the clock the next morning Cryer God bless the Kingdom of England His Majesty intended to have delivered in writing his Reasons against the Pretended Jurisdicton of the High Court of Justice upon Monday Jan. 22. but was not permitted Saturday the 27 of January 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Serjeant Bradshaw Lord President in his Scarlet Robe suitable to the work of this day with sixtie eight other Members of the Court called As the King came into the Court in his usual posture with his Hat on a Cry made in the Hall by some of the Souldiers for Justice Justice and Execution King I shall desire a word to be heard a little and I hope I shall give no occasion of interruption President You may answer in your time hear the Court first King If it please you Sir I desire to be heard and I shall not give any occasion of interruption and it is only in a word a sudden judgment President You shall be heard in due time but You are to hear the Court first King Sir I desire it it will be in order to what I believe the Court will say and therefore Sir a hastie Judgment is not so soon recalled President Sir you shall be heard before the Judgment be given and in the mean time you may forbear King Well Sir shall I be heard before the judgment be given President Gentlemen it is well known to all or most of you here present That the Prisoner at the Bar hath been several times convented and brought before the Court to make answer to a Charge of Treason and other high Crimes exhibited against him in the Name of the People of England to which Charge being required to Answer Here an honourable Lady interrupted the Court saying Not half the People but she was soon silenced he hath been so far from obeying the Commands of the Court by submitting to their Justice as he began to take upon him to offer reasoning and debate unto the Authoritie of the Court and of the highest Court that constituted them to try and judge him but being over-ruled in that and required to make his Answer he was still pleased to continue contumacious and to refuse to submit or Answer Hereupon the Court that they may not be wanting to themselves to the trust reposed in them nor that any mans wilfulness prevent Justice they have thought fit to take the matter into their consideration They have considered of the Contumacy and of that confession which in Law doth arise upon that contumacy They have likewise considered of the notoriety of the Fact charged upon the Prisoner and upon the whole matter they are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced against this Prisoner but in respect he doth desire to be heard before the Sentence be read and pronounced the Court hath resolved that they will hear him yet Sir thus much I must tell you before-hand which you have been minded of at other Courts that if that you have to say be to offer any Debate concerning jurisdiction you are not to be heard in it you have offered it formerly and you have indeed struck at the root that is the power and Supreme Authority of the Commons of England which this Court will not admit a debate of and which indeed is an irrational thing in them to do being a Court that acts upon Authority denived from them that they should presume to judge upon their Superiority from whom there is no Appeal But Sir if you have any thing to say in defence of your self concerning the matters charged the Court hath given me command to let you know they will hear you King Since that I see that you will not hear any thing of debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material for the peace of the Kingdom and for the Liberty of the Subject I shall wave it I shall speak nothing to it but only I must tell you That this many a day all things have been taken away from me but that that I call more dear to me than my life which is My Conscience and my Honour and if I had respect to my life more than the Peace of the Kingdom the Liberty of the Subject certainly I should have made a particular defence for my self for by that at least-wise I might have delayed an ugly Sentence which I believe will pass upon me Therefore certainly Sir as a man that hath some understanding some knowledge of the world if that my true zeal to my Countrey had not overborn the care
that I have of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work than that I have done Now Sir I conceive that an hastie Sentence once past may be sooner repented than recalled And truly the self same desire that I have for the Peace of the Kingdome and the Liberty of the Subject more than my own particular does make me now at last desire That having something for to say that concerns both I desire before Sentence be given that I may be heard in the Painted Chamber before the Lords and Commons this delay cannot be prejudicial to you whatsoever I say if that I say no Reason those that hear me must be Judges I cannot be Judge of that that I have if it be Reason and really for the welfare of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject I am sure on it very well it is worth the hearing Therefore I do conjure you as you love that you pretend I hope it is real the Liberty of the Subject the Peace of the Kingdom that you will grant Me the hearing before any Sentence be passed I only desire this that you will take this into your consideration it may be you have not heard of it before-hand if you will I 'le retire and you may think of it but if I cannot get this Liberty I do here protest that so fair shews of Liberty and Peace are pure shews and not otherwise then that you will not hear your KING President Sir You have now spoken King Yes Sir President And this that you have said is a further declining of the Jurisdiction of this Court which was the thing wherein you were limited before King Pray excuse me Sir for my interruption because you mistake me it is not a declining of it you do judge me before you hear me speak I say it will not I do not decline it though I cannot acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court yet Sir in this give Me leave to say I would do it though I did not acknowledge it in this I do protest it is not the declining of it since I say if that I do say any thing but that that is for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberties of the Subject then the shame is mine Now I desire that you will take this into your consideration if you will I 'le withdraw President Sir this is not altogether new that you have moved unto us not altogether new to us though the first time in person you have offered it to the Court Sir you say you do not Decline the Jurisdiction of the Court. King Not in this that I have said President I understand you well Sir but nevertheless that which you have offered seems to be contrary to that saying of yours for the Court are ready to give a Sentence it is not as you say That they will not hear your King for they have been ready to hear you they have patiently waited your pleasure for three Courts together to hear what you would say to the Peoples Charge against you to which you have not vouchsafed to give any answer at all Sir This tends to a further delay Truly Sir such delayes as these neither may the Kingdom nor Justice well bear You have had three several dayes to have offered in this kind what you would have pleased This Court is founded upon that Authority of the Commons of England in whom rests the Supreme Jurisdiction That which you now tender is to have another Jurisdiction and a co-ordinate Jurisdiction I know very well you express your self Sir That notwithstanding that you would offer to the Lords nnd Commons in the Painted Chamber yet nevertheless you would proceed on here I did hear you say so but Sir that you would offer there whatever it is must needs be in delay of the Justice here so as if this Court be resolved and prepared for the Sentence this that you offer they are not bound in justice to grant but Sir according to that you seem to desire and because you shall know the further pleasure of the Court upon that which you have moved the Court will withdraw for a time King Shall I withdraw President Sir you shall know the pleasure of Court presently the Court withdraws for half an hour into the Court of Wards Serjeant at Arms The Court gives command that the Prisoner be withdrawn and they give order for his return again The Court withdraws for half an hour and returns President Serjeant at Arms send for your prisoner Sir You were pleased to make a motion here to the Court to offer a desire of yours touching the propounding of somewhat to the Lords in the Painted Chamber for the Peace of the Kingdom Sir you did in effect receive an answer before the Court adjourned Truly Sir their withdrawing and adjournment was pro forma tantum for it did not seem to them that there was any difficulty in the thing they have considered of what you have moved and have considered of their own Authority which is founded as hath been often said upon the Supreme Authority of the Commons of England assembled in Parliament The Court acts accordingly to their Commission Sir the return I have to you from the Court is this That they have been too much delayed by you already and this that you now offer hath occasioned some little further delay and they are JUDGES appointed by the highest JUDGES and Judges are no more to delay than they are to deny justice they are good words in the old Charter of England Nulli negabimus nulli vendemus nulli deferemus Justitiam There must be no delay but the truth is Sir and so every man here observes it That you have much delayed them in your contempt and default for which they might have long since proceeded to judgment against you and notwithstanding what you have offered they are resolved to proceed to punishment and to Judgment and that is their unanimous resolution King Sir I know it is in vain for me to dispute I am no Sceptick for to deny the power that you have I know that you have power enough Sir I confess I think it would have been for the Kingdoms peace if you would have taken the pains for to have shown the lawfulness of your power for this delay that I have desired I confess it is a delay but it is a delay very important for the peace of the Kingdom for it is not my Person that I look on alone it is the Kingdoms welfare and the Kingdoms peace it is an old sentence That we should think on long before we have resolved of great matters suddenly Therefore Sir I do say again that I do put at your doors all the inconveniency of an hasty Sentence I confess I have been here now I think this week this day eight daies was the day I came here first but a little delay of a day or two further may give peace whereas an Hasty Judgment may bring
put my hands out this way stretching them out them After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up Immediately stooping down laid his Neck upon the Block and then the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King said thinking he had been going to strike Stay for the sign Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little pause the King stretching forth his hands the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body The head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the people which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his house at Saint James's where his body was embalmed and put in a Coffin of Lead laid there a fortninght to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday sevennight after his Corps embalmed and coffined in Lead was delivered chiefly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and John Joyner former Cook to his Majesty they attended with others cloathed in Mourning Suits and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in that which was formerly the Kings Bed-chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with black and made dark Lights burning round the Herse in which it remained till Three in the Afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Lyndsey having obtained an order from the Parliament for the decent Interment of the King their Royal Master provided the expence thereof exceeded not five hundred pounds At their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Collonel Wichcot Governour of the Castle desiring the Interment might be in St. Georges Chappel and by the Form in the Common-Prayer Book of the Church of England this request was by the Governour denyed saying It was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act. To which the Lords replyed There is a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no Power so binds its own hands as to disable it self in some cases All could not prevail the Governour persisting in the Negative the Lords betook themselves to the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some pains taking therein they discover a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as is probably conjectured lyeth the body of King Henry the Eighth and his beloved Wife the Lady Jane Seamor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being Room for one more they resolve to inter the body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the pious Bishop of London following next and other Persons of Quality the Body was committed to the earth with sighs and tears especially of the Reverend Bishop to be denyed to do the last Duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body upon the Coffin was these words set KING CHARLES 1648. After the Regicides had committed this Horrid and nefarious Act the prevailing Power consisting of a patcht number of the House of Commons and the chief Officers of the Army combined together and seeing how successfully and unopposed they had effected this so unparalel'd a Deed to which they knew the generality of the Nation were utterly averse and as far as they durst shew'd their absolute dislike They in the next place fall upon the alteration of the Government thinking to make sure work by subverting the Ancient Monarchy of this Realm and instead thereof introducing that which they called a Free State or Common-wealth For constituting of which the first thing they did was to Vote and publish by Proclamation That whereas several pretences might be made to the Crown c. to the apparent hazard of the publick Peace no Person whatsoever should presume to proclaim or any way promote Charles Stuart Son of the said Charles late King of England or any other person to be King or chief Magistrate c. by colour of Inheritance or any other claim whatsoever without the free Consent of the People in Parliament first signified by a particular Act for that purpose any Law or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding and whosoever should contrary to this Order proclaim c. shall be adjudged a Traytor and suffer accordingly This proceeding was founded upon a Maxim which they had taken up and agreed on among themselves namely That all Power and Authority is Originally in the People But well knowing that their Councils had soon been confounded and themselves interrupted in the course they had begun if they had incorporated again with those of their Members which had been forcibly kept out by the Army they Resolve and decree 1. That all those Members who had assented to the Vote of Decemb. 5. concerning the Kings Concessions for that was the occasion of their seclusion should never be readmitted and that those that Voted in the Negative should presently enter their said dissent or before they were to be admitted And together with the fortune of Monarchy was involved that of the House of Peers who having sent to desire a Conference about setling the Government in regard the Judges Commissions were determined by the Kings Death instead of an Answer to their Message the Junto of the Commons upon debate Voted the Lords House to be useless and dangerous and therefore to be laid aside as in like manner they declared the Kingly Office to be unnecessary and Burthensom and therefore fit to be abolished only they allowed the Lords the Priviledge of being capable to be chosen Burgesses into the House of Commons But the Lords were so highly incensed thereat that there was suddenly published a Declaration in the name of all the Peers and Barons of the Realm wherein they protest against the Proceedings of the Commons And a while after some of the Kings friends in despite of all Votes Acts and Orders to the contrary promoted a Proclamation in the name of all the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Kingdom for proclaiming Charles our present Soveraign to be King of England But little could unarmed Declarations prevail against the reigning Power of an Armed faction who now assumed new Ensigns of Soveraignty cancelling the Old and caused all Writs Commissions and Instruments of publick Concernment to be issued out under a new Stile and Test that is of The Keepers of the Liberties of England by Authority of Parliament They ordered the old Great Seal to be
broken and a new one to be made with the Arms of England and Ireland on one side and this Inscription The Great Seal of England and on the other side the House of Commons with this Inscription In the first Year of Freedom by Gods blessing restored 1648. and appointed the Money to bear the Arms of England and Ireland with this Motto God with us and the Great Seal was intrusted with three Commissioners They likewise caused the Kings Arms to be pulled down every where and the Kings Picture in the Old Exchange they caused to be defaced and the following Inscription to be be set behind it in Golden Letters Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus Anno Libertatis Angliae Restitutae Primo Anno 1648. Jan. 30. They next proceed to erect another Illegal High Court of Justice wherein they brought to Tryall D. Hamilton taken at the fight at Preston the E. of Holland at Kingston Fight and the L. Capell and L. Goring taken at the Seige of Colchester The three first were Condemned and beheaded at the Palace-yard at Westminster After this the L. Fairfax having laid down his Commission the Parliament made Oliver Cromwell their General who a while after was sent into Ireland where he proved very successfull His Majesty was now in France and hoped to get aid there but found none but the Junto proceeded to make Sale of the King and Queens Lands and made a formal Act for abolishing Kingly Government and disinheriting the Roval Issue and seting up a Republick or Free State This Act Alderman Reynardson was commanded to proclaim in the City which he refusing was committed to the Tower with three Aldermen more and a new Lord Maior was chosen by a Common-Hall who attended with several other Aldermen as complyant as himself readily obeyed the Commands of his Masters and proclaimed their Edict in several places of the City A while after His Majesty was solemnly Proclaimed in Scotland and after great debate among them there they at length agree on some Propositions to be sent to the King who was then in the Isle of Jersey and Mr. Windram Laird of Libberton was appointed Messenger who bringing them to the King they were stiffly debated on each side but at last Breda in Holland was appointed for the place of a Solemn Treaty where Commissioners from the Estates and Kirk met the King and delivered their Propositions During which Treaty the Marquess of Montross was seized in Scotland and for opposing the Kirk Party was condemned and Executed upon a Gibbet near fifty foot high with all imaginable Contempt which His Majesty having an Account of was much troubled and the Treaty had like to have been broken off but at length through the necessity of Affairs was concluded and being carryed to Edenburgh after much debate it was resolved another Message should be sent to invite the King over but the Parliament here in England having notice of all these Proceedings in Scotland prepared an Army thereupon to invade Scotland under the command of their General Oliver Cromwell About this time General Blake their Admiral took sunk and burnt most of Prince Ruperts Fleet which was a great damage to the Kings Affairs And now the King being arrived at Spey in the North of Scotland some Lords were sent down to accompany him to Edenburgh As he came along he was entertained with the general Joy of all the People and at Aberdeen he was presented with 1500 Pounds which thing was ill taken by the Committee of Estates and Kirk and therefore they sent an Injunction to prohibit other Places from doing the like The King being now come to Edenburgh was again Proclaimed King July 15. 1650. but his Coronation was deferred by reason of the then Troubles since the English Army was upon the Borders and the Scots now began to think how to defend themselves and therefore marched under the Command of Montgomery and set upon the English at Muscleborough but were worsted by them and at Dunbar the English wholly routed them taking the pass there At the same time the Scots were divided among themselves into three Parties but the King returning with Montgomery to St. Johnstons they were all reconciled and the King on Jan. 1. 1650. was Crowned at Scone and soon after set up his Standard at Aberdeen resolving to be himself Generalissimo of the Scotch Army About which time Sir Hen. Hyde was beheaded at London for his Loyalty and not long after Captain Brown Bushell received the like Doom for performing some signall services to the King the King began to fortifie Sterlang and the English drew near it and Cromwell perceiving he could not draw the Scots to a Field Battel suddenly transported over Fyfe 1600 foot and four Troops of Horse who with the help of Lambert and Okey routed the Scots under Sir John Brown taking him and several other Persons of Quality Prisoners killing 2000 on the place and taking about 120 Prisoners not long after Mr. Gibbons and Mr. Love were Beheaded on Tower-hill upon the discovery of a Plot in England against the Parliament by the Presbyterians The King seeing the English prevail so fast thought it best to quit Scotland and so Marched for England July 30. 1651. which Cromwell observing sent Lambert after him with a select Party of Horse The Kings Army being now in England the Parliament caused numerous Forces to be raised in most Counties in England and his Majesty marched on to Worcester and fortified it In the mean time Maj. General Lambert gained the pass at Vpton by a desperate attempt in caussing some of his Troopers to swim the River on Horseback carrying their Pistols and Holsters in their hands to save them from wet whereby they put Maj. Gen. Massey and his men to the Retreat so that the Kings Party was forced to quit the Town and leave the pass to the Parliamentarians who quickly made a Bridge over the River and Cromwell joining with the rest of the Forces against the King after some Sallies out of the Town against them at length the King in the Front of his men sallied out of Town on Sept. 3. 1651. and so valianty charged Cromwells Life-Guard that they were forced to retire till seconded by fresh Forces they put the Kings Party to the Retreat and the King had his Horse twice shot under him and not able to rally again they were forced to fly into the Town where Cromwells Party entered Pell Mell with them and then the Cry went Save the King Save the King The King seeing all lost with some of his Nobles and Servants escaped with much difficulty to a Farmers house in Stafford-shire where he disrobed himself and for want of Scissers had his Hair out off with a Knife and so with the Company of one Friend who brought him Provision towards night he betook himself to a Wood where he made an Oak his Palace the Souldiers hunting about for him and a thousand Pound promised as a Reward to