Law is as well known neither did He deny His royall assent to any one Bill till after He was by force Tumults driven from White Hall and after he had indeed consented to whatsoever could be honestly asked of Him for the security and benefit of the Kingdome 11. The Queen is too near His Majesty not to bear a part and a share with Him in these calumnies and therefore Her designe to advance Popery is remembred and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebanks going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after He was questioned by the House of Commons What that designe of Her Majesty was for the advancement of Popery is not particularly mentioned and therefore no Answer can be given to it and having expressed so much undutifulnes malice to Her Majesty throughout the whole course of their Rebellion it is not probable they have concealed any thing they could lay to Her charge For the Fast observed by Her it is well known that the time of it was when the King was in the Field and his Person liable to much danger which piety and devotion was very agreeable to Her goodnesse and exemplar affection towards her Husband And the Kingdome would think it self abundantly blessed if the Fasts since observed by these men had produced no worse effects then that did w ch was observed by her M ty For S. Windebanke the House of Cōmons had it in their power to have proceeded against him to have prevented his escape he being in the House and according to order withdrawn into the Committee Chamber after the report was made and after as much appeared against him as was ever objected or discovered afterwards but the House contrary to custome rose without proceeding upon it and therefore His Majesty might very well give him leave to dispose of himself And the truth is they by whom the House was then guided were best pleased with his absence and purposely declined the proceeding against him when he was in their hands thinking it easier to procure his place for one of their principall Members to whom they had designed it upon the advantage of his flight then if he had staid to abide his Triall which for many reasons they would not have thought fit to hasten or to proceed in 12. The Allegations of Commissions given to Popish Agents for private leavies except they intend the Collections made amongst the Papists of money for the Kings expedition into the North which was likewise amongst and no lesse liberally complied with by the Lords of the Privy Counsell and the other Protestants of the best quality throughout the Kingdom or that the Papists began to rise and arme themselves in the Northwest of England and Wales the raising Soldiers under pretence for Portugal and the seizing of the Tower are so stale vaine and ridiculous that though upon the first contrivance of them the fame served the turn of the Contrivers mens observation and knowledge having since informed them that there was nothing like either of them there needs no further Answer to them 13. The next Article is the great Caball for bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament the chief part of which they can prove they say to come from Himself to the maine Actors though the King did so often and solemnly dis-avow it as nothing but loose discourses of a modest Petition which also vanished two or three Months he saith before they knew of it They doe well to except against the Kings positive denying it when they have onely their owne confident and positive affirming it for proof but they had need suppresse and burn all His Majesties Declarations and Answers in which He hath abundantly satisfied the world in this particular as well as they restrain His Person and as they have concealed all those Depositions taken by themselves in this Argument which would manifest clearly that there was no such designe by His Majesty so they need recall all those they have already published if they desire to have that designe believed The King in His Answer to the Declaration presented to Him at Newmarket uses these words We cannot without great indignation suffer Our self to be reproached to have intended the least force or threatning to Our Parliament as the being privy to the bringing up the Army would imply whereas We call God to witnes We never had any such thought or knew of any such resolution concerning Our late Army And afterwards His Majesty in His Declaration of the 12 of August a Declaration that never was offered to be Answered at large set forth all He ever knew of that businesse or which upon exact inquiry He could imagine to be in it by which it plainly appears that some Officers of the Army of very good and confessed reputation for their affection to their Country observing the strange Petitions every day presented to the House of Commons against the established Laws and Government of the Kingdome and the unlawfull manner in the delivering those Petitions by thousands of disorderly persons in Tumults supposed that a Petition of a most modest and dutifull nature from the whole Army for the composing and setling all grievances in the Church and State by Law might for the reason of it prevaile with the whole House and coming from such a body might confirm those who might be shaken with any fears of power or force by the Tumults and His Majesty being made acquainted with this proposition gave his full approbation to it which He had great reason to do since as there was notable industry used to corrupt His Army and to make it applicable to the ill purposes then resolved on so pains was taken to perswade the people that it was in truth very indevoted to the King and ready to serve the Parliament any way it should direct And as His Majesty saies if in the managery of this debate any rash discourses hapned of bringing up the Army it is evident whether they were proposed in earnest or no that they were never entertained and the whole matter was laid aside above two Months before any discovery so that that danger was never prevented by the power or wisdome of Parliament It appears by the evidence and Depositions published by themselves by the Order of the 19 of May 1642. together with that Declaration that this dangerous Plot began without the least privity of the Kings upon some Officers taking offence dis-like that of fifty thousand pounds Ordred for payment of the Kings Army ten thousand pounds was taken by an after Order out of that summe to satisfie a new motion and importunity from the Scots and that those Officers upon that distast discoursed that they were disobliged by the Parliament and not by the King and thereupon concluded to tender their Services to His Ma ty in all things honourable and agreeable to the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome That in debates afterwards together
the like number should be likewise transported for France whereby the whole Army would have been disposed of against which the Irish Committee more pressed then against the other alleaging that there were not men in that Kingdome to spare whereupon the House of Commons by their private Agents prevailed with the French Ambassadour who more desired to hinder the supply for Spaine then to procure the like for his Master and it may be to see the King controlled by the Parliament then either of the other to release the King of His promise to him so that they would prevent the Spaniard's having any men And thereupon they re-inforced their importunity to the King for the present Disbanding and not sending any of that Army out of Ireland in such a manner as His Majesty was forced to yeild to it and thereby no question much was contributed to the opportunity and disposition of rebelling and to whose account that advantage is to be put all the world may judge yet it may be fit to observe that of that Irish Army which these men would have believed to be no lesse then a Stratagem against the Protestant Religion not one Officer above the quality of Captaine and not above two of that condition have served in that Rebellion in Ireland against the King In all Rebellions the chief Authors and Contrivers of it have made all fair pretences and entred into such specious Oaths as were most like to seduce and corrupt the people to joyne with them and to put the fairest glosse upon their foulest combination and conspiracy and therefore it is no wonder if the Rebels in Ireland framed an Oath by which they would be thought to oblige themselves to bear true Faith and Allegiance to King Charles and by all meanes to maintain His Royall Prerogative at a time when they intended nothing lesse And Owen Connelly who was the first happy discoverer of that Rebellion in the same Deposition in which he saies the Rebels would pay the King all His Rights saies likewise that they said they took that course to imitate Scotland who got a priviledge by it and Marke Paget in the same Examination in which he saies that the Rebels report that they have the Kings Warrant and great Seale for what they doe saies likewise that they threaten that as soon as they have rooted out the Brittish and English there to invade England and to assist the Papists in England and therefore it is a wonderfull thing that what they sweare or what they say should be imputed to Him against whom they have rebelled and forsworn themselves The Authours of this Declaration have besides their Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy in the Protestation of the 5. of May sworn that they would maintaine and defend the Kings royall Person honour and estate and shortly after would perswade the people that they were by that very Protestation obliged to take up Armes against Him in their Declaration of the 19. of May they used these words The providing for the publique peace and prosperity of His Majesty and all His Realmes we protest in the presence of the all-seeing Deity to have been and still to be the only end of all our Counsells and endeavours wherein we have resolved to continue freed and enlarged from all private aymes personall respects or passions whatsoever and the very next day Voted that He intended to make War against His Parliament and that whosoever should serve or assist Him were Traytors by the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome and upon that conclusion of His intention actually leavied an Army and marched against him In their Petition of the 2. of June they tell him that they have nothing in their thoughts and desires more pretious and of higher esteem next to the honour and immediate service of God then the just and faithfull performance of their duty to His Majesty and together with that Petition present the 19. Propositions to Him by which they leave Him not so much power in His Kingdome as the meanest Member of either House reserves to himself Lastly to omit infinite other instances in their Instructions of the 18. of August to the Deputy Lieutenants of Cheshire they required them to declare unto all men that it had been and still should be the care and endeavour of both Houses of Parliament to provide for His Majesty That they doe not nor ever did know of any evill intended to His Majesties Person when the only businesse and end of those directions and instructions were to raise that whole County against Him So that this clause of the Rebels Oath in Ireland is no more to be objected against the King then those other clauses in their own Oaths and Declarations which they have not yet charged His Majesty withall Concerning the Proclamation against the Rebels in Ireland which they say they could not obtaine in divers Months and then that but 40 Copies were printed and expresse Order given that none should be published till further directions hear His Maj. own full Answer to that Charge in His Answer to the Declaration of the 19. of May in these words 'T is well known that we were when that Rebellion brake forth in Scotland That We immediatly from thence recommended the care of that businesse to both Houses of Parliament here after We had provided for all fitting supplies from Our Kingdome of Scotland that after Our returne hither We observed all those formes for that service which We were advised to by Our Councell of Ireland or both Houses of Parliament here and if no Proclamation issued out sooner it was because the Lords Justices of that Kingdome desired them no sooner and when they did the number they desired was but Twenty which they advised might be Signed by us which we for expedition of the service commanded to be printed a circumstance not required by them and thereupon signed more then they desired So that it is an impudent Assertion that they could not obtain a Proclamation in divers Months when they never so much as desired or moved it and it was no sooner moved to the King but He gave Order in it the same Houre But it will not be amisse since this particular hath bin with so much confidence and so often unreasonably objected against His Majesty to speak somewhat of the custome and order usually observed in sending Proclamations into that Kingdome and of the reason why so many and no more were at that time sent except upon any extraordinary reasons the King never signes more then the first draught of the Proclamation fairly ingrossed in parchment which being sent to the Lord Deputy or Lords Justices in Ireland is there printed and the printed Copies dispersed as they are in England His Majesties signe Manuall being not to any of those Copies The Lords Justices and Councell taking notice of the rumour industriously spread amongst the Rebels that they had the Kings authority for what they did
of Ireland nor is there the least colour to affirm the same what directions the Rebels give in their Letters of Mart or whether they gave any such directions as are alleaged is no way materiall as to His Majesty and for Officers and Commanders who left their trust against the Rebels it is sufficiently known that the Earle of Leven who by His Majesties consent was sent Generall of the Scots into Ireland against the Rebels was called from thence to lead an Army into England against His Majesty and when the King's Commissioners at the Treaty at Uxbridge alleaged and complained that many Officers both Scots and English had in the beginning of that War left that Service and been entertained by the two Houses against the King all the Answer they could receive was That they were not sent for This being the case as without any possibility of contradiction it is these Gentlemen had no more reason to believe the Rebels when they did so often swear they did nothing without good authority and Commission from the King then the Rebels had to believe them when they swore on the 22. of October 1642. That no private passion or respect no evill intention to His Majesties person nor designe to the prejudice of His just honour and authority engaged them to raise Forces and the next day gave His Majesty battle at Edge-hill Nor is it more materiall that Sir Phelim Oneale would not be perswaded that Generall Laesly had any authority from the King against the Rebels then that these Gentlemen should be perswaded in the same houre to believe that an Army should be raised for the safety of the King's person and to sweare that they would live and die with the Earl of Essex whom they nominated Generall to lead that Army against the King What information was given divers Months before to the Archbishop and others of the Kings Councel of a designe amongst the Papists for a generall Massacre of all the Protestants in Ireland and England c. is no objection against the King and as the Archbishop was imprisoned divers Months before that Rebellion brake out so it is not like if they had been able to have charged Him with any concealment that they would have forborn accusing him with it at his Triall when they so much wanted evidence against him that they were faine to make his Chaplains not licencing such Books against Popery as they thought did discredit the Protestant cause an Argument of his Treason and they would likewise now have named the others of the King's Counsell if they could have alleaged any matter that could have reflected upon them or their Master Next follows a huddle of the Kings Letters to the Pope when he was in Spaine and of others since on the behalfe of the Duke of Lorainge and of the King 's having an Agent at Rome which it is knowne he never had some Months before the Irish Rebellion all which are so obscurely mentioned and so ridiculous as to any charge against the King that they are not worthy any Answer yet because how impertinently soever by the licence of these times much hath been scandalously discoursed of a Letter written by the King when he was Prince and in Spaine to the Pope and such a Letter translated printed out of a Copy published in the French Mercury it may not be amisse to say somewhat of that businesse The Prince being by the command of his Father sent into Spaine to conclude a Marriage with the Daughter of that Crowne which had been long treated of could not but be obliged whilst he was there to perform all Ceremonies which were requisite to the compassing the businesse he went about The Kingdome where he was had a fast friendship with Rome and such a kind of dependence that a dispensation from thence was thought necessary by the wisdome of that State to the marriage in treaty towards the procuring whereof though the Prince would not contribute the least application of his owne yet he was not reasonably to do any thing which might make that dispensation the more difficult to be procured The Pope that then was writ a Letter to the Prince which was delivered to his Highnesse by his Minister there resident It was a Letter of respect and in the interpretation of that State of great kindnesse and it would have been thought a very unseasonable neglect if the Prince had vouchsafed it no Answer on the other hand it was easier to resolve that it was fit to write then what in the mean time they who were officious that it might be done prepared the draught of a Letter and brought it to him the which when his Highnesse had perused with his own hand he expunged those clauses which might seem to reflect upon the Religion which he professed and having so altered and mended it he caused it to be sent to the Pope Copies of the first draught were spread abroad by which that was inserted in the French Mercury which is so carefully translated and printed and dispersed these late ill years and now is given in evidence against His Majesty But admitting it were the same and that the Prince being in a forain Kingdom with the policy whereof he was then to comply had written that very Letter which is printed with what colour of reason can any man make that an Argument of his inclination to Popery who at that time and ever since hath given the greatest testimony of his affection to the Protestant Religion that any Prince or private person hath done The Authours of this Declaration would not think it just that from their very loving Letters to the Bashaw at Argyers and his to them in which He thanks God that the Agent of the Parliament of England is come thither to make a peace and love betwixt them to the end of the world as appears by the relation of that businesse fol. 15. published by their authority and from the amity with them to that Degree that they have given the Turkes men-of-war the freedome of their Harbours men should conclude that they are resolved to turn Turkes and yet such a conclusion will more naturally result from those Letters and that strict correspondence then of the King's affection to Popery from that Letter to the Pope It is said that the same designe was laid in England at the same time and that many thousands were appointed to cut the Protestants throats in this Kingdom also when the King went into Scotland and that it was confessed by some of the principall Rebels that their Popish Committee with the King had communicated that designe with many Papists in England by whose advice though some things were altered yet it was generally concluded that about the same time there should be the like proceedings of the Papists here all which if true as no sober man believes it to be does no way reflect upon the King and that Popish Committee was sent more to the
power yet they could not break through the Charge of the Army for invading infringing or endeavouring to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects of this Nation in arbitrary violent and oppressing waies and for endeavouring by indirect and corrupt practises to delay and obstruct Justice to the great damage and prejudice of divers of the poor Commoners of England Though they were too mighty to be touched upon the Kings accusation of having endeavoured by many foule aspersions upon His Majesty and His Government to alienate the affections of His people and to make His Majesty odious to them yet they were not able to bear the burthen of an Accusation of having endeavoured by false informations mis-representations or scandalous suggestions against the Army to beget mis-understandings prejudices or jealousies in the Parliament against the Army and to put insufferable injuries abuses and provocations upon the Army whereby to provoke and put the Army into dis-temper Though they slighted the King's Charge of having trayterously invited and incouraged a forain power to invade His Majesties Kingdome of England yet they cannot throw off the Charge from the Army of having invited the Scots and other forain Forces to come into this Kingdome in a hostile manner to abet and assist them in the prosecution and effecting of their designes Lastly they may with their eyes hands and hearts lift up to Heaven remember how they contemned and despised the King when he charged them that they had endeavoured as far as in them lay by force and terrour to compell the Parliament to joyne with them in their trayterous designes and to that end had actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament And now their owne Army whereof very many then assisted them in those Tumults to drive away the King and the Members of both Houses accuses them of having invited incouraged abetted or countenanced divers Reformadoes and other Officers and Souldiers tumultuously and violently to gather together at Westminster to affright and assault the Members of Parliament in passing to and from the House to offer violence to the House it self and by such violence outrages and threats to awe and inforce the Parliament As the Charge allowed and countenanced now from their owne Army is upon the matter the same which was with so much noise and insolence rejected when it was presented from the King and is now objected against Him as a hainous crime so with reference to their Priviledges which like the Logitians line is divisibilis in semper divisibilia and serves their turne to inable them to aske any thing from the King they think fit to demand and to refuse any thing to Him He requires from them the progresse and proceedings thereupon hath been very different in stead of suspending and discountenancing them upon the King's accusation they are brought in triumph with an Army to the House the Army upon the bare exhibiting their generall Articles require that the persons impeached may be forthwith suspended from sitting in the House and will receive no deniall it must be consented to for they will not indure that the persons impeached by them shall continue in power and capacity to obstruct due proceedings against themselves and for their own escape from justice to threaten ruine to the whole Nation as by the Letter from the Army of the 21. of June appears The King was checked upon the matter of Priviledge and then imperiously required to send the evidence which He had against those He had accused to the House where they principally governed and could easily judge what was secure for themselves His Majesty desired that before His proofs were discovered against them and lest a new mistake should breed more delaies it might be resolved whether His Majesty were bound in respect of Priviledges to proceed against them by impeachment in Parliament or whether He were at liberty to prefer an Indictment against them at Common Law in the usuall way or had His choice to which they would give no other Answer then that they desired Him to give directions that the Parliament might be informed before Friday next what proof there was against them that accordingly they might be called to a legall triall it being the undoubted right and priviledge of Parliament that no Member of Parliament can be proceeded against without the consent of Parliament The Army tells them plainly by their Letter of the 25. of June That they wish the name of Priviledges may not lie in ballance with the Safety of a Kingdome and the reality of doing justice which as they had said too often they could not expect whilst the persons they had accused were the Kingdomes and their Judges And in the Remonstrance of the Army of the 23. of June that no priviledges ought to protect wicked men in doing wrong to particulars or mischief to the publick and that whoever most adores or tenders those priviledges will best expresse his Zeale towards them in taking care they be not abased or extended to private wrong and publique mischief for they say they clearly find and all wise men may see it that Parliament priviledges as well as Royall prerogative may be perverted abused to the destruction of those greater ends for whose protection and preservation they were admitted or intended viz. the Rights and Liberties of the people and safety of the whole and in case they be so the abuse evill or danger of them is no lesse to be contended against and a remedy thereof no lesse to be endeavoured then of the other And upon these grounds they conclude that they shall be inforced to take such courses extraordinary as God shall enable and direct them to unlesse by Thursday night next they receive assurance and security to themselves and the Kingdome for a more safe and hopefull proceeding in an ordinary way by having those things granted which before they insisted on These have been the proceedings of late in the point of accusing Members and in the case of Priviledge all which are so far justified by the Houses that the Army hath received publique thanks and approbation for all that they have done and their accusations have been received countenanced and promoted and their desires granted against the persons they accused so that as the King did nothing in the accusation of those Members but what was justifiable by the Law and former Presidents of Parliament so whatsoever He did is since justified by the later Presidents which themselves have consented to and approved And so we return to the place from whence this consideration carried us There is a mention of the Lord Digby's appearing in a War-like manner and afterwards his going beyond the Seas and from thence giving advice to the King to retire to some strong place c. which are all so well known have been so often answered and have so little reference to the King that time is not to
divide and destroy the Parliament and the City of London under the notion of peace and by engaging them in a Treaty of peace without the advice and consent of their Brethren of Scotland which he said would be contrary to the late Articles solemnly agreed upon by both Kingdomes and to the perpetuall dishonour of this Nation by breach of their Publique Faith engaged therein to that Nation so that the two Houses having given their judgment in the point the King hath great reason if He had no other to have the whole well debated before Him and the severall interests weighed and agreed upon before He give His consent to any particulars which will else produce more mischief then His refusing all can possibly doe Nor will these and their other extravagant and licentious demands be better justified by their undervaluing the Kings present power in their insolent question in their late Declaration concerning the Scots Commissioners which in truth throughout is but a paraphrase upon that Speech of Demetrius to his Companions of the like occupation Sirs you know that by this craft we have our wealth what can the King give them but what they have already It is not out of their duty or good will to Him that they make any Application to Him and if they did indeed believe that His Majesty could give them nothing but what they have already He should hear no more from them but they very well know they have yet nothing except He give them more and that the man that is robbed and spoyled of all that He hath when He hath procured a pardon for and given a Release to the Thieves and Robbers He hath given them more then they had before and that which onely can make what they had before of benefit and advantage to them they know and will feel the judgment upon the wicked man in Job He hath swallowed down Riches and he shall vomit them up again God shall cast them out of his belly Because he hath oppressed and hath forsaken the poor Because he hath violently taken away a house which he builded not In the fulnesse of his sufficiency he shall be in straits That all their reproachings and revilings with which they have triumphed over the Lords Anointed must come into their Bowels like water and like Oyle into their bones And that nothing can restore and preserve them but the Antidotes and Cordials and Balme which the King only can Administer they know very well that even the most unfortunate Kings that ever have been in England could never be destroyed without their own consent and that all their power and strength and successe though for a time it may oppresse can never subdue the Crown without its owne being accessary to its own ruine and the King very well knows that what He yet suffers is not through His own default but by such a defection as may determine all the Empires of the world and that in the unspeakable miseries which all His good Subjects have undergone He is yet innocent the conscience whereof hath refreshed Him in all His sufferings and maketh Him superiour to their insolence contempt and Tyranny and keeps Him constant to His Princely and pious resolution but that if by any unhappy consent of His own such an establishment shall be made as shall expose Himself His Posterity and people to misery it will lie all upon His own account and rob Him of that peace of mind which He now enjoyes and values above all the considerations of the world well knowing that God requires the same and no more of Him then he did of his servant Joshuah Only be thou strong and very couragious that thou mayest observe to doe according to all the Law which Moses my servant commanded thee turne not from it to the right hand or to the left that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest Honest men and good Christians will be lesse moved with their bold and presumptuous conclusion which they have learned from their new Confederates the Turkes That God himself hath given his Verdict on their sides in their successes not unlike the Logick used by Dionysius who because he had a good gale of wind at Sea after he had sacked the Temple of Proserpine concluded That the immortall Gods favoured Sacriledge It is very true they have been the instruments of Gods heavy judgments upon a most sinfull people in very wonderfull successes yet if they would believe Solomon they would find There is a time wherein one man rules over another to his own hurt and prosperity was never yet thought a good argument of mens piety or being in the right and yet if these men did enough think of God Almighty and seriously revolve the works of his owne hand throughout this Rebellion and since they had looked upon themselves as Conquerours they would be so far from thinking that he had given his Verdict on their side that they would conclude that he hath therefore onely suffered to prosper to this degree that his owne power and immediate hand might be more cleerly discerned and manifested in their destruction and that the cause might appear to be his own by his most miraculous vindication of it If Master Hambden had been lesse active and passionate in the businesse of the Militia which might have proceeded from naturall reason and reformation of his understanding the judgment and Verdict of God would not have been so visible as it was in the loosing his life in that very Field in which he first presumed to execute that Ordinance against the King If Sir John Hotham had never denied his Majesty entrance into and shut the Gates of Hull against Him from which naturall Allegiance and civill prudence might have restrained him the judgment and Verdict of God had been lesse evident then it was when after he had wished that God would destroy him and his posterity if he proved not faithfull to the King at the same time that he had planted his Cannon against him he and his Son were miserably executed by the judgment of those who but by his Treason could never have been enabled to have exercised that jurisdiction and that having it in his power he should perfidiously decline to serve his Majesty and afterwards loose his head for desiring to do it when he had no power to perform it They who remember the affected virulency of Sir Alexander Carew against the King and all those who adhered to him and how passionately he extolled and magnified the perjury and treachery of a Servant as if he had done his duty to the Kingdome by being false to his Master the King and that this man afterwards should by the treachery of his Servant be betrayed and lose his head by their judgments for whose sakes he had forfeited it to the King cannot but think the Verdict of God more visible then if he had contained himself within the due limits of his obedience and
A FVLL ANSWER TO AN INFAMOUS AND TRAYTEROUS PAMPHLET ENTITULED A Declaration of the Commons of England in Parliament assembled expressing their Reasons and Grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further Addresse or Application to be made to the KING MICAH 3. 11. The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for mony yet will they leane upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us Printed for R. ROYSTON 1648. THE CONTENTS THe Authors Method pag. 2. Their severall Charges against the KING ib. 1. That His Majesty hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this Maxime or Principle That He oweth an account of His actions to none but God alone and That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law p. 3. 2. The private Articles agreed in order to the Match with Spaine and those other private Articles upon the French marriage c. p. 12 3. The Death of King James ib. 4. The businesse of Rochel p. 17. 5. The Designe of the German Horse Loanes Privy-Seales Coat and Conduct-mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies p. 19. 6. The torture of our bodies by whipping cutting off eares pillories c. with close-imprisonment aggravated with the dominion exercised over our souls by Oaths Excommunications new Canons c. p. 24. 7. The long intermission of Parliaments and at the dissolution of some how Priviledges have been broken and some Members imprisoned p. 26. 8. The new Liturgy and Canons sent into Scotland And the cancelling and burning the Articles of Pacification p. 27. 9. The calling and dissolving the short Parliament and the Kings proceeding after the dissolution therof p. 28. 10. The King summoned the present Parliament to have assistance against the Scots And when He found that hope vaine He was so passionately affected to His Malignant Counsellours that He would rather desert His Parliament and Kingdome then deliver them to Law and Justice p. 29. 11. The Queens designe to advance Popery and Her observing a Popish Fast with Secretary Windebank's going beyond Sea by His Majesties Passe after he was questioned p. 30. 12. Commissions given to Popish Agents for private Leavies p. 31. 13. The bringing up the Northerne Army to over-awe the Parliament ib. 14. Offers made to the Scots of the plunder of London if they would advance or of 4 Northern Counties with three hundred thousand pounds but to stand Neuters p. 36. 15. The businesse of Ireland p. 38. 16. The unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon the Kings return from Scotland with new Guards within and about Whitehall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with new Guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great Pieces of Battery the displacing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City p. 58. 17. The Charge of Treason against some of both Houses and the Kings going so attended to the House of Commons p. 62. 18. A Parallel between the Kings proceedings against the 5 and the Armies against 11 Members p. 67. 19. Commissions granted to the E. of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull And their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark p. 72. 20. The Queens going into Holland and her carrying away and pawning the anncient Iewels of the Crowne p. 76. 21. When they first took up Arms against the King ib. 22. Breach of Honour and faith in the King for making so many solemn Protestations against any thought of bringing up the Northerne Army or of Levying Forces to wage war with His Parliament or of bringing in forain Forces or Aids from beyond Sea p. 79. 23. They have not observed their Professions made to the King nor kept their promises to the People p. 95. 96. 24. That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England did before Himself p. 97. 25. The setting up a Mock-Parliament at Oxford to oppose and protest against the Parliament of England p. 102. 26. A full Relation of the first Tumults p. 107. 27. The Pacification and peace in Ireland p. 113. The King 's severall Messages and their Propositions and Addresses for peace p. 118. Their 4 Bills presented to His Majesty at Carisbrook-Castle p. 132. The Commons Resolutions of making no more Addresses to the King p. 148. The Conclusion Demonstrating That they can never establish a Peace to the Kingdome or any security to themselves but by Restoring the just Power to the KING and dutifully submitting and joyning themselves to His protection p. 156. An ANSWER to an infamous and trayterous Pamphlet entituled A DECLARATION of the Commons of England in Parliament expressing their reasons and grounds of passing the late Resolutions touching no further addresse or application to be made to the KING IF the nature and minds of men were not more inclined to errour and vice then they are to truth and vertue and their memories more retentive of the Arguments and evidence which is administred to pervert then of those applied to reclaime them there would be little need of composing any Answer to this seditious and trayterous Declaration which consists onely of the severall infamous and scandalous imputations and reproaches except the odious and groundlesse discourse of the death of King James which though they have alwaies whisper'd they never thought fit to own till now which have been thrown and scattered against the King throughout their Declarations and Remonstrances and is but the same Calumny and Treason bound up in a lesser Volume to every particular whereof His Majesty whilst he was at liberty to speak for himself and to take the pains to undeceive and inform his people gave full and clear answers in His severall Declarations and Expresses so that from thence all men may gather the most naturall and proper Antidotes to expell this poyson the spirit and malignity whereof it is hoped is so near spent by the stalenesse and palpable unskilfulnesse as well as malice of the Composition that it will neither be received by or work upon any healthfull Constitutions yet it will not be amisse for the information of those who it may be have not taken the pains to read the KING 's former Answers and Declarations and refreshing the memory of others who have forgotten what they have read to collect the Answers formerly given to those particulars with which His Majesty is now charged and to adde to those Answers what the knowledge and observation of most men who have been faithfull inquirers into past Actions with that integrity and duty that becomes Subjects may supply them with For which there will need no great Apology since every honest man hath a more regular and legall qualification to vindicate His Majesty from those foule aspersions then any Combination
or Congregation of men can have to traduce Him with them Before any discourse be applied to the monstrous Conclusions which are made and for the support and maintenance whereof that Declaration is framed and contrived or to the unreasonable glosses upon His Majesties Propositions and prosecution of his desires of peace and Treaty it will be the best method to weigh and consider those particulars upon which they would be thought to found their desperate Conclusions and in which they say there is a continued tract of breach of trust in the three Kingdomes since His Majesty wore the Crowne 1. The first Charge is that His Majesty in publique Speeches and Declarations hath laid a fit foundation for all Tyranny by this most destructive Maxime or Principle which he saith he must avow That He oweth an account of His Actions to none but God alone and that the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any Law That which all learned Christians in all ages have taught and all learned Lawyers of this Kingdome have alwaies held and acknowledged is not like to be a destructive principle and a fit foundation for Tyranny and surely this assertion of His Majesties hath no lesse authority For the first the incomparable Grotius upon whom all learned men look with singular reverence saies that even Samuel jus Regum describens satis ostendit adversùs Regis injurias nullam in populo relictam potestatem which saies he rectè colligunt veteres ex illo Psalmi Tibi soli peccavi Because being all ejusà em ordinis the people owe the same obedience to these as they did to those though the absolute power and jurisdiction the Kings of Israel had be no rule for other Princes to claime by And Grotius there cites Saint Ambrose his note upon the same Text Neque ullis ad poenam vocantur legibus tuti imperii potestate homini ergo non peccavit cui non tenebatur obnoxius The wise and learned Lord Chancellor Egerton in his Argument of the Postnati mentions some Texts in the Civill Law of the great and absolute power of Princes as Rex est lex loquens and Rex solus judicat de causa à jure non definita and saies he must not wrong the Judges of the Common Law of the Kingdome so much as to suffer an imputation to be cast upon them that they or the Common Law doe not attribute as great power and authority to their Soveraigns the Kings of England as the Canon Laws did to their Emperours and then cites out of Bracton the Chief Justice in the time of King Hen. 3. and an authentique Authour in the Law these words De Chartis Regiis factis Regum non debent nec possunt Justitiarii nec privatae personae disputare nec etiam si in illa dubitio oriatur possunt eam interpretari in dubiis obscuris vel si aliqua dictio duos contineat intellectus Domini Regis erit expectanda interpretatio voluntas and the same Bracton in another place saies of the King Omnis sub eo est ipse sub nullo nisi tantum sub Deo The ground of that excellent law of Premunire in the 16 year of King Rich 2. c. 5. and the very words of that Statute are That the Crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly Subjection but immediately subject to God in all things touching the Regality of the same Crowne and to none other and upon that Maxime of the Law that good Statute against the Pope was founded If the King were bound to give an Account of his Actions to any person or power whatsoever God excepted he could not be the onely supream Governour of this Realme which he is declared and acknowledged to be by the Oath of Supremacy which every Member of the House of Commons hath taken or if he hath not he ought not to sit there or to be reputed a Member of Parliament by the Statute of 5 Eliz. c. 1. For the other part of this most destructive maxime or principle That the Houses of Parliament joynt or separate have no power either to make or declare any thing to be Law which hath not been formerly made to be so It hath been the judgment and language of the law it self in all Ages and the language of all Parliaments themselves It was the judgment of the Parliament in the 2 year of King Hen. 5. remembred and mentioned by the King in his Answer to the 19 Propositions That it is of the Kings regality to grant or deny such of their Petitions as pleaseth himself which was the forme then usuall to present those desires which by the Kings approbation and consent were enacted into Laws It was the language of the Law in the 36 year of K. H. 6. reported by my Lord Dyer that the King is the head and that the Lords are chief and principall Members and the Commons to wit the Knights Citizens and Burgesses the inferiour Members and that they all make the Body of Parliament and doubtlesse the Priviledge of Parliament was not in that time held so sacred a thing when an Action of Debt was brought against the Sheriffe of Cornwall for having discharged one Trewynnard a Burgesse of Parliament taken in Execution during the Session of Parliament upon a Writ of priviledge directed to the said Sheriffe and the Kings Bench where the Action was brought and the Sheriffe justified was in those daies the proper place to judge what was the priviledge of Parliament the Law being the most proper Judge of that priviledge as well as of all other rights It is the language of the Authour of Modus tenendi Parliamentum who lived before the time of William the Conquerour and it is the language of Sir Edw. Coke in the Chapter of the high Court of Parliament which was published by a speciall Order of the House of Commons since the beginning of this Parliament that there is no Act of Parliament but must have the consent of the Lords the Commons and the royall assent of the King and the same Sir Edward Coke saies in the 11. p. of that Chapter that Innovations and Novelties in Parliamentary proceedings are most dangerous and to be refused It is the language of the Parliament in the 1 year of King James when to the first Act that was past they desired His Majesties royall assent without which they say it can neither be compleat or perfect nor remaine to all posterity c. Lastly it is the language of this present Parliament and in a time in which they were not very modest in their pretences for in their Declaration of the 19 of May they acknowledge that by the constitution of this Kingdome the power is in His Majesty and Parliament together albeit they conclude in the same Declaration that if He refused to
offices of friendship It may be worth the labour briefly to set down the truth of that matter and the proceedings thereupon About the time of His Majesties Marriage with the Queen the French King had many designes upon Italy and a particular difference and contest with the States of Genoa and upon conclusion of that Treaty and renewing the antient League and amity confirmed strengthned by this Marriage His Majesty was content to lend the Vantguard and to give licence that six or seven Merchant Ships might be hired if the Owners were willing to serve the French King in the Mediterranean Sea and upon a precise promise that they should not be imployed against those of the Religion in France Accordingly the Vantguard and no other Vessell of the Navy Royall was delivered and the Merchants Ships likewise hired by the French Agents with the full consent of the Owners One of which or one by their nomination Commanded each Ship and carried the same into France and there themselves delivered the Ships into the possession of the French After these Ships were thus engaged in the French service and joyned to their Fleet in which were 20 Ships of Warre likewise borrowed of the Hollanders commanded by Hauthaine the Admirall and Dorpe his Vice-Admirall who it is very probable nor their Masters were privy or consenting to that enterprize and with which they were much superiour to those of the Religion though the English Ships had been away they fell upon the Rochel Fleet and took and destroyed many of them The King was no sooner informed of this then he highly resented it by His Ambassadour and the French King excused it upon those of the Religion who He Alleaged had without cause broken the peace the Duke of Subese having when all was quiet seized all the French Ships at Blauet which very Ships made the best part of the Fleet he had now incountred and broken And that the King of England ought to be sensible of the injury the peace thus broken having been made and consented to by the French King upon His Majesties earnest mediation and interposition Notwithstanding which His Majesty justly incensed that His Ships should be imployed contrary to His pleasure and the promise made to Him immediatly required the restitution of His and all the English Ships the which was no sooner made then to publish to the world how much He was displeased with that Action He entred into Hostility with France the chief ground of that quarrell being that the English Ships had been imployed against those of the Religion contrary to the expresse promise made that they should not be used against them as appears as well by the Manifest of the Duke of Buckingham dated 21 July and printed since this Parliament as by the Records of State of that time Let the world now judge with what colour the losse of Rochel which as is said before hapned not till neer or full two years after the return of the English Ships can be imputed to the King 5. The fifth Article is the designe of the Germane-Horse Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony Ship-mony and the many Monopolies all which are particularly mentioned in the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the 15 of December 1642. as the effects of evill Counsellours and with a Protestation in that Petition which accompanied it to His Majesty that it was without the least intention to lay a blemish upon His Majesties Royall Person but only to represent how His Royall Authority and trust had been abused And finding that the vile language and aspersions which they cast upon the King were generally censured and ill spoken of The Lords and Commons afterwards in their Declaration of the 19 of May tell the people that if they should say that all the ill things done of late in His Majesties name have been done by Himself they should neither follow the direction of the Law nor the affection of their owne hearts which they say is as much as may be to clear His Majesty of all imputation of misgovernment and to lay the fault upon His Ministers and then finding fault with those who make His Majesty the Authour of evill Counsels they use these words We His Majesties loyall and dutifull Subjects can use no other Stile according to that Maxime of the Law The King can doe no wrong but if any ill be committed in matter of State the Councell if in matters of Iustice the Judges must answer for it So that if they would guide themselves either by the good old or their own new laws from which in truth they swerve no lesse then from the other they have themselves answered and declared against this Article but since that is not currant examine the particulars The time when this designe is supposed to have been was when His Majesty had a War with the two greatest Kings of Christendome France and Spaine and therefore if He had purposed to have drawn auxiliary Forces into His Service it had been no wonder nor more then all Princes use yet in truth there was never any designe to bring in Germane Horse only in those unquiet times when the Kingdom was so much threatned from abroad amongst other expedients for strength and defence such a proposition was made or rather some discourse upon it which the King rejected and did never consent that it should be put in practice and therefore it may seem strange that this designe should be now objected against His Majesty who alone refused and hindred it and that Balfore and Dalbiere who were the principall if not the only Projectors of it should be in such high reputation and esteem with the Declarers The Loanes Privy Seales and other courses of raising Money were upon extraordinary and immergent occasions and of the same nature that have been in all times practiced upon reason and necessity of State And Monopolies are weeds that have alwaies grown in the fat soile which long peace and plenty makes and of that kind they may find a larger Catalogue in their Journall book of the 43 year of Queen Elizabeth a time that no sober man complaines of then in any time since and which was not then nor reasonably can be imputed to the Crowne since new inventions have justly so great encouragements and priviledges by the Law that if those Ministers through whose hands such grants are to passe are not very vigilant it is not possible but upon specious pretences many things unwarrantable of that nature will have the countenance of the Kings hand yet those particulars were no sooner complained of to His Ma ty then He willingly applied the remedies w ch were proposed before these troubles began passed such excellent laws for the prevention of the like inconveniences for the future that a better security cannot be provided So that men must think this Rebellion to have been raised on the behalf of not against those exorbitances which
without it could never probably have been again exercised in this Kingdome And here the people cannot enough observe and wonder that these grievances should in this manner be objected against the King who removed and abolished them in a time when and by those who have renued and improved the same and introduced new vexations upon His Subjects in an illimited manner and intolerable proportion That They should complain of a designe of bringing in German Horse to enslave us which if any such designs were by the goodnesse of the King was frustrated and rejected who have actually brought in an Army of all Rations upon us and have no pretence of continuing it but that they may subdue us dissolve the Government of the Kingdome and make us Slaves to their own passions and appetite That They should remember the King of inforced Loanes Privy Seales Coat and Conduct mony who since the same have been abrogated by Him have by their Ordinance compelled men to lend the Fifth and the Twentieth part of their Estates for the maintenance of their Armies that fifth and twentieth part to be rated according to such proportion as certain persons named by them shall assesse and if any person shall refuse to pay the mony so assessed upon him then Collectors shall leavy it by distresse and for want of distresse he shall be committed to prison with such circumstances of severity and uncharitablenesse as were never exercised by any Royall Command That They should complaine of the ingrossing of Gunpowder in which His Majesty did nothing but what by His legall Prerogative He might do who by their Ordinance of the 3 of April 1644. for the making of Salt-peter and by the other of the 7 of Febr. 1645. for making Gun-powder have established all those clauses in His Majesties Commission of which there was any colour of complaint to Projectors of their owne with so much worse circumstances as the jurisdiction their Committees exercise to whom appeales are to be made is more grievous chargeable and insupportable then that was of the Councell Table That They should mention the Patent of Wine which was to pay forty Shillings upon the Tun to His Majesty when by the Ordinance of the 22 of July 1643. they have laid an imposition upon it of six pounds over and above all Customes and by the Ordinance of the 9 of October following have authorized the Vintners to sell it at as great and some at greater prices then was ever tolerated during the time of His Majesties imposition Lastly to omit the other particulars of Salt Allum Tobacco and the rest upon every one of which they have by their particular Ordinances laid much heavier taxes then was thought of in those times that they should reproach the King with the Ship mony which by their own computation came not to above 200000l by the year as the compendium of all oppression and slavery for which His Majesty had a judgment in a Court of Law before all the Judges of England and which was alwaies leavied by the due formes of Law and which His Majesty when He was informed of the injustice of it frankly quitted and did His best to pull it up by the roots that no branch of it may hereafter grow up to the disquiet of His people when themselves have almost ever since by that one Ordinance of the 1 of March 1642. imposed a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three and thirty thousand five hundred and eighteen pounds which in the year amounts to no lesse then one million seven hundred forty two thousand nine hundred and odde pounds to which they have since added by their Ordinance of the 18 of October 1644. for the relief of the Brittish Army in Ireland a Weekly tax upon the Kingdome of three thousand eight hundred pounds w ch in the year comes to one hundred ninety seven thousand six hundred odde pounds as much as ever Ship mony arose to over and above Free-quarter and all their other Orders for Sequestration and twentieth part and the cruell circumstances in the executing those and all other Ordinances against the irregular doing whereof they will allow no Appeale to the Judges though of their own making but reserve the intire Connusance and direction to themselves It is pity that parenthesis of the Spanish Fleet with a great Army therein brought into the Downes 1639. of which out of their goodnesse they say they will say nothing should receive no Answer That having been often unskilfully spoken of as it is now insinuated as a designe against England whereas they who know any thing know that Fleet was bound from Spaine to Flanders with mony to pay their Army and new leavied Souldiers to recruit it of which there was the greater number because it was purposed to carry many old Soldiers from thence to Catalonia but all those Souldiers in the Fleet were without Armes and without Officers and the Fleet so far from being provided for an invasion that in a little Fight with the Hollanders before the winde brought them into the Downes they had so near spent their Powder that they had a supply for their mony from London which the King could not in honour and justice deny the Hollanders themselves offering them what Powder they wanted for ready mony 6. Next follows the torture our bodies heretofore suffered by whipping cutting off Eares Pillories and the like with close imprisonment aggravated with the Dominion exercised over our Soules by Oathes Excommunications new Canons c. by which they would have it concluded that His Majesties Government was full of cruelty and oppression It is an undeniable evidence of the excellent Government Sobriety and obedience of that time that there were not above six infamous persons from the beginning of His Majesties Reigne to the first day of this unhappy Parliament who were publickly taken notice of to have merited those corporall punishments and shame and of the mercy of that time that those suffered no greater there being not one of them who was not guilty of sedition to that degree that by the Law they were liable to heavier judgments then they underwent And for the Oathes Excommunications Ceremonies and Canons they were no other and no otherwise exercised then was agreeable to the Laws and the Government established Of and for which the Sects Schismes and Heresies the dissolutenesse profanenesse and impiety which have followed that since blessed Order hath bin discountenanced and suppressed hath made a fuller and more sensible Vindication then any discourse can doe And here the people will again take notice that these Judgments and proceedings which alwaies passed in due form of Law in Courts of Justice and in which no innocent man can pretend to have suffered are objected against the King by those who without any colour of jurisdiction but what themselves have assumed and usurped in stead of inflicting any ordinary punishment take away the lives of their fellow
to Our promise to Our Scotch Subjects with which they were well acquainted to repair into Our Kingdome of Scotland to settle the unhappy differences there Upon this We were earnestly desired by both Our Houses of Parliament to defer Our journey thither as well upon pretence of the danger if both Armies were not first Disbanded as that they had many good Lawes in readinesse for the setling of differences here We were by their intreaty perswaded to defer Our journey to a day agreed on by themselves c. Which relation at large of what followed may satisfie all men of His Majesties extraordinary complyance and when He went He left such a Commission behind him as was agreeable to Law and sufficient to prevent any inconveniences which might arise in His absence whereas That desired by them being to consent to all Acts they should passe before He returned was so monstrous illegall and unheard-of that they were themselves ashamed to presse it farther and rested satisfied with that which His Majesty granted nor does it appeare that there was in any time before any issued out by the means of Secretary Windebanke of a larger extent or that was not agreeable to Law and the policy of that time 15. Now succeeds the high Charge of the businesse of Ireland as if they hoped to perswade the people that the King is accessary to a Treason and Rebellion against Himself and that in a time when there were so great distractions in two of His Kingdoms He should Himself put the third into a flame that so He might have none to help Him to quench the fire that was kindled in the other the particulars out of which this grand Charge is compounded shall be severally examined They who have used no kind of conscience or civility in the publishing all Letters of His Majesties by what ill means soever the same have come into their hands which they imagined might by the simplicity and weaknesse of the people or the most malitious glosses and interpretations they could put upon them beget any prejudice to His Majesty cannot be imagined now to conceale any thing that would contribute to their purpose and therefore their not publishing those Letters which they say the King sent into Ireland by the Lord Dillon immediately before the Rebellion is argument sufficient that either there were no such Letters or nothing in them which can in any sense reflect upon His Majesty nor can it find credit with any not malitiously and stupidly sottish that after so many reiterated infusions into the people by their severall Declarations that the Rebels of Ireland avowed that they had a Commissiion under the great Seale of England for what they did It is now inverted into a Commission under the great Seale of Scotland Sealed at Edenburgh when the King was last there when it is knowne He could no more have affixed that Seale in whose hands soever it was to any such Instrument if He had had the will which no Christian believes He had then He can now dispose of that at London of which Commission the world should long since have been informed by the Scots if they could have found a probable ground for the Suggestion And surely these men would have published the Depositions of those who they say have seen it if they had believed them such as would find credit amongst men What was promised to the Irish Committee at London is like to be much better known to the Authours of this Declaration then to His Majesty the greater part whereof being Papists and since Active Rebels having during their stay in London so great an interest in the powerfull and active Members there that they were able to prevaile with them to interpose in the affairs of that Kingdome in such manner as they desired and very probably then laid the foundation and designe of their future Rebellion upon the principles they then saw introduced and countenanced here By the earnest advice and importunate interposition of some of those principall Members they prevailed that after the death of the Lord Deputy Wansford no such person might be appointed temporarily to succeed as was like by his power and vigilance to prevent the wickednesse they intended and if the King gave away or promised them more then five Counties it was not upon their private mediation but their publique addresse according to their instructions from the Parliament after the House of Commons had made the recovery of and intit'ling His Majesty to those Counties a particular Article of their Impeachment against the Earle of Strafford and so blemished His Majesties just and legall interest and what His Majesty did thereupon was by the full and deliberate advice of His Councell Board according to usuall forms observed in the affairs of that Kingdome It is very probable that His Majesty might think Himself at that time oppressed by the two Houses of Parliament as He had great cause but that He should expresse so much and wish that He could be revenged on them to or before that Committee whom at that time He had reason to believe to be combined with the other is more then very unlikely The not Disbanding the Irish Army is next remembred and indeed ought not to be forgotten the not seasonably disposing that body giving no doubt a great rise and contributing much to the Rebellion that shortly after brake out but where the fault of that was is as evident That Army was justly and prudently raised when the intention in Scotland was clearly known to invade England and with a purpose to restraine or divert that expedition and if need were to reduce that Kingdome to their Allegiance which was the sense and could be no other of those words charged upon the Earl of Strafford if any such words were spoken And after the Scots Army was entred England it was no wonder if the King were not forward to Disband that Army till He could discerne that the other did in truth intend to return and He no sooner was confident of the one then He resolved the other but then He wisely considered that the Disbanding such a body at that time when so much licence was transplanted out of this into that Kingdome was not so like to contribute to the peace of it as the transporting them and therefore His Majesty agreed with the Spanish Ambassadour that he should have leave to transport three or four thousand of them for his Masters service which was no sooner known but the Irish Committee then at London who it may be had otherwise design'd the service of those men prevailed with the House of Commons to interpose and hinder the execution of that Agreement who principally upon consideration of the umbrage the Crowne of France might take at such an assistance given to Spaine pressed the King to revoke that grant and to consent to the Disbanding That objection was easily answered by His Majesty having agreed likewise with the French Ambassadour that
two Houses then to the King and were more owned by them who tooke speciall care for their Accommodation By what is said it sufficiently appears how unjust and unreasonable all the particular Scandals are with relation to the businesse of Ireland in which His Majesty how impudently soever He hath been aspersed never did any or omitted the doing any thing but according to those rules which are most justifiable before God and man it were to be wished that the two Houses of Parliament had but as well performed their duty and obligations but it cannot be forgotten that neer the beginning of this Rebellion when the Houses pretended wonderfull difficulty to raise men for that Service and when a seasonable supply would utterly have broken and defeated the Rebels the King sent a Message to them on the 28 of December 1641. That His Majesty being very sensible of the great miseries and distresses of His Subjects in the Kingdome of Ireland which daily increased and the bloud which had been already spilt by the cruelty and barbarousnesse of those Rebels crying out so loud and perceiving how slowly the succours designed thither went on His Majesty Himself would take care that by Commissions which He would grant ten thousand English Voluntiers should be speedily raised for that service if the House of Commons would declare that they would pay them which offer from His Majesty was rejected and no considerable supplies sent till they had compelled His Majesty to consent to such a Bill for Pressing as might devest and rob Him of a necessary and legall power inherent in His Crowne Nor can it be forgotten that they reserved those men which were raised for Ireland and would not otherwise have been engaged in their Service but on that pretence and brought them to fight against His Majesty at Edge-hill and afterwards retained them still in their Service That they imployed the mony raised by Act of Parliament for the relief of Ireland and with a particular caution that it should be imployed no other way for the support and maintenance of that Army led by the Earle of Essex against the King and that from the beginning of the Rebellion in England though they received vast sums of mony raised only for Ireland they never administred any considerable supply thither that they could apply to the advancement of their owne Designes at home against the King These particulars of which kind every man may call to mind many more nor their notable compliance with the Irish Committee when they came first over are remembred to imply that the two Houses of Parliament were guilty of raising the Rebellion in Ireland otherwise then by their principles and proceedings in diminution of the King 's soveraigne power or that they cherished it after it was begun otherwise then by not wisely and vigorously endeavouring to suppresse it before it spread so universally but that which may be justly laid to their charge is their affecting and grasping the power of carrying on that War which so great a body is not fit for their imprudent and unpolitique declaring an animosity against the whole Nation and even a purpose for their utter extirpation and disposing their Lands to those who would be adventurers for it which Act and Declaration it is known drove many into open Rebellion who were not before suspected or at least declared to be affected to the Rebels and lastly their giving all their minds up to the kindling that horrid and monstrous rebellion here rather then to the extinguishing the other in Ireland 16. Next succeeds the Charge against the King for the unusuall preparation of Ammunition and Armes upon His return from Scotland with new Guards within and about White-hall the Fire-works taken and found in Papists houses the Tower filled with New guards Granadoes and all sorts of Fire-works Morters and great pieces of Battery the dis-placing Sir William Balfore and placing other Officers who were suspected by them and the whole City Not to speak of the entertainment they provided for the King against His return out of Scotland when in stead of thanking Him for having passed so many good Acts of grace and favour to them that there was no one thing more that the Kingdome could reasonably aske from Him or requisite to make them the most happy Nation of the world They presented Him a Remonstrance as they called it of the State of the Kingdome laying before Him to use His Majesties own words and publishing to the world all the mistakes and all the mis-fortunes which hapned from His first comming to the Crowne and before to that houre forgetting the blessed condition all His Subjects had enjoyed in the benefit of peace and plenty under His Majesty to the envy of Christendome Not to speak of the licence then used in language when upon debate of some pretended breach of Order one of the principall Promoters of this Declaration publickly said in the House of Commons without controle that their Discipline ought to be severe for the enemy was in view when the King was come within one daies journey of the City His Majesty found a band of Souldiers entertained to guard the two Houses of Parliament which as it had bin never known in age before in that manner so there was not now the least visible cause for it but that there had been a Plot in Scotland against the persons of the Marquesse of Hamilton and Argyle and therefore there might be the like upon some principall Members here Upon the King's return the Earl of Essex resigned up the Commission with which he had been intrusted by His Majesty during His absence to preserve the peace of the Kingdome and thereupon that Guard which was drawn together by vertue of that authority in that Earle was dissolved with it The King came then to White-hall and for what passed afterward heare in His owne words in His Declaration of the 12. of August Great multitudes of mutinous people every day resorted to Westminster threatned to pul down the lodgings where divers of the Bishops lay assaulted some in their Coaches chased others with Boats by water laid violent hands on the Arch-bishop of Yorke in his passing to the House and had he not been rescued by force it is probable they had murdered him crying through the streets Westminster-hall and between the two Houses No Bishops no Bishops no Popish Lords and mis-used the severall Members of either House who they were informed favoured not their desperate and seditious ends proclaiming the names of severall of the Peers as evill and rotten-hearted Lords and in their return from thence made stand before Our gate at White-hall said they would have no more Porters Lodge but would speak with the King when they pleased and used such desperate rebellious discourse that We had great reason to believe Our owne Person Our Royall Consort and Our Children to be in evident danger of violence and therefore were compelled at Our
be wasted to reply to them 18. The next Charge is the Commissions granted to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg for attempting Newcastle and Hull which they say occasioned them to provide for their security to which their intelligence of forain Forces from Denmark contributed and then they take great paines to make that jealousie of Denmarke reasonable and fit to sink into them The Commissions granted by the King to the Earle of Newcastle and Colonel Legg were no other then by Law He might grant neither did He grant any such before He was assured the leading Members in the House of Commons had it in their purpose to procure an Order for the seizing that Towne and after they had caused a power to be placed about the Tower of London both by land and water under the Command of their new Officer Skippon who was required not to suffer any provisions to be brought in thither by what Authority or Warrant soever If there had been any expectation or apprehension of forain Forces to be brought from Denmarke that could be no warrant for them to seize on Hull without and against the King's leave whose peculiar jurisdiction and right it is to provide against forain Invasions but as that discourse of Forces from Denmarke was then looked upon as most ridiculous by all men of sense so experience hath since made it apparent that there was not the least colour for it And the arrivall of that Vessell with Ammunition and Armes for there came no Commanders in her near Hull was near six Months after the Houses had put a Garrison into Hull and neer three Months after Sir John Hotham had shut the Gates of it against His Majesty and if it had not been for that rebellious Act that Ammunition and Armes had not been sent The Invasion of the King of Denmark's Dominions by the Swedes was above two years after the seizing of Hull therefore that could not be any interruption to that designe if it had been intended but that a frivolous report of a discourse between a Servant of the Lord Digby's that was never named with a Mariner whom he had never seen before to conduct a Fleet into England from Denmarke or an intercepted Letter from the Hague to Secretary Nicholas which is pretended to be written the 26 of Novemb. after the Battle of Edge-hill and in which is mention of Armes for ten thousand Foot and for fifteen hundred Horse should be thought of moment to justifie a rebellious jealousie of the King's purpose of countenancing an Invasion of His owne Kingdome is below the folly and sottishnesse of any to whom satisfaction ought to be applied The imploying of Colonel Cockram to the King of Denmark was after the Rebellion was begun and when the Earl of Essex was marching with his Army against His Majesty and the principall instruction given to him was to presse that King to assist His Majesty with Mony Armes and Ammunition the two Houses having seized all which belonged to His Majesty and that the same might be sent by some Ships of that Crowne because all the King 's owne were taken from Him and lay in wait to intercept any Provision that should be sent to His Majesty and it is no wonder if the King indevoured by His instructions to His Agent to make His Uncle of Denmarke as sensible as he could of the injuries and indignities offered to His Majesty nor was that very clause with which these wicked men so insolently and rudely reproach His Majesty without good grounds it being known that they ordinarily whisper'd many things then in their private Caballs which they durst not publiquely avow of which nature were their discourses of the Death of King James which they are now grown up to the wickednesse to publish and the other which was mentioned in that instruction They say they repeat this rather because when they declared their intelligence that Cockram was sent into Denmarke to procure Forces thence the King disavowed it calling it a vile scandall in His Answer to their Decl. of the 22 of Octob. 1642. Their charge upon the King in that Declaration of the 22 of Octob. was That Sir John Henderson and Colonel Cockram men of ill report both for Religion and Honesty were sent to Hanborough and Denmarke as they were credibly informed to raise Forces there and to bring them to Newcastle and to joyne with the Earle of Newcastle c. To this the King made Answer That He had never greater cause to be confident of security in His owne Subjects and therefore He could not believe so vile a scandall could make any impression in sober men And it is known He did desire no other aide or supply at that time from Denmarke or from any of his Allies but Mony Armes and Ammunition but if He had not been confident in the security of His owne Subjects He would have been justly to be blamed if He had not endeavoured to get any forain succours to preserve Himself His Crowne and the Kingdome from being over-run and subdued by the power and strength of His rebellious Subjects In the same instructions to Cockram they say the King declared that He then expected assistance from His neighbour Princes and Allyes in particular the greatest part of the States Fleet from Holland which if it were truly set forth needs no Answer it being very reasonable that the King should have expected that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes should have assisted Him against so odious and horrid a Rebellion and it may be many of them may live to find the inconveniencie of not being sensible of the assault which hath been made upon Soveraignty especially if in stead of assisting the King they have contributed toward the oppressing the Regall power but these men are such enemies to ingenuity that in the very repeating what hath been said or done by the King they will leave out any words that will make the sense otherwise understood then fits their purpose though any man that will take the pains to examine it will quickly find the truth so they who will peruse these instructions by what means soever they came by them published by themselves will find that the King mentioned the Holland Fleet only as allowed by the States to give Her Majesty a Convoy into England which these men would have understood as lent to assist the King against His rebellious Subjects whereas it is too well known that at that time the two Houses found more respect and assistance from those States then His Majesty did and what His Majesty then said of His neighbour Princes and Allyes which they would perswade the people to relate to some present engagement from them to send Forces to Him being only grounded upon His reasonable hope of the sense those Princes would have of the indignities offered to His Majesty His words being He expects and hopes that all His neighbour Princes and Allyes will not look
upon so dangerous a Precedent to their owne Crownes and Monarchies without contributing to suppresse this so pernicious a designe begun in this Kingdome God forgive those Princes who suffered His Majesty to be deceived in so just and Princely an expectation It is here likewise to be remembred that the two Houses had dispatched their Agent Strickland to the States of the united Provinces to invite them to their amity and assistance and to decline their League with His Majesty before Colonel Cockram was sent for Denmarke their Declaration to those Provinces bearing date the 8 of Occtober which was before the time that Cockram went towards Denmarke 19. The Queens going into Holland is next objected to the King and that contrary to His trust He sent the ancient Jewels of the Crowne of England to be pawned or sold for Ammunition and Armes of which they say they had certain knowledge before they took up Armes and that they had not so much as once asked the Militia till the Queen was going for Holland and that Her going beyond Sea was stayed many Months before Her going into Holland by their motions to the King because amongst other reasons they had heard that She had packed up the Crowne Jewels by which they might see what was then intended by that Iourney had not they prevented it till the Winter They are very unwilling to agree upon the time when they first took up Armes and would have their seizing upon the King's Forts possessing themselves of the Militia of the Kingdome of the Royall Navy to be thought only an exercise of their Soveraigne power and no taking up of Armes but though they could perswade the world that their countenancing and bringing downe the Tumults by which they first drove away many Members from the Houses and then the King Himself from Whitehall was not taking up Armes because there was no avowed Act of both Houses to bring downe those Tumults yet sure they cannot deny their marching out of the City with all the Trained bands of London in a hostile manner to Westminster where both Houses gave the chief Officers thanks approved what they had done undertook to save them harmlesse and appointed a new Officer of their own to Command those Traine bands which was on the 11 of Ianuary 1641. to be taking up Armes When they appointed the next day their own new Officer Skippon to besiege the Tower of London with the City Forces by land and water and not suffer any provision to be carried thither when the King's Lieutenant was in it and declared that whosoever should trouble him for so doing was an Enemy to the Common-wealth which was accordingly executed by him they must confesse undoubtedly that they took up Armes and both these high actions which by the expresse Statute of the 25 year of King Edw. 3. are High Treason were before any one Iewell belonging to the Crowne or the King was carried out of the Kingdome For the time of asking the Militia though no circumstance of time could make it justifiable not to speak of the Bill preferred to that purpose many Months before the House of Commons by their Petition of the 26 of Ianuary after the House of Peers had refused to concur with them in so dis-loyall a suit desired His Majesty to put the Tower of London and the principall Forts of the Kingdome and the whole Militia into such hands as they thought fit and the Queen went not into Holland till the 23 of February neither was her journy resolved on till the beginning of that Month so that their assertion of not having so much as asked the Militia till the Queen was going into Holland is utterly untrue and when they were made acquainted of such Her Majesties purpose they never in the least degree disswaded it But what was the Queens going into Holland and the King 's sending with Her the Iewels of the Crown to their taking Armes The Queen might very well go to any place the King thought fit She should go the Princess Mary being at that time to go into Holland to her Husband His Maj. thought it fit that the Queens Maj. should accompany Her Daughter thither And for the Jewels of the Crowne though most of the Jewels carried over by the Queen were Her owne proper goods let them shew any Law that the King may not dispose of those Jewels for the safety of His life and to buy Arms Ammunition to defend Himself against Rebels who have seized all His Revenue and have left Him nothing to live upon but those Jewels which He had only in His power to convey out of theirs or to leave them to be seized on and sold by them who applied all that He had else and His own Revenue to hasten His destruction In their mention of the Queens former purpose of going beyond Seas stayed as they say upon their motion because they had then heard She had packed up the Crown Jewels and Plate they use their old and accustomed licence If they will examine their own Journall they will not find amongst all those reasons which were carried up by Master Pim to the Lords at a Conference on the 14 of Iuly and the next day presented to the King to disswade Her Majesties Journy the least mention of Her having packed up the Crown Jewels and Plate but that they had received information of great quantity of treasure in Iewels Plate and ready Mony packed up to be conveyed away with the Queen and that divers Papists and others under pretence of Her Majesties Goods were like to convey great sums of Money and other treasure beyond the Seas which would not only impoverish the State but might be imployed to the fomenting some mischievous attempts to the trouble of the publike peace And they might remember that the chief reasons they gave to disswade Her Majesty was their profession and Declaration since they heard that the chief cause of Her Majesties sicknesse proceeded from dis-content of Her mind that if any thing which in the power of Parliament might give Her Majesty contentment they were so tender of Her health both in due respect to His most excellent Majesty and Her self that they would be ready to further Her satisfaction in all things and that it would be some dis-honour to this Nation if Her Majesty should at this unseasonable time go out of the Kingdome upon any grief or discontent received here and therefore they would labour by all good means to take away and prevent all just occasions of Her Majesties trouble in such manner as might further Her content and therein Her health which would be a very great comfort and joy to themselves and the rest of His Majesties loving Subjects These obligations they should have remembred and left the world to remember how punctuall they were in the performance The discourse at Burrough Bridge that the King would pawne His Iewels for the Army is as materiall
it was done and in both cases by the help of God and the Law he would have justice or lose his life in the requiring it so that certainly the King never concealed or dissembled his purposes and accordingly he did indeed toward the middle of Iuly go with his Guards to Beverly having some reason to believe that Sir Iohn Hotham had repented himself of the crime he had committed and would have repaired it as far as he had been able of which failing to his own miserable destruction without attempting to force it his Majesty again returned to Yorke Having made it now plainly appear how falsly and groundlesly his Majesty is reproached with the least tergiversation or swarving from his promises or professions which no Prince ever more precisely and religiously observed it will be but a little expence of time again to examine how punctuall these conscientious reprehenders of their Soveraigne have been in the observation of what they have sworn or said In the first Remonstrance of the House of Commons of the State of the Kingdome they declare that it is far from their purpose or desire to let loose the golden reines of discipline and government in the Church to have private persons or particular Congregations to take up what forme of divine Service they please for they said they held it requisite that there should be throughout the whole Realme a conformity to that Order which the Laws enjoyne In their Declaration of the 19 of May speaking of the Bill for the continuance of this Parliament they say We are resolved the gratious favour His Majesty expressed in that Bill and the advantage and security which thereby we have from being dissolved shall not encourage us to do any thing which otherwise had not been fit to have been done In the conclusion of their Declaration of the 26 of May 1642. apprehending very justly that their expressions there would beget at least a great suspition of their loyalty they say They doubt not but it shall in the end appear to all the world that their endeavours have been most hearty and sincere for the maintenance of the true Protestant Religion the Kings just Prerogatives the Lawes and Liberties of the Land and the Priviledges of Parliament in which endeavours by the grace of God they would still persist though they should perish in the worke In their Declaration of the 14 of Iune 1642. the Lords and Commons doe declare That the designe of those Propositions for Plate and Money is to maintain the Protestant Religion the King's Authority and Person in His Royall dignity the free course of Iustice the Laws of the Land the Peace of the Kingdome and Priviledges of Parliament As they have observed these and other their professions to the King and the Publique so they have as well kept their promises to the people in their Propositions of the 10 of Iune 1642. for bringing in Mony or Plate the Lords and Commons do declare That no mans affection shall be measured according to the proportion of his offer so that he expresse his good will to the Service in any proportion whatsoever the first designe was to involve as many as they could in the guilt how small soever the supply was but on the 29 of November following the same Lords and Commons appointed Six persons who or any Four of them should have power to assesse all such persons as were of ability and had not contributed and all such as had contributed yet not according to their ability to pay such summe or sums of mony according to their estates as the Assessors or any Four of them should think fit and reasonable so as the same exceeded not the twentieth part of their Estates Infinite examples of this kind may be produced which are the lesse necessary because whosoever will take the pains to read their own Declarations and Ordinances shall not be able to find one protestation or profession made by them to God Almighty in the matter of Religion or to the King in point of duty and obedience or one promise to the people in matter of Liberty Law and Iustice so neer pursued by them as that they have ever done one composed Act in Order to the performance of either of them which very true assertion shall conclude this Answer to that reproach of his Majesties not having made good his Protestations 21. The next Charge is That His Majesty proclaimed them Traytors and Rebels setting up His Standard against the Parliament which never any King of England they say did before Himself His Majesty never did nor could proclaime this Parliament Traytors he well knew besides his own being the head of it that four parts of five of the House of Peers were never present at any of those trayterous conclusions and that above a major part of the House of Commons was alwaies absent and that of those who were present there were many who still opposed or dissented from every unlawfull act and therefore it were very strange if all those innocent men of whom the Parliament consisted as well as of the rest should have been proclaimed Rebels and Traytors for the acts of a few seditious persons who were upon all occasions named and if the Parliament were ever proclaimed Traytors it was by them only who presumptuously sheltred their rebellious acts under that venerable name and who declared that whatsoever violence should be used either against those who exercise the Militia or against Hull they could not but believe it as done against the Parliament They should have named one person proclaimed Rebell or Traytor by the King who is not adjudged to be such by the Law The King never proclaimed Sir Iohn Hotham Traytor though it may be he was guilty of many treasonable acts before till he shut the Gates of Hull against him and with armed men kept his Majesty from thence and besides the concurrent testimony of all Judgments at Law it appears and is determined by the Lord Chief Justice Coke published by the House of Commons this Parliament in his Chapter of High Treason That if any with strength and weapons invasive and defensive doth hold and defend a Castle or Fort against the King and His power this is leavying of War against the King within the Statute of the 25 year of Edw. 3. The King proclaimed not those Rebels or Traytors who Voted That they would raise an Army and that the Earl of Essex should be Generall of that Army what ever he might have done nor the Earle of Essex himself a Traytor upon those Votes untill he had accepted that title and command of Captaine Generall and in that quality appeared amongst the Souldiers animating and encouraging them in their trayterous and rebellious designes as appears by his Majesties Proclamation of the 9 of August 1642. by which he was first proclaimed Traytor and there was no other way to clear the Earle of Essex from being