much of their Duty and Respect and his Council at Oxford either gon to make their Peace or in such Confusion as not able to advise him the Rebel Army being just ready to Besiege that his chief Garrison he was forc'd to make a Vertue of Necessity and once more try the Sincerity of his Antient and Native Subjects the Scots CHAP. IV. Of the King in Custody of the Scots and English THE King 's being withdrawn from Oxon and not known whither gon made a mighty Disturbance amongst the Grandees at Westminster Ludlow tells us they suspected he might design to come to London to raise a Party against them publishing an Ordinance that whosoever should harbour or conceal the King's Person should be Proceeded against as a Traytor to the Common-wealth p. 176 By what Law this I beseech you The truth of it is the Expences and other Mischiefs by the War had made the City so sensible of their former Infatuations that 't was generally believ'd had the King appear'd amongst them the Rabble as well as more sensible Part of Men would have endeavour'd their utmost to set him upon his Throne but 't is easier to pull down than build up to make than retrieve Alterations as appear'd afterward when the Army so tamely rid them But in few Days they were freed from that Suspicion though not more surpris'd at his Loss than to find him in the Scotch Hands who would be sure to make the best of so good a Prise There had been no small Contrasts between them and their English Brethren before who finding the fighting Work nigh over were desirous to be quit of some of their own Forces much more of such troublesome and chargable Hirelings The Scots on the other Side as Ludlow tells us repeated their Instances for a Consideration of the Articles of Religion contained in the Covenant to give a speedy Peace to his Majesty to pay them near two hundred thousand Pounds which they pretended to be due for their Arrears and make a just Estimate of the Losses they had sustain'd by Land and Sea c. which they computed at more than the former Sum p. 174 He goes on to relate how the Parliament thought it not convenient to comply with the King's Propositions demanded an exact Account of what was due to them and requir'd that they would withdraw their Garrisons from such Places as they possest in England Some differences he saith likewise there were with the Scotch Commissioners about the King 's Concern in the Militia their intermedling with the Government of England the Education of the King's Children the disbanding the Army and an Act of Oblivion in which Matters the Parliament would not have the Scots to interpose and by degrees the Debates grew so warm as there being found in those Demands of the Scots some Expressions very much reflecting upon the Parliament the two Houses declared them to be Injurious and Scandalous and order'd them to be Burnt by the Hands of the Common Hang-Man p. 175 During these Controversies the Scotch Army continu'd in the Northern Parts upon free Quarter at an abominable rate harressing the Poor People to the utmost Extremity till after some Month's Time Matters being accommodated a little for the present upon the Advance of 30000. l. with Shooes Stockings and other Necessaries they were prevail'd upon to Besiege Newark at which Leaguer the King came to them just as Articles of Surrender were agreed upon and so the more at leisure to march off with him to Newcastle for 't is false what Ludlow affirms that the King soon after his Arrival in the Scots Quarters gave Order for the Delivery of Newark into their Hands the Articles were agreed upon before the King came thither or his Friends in the Garrison dreamt thereof however it happen'd very Opportunely for the Scots to march off with their Royal Purchase and prevent the Clamors from their Brethren at Westminster who as Ludlow tells us forthwith sent an Order to their Commissioners in the Scots Army to demand the Person of the King judging it unreasonable that the Scots being in their Pay should dispose of him otherwise than by their Order resolving further that he should be Conducted to Warwick Castle and the next Day commanded their Army to advance in Order to hinder the Conjunction of the King's Forces with the Scots p. 176 Whereof doubtless they were sore affraid 't is pity they were not hurt the Scots by that one Act might have expiated all their former Perfidy but to expect that had been to wash a Blackamore so Blessed a good was not to be thought of from those accustomed so much to the worst of Evils Rebellion and Sacriledge and therefore 't is probable it gave them some ease to hear that though Levens the Scotch General had march'd with the King to New-Castle he had by Proclamation forbidden his Forces to have any Communication with the King's Party and thereupon only order'd that the Scots should keep him for the English Parliament and so they did but must pay a round Sum of Mony before they should have him We are next to see what Entertainment the King had among the Scots who though they pretended to be much surpris'd as Ludlow tells us yet afterwards it appear'd that this Resolution had been Communicated to them before p. 116. The Truth of it is Montrevil a French Embassador or Agent in the Scotch Camp had adjusted the Matter with Levens and other General Officers who engag'd to secure him and as many of his Party as should seek for Shelter with them and to stand to him with their Lives and Fortunes Yet in that excellent Meditation his Majesty penn'd upon this Occasion 't is own'd a forc'd Push where Necessity was his Counsellor in an Adventure upon their Loyalty who first began his Troubles for which Reason he studied to fortify his Mind so as not to offer up his Soul's Liberty or make his Conscience their Captive but no less conform his Words to his inward Dictates now than if they had been as the Words of a King ought to be amongst Loyal Subjects full of Power And Good Prince he was soon put to his Tryal for though the Committee of Estates at Edingburgh upon the first Notice of his being in their Hands sent Commissioners with great Expressions of their Duty and good Intentions protesting how dear the Preservation of his Sacred Person and his just Power and Greatness should ever be to them yet their Actions immediately spake the contrary as if all were intended with the tacit Condition of a Covenant Clog and such harsh Usage as might bring or force him thereto for within few Days the King call'd both the chief Officers of the Army and the Commissioners sent out of Scotland and in presence of Monsieur de Montrevil did Expostulate That whereas he did come to their Army upon the Assurances Monsieur Montrevil had given him that he should be safe in his Person Honor
irritated as to Dissolve them whereat they were so far from being concerned as to stand in defiance thereof and indeed it seem'd to put them into their proper Post now it was right down opposition Treason all over and having none to curb them could the more confidently proceed to condemn all the Assemblies had been for 40 years before as prelimited and not Free Episcopacy to be sure must be declar'd unlawful with the like fate to the Service-Book Canons High-Commission and Articles of Perth They appointed the Covenant to be taken by all under Excommunication and then proceeded to the Process of the Bishop's notwithstanding their Declinator wherein being both Iudges and Parties they could not fail to carry all according to their Arbitrary Factious Wills Thus with three or four peremptory Votes they totally Abolished so far as power without Right can go whatever the Wisdom Prudence and Piety of Two Kings with all the sensible good men of the Nation had been for Fifty or Threescore years Establishing From this motly Assembly Ludlow proceeds and tells us That being inform'd the King was preparing an Army to compell them to obedience they agreed upon the raising some Forces to defend themselves And could they expect otherwise after such an ungrateful aswell as undutifull procedure yet notwithstanding they were always afore-hand with the King conscious of what they deserv'd provided accordingly Levy'd Forces impos'd Taxes block'd up his Majesty's Castles rais'd Fortifications c. whilst with specious pretences and Protestations they kept him in suspence though at last he could not but see into and thorough such Villanous Hypocrisies and betake himself to the Ratio Ultima Regum for which however Ludlow would have it a Bellum Episcopale the Clergy's War he had the greatest provocation upon the Civil the Temporal account that ever any Prince met withall indeed they were both intermixed and both superlatively Base take some of them as followeth 1. He could not endure that the Usurpations of an Ecclesiastical Assembly should abolish Acts of Parliament which strikes at the Foundation of Monarchy and indeed all other Government 2. To secure the three Estates of Parliament that one of them might not be destroy'd without his and the Parliaments consent 3. To punish such as have impos'd Taxes raised Forts Levied men and Arms c. all which by the Laws of the Kingdom are Acts of High Treason and Rebellion 4. To repress the Insolent Protestations of his Subjects against himself his Council Iudges Laws the constant practise of the Covenanters 5. To punish the ringleaders of Rebellion who have abused his Subjects by imposing upon them a Covenant and mutual Bond of Defence against his Majesties Person and without his consent contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom 6. To punish such as under the name of Tables or a Committee of the General Assembly shall presume to sit without his consent to order Affairs of Church and State refusing when questioned the Authority of his Majesty Council or Iudges and appealing to a General Assembly Blasphemously calling it Christ's own immediate Council and claiming a Sovereign Independency from King Council Iudges and Parliament These are some of the Reasons his Majesty himself gives for that unwilling War these furious Zealots forc'd him upon That the Clergy of England were not wanting to promote the New-Levies as Ludlow saith is true but That they were the principal Authors and Fomentors of the Troubles is absolutely False as likewise That what the Nobility and Gentry did was rather out of complement than affection to the design there was a party indeed whom the Scotch had Bit and made as Mad as themselves but all men of sound Prinples and sober judgments foresaw that the neighbour Kingdom being on Fire if good care were not taken to quench it ours might shortly catch the Flame and both be consumed together contributed with all the alacrity and satisfaction imaginable neither had there ever appear'd upon those Borders a braver Army or more resolutely bent to beat the Scotch into better manners whatever Arts were us'd to affright and intimidate them for those of that Nation in his own Family did him more mischief than the whole Covenanters Army by betraying his Counsels misrepresenting their strength and more especially letting him know how averse his Majesty was to come to the extremity otherwise his Army wanted neither power nor will at one single blow to have decided that dispute which afterward cost so many and to very little purpose 't is said that when the old Arch-bishop of St. Andrews who knew his Country-men aswell perhaps better than most others came to take his leave of his King at his setting forward to the North desired leave to give his Majesty three Advertisments before his going First that he would suffer none of the Scotch Nation to remain in his Army assuring him that they would never fight against their Country-men but rather hazard the whole by their Tergiversation The Second was That he should make a Catalogue of all his Counsellors Officers of Household and Domestick Servants expunging every one of the Scotch Nation beginning with the Bishop himself by which means he could not be accused of Partiality when a person who had served him and his Father above Sixty Years so Faithfully appear'd in the Front A third was that be must not think to win upon them by condescentions the sweetness of his disposition or Acts of Grace but resolve to reduce them to their duty by such ways of Power as God had put into his hands Thus far that wise experienced Person and his Majesty not following such wholesome advice I take to be the Origin of all his following Troubles and Ruine for the Scotch taking him now to be in good earnest and knowing how ill provided they were to make opposition having not above 3000 compleat Arms amongst them whatever flourishes those false Lowns their Countrymen made both in Court and Camp thought it requisite to divert that approaching danger they had so justly drawn upon themselves and hereupon addressed themselves to the Earl of Essex whom the King had sent before from York to take possession of Berwick to him they complained of some of their own Countrymen who had provoked the King against them protesting still their own Innocency Loyalty to the King and Affection to the English requesting him to procure a Pacification by any means whatsoever which should be thought expedient on both sides the like Address they made to the Earl of Arundel General c. Earl of Holland Lieftenant General of the Horse in whom they had a more than ordinary confidence as knowing how well that whole Family was affected to their Covenant cause and therefore not only justified themselves in their former proceedings but requested his assistance to promote their desires in a Petition tendred to his Majesty's hands By these and such-like sly Addresses his Majesty's good nature was too easily wrought upon to comply and
the last Act of compliance his Majesty conceded to for now his eyes were thoroughly opened oh that they had been sooner and clearly discover'd how they were resolved not only upon the lessening of his Prerogative but to over-rule and absolutely destroy every branch of his Sovereign Power whereto things were not ripe at first till having by the cunning of their Protestations Treaties and Pacification imposed upon his Clemency and got time to strengthen themselves at home and improve their interest herein England they now resolv'd not to let slip so fair an opportunity but without farther hesitation fall directly to work and give his Majesty a full conviction that as the Satyrist afterward exprest it 't was neither Gold nor Grace but steel must tame the stubborn Scot and that this only remedy was not made use of when the King had so advantageous an opportunity I find passionately complain'd of by that great Clergy-man Ludlow is so inveterately piquant against His Majesty saith he would not beleeve though often told the Northern Commotions had their root in England and were carryed on by a powerful Faction in both Nations till after much intercourse and mediation cast away he was betray'd by his own Agents and when the second volume of his Troubles comes forth which hath been some years printed off we shall find something like a Detection of those unhappy times for I am told it contains a great intercourse of Letters about the Liturgy and other Scotch Affairs and then these our Scriblers these Retailers of Libels if possible will be more contemptible amongst all men of truth and goodness than they are at present although now it must be own'd how justly they all deserve that Character which Roger Cook fixeth upon the Scotch Covenanters in general of an insolent faithless railing sort of men And here Ludlow begins to triumph at the King's disappointments telling as how he hoped a Parliament would espouse his quarrel and furnish him with money for carrying on his disign but they fell upon Greivances c. and so were disolved p. 9. Truly the King had just reason to expect the Parliament should have joyned with him in a due resentment of those many insolencies that violent people put upon him particularly the Letter they were sending to the King of France and assisted him in reducing them to their due Allegiance and some were very prone to think had not the King been betray'd by his own Minister his Secretary things might have been carried with much more temper than before or to be sure in that which followed for it consisted of many worthy Gentlemen and doubtless must be somewhat the better that never a Ludlow was there nor Father nor Son and had there been none of the Vanes so related all things might have gone well but old Sir Henry demanding twelve Subsidies for the Kings present Exigencies stood so peremptorily thereupon without falling down to six as ordered a cursed piece of Treachery in that unworthy man as afterward appear'd from the rest of his and his Sons actions the House fell into so violent a heat as they could never after be brought to temper again but on the contrary were resolv'd the morning of their Dissolution to Vote against the War with Scotland which forc'd an unwilling precipitation thereof and this had been as well for Ludlow's turn as to say it was because they first fell upon Grievances whereas both Houses had superseded them to a Supply and the King in return promised to acquit his claim of Shipmoney but when men have habituated themselves to untruths it may be a curse upon them not to relate what is right though it would better serve the turn and salve their Reputation The Parliament thus standing out we are told how the Earl of Strafford and the rest of his Council advis'd the King to make use of other means for a supply as appear'd by the Minutes of the Secretary of State taken at the Cabal and produc'd at the Tryal of the said Earl the Sum of whose Advice as Ludlow relates shall be considered hereafter and justify'd in the mean while we may observe how just that Secretary Sir H. V. was to his Oath of Secrecy as a Privy Councellor and faithful to his Prince who advanc'd him altho' the discovery tended only to his own Shame and eternal Infamy of himself and Son All the imaginable ways us'd to raise Supplys as Ludlow most invidiously reckons them up were no more than what several Kings and Queens have done before upon like Exigencies yet his then Majesty found great difficulties therein by reason of those strange prejudices and prepossessions wherewith the Scotch Leven had sowred too many of all Qualities and Degrees And hence it was the Covenanters got the start of his Majesty's Army and were come to Newcastle before that was strong enough to oppose them For whatever Ludlow relates of a considerable Party of English and Scotch encountring and that the former contrary to their wonted custom retired in disorder not without Shame and some Loss And then makes his reflection Of such force and consequence is a belief and full perswasion of the Iustice of an undertaking tho' managed by an Enemy in other respects inconsiderable p. 10. How inconsiderable the Enemy were in this Rencounter will appear from this that there was the whole Scotch Army above 20000 against 3000 Foot and 1500 Horse for no more did that little Body of English there consist of who notwithstanding the Common Soldiers were new rais'd men kept their Posts till the Sconces were beaten down by the Canon and when thereupon the Foot retired in some disorder the Horse brought up the Rear with great Gallantry and Resolution against the whole Scottish force till opprest with number and environed round they submitted to the Destiny of the day some Officers being slain and others taken Prisoners and as there is no doubt but these worthy Gentlemen had a full perswasion of the Iustice of their Undertaking so had our Author had the least regard to the Iustice of an Historian he must have ascrib'd the last to the disproportion of force neither can he take it ill if I assume the same liberty and upon much juster grounds affirm That this first attempt was the last good success they ever met with in all their other Enterprises they were shamefully bafled as when they came to assist their Brother Rebels in 44 that Body of theirs quitted the Field the first of any for being placed in the Rear took that opportunity of getting away though not running fast enough were miserably trodden down by their own Parties And afterwards when Duke Hamilton came with a much more plausible pretence Their Rout in Cheshire was most notorious without the least shew either of Courage or Conduct and so likewise when the English were Aggressors from the first Action at Dunbar to the total Subjection of the whole Nation which then I believe Ludlow may
attribute to a Belief and full Perswasion of the Iustice of the Undertaking whereas I cry Careat successibus opto Nevertheless it shall be acknowledged that this little Success turn'd infinitely to their advantage for having got possession of Newcastle where the King had a Magazine they extended their Quarters as far as Durham with a corner of Yorkshire after miserably harassing all places where they came those four Counties of Northumberland Cumberland Westmorland and Durham with the forementioned corner of Yorkshire far from the largest or richest in England were Sess'd at a Contribution of 850 l. per Diem which I fancy was more than Cromwell could make of their whole Kingdom when he by the Just Judgment of Heaven had brought them into the same circumstances nay which is more made an absolute Conquest And this I presume is the foundation of Ludlow's blunder which hath something of approach to truth but he abhors to come close up to it that upon the King 's calling his great Council at York they advis'd a Cessation of Arms and to Summon a Parliament which to the great trouble of the Clergy and other Incendiaries for they must be flung at he promis'd to do assuring the Scots of the payment of twenty thousand pounds a month to maintain their Army till the pleasure of the Parliament should be known p. 11. How careful is this Good man of the Parliaments pleasure and free of the Kings condescention whereas impartially speaking they had carv'd themselves the forementioned Contribution and moreover seiz'd the total of all Estates belonging to Papists Prelates Incendiaries c. in brief of all the Loyal honest Gentlemen throughout that District of their new Usurpation Afterwards indeed when the Treaty was at Rippon the English Commissioners requir'd their demands as to the Subsistence of their Army whereto they modestly return'd answer 40000 l. per. mensem should content them for the present and for their losses they would afterward give a particular estimate This so much alarm'd the Commissioners and other Lords when the demand was sent to the King at York that one noble Peer made a motion to Fortifie that City and imploy that 40000 l. to maintain his Majesty's Army rather than an Enemy's hereupon the Scotch came down to 30000 l. which they own'd to be less than the 850 l. per. diem considering they had the time past the benefit of Custome a Provision of Coals and Proportion of Forage In the end it was agreed That with a Provision of Coals and Forage they should be satisfy'd and take no more than the 850 l. per diem of the four forementioned Counties under which abominable slavery those poor people continued a whole twelvemonth for the King having by unwearied importunity been forc'd upon a Parliament and remitted the whole management of these their Dear Brethrens concerns to them they so dextrously improv'd the advantage as to keep them here at the Nations expence till they had got the same unreasonable concessions from him as the others had done made him Sacrifice his Friends debase his Prerogative and by Enacting an indissoluable Session gave them an opportunity of playing the like game without any thing more of their assistance Now then 't was thought high time to dismiss them but the greatest matter was to bring that about turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur c. they paid themselves at coming in but we must pay even for that again before they would set one step back and withall at so unreasonable arate according to their demands as all the Gold in England tho' never more plenty would not make a Bridge to carry them over Tweed To give a short Specimen there being several Demands agreed to by Treaty at Rippon wherein the Scotch were to have satisfaction the Sixth was That they desire from the Iustice and kindness of England Reparation concerning the losses which the Kingdom of Scotland hath sustain'd and the vast charges they have been put unto by reason of the late troubles According to which Article they were required now upon departure to bring in a full Account of their Charges which they enlarged to the full Sum of Five hundred and Fourteen thousand One hundred and Twenty Eight pound nine shillings c. abating the odd pence out of kindness whereto was added for what losses their Nation the Nobility and Gentry had sustain'd Two hundred and Twenty One thousand pounds and the neglect of their Fortunes Two hundred and twenty thousand pounds besides the 850 l. per. diem exhausted from the Northern Counties with other the most inexpressible Insolencies and Exactions ever any people groan'd under A surprising Sum but cunning Chapmen know that a high demand at first will oblige any Purchaser for shame to bid somewhat like a Gentleman and accordingly it happened here the whole matter being adjusted for that lusty Sum of 300000 l. part whereof was paid down and the rest secur'd by the Publick Faith of the two Houses and more punctually discharged than any here borrowed upon that Credit If any be farther Inquisitive as to the Total of the whole Expence I find a Report made in the House of Lords that amounted to one Million one hundred Thousand pounds the most chargeable remedy this Nation to that day was ever acquainted with and prov'd much worse than any Disease we then labour'd under besides that itch of Rebellion we from them contracted which hath cost a hundred times more than they carry'd off and for ought I see may be doubled before we attain a perfect cure Well now they are gone and the King followed them which Ludlow tells us the Parliament endeavour'd to disswade him from or at least to defer to a fitter opportunity he refused to hearken to them under pretence that the Affairs of that Kingdom necessarily required his presence but in truth his great business was to leave no means unattempted to take off that Nation from their Adherence to the parliament of England p. 17. 'T is probable he might hope so to be sure the Parliament feared it and had reason so to do if it had been possible to oblige such a Generation of men for he gratified them in every demand confirm'd all their Rebellious Innovations into Legal Constitutions advanc'd the leading Covenanters into the highest Places of Honour and Profit amongst whom their General Lesly was made an Earl whereupon with Hands lift up to Heaven he wished they might rot if ever he acted more against so gude a King Yet this very man within two years after led a Scotch Army to the Parliaments assistance and by the reputation of their name and number rather than any considerable Action gave such a diversion to that gude Kings Forces as nothing conduced more to his ruin And when no longer able to keep the Field he betook himself to those his Native Subjects for Protection How barbarously they use and how basely they sold him need not be here
of the Irish Rebels arrived in England filling all places with the sad complaints of their Cruelties whereupon the Parliament earnestly press'd the King to proclaim them Rebels but could not obtain it to be done till many weeks and then but forty of those Proclamations were Printed and not above half of them Published which was the more observ'd and resented by reason of the different treatment the Scotch had met with who no sooner appear'd in a much better cause but they were forthwith declared Rebels in every Parish Church within the Kingdom p. 19. A very plausible story but for want of one thing and that is Truth whereof it hath not the least Syllable For first the Parliament never press'd the King for a Proclamation Secondly the Fourty Proclamations printed were not for this Kingdom but Ireland So that Thirdly there could be no ground of resentment upon the Scotch account but by such pick-thank fellows as Ludlow and his Party In short the matter of Fact stands exactly thus The Parliament as they were very inquisitive to catch at every thing which might give them an advantage against the Court having underhand information that a Warrant was sent to the Printer for the foremention'd Proclamations to be forthwith provided open'd very loud upon it Why so few Why no sooner c. The Printer was summon'd the Warrant produc'd and a mighty bustle made as generally the cry is greatest where the least Wool In the midst of which heats the Secretary of State gave this account of the matter that the Proclamations were printed at the Request of the Lords Iustices and Privy-Council in Ireland who desir'd to have twenty sign'd by his Majesty's own hand and no more who nevertheless order'd forty and sent them accordingly I do not remember the cause was given to the Parliament why so sign'd But 't is probable to invalidate that forg'd Commission whereto they had fix'd the Kings Broad-Seal granted to a private person upon a Title of Land Otherwise there had been Proclamations several from the first day the Rebellion broke out in Ireland the only place where requisite But why not in England as well as against the Scotch as our Author insinuates whereto I reply First the Scotch had seiz'd upon at leastwise assum'd the Administration of the whole Civil Power so that no Proclamation could come out against them there Secondly they had too many abettors in England who encourag'd them to begin and were resolv'd to follow the first opportunity So that thirdly the Proclamation must come from hence or not at all and was equally requisite against both What he adds farther of the Scotch being the much better Cause is only the private opinion of a fellow Rebel they were both so bad as upon an impartial scanning it would puzzle their Infernal Patron to tell which was worst Having had the confidence to averr two such impudent falshoods as aforementioned 't is strange how he comes to mince the matter so much as to the third and tell us the Rebels in Ireland pretended a Commission from the K. for what they did and his Abstract the Defence gives indeed a Copy therefore but withal goes no farther than that it was said to be given by the King to his Catholick Subjects in Ireland p. 14. Whereas there was no one Slander more confidently thrown abroad than that and continued longer nay I have met with several Fanaticks within these few years who still take it for an undoubted truth and what they have so long entertain'd nothing but the final Iudgment can make them renounce Once for all therefore to silence this Infamous Calumny we must know the Commonalty of the Native Irish having liv'd a long time in Peace and Amity with the English were not without some Reverence to that Government and so could not in plain and direct terms be easily led into an avowed Rebellion against their King whereupon their leaders Phelim Oneil c. were forced to perswade them that they took up Arms for the King and the Defence of his Lawful Prerogative against the Puritanical Parliament in England who had invaded it in many parts and that what they did was by his Majesty's Approbation and Authority And to gain the greater Credit to that Fiction they produc'd a Commission whereto the Broad-Seal taken from a private grant was affix'd as aforesaid which made it no difficult matter to perswade rude and unexperienced people to believe it real all which in a short time was clearly detected as well by several Irish Rebels taken Prisoners as English Protestants who escap'd their fury particularly Dr. Maxwell a Reverend Scotch Divine against which Nation they were not so Savagely cruel as the English in his Examination and Deposition upon Oath at Dublin which was sent too into England declar'd That he whilst their Prisoner expostulated with them for abusing the King in so gross a manner To whom they reply'd That in all Wars Rumors and Lyes serv'd many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they wou'd not disclaim any advantage But to silence for ever that horrid Scandal of his Majesty's Commission we have an unexceptionable Evidence and Proof which will not only clear him but render our Author Ludlow were there nothing else against him a much worse Man than the bloody'st Wretch in the whole Irish Rebellion In the Year 52 our English Regicides having very nigh compleated their Conquest Erected what they termed an High-Court of Iustice in Ireland to hear and determine all Murthers and Massacres of any Protestant English or other Person or Persons whatsoever within that Nation where amongst many others the Iustice and Mercy of Heaven had reserv'd Sir Phelim Oneil to receive his deserved Doom at whose Arraignment Sentence and Execution another Reverend Divine one Dr. Ker since Dean of Ardagh by God's great good Providence was present and makes a full Deposition thereof As where the Court was kept what Iudges sat what Witnesses sworn the many Murthers and Robberies prov'd c. After which he comes to this material Evidence as to the present matter That one of the Iudges whose name he had forgot Examined Sir Phelim about a Commission he should have had from Charles Stewart as the Iudge thought fit to term late King for levying the said War he was charg'd with Sir Phelim made Answer he never had any such Commission whereupon it was prov'd in Court by the Testimony of one Ioseph Traverse and others that Sir Phelim had such a Commission and did in the beginning of the Rebellion shew the same unto the said Ioseph and several others then in Court. Upon which Sir Phelim confess'd that when he surpriz'd the Castle of Charlemont and the Lord Caulfield that he ordered one Mr. Harrison a Witness there and another Gentleman to cut off the Kings Broad-Seal from a Patent of the said Lords they then found in Charlemont and affixt it to a Commission Sir Phelim had ordered to
and Conscience the two last were not kept for he was pressed to settle Religion as they desir'd wherewith his Conscience was not satisfy'd Next his Subjects had not free access to him but Proclamations were issued out forbidding them to come to him neither was the Ceremony due to him as King suffer'd to be paid him at his entry to New-Castle And lastly his Servants were not suffer'd to wait on him And his Majesty attested Montrevil if those Conditions were not made to him who confidently affirm'd it in all their Presence and that he had the Authentick Assurances in French The Commissioners retired to think of an Answer but when they return'd they desired his Majesty would put Montrevil to it to declare what those Assurances were and who gave them but this was not done Next they said they would not treat with the King in his Presence nor admit the Interposition of any Foreign Agent between them and their Native Prince And the Commissioners of the Army resolv'd that no suspected Person should be suffer'd to wait on the King with which his Majesty was highly displeas'd and for some Days would not eat in Publick but only in his Chamber This last Passage I have from an unexceptionable Authority whose Affection to his Native Country could give Place to nothing but Truth and therefore he seems to palliate the Matter a little on their behalf that Montrevil did not declare what the Assurances were nor who gave them which yet seems not to be his Fault for that they fully resolv'd against his Presence and Interposition for the future in any such like Affairs And upon the same account he declares further on it did not appear what Grounds Montrevil had for giving the King those Assurances and must be very slight and only from single Persons not any Iunto or Iudicatory Such a secret Transaction could not be done with all the Formalities of a Solemn Treaty yet doubtless Montrevil had his Assurances from Levens with most of the other General Officers and Scotch Commissioners then before Newark which was a considerable Iunto and I humbly conceive Iudicatories have little to do in concerns of that Nature But it had been all one though never so exactly drawn up and would have been as little observ'd as the first Pacification or last promise of never drawing Sword against him more But my particular Business is to trace Ludlow who tells us The Commissioners of Parliament joyning with those who were before with the King endeavour'd to perswade him to agree to the Propositions of the Parliament but he disliking several Things in them and most of all the abolition of Episcopacy to which Interest he continu'd obstinately stedfast refused his consent upon private Encouragement from some of the Scots and English to expect more easy Terms or to be received without any at all p. 183 The Encouragement he mentions is only a Flam of his own the Scots kept too strict a Guard upon him to have any but his Enemies to converse with nay which is worse they oblig'd him to discharge all his Friends then in Arms not only here in England but Montross in Scotland and Ormond in Ireland Neither was the Abolition of Episcopacy the main Obstacle although it was hard when he alone by himself had so shamefully bafled their great Champion Henderson upon that Subject to be so violently press'd from a Truth they could so little disprove But setting aside this Fellow's Spite who would needs make this the chief obstacle the King in his brisk Answer to the whole body of their Propositions from Newcastle August 1. 46. tells them They were such as did import the greatest Alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom yet these were positively sent for his Majesty's Concurrence without allowing the Commissioners to give Reasons for their Demands or the hearing the King's Reasons against them which occasion'd his smart Reply upon their saying They had no Power to treat that saving the Honour of the Business an honest Trumpeter might have done as much To these Propositions Ludlow tells us the Scots Commissioners especially Lord Lowdon press'd the King very earnestly to comply telling him that though they were higher in some Particulars than they could wish yet if he continu'd to reject them he must not expect to be received in Scotland whither they must return and deliver him up to the Parliament in England But whatever they or the English said made no impression c. p. 184. The Truth of it is after all the Scotch Rodomantades Lowdon's in particular how much it was against the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality to Deliver and betray those that had fled to any for Succour their Brethren at Westminster knew how much there was of Iudas amongst them and having reduc'd their demand of a Million to 400000 l. agreed upon the Payment of one Moyety and the Publick Faith for the other to have the King Deliver'd to them who good Man laments that his Price should be so much above his Saviours And to clear himself from the base Reflections they made upon his Steady well grounded Resolves he declares what they call Obstinacy I know God accounts honest Constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede For you must know the Scots whilst in their Hands not only permitted but encourag'd the most Rigid of their Kirkmen to bait him at an impudent Rate as well from the Pulpit as otherwise as positively denouncing him damn'd for refusing the Covenant as 't is to be fear'd might fall to their lot for forcing it In the next Paragraph p. 186. Ludlow Commenceth a Quarrel with all the World both at Home and abroad for upon the French Embassador's coming over to endeavour a Reconciliation between King and Parliament he tells you how it was rejected they resolving to determin it themselves without the interposition of any an infallible sign of a just Cause where no body but themselves must Iudge having experienc'd that most of the Neighbouring States especially the Monarchical were at the bottom their Enemies That they were not their Friends was certain but that they should be so little their Enemies was a great Shame that so many Crown'd Heads should stand by and see a Brother Monarch Dethron'd and Murther'd at so barbarous a rate was a Sign that which is call'd Antient Honour was at a very low Ebb and the Sacro-Sancta Mrjestas left destitute of all Appeal but to the King of Kings who for ought we know may be still making Inquisition for that Blood this Son of Belial so much thirsted after and never at rest till poured forth and therefore henceforward 't is his sole Business to enveigh against all that would not go along with him and his Crew in that horrid Perpetration first he falls upon the Parliament for their frequent Overtures of Peace made to the King though he had not a Sword left wherewith to oppose them p. 187.
Royal Authority that the Causes for which they were restrain'd might be high and Dangerous that her Majesty lik'd not such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such Matters Upon which saith my Author the House desisted from interposing any farther in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner some Years after 'T is probable indeed the others viz. Bromly Welch Stephens might be discharg'd sooner Thus did this Wise Princess hold the Reins of Government with so streight a Hand as whenever she found it biting the Bit and attempting to take head a suddain Check put a stop to the design'd Curreere Whereas King Iames was no sooner mounted but he left them strangely Loose and in effect gave them up his first Parliament where Roger Coke tells us the Commons in their Apology to him took notice of the Queen's Restraining their Debates as to several Matters and pray'd it might be no precedent for the future but that their Debates in Parliament might be free which the King however charg'd by the foremention'd Roger with Rehoboam's Stiffness so far comply'd with or was negligent in as that designing Faction got ground upon him every Day to his own and all his Ministers great Uneasiness with his Son's and Kingdoms ruin And this the foremention'd Letter too prophetically foretold that prevailing in one thing would but encourage them to attempt another till they had pull'd out all the Feathers of his Royalty and from impeaching his Ministers call him to an account for any thing he undertakes which doth not prosperously succeed For thus at last he himself was the Evil Counsellor and charg'd with all those Villanies and Mischiefs these Sons of Violence had brought upon the Nation CHAP. VI. Innovations in Religion never design'd BUt our pretended Patriots could not thoroughly have express'd their care unless they had made it the concern of God as well as the King for which Reason Religion must be taken in and every thing call'd an Innovation which tended to support the Church or conduc'd in any respect to Decency and Order in the Externals of Divine Worship And this Clamor of Redressing Religious Grievances altho by degrees it threw all open and brought in upon us an universal Deluge of Licentiousness Prophaneness Enthusiasm Atheism and what not yet the Factions are so impudent as to continue the Charge and with that false Mother care not how the Church be torn or cut in pieces so they may have their spiteful Wills Thus Ludlow will have it that the Clergy's influence upon the King was alwaies greater than could consist with the peace and happiness of England p. 2 d. whereas it was never happier than then and nothing but a regular Establishment in the Church could continue it so as the King knew very well which made him so earnest to Support it and the other Party knew it too which made them so earnest to pull it down Roger Coke likewise inveighs as much against the Arminian Bishops and Clergy of this King's Reign as his Grandfather when Attorny General did against Sir Walter Rawleigh Who is said by Osborn and the Tryal speaks as much to have Bawl'd him out of his Life And so in the same Manner the little Pamphletteers like Country Curs bark for Company Ye take too much upon you was that General and grand Charge Corah and his Accomplices brought against Moses and Aaron the Prince of the People and Priest of God And notwithstanding the Almighty's Vengeance so signally appear'd in that Quarrel as to send them all quick into Hell yet the Terror thereof hath not been able to affright such Children of Disobedience from Repeating their Provocations The Gates of Hell are continually Opening upon the Church and though never able to prevail against the whole may have sometimes Permission to chastise a part and do whatever else God in his Secret purposes hath resolv'd upon to which Unsearchable Will alone it must be referr'd That the Anointed of the Lord the great Defender of our Faith who best understood and best practis'd the Christian Religion of any Prince since the Prince of Peace was taken in their Nets and as the other Crucified so this by such like wicked Hands most barbarously slain And if the same Sovereign Disposer in this his great Displeasure proceeds farther to remove our Candlestick declare he hath no pleasure in us neither will accept an offering at our Hands we must notwithstanding acknowledge he is Righteous in all his Ways and Holy in all his Works For unto very nigh these Circumstances the many Sub and Super-Reformers have reduc'd what under the Auspicious care of its Royal Defender was the Glory of the whole Earth That therefore it may be known there was such a thing as the Church of England and as I said in a most flourishing Condition till these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Physitians or Quacks rather would be shewing their Skill I shall take leave to make a Retrospect and represent upon what bottom she was first fix'd at the Reformation what false Brethren they were who interrupted and disturb'd this Establishment and likewise by what Arts and Degrees they engag'd I may say bewitch'd the People to assist them in such Confusions as were at length brought upon her Though the Reformation of our English Church was founded and carried on upon those infallible Truths the Primitive Times and Antient Fathers had practis'd from Scripture without any regard to Foreign Proceedings or if any rather Luther and Melancthon than Calvin and Beza had the Preference yet the two latter would be frequently putting their Sickle into our Harvest and partly by Corresponding but more especially by conversing with several Exiles both Clergy and Lay retired into those Parts during Queen Mary's Persecution gain'd too many Admirers who returning home upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown cry'd up the Geneva Model as the very Pattern which the Lord had shown from that Mount and according to which the whole Reformation must be carried on or no Blessing from him would attend it It would be here too tedious to relate what Arts they us'd and what Interests they made in Country City and Court As they began to think of setting up their darling Discipline and that in so insolent a manner as to declare That if the Government would not assist therein they must do it whether the Queen and State will or no insinuating how many Thousands their Party consisted of and threatned if not comply'd with such Courses as should make all their Hearts to ake Queen Elizabeth had too great a Value for her own well weighed Estalishments to have them Superseded by every Factious Caprice and thereupon resolv'd firmly against them And nothing but that steady Resolution of hers could preserve both Church and State from being even then ruin'd For these pretended Children of Light had so much of this World were so wise in their
the Sequel acknowledge that when he lost his Ears they might in Law and Iustice have taken away his life In the mean while what a Vexation must it be to a Good and Wise King that when he had call'd a Parliament to Assist him according to the National Constitution in a War undertaken by their inducement they diverted themselves in debating such School Points as belong'd properly to our Universities Exercise as afterwards they fell upon some Innocent Ceremonies which had been all along practis'd in the Catholick Church and enjoyn'd by ours ever since the Reformation Dangerous Innovations these Was ever so great a Cry made about so little Wooll CHAP. VII No Design of Introducing Popery THE Growth of Popery and Countenance shown to Papists was another pestilent Allegation and did never the less Mischief tho' false and groundless for First it is not true that the little Favour now shown them was solely upon account of the Matches in Treaty with Spain and France nor Secondly had it been Unusual with Q. Elizabeth to discharge Priests after some short time of Confinement For those violent Bigots were as numerous and busy in her Reign Compass'd Sea and Land to gain Proselytes and prevail'd upon too many weak and unstable Minds to become so However 't was a known Maxim of hers That no Man's Conscience should be forc'd or punished unless it did overflow into Overt and express Acts and become matter of Faction in which Causes the Sovereign Prince ought to punish the Practice though coloured with the pretence of Conscience and Religion A larger account whereof may be seen in that Eminent Letter of Secretary Walsingham to Monsieur Critoy and what distinction there was ever made between such as were Papists in Conscience and those in Faction and Singularity who set their Wits continually a-work to disturb the Publick Peace and undermine the Government Besides there was at this time and had been several years before most violent Oppositions and Quarrels between the Regulars and Seculars here in England more especially the Iesuits whom the foremention'd Secretary calls Seditious Priests of a New Erection whereas many of the former had taken the Oath of Allegiance and some written to Iustify it desiring only to live according to the Rites of the Roman Church without any regard to the Court that so magnify'd Idol of the Popes Universal Supremacy and All-disposing Usurpation Now by fomenting these Differences and shewing some kindness to the more Moderate Party Archbishop Bancroft more especially however branded by the Faction for a Papist and some other Ministers of State got so clear an insight into all their Iesuitical Intriegues as to out-do them at their own Weapon and render their many designs Abortive And his Successor Abbot herein was forc'd to take the same Measures 't is pity he did not so in every thing else for when in Charles's second Parliament some busy Overdoes gave Information to the House and upon search discovered that there were several Priests in the Prison call'd the Clink who liv'd with great Ease and Liberty had the Free Exercise of their Religion with Altars Pictures and other Trinkets the fore-mention'd Archbishop writ to the Attorney General on their behalf and told him Upon more curious enquiry that Information would be found to come Originally from the Iesuits for they do nothing but put Tricks upon those poor Men who do live more miserable lives than if they were in the Inquisition By taking the Oath of Allegiance and writing in defence of it they have so displeas'd the Pope that if by any cunning they could catch them they are sure to be burnt or strangled for it and once there was a Plot to have taken Preston as he passed the Thames and to have Ship'd him into a bigger Vessel and so have transported him to Flanders there to have made a Martyr of him In respect of these things K. James always gave his protection to Preston and Warrington as may be easily shew'd Canon is an old man well affected to the Cause but medleth not with any Factions or Seditions c. So vast a difference there is between taking things at a general View upon the first rebound of vulgar report and enquiring more narrowly into the secret Transactions the Reasons of State upon which the Wellfare of all Governments and consequently of every private Individual depends And since we are upon Reason of State that will come in here upon a more unhappy consideration as to this Affair the Protestant Interest especially in France was at a much lower Ebb than formerly they had engag'd we are not here to resolve how justly in those several pretences the Princes of the Blood set up and so upheld a mutual Interest whereas now the former being worn out or reconcil'd it was an Impar Congressus on the Hugonot's side to maintain by the Sword those Concessions it had formerly procur'd them or otherwise prevent those many Artifices both the Court of France and Rome were daily improving to their Ruin insomuch as the then K. Lewis XIII was known publickly to declare That as his two Predecessors Henry III. Fear'd them Henry IV. Lov'd them so he did neither And though the Spanist Match made the Cry yet upon this consideration more especially it was that in Iames's time upon mature deliberation in Council the Execution of some Penal Statutes which had already pass'd in Sentence upon several Popish Recusants was suspended for that the Protestants in France Germany and elsewhere lay under very bad Circumstances and had no other Intercessor for their Liberty c. but the King of England who was importun'd on the other side to show the like favour to those of the Romish Persuasion in his Dominions Nay some English Iesuits at Paris printed a Book representing how hardly their party were us'd here instigating that King to the utmost Severity by way of Retaliation so that had they and the Parliament been comply'd with what a havock would have been made all Europe over of Papists here and Protestants every where alse There is a Letter in the Cabala from Lord Keeper Williams to the Viscount Anan a Scotch Peer I presume upon this Subject which fully clears the King and justifies the proceedure by true Reason of State The Malice of the Faction gave out indeed that the Favour look'd forward and amounted even to a Tolleration which the Keeper styles a dull but withall a Devilish Misconstruction Yet the same prejudices were not only continu'd but improv'd against K. Charles by reason he Married a Daughter of France who was not wanting saith Ludlow on her part to press him upon all occasions to pursue the design of enlarging his Power not omitting to solicite him also to mould the Church of England to a nearer compliance with the See of Rome Pag. 2. For the former as he had no such design before so 't is as little probable she should press him now or
De Propaganda Fide would take care enough should be insisted upon but that any such thing was comply'd with or hearken'd to as there is nothing extant to make it appear which would have been highly acceptable and most pestilently advantageous to the Faction's Calumnies so matter of Fact speaks quite the contrary For as soon as they came to be capable of Instruction their Education was wholly at the King's Direction and perform'd with extraordinary Care Piety and Judgment And whatever Clamours or Conjectures may be made to the contrary I have been inform'd by very judicious Observers that the Queen was very Passive therein and carried her self with a great deal of Deference to what the King Ordered If any of them Warp'd afterwards it was upon our compelling them into Exile and for that as I said before our selves must bear the Blame to force Princes abroad can never turn to Account for this Nation That other Libel too King Charles no Saint c. makes a mighty Pudder about the Match and gives us the precise Sums allowed to the several Ecclesiasticks of her Train amounting so high in the Total as I fancy it is nigh as much as the King could allow for the Expence of her whole Court which indeed ought to be somewhat Splendid in respect to both her Qualities Daughter of France and Queen of England yet was it withall very Regular and confin'd to such a Proportion as the King 's great Exigencies and small Revenue would admit He owns likewise upon the insolent Deportment of her French Domesticks the King dismist them a sufficient Argument she had not that Ascendent over him these Foul-mouth'd Blockheads prate of But that they return'd again to their former Post is absolutely false her Retinue for the future were mostly English and of that Communion too Neither from that time forward for the French did some ill Offices of that kind was there ever known a more agreeable Understanding between King and Queen or indeed any other Man and Wife than them two all the Obligations of Conjugal Love Respect and Duty so inviolably observ'd on either side as they were an Example to many and a Reproach to others in the Court and ought to have been so to the whole Kingdom thorough The Exposing his intercepted Letters shall be hereafter consider'd as the Unworthiest Act the basest Men could be guilty of One thing farther I shall propound to these Negative Make-bates who so violently oppos'd his Matching either with Spain or France Where would they have had him Match'd 'T was high time as to his Age and more highly requisite in that he was the only Male of the Royal Line that he should be dispos'd of somewhere and to what purpose was it for People to cry a Protestant Princess had been better when they could find none such agreeable to his Quality nor that mutual intercourse which such Alliances generally produce For tho' 't is true Kingdoms never Marry and we find a War broke out soon after and partly hereupon yet it might be also the sooner Accommodated upon the same account To be sure if there be few private Families of any Degree but have some Consideration of this Nature when they dispose of their Children we must allow the same to Crown'd Heads both in respect to one another and their several Neighbour Potentates who are never without Caballing Interests and other Intriegues of State Neither could that liberty of the Romish Rites indulg'd her and those of that persuasion in her Family have been any ways prejudicial had they who made such a Noise so violently complain'd against it jointly concur'd in the Confinement thereof to its proper Bounds or Modestly Address'd his Majesty whenever exceeded but the Froppishness of that Crooked Generation was for perverting every thing that Good Man did to the utmost extremity as he complains in the Declaration when his third Parliament was Dissolv'd Seu bene seu male facta premunt with Mischievous Men once Ill-Affected whatsoever seem'd Amiss is ever Remembred but good Endeavours never Regarded So likewise for the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion if they had any favour more than usual it was not so much from the Queen's Sollicitation tho' that was commonly objected as for that they frankly proffer'd to Advance Money towards the King's Necessities and thereby exasperated the Parliament as well in crossing their Designs as upbraiding their Refractory Humour although 't was rather their Iealousy than any real Effects the Loyal Gentlemen found of Kindness 'T is true there was a Commission issued out and Commissioners appointed to Treat with them about Arrears of Forfeitures and an Advance upon the same account for some years to come but 't is false what Rushworth saith That in pursuance of this Commission the Recusants did make their Composition upon very easy Terms as was afterwards complain'd of in Parliament for this Project never took effect Sir Iohn Savile to whom the Management thereof was chiefly entrusted thought it more Advantageous and therefore Advisable to Collect the Arrears of Thirds due to the King by Law which they the more willingly paid in Consideration of the Exigencies he then lay under and being generally as well bred and Understanding Gentlemen as most in the Kingdom must not be blam'd if they had some prospect of Advantage as well as Duty Yet whatever respect the King shew'd their Persons we see it would not excuse their Purses nor procure any Countenance to their Perswasions for whenever the Management of any young Heirs in such Families came under his hands either as Wards or otherwise there was effectual care taken of their Education amongst which that every way most Eminent the late Duke of Ormond was one But Popery was the Main Spoak in that Wheel of Revolution these pretended Government Menders were so bent to bring about and therefore tho' they made many a Faint yet would never close effectually with the King in suppression thereof Thus when both Houses Petition'd the King against Recusants propounding a provisional Law that their Children might be brought up in our Religion his Majesty most readily comply'd therewith and earnestly recommended the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect which notwithstanding the Debate fell asleep and was never after reassum'd And after the first heat as little Notice was taken of that Letter found amongst the Clerkenwell Iesuits whereby nevertheless it appear'd they equally studied the King's Ruine with the Naetions Confusions as Secretary Cook inform'd them from him and withall how the French Ambassador told his Master at home what he had wrought here last Parliament namely Divisions between King and People and he was rewarded for it A full discovery whose Tools they were whose Game they play'd which nevertheless they continued on so that one would think there was a design to accept the Iesuits Challenge and venture all upon a Trial of Skill whether were the best Artists in Mischief the
no more consistency in that mighty Huff of the French King and Court upon the dismission of our Queen's Domesticks since he had been guilty of the like practice upon the Spanish Retinue of his own Queen not long before and for ought appears upon far less Provocation The Politico's I know then and since have censur'd the Duke for some Personal grudges against Richlieu and that he did not act the part of a true Statesman in countenancing such of his Enemies here as he had made France too hot for whereas if they will allow him to look further he could not but discover that as Richlieu was a Minister of the Deepest reach that Crown ever had so was he likewise the greatest Enemy to ours and his Station being at that time very ticklish to assist in getting him down had been one of the best Offices he could have perform'd for this Kingdom since 't is now no further doubted but that he was the Grand Promoter Underhand of all our Northern Commotions and consequently of all our Confusions hitherto and without end to come Yet amongst many other Provocations that doubtless which chiefly influenc'd the Duke was the Relief of Rochel the effecting whereof might as much have reinstated him in Popular favour as his breaking off the Spanish Match and for as long a time in all probability not much longer To be sure had his Measures been taken there were all the Moral Assurances imaginable of an accomplishment but coming before the Town with a Fleet the French were not able to look on the Face and such Additional Land-Forces as joyn'd with their own and the 4000 Foot 200 Horse the Duke of Rohan had engag'd to send besides a constant supply from England as occasion should require they within might not only have been secur'd but such a New life given to the Protestant Interest as to have gone into the Heart and thorough all France and this their whole Court and Council were so sensible of as to make very advantageous Overtures to the Duke of Rohan and all his Party provided they would joyn with them against the English I say when with all this Provision and Supply the Duke came before Rochel so great was their Infatuation there quos vult perdere c. that though they knew they could not depend upon what the French proffer'd yet were they afraid to offend them by admitting the English To gain the greater Credit with the Party this whole Transaction shall be related out of their Friend Mr. Rushworth who tell us When the Duke with his Fleet appear'd before Rochel they who once much long'd for his coming now shut their Gates against him Hereupon the Duke of Sobiez went ashore with Sir William Beecher from the Duke of Buckingham Sir Will. Beecher being also accompanied with a Letter of Credence from his Majesty of Great Britain they were at last admitted into the Town and the Magistrates call'd an Assembly and there Sir William Beecher declar'd unto them That the Duke of Buckingham was come with a great Fleet and Army to their Assistance which his Master had sent out of fellow-feeling of their Sufferings and to require from the King of France a performance of the Articles of Peace made by the King of England's Mediation on behalf of the Protestants in France And further declar'd unto them that if they do now refuse to give their Assistance by joyning Forces with the English he said he would and did protest before God and Man in the Name of the King his Master That his said Master was fully acquit of his Engagement of Honour and Conscience for their Relief But notwithstanding this Declaration and Sobiez his Earnest Sollicitation and Endeavour the Magistrates and Wealthier sort of People in the Town being possest with the fear of the King of France his Army then upon a March against them and there being a Court-Party also prevalent in the Town could be drawn to give no other Answer at that time but this That they did render all humble and hearty Thanks to his Majesty of Great Britain for the care he had of them and to the Duke for his forwardness and readiness to do his best Service for their good But said They were bound by Oath of Union to do nothing but by Common and Unanimous Consent of all the rest of the Protestant Party in France And therefore pray'd the King of Great Britain to excuse them in that they did suspend the Conjunction of Forces till they had sent to the rest of the Protestant Towns who were of the Union with them And in the mean time their Prayers and Vows should be for the happy progress of such Actions as the Fleet and Army should undertake Thus far Mr. Rushworth whose Authority the strongest prejudice must submit to for had it been possible to represent things to the disadvantage where the King and Duke were concern'd he would have exerted his utmost Talent that way And whatever others may be assign'd this false Step of the Rochellers in not permitting the Duke to fix upon the Terra Firma of France was the Chief if not the Sole Cause of their Ruin and never after to be retriev'd for the Duke Squandring away his time and Men upon the Isle of Rhee and no Supplies coming as design'd was forc'd home for want of Provisions which opportunity the French failing not to take hold of Invested Rochel both by Seae and Land with so much Force and Art as 't was easie for them to Calculate the length of their Days Hereupon Sobiez with some other Deputies were sent to implore his Majesty's Commiseration and Assistance in the most Melting Language they could express which theirs is very capable of and were as graciously answered That he would take them into his especial Care and utmost Endeavours for their Relief and set about it with all Sincerity and Application imaginable altho' indeed it was something retarded by that unhappy suprize upon the Duke's life neither were his Coffers or Credit able to make the Expedition so quick as desired which occasion'd that Remonstrance of the Sieur Vincent the Defence so rudely descants upon though I fancy the Original had not so rough a Title Nevertheless a Gallant Fleet was at length set out under the Earl of Lindsey who with much Bravery and Resolution set upon their Booms and Barracadoes and brake thorough many of them but sometimes the Tyde failing and at others the Wind coming cross the Defendants likewise repairing whatever Breaches were made and rendring every fresh Assault more difficult than the former the Rochellers beheld with their own Eyes the Impossibility of any Relief and thereupon made that Unwilling Submission their Fate Folly or both had brought them unto The French tho' considerable Gainers by suppressing these unquiet Spirits at home yet had so much work upon their hands from the House of Austria at Land as they did not in the least care to have England upon
their Backs at Sea and thereupon agreed very readily to a Peace which set all things in Statu Quo with this Advantage on our side that they became more Complaisant and Obliging in their outward carriage did not think fit to look Big and Insult upon every private Disgust tho' their underhand Practices were much to be Suspected as hath been already Observ'd This is a true and impartial Account how far our King was engag'd in the preservation of those Unhappy People in Rochel how sincerely he undertook it and how they themselves more especially rendred his most likely Attempts Abortive We are next to observe with how much Villany and Falshood all those his Good Deeds are Evil spoke of and perverted by the whole Fraternity of Libellers Ludlow confounds the Story so abominably as to tell it without Head or Tail or rather with that witty Fellow 's pretended Monster sets the Head and Tail Transversim for so he makes Sir Iohn Pennington's and the other Six Ships to be lent the French after the Duke of Bucks had been at the Isle of Rhee whereas it was two years before and they had been return'd home above a year I must beg the Reader 's pardon to trouble him with the whole Hodge Podge of this Leud Uncouth Story The Rochellers who once before upon Encouragement from England had endeavoured to defend their Just Rights against the Encroachments of the French King till being deserted by the King of England they were necessitated to accept terms from their King very disadvantageous to their Affairs were again by frequent Importunities and fair Promises prevailed with tho' very unwillingly to assist the English with Provisions and such other things as they wanted in their Expedition against the Isle of Rhee from whence our Forces being repuls'd the French King sent his Army against the Protestants at Rochel whose Provisions being before exhausted by the English they apply'd to the King of England for Succours according to his promise Who as if he intended to Assist them effectually caus'd a certain number of Ships to be fitted out under the Conduct of Sir Iohn Pennington but private Differences being soon after compos'd Sir Iohn receiv'd a Letter from the King Sign'd Charles Rex which was afterwards found by the Parliament amongst his Papers requiring him to dispose of those Ships as he should afterwards be directed by the French King and if any should refuse to Obey those Orders he should Sink or Fire them the King's Command was put in Execution accordingly and by the help of those Ships the French became Masters of the Sea and thereby enabled to raise a Work compos'd of Earth Stones and Piles with which they shut up the Mouth of the Harbour and so prevented them from any Relief that way Being straitned from all Sides they were forc'd to yield to the Pleasure of their King and that strong Town of Rochel wherein the Security of the Protestants of France chiefly consisted by this horrible Treachery was delivered up to the Papists c. Pag. 3 4 5. To reduce this Chaos into any thing of Order or Consistency requires more than Mortal Power Nay the fabulous Poets would have thought it beyond that of their Deities there being no Pre-existent Matter to work upon most of what he saith is not was never so in being as to be done or thought upon I would gladly know when that once before was that the English encourag'd the Rochellers to defend their Just Rights First No honest Man can tell what just Rights they had It was a kind of Forty One business their Original Revolt and prosper'd accordingly in the end Though Secondly in Reason of State Queen Elizabeth assisted them considerably Especially Henry IV. so long as he continued Protestant And King Iames frequently interceeded compos'd the Breaches themselves had made but never encourag'd them in any so that they could not be necessitated to accept disadvantageous Terms upon the English deserting who never engag'd nor joyn'd with them Altho' his jumbling all this together in one Sentence may some way or other no Man can tell how relate to the Duke's Expedition when at the Isle of Rhee whither they compell'd him to Retreat and I cannot find any considerable quantity of Provisions they supply'd him with to be sure he was forc'd home for want thereof not any repulse of the French for had his Supplies come as design'd he had kept his Ground and carried on the Enterprize in hand From this incoherent Relation he proceeds to that Abominable Forgery of our Seven Ships enabling the French to be Masters of the Sea and Block up Rochel What did the Twenty from the Dutch those true Common-Wealth Protestants Did not they according to their number contribute Two Thirds more than we The Truth of it is neither we nor they were ever before Rochel all that was done the little while they had our Ships was to clear the Seas of Sobiez's Piracies at which time most of the French Fleet was abroad in the Streights part against the Spaniard the rest with the Duke of Nevers against the Turks the Algerines whereas being now return'd into these Seas though not strong enough to engage our Fleet yet keeping within their Fastnesses and Shallows they so block'd up the Town as we could not but at our great Peril approach them which nevertheless was attempted and that bravely too but without Success However this rendred not the Care and Kindness of our King the less whatever this base Fellow would hold the World in hand And having been thus tedious in prosecuting the Malicious Vagaries of our Out-Law'd Regicide I shall relate thereto for a Reply to whatever the rest have Suggested As that the King caus'd the Rochellers to Revolt in order to his Assistance and then Deserted them as Roger Coke impudently affirms whereas their Revolt was begun two years before he thought of War and ended tho' not to Satisfaction before he would make a Peace And the Defence upon whose Sleeve that other Libeller if he be another Pins his Faith relates the Addresses on the Hugonot's side and the Promises on the King 's whose Exigencies made his Delays seem tedious though they saw he could not help it which that base Fellow aggravates with the Spite and Ignorance of a Fanatick And then not able to deny that a Royal Fleet was set out well worth so long a stay would have the World believe it was on purpose to carry over the Lord Mountague who should betray them to the French whereas to be sure there was no such Lord went and in all probability no such Person although there was one Mr. Walter Mountague younger Son to the old Earl of Manchester who about seven years after left our Church and became a busy Body in Romish Intrigues and might be at this time peeping up in the Queen's Court but that he was sent at leastwise upon any such unworthy design is as true as the
all shews him more a Puritan than Politician with very little Regard for what the truly Catholick Church hath ever held in that Point Yet this is further remarkable that deciding Battle at Prague was fought on a Sunday the Twenty Third after Trinity where the Gospel holds forth Reddite Caesariquae sunt Caesaris But when King Iames saw the Palatinate invaded and that all the Spanish Protestations were Trick and Wheedle he then as averse as he was to War engaged in good Earnest to the utmost of his Abilities by supplying the Princes of the Union in Germany forwarding the King of Denmark to concern himself in that Quarrel and furnishing Count Mansfield with an Army the Miscarriage whereof he could not help and several other considerable Supplies both of Men and Mony far beyond those few Subsidies his last Parliament gave to that end and would they have been more open-fisted he might have done a great deal more but we have since seen how hisficult it is for the strongest Confederacy to bear up against the United force of one Potent Prince the Dutch slowness saith my Author was not excusable nor the Marquis of Ansback General of the Union so forward to seek or take Advantages as he might Nay another affirms That he carryed himself neither so Faithfully nor so Valiantly as he should have done being much condemn'd for suffering Spinola with his Army to pass by unfought with when he had all Advantages that could be wished for to impede his March the greatest part of the Palatinate being lost upon that neglect and by degrees the rest of the united Princes either taken off from their Engagement or ruin'd for adhering to it with too great constancy Yet still the Clamour must be continued especially amongst our Factious Mend-all's the King of Great Britain did not take care to preserve his Childrens Patrimony And for King Charles he was not much better serv'd by that great Gustavus Adolphus when he made such an Inroad into Germany whom he furnished both with Men and Mony very considerably in hopes the Palatinate might be one Acquest of his many Successes and so it was but when he came there the Right owner was so little regarded as he ravag'd and carry'd off whatever Spinola and his Forces had left the constant practice of those Necessitous Northern Princes who will take your Mony and do their own Business if they can but mind no other Obligations Neither was the King's Kindness the less for 't was mostly at his expence if that other Expedition in the Year Thirty Eight miscarry'd as they March'd through Westphalia towards the Palatinate only it had been well for him Good man if some guilty of that ill conduct had fallen upon the Place and never come to be guilty of the same with other Mistakes or something worse here All which I have mention'd and could a great deal more to Obviate that false and malicious Slander of Roger Coke who saith They that is the Prince Elector King of Bohemia if you will have him so his Queen and Family were more relieved by the Dutch States Prince of Orange with some Bishops and Noblemen of England than both the King's Father and Son For whether Relief relates to those Publick Transactions abroad or the Subsistence of the Queen and her Court at the Hague 't is in both Senses a gross untruth the Dutch States were always concern'd in their Confederacies as a considerable branch of the Union but I never heard they contributed any thing to their Subsistence till all help from England was gone The benefit rather accrew'd to their people from the continu'd expence of such a Court Retinue and Resort for the Princes of Orange indeed they were all Nobly kind to the Queen and pay'd her a profound Deference there being three of them successively in the Supreme Command during her Residence at the Hague Neither will I detract any thing from what the Nobility here did both Spiritual and Temporal yet still the King 's did more than all these in every respect whatsoever whether there was a setled Allowance during the few Years of her Fathers Life after dispossest of the Palatinate I cannot Resolve but am sureher Good Brother as she ever term'd him gave the utmost Expressions of a Tender and Indear'd Affection in that he not only was continually making Presents to her and her Children took great care of them and Advanc'd whomsoever they recommended or belong'd to them but allow'd moreover eight Thousand Pound per Annum for her Table which was punctually return'd every Month out of the Exchequer at the same time Mony was carry'd thence for like purpose to Whitehall which when the Rebel Parliament had seiz'd all the Crown Revenue was continued during the Presbyterian Iunto's Usurpation the more readily because most of the English in her Family were of that Leven who when the Cash fail'd as basely deserted her and sought Employment from her Brothers Murtherers And I presume upon her being thus destitute of Supply from hence it was that the States General allow'd her One Thousand Guilders per Mensem which sounds big in the Number but reduc'd to our Account amounts not fully to a Hundred Pound Sterling Her Son likewise about that time was restor'd to the Lower Palatinate and therein her Ioynture who promis'd fair but perform'd little To be sure there was one Noble Man of ours the late Earl of Craven though for most part of that time his plentiful Estate here was Sequestred contributed more to her and her whole Family's Subsistence than both the foremention'd with all the World beside and that not out of any Sinister unworthy respect as some idle People would have it thought but a pure Principle of Honour and Religion a Munificent Charitable Soul CHAP. XI Of the Book of Sports BUt the loudest Cry and that wherein all the several Packs however of different Mouths and Games joyn'd together in Hunting down was against the Book of Sports as they must have it Termed which is to be consider'd here tho' not set out till some Years after because Ludlow according to his no Method and Chronology brings it in immediately after the Surrender of Rochel and that with several spiteful and false Prefacings About this time saith he the most profitable Preferments in the English Church were given to those of the Clergy who were most forward to promote the Imposition of New Ceremonies and Superstitions p. 5. Never was there more care taken in preferring the Clergy according to their several deserts and qualifications than by this excellent Prince nor a greater Set of worthy deserving Men but the promoting New Ceremonies and Superstitions was one of their Old Common-place Calumnies upon his Pious care in consulting some other Bishops and taking their Assistance towards keeping up Decency and Order in the Externals of God's publick Worship the then Arch-Bishop being so Remiss and Negligent therein What he adds of an Oath being
have leave to Exercise if not upon the Sundays and Holy Days seeing they must apply their Labour and win their Living in all working Days All which in no more than their Common Practice at Geneva as hath been already mention'd and it ought further to be consider'd so strict a Confinement from all Diversions of Body and Mind cannot but by degrees oppress and darstardise Men's Spirits of English Mastiffs make them in the end become Setting-Dogs to some Foreign Power To these King Charles adds a 3d. The rather because of late in some Counties of the Kingdom we find that under pretence of taking away abuses there hath been a general Forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of the Churches c. which besides preserving the Memorial thereof as he was certainly inform'd tended very much to Civilising the People composing of Differences by the Mediation of Friends encreasing Love and Unity by those Feasts of Charity with Relief and Comfort to the Poor the Richer part in a manner keeping open House Although what is mention'd just before in this Corroborating part of King Charles might probably prevail more with him than all the rest viz. Out of a Pious Care for the Service of God and for suppressing any Humors that oppose Truth being too sensible how those judaising Dogmatists by inculcating to the People a strict and sole Observance of this Legal Institution design'd thereby to exclude all those Christian Feasts and Festivals which have been constantly Commemorated ever since the Gospel was Preach'd to Mankind as the Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension of Christ with the Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles by which Miraculous Gifts Almighty God impowr'd them to Preach the Gospel to the whole World bringing Life and Immortality to Light and the Church accordingly hath ever pay'd a thankful Acknowledgment of those their indefatigable Labors Exemplary Lives and Cruel Deaths till these Enemies to all Antiquity as well as Order and Gratitude must have them superseded by such Iewish Observances as neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear And it was much to my Surprise that when some late Acts pass'd for the more strict observing the Lord's Day the Fathers of our Church when it came into their House did not endeavour at least that some little regard might be had to the foremention'd Fasts and Festivals the Canon took care to joyn them all together for due Celebration of Sundays and Holy Days and God forgive those who conniv'd at a Separation such an Omission could not have pass'd in Charles the 1 st Time and one would think their proceedings then should be Matter of greater Caution now for having dar'd to lift up their Hands against that true Defender they stuck at nothing which might hinder a thorough Reformation began indeed at the Holy Days but Liturgy and Bishops soon follow'd To give one Instance of many how cursedly they affected to run Counter against whatever our Church did practise when in the Heat of the Rebellion Christmas Day fell on a Sunday as it must in Course every four or five Years that Coryphaeus of the Faction old Calamy lest he should be thought to regard the Festival of our Saviour's Nativity preach'd upon a Passion Text. Eli Eli Lamasabachthani How violent a Current we have bene dar'd to Stem is neither our Ignorance nor our Fear Truth is a Rock which repels the Force at the same time it causes their Noise and Foamings Yet not to be mistaken herein which is very Natural for them to do I shall most readily comply in the strictest Observation of the Lord's Day they can think fit to prescribe provided it be upon a Christian not Iewish Bottom and with a due Deference to what the Wise and Good have in the best Ages of the Church resolv'd therein Otherwise to make Exclamations and enveigh against every one who will not walk by their killing Letter of the Law hath too great Affinity to those Pharisaical Rigours which were continually carping at and Censuring our Saviour for the many Miracles he wrought on the Sabbath Day whilst their hard and impenitent Hearts could not understand what that meant I will have Mercy not Sacrifice as likewise that the Sabbath was made for Man not Man for the Sabbath And that the many Reproaches rais'd against the two forementioned Princes upon their sincere Endeavours for a right Information herein as well as their other good Deeds for the House of God and Offices thereof proceeded from the like perverse Disposition of Spirit can be little doubted by any one who reflects how exactly they parallell'd the Iews in Murdering the one and continue still most implacable against the Memories of both CHAP. XI Of Ship-Money WHen a Man hath a Subject will bear an Argument and is sure of an easy and ready Attention to run out into bitter Invectives and false Suggestions argues as great a defect of Judgment as good Nature to be sure nothing has rais'd a stronger Suspicion of this Prince's sincere Intentions amongst the soberest and best disposed People in the Nation than his Levying Ship-Money which therefore Ludlow might have kept close to without continuing his Excursions against the Clergy but they must answer for all to which end he tells That divers of them entred the List as Champions of the Prerogative asserting that the Possessions and Estates of the Subjects did of Right belong to the King and that he might dispose of them at Pleasure thereby Vacating and Annulling as much as in them lay All the Laws of England that secure a Propriety to the People p. 5. Now to prove or make appear one Syllable of this Virulent Charge is beneath the Authority of his Memoirs 't will pass with the Party upon his Word and whoever affirms nay proves the contrary shall be no more credited by them than they will be at the Last Day The Iesuits where they have Power are not more severe in their Inquisitions than our well-scented Demagogues upon all Transactions of the Loyal Clergy yet excepting those few indiscreet Expressions of Sibthorp and Manwaring which has been already spoke to they could find nothing else worth catching hold of otherwise we should not have been so often hit in the Teeth with them two 'T is true the Clergy all along stood firm to the Prerogative and thought themselves bound both in Duty and Interest to support it's just Rights against the many Invasions every Day attempted to that and the Kingdoms Ruin which Steadiness and Resolution of theirs was the pretended Crime and grand Motive for those little Crorespondents with the Prince of the Air to raise and procure so many Storms against them But that they had any Thoughts of stretching the Prerogative beyond its due Bounds much less of Annulling all nay any of the Laws of England none but a Republican Confidence could affirm and hath no more of Truth than that Ludlow was an
Admonition could move no Reasons or Perswasions prevail when the Time was so far spent that they had put an impossibility upon themselves to perform their Promise whereof they esteemed all Gracious Messages to them to be but Interruptions His Majesty upon mature Advisement dissolv'd them This is the Account the King himself gives in his Declaration of their unkind Dealing and his too just Provocation for that Act otherways would they have comply'd with him in those his urgent Necessities there should have been no Obstruction upon the Duke's Account they might have gon on with their Articles and been certainly Baffled as to that of King Iames's Death and perhaps most of the rest But I must not break off here without my promis'd Remark upon the Defence who by adding another most Impossible Story renders that aforemention'd yet more Improbable There are few will believe because he brings none That for many Reasons it was concluded King Charles had no small share in that abominable Act of Poysoning his own Father King James I. But to add and that Good Man Prince Henry his Son is such a Stretch as nothing but one by a Halter can keep pace with and they deserve to go together That Prince Henry was thought to have something of foul Play Sir W's Libel does insinuate but no Man of Sense or History ever believed a Syllable thereof and that Answer Intituled Aulicus Coquinariae clearly makes appear it was right down Libel that is absolutely false and as there was no ground to place it where Sir A's Baseness design'd so for this unthinking Blockhead to transfer it upon that poor innocent Child his Brother let the most prejudic'd Fanatick judge when told that at Henry's Death this his younger Brother was not Twelve Years Old having been all along of a weak unhealthy Constitution liv'd a Studious retir'd Life with very little Conversation but that of Books and Tutors which was indeed of great Advantage to his future Accomplishments but kept him then from making any Figure at Court or entring upon any Intrigue there which the most Active Princes of that Age have seldom been known to engage in much less to carry on such an Unnatural Enterprize Yet doubtless this is as true as the other and whoever for the Time to come relate either may the same Fate attend them as did Horace's Planus a Lying Cheat not to be believ'd when they speak Truth tho their Lives depend thereupon Nulla fides damnis verisque doloribus adsit Roger Coke hath another the prettyest Maggotty Reason to prove King Iames could not dye a Natural Death because all the five James 's his Predecessors in Scotland were carryed off otherwise I will not concern my self with what was done in Scotland but dare be the Courts Compurgator for all of that Family which have dy'd since it came into England although none have gon off without some such ill-natur'd and ill-grounded Suggestion I wish I could say as much for the Parliament or rather a Rump of it which out-did whatever hath been done in Scotland or any where else upon the Face of the whole Earth And further to provoke Divine Vengeance we have got a Generation of Villains which at this Hour dare to justify it and no Notice taken thereof Nay these eager Blood-hounds are so delighted with that sort of Game as when they cannot come at it themselves will needs have it done by others for so it was confidently mutter'd of the last which went off by Death and if God curse us with continuing this Set of Men will pass for an Authentick Story 50 or 60 Years hence it was enough at present to found it in a Whisper especially since the Physicians and amongst them Dr. L a great Confident of theirs declar'd that upon inspecting the Brain there was so clear Evidence of an Apoplexy as 't was impossible to think of any other Cause However there is nothing Extraordinary in all this besides the grosseness of the Fiction there are few Historians relate the Death of Princes without something of a real or imaginary Force But to bury them alive by Supposititious Births is altogether Modern an Advance of this present Age with how much Interest or Honour the next may Judge CHAP. XIII His Government before the Rebellion THese be the most tho' not all for all it is impossible to Enumerate and therefore let it be all the most considerable Exceptions false Clamors and frontless Cavils wherewith the wide-mouth'd Factions blackned the King and Trumpetted up Rebellion into which dismal and bloody Scene before we enter Let us take a general View of his Government during the Twelve Years Interstitium or if you will Interregnum of Parliaments for they were never quiet till Supream and then least of all where we shall find this true Father of his Country so tenderly Provident for a crooked and perverse Generation Nurtur'd them up in so much Peace and Plenty such a continued Affluence of all Things requisite to Humane Welfare as never any Nation enjoy'd a greater and very few have equall'd them therein That he Hated or had any Prejudice against Parliaments is so far from being True as if there were any Mistake it appear'd rather at First on the other Side he Caress'd them a little too much To be sure it was by his Inducement the Duke of Bucks made that Narrative relating to the Spanish Match and Treaty to both Houses of Parliament in Iames's Last whereto as occasion serv'd he gave his Attestation which so pleas'd their Popular aspiring Humour as the Duke was then the Whitest Boy and his Master the Hopefullest Prince in the World And he doubtless intended to have gon on in that Sincere plain-dealing Way represented Things as they really were and expected they should have met him half Way in all reasonable Returns But his more Experienc'd Father understood better told them both how short-liv'd such Caresses would be as they should find too soon Which immediately upon his coming to the Crown most Prophetically fell out in his first Parliament where making a small Complement of Two Subsidies they return'd to their Old Vomit Evil Counsellors Grievances and the like must be the only Subject of Debate after which they made so strict a Search as such another Set of Busy Men according to the Latin Adage would for a Knot in a Bulrush yet hereupon the Breach so gradually widned Three several Parliaments as to part at last in a final Separation Whereunto after all is say'd never Prince had greater or juster Provocation Nevertheless I cannot find in his Proclamation set out upon the last Dissolution or any where else that it was declared Criminal for the People to speak any more of Parliaments as Ludlow with his usual Impudence affirms p. 2. The King as I say'd finding the Factions so prevalent in all Elections as it was impossible to get a Parliament would either hearken to Reason or Act with Temper
agree to a Pacification which being once signed he fell immediately to the Execution of every Article on his side forthwith disbanding a brave Army Govern'd by Colonels and other Officers of approved Valour and Experience mingled with the choicest of the English Gentry who stood as much upon his Honour as upon their own and were not a little concerned that having with great charge engaged themselves in this Expedition they should be suddenly dismiss'd not only without the Honour they aim'd at but without any acknowledgement of their Love and Loyalty Whereas had he retired only to a farther distance he had done as much as the Capitulation required and in all reasonable probability secur'd himself from the further stratagems of that Perfidious People and crush'd those practices at home which afterwards undermin'd his Peace and distroyed his Glories On the other-side the Ink was scarce dry which had written and sign'd the Articles of Accommodation before the Scotch had broken them almost in every particular for the Covenanters not only entred a Protestation against the Declaration agreed to but kept most of their Forces on foot in several Bodies and all their Officers in pay The Fortification of Leith was not demolish'd Their meetings Treatings and Consultations upon matters of State Ecclesiastical and Civil were continued contrary to all Law and Acts of Parliament Subscriptions to their Assembly at Glasco were enforc'd upon all the King's Subjects contrary to his Proclamation whilst all such persons as took Arms for the King are branded with the aspersion of Incendiaries and Traytors to God and their Country So likewise when their Assembly came to sit at Edinburgh they acted with more heats and Arbitrary insults than at Glasco and the Parliament which followed them stroke at all the Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown were resolved to casheer one of the Three and that formerly the first Estate of the Kingdom together with that of the Lords of the Articles A constitution of above 300 years standing and many other such intolerable insolencies and indignities as were never before put upon Crown'd heads and none but Covenanters could have done it now more especially considering those unparalelled condescentions which the King with too great kindness and confidence in his own Countrymen so distructively yeilded to What Ludlow adds further besides the falseness of the relation is so impudent a piece of villany as one would think he desir'd to out do if possible those his Dear Brethren he is so forward to Excuse in order whereunto by a pretty turn of Commonwealth artifice he transferrs one of the basest of those many Tricks the Covenanters so perfidiously put upon his Majesty and lays it at his Door the Story as he makes it stands thus Upon his the Kings return to London under colour that many false Copies of the said Articles were publish'd and dispers'd by the Scotts to the great dishonour of the King the said Agreement was disown'd and ordered to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman p. 8. Now the design of this is to insinuate especially amongst those of the Factious who not only believe but put their trust in Lyes that they were the really true Articles burnt under colour of being False as likewise that the King intended thereby to disown the Agreement whereas the Articles of Pacification were not any ways concern'd herein as the Title which the Scotts gave that Pamphlet expresly declare viz. Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with the Subjects of Scotland before the Nobility of England are here set down for a remembrance This paper consisted of Eight points pretended to be drawn out of Notes taken upon several Discourses with the King about the manner of his Declaration and was dispersed not only in Scotland but England to confirm their own Party and draw off more from their Loyalty and Allegiance One of these were put into the Earl of Pembrooke's hands who delivered it to the K. and upon a full Examination of the matter before the Council the English Lords who were privy to the whole transaction being present it was judged very highly scandalous to his Majesty's Person Honour and Government full of Gross mistakes perverting His Majesty's Declaration and of pernicious consequence to the Peace of the Kingdom for which the Proclamation was published All which several of the Lords Commissioners at the Treaty of Pacification particularly the Earl of Holland too much their friend then afterwards avowed at Berwick to the faces of those Scotch Lords who were believed the divulgers the Lords of the Council of Scotland being there likewise present upon the full consideration of which premises the whole Board unanimously petitioned his Majesty that this false and scandalous Paper might be publickly burnt by the Hangman And here I appeal to any Reader who hath not totally abdicated all integrity whether these two relations are not as irreconcileable as Light and Darkness as likewise whether any but one of that infernal brood could so vilainously transfer an express matter of fact which when detected the Covenanters themselves blushed at for when the King charged their Commissioners at London with so base a forgery Lowdon and the rest of them reply'd They had no Instructions to answer for that and those at home had better have said nothing than make so lame an excuse as that verbal grants made by the King might be supposed to contract the signed Articles Nay those grants too were of their own forging or perverting Ludlow having thus expressed his base endeavours to bring them off here 't is much he did not go forward and give his helping hand in justifying that Letter several of the Covenant Grandees did send to the King of France the Original whereof coming to his Majesty's own hands subscribed amongst others by Lowdon then Commissioner at London he was committed to the Tower which made the whole Covenanting pack open lowder than ever both as to a general justification of the thing considering they were threatned to be punished for their Rebellion and for Lowdon in particular he ought to have been return'd they said and uncloathed of his Commission ere his Majesty could question him as if the Law of Nations which indeed secures the Ministers of Foreign Princes and requires an appeal to their own Masters upon any affront or other misdemeanor should oblige a Sovereign Prince not to question and commit his own Subjects upon fresh discovery of more palpable Treasons though in Commission from his fellow Rebels yet nothing would satisfie them but setting him at perfect liberty and so sent home to be try'd in a legal way by the ordinary Iudicatures of the Land where the King might expect just such an Issue as of a Thief at the Old Baily from the Award of a Iury out of Newgate however in this also his Majesty humor'd their Insolencies and discharg'd Lowdon not without some private assurance of Secret Service which was perform'd vpse Covenanter But this was
not stir out of the Kingdom in 41 till gratify'd with Strafford's Blood so they would not return in 43 without an assurance of Laud's A blessed Religion must those Covenanters be of in thirsting as much after Blood as Wolves and Tygers could I believe a Metempsychosis I should very much incline likewise to think that the Souls of those Pharisees and other Iews which persecuted our Saviour and his Apostles were now at length got so far as our Northern Clyme and taken up their Habitation in the several Members of our Scotch and English Sanhedrims The first particular Charge as to the English Church and Nation Ludlow brings against this great Man is the Clergy sitting in Convocation after the short Parliament in 40. was dissolv'd took upon them to frame Canons and Oaths and impose four Shillings in the Pound upon Ecclesiastical Benefices throughout the Kingdom p. 10. Roger Coke likewise Harps upon this String so doth the Defence and it was one of the most considerable Branches of his Charge at his Tryal whereto he reply'd that he did nothing but by the King 's express Order had the Iudgment of the Council learned in Law and exactly follow'd a Precedent of Archbishop Whitgift's in the Happy Days of Queen Elizabeth the Original whereof the House of Commons commanded away that the poor Man might be the less able to make his Defence although therein they were disappointed too discovering only their own mean Spirits and his great Parts And for the Oath c. or rather c. in the Oath which made such a ridiculous Noise 't is pity but Posterity should be acquainted with their Impertinency and Prejudices therein the Words which the c. included were after Deans Archdeacons where the c. cuts off And other Persons having peculiar and exempt Iurisdiction which was mention'd at large in the Precedent Canons and here contracted by the Clerk tho' design'd as the others when Engross'd however through haste forgotten and that nothing more could be intended by it clearly appears from the Restraint of the following Words viz. as it stands now establish'd But if People are resolv'd to strain Knats and swallow Camels 't is impossible to perswade them otherwise till they have nigh Choak'd themselves Roger Coke is very witty upon the foremention'd Tax and saith the Clergy who now Taxed their fellow Subjects without Consent of the Commons shall ever after be taxed by the Commons without Consent of the Clergy where in the mean while is Magna Charta whose first Article speaks Ecclesia Anglicana debet habere suas Libertates Privilegia illaesa And they tax'd none but themselves and none else by Law can do it 'T is likewise false that they never Tax'd themselves since there was a Convocation in 61. which did it But upon the Dutch War in 65 the old Way of Tenths and Fifteenths arose so high upon the Bishops and Dignify'd Clergy as it was thought easier to be thrown in common with the Laity amongst whom likewise the new Rebel improvement of a Land Tax and Monthly Assesments were substituted in room of Subsidies to their very great Edification What I most admire herein is that when this Course was agreed upon to throw them both together there should be no care taken then nor since by the Fathers of our Church the only Representative she hath in that Body to have some of the Clergy in Commission throughout each Laud's Publick Spirit and Fatherly Care would not have been guilty of such an Omission for want of which they are as much enhanc'd in their Taxes as defrauded in their Tythes whereupon I know a Person who when he would express the Summum jus of any rigorous proceeding doth it in this Phrase was as kindly dealt with as the Country-Commissioners deal with the Clergy I do not find Ludlow bringing any other particular Charge against this Great Man the Defence mentions the Heads of 20 he should have added four more which would have equall'd those Articles from the Commons and done a great Kindness in telling us how well they had been prov'd for after seventeen Days Prosecution by Three as Virulent Tongues as ever spake in Westminster-Hall he made so full and vigorous a Defence so effectually refell'd all their Cavils and Evidences that they were forc'd as in the Earl of Strafford's Case to have recourse to that dead striking Bill of Attainder by Accumulating those many Charges they had not prov'd altogether to make that Treason in the Conclusion which could not be gather'd from the Premises This was very uneasy to the Lords though none of them his Frinds as not knowing how soon it might be their own Case till frighted by the several Threats from the Lower House now become Paramount Six Mean-Spirited Peers pass'd the Ordinance all the rest though they had not Courage to appear against it yet were asham'd to give their Votes in so illegal and inhumane an Act. I cannot omit one Instance of their Barbarity He having obtained leave at his first Commitment to repair to his Study at Lambeth and take thence such Papers and Memomorials as might conduce to his Defence that Miscreant Pryn obtained an Order of the House to seise upon and ravish them from him neither were they so satisfi'd but came again and rob'd his Pockets of his Diary and carryed away the very Manual of his Devotions to see what they could discover which was only their own Shame That Account likewise of his Troubles and Tryal fell into the same base Hands although by a signal Providence retriev'd to be an Everlasting Record of their infamous proceedings This brief Relation I thought proper to give of these two great Ministers for that they were the main Prop of all Royal Dignity and chief promoters of whatever true Policy fell under debate in Order to the King and Kingdom 's safety And had their Advice been follow'd the Scots had never entred England but receiv'd the due Reward of their Rebellion at their own Doors nor Irish thought at leastwise attempted theirs so long as Strafford held the Rains without which Abettors and Advantages the English Confederates could have carryed on none of their Designs But what with the King 's Good Nature Natural Kindness and strange Irresolution his only Fault together with the Factions Solemn Professions of Duty and Loyalty that they would make him the most Glorious and Potent Prince in Europe he lost so much ground at first as afterwards it was impossible to retrieve it they still pressing for one Concession after another till in the end they gain'd enough to ruine him as well as his Ministers for whatever popular Clamors were made none stood up so much for the true English Constitution as they never denying that Parliaments were the best Expedient to settle Affairs in all great Emergencies if they would go regularly about it but they Both thought what the One hath declared that Corruptio optimi est
pessima If Parliaments should at any time be misguided by the Practice of a malignant Party nothing can be so dangerous because the highest Remedy being corrupted there is no sure Redress left And their knowing this and acting so vigorously to prevent those Miseries designed thereby was the Causa latens that their Blood was so much thirsted after and when spilt sadly accomplish'd what the Poet declar'd in one of their Elegies The State in Strafford dy'd the Church in Laud. For they being gone all the rest of the Kings Ministers thought it time to beg a Discharge and provide for themselves since the most unspotted Integrity could not be Proof against the Stat pro ratione of an Ordinance much less a Bill of Attainder Dr. Nalson in his Collections gives us a piece of a Manuscript left by the late Earl of Manchester the sometimes fatal Kimbolton which tells us what tricks and juglings were used amongst them to excuse such as had been exclaim'd against as most Obnoxious by resigning their Places to some leading Men of the Faction as Cottington Master of the Wards to Say and Seal c. So likewise for Monopolies which Ludlow tells us they declar'd against and expell'd the Authors out of the House p. 11. they were generally transferr'd by Bill to more deserving on their side as the Letter Office to the Earl of Warwik for three Lives and Sir Henry Mildmay was continu'd in the House though a notorious Promoter of the Monopoly of Gold and Silver Thread as also Mr. Laurence Whitaker and other Commissioners in Matters of like Nature or worse for to incourage those already come amongst them and bring in others they laid down this Politick Maxim That what disservice any one had done formerly his present Actions bringing Benefit to their Common-wealth he ought not now to be question'd He goes on to tell you how they proceeded to take away the Star-chamber High-commission Court Court of Honour with some others p. 13. The former of these was the antientest Court in England but being a support of the Prerogative must down and the other because of the Church I have already mention'd how much better it had been to have corrected the Abuses and for the present shall only observe that had they been ten times greater than they were it was no redress to take them away and substitute an ordinance of the House in room thereof yet that it was come to at so impudent an Arbitrary rate as no King of England or indeed in Europe ever assumed half that Power he that is most exclaim'd at now upon that account doth nothing like it the Grand Seignior was the only precedent they could propound As to the High Commission I shall only add that Mr. Hobbs in a little Pamphlet he writ since the Restauration of Heresy endeavours to vindicate his Leviathan from that Charge by Reason the High Commission at the restless Clamours of the Presbyterians was then abolish'd the only Court wherein such Points could be consider'd he did not think of a Convocation neither is it much thought of by others but doubtless all the Heresies Factions Schisms which have so miserably torn both Church and State arose from the suppressing that Court For that other the Court of Honour Gentlemen formerly had as much regard for their Bearing as any other property and would be as much concern'd if invaded but going about to Dethrone the sole Fountain of Honour their King 't was their Curse rather than Choice to lay all things in Common the Lord and Lacquey Gentleman and Groom upon the same Level which soon after they found more experimentally true than ever was expected and might have justly taken up the Prophet's Lamentation Servants have got the Dominion over us and there is none to deliver us out of their Hand What I most condole is that we lost the Thing as well as the Court true Honor fell to so low an Ebb as it hath very seldom stowd since should I say as much of Truth Iustice and Common Honesty 't were easier to inveigh against than disprove me Upon a summary View of these through-paic'd Reformers whole Proceedings who our Author tells us were resolv'd to correct the Abuses introduc'd the preoedent Years I cannot but reflect upon a Simile which occur'd the other Day in a Republican Pamphlet to the best of my Memory one of those about A Standing Army where that Truth could not pass without the Alloy of several Falshoods in reference to this and some other Reigns however the Metaphor is very proper comparing Government to a Watch or any such like piece of Clock-work where a disorder in any one Wheel obstructs the regular Course if not the whole Motion But then what can we say when not only several Wheels are taken out but the Spring it 's self is set aside every conceited Commonwealth Man and Clumsy-fisted Clown having liberty to tamper with and thumb it at Pleasure yet this impartially speaking hath been our Condition most an end ever since These rude Artists fell to work For what Hudebrass saith of Religion is altogether as true of Government One would think it was intended For nothing else butto be mended Were it not for shame of the Quibble I would add they design'd perhaps to make a Pendulum of it by which means it hath hung tottering ever since What he next entertains us withal is a Protestation agreed upon by the Lords and Commons to maintain the Power and Priviledges of Parliaments the Right and Liberty of the People c. p. 13. taking no notice of the precedent part to Defend the Protestant Religion express'd in the Doctrine of the Church of England c. and according to the Duty of Allegiance Maintain and Defend his Majesty's Royal Person Honour and Estate all which Ludlow omits and it was very ingenuously done for he knew it never intended In the mean while they acted above board as to the Discipline of the Church whereof they took no notice designing forthwith to set it aside for this Protestation was but a Prologue to the Scotch Covenant notwithstanding several Good Men both Clergy and Lay were driven by the Strength of that Popular Current to Subscribe it at a most unthinking rate What comes next is one of the best improv'd Lies in the whole Libel of a treacherous Design set on foot not without the King's Participation as appear'd under the King 's own Hand to bring up the English Army and by Force to Dissolve the Parliament the Plunder of London being promis'd to the Officers and Soldiers as a reward for that Service this was confess'd by the Lord Goring Mr. Percy and others The Scots Army was also try'd c. p. 15. This is his Story Let us now see Truth The chief Officers in the English Army were a Set of Worthy Loyal Gentlemen both of Sense and Honour and consequently could not but take notice how partial the Commons were to the Scots
in short what a prodigious Advantage the Faction made of this just and reasonable Demand what Out-cries and Revilings follow'd there upon is altogether unimaginable by such as were not Witnesses thereof so that having fix'd their Party in the City by tarrying there some Days they return'd to Westminster accompany'd with an hideous cry of Rabble-Guards both by Land and Water His Majesty seeing it was absolutely impossible to have any Justice done against these accused Persons who were so surely Intrench'd in the Rabble's Favour that they were out of the reach of Law and finding also that he was in perpetual Danger of having his Person as well as Authority expos'd to the daring Affronts of the deluded People who ran up and down in Multitudes as if they had lost their Wits as well as Loyalty resolv'd notwithstanding several Gallant faithful Gentlemen proffer'd their Service to curb any Insolencies should be Attempted on him to withdraw himself and Family Queen and Children hoping that Time having allay'd their first Fury they might be brought to Reason and Temper And whosoever reads his Majesty's Paper upon this his going to the House of Commons must own there was never Prince so grosly abus'd had his Actions so abominably perverted with a total Subversion of all Law Iustice and Reason whatsoever Hereupon his Majesty retired to Hampton-Court from thence to Windsor whither none of those entertain'd at White-Hall repair'd except his own Family as Ludlow basely Suggests And since he owns likewise the Houses though I believe 't was only the House of Commons were about to accuse the Queen of High Treason can she be blam'd to withdraw into Holland And if she carried the Iewels of the Crown with her 't was much better than to have them seiz'd upon by the Parliament as they did whatever else belong'd to the King to carry on their Rebellion against him Ludlow tells us That during his absence many Papers pass'd between him and the Parliament the chief aim of those of the latter was to perswade the King to return to London and settle the Militia in such hands as they should advise Those from the King that he could not part with the Militia esteeming it the best Jewel of the Crown nor return to London with safety to his Person p. 27. all which is true and that is much as likewise that the Declarations on both Sides prov'd ineffectual wherein notwithstanding it was observ'd that the King 's had all the force of Law Reason and Argument their 's nothing but Cant popular Wheadles and false Suggestions He goes on to tell that the King's Designs both at home and abroad being grown Ripe he express'd his Dissatisfactions more openly and withdrew to York Had he said the Parliaments Designs there had been a great deal of Truth in it for so indeed it was they under pretence of a Guard had rais'd a considerable Force setled the Militia of London and Middlesex in confiding Hands sent down several Members to do the like in most Counties throughout the Kingdom could dispose of the Mony and Men rais'd for Ireland to what purpose they please and imploy'd them most shamefully to promote their Rebellion seiz'd upon his Majesty's Revenue Fleet Forts Magazins c. even to Hull its self where Hotham deny'd him entrance in the Name of his Brethren and was well rewarded by them The King on the other Hand was left destitute of all Things but the Hearts of Loyal worthy Gentlemen whereof he found more than his Enemies ever imagin'd and were not a little surpris'd at with which Stock alone and hopes of God's Blessing upon his just Cause he lay'd aside all Thoughts of Treating with those unreasonable Men for that he evidently saw they resolv'd to seize upou the Militia by Force since they could not obtain it by Perswasion and their many fine Pretences to Loyalty and Duty had been only to gain Time for ripening their Rebellion of all which he now resolv'd to let the World know how sensible he was by Publishing his Grand Declaration from York wherein he saith very truly 't was more than Time after so many Indignities to his Person Affronts to his Kingly Office and traiterous Pamphlets against his Government to Vindicate himself from those damnable Combinations and Conspiracies contriv'd against him giving a full Account of his own sincerity as to his many and too gracious Concessions since they on the other Side perverted all to Sedition and Treason Amongst other Charges he brings one against an Impudent Fellow call'd Sir Henry Ludlow who said Publikly That the King was not worthy to be King of England that he hath no Negative Voice that he is fairly dealt with that he is not depos'd that if they did that there would be neither want of Modesty or Duty in them upon which I shall only observe that our Author could be no Bastard The King there tells them further how they Committed his great Officers for doing their Duty Rais'd an Army and chose Essex General with Commission to destroy all that adher'd to him Converted the Mony given to discharge the Kingdom 's Debts and for Relief of Ireland to carry on their Rebel-War whilst his Levying a few Gentlemen for his Guard must be Voted waging War against the Parliament Now this Declaration was too much to the Purpose for Ludlow to take Notice of or indeed any thing else which gives an impartial Relation how the Rage and Fury of those Men engag'd the whole Nation to Lanch into a Sea of Blood Neither doth he mention how the King went into Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire c. to assure the Gentry of his upright Intentions and confirm them in their Loyalty Only his going into Leicestershire must be remembred because he had a Brother there one of the first in Rebellion against his King and first taken Prisoner and better us'd than he deserv'd But tho' Ludlow takes no Notice of the King's Declaration he would be sure not to omit the 19 Propositions sent by the Parliament which 't is strange he should say were intended that they might leave no means unattempted to perswade the King to return to them p. 30. whereas he immediately adds and more truly much of the Parliaments Intentions appear'd in them and they were in effect the principal Foundation of the ensuing War for which Reason he thinks it not amiss to recite them at large it had been more Candid and Historian like to have recited the King's Answer too so full and express as they never thought of any other Reply but by Essex's Army and therefore no wonder if omitted here Amongst other things the King tells them some of their Demands are in the Style not only of Equals but Conquerors and tend so far to the Subversion of this equal well-pois'd Government as to make him from King of England a Duke of Venice and this of a Kingdom a Republick And in that which we may call another Answer those Divine Meditations