BEATAM AETERNAM CLARIOR E TENEBRIS CELI SPECTO ASPERAM AT LEVEM CHRISTI TRACTO In verbo tuo Spes mea MUNDI CALCO SPLENDIDAM AT GRAVEM Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Liâ—â— 2. c. 47. p. 417 THE HISTORY OF THE Rebellions IN England Scotland and Ireland WHEREIN The most Material Passages Sieges Battles Policies and Stratagems of WAR are impartially Related on both Sides FROM The YEAR 1640. To the Beheading of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. In Three Parts By Sir ROGER MANLEY Kt. late Governour of Land-Guard-Fort Quaeque ipse Miserima vidi LONDON Printed for L. Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner and T. Newborough at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church Yard MDCXCI THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER IN regard the Reputation of Histories is generally raised on the Worth of their Authors I thought it convenient to acquaint the World That the Compiler of This was a Gentleman of known Integrity bred in the Church of England for whose Cause joined with that of the Royal Family he was a valiant and zealous Champion having been Personally engaged in the most considerable Battles which his Royal Master King Charles I. fought against his Rebellious Subjects You are not therefore here to expect the Reversion of other Mens Labors no borrow'd Fragments or Scraps of Records no patch'd or imperfect Collections but an entire uniform History with great Impartiality and for the most Part of his own certain Knowledge Yet to free him from Suspicion of any Mistake in these Memoirs it is sufficient to observe That he collected them in those Troublesome Times whose Iniquity would not admit the Publication of them which he reserv'd till there was a clear Stage for Truth to appear on And having surviv'd this Great Rebellion for many Years he has added to the History of that an Account of all the Remarkable Transactions with the Conspiracies Insurrections and Tumults that happ'ned in the Reign of King Charles II. And concludes with the Invasion and Overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth in the West I shall say no more but that this Gentleman dying soon after he had finished these Commentaries the Publication of them was entrusted with me Which I did very readily undertake since I had the Honour to know the Author so well that his very Name was a sufficient Recommendation of the Work And all honest Men that knew Sir Roger Manley were very desirous of a History from his Hand whose Pen was aâ—â—oyal and Just as his Sword Reader honour the Memory of this brave Man and think not ill of the Publisher who like a faithful Executor presents thee with this his last Legacy And if thou take my Pains in good part 't is all the Acknowledgment I expect from thee Adieu THE CONTENTS PART I. BOOK I. THE Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull p. 1. BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battle of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battle of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battle of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battle of Marston Moor. The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copedry-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battle of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place 38. BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distructions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated 84. BOOK IV. The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army Hereford is surprized and Chester surrender'd Oxford besieged and taken The other Royal Garrisons follow Massey's Forces disbanded Contests with the Scots Their barbarous Vsage of the King They sell him He is imprisoned in Holmbey-House The History of the Scots Rebellion and valorous Actions of Montross Independency triumphant The Army mutinies and seize upon the King at Holmbey They court him but deal treacherously with him He flies to the Isle of Wight 122. BOOK V. The King in the Isle of Wight His Message for Peace The Four Dethroning Bills The Votes of Non-address Cap. Burleigh attempts the King's Delivery Rolfe his Life The King appeals to the People They rise in several Parts of the Kingdom Are suppressed Pembroke taken The Scots defeated and Hamilton a Prisoner Colchester surrendered The Treaty in the Isle of Wight broken by the Army They seize upon the King Garble the Parliament The perjur'd Remains of the Commons assume the Supream Power Constitute a pretended Court of High Justice Arraign Condemn and Murther their King His End and Elogy 169. PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and
Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape 109 110. BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell Cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character 249. BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles 278. PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oate's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Stafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Fanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds 312. BOOK II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion 336. COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART I. BOOK I. The Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull THE Kingdoms of Great Britain being United under the Dominion of one Prince and the Animosities and Emulations which usually disorder Neighbour-Nations thereby removed gave a sudden Rise to a very great and formidable Power which could not be destroyed but by it self The Moderator of this vast Empire was JAMES VI. King of Scotland and First Monarch of Great Britain undoubted Heir to both as well by Right of Succession from Margaret the only Daughter of Edgar Atheling the last of the Saxon Princes as by that of Force derived to him from the Norman Conqueror This Wise and Learned Prince Charles I. succeeds to the Crown being gathered to his Fathers the loss which his Dominions suffered by it however great was abundantly repaired by the Succession of his Son CHARLES who being truly Heir to his Father's Greatness and Vertues as well as Scepters did excel all his Predecessors in the more severe Disquisition of what was Fit and Just so that our Tragedies will scarce find Credit with Posterity whilst the Ages to come mistrusting the Reports of such enormous Villainies will look upon our unheard-of Vicissitudes but as the Fancies of Poetry and the Decoration of Theatres For how is it possible to believe that the Best of Princes should meet with the Worst of Subjects on whom he had conferred more Graces than the whole Series of his Ancestors and that he who valued his Kingdoms and Life at a lower Rate than the Happiness of his People should by a Judicial Parricide be sacrificed to the ambitious Violence of a prevailing Faction in their Representative and that under the pretence of Usurpation and Tyranny But these things happened an everlasting Reproach to the Nation and not to be atoned for by any Resentment or Hecatombs of Victims King James left a flourishing Kingdom behind him but an empty Treasury and his Successor engaged in a War with Spain and what was worse the Parliament that oblig'd the Father to Arm abandoned the Son when they had exposed him Nor were the succeeding Parliaments more Obsequious or forward in supplying his Necessities how great soever either in recovering the Palatinate or rescuing the French Protestants though undertaken in Defence of the Reformed Religion 'T is true his Third Parliament voted him Five Subsidies but we must own also The Petition of Right that the Petition of Right being a Condescension even to Supererogation deserv'd their best Acknowledgements for raised with that Grant they that very Session questioned the Tribute of Tonnage and Poundage though perpetually enjoyed by his Predecessors Kings of England affirming
Parliament he should call Moreover there were some other Malecontents who by reason of their Disaffection had been denied such Titles and Honours as they pretended to at his Majesties Coronation who all joyned together and because there are no Pretences more specious than those of Religion nor more charming Bates to ensnare the Vulgar it was thought most proper to be insisted on Nor was it long before the Depravedness of the times furnished them with Opportunities to manifest their Resentments The pious King was pleased to send the Liturgy and Book of Common-Prayers signed with the Blood of the first Reformers of our Church The King sends the Liturgy into Scotland to the Kirk of Scotland for he desired to unite in the same Opinion in Spirituals those People who were subject to the same Empire in Temporals King JAMES had formerly proposed the same thing to his Countrymen at Aberdeen who willingly assented to it and having framed it there and adapted it to the Church of Scotland it was sent into England where it lay till by the Advice of the Privy Council at Edenburgh and perswasion of some others nearer him though very unseasonably his Majesty returned it to them with Command to have it used in all the Churches and Chapels of Scotland This Advice however laudable was ill timed for the growing Factions took thence an Occasion to rebel and 't is scarce credible with what contumacious Fury the Presbyterians who would sooner sin against Religion its self than its Rites did oppose it crying out that the King introduced Superstition and prophane Forms of Worship into the Church Rumours were also spread abroad by the dissatisfied Nobles before-mentioned who abhorred nothing equal with the Restitution of what they had usurped as also by others of the Cabal who longed for a Change of reducing Scotland into a Province So that the People thinking their Civil as well as Sacred Liberty were in danger became obnoxious to the Artifices of every Faction And this occasioned the Sedition of Edenburgh and the zealous Madness of the Rabble against the Liturgy The Sedition of Edenburgh Jul. 23. 1637. The Dean that officiated as also the Bishop who should have preached had much to do to escape with their Lives their wild Auditors throwing their Books Stools and whatever else their Fury could seize on at their Heads Nor did they stick here for the prime Conspirators who had thus infatuated the lowest of the People and incensed them against the Liturgy engaged them also the better sort now consorting with them in a Covenant under pretext of vindicating their Religion to abolish it and gaping after the Church-Revenues to extirpate the Hierarchy of Bishops Moreover they took up Arms being instigated thereto by the Puritans of England whom they had cajoled with a Declaration as they call'd it to vindicate their Actions and Intentions and renouncing their Duty and Allegiance they seized upon the King's Castles and Revenues for their Use and Support in the War Having raised an Army but distrusting their own Strength they courted Assistance from the French and writing an humble Letter to Lewis XIII of that Name implored the Assistance of a foreign Prince The Scots implore Assistance from the French King Car. Richlieu against their own whom they had so cruelly offended And thus a great Mystery was discovered teaching the World how to extirpate the Religion of Rome by consulting with a Roman Cardinal and by joining Forces with a Catholick Monarch The King had sent Duke Hamilton to allay these Troubles but he acted so remissly that he seemed rather to encourage than suppress their fury which is no wonder if what is reported of him be true that their first Motions had been secretly directed by his Counsels The King therefore incited by the Insolence of his Subjects resolved Mar. 27-1639 The King marches towards Scotland seeing his clemency was neglected to chastise them by force and raising a great Army marches towards Scotland But there was nothing performed in this Expedition worthy such extraordinary Preparations For many both of the Nobility and Gentry would hardly be perswaded to invade Scotland which likewise cooled the Soldiers Nor is it to be wondered at since their chief Officers as Essex who was Lieutenant-General and Holland General of the Horse with others proved afterwards to be the prime Heads of the Rebellion in England They had forgot the Animosities of old betwixt these Neighbour-Nations fearing as had been suggested to them That Scotland being conquered the Forces that served to subdue it might in process of Time be made use of to enslave England But the remoteness of this Project renders it very Chimerical However the King warned by the Perfidy of his own Men Makes Peace was necessitated to consent to a Peace with the Rebels upon no equal Terms Which he the rather did as being sensible That nothing can happen more pernicious to a Prince than Civil Discord But the Scots quickly violated the Peace they had procured for they did not disband according to the Articles of the Treaty but kept all their Officers in pay Neither did they demolish the Fortifications of Leith as they should have done but adding Infidelity to their Rebellion did also publish a Libel entituled Conditions of his Majesty's Treaty with his Subjects of Scotland which for its Falseness by inserting Articles never assented to was burnt by the hands of the Common Hangman The Scots break it and invade England High with their late Success and looking upon the King's Indulgence as an Argument of his Easiness not his Goodness being also instigated to it by the English Puritans they arm a Second Time and sleighting the Sanctions of the Treaty rush into England and unexpectedly possess the Towns of New-Castle and Durham They had sent their Declaration before them intimating That what they undertook was for the Glory of God and that their Arms were onely Defensive and not intended against England but against the Canterbury Faction and to endeavour to unite both Nations in one as to Religion The King seeing his Clemency abused and his Authority prostituted by the Rebels in Scotland and to repress the Insolency of his Subjects who had by Leagues Oaths and the Seisure of his Castles and Forts and the like conspired against him and also that the Decrees of Parliament might not be rescinded by those of the Assembly nor the Three States be mutilated by the abolishing of Episcopacy seriously resolved to vindicate his offended Majesty and reduce his so often Rebelling Subjects to their Duty again The Little Parliament He therefore summon'd a Parliament to meet at London which he had deferred for some Years past to give those boisterous Spirits leasure to cool And now he acquaints them with the Invasion of the Scots and their Indignities towards him and very earnestly demands Moneys of them to carry on the War assuring them that if they would liberally comply with his
been kept thus long by the Parliament to awe the King and now sufficiently Burthensom to the Kingdom the Parliament having served their Turn of them were to be sent Home The Scots dismissed and are now dismissed having exacted by Contibutions Rapines Spoils Gratuities and Stipend above a Million of Money from the English and their Representatives Posterity will certainly blush when they shall consider the inglorious Actions of their Predecessors in receiving and treating the rebellious and invading Scots as Friends which makes it manifest that their Coming was an Invitation not Invasion Nor would our grave Senators have honoured them with the Title of Dear Brethren or procured an Order to declare them faithful and loyal Subjects having been proclaimed Rebels by the King and that in all the Churches and Chapels upon a Thanksgiving day nor have contributed so largely to their Subsistance but that they had conspired with them and propogated their Councils by the same manner of rebelling For it would have cost less in Money and Honour to have forced them as Enemies out of our Borders than to retain them in England by a sordid Compliance as Friends By allowing them Quarters they impose a Burthen upon the Country which they ease by a Taxation upon the Subject But their Design had always been to keep the. Treasury low and involve the King in Debts which should necessitate him to agree with the Parliament for the ruining of Strafford the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the perpetuating of their own Session About this Time the Armies in England and Ireland were Disbanded the Noise of War ceasing with their Dismission But lest the Irish who had been raised against the Scots to the Number of Eight Thousand should attempt any Commotions the King had given leave to the Spanish and French Ambassadors to transport them for their Masters Service But that was opposed by the Parliament upon the earnest pressing of the Irish Commissioners who having now removed Strafford resolved to add to that Rebellion they had Designed by the Accession of those Common Souldiers The King goes into Scotland The King followed his Countrymen into Scotland where he not only confirmed the Concessions they had extorted in England but graciously conferred upon them whatsoever they demanded of him not considering that degenerate and ungrateful Persons are not to be obliged with any Favours whatsoever Nor was it in England only Oct. 23. 1641. The Irish Rebellion that Discord had displayed her Arts of Faction and Tumult The Irish following the detestable Example of the Scots who had attained by Arms what their Ambition had designed outwent them only in this That they Rebelled more bloodily 'T is strange with what industry so universal and so nefarious a Conspiracy was concealed which was scarce discovered but with the inhumane Slaughter of an Hundred Thousand Persons And it is scarce conceivable that those who were at the Helm of Government should be so negligent or supine as to suffer a Plot of this horrid Nature to gather to a Head and break out to the Infection of the whole Body Politick without any the least Discovery or penetrating into it Especially seeing his Majesty whose Eye was still awake for the Preservation of his People Mar. 16. had Cautioned the Lords Chief-Justices Parsons and Burlace of some dangerous Designs in agitation in Ireland and that Six Months before this fatal Eruption which His Majesty also signified to them he had been acquainted with from his Ambassadors and Agents in Foreign Courts Nor was the Information of Sir William Cole who certified them Twelve Days before it broke out of unusual Resorts and Concourses of suspicious Persons amongst themselves so despicable but that it ought to have been inquired into and such Means and Preparations should in common Prudence have been used as might have checkt any sudden Attempts or Insurrections whatsoever And truly the great Supineness and Security of the English in general did not a little contribute to their Ruine For they could apprehend no Danger considering the perfect Intelligence betwixt them and the Irish cemented by inter-Marriages and all other imaginable Ties of Friendship which seemed the more secure seeing the Catholicks were permitted the private Enjoyment of their Religion and had obtained not onely a considerable Abatement in their Subsidies but many advantageous Redresses from the King's Favour in all their Concerns so that they were at this present in a more flourishing Condition than they had yet enjoyed since their first Subjection In this Security the Irish Army had been disbanded but the Soldiery not disposed of according to the King's Intention and Promises to foreign Embassadors who for want of other Employment proved very assisting to the designed Rebellion by engaging in it But the Irish who had so often and for so many Ages endeavoured to vindicate their Liberty and shake off the heavy Yoke of the English thinking now the Occasion by the Death of Strafford Their Reaesons and the disbanding of the Army he had raised very inviting they eagerly laid hold on it hoping to emancipate themselves from the Slavery they groaned under or at least in Imitation of the Scots acquire by Arms as they had done new Immunities and Privileges But the main thing insisted upon was their Religion which had been derived to them by an immemorial Series of Ancestors and which they always adhered to with inexpressible Bigottry so that observing it to be extreamly persecuted in England and fearing the like Measure at Home it served for the main Pretence of their Rebellion Nor is it absurd to believe but that the Conspirators in England contributed equally to these Tumults as they had done before to the Scottish Commotions since * Clotworthy Pryn Parsons Loftus some of their Party affirmed That the Conversion of the Irish was to be effected with the Sword in one hand and the Bible in the other Ireland could not do well without a Rebellion to the end the Remnant of the Natives might be destroyed They would not leave a Priest in Ireland but extirpate their Superstition and Nation So that it was thought by many that the Irish were forced by the English by these Provocations to take up Arms that they might upon so plausible a pretext be intirely ruined and rooted out as Rebels and Traytors What other Reasons they gave as Oppression Grievances Privileges c. common to all Rebellions may pass as such but that they should pretend to vindicate the King's Prerogative by destroying it is only proper to them and those nefarious Regicides who did so naturally copy them But whatever were the Pretences of the Revolters it is but rational to believe they had never broke out but for the Prospect they had of a Breach which they could not but know from their Committee at London most whereof were Catholicks and many as the Lord Germanston c. prime Actors in the Rebellion betwixt the King and Parliament For they
as the King had the better Cause so it was also asserted with a better Pen however otherwise unfortunate BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battel of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battel of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battel of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battel of Marston-Moor The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copredy-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battel of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place Hotham proclaimed Traytor HIS Majesty upon Hotham's insolent Refusal caused him instantly to be proclaimed Traytor On the other side the Parliament declare they will defend him and complain highly of the Breach of their Privileges therein as if the King had violated his Subjects Immunities by pretending to the Possession of his own Town and the Magazine he had purchased with his own Money They further sent some of their Members to disturb the King's Preparations at York which they did so effectually that he lost the Opportunity of raising an Army in that County Perceiving then the Danger his Person was in by the Enemies forwardness he demanded a Guard of the Gentry and Free-holders of York-shire which was easily assented to Whereupon the Parliament declared That the King seduced by evil Counsellours did design to make War upon his Parliament forgetting that they had done the same being exagitated with their fictitious Terrors Eight Months before The King with his said Guard and the feeble Assistance of the Trained Bands attempted Hull but The King attempts Hull in vain finding it an Enterprise of much Difficulty would not spend that Time which was so precious in so hazardous an Undertaking But the Parliament confident now in their Numbers and Power for the City of London and the neighbouring Counties were at their Devotion sent a Remonstrance with Nineteen Propositions to the King by which they demand in Effect Nineteen Propositions sent to his Majesty that he should surrender all his Regal Power into their Hands tho they disguised as much as they could their Intentions with a Mixture of some Things really to be approved of by every honest man others specious and popular and some already granted by his Majesty All which as the King well observed in his Answer were cunningly twisted and mixed with other Things of their main Design of Ambition and private Interest But the Propositions the Parliament made to the People were of another Nature for they invited them by an Order to bring in Plate and Money to Guild-hall for the Restitution whereof they should have the publick Faith and all under pretence of rescuing the King out of the hands of Papists and Malignants for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Privileges of Parliament And never any Contributions were granted with more earnest and mistaken Zeal than those that were thrown into their Corban by the London and Neighbouring Puritans under the pretext of Godliness but to their own Ruine as it happened The Richer Citizens gave their Money and Plate with Joy and the Women offered their Jewels and Ear-Rings to this Calf of Presbytery Nay the Poorer both married and Maidens gave their Wedding Rings their Bodkins and their Thimbles to promote this Holy War They were all hurried into this mad Humour by the fantastick Ardour of their Levites These being the Boutefeus of Rebellion and Tumult who bellowing in their Assemblies that Religion would be overwhelmed with Popery and their Liberties supplanted by the Approaches of Tyranny declared that there was no Deliverance to be expected but from the Parliament With these Arts and Moneys from the City that Nursery of Rebellion The Parliament raise an Army under the Command of Essex a great Army was raised under the Command of the Earl of Essex and sent forth to destroy the Malignants for so they called such who by the Principles of Honour and Duty adher'd to their Prince and to rescue the King as they gloried out of the Hands of his wicked Counsellours The Title of King was as yet held in great Veneration by the People It pleased them therefore to entitle their War to the King and Parliament though nothing more contrary to both They had not as yet separated Kingship from the Person which shortly after happened for distinguishing betwixt the Politick and Private Capacity of the Chief Magistrate they dared impudently to affirm That the King was Virtually in the Parliament though Personally absent at York Nay they went further as there is still a plus ultra in villainous Rebellion contesting That the supreme Power is primarily in the People and in Kings but by a delegate and fiduciary Commission and therefore as being inferiour to the Whole though superiour to every particular to be reclaimed by Force if they should transgress against Religion and Liberty But to omit these seditious Impertinences sufficiently refuted in the repeating of them the King understanding the Progress and Preparations of the Adversaries and how they had seized his Navy Fortresses and Magazines being himself destitute of all Help except such as those Generous and Loyal Lords and Gentlemen who followed his Fortune Essex and his Adherents proclaimed Traytors The King sets up his Standard at Nottingham did contribute he declared Essex and his Adherents to be Traytors and Rebels and appointing the Marquiss of Hartford General of his Forces erected his Royal Standard at Nottingham inviting thereby all his loving Subjects to his Assistance It was observed that a Gust of Wind did at the same Time blow down the Colours which though looked upon as Inauspicious by some did not yet hinder but that several Thousands repaired to them And his Majesty having received Money and Arms from the Queen grew by these Supplies and the Accession of his Friends most of the Lords and very many of the Lower House repairing to him formidable Insomuch that this great Defection of the Members amongst whom was the Lord Keeper with the Great Seal as they added Life and Reputation to the King's Affairs being for the most part Persons of whole Estates and great Abilities so they did a little raise Apprehensions in them that remained which appeared by their Vote and Impeachment of the Fifteenth of June The Queen proclaimed Traytor The Queen in the beginning of the Troubles retired with her own and the Crown-Jewels some whereof she had pawned for these Supplies into
hardship to renounce his Honour or depart from his Judgment Not that he would peremptorily deny what was fit to be granted but lest he might yield to that which both Reason and Religion commanded to deny As soon as he was come to Newcastle Leven commanded by Proclamation That no Papists or Delinquents that is any who was Loyal or Faithful to the King should be permitted to approach him And it was moreover cautioned That no Soldiers or Officers should contract any commerce of Friendship or Civility with Malignants that is such as were addicted to his Majesty But the Independant Grandees did fret and fume that the King was detained by the Seots their Mercenaries and Hirelings as they termed them as being nourish'd by their Pay Affirming further Contests betwixt the Independents and Scots That the Kingdom of Scotland had no right or joint Interest in disposing of the Person of the King in the Kingdom of England Hence they come to Threats and Vote That they have no more Occasion for their Assistance the Kingdom being no longer able to bear them Yea they took care to publish to the World by Declaration their Rapines Extortions Cruelties and Errors The Scots on the other side pretending the Laws of Nature of Nations and Hospitality affirm That it is in no Kind permitted them to deliver up the King and especially their own King to any whosoever against his Will His Majesty having refuged himself under their Power of his own Accord But lest they might altogether displease their Dear Brethren they force the King to send Orders to his Governours to deliver such Places as they had yet in their Power to the Parliament to the Marquess of Ormond not to conclude any Treaty with the Irish and to Montross to disband all his Forces in Scotland These things being extorted from the King they also would wrest his Assent to the Parliament's Imperious Propositions which they sent to Newcastle to him viz. That he should ratifie the Solemn League and Covenant abolish Episcopacy deliver the Power of the Sword into the Hands of his Enemies and exclude the Peers made by him with several others of his chief Friends from Pardon c. They had themselves not as yet corrupted with English Gold condemned many of these Propositions which they advance now with Menaces lest both Kingdoms should agree he refusing to settle Peace and Religion without him to his and his Posterity's irrecoverable Loss Nor did they thus terrifie this magnanimous Prince who chose rather to expose his Crowns and Scepters than his Honour and his Religion and to see himself and Posterity divested of the Imperial Dignity of Kings Montross disbands by the King's Command by the violence of others than his own Act by a tame Subscription to the unjust demands of his Enemies The Scots had deputed Duke Hamilton the Earl of Crawford and others to the King altho ' their Parliament had Voted That he should not come into Scotland declaring it to be contrary to their agreement with the English and the Treaty to perswade exhort warn and urge his Assent to the Covenant And that he would be pleased also to approve and enact the English Propositions These were followed by Delegates from their Synod denouncing in case he were refractary The Scots barbarous usage of the King the Wrath of God against him and the hate of his Subjects Some of these were appointed to remove his Scruples and clear his doubts whereof one being admitted to Preach before him after several bitter Invectives in the Pulpit his Sermon being finished he commanded the fifty second Psalm to be sung Why dost thou Tyrant boast c. But the King perceiving his malicious Reflection unexpectedly stood up and ordered the fifty sixth Psalm Have Mercy Lord on me I pray to be sung Which the People neglecting the Parson unanimously did Nor were the Fortunes of David and Charles much unlike the one being detained by the Philistines at Gath and the other by the Scots at Newcastle when this Psalm was composed by the Royal Prophet and sung by the Royal Sufferer But now the main Controversie amongst the Rebels was about the disposal of the King's Person Until the Scots moved by Contumelies and the Sarcasms of the Cromwellists and perceiving the Parliament although they had conquered England did not disband were more inclined to agree with them and perhaps softned by the Parliament's offers after some previous formal disceptations to heighten the Price of their Treachery they at length resolved to deliver him up And he was delivered to the English Rebels by his native unnatural Subjects of Scotland to whom he had fled for Security with all the circumstances of Irreligion of Impiety of Perjury of Treason and of detestable Avarice being sold for Two hundred Thousand Pounds They sell him Which they having received and evacuated their Garrisons in England they returned with this Reward of their Iniquity into their own Country But with a Curse also for it is observable That after that time they did never thrive nor nothing they undertook prosper There had indeed been some attempts made for the King's escape But they were all prevented by the vigilancy of his cruel Keepers Leven assuring the Parliament That he would according to their desire take care that his Majesty depart not away And he was as good as his word for his Majesty having changed his Keepers being as he had truly said Bought and Sold and now in the hands of his bloodiest Enemies He is imprisoned in Holmby and cruelly used was carried to Holmby-House not far from Naesby where he had so unfortunately fought that he might be perpetually tormented with the sight of that odious Companion Nor was he less perplex'd within doors not being permitted to enjoy a freedom in his Solitude His Friends and his Chaplains which a common Civility would not refuse to the most Criminal being inhumanly kept from him whilst some of their own unknowing Factious Levites are obtruded upon him These mistaken Creatures had neither Modesty to cohabit nor Learning to dispute with this Royal Divine who being equally capable of the Mitre as well as Scepter of the Sacerdotal as well as Kingly Office was truly inimitable in both How good a Divine he was appears by his Controversies with the Marquess of Worcester a Person no less Eminent for Learning than Nobility of the Roman Catholick Religion and with the Parliament Ministers especially by his Writings to Henderson a Scots Presbyterian and Champion of the Party who being vanquished by the strength of his Arguments testified his Conviction by his Repentance and died for Grief as is credibly reported that he had offended so good and so pious a Prince not as the Enemy affirm because he could not perswade his Majesty to sign the Propositions a reconciled Son to the Church of England Whilst the King is afflicted in his noisom Prison at Holmby it will not be from the purpose to
the Universality of Mankind for Quae Regio in Terris nostri non plaena Doloris did lament the undeserved Fate of this Prince Nay the outragious Faction it self did blush to approve the Infamy of so flagitious an Act. The Factions disapproving the Infamy of the Regicide impute it to each other The Presbyterians to shift the Envy of it from themselves threw it upon the Independants condemning upon the Stage what they had designed in the Tyring-room But whether out of true Sentiments of Repentance or that they could act no further let them look to that being equally Regicides in their Intentions though not in the Execution The Independants said That they only put to Death a Private Man and an Enemy The King had been long since killed by the Presbyterians as being despoiled of his Prerogative whereby he excelled others of the Militia wherewith he protected his Subjests and of his Freedom of Vote whereby he made Laws They also remembred How he had been divested and robbed of his Liberty as a Commoner of the Society of his Wife as a Husband of the Conversation of his Children as a Parent of the Attendance of his Servants as a Master Yea of every Thing that might render his Life comfortable So that there was nothing left for the Independants to do but to put an end to the Calamities wherewith this Man of Sorrow had been so cruelly overwhelmed and afflicted by the Presbyterians But who ever were the Authors of this Impiety we grieve at what they did which seeing it cannot be undone we may wish that the Memory of it may perish with them who designed and perpetrated so Hellish a Mischief Nor had the Scelerates of the Faction yet satisfied their Cruelty They were inhumanly barbarous to his Dead Corps Their Inhumanities after his Death His Hair and his Blood were sold by Parcels Their Hands and Sticks were tinged with his Blood And the Block now chipt as also the Sand sprinkled with his Sacred Gore were exposed to sale Which were greedily bought but for different Ends by some as Trophies of their slain Enemy and by others as precious Reliques of their beloved Prince It is certain that Cromwell to satisfy his greedy Eyes had caused the Coffin to be opened in White-Hall and did with his Fingers search the-Wound as if he had still doubted of the effecting of his Hellish Cruelty Nor did it suffice to have raged against him living and dead they will also for as much as in them lies kill his very Fame Which they endeavoured to do by the enslaved Pen of a needy Pedagogue one Milton Salmasius indeed had writ a Defence for the King but he being a Presbyterian as the other an Independant both very good Latin if we believe the Learned Hobbs and hardly to be judged which is better and both very ill Reasoning and hardly to be judged which is worst And thus both Houses as they had often sworn with hands lift up to Heaven did make him a Great and Glorious King by changing his Fading Crown which they had interwoven with Thorns into an Immortal and Incorruptible one They made him great indeed great in Suffering in Patience His Character and great in his Martyrdom Thus fell Charles the Great and Just Monarch of sometimes Three flourishing Kingdoms A great Example if any of both Fortunes The Best of Kings The Meekest of Men. His Countenance was Comely and Majestic He was Constant Valiant Pious Eloquent of infinite Reason and Reading His Integrity was entire and no Guile found in his Mouth His publick and private Vertues were eminent He had been born for the Good of Mankind if he had not fallen amongst Monsters not Men. The best of Princes the best of Men the best Parent the best Husband the best Master Famous for Patience for Piety for Chastity for Justice and of an unshaken Fidelity towards God and Man His Greatness only rend'red him Guilty being by the Suffrages of his most bitter Enemies worthy of Empire if he had not reigned The Royal Corps being embalmed and exposed for some Days to publick View at St. James's was afterwards delivered to Mr. Herbert And Funeral one of his Servants to be translated to Windsor He had earnestly solicited to have had it deposited in Henry VII's Chappel near to the Monument of King James But they refused it lest the Place as they said might be prophaned by the Superstitious Concourse of the People He was therefore carried â—o Windsor by the Direction of the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey who had got leave â—â—om the Faction for the decent Enterrment of their â—ear Lord provided the Funeral-Charges did not â—xceed Five Hundred Pounds These Sacred Reâ—â—ques being then born by the Officers of the Garriâ—on attended on by the Four Lords were laid 〈◊〉 Henry VIII's Vault It is observable that â—â—ough the Air was serene when they set out â—efore they reacht the Chappel-Door the â—â—erse of Black Velvet which covered them was all White with Snow which seemed to fall to testify their Candor and Innocence But it troubled the Assistants that the Fanatic Governour would not permit them the Use of the Common-Prayer the Bishop of London attending there to do this Last Office to his Dearest Master So that he was interred with the Sighs and Tears of his Servants And thus Lam. C. 4. V. 20. the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said Vnder his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will-maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape CHarles the Martyr being removed by a Parricide black as its Authors as is declared in our former Commentaries the Regicides endeavour with the same Fury to supplant his Son Heir of his Diadems and Vertues in order to which they immediately after his Fathers Death The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the
Prince Maurice lost in a Hurricane after many Hazards and Adventures Prince Maurice being separated from his Brother in that Tempestuous Ocean perished in a Hurricane The immature Fate of this Royal Youth was justly lamented by the Good and Brave for being no less eminent for Fortitude Gentleness Greatness of Mind and all other Vertues than Illustrious for his Birth he was snatcht away leaving his Fame to his Posterity and to us his Contemporaries the Desire of him The King being come to Breda met the Scots-Commissioners who attended his Majesty some Miles out of Town The first Congress was fair but the Disceptations and Arguings in the Treaty long and sharp The main Disputes were about the Covenant the Directory and the Catechism And tho the said Covenant did naturally regard the People not the Sovereign yet the Commissioners instigated by the English Presbyters did so obstinately adhere to them The Treaty at Breda that they refused to grant the King that Liberty in Holy Things which they challenged to themselves But to sweeten him they promise if he would consent to their Demands that they would not only restore him to the Scottish Throne but assist him in the Recovery of the rest of his Dominions and to bring to condign punishment the execrable Murtherers of his Royal Father His Majesty readily consented to the Civil Part of their Proposals remitting all Things to the Determinations of Parliament but stuck at the other until overcome by the Perswasions of the Prince of Orange and the greatest part of his Council as also by the Desperateness of his Affairs ruined both by Sea and Land he tho very unwillingly at length yielded And now the Treaty was upon Conclusion when the unfortunate Defeat and Death of Montrosse had like to have quite broke it off Those who were averse to any Agreement with the Scots took Occasion hence to disswade his Majesty from having any Commerce with them daily inculcating to him That this perfidious Nation had no other thoughts but of his Ruine because they had in the very time of Treaty so inhumanly murthered his Lieutenant But no Man did more affectionately bewail the immature and cruel End of this excellent Personage than the King himself who did not cease to expostulate the Injury done him in it by so barbarous an Act of Hostility even then whilst they pretended to Peace But Time and the Necessity of his Affairs did somewhat allay his Resentments so that the Treaty being at length happily concluded Concluded he and the Commissioners embarking at Scheveling with Young Trompe sailed towards Scotland Whilst His Majesty is upon the Ocean it will not be impertinent to be more particular in the sad History of the Illustrious Montrosse Our former Commentaries have noted those Actions of Glory he had performed in Scotland with the Lustre whereof he appeated so eminent in the Courts of Foreign Princes that his Exile seemed rather a Progress than Banishment until the Commands of the King obliged him again to arm and invade his Ungrateful Country The last Scene of Montrosse's Actions This was done by his Majesty with Design that by the known Valour of the General he might force his untractable Country-men to more Equal Terms But the Event proved unsuccessful Scotland was then full of Armed Men and their Forces intire whereas he had scarce Seven Hundred Souldiers with him when he landed Nay the Inhabitants either wearied with the War or terrify'd with the noise of Foreigners came but slowly in to him notwithstanding his known Valour and Conduct but forsaking their Dwellings fled with their Fears about them and filled the Country with the Apprehension of this Pretended Invasion Hereupon Lesley was sent with the Army to suppress this new Enemy who was also defeated by Straugham sent before with a Party of Three Hundred Horse and being betrayed by the Laird of Aston one he had entrusted with his Safety was taken and murthered with all the dire Circumstances of Enraged Malice and his Quarters sent to the Four principal Cities of the Kingdom to be fixt over their Chief Gates It is strange with what Firmness of Soul and unshaken Constancy he heard this dreadful Sentence saying only That he took it for greater Honour to have his Head fixt upon the Prison Gate in such a Cause than to have his Picture in the King's Bed-Chamber And lest his Loyalty should be forgotten they had highly honoured him in designing lasting Monuments to Four of the Chiefest Cities to bear up his Memorial to all Posterity wishing he had had flesh enough to have sent a piece to every City in Christendom to Witness his Loyalty to his King and Country Being ready to mount the Scaffold they put a Rope over his shoulders with his Declaration and History fastned to it which he wore with the same Calmness as formerly affirming That he embraced that with no less Alacrity than he had done the Garter when he was admitted of that most Honourable Order by his present Majesty He further asked these Barbarians Whether they had any more Dishonour to put upon him And thus ended this renowned Marquess not unjustly paralell'd to the great Captains of Antiquity if he had not fallen in the Untimely Prosecution of a most Just Cause The King having escaped the Dangers at Sea and eluded the Snares laid for him by the English landed having been convoy'd by Three Men of War lent him by the Prince of Orange at Spey in the North of Scotland where being received by a Noble Train of Attendants and welcomed by the grateful Acclamations of the People as he passed he came to Edinburgh His reception there from the Parliament and Committees of the Kirk was honourable and with all the Appearance of Affection and Loyalty July 15 1650. the People congratulating his happy arrival with continual and perhaps more sincere Shouts of Joy And now the Second Time he was proclaimed King of Scotland England and Ireland tho his Coronation was deferred as yet by reason of the pressing Difficulties of the War The English Parricides were not ignorant of these Triumphs and Preparations of their Neighbours and were also informed of their promises to restore the King They had Intelligence of what was transacted in Scotland by their Friends there and of what was done at Court by their Spies and Hirelings about the King They therefore to prevent a War at their own Doors resolve to transfer it to the Enemy as well to prevent their Invasion of England as to remove into another Country the Calamities that attend Camps and Armies But Fairfax could not be perswaded to bear Arms against the Scots their Brethren and sworn Confederates his Aversion to it being much fortified by his Wife and the Presbyterian Teachers Nor was the Mock Parliament much concerned at his Refusal for thinking they had done enough in having sent a Committee to perswade him they conferred the Generalate upon Cromwell lately called out
of Ireland to this Purpose Cromwell having at Length obtained what he had so long coveted the Command of the Forces of the Commonwealth high with this Accession of Honour prepares vigorously for War and hastning to the Army he mustered it near Berwick Sixteen Thousand strong brave Men and well accoutred flesht with so many Victories and confident of Success He thus accompanied enters Scotland having sent his Declaration before him July 22.1650 amongst other Things denouncing War against them because they had proclaimed Charles Stuart King who was their Publick Enemy and had promised to support him against the Common-wealth of England Being come to Dunbar without seeing an Enemy the Inhabitants being all fled tho he had invited and courted their staying at Home he refreshed his Army there with Rest and Provisions brought by shipping out of England From thence he marcht to Musselbourg with Design to attempt the Scots who lay encamped not far off But being opposed by the Rains the adverse Tempests and the Toyls of his Men who lay in the open Field he was forced to return to his Camp again The Enemy pursued him close charging and continually disturbing his Rear until they were repressed by Lambert and Whaley who hastned thither with fresh Supplies The following Night Montgomery and Straugham with Fifteen Troops of Horse fell upon the English with so much Violence that having forced their Guards and beaten a Regiment of Horse that seconded them they brought Terror into the rest of the Army But these recollecting themselves the Scots were charged by Parties that hastened to the Danger from all Sides and being way-laid by Okey in their Return they bravely broke through and returned after much Dammage given and received to their own Camp The King was then accidentally in the Army by whose conduct for seeing the danger of the Men he had hastened to their Assistance their Retreat was secured The Chief of the Army and the turbulent Delegates of the Kirk were much vexed at it urging the Kings Departure Nor would they suffer this magnanimous Prince to stay in the Camp pretending the danger of his Person but more truly lest as it appeared in that Encounter he should gain too much upon the Souldiers Favours and thereby render himself Master of that Army which had been raised by the auspicious Influence of his Name There were Three prevalent Factions in Scotland at that Time The First and Greatest was that of the Parliament and Kirk which would indeed have a King but precarious and one who should govern as they directed Another Faction was of the most rigid Presbyterians These dreaming of I know not what Theocracy or Government by the Church equally abhorr'd both King and Commonwealth as profane But this upon the Defeat of Straugham and Kerr by Cromwell quickly vanished The Third was that of the Royalists but unarmed and excluded from Publick Employments to which the King was forced to retire in Expectation of better Times The English in the mean time raised with some small Successes as the taking of Collington and Red-House by storm endeavoured to draw the Scots to Battle They approached their Camp seemed carelesly to wander under their Trenches and with the contumely of Words daily dared them to fight but in vain for the Scots were fixt not to adventure the Hazard of a Battle but to overcome the Enemy without Danger with Hunger Cold Sicknesses and the Rigor of the Climate Cromwell seeing then he could not force the Scots by reason of the Situation of their Camp nor oblige them to fight out of it his Provisions being likewise spent he determined to bring his Army back to Dunbar which he also did tho not without much Difficulty by reason of the close pursuit of the Scots From thence he resolved to return with what haste he could with his sick and weary Forces by Sea or Land for England for he despaired of any Hopes of Success in this inauspicious Expedition Dunbar is a Sea Town seated betwixt Edinburgh and Berwick surrounded on the Land side with Mountains and Precipices which are likewise so steep that there is but one passage at Copperspeith scarce large enough for Ten Men a-brest which was also possessed by the Enemy who now insultingly bragged which they might also have performed if God had not infatuated their Understandings That they had the Army of the Schismaticks in a Pound And thus this so famous a Leader had brought his Army by ill Conduct into such Streights that all his Glory got by so many Victories had vanish'd in Infamy if Fortune and the Follies of his Enemies had not contributed to his Relief For it would have proved a business of extreme Difficulty to have shipt his Men they pressing so near upon him nor would it have been less dangerous to return by Land all the Passages and Avenues being guarded by an Enemy so numerous and much more healthful as being in the Clime they first breathed in They were Twice as many as the English and hovered like a Cloud upon the Hills about them But their Impatience to overcome lost them the Victory for wheeling to the Right they in Confidence of their Strength descended into the Plain as if they designed to deprive them of all Hopes of Retreating Cromwell perceiving this as if he had cooped himself up but with Design to break out with more Lustre sent Lambert with Six Regiments of Horse and Three of Foot to charge them He was bravely received at first but afterwards by the Fatal Valour of Despair routed the adverse Cavalry The Foot seeing their Horse broke without any resistance ran also away in vain seeking that Safety in their Legs which they had had in their Hands And thus a very great Victory was gained by the English in a Moment wherein Three Thousand were slain and near Ten Thousand taken Two Hundred Colours Fifteen Thousand Arms and the whole spoil of the Camp with the Loss of scarce Three Hundred English Nor did this signal Victory which made them Masters of the South side of the Frith cost them any more For it being known at Edenburgh by the Arrival of Lesley who fled with the Horse the Nobility and Souldiery quitted that City as also Leeth a commodious Station for shipping and posted away to Sterling leaving all except the Castle of Edinburgh to the Disposal of the Conquerors This Battle seemed indifferent to the King who could lose none but Enemies whoever vanquished The Presbyterians were no less averse to him than the Independants and the Scots if they had overcome would have used him no better than they did his August Father at New-Castle They had extorted Conditions from him equal to those their English Brethren had forced from his Martyred Predecessor in the Isle of Wight Nor did those Concessions suffice somewhat was still superadded and obtruded upon him And as if that were not enough he himself as also his Friends were excluded from sharing in the Government
II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion ARchibald Campbel Earl of Argile and Son to the late Marquess of that Name who had been beheaded for his Treasons and Rebellion treading in his Fathers steps out went him in adding Ingratitude to his Infidelity For being restored in Blood by the King's Clemency as also to the Dignities and Honours of his Family except the Title of Marquess he forfeited all again by his Caballing and Endeavours to disturb the Publick Peace Which being discovered and he forced to Baâ—ishment by his own Fears he now joyning with Monmouth both Heads of Factions the one in Scotland the other in England both exiled for conspiring the Destruction of the Government and both upon that Accompt looked upon as the Idols of their Parties he now again together with the other contracting their Fury into a last Push being at that time both in Holland resolve with United Councils and the whole Force of their Factions to attempt the Disturbance if not the Ruin of the yet unsetled as they fancied Government of the King To this End they make great Provision of Arms and Ammunition being assisted and furnished very nobly as they said by several good Protestants most Dutch I suppose And having hired several Ships for their Transport they with their Friends and some few Souldiers sailed Argile towards Scotland and Monmouth towards England The Scot was first ready May 2. and setting Sail from the Vlye in Three Ships notwithstanding an Arrest which the States had sent for the searching of them he touched at Orkney where having sent his Secretary and Chyrurgeon on shore to try the Temper of the Inhabitants who seized upon hem he Sailed thence for the West of Scotland and landed at Dunstafnage in Lorne a ruinous Castle May 13. sometime belonging to himself and put a Garrison therein His first Care was to put forth a Manifesto in his own Name and some of his Party had emitted a very large Declaration of Six Sheets of Paper to invite their Country-men and all other well affected Protestants to joyn with them with the old Cant To engage with them for the maintenance of Religion in its Purity and the due Administration of the Laws of their Native Country in Opposition to Arbitrary Government Tyranny Popery and Prelacy against a Persecuting Tyrant and an Apostate Party for so they call the King and his Loyal Subjects Their Colors were Blew and their Motto Pro Deo Patria But these Rebellious Declarations and pretended Protestants found other Entertainment in England being not only marked by the Infamy of Treason but a Vote passed in the House of Commons That they will stand by and assist his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes against the pretended Earl of Argile and his Adherents and all Rebels and Traitors and all other whatsoever that shall assist him or any of them c. Nor was the Parliament of Scotland less vigorous in their Voting and Acting against the Rebels who however encreased by the Accession of Malignants and Schismatics could not amount to the Number of a just Army Nor did they effect any thing proportionable to the Noise they made for being unequal to the Royallists they were forced to sculk from one Island to another to avoid them Which they easily did by help of their Shipping and Boats until the Arrival of some Vessels of War sent by his Majesty as the Falcon and Mermaid and some other Frigats which shortly after happened Argile having Intelligence of the approach of his Majesty's Ships quitted the Island of Boot and went over to Cowal one of the Divisions of Argile-shire bringing his Vessels and Boats into Loch-fine towards Inverary where they were also blockt up by the King's Ships lying in the Mouth of the said Loch In the mean time Argile having brought his Ships under the Castle of Ellengregg gave out he would fight the Marquess of Athol who lay about Inverary though his Design was to avoid it his Men not finding the People to come in in such Numbers as were promised daily deserting him Nor could his Ships detained by contrary Winds get into Loch-fine but were so discouraged upon the Advancement of the King's-Fisher and Faulcon to the entrance of Lochrowan where they lay that they began to fortifie the said Castle of Ellengregg and a Rock that lies near to it in a little Island for securing their Ships This being done Argile having put his Cannon Arms and Ammunition into the Castle leaving One Hundred and Fifty Men for the Defence of it and his Ships marched away towards the Head of Loch fine and returning thence after an untoward Reception by the Marquess of Athol's Men passed Loch-long marching towards Lenox in Dunbartonshire The same Day his Majesty's Ships came up to the Castle with a Resolution to batter it and to destroy their Ships but upon the firing of the first Gun Two Men came off in a Boat with a White Flag and told them They might save their Labour for there were none to oppose them all the Rebels being fled Whereupon they sent a Boat on Shore and finding it to be so took Possession of the Castle Ships and Boats with Five Thousand Arms Five Hundred Barrels of Powder with Ball and other Stores in Proportion besides the Cannon some whereof were mounted and others sunk but recoverable The Rebels had a Design to blow up the Powder but it was prevented Whilst this was a doing the Argilians marched by the Head of Gaviloch towards the Fords of the River Levin betwixt Loch-Lomand and the Town of Dunbarton The Earl of Dunbarton General of his Majesty's Forces in Scotland was then with the Army at Glascow where having notice that the Rebels had passed the River Levin above Dunbarton Jun. 17 he marched very early in the Morning after them they taking their Way towards Sterling and overtook them in the Parish of Killerne The Horse and Dragoons kept up the Rebels till the Foot arrived But they were posted in so strong a Ground that it being late in the Evening it was not thought fit then to attack them So the King's Army stood in Battle-Array all night as well to prevent Surprisals as to be ready so soon as Day-light appeared to fall upon them But the Rebels with great silence marched off in the Night undiscerned by the Royallists towards the River Clyde which they swam with their Horses wafting their Foot in Boats and so goâ— without any considerable Opposition into Reufrew The King's Army missing the Rebels in the Morning marched with all Diligence to Glascow and thence Dunbarton with his Horse and Dragoons hasted after them leaving the Foot to follow with what speed they could make At Reufrew Sir John Cockram undertook to provide Guides to carry his Friends safe into Galloway but they mistaking the way carried them into a
Bog where having lost their Horses and Baggage the Foot dispersed into small Parties whereupon Dunbarton likewise divided the King's Forces to pursue them Argile seeing all lost returned towards Clyde and was fallen upon by two of Greenock's Servants but would not yield firing at them when they called to him He received a Wound in the Head upon which not trusting his Horse he alighted and ran into the Water The Noise brought out a Country-man who ran into the Water after him where he was almost up to the Neck He presented his Pistol to the Country-man but it missed Fire whereupon the Country-man gave him a Wound in the Head which stunn'd him so that he fell and in falling cry'd out Vnfortunate Argile Before he recovered they took him and carried him to their Commander from whence he was brought to Glascow and thence to Edinburgh entering the City with his Hands bound behind him bare-headed with the Hang-man going before him A sad tho deserved Spectacle of unfortunate Disloyalty The Rest of the Rebels being totally defeated Rumbald the Malister who fought desperately was taken and Colonel Ayloff who after he was a Prisoner ript up his own Belly with a Pen-knife but recovered to be hanged in England as the other had been in Scotland his Wounds not permitting his Transport into his own Country June 30. Argile closed the Scene of this Rebellion being beheaded which could not yet expiate for so much Blood and Confusion which he had occasioned by his Ambition and desire of Revenge Nor was Monmouth more successful in England whose Enterprizes being carried on with more Noise and Hopes may require a more particular Relation The Duke of Monmouth having hired a Ship at Amsterdam of Two and Thirty Guns with a Hundred and Fifty Men in it of several Nations and paid for it in Person was by the States General at the Solicitation of the King's Envoy with them ordered to be arrested which notwithstanding got to Sea and in it the Duke of Monmouth and not long after Two small Vessels more upon Accompt of the Rebels With this Fleet 1685. June 11. he sailed Westward and landed at Lime in Dorsetshire about Seven a Clock in the Evening He was accompanied with the Lord G. a Person daring and desparate and about Two Hundred more well appointed all appearing as Officers and each with a Carabine and Two Pistols by his side With this Equipage did this bold Rebel dare to attempt the Crown of England Having possessed himself of the Town he likewise took Possession of an Old neglected Fort in which were Seven Guns And setting up his Standard which was Blew he invited all Men to his Assistance for the Protestant Religion against the Duke of York Nor were there wanting such who abused by his Pretences came in to him his Emissaries being dispatched into the Neighbouring Towns and Villages to incite the People to an open Rebellion against his Majesty Their Numbers being in few Days encreased they sent a Party of Horse and Foot to Bridg. Port where they surprizâ—d some Gentlemen whom they inhumanly murthered as Mr. Strangewayes Coaker and others But the rest getting to their Arms escaped to a Party who maintained a Post not far off whither the Rebels still pursuing them were beaten off with the Loss of Seven of their Men and several Arms and Prisoners which they left behind them The King upon Notice of this Invasion caused Monmouth and all his Accomplices and Companions to be proclaimed Traytors and a Reward of Five Thousand Pounds to any who should bring the said Monmouth in alive or dead Monmouth on the other side dispersed a Declaration fraught with Treason and Imposture against the King under the Title of Duke of York Which upon consideration of the infamous Calumnies it contained was condemned by the Two Houses of Parliament to be publickly burnt by the Hands of the Hang man which was done accordingly The Duke of Albemarle the Day of Monmouth's landing had mustered the Militia of Devonshire whereof he was Lord-Lieutenant and keeping them in a Body he much impeded the Resort of Novellists and Fanaticks to the Enemy And yet it was not safe for him to fight them being scarce secure of his own Men. For the changing Rabble attentive upon Novelties seemed to prefer great Incertainties before their present Enjoyments The Duke of Beaufort on the other side secured Bristol with his Presence and Forces whilst the King's Troops hasten to meet from all Parts The Lord Churchil with his Dragoons came first and disturbed the Rebels with various Skirmishings and was followed by the Earl of Feversham with greater Force who also was appointed General for the Expedition The Duke of Grafton marched to the Rendezvouz with Eighteen Hundred of the Guards whereof he was Colonel And Eighteen Field-Peices with all their Accoutrements weâ—e sent to the Camp under the Convoy of some old Companies of Dunbarton's Regiment To these new Levies were suddainly made of Eight Regiments of Foot and several Troops of Horse Also the Six Regiments of Britains which were in the Service of the Vnited Provinces were recalled Three whereof being Scots were sent against Argile but he being defeated they returned into England On the other side Monmouth having left Lime marched to Taunton an old and obstinate Receptacle of Fanaticism where his numbers encreasing tho no one of Quality came in to him he usurpt the Title of King But the Reign of this Ephemerous Prince was neither propitious nor long What he could not effect under pretence of the Protestant Religion for those who are truely Protestants of the Church of England do detest nothing more than Rebellion he resolved to attempt by assuming the Title of Prince but no less impiously than foolishly For the Chief of his Party hated Monarchy since they could not all be Kings and seemed mainly to contend for a Common-wealth What Argile oppressed by his adverse Fortune did pathetically express in this Case deserves to be mentioned here His Expressions against those of Amsterdam first were That they having made a Collection among Four Hundred of them to set him out had failed in carrying on the Vndertaking But against Monmouth As one who had broke Faith both with God and Man With Man when taking him by the Hand at parting he promised to be in England as soon as he in Scotland and with God in that he had upon the Sacrament declared at Amsterdam that he would never pretend to the Crown Nor must we omit a Saying of Rumbold's at his Execution being moved when he heard that Monmouth had taken upon him to be King for it seems they were all for a Commonwealth We have said he a better than he that is called so already Monmouth left Taunton again accompanied with a Multitude of sorry Fellows scarce half armed for they had left most of their Equipage of War at Lime where the King's Ships seized upon a Pink and a Dogger with Forty
That he had resigned what Right he could pretend to it by that very Concession which they urged with so much Violence that forgeting the Rules of Modesty the King was forced to Dissolve them and to punish some of the most Factious of that Seditious Convention But the Causes of these Heats must be further sought In the Reign of Queen Mary a great Number of People withdrew themselves out of England whereof many Some pretended Causes of Sedition infected with the Discipline of Geneva upon Queen Elizabeth's Assumption to the Crown returning brought that uneasie Preciseness with them which suddenly grew to that height by the Carlessness or Pusillanimity of the Magistrates under King James that it did not only insinuate it self under the veil of Piety amongst the People but even into the Court and Parliaments where joining it self to those of Anti-Monarchic Principles it endeavoured to diminish the Prerogative and subject the King to those Necessities which might force him to unusual Ways of supplying them Which also happened for being pressed by the indispensible Exigence of his Affairs and perceiving no hopes of Subsidies from Parliaments he began to have an Aversion for them so Constituted and search for Refuge in his Prerogative And yet he had so much Reverence for the Laws that he would act nothing contrary to them as appears in Ship-Money which Tax however it were imposed to vindicate the Honour of the Sea against Pyrates and our Potent Neighbours he would not exact it till it was adjudged to him by all the Judges of Westminster and that under their Hands But the Common People despising the Moderation of their Prince and instigated by those who desired a Change crying out That their Laws and Liberties were endangered mutinied attributing all the Errors and Misfortunes in the Government for the Undertakings Abroad had not been very successful to his Counsellors that they might transversly smite him and blast his Reputation To this the exuberant Power of the Clergy that pretended Exemption from the Jurisdiction of the Laicks did not please The unusual Introduction of Ceremonies as they cried out and the placing of the Communion-Table at the East-End of the Church with the more severe Imposition of Rites however indifferent except in the Command did trouble them and were the occasion of very great Tumults in many Parishes But nothing did equally move their Choler and Pity as the Punishment of some Seditious Scriblers against Ceremonies and the Bishops their Authors by Incarceration and cutting off their Ears who however Guilty and deserving what the Rigour of Justice could inflict were yet thought to be hardly dealt with considering the serene Tranquillity of those Halcion Days And truly Peace and its Concomitant Plenty flourish'd amongst us to the Envy of our Neighbours continuing to the Fourth Lustre of the King's Reign The Flourishing Condition of the Nation which might have been perpetual being inexpugnable from Abroad if it had not been destroyed by the more than Civil Rage of our Mischievous Dissenters Nothing seemed wanting to our Felicity before it was disturbed by these nefarious Tumults and our People if they could have seen their own Happiness were considering the inexhaustible affluence of all Things the Liberty of Commerce and the free Enjoyment of what they had acquired the happiest of any Subjects under any known Government in the World But our Luxury encreasing with our Abundance we grew wanton and fell into such a Surfeit that nothing but a violent Bleeding could effect a Cure The true Cause of these Evils had its Rise from the noxious Indulgence of our Physicians who neglecting to stifle the Factious Humours of the Puritans in their Infancy gave such force and boldness to this Contagion that it unhappily Infected the whole Body Politick to the Ruine of Hierarchy the best of Spiritual and Monarchy the best of Temporal Governments 'T is scarce conceivable that there were found any in so happy a State that should seem to desire a Change And yet such there were amongst which Who they were who desired a Change the chief Ring-leaders were the Presbyterians who had their Missionaries and Lecturers in all the Quarters of the Kingdom and those swarms of Sectaries their Brood who contended for an equal Liberty in Civil as well as Sacred Things The Catholicks wished for the Dominion of Rome in Spirituals But the Gentry and Lesser Nobility which composed the House of Commons out of Contemplation of their own Greatness whilst they sate there preferred Democracy before all other In the mean time this disguised Impiety grew up under the plausible pretence of Sanctity seducing the Vulgar with a Shew of Religion into a Reverence of it It is not imaginable how far this Sacred Novelty prevailed by the seditious Fury of its Preachers and their uncontrouled railing against the received Rites of the Church and the lawful Power of the King It had bewitch'd the Town the Country and Private Families into an Opinion of it nor were the great Representatives of the Kingdom exempted from its Contagion which the King had abundantly Experimented in all the Parliaments he had summoned For in them the Novellists and Democraticks pretending the Liberty and Defence of Religion against the Designs of the Court and Popery oppressed the Prerogative to advance their own endeavouring to raise the Authority of the People whose Vicegerents they were upon the Ruines of the King To this they branded with the Odious Title of Papists all that opposed them by which means they deceived the People who are still the more addicted to their Superiors by how much they observe them the more Zealous for the Advancement of Religion And truly the depravedness of the Age was so great that whatever was said in behalf of the King and his Ministers against Popery had no Credit but on the contrary whatever was affirmed to perswade the People that the Court did Favour Superstition was greedily swallowed down without any regard to Reasons of State which sometimes obliged to a Compliance with the Desires of Foreign Princes and Embassadors But the true Source of our Miseries came from Scotland this Embryo of Rebellion gathering Strength from Foreigners upon this Occasion The Nobility in the Infancy of King JAMES had by the Connivance of Murrey the Governour The Scots Tumults usurped the Lands and Possessions belonging to the Cathedrals and Monasteries of that Kingdom which they also enjoyed untill King Charles pressed with foreign Wars and but ill supplied from Scotland resolved by the Advice of his Council there to reunite the said Possessions to the Crown again which he did by an Act of Revocation with a Commission of Surrend'ries of Superiorities and Tithes But those Nobles resolved to turn all upside down rather than part with their Usurpations and be deprived of the Vassalage of the Ministers and Land-owners And so conspiring against the King himself designed to oppose his Authority both Sacred and Civil in the next
so many Graces upon them upon his being in Scotland having refused them nothing they had demanded of him that their Parliament taken with so great Indulgence had decreed That if any whosoever should levy Men or take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever except by the King 's Express Order he should be guilty of damnable Treason Nay they profess farther upon Oath That in Case the King's Person should at any Time be endangered they would defend his Majesty's Cause and Honour as they were in Duty bound with their Lives and Fortunes When the King was at Edinbrough he had advanced Two very Ingrateful Persons to great Honour Lesley he made an Earl and Hamilton a Duke The First exstasied with the Greatness of the Favour protested solemnly perjured Wretch That he would never bear Arms more against his Majesty And the other if we may believe publick Fame betrayed all his Master's Counsels to his Enemies but perfidiously concealed Theirs though a Privy Counsellor from his King It may not be unworthy Notice to declare what farther happened at the same Time There was a great Noise rumour'd A pretended Conspiracy against Hamilton and Argyle of a Conspiracy against the Lives of Hamilton and Argyle with some others contrived by the Earl of Crawford and his Party This Report however fictitious and imaginary gained such Credit that the King himself was not obscurely reflected upon Which his righteous Soul took in such Scorn that he could not forbear to tell Hamilton when as the Custom is he delivered him his Patent in Parliament whereby he was created Duke That he did not deserve to be suspected by him who could not choose but remember That at that very Time when he was accused to him of High-Treason he suffered him that very Night to lie in his Bed-Chamber After this the Wars growing Hot in England the King advertised his Privy-Council in That Kingdom of the State of his Affairs in This demanding their Advice and Aid who returned an Answer full of Duty and Loyalty but with a Resolution to perform nothing they had promised For the Business being known at London they of Westminster caressed their lately acknowledged Brethren so effectually that they did not scruple to declare That they would act nothing against the Parliament no not in Favour of the King himself which they also perfidiously faithful did perform Nay more these Ungrateful Wretches forgetful of their Honour and Allegiance invade England with a Great Army causing that Fatal Change in the Kings Affairs till then very Prosperous that cost him his Life and them their Liberty to those whose Encrease they had so obstinately pursued The King perceiving how furiously the prevailing Faction did drive on and that it daily received Strength from London resolved to remove the Parliament to Oxford which he did by publick Proclamation where most of the Lords and amongst them the Earls of Holland Bedford and Clare who were lately come in to the King tho' they left him again with the same Levity and near Two Hundred of the Commons met at a Day The rest in Scorn of their Duty continued at Westminster until they were outed thence by their own Servants The first Business that the Parliament at Oxford undertook was to admonish the Scots by Letters That they should not hostilely Invade England it being no less than High-Treason to attempt it But this as also the King's Dissuasory Message was to no purpose Nay they were so rudely impudent that they caused a Letter writ to them and Signed by all the Lords to be Burnt by the Hands of the Common-Hangman The Scots enter England March 1. They therefore Invade England the Year being far spent with Eighteen thousand Foot Two thousand Horse and One thousand Dragoons and passing the River Tine send their Declaration before them pretending That they designed nothing but the Reformation of Religion the King's Honour and the Peace of the Kingdom The King extreamly surprized with this Invasion having been still kept up with a Belief that the Scots would not enter England finding himself deluded committed Duke Hamilton and his Brother Lanerick who were newly posted out of Scotland as afrighted with the News they brought to Prison The former being accused of several other Treasons also Hamilton sent to Pendennis-Castle was afterwards sent to Pendennis-Castle His Brother escaped to London and so to Scotland which he lately abandoned as unsafe whereof he was Secretary though the Court-Signet had been taken from him But to march with the Scots into England where the Parliament had long since seized upon the King's Castles Forts Arms Ships Revenues Treasure Ornaments c. they now to Complement their new Allies urge their impious Covenant so far that the Subject must either forfeit his Faith or Estate But Religion was always pretended and all their Undertakings veiled with the Masque of Godliness They divest her of her Ornaments under pretence of dressing her and with Impious Hands prophane her Monuments transferred to us from our pious Ancestors who sealed the Faith we own with their Bloods Their zealous Fury extends to our Churches destroying whatever was in them either Reverend for Antiquity or to be Esteemed for its Artifice They turn Temples into Stables and the House of Prayer into a Den of sacrilegious Impurity Amongst other Acts and Triumphs of their Reformation they demolished Charing and Cheapside-Crosses eminent for their Beauty and the Artificiousness of their Structure converting the Superstitious Metals they were composed of to their own Use It may not be from the Purpose to relate a Story of ludicrous as well as impudent Boldness Harry Martin H. Martin Inspects the Regalia who had said in the House That the Felicity of the Nation did not consist in the Family of the Stuarts for which he then to palliate the Impudence had been confined was ordered to Survey the Regalia which he did for breaking the Iron Chest wherein they were kept he took out of it the Crown Sceptre and Vestments belonging to Edward the Confessor wherewith the Kings of England had since been always inaugurated saying though falsly with a scornful Laughter There will be no more Vse of these Trifles With the same unmannerly Impudence he caused George Withers a pitiful Poet then present to be dressed in those Royal Vestments who being also Crowned walked at first stately up and down but afterward putting himself into a Thousand Mimick Postures endeavoured to expose those Sacred Ornaments to the Contempt and Derision of the By-standers These afterwards as also the Robes and Plate belonging to the Church were sold Nor could they be perswaded to leave one Silver Cup to be used at the Communion affirming with barbarous Sacrilege That a wooden Dish would serve the Turn Nor is it any wonder That these Sacred Vtensils were thus abused when the Sacred Function of Ministers was so Inhumanely treated of whom a Hundred and Fifteen in the City and Suburbs were for their
Fidelity to the King according to the Laws and their Zeal to the Established Religion according to their Conscience together with their Wives and Children The barbarous Vsage of the Loyal Clergy Ejected Plundred Spoiled and barbarously Consumed in Prison in Exile and with Hunger To relate all the Inhumanities committed against the Loyal Orthodox Clergy their Usurpations upon the Revenues of the Church and their Dilapidations and Ruines of the Houses of God in the Land would require a vast Volume and might deservedly employ a very good Pen which I purposely omit as wanting Ability and Leasure for so Great a Work The Scots being entred into England the Marquess of Newcastle for he had been made such for his Eminent Services marched with his Army to oppose the Progress of this new Enemy He had kept them at Bay for some time by frequent Encounters and Velitations till the taking of Selbie by Fairfax and Lincoln by the Earl of Manchester Both which especially the Latter being very numerous moved after him So that Newcastle unable to fight them all at once and lest he might be inclosed by their Three Armies retreated to York where he was surrounded and besieged by their United Forces The King being very sollicitous for the Safety of so good a Man and so good an Army sent Prince Rupert with great Forces to their Relief The Prince had some Time before relieved Newark having slain a Thousand of Sir John Meldrum's Men who besieged it and reduced the Rest to a Necessity though Six Thousand strong of parting with their Arms and Baggage High with these Successes he marches toward the North and taking Stopford and Leverpoole in his Way relieved the Illustrious Countess of Derby in Laâ—hame House where she had been long Besieged Bolton daring to defend it self was at the second Assault forced Eight Hundred of the Garrison most Townsmen being slain For relying upon their Numbers and Works they had not only abused the Prince by scurrilous Language but hang'd One of his Captains whom they had taken which occasioned this not undeserved Severity After this continuing his March he came without any Opposition to York where he joined with Newcastle the Enemy having raised the Siege upon his Approach with a Resolution to engage them The Besieged upon the Rebels drawing off did some considerable Execution upon their Rear but being secure had no mind to try the Hazard of the War any farther They had been wearied with a long Siege of Nine Weeks and supposing that their Deliverers were also tired with their long March thought it better to leave the Enemy to their own Dissentions for their Generals did not well agree about the Command in Chief than to occasion their Uniting by so hazardous an Adventure But the Prince fatally resolved and not thinking he had done enough in relieving the City if he did not also beat the Scots the only Obstacle to the King's Victories marched after the Rebels and found them drawn up in a Corn-field on the South side of Marston-Moor Four Miles from York The Enemies Three Armies contracted in One was commanded by the Three Generals The Battel of Marston-Moor July 2. The Two Fairfaxes Father and Son had the Right-Wing Manchester the Left and Leven the Main Body consisting all of Scots and each Division had his Auxiliaries and Reserves The Prince observing the Adversaries Order ranged also his Army in Battalia and reserving to himself the Left-Wing gave Newcastle the Right entrusting the Command of the Main Battel to Goring Lucas and Porter And as no Field since these Unhappy Wars did produce so Great Armies so none had been fought with greater Valour Rupert charg'd the Fairfaxes with so much Resolution that he broke them and the Scots their Reserves but pursued them to his own Ruine too far Our Main Battel did also repel the Scots But Affairs went otherwise in the Right the Mancesterians having routed the Royallists and not following them too far fell upon the Prince's and Goring's disordered Troops hindring them to Rally and quite dispersed them It is affirmed That the Three Rebel-Generals quitted the Field leaving to Cromwell Manchester's Lieutenant General the Honour of the Day for he keeping his great Reserve of Horse in a firm Body followed the Cavaliers so close that he hindred them to Rally and Embody again The Fight lasted from Seven till Ten at Night with great Courage and Slaughter on both Sides though the Victory fell to the Rebels as also the Cannon and Spoil of the Field There were Two of Newcastle's Regiments called his Lambs being old Souldiers who fell not unrevenged For the rest being fled they casting themselves into a Ring did alone resist Cromwell's Assaults nor could they however abandoned by their Friends and surrounded by their Enemies be broke until being shot at like Fowl at a Distance and overwholmed with showers of Bullets not then perishing without Slaughter of their Enemies scarce any of these miserable Bravo's escaping tho' worthy of a better Fortune The slain were computed at Eight Thousand the Slaughter made by Cromwell being compensated in that made by the Prince upon the Fairfaxians and especially the Scots being most animated against them His Highness being returned from his Pursuit too late rallying what he could of his dispersed Troops returned with his Remains into Lancashire whilst the Marquess retreating to York left that also and with his Two Sons and very many of his Principal Officers leaving England to its Dissentions and Tumults sailed for Hamburgh York surrendred July 23. The Royallists being thus dispersed York is again Besieged by the Three victorious Armies but wanting Powder wherewith they had furnished their Camp before the Fight the City was delivered up by Sir Thomas Glenham the Governour upon Honourable Terms most of the Northern Counties following her Fortune But the King was more successful in other Places especially where he commanded in Person Waller having lost his Army at the Devizes had raised another in London the Citizens that they might contribute to this Holy War defrauding their barking Stomachs of one Meal by the Week His first Exploit was the Recovery of Arundel-Castle sometime before taken by Hopton Being joined with Balfore and Hazelrig at Winchester not unmindful of his Defeat at the Devizes he did now in some Sort bravely revenge it upon Hopton himself at Branden-Heath near Alsford Branden-Heath Fight Mar. 29. the Lord John Stuart being mortally wounded in the Fight The Foot stood bravely to it at push of Pike till the Royallists being outnumb'red were forced to give Way The Earl of Forth having sent the Cannon away before to Winchester and that he might likewise save the Horse wheeled about with them to Basing and so to Oxford There fell of the Royallists in this Combat near Five Hundred besides the above-mentioned Lord as also Sir John Smith and the Colonels Sandys Scot and Manning The Rebels acknowleged scarce One Hundred of theirs slain besides
Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distractions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated Continuation of the Rebellion in Ireland IT is now time to return to the Irish History we have hitherto discontinued with design not to interrupt the English And shall now take the same Liberty to represent this to the Rendition of Dublin to the English in one continued Relation The King had committed the Government of Ireland to the Earl of Leicester a Favourite of the Faction upon a Supposition that that Kingdom would be the better provided for But he observing the backwardness of the Parliament however pressed by frequent Addresses from the Council there and by reiterated Messages from his Majesty nearer had no mind tho' invited to it and entrusted with it to stir or engage himself in so hazardous an Enterprise He therefore lest he might seem wholly to neglect his Province commissioned the Earl of Ormond a Person made up of Honour and Loyalty to be his Lieutenant General in that Kingdom which was likewise approved of by his Sacred Majesty the best Judge of Men and Abilities and who afterwards Honoured his Merit with the Chief Government of the whole Which he performed with so much Courage Constancy and Prudence as will raise him a Trophy of Honour in the Annals of Time Upon his Arrival at Dublin with a Troop of a Hundred Horse well armed having been summoned thither by the Lords-Justices he revived by his Presence the desponding Courage of the City He also immediately proposed in Council the raising of a small Army which might in the Infancy of the Rebellion have suppress'd or else stopt its Progress but they being either not able or not willing and the Reader may believe both as will too visibly appear hereafter the Business was laid aside The Conspirators especially in Vlster where they were most predominant having with the Extremity of Rage and Cruelty drowned slain spoiled stripp'd and ejected infinite Numbers of the poor Protestants made Sir Phelim O Neal their General He was of the House of Tyrone but bred up in Lincoln's-Inn and a Protestant till of late though indeed of no famed Conduct or Courage However he took Dundalk which was surrendred to him and besieged Tredah by Sea and Land Tichburne the Governour doubtful of the Event had demanded and obtained the Grant of Succours from Dublin Six Hundred Foot were sent to him under the Command of Major Roper with a Convoy of Fifty Horse for their Security But they were surprized in a Mist by the Irish and defeated scarce one Hundred of the Foot escaping to Tredah with the Major though the Horse with Weems their Commander brake through and returned back to Dublin It is not conceivable what Courage this Success then great infused into the wavering Irish Those who were content to look on before became hereupon Actors in this Tragedy Nay The Lords of the Pale join with the Rebels the Lords of the Pale who had hitherto stood upon their Guard now upon the uncontrouled Progress of the Rebels and the no Appearance of any considerable Forces from England the Breach there betwixt the King and Parliament daily wid'ning to oppose them they also contrary to the sacred Vows of Duty and Allegiance forfeited both by joining with their Countrymen Nay all the Provinces in the Kingdom broke out into a detestable Rebellion being instigated thereunto by their Priests and Confessors with the Appearance nay Assurance of Liberty and Heaven Besides they had understood that their Country was to be enslaved and their Estates to be divided amongst the English Adventurers to each proportionable to the Money raised by them for the Use of the War Nay further that they not only designed to suppress the Rebellion but the very Religion of the Rebels They therefore now declare That they fight for their Altars for their Subsistance and for their Lives seeing their Countrymen were denied Quarter in England So that their taking up Arms was no Rebellion their extream Peril unavoidably obliging them to it These and the like Arguments obliged all to run to their Natural Defence so that there was no Corner exempt from this dismal Infection And yet it was not so universal but that some of the principal of the Nobility continued to their great Honour unshaken in their Fidelity to the King nor so bloody but that some Marks of Humanity appeared in the very Actors in this Tragedy who sheltered cloathed fed and delivered very many from the Barbarities of their Associates Which ought not to be silenced without Injustice and Ingratitude The Rebels settle a Form of Government And now the Rebels finding their Strength and Numbers considerable institute a Form of a Common-wealth and choosing amongst themselves a Council of the most eminent Persons of the Party gave it the Title of The Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and framing an Oath of Association by which all were bound to obey them assumed the Form of a Regular Government This Senate consisted of Five and Twenty Six out of each Province the Twenty Fifth being Castle-Haven newly escaped from Dublin where he had continued a Prisoner a great while They also made them a Great Seal coined and raised Money erected several Courts of Judicature appointed several Officers of State and amongst other Points of Regality constituted Four Generals of the Four Provinces Preston for Lemster Barry Munster Owen Roe O Neal Vlster Burk Their Four Generals Conaught They had cleared most of the Inland Countries of the English and did really bear all before them until those few English sent over joining with the Protestants at Dublin put a stop to their Carier In the mean Time they put out their Remonstrance where amongst other things they declare That they had taken up Arms for Defence of the Roman-Catholick-Religion their own Rights and Privileges and the King's Prerogative c. exactly copied afterwards by the Rebel-Parliament in England The Irish had hitherto lived in Amity with the Scots apprehending the Neighbourhood of Scotland and lest they should buckle with Two Enemies at once but finding their Power grow they also fell upon their Quarters using them with no less infamous Barbarities than they had done the English But the Siege of Tredah went but slowly on for tho' they practise all the Arts of Force and Intelligence in the assaulting of it They raise the Siege of Tredah yet upon the Arrival of Sir Simon Harcourt with a strong Regiment out of England despairing of carrying it they quitted it notwithout considerable Loss For the Governour falling in his Rear
with most of his Garrison did such Execution upon them that he pursued them to Dundalk which he also took by Assault forcing O Neal to pass the River for his Security For all this the Enemies by the general Defection of the Nation grew so numerous that they threatned Dublin and filling the Villages and Country round extreamly obstructed their Markets and Commerce by their Cavalcades There were no less than Twenty Thousand reckoned in this Province of Lemster but they wanted Skill and Military Conduct so that they waged War with Numbers not Understanding Whilst the English who were but few and had received no great Assistance out of England did not only oppose but dared to provoke them beating routing killing and destroying them in well-nigh all the Encounters they had with them for being well armed well led and well disciplin'd they easily vanquished so effeminate and so unknowing and Enemy The Cruelty of the English in Ireland But as the Brittish were more brave so they were no less cruel than the Irish revenging the Barbarousness of their Adversaries with equal Inhumanity For they destroyed many Thousands of them ruining with Fire and Sword and pillaging all they met with reducing a well planted most fertile Country into a Solitary Desart whereby they did not only destroy the Natives but created to themselves irreparable Mischief and Desolation by ruining that which they should have subsisted with Hence grew those Wants upon them which they had occasioned and were now forced to combat a stronger Enemy than they had yet encountred as Hunger want of Pay Clothes and all other Nutriments of War Which they had in vain expected from the Parliament its self now Rebellious and so far from assisting them Their Necessities that they themselves seized upon the Money designed for Ireland taking a Hundred Thousand Pounds of it at once and employing those Regiments raised for that Service under the Lord Wharton to fight their own King as they did at Edge-hill in that unnatural Rebellion Seeing this they earnestly petitioned his Majesty for their Discharge or to be transferred to any other Warfare where they might contend with any Enemy but Hunger Ormond makes a Cessation with the Irish The King being thus daily sollicited by the pressing Miseries of his Subjects and seeing no other way to relieve or deliver them commanded the Earl of Ormond to make a Cessation with the Irish for a Year which he did and to send Three Thousand of the Protestant Army into England leaving the Garrison well provided to assist him to oppose the Rebellious Scots who then invaded him This Cessation was variously censured according to the Interest or Inclination of Parties Such who disapproved it cried out against the Transportation of the Soldiery pretending It would expose the Protestants that remained and be of too much Advantage to the Rebels But others more discerning and equal were of Opinion That it is always better to save a Citizen than destroy an Enemy It was the prime Interest of a Prince to preserve himself Ireland was not so formidable but when England was quiet it might be reclaimed by fair Means or by foul There was more Danger from the Puritans who threatned Ruine to Religion and Monarchy The Parliamentarians and Scots-Irish refused to be included in this Truce being supported with Money and Supplies out of England which was denied the Royallists by reason of their unshaken Fidelity to their King which neither the Threats nor Allurements of the now English Rebels could blemish or overcome Ormond now Marquess and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland improved this Cessation with much Prudence and Industry by a continued Treaty into a Peace which being proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny Then a. Peace he followed thither with Fourteen Hundred Men where he was received by the Supreme Council with due Respect and State who also surrendred the Government which they had thus long managed into his Hands But this Calm did not last long most of the Chief Towns and Great Officers as Preston and Owen Roe O Neal with others dissenting The Archbishop of Firme the Popes Nuntio not only protested against this Peace but adding the Thunder of Excommunication renewed the War with more violence than ever Ormond ran no small Hazard of being intercepted in his Retreat to Dublin where he was given for lost and therefore received with very extraordinary Joy by the People year 1646 The War had been continued betwixt the Dissenting Brittains and the Irish ever since the Cessation with various Fortune But now thinking that a fair Opportunity did present it self by the Absence of the English Army for the Conquest of the whole Kingdom they join all their Forces together and raised with some late Successes for Owen Roe O Neal had defeated Monroe and his Scots in Vlster slain above Five Hundred of his Men taken Five Field-pieces all his Baggage and Five Thousand Arms they besiege Dublin by Land The Nuntio dissents and besieges Dublin which was also block'd up by the Parliament-Ships now equally Rebels which lay before the Haven The Lord Lieutenant unable to resist so many Enemies and destitute of all hopes of Relief Ormond unable to preserve it delivers it to the English acquainted his Majesty with the present State of Affairs who seeing it impossible to defend the Place commanded him to deliver it rather into the Hands of the Parliamentarians than the Irish An irrefragable Testimony against the black Calumnies of the English Rebels who did not cease to accuse his Majesty of Intelligence with the Irish But it will not seem very strange to Posterity that the Miscreants of the Faction should endeavour to assassinate the Fame of this glorious Sufferer when they had already usurped his Authority and that all the steps they made tended to the martyrizing of his Person 'T is true their Brethren of Ireland pretended That they were owned and authorised by his Majesty and to amuse and engage the silly Crowd shewed them a fictitious Commission with a Great Seal affixed to it belonging to a Patent of the Lord Caulefield which Sir Phelim O Neal took together with the said Lord in the Castle of Charlemont Which he afterwards confessed at his Tryal and being urged further by the Judges to declare Why he did so deceive the People He repsied That no Man could blame him to use all Means whatsoever to promote that Cause he had so far engaged in Although this Sir Phelim had been the principal and bloodiest of all the Rebels yet before Sentence he was offered his Liberty and his Estate if he would prove he had had such a Commission from the King But he generously answered He could not and That he would not further burthen his Conscience by unjust calumniating the King The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Rebels Being upon the Gallows and ready to be turned off one Peake and another came posting to the Place and crying
aloud Stop pierced the Throng and having whispered a while Sir Phelim answered aloud in the hearing of several Hundreds of Spectators I thank the Lieutenant General for his intended Mercy but I declare good People before God and his Holy Angels and all of you that hear me that I never had any Commission from the King for what I have done in levying or prosecuting of this War Nor was it only with him but with several other Prisoners that they most impiously endeavoured by Promises of Life Liberty and Estates and no less abominable Artifices to sooth them to Confessions that might entitle the King to this nefarious Rebellion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 't was thus the Enemy did with exquisite Malice to use the King 's own Expressions in his Divine Meditations mix the Gall and Vinegar of Falsity and Contempt with the Cup of his Affliction charging him not only with Vntruths but such as wherein he had the greatest Share of Loss and Dishonour by what was committed Whereas in all Policy Reason and Religion having least cause to give the least Consent and most grounds of utter Detestation he might be represented by them to the World the more inhumane and barbarous Dublin surrendred to the Parliament The Treaty being concluded with the Committee of Parliament the City was surrendred into their Hands Ormond stipulating amongst other Things a Liberty of going to the King to give him an Accompt of the Progress of that War He found his Majesty in Hampton-Court in the Hands of the Army but seeing how Affairs were carried he withdrew himself into France where he continued until the Confederate Irish terrified with the Preparations made in England to destroy them by their humble Addresses to the Queen and Prince of Wales obtained his Return But it is now time to return into England where upon Essex his being laid aside the Command of the Army was as we have already related given to Sir Thomas Fairfax who with great Industry and Toil modell'd and formed the divers Forces that were dispersed under several Chieftains into one entire Body This being effected he marched from Windsor his head Quarters in the Beginning of May by Orders of the Committee of both Kingdoms to the Relief of Taunton Fairfax marches to the Relief of Taunton which had been long besieged and reduced to great Extremity In the mean Time Cromwell had been sent from Windsor with a strong Party to disturb the King's Preparations about Oxford He defeated two Thousand Horse at Islip-Bridge killing several and taking Four Hundred Horses as also Two Hundred Prisoners with the Queen's Standard Some Runnaways had taken Sanctuary in Blechingdon House where being followed and the Place summoned the unfortunate Governour to gratifie the Fears of his Lady tamely surrendred it which cost him his Life by being shot to Death by the Sentence of a Court-Marshal Sir Willam Vaughan sent with some Foot to Radcot-Bridge was likewise with Two Hundred of his Party intercepted by him Fierce with these Successes and strengthened with Six Hundred Foot from Abington he assaulted Faringdon but not without Loss being bravely received by Sir George Lisle the Governour At the same Time General Goring being sent for by the King to Oxford fell upon Five Hundred of Cromwell's Men under the Command of Whaley near Faringdon where Bethel who led the Van was taken and the rest routed with the Loss of Three Colours But Goring having Intelligence of Fairfax's march Westward returned with all imaginable Haste to oppose his Attempts upon Taunton In the mean time the King taking the Opportunity of Fairfax's Absence sent for his Horse under the Command of his Nephews Rupert and Maurice and marching himself with his Cannon out of Oxford joined them notwithstanding Cromwell and Browne's Endeavour who were commanded to observe him to the contrary His Forces being united for Gerrard having vanquished Langhorne in South-Wales was also come up he grew so formidable the Rebels Army being absent that he was greatly apprehended especially in the associated Counties and neighbouring Countries Fairfax was recalled upon these Apprehensions And though advanced as far as Blainford he there received Counter-Orders commanding his Return which he obeyed sending Col. Welden with betwixt Six and Seven Thousand Men to the succouring of Taunton whilst he himself strengthened with the Addition of Cromwell Browne and some other Chiefs of the Party marches to Oxford and lays Siege to it Besieges Oxford The Royallists at Taunton upon the Approach of Welden supposing the whole Army to be there removed from the Town but perceiving their mistake Goring Hopton and Greenville joining their Forces fight and beat Welden and besiege the Town more closely than before The King relieves Chester The King having united his Forces moved with quick Marches towards Chester one of the Loyallest and Chief Cities of his Party then besieged by Sir William Brereton who drew off upon Report of his Majesty's Advance The King thereupon wheeling about flies to Liecester and by Summons commands the Town to be surrendred to him The Place lying in a fertile Country was also well stored with Ammunition and Provision The Committee of the Shire was then there and consulting with the Townsmen about the Summons told the Messenger they would return an Answer next Morning But that being refused and but one Hour's Space granted for Consultation by a Drum sent on purpose whilst they delayed the Cannon began to play which together with the small Shot they continued to do without Intermission that Evening and the following Night The next Morning the Town was assaulted in many Places at once Leicester taken and after a stout Defence forced The Garrison embodied again upon the Market-Place and continued the Fight with great Resolution till being oppressed with Numbers they were defeated with a great Slaughter The Plunder of the Place followed which was great the Governour * Colonel Gray and the Committee with several other Officers and Gentlemen being made Prisoners The King's Affairs much heightned with this Victory were judged by most Men not inferiour to the Enemies And he himself thought no less when he writ to the Queen in these Terms I may without being too sanguine affirm That since this Rebellion my Affairs were never in so hopeful a Way The Men at Westminster terrified with the Greatness of the Danger and in no less Disquiet by reason of the Diffidence and Dissensions amongst themselves which every Success on the King's Side would improve dispatch'd sudden Commands to Fairfax who had thus long trifled at the Siege of Oxford That be should forthwith follow the King and having overtaken him fight him if possible and so decide the controversie by Battel This City seated in the middle of the Kingdom was a great Eye-sore to the Faction Besides it extreamly incommoded London and being the Royal-Seat of the King and head of the contrary Party it seemed great to attempt it Nor
the City with his Troops whilst he himself followed with the main Army in order to a formal Siege This obliged the King to think of a Retreat He had attempted all ways of Peace and invited those barbarous Tyrants at Westminster to it though neglected by near Twenty Messages They refused a Pass for the Duke of Lenox with Propositions though the King had in vain conjured their Assent they being then as they said themselves upon others to be sent to his Majesty They also flatly refuse the Scots Commissioners who pressed for a Treaty pretending to great interruption in their Affairs by the delays and difficulties the joint Councils of both Kingdoms produced And therefore vote That the King's Answer shall be desired to their Propositions without Treaty And being indeed weary of the Scots they also voted That they do intend to carry on the War of Ireland with the Forces of England and that the Scots Forces should be called away The Parliament design to gratifie their Grandees In their Debate about the Propositions to be sent the King they think it time to gratifie their Grandees and in order to it Vote That Sir Thomas Fairfax be made a Baron with Five Thousand Pound per Annum settled upon him and that his Father be made an Earl Cromwel a Baron and two Thousand five Hundred Pound per Annum Northumberland Essex Warwick Pembroke Dukes Salisbury Manchester Marquesses Roberts Say Willouby of Taram Wharton Howard Earls Sir William Waller a Baron Hazelrigg Stapelton Barons each Two Thousand Pound per An. Vane a Baron Brown fifteen hundred Pounds per An. and Skippon a Thousand Pound Thus they were dividing the spoil whilst the good King offered provided they would suffer his Friends to live securely at home whatever the most nefarious of Criminals could desire to wit An Act of Oblivion for what is past the Fruition of all they had acquired Accession to Offices and Dignities And because they might have no colour or pretence for Jealousies and Suspicions he would immediately disband all his Forces and would not only return to his Parliament but also ratifie whatever they should judge necessary for restoring his afflicted Kingdoms to their former Tranquillity But all this was absolutely refused by these modest Men who at length laying the Veil of Hypocrisie aside did not blush to declare to the whole World That there was nothing less in their thoughts than what they had so often solemnly declared promised protested vowed and sworn to perform which was To rescue the King out of the hands of Evil Counsellors and to bring him back to his Parliament Nay now they take care by Proclamation that he shall not come and command their Militia-Officers in case he attempted it to secure his Person and detain all his followers Prisoners The King perceiving himself in such unusuall streights this potent Monarch of three Kingdoms and sometimes Supream Arbitrator of Peace and War knows not now where to lay his Head Heu faciles dare summa Deos eademque tueri Difficiles He therefore reassumes his Thoughts of a Retreat Being rejected by the Parliament The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army he had a design to throw himself into the Arms of the Army but being refused by these also he puts himself into disguise And accompanied only with two Attendants Ashburnham of his Bed-Chamber and Hudson a Divine he left Oxford and conveyed himself to the Scots Army then at the Siege of Newark Monsieur Montrueil the French Resident then in the Scotch Camp had stipulated for security and equitable conditions for his Majesty who upon that confidence and the assurance he had entertained of his Countrymen's Loyalty as he wrote to the Marquess of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland he cast himself into their Protection May 1646. Some thought he was gone into Wales still true however oppressed to his Interests Others that he was withdrawn into Scotland to the renowned Montross and not a few were of opinion that he was conceal'd in the City Which the Parliament so far believed that they declared by beat of Drum and sound of Trumpet That what Person soever shall harbour or conceal or know of the harbouring or concealing of the King's Person and shall not reveal it immediately to the Speakers of both Houses shall be proceeded against as a Traytor to the Commonwealth forfeit his Estate and die without Mercy A while after contrary to the opinion of all Men he was rumoured to be in the Scottish Camp which was also signified to the Grandees at Westminster by the Commander in chief of the Scots Army The pretended Parliament as soon as they were informed of the King's Departure and were assured of his being in the Scotch Army desire and require of the Scotch Commissioners at London and of the Scots General in the Camp That they would deliver his Majesty into their Hands to be secured in Windsor-Castle until the Parliament should otherwise dispose of him Moreover they barbarously Vote That the King by going to the Scots Army He goes with the Army to Newcastle did prolong the War against the Parliament and foment the Discord betwixt the Two Nations But the Scots not ignorant of the value of their purchase gave no Ear to their Dear Brethren but breaking up with their Army a Rumour being spread that Cromwell was advancing towards them with all his Horse marched in haste to Newcastle with the King affirming That as his Majesty came to their Camp of his own Accord so he followed it with the same Liberty the Army neither perswading nor opposing him And this was a place garrisoned with their own Soldiery and near the Confines of their own Country The Royallists being as is related shut up in their Fortresses and languishing with the despair of Relief some of them taking occasion from their adverse Fortune surrender'd upon demand Whilst others defended themselves till they were forced as Col. Stanhop at Shelford or famished out as the Heroick Countess of Darby at Lathome-House which she had kept two Years against all the Insults of the Rebels But the Fate of Hereford was more dismal which having baffled and beat the Scots from her Walls was not able to prevent the surprizal of a less considerable Enemy The Colonels Morgan and Birch with Two Thousand Men drawn out of Gloucester and other neighbouring Garrisons by the favour of an obscure Night and a quick March accomplished the Enterprize For having sent Six choice Souldiers with a Lieutenant who pretended to be a Constable all in Country-Habits Hereford miserably surprized early to the Gate the said fictitious Constable calling to the Guard told them That he was come thither with his Men according to the Governour 's Command to break the Ice in the Moat expecting only till the Bridge was let down Being admitted with their Rural Instruments which they carried for show they immediately making use of the Arms they had under their
relate what things were performed by the Royallists in Scotland and briefly to insert them in our Commentaries Which will be the less difficult seeing they are for the most part extracted out of the History of Montross writ in fine Latin by the most Reverend Bishop of Edenburg Doctor Wishart The Scots the cause of all our Evils deserve to be treated with a more severe style The History of Montross but that we find also even in this Nation several Persons of Honour and known Vertue who signaliz'd themselves by the Eminency of their Loyalty and Endeavours for the King's Preservation Amongst these Montross deservedly challenged the first rank who performed such stupendious feats of Arms with such slender means having neither Soldiers nor Pay to begin with that we may equally wonder that he undertook as that he effected them He had formerly been of the Covenanters Party in Scotland and was the first that led his Men over Tweed in the first Scotch Invasion But when he perceived that his Countrymen design'd not only the King's Ruine but that of Monarchy too he resolved to quit them He also wrote to the King to testifie his Obedience But his Letters were stole out of His Majesty's Pockets by some of his Bed-chamber and Copies of them conveyed to the Confederates as also notice of the King's Letters to Montross which were intercepted stitched up in a Saddle as had been notified This being perceived he resolved in Person to wait upon the King at Oxford Which he did and discovered to His Majesty the Counsels and Designs of the Confederates but in vain the Faction of the Hamiltons being too prevalent at Court which continued until the Scots did actually enter England The King then perceiving himself abused sent Hamilton Prisoner to Pendennis-Castle and at the same time sent Montross into Scotland as chief Governour of the same The King indeed had ordered the Marquess of Newcastle to furnish him with some Forces for the Expedition And Prince Rupert after the fatal Battel of Marston-Moor had promised him a Body of Horse but all came to nothing insomuch that he entred Scotland with only two Companions himself disguis'd in the habit and garb of a Groom and by swift Journeys came to the Banks of the River Tai where he lay close for some days in the house of Patrick Grimes his Kinsman a Person of great worth and Loyalty Here he understood how all the King's Friends had been suppressed by the tyranny of the Rebels The Marquess of Huntley had indeed raised a considerable Army but he quitted those Arms he had rashly taken up upon the first noise of the Enemies Trumpets saving himself by Flight Montross troubled with the misfortune of the Gurdons began to cast about how and by what means he might draw this brave and Loyal People to his Party that they might again try the fortune of War under another General In the mean time there was a rumour spread amongst the Shepherds who watched their Flocks in the Mountains though very uncertain of several Irish who being wafted over Some Irish Land in Scotland kept themselves in the Northern Highlands Montross fancied this possible and that they were of those Auxiliaries which the Earl of Antrim had promised a few Months before Which he also found to be true as well by Alexander Macdonnel's Letters who commanded them as by others from several of his Friends in the Mountains Having received these by accident he answered them as if he had been at Carlisle encouraging them highly with assurances that they should neither want Assistance nor a General Ordering them at the same time to descend with all speed into Athol Which they did with Joy upon the immediate Receipt of these Commands sooner than could imaginably be expected Montross who was scarce twenty Miles off with his Cousin Patrick habited like a Mountaineer and on foot surprizingly met them which also happened very opportunely they being in great danger of being destroyed For the Marquess of Argile followed them close with a great Army whilst the Low-landers attended them in the Plains where if they descended they could not escape being trod to pieces under their Horses Feet The Ships which had brought them over to take away all hopes of a Retreat were burnt by Argile Nor would the Atholians or others who favoured the King run any hazard with them they being strangers had no known Authority nor could produce any Person of ancient Nobility which the High-landers chiefly reverence to head them To this their number was small not exceeding eleven Hundred whereas ten Thousand were promised Montross heads them the Atholians come in to him with 800 Men. But Montross his Presence who was received by them as if dropt from Heaven seemed to compensate all these defects and in two days the Atholians to the number of eight Hundred and armed presented themselves with great Alacrity to Montross Being thus accompanied he the same day marched through the Fields of Athol towards Ierna with design to open a passage for his Friends and Supplies if any such should be stirr'd up with the fame of his undertaking before it should be shut up by the Enemy surprized perhaps with the novelty of the thing before they could rejoin their divided Forces Having passed the Tai the greatest River in Scotland he was strengthened by the accession of five hundred Men as also the Lord Kilpont and Sir Jo. Drummond with 500 Men. under the Command of the Lord Kilpont and Sir John Drummond They as well as others had been summoned by the Confederates to oppose the Irish as common Enemies but as soon as they heard that Montross did command they both without any hesitation for both tho' privately favoured the King's Cause joined Forces with him Heightened with these supplies he beat the Enemy consisting of six thousand Foot and seven hundred horse commanded by the Lord of Elchon and the Earl of Tullibardin at Tippermoor Montross had no Horse at all He therefore to prevent by reason of the inequality of their numbers being surrounded extended his Front as much as possible so that his Files being but three deep the first Rank was commanded to kneel The Battel of Tippermoor the second to stoop and the third where the properest Men were to shoot standing and all to fire at once and then to fall in with the Butt-ends of their Muskets and their drawn Swords All which was valiantly performed but they wanting Powder and not being well Armed they fought with such Weapons as chance furnished them with throwing Stones with such activity and animosity at the Enemy that they forced them first to give Ground then to run away The slain were reckoned at two Thousand and more taken Perth was surrender'd to Montross the same day where having rested three more he was informed that Argile was marching towards him with a strong Army He therefore re-passing the Tai encamped at Cupr in Angus lying then
as well-nigh always in the open Field Passing thence by Taodan he marched to Esk where he met with the old Earls of Arley with his Sons and a brave train of Friends and Attendants Here he had intelligence that the Lord Burgley was at Aberdene of Aberdene with design to draw the Northern Parts by Money or Force to join with him Which Montross understanding having passed the River Dee he found the Enemy drawn up in Battel Array near the City Burgley had two thousand Foot and five hundred Horse which he placed in the Wings and having chosen his Ground and planted his Cannon at the head of his Army expected the onset Montross had but fifteen hundred Foot for the Lord of Kilpont's Men were gone home to convoy the Body of their Lord who had been murther'd by one of his own Servants and very many of the Atholians were also returned loaden with Plunder after the Victory of Perth and not yet come up to the Army He also placed his Horse which were but four and forty in the Wings Adding some of his Foot to them who for their Agility and Strength were equal to Horses enjoyning them to have a care lest the Enemies Troops surrounded them Which they also valiantly performed for the Charge being given the Enemy was defeated slaughtered routed The Horse escaped for the most part but the Foot having no place to retreat to but the City fled thither But being closely pursued by the Conquerours entring Pell-mell with them the Streets were strowed with their slain Bodies Two days being allowed the Soldiers to refresh in Montross was informed that Argile was advancing with far greater Forces than formerly being also accompanied with the Earl of Lothan with Fifteen Hundred Horse He therefore left Aberdeen and marched to Kintor from whence he determined to lead his Forces to the Mountains and Places of most difficult access In order to this he buried his Cannon in the Earth and disburthened himself of his heaviest Baggage But the Enemy pressing on all sides he marched to Badenoth that he might be out of the danger of their Cavalry those Quarters being scarce passable for Horse The Enemy having left pursuing him he was surprized by a fit of Sickness which extreamly harassed him for some days but being recovered he marched again into Angus hoping either to force Argile tired with tedious Marches into Winter Quarters or to leave him far behind him Having traversed Angus and passed over the Grampian Mountain he came to Strath-bogy to invite the Gordons with his Presence to a Conjunction of Arms with him But in vain being opposed by the Marquess of Huntley who though he did not hate the King envied the glories of Montross too much to contribute to their greatness He went thence to the Castle of Favia which he took but being sharply attacked there by Argile and Lothan had much to do to resist their Power which he yet did by his own Vertue and the rare Valour of his Men. Many days being thus spent at Favia Argile got nothing with so great an Army but Infamy from his Friends and Contempt from his Enemy Montross baffles Argile who flies to Perth Sometime after Montross understanding Argile to be at Deucalidon without his Horse resolved to attempt him which coming to his knowledge Montross being as yet sixteen Miles off he commanded his Men to shift for themselves whilst he secured himself by his flight to Perth Montross being of opinion that an Enemy could be no where so advantageously assaulted as in his own Country flew with incredible speed and industry into Argile where having forced the Marquess to save himself again in a Boat he destroyed and filled the Province with Blood Slaughter Rapine and Fire Nor were the other Neighbouring Countries as Lorn and the rest that acknowledged the Dominion of Argile better used The Royallists having quitted these Quarters they at length met with Argile at Innerlock but charged him with such Fury that they broke their Ranks and pursuing with a great shout defeated them with a great slaughter killing above Fifteen Hundred upon the place Whilst Argile himself placed in a Boat and put off from Shore saw the ruine of his Men at a distance and without any share of the danger After this the Citizens of Elgin surrender'd their Town of their own accord at which time the Lord Gourdon The noble Lord Gourdon joins with Montross and eldest Son to the Marquess of Huntley a Person above all Commendation for the eminency of his Vertues left his Uncle Argile and came over to the King's Party with a very choice Squadron of Friends and Dependants Montross heightened with this accession forced Hurrey Commander of the Rebels Horse refusing to fight upon his Invitation to a Retreat and offered Bayly sent for purposely out of England to whom Hurrey was also joined by a Trumpeter the liberty of Battel But he replied That when he was disposed to Engage it should be by his own not anothers choice The Royallists marched forward to Deucalidon and designing to pass the Tai were upon the point of being ruined by a very mischievous accident which they could not forsee Lodowick Gordon who had born Arms at Aberdeen on the Rebels side had by the mediation of his Noble Brother his Brother Lodowick deserts the army which greatly distresses Montross been reconciled to the King's Party But now whether upon real or pretended Letters from his Father having privately seduced most of the Gordons to a defection carried them away exposing thereby his Brother and Montross to very imminent danger And truly it may be a question whether of these excellent Persons most hated this Perfidy Montross highly troubled with this defection thought how to secure the rest and immediately sent the weakest of them away with all his Baggage with Command to meet him at Brechin This done he with an Hundred and Fifty Horse which was all he had and Six Hundred nimble Footmen marched with incredible Speed to Taodun which he assaulted took and plundered He himself stood upon a Hill which overlook'd the Town when sudden news was brought him that Bayly and Hurrey were with Three Thousand Foot Montross's noble retreat from Taodun and Eight Hundred Horse within a Mile of the Place By that time he had got his Men out of the City which was not done without extream difficulty being scarce to be withdrawn from their Plundering the Enemy was come up within Musket-shot of him His Retreat was admirable wherein he shewed himself no less a worthy Commander than he had done in his former Victories Some advised the General to reserve himself for better times and secure himself by flight with his Horse and others under these desperate Circumstances were of opinion they should not perish unrevenged But he complying with neither instantly sent Four Hundred Foot before and commanding the other Two Hundred to follow he himself closed the Rear with his Horse
The Enemy discovering their number and seeing them so few divided their Forces and followed after them very eagerly not only coming up with them in their Rear and Flank but endeavouring to obstruct their passage to the Mountains The Rebels forlorn of Horse pressed hard upon Montross's Rear but his Foot facing about fired upon them and having slain the three foremost rendred the rest more cautious and the pursuit less hot The darkness of the Night put an end to these Skirmishes By this they were come near Aberbroth where Montross considering that the Enemy might have intercepted the direct way to the Hills with his numerous Horse commanded his Men to turn to the South-westward and march with all imaginable speed by which artifice and incredible toil he deluded his Pursuers slipping by them in the night and wheeling suddenly Northwards he passed the Esk not far from the Castle of Careston And having after some light Skirmishes and a continued March of threescore Miles without Sleep without Meat or any other refreshment gained the foot of the Mountains the Enemy at length left them retiring from their fruitless pursuit Being thus beyond their hopes come into a place of security Montross sent the Lord Gourdon as well to recal those Troops his Brother had debauched as also to augment them by new Levies which he also performed with great industry joining the General in Marr with a Thousand Foot and Two Hundred Horse Being thus inforced the Royallists defeated Hurrey with Three Thousand Foot and Five Hundred Horse at Alderna The Fight at Alderna and Alford where the Lord Gourdon was slain he himself hardly escaping with the Horse Nor was Bayly the most knowing of the Enemies Captains more fortunate at Alford where having left his Foot he also fled with his Horse which the most untimely fall of the noble Lord Gourdon contributed to a loss irreparable to the King and his Party and which cast such a damp upon the Victory that the Soldiers overcome with Sorrow wore the countenance of a baffled not conquering Army But Montross after this strengthened with a numerous recruit of High-landers and by the accession of the Earl of Aboyne who succeeded his Brother Gourdon and Arley who were come up to him with Three Hundred Horse resolved to penetrate into the inmost parts of the Kingdom as well to disturb the Enemies Levies in Fife as to dissipate the Convention of the States at Perth Being come into Fife the richest and most popular Province of the Kingdom he resolved to pass the Forth Which he also did four Miles above Sterling and marching forward encamped at Kilsythe The Rebels fierce with their multitudes thought that Montross's late Marches and his hasty passing of the Forth were the effects of his Fear not Counsel So that they resolve to attack him in that place he had chosen their chief care being to cut off all Retreats especially to the Mountains Montross's Army consisted of Four Thousand Five Hundred Foot and Five Hundred Horse the Rebels of Six Thousand Foot and Eight Hundred Horse But their fortune the same for the Royallists animated by the rare Valour of the old Earl of Arley who being sixty years of age did with his single Troop defeat Three of the Enemy's and dis-engaged a Battalion of Montross's Foot The Battel of Kilsythe too rashly advanced which gave such universal Courage to the whole Army that raising a great Shout they all ran upon the Enemy beat down such as resisted and ruined all scarce One Hundred of the Foot escaping The Arms Baggage and Spoils of the Field were the present reward of the Victors who lost only six Men whereas near Six Thousand of the Enemy fell that day Upon this the Confederate Lords fled out of the Kingdom and such who favour'd the King did no more scruple to discover themselves This Victory having produced a new face of things over the whole Kingdom reconciled the Cities and Provinces thereof to their duty to the King Which he had also maintained if the Horse which His Majesty had sent with the Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale had as he hoped come up to him But these being dispersed as is said in England he found other Forces than those he expected thence For the Confederates upon the fame of his Atchievements had sent David Lesley with Six Thousand Horse who by their intelligence with the Earls of Trequair and Rosburg whom the King had unhappily trusted surprized and defeated him at Selkirk The Royallists surprized at Selkirk Montross leaves Scotland Yet did not so far oppress him but that he afterwards became formidable again But the King being in the Scots Army he was by his Majesty's Command forced to dismiss his Soldiers leaving his Country to the disposal of the Confederates It is now high time to return to Holmbey and take a view of His Majesty's Diversions in that wretched Solitude Amongst other things seeing he heard nothing from the Parliament he composed an Answer to the Propositions formerly sent to him Wherein besides many unexpected Concessions he promised To comply with the rest provided he were suffered to come to London But having no Secretary or Clerk to transcribe what he had writ he desired one from the Commissioners attending him otherwise he would himself scrible it over as well as he could This was rejected as soon as sent although he had assented to most and desired a Personal Treaty for the rest they being deaf to his demands and whilst he was thus earnest for Peace Vote him averse to it affirming moreover how falsely The King 's miserable restraint at Holmbey That he had never offer'd them any thing worthy their Acceptation or accepted of any thing they had presented to him In this extremity he turns to God and withdrawing himself writ those Divine Soliloquies which compose his Book spending that leisure time with Heaven which was not permitted him to employ with any he delighted in here below This Book as it surpasseth all other except the Bible in Piety Prudence and Eloquence of Style so it containeth a true and genuine discovery of the state of affairs and consequently fit to be read of all good Men and such who would be satisfied in the reality of our Transactions In the mean time the Pretended Parliament force away the miserable from the unfortunate For seeing the King's unhappiness and restraint had not so far divested Men of that Veneration they owed him but that many sick of that Disease called the Kings-Evil came to him to be healed the Novellists more out of envy than grounded in reason endeavoured tho' to no purpose by Declarations to divert the People from this pretended Superstition as they called it Although all the Kings of England have ever since the time of Edward the Confessor who received this Prerogative from Heaven made use of it with success The Rebels being now Masters of the King and Kingdom having supplanted the true Heir
requiring That the Treaty with the King might be renewed and the Army paid off and disbanded But their reception was very rude being beaten and plundered and slain by their Guards Insomuch that the Kentish-men having likewise framed a Petition for Peace upon the like usage by a Party of Horse and being threatned to have two harged out of each Parish that were Promoters of it and the rest sequestered they threw away their Paper and betook them to their Arms. The first appearance of an Insurrection broke out in the City of London being accidental not upon the King's Accompt The Parliament had piously voted down Holy-days abrogating all the Festivals of the Church having appointed one Day in every Month in lieu of them for Publik Recreations The Apprentices as usually had met in some Numbers in Moor-Fields on the 9th of April to play and divert themselves But this being Sunday moved the Zeal of some precize Schismatical Officers of the Trained-Bands who with their Guards would force them away but were themselves routed by the Boys with Stones and Clubs who also took their Colours from them and in a Childish Bravery marching into the Streets frighted Warner the then Mayor into his House and taking away a Drake from his Door Planted it at Lud-Gate nearest the Foe the Army then about White-Hall But Fairfax on the Morrow following ent'ring with some Regiments of Horse and Foot at Alders-Gate easily dispersed them though then numerous no Person of Quality undertaking their Conduct The Fame of this tumultuous Insurrection or rather Riot was quickly noised throughout the Kingdom which although strangled in its Infancy seemed to animate the oppressed populace to follow the Example whereby they might redeem themselves and Liberties from their impending slavery The Welch were the first that took up Arms under the Conduct of Major General Laughorn The Welch in Armes and the Collonels Poyer and Powell all Three formerly stiff Assertors of the Parliaments Jurisdiction But now being to be disbanded by Orders of the Council of War of the Army they refuse to obey And the better to secure themselves declare for the King acting by Commission and Powers from the then Prince of Wales Laughorn grew suddenly by the accession of Major General Stradling and others of the King's Party to a considerable Army esteemed Eight Thousand strong which rendered him Master of the Town and Castles of Pembroke and Tenby Sir Nicholas Kemish at the same time surprized Chepstow Castle and Sir John Owen another eminent Cavalier in North wales defeated and took the High-Sheriff of Caernarvan So that all Wales seemed at once to shake off that cruel Yoak they laboured under Nor were the preparatives for a War of the Kentish-men less considerable For As also the Kentishmen Rendezvouzing near Rochester they chose the Earl of Norwich then upon the place to be their General Very many Apprentices and reformed Officers and Souldiers flocked from London daily to them Insomuch that the Juncto terrified with the apprehension of what might happen restored to the City their Militia which they feared otherwise might be extorted from them hoping by this Confidence to render them more addicted to their interest Which also happened not upon sentiments of generosity but to manifest their aversness to oppressed Monarchy even then when it was in their Power to restore it Skippon being also readmitted to the Command of their Forces the Communication with Kent was interrupted by placing Guards upon the Passages of the River But the Clouds that threatned the fiercest storm gathered in the North where Sir Marmaduke Langdale Sir Charles Lucas and others having surprized the strong Town of Berwick Berwick and Carlile surprized and Sir Phillip Musgrave and Sir Thomas Glenham that of Carlile and raised considerable Forces to joyn with the Scots now ready to enter England seemed no less able than willing to effect what they pretended the King's Restitution Though it be true that the Scots-Declaration had so many untoward Restrictions in it that nothing but the Frank Loyalty of the Royallists could joyn with them Upon the first noise of the Scots arming many English repaired into Scotland which obliged them at Westminster by their Deputies to require the delivery of the chief of them as Incendiaries They named particularly Wogan who carried a Troop thither with Sir Thomas Glenham and others But the Scots refused it seeing it was not stipulated in the Treaties betwixt both Nations They not judging those to be Incendiaries between the Two Kingdoms but only between the King and England These Revolts and Preparations for a new War did strangely disquiet the pretended Parliament who thereupon reviving their Votes of 1642. declare That it appears that the King seduced by wicked Counsel though then a close Prisoner intends to make War against the Parliament Cromwell being dispatcht against the Welch with great Forces the Kentish Expedition was not thought unworthy Fairfax's Conduct He therefore marches with Six Thousand Foot and Two Thousand Horse against the Cavaliers who being fatally divided whilst they Fight singly by Parties they are all overcome Fifteen Hundred stout Men were sent to Maidstone Fairfax defeats the Kentish-men to oppose their Enemies Passage there who fought with so much Valour that after they had been beaten from the Avenues and Hedges they kept that Town firing from the Houses and Leads about the space of Six Hours with great slaughter of the Enemy So that it is believed if the Earl of Norwich had come up with the rest of the Army to their Assistance the Rebels might have been defeated that Day But he dividing his Forces sent half of them to Dover and himself marched with the rest to Black-heath and being denied a Passage through the City which had been promised him he Ferries and Swims his small Army over to the Isle of Doggs From thence he moved to Mild-end-Green But seeing none come out of London to his relief as he expected he himself with only Five Hundred the rest being upon the obstinacy of the Citizens slipt from him joyned with the Essexians at Bow under the Command of Sir Charles Lucas They all stay'd here some time to favour any Loyal Attempt that might be made at London until warned by the approach of Fairfax who having dispatcht Rich and Barkstead with their Regiments to reduce those Castles which the Kentish had taken towards the Downs had passed the Thames at Graves-End they were also forced to dislodge And marching further into the Country seized store of Arms and Ammunition in the Earl of Warwick's House at Lees and having surprized the Parliament-Committee at Chelmsford went thence to Colchester where the brave Lord Capell joyned them with some Horse And all of them received the Van of Fairfax's Army with such Gallantry at the Towns-end that they forced them to retire to their main Body with considerable Loss They had designed to march further if they had not been so
closely pursued by the Enemy with Hopes of strong Assistance from the Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk But these failing and indeed joyning with the Rebels contrary to their solemn Promises the Royallists were besieged in this Town no way tenable but by the rare Fortitude of the Defendants Cromwell the Welch Nor was Cromwell less successful in Wales Laughorn having been beaten at St. Fagons by Col. Horton with scarce half his Number Fifteen Hundred of his Men being killed and near Three Thousand taken Prisoners Cromwell besieged the Fugitives in Pembroke having first taken Tenby Castle and forced that of Chepstow by Col. Eure who slew the Governour in cold Blood The Rumor of the Scots Invasion greatly encreasing animated Cromwell to employ all his skill and force for the Reduction of this important Post The Garrison within was strong and the Place well fortified which he resolved however to attempt by Storm And falling on with great Courage was as bravely received and at length beaten off with great slaughter of his Men. After this not thinking it adviseable to expose his dismayed Souldiers to new hazards he resolves to gain that by famine which he could not effect by force Which being perceived by the Garrison they chose rather to surrender upon Terms than lanquish in the Toyls of a long Siege tho they saw a Prospect of a General Rising in the Kingdom and the certainty of the Scots Invasion But Cromwell knowing how precious time was offering the Souldiery and Inferior Officers very good Conditions he had this strong Place with the Three chief Leaders Laughorn Poyer and Powell delivered into his hands by these faithless Miscreants Nor was Sir John Owen more fortunate in North Wales being defeated and taken Prisoner by Colonel Mitton So that the whole Country being reduced to the Parliaments Obedience again Cromwell was at liberty to march against the Scots with all his Power The Earl of Holland defeated The Earl of Holland the Duke of Buckingham with the L. Francis his Brother the Earl of Peterborough and some others of Quality appeared near Kingston with Five Hundred Horse and some Foot but were instantly suppressed tho not without some bloody Shirmishes in one of which the Young and Generous Lord Francis refusing Quarter was barbarously slain by an unknown Hand Holland was taken in his flight at St. Neots by Col. Scroop where Dalbier sometime a Favourite of Essex's and a great Parliamentarian was killed in his Quarters But the Scots seem now to demand our Attention being advanced with a very numerous and well accoutred Army far into the Kingdom And here may be observed the Vicissitudes of the Times as well as of Affairs For the Scots whom the Parliament had formerly with great Endeavours and Charges allured to their Assistance and whom the War being done they had likewise twice dismissed with vast Rewards as Friends These same Scots the Faction being changed become Enemies and invading England again joyn Forces with the Royallists their now reconciled Friends against their sometimes dear Brethren of the Parliament Duke Hamilton upon the surrender of Pendennis Castle where he had been detained Prisoner by the King's Command being set at liberty was now General of this great Army consisting of Fifteen Thousand fighting Men to whom Langdale and Musgrave brought Three Thousand English which forces if God had not determined otherwise might have effected what they designed As soon as the King was informed that Hamilton commanded the Scots Army he too prophetically foretold the Fatal Issue of the Expedition as fancying him unfortunate or inconstant But Cromwell being come out of Wales with a victorious and disciplined Army and joyning with Lambert who had hitherto attended the Enemies Motion fell upon the main Body of the Scots within Two Miles of Preston in Lancashire and routed them by Skirmishes Cromwell defeats the Scots at Preston and beating up of Quarters without the Formality of a Battle Langdale and his English fought bravely but being neglected and no ways succoured were oppressed by the adverse Multitudes The Scots presumed perhaps upon their own Power and thinking to conquer by themselves and consequently reap the whole Advantage of the Victory as also the entire Honour of restoring the King if they had any such design abandoned them that fought so well and by this foolish precaution or presumption contributed to their own ruin Besides the Scots Forces either by Ignorance or Malice or Discord for Hamilton and Calander who was Lieutenant-General of the Army did not agree well were so untowardly marshalled that they could not all be brought to fight or assist each other by reason of the over great distance of their Wings whereby they were all defeated Bayly after sharp encounters with those who pursued him having recovered Warrington-Bridge delivered up himself and Four Thousand Foot to the Conqueror upon Quarter Major-General Midleton was intercepted with Four Hundred Horse and Hamilton himself General of the Expedition with Three Thousand Horse was taken without a Blow at Vttoxeter by the Lord Gray and Colonel Waite Very few returning by the way they came met with Monroe who followed Hamilton with a Supply of Six Thousand more but hearing of the Defeat returned with the other Fugitives back into Scotland Cromwell following in the Rear of these came to Edinburgh where joyning Forces and Councils with Argile by whom he had been invited they not only obliged the contrary Faction to lay down Arms but having summoned another Parliament condemned the late Expedition as unjust Scotland being pacified Cromwell secure on that side having also concerted with Argile concerning the Ruin of the King and Extirpation of Monarchy it self they also advised and agreed on the Form and Method of the future Regicide And so after sumptuous Treats and many high Expressions of Gratitude and Acknowledgments for his meritorious Services Cromwell returned into England All this while Colchester held out with incredible Courage and Constancy upon hopes of Relief from the Scots and not only content to defend themselves did extreamly annoy the Enemy by their frequent Sallies and Camisadoes They had consumed their Horses Dogs Cats and what else was no less abhorring to Nature but their hopes with the defeat of Hamilton being likewise spent they were forced to surrender Which they did upon no other Terms than Quarter for life to the Souldiery and Mercy to the Officers But Colchester surrendred how cruel the Mercies of these Scelerates were instantly appears for they had no sooner possest the Town but Three most Noble Persons Men of Eminent Valour and Loyalty the Lord Capell Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to whom was added Sir Bernard Gascoyn but exempted upon the accompt of being a Stranger were sentenced to be shot to death by the Court-Marshal tho the War was done Sir George and Sir Charles were immediately murthered by Souldiers appointed for the Slaughter The Stone they fell upon being sprinkled with their Blood could
premeditated Parricide removed the King the designed Sacrifice to their hellish Ambition hurried from one Prison to another was brought to Windsor where the usual Ceremonies of the Knee and other Marks of Honour were laid aside Col. Harrison a Butcher's Son had the Impudence to sit with his Majesty in the Coach with his Hat on leading this most innocent and pious Prince like a Lamb to the Slaughter There were yet some amongst these Barbarians Who could not judge the King obnoxious to Law and seeing they had vanquished him by Arms they did not at all esteem him considerable or to be feared But the furious Novellists pronounce with much bitterness That they will have him forthwith removed Nor durst they who had other Sentiments mutter against them for fear of being expelled Yet these States had a mind to delegate this worst of Employments as being unheard of and beyond all Precedents to be perpetrated by these worst of Men the Souldiery This being perceived the Chief Officers however unnaturally desperate yet decline it thinking it might suffice if they remitted the performance of so villainous an Act to those who sate by their Favour and Permission The Commons therefore of the Lower House being scarce the eight Part of the whole whereof many also were Commanders in the Army so that nâ—thing remained of a Parliament but the Name arrogating the Supream Power to themselves that they might seem to avoid the Infamy of Perjury absolved themselves by an Ordinance from the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy The Commons assume the Supreme Power which they had so often taken to the King thinking perhaps to evade what they had done separately by this conjunct Abjuration This done they Vote That it is Treason by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm in the King of England to levy War against the Parliament And send up the same to the Peers by the Lord Gray of Grooby who rejected it with Indignation as inconsistent with Reason and the Laws of the Land This enraged the Commons who slighting the Assent and Power of the Lords unanimously decree That 1. The People under God are the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled have the Supream Power of the Nation 3. That whatever is enacted or declared for Law by the House of Commons in Parliament hath the force of Law Constitute a High Court of Justice This Foundation being laid they constitute a High Court of Justice without any consideration of the Lords or those Thousands who desired to preserve the King from the Destruction he was threatned with and the Nation from the Guilt of his most Innocent Blood The Scots by their Commissioners protested highly against this pretended Tryal The Dutch deprecated it as of most pernicious consequence to the Reformed Religion Some of the Chief Nobility as the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey endeavoured his Conservation by Prayers and Proffers Offering themselves as being the Chief Ministers of his Will as Hostages for him and by a generous Example of magnanimity in case the Kings pretended Crimes could not be expiated without Blood presented their own to be shed in lieu of his Prince Charles piously endeavoured by all manner of ways to deliver his Father from the impending danger For besides the Dutch Embasladors which his Highness had procured to be sent over to mediate for him he and the Prince of Orange enquired after and sent for such Officers or others in that Country who were of Kindred or related to Cromwell Ireton or any other of the Conspirators and sent them into England with full Power to offer present promise and yield to every thing mingling Thrâ—ats with their Entreaties that might divert them from their designed Parricide or at least retard it The Queen was no less active on her side to save her Royal Consort Endeavors to preserve the King who also writ to Lenthall the Speaker in terms capable to mollify every thing except these Hyrconian Monsters which Letters were also delivered by the French Embassador but laid by without being opened Nor could there any thing in those days be expected from France labouring then with the same Frenzy of Rebellion Amongst others the Presbyterian Preachers who had betrayed the King into these Streights pierced with the Infamy of their Treasons and perhaps apprehending their own turns in case the Independants should persist very earnestly besought and conjured them by monitory Letters Petitions and Remonstrances as also admonished and exhorted them out of their Pulpits to desist from their designed enterpize Lest they should defile the English Nation with so horrid a Guilt as that of Regicide For that execrable fact could not be perpetrated without violating the Obligation of so many Oaths as they had taken without breaking the Publick Faith exhibited by so many Protestations and Declarations without transgressing the Law of Nature and Nations and finally without prostituting the Dictates of the Scripture and our Religion But all this was to no purpose as also the Princes sending of them White Paper to write their own Conditions For nothing seemed enough to them who had swallowed all the Hopes of Empire and were ready to ascend into the Throne They therefore name One Hundred and Fifty of the most Petulant of the Faction and the most adverse to Monarchy to judge the King Some of the Nobility whom they had pitcht upon as also the Judges however raised to that Dignity by them for daring to declare That it was not lawful to bring the King of England to Tryal were expunged out of that black Catalogue others being introduced in their places A suborned Prophetess produced to encourage their Villainy But to encourage the doubtings of the less Perswaded and entitle their Actions to Providence these divine Jugglers produced an Impostor a Virgin they called her out of Hertfordshire who told the Officers of the Army That she had a Message from Heaven to them and being admitted affirmed That God did approve of their Designs Which did exceedingly encourage the most wavering The Contemptibleness of the Judges did in some sort aggravate their Crimes many Petty-foggers Brewers Carr-men Goldsmiths Coblers and other Mechanicks being of the Number who thirsting after the King's Revenues as well as his Blood were forward to perpetrate any mischief how tremendous soever At this Tribunal the King was impleaded baited and condemned unheard unconvict as Guilty of those Crimes of Treason Tyranny and Murther which those incarnate Divels his Judges had committed I had purposed to omit the Particulars of this Black Tragedy as being exactly described already by better Pens But lest these Commentaries might prove imperfect it was thought requisite to present the Curious if this empty Narrative can render any such with an Abridgment of the same Quamquam animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit The pretended Court of High Justice having spent some days in settling
the Method and Formalities of their Proceedings rejected the Opinions of such who would have the King first deposed and then put to Death as dangerous by its delay and savouring of Popery But those who gaped after the Government the Democratick would have the King tryed as King that by the Effusion of his Blood as such they might extinguish Majesty and destroy Monarchy it self For several of them confessed That Charles his only Crime was his being King and that the Eminency of his Vertues together with his Right of Succession rendered him uncapable of being a Private Man They therefore having first by their Serjeant at Arms with sound of Trumpets cited such profligate Witnesses as they could get the stress of whose Depositions was That they had seen the King in Arms at several Battles and Encounters Having also the same Day voted the making of a New Great Seal because of the incongruity of using the King 's against himself those Sanguinary Judges met in Weminster-Hall at the End whereof they caused a Theater to be erected on which they acted the ensuing Tragedy of Horror and Blood John Bradshaw the Shame of the Long Robe and only known by this horrid Fact the impudent President of this execrable Court commanded the King to be brought before them where he was accused of all the Blood-shed in the late Wars The King is arraigned with the injurious Terms of Tyrant Traytor and Murtherer and required to give his Answer to the Charge The King with an inimitable presence of Mind and a Fortitude truly Royal slighting what he had heard instead of an Answer demands of these Novel Judges By what Authority he was brought thither Adding he knew very well that there were many unlawful Authorities as those of Thieves and Robbers He bid them remember he was their King and would know by what lawful Authority he was seated there and he would answer In the mean time he would not betray his Trust derived to him from God by old and lawful Descent The President replied That he was brought thither by Authority of the People of England by whom he was elected King His Majesty denied this affirming the Kingdom of England never to have been Elective but Hereditary for near a Thousand Years He stood more for the Liberties of his People than any there and therefore desired to know by what lawful Authority he was brought thither and he would answer otherwise not But the President often interrupting the King and chattering the same Tune of the Peoples Authority His Majesty said That no body did more esteem a House of Commons rightly constituted than himself He saw no House of Lords that might with the King constitute a Parliament Was this the bringing of the King to his Parliament Is this the bringing an End to the Treaty in the Publick Faith of the World Let him see a Legal Anthority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or Constitutions of the Kingdom and he would instantly answer But the President urging that unless he would answer the Court would consider how to proceed His Majesty replied That unless they would satisfie God and the Country concerning the Premises he would not betray his Trust and the Peoples Liberty For he did avow That it was as great a Sin to withstand lawful Authority as it was to submit to a Tyrannical or any other ways unlawful Authority He was not afraid of their Bill And this was the Sum of the first Days Convention Two Days after the King the Best of Princes was again brought before these Worst of Rebels his Judges Where the President upon the Solicitor's Motion requires his Positive Answer again or else the Charge may be taken pro Confesso He added That this Court was fully satisfied with their Authority which he also ought to acquiesce in and therefore they yet again required his particular Answer by confessing or denying it If the later Witnesses were at hand in behalf of the Nation to make good the Charge against him To this the King said If it were his own particular Case he would have satisfied himself with the Protestation he had made against the Legality of the Court and by demonstrating that the King of England cannot be tryed by any Superiour Jurisdiction upon Earth But it not being his Case alone but the Freedom and Property of the People he must stand for their Liberties For if an illegitimate Power might make and break the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom at Pleasure no Man could be secure of his Life or Goods He did expect Reasons to know by what Law what Authority they did proceed against him but hearing none he would produce his with as much brevity as he could But he was interrupted here the President telling him They must suffer no arguing concerning the Authority of the Court nor hear any Reasoning against it The Votes of the Commons in Parliament were the Reason of the Kingdom not to be questioned by any to which also he and his Predecessors were always obnoxions and responsible This being denyed by the King he further denyed That the Commons of England were ever a Court of Judicature Which vext the President to that Degree that he told him That he was not to be permitted to go on in that Speech and those Discourses and if he would not Answer he should be recorded as contumacious Hereupon the King desired That his Reasons at least might be heard but was answered That his Reasons were not to be heard against the highest Jurisdiction Whereunto the King returned That they should shew that Jurisdiction that would not hear Reason To which the President replied That they shewed it him there and that the next time he should know more of their Pleasure perhaps their final Determination Commanding withal That they should take the Prisoner away Who bid them remember That the King was not suffered to give his Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of the People The next Day the King being brought now the Third time before this nefarious Tribunal continued with the same Constancy as at first to deny the Authority of the same And being insulted upon by the President was required at length to submit and that with Threats That although he would not understand it he should find that he was before a Court of Justice which knew no respect of Persons But the King replied As for the Charge he did not value it a Rush it was the Liberty of the People he stood for and therefore he neither would nor could being a King acknowledge a new and unheard of Court against their Priviledges and the Fundamental Laws of the Land The Prefident hereupon subjoyned That the King had now denied the Authority of the Court Three times contemning the Dignity thereof Adding That his Actions Writ in bloody Characters throughout the Kingdom did sufficiently demonstrate how far he had preserved the Priviledges of the People The King had designed to deliver his Reasons
in writing against the Jurisdiction of the Court But it was not permitted the President saying He would admit nothing against the Parliament from which there was no appeal And so the King was remitted and the Court Adjourned Three Days after the King was again brought before this Impious Court where He desired the President cloathed now in Scarlet suitable to the Bloody Design of the Day to be heard a Word hoping to give no occasion of interruption But the President refused him saying The Court must be first heard And thereupon told the Auditors how the Prisoner had been several times convented and brought before the Court to make Answer to a Charge of Treason and other Crimes Which he not only refused to do but took upon him to offer Reasonings and Debates against the Authority of the Court and the Highest Court that constituted them to try and judge him which being considered as also his Contumacy and the Probability of the Fact they had resolved to pronounce Sentence against him But the Prisoner desiring to be first heard the Court was content to hear him provided he said nothing against the Authority thereof The King then said Since they would hear nothing of Debate concerning what he thought most material for the Peace of the Kingdom he would wave it only tell them That all Things had been taken from him this many a Day but what he valued dearer than his Life his Conscience and his Honour And if he had respect to his Life more than the Peace of the Kingdoms and the Liberty of the Subject certainly he would have made a Particular Defence for himself whereby he might have at least delayed an ugly Sentence which he believed would pass upon him And therefore if his Zeal to his Country had not overborn the Care that he had of his own Preservation he should have gone another Way to Work He conceived That a hasty Sentence once passed might be sooner repented of than recalled And the same desire that he had for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject more than his own particular did make him now at last desire that having something to to say that concerns both he might be heard in the Painted-Chamber before the Lords and Commons This delay could not be prejudical to them whatsoever he said If Reason it would be worth the Hearing if otherwise those who heard him might judge He therefore conjured them as they loved what they pretended the Liberty of the Subject and Peace of the Kingdom that they would grant him a Hearing before Sentence past If not he did protest that so fair shews of Liberty and Peace were but meer shews and not otherwise and that they would not hear their King This being heard however the President had said That it was but a new Delay and a farther declining the Jurisdiction of the Court yet there were some amongst the Judges who would reason the Business in Private And lest they might seem to dissent amongst themselves they withdrew into the Court of Wards Where after some sharp Contests They Vote That what the King had tendered tended to delay Several of the Judges were of a contrary Opinion desiring to know what the King would say to them But it was voted by the major part in the Negative whereupon some of them exagitated with the Terrors of their Consciences went away in discontent The rest being returned into the Court the President in a very long nauseous Speech ripping up all the Misfortunes and Errors committed in the Government imputed them to the King He further affirmed That Kings were inferiour to the People and to the Laws producing Examples of some Kings of England deposed from the Government which happened by Parliaments no less impious than this and more particularly in Scotland where of 109 Kings near half were removed by untimely Ends. This tedious and hated Speech being ended and the Charge read the Sentence followed in these Terms He is condemned That Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and Public Enemy shall be put to Death by severing his Head from his Body It may not be from the purpose to mention some particular Passages that intervened extraordinarily at the various Sessions of this Court. The King behaved himself with that Firmness of Mind Wisdom and Majesty that he did nothing that was not truly Royal cluding their Epithites of Tyrant and Traytor with Smiles Casualties that happened during his Tryal Some time after the Head of his Cane falling off he was himself forced to take it up not one amongst so many Barbarians offering at so small a Civility and perceiving the By-standers seemed to look upon it as sinistrous he said That was nothing The Second Day the King offered his Reasons in Writing against the Jurisdiction of the Court but was not permitted The Third Day of Meeting the General 's Wife whilst he impiously commanded the equal impious Army ventur'd to disturb the Court when they were baiting the King calling out That was a Lye Adding That the Tenth part of the People she might have said the Hundredth were not of that Opinion but that it was done by the Artifice of that Traytor Cromwell She also blamed the Subjects Irreverence to their King Insomuch that the Souldiery had much to do to silence her though Axtel called her Whore and others moved upon that occasion I cannot tell Whether this may not in some sort Parallel that of Pilates Wife But what I was seriously told by one that was present of Bradshaw's Wife comes nearer She the Morning of the Day that the King was Sentenced rushing into her Husbands Chamber fell upon her Knees at his Feet and dissolved into Tears and Sighs besought her Husband That he would have nothing to do with His Majesty nor Sentence this Earthly King for fear of the dreadful Sentence of the King of Heaven You have no Child said he and why should you do so monstrous an Act to Favour others But Bradshaw bidding her get about her business added I confess he hath done me no Harm nor will I do him any but what the Law commands The Sentence being pronounced his bloody Murtherers Seventy Two of them being present stood up thereby expressing their Assent The King delivered to the Souldiers who abuse and mock him After which His Majesty was hurried away by his Guards the Souldiers instigated by Axtel and Peters crying as he went along Execution Execution as the Jews had done formerly to their Saviour Crucifie him Crucifie him To these the King no less immoveable in Adversity than Prosperity replied Alas poor Souls for a piece of Money they would do so by their own Commanders Which also happened upon the Restauration of Charles II. when some of these Miscreants cryed out for Justice against the King's Judges with no less Violence and Clamour There were amongst these Wretches some who puffed Tobacco the Smell whereof was odious to him in his Face
and threw Pieces of Pipes as he walked along at his Feet And lest he might not be like his Saviour in his Sufferings he was mocked and had his Reverend Countenance defiled with Spittle which he wiped off with no other Reproaches than That Christ had suffered more for his sake He spent the Rest of his Time in preparing himself for his Last Hour however disturbed with the Questions Cavils Scoffings and Petulancy of the Enthusiastick Souldiers All which he either repressed by Arguments or eluded by neglecting them Nor did he say any thing however provoked by Arrogancies unusual to Princes or unworthy his former Magnanimity Dr. Juxton the Reverend Bishop of London was at length admitted to wait upon the King to whom by reason of his Holiness of Life and the Consolation he brought him he was exceedingly welcome But coming later than he was expected the King said to him That you are not come sooner is I know none of your Fault and now seeing these Rogues will shed my Blood you and I must consider how I may best part with it The Faction had offered some of their own Fanatick Levites whom the King had rejected as miserable Comforters He would not pray with them who had always pray'd against him but they might pray for him if they pleased Having then the Benefit of his own Chaplain he prepared himself for Death so well that he overcame the Terrors of it before it appeared Amongst these Preludes of Death some of the Prime Officers of the Army came to the King offering him certain Propositions with Promise of Life and some Shadow of Royalty if he would sign them Of these one was That the Army consisting of Forty Thousand Men should be perpetuated under the Present General and Officers and that the Council of War should be impow'red to supply Vacancies from time to time He rejects the Souldiers impious Propositions tho' to save his Life as occasion should happen and settle Taxes for the Pay of the Army to be levied by the Souldiers c. But the King having read some of these Tyrannous Proposals threw them away with much Indignation saying That he would rather become a Sacrifice for his People than thus betray their Laws Liberties Lives and Estates with the Church the Common wealth and Honour of the Crown to so intolerable a Bondage of an Armed Faction Preferring with his usual Greatness of Mind a Glorious Cross before an ignominious Life Nor did he only prefer the Public Good before his own Particular but would not expose private Friends to inevitable Danger to save himself Which abundantly appeared at his being at Bagshot where when the Lord Newburg and his Noble Lady had demonstrated to His Majesty Means whereby he might elude his bloody Keepers who led him to the Slaughter His Children come to him His instructions to thâ—m he waved their Proposals saying If I should escape they would cut you to Pieces It was some Solace to the King in his Streights that his Children were permitted to see him The Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Gloucester very Young were only left in the Power of the Faction the Duke of York having as is already mentioned escaped their Bloody Hands To these Princes of rare Endowments and Hopes the King gave in Charge That they should consider Charles not as their Brother but as their King That they should forgive their Enemies Love one another and all of them be Obedient to their Mother He told them also what * Hooker 's Eccl. Pol. Bish Andr. Sermons Laud against Fisher Books they should read to confirm them in their Religion and giving them his Blessing dismissed them in a Deluge of Tears The Prince Elector and the Duke of Richmond had also obtained Permission to visit the King though His Majesty now intent only upon his Meditations would not admit them how dear soever to him And now the Fatal Day the 30th of January being come the King being guarded from St. James's through the Park on Foot he spake to the Souldiers to go faster saving That he now went before them to strive for a Heavenly Crown with less solicitude The King prepares for his End than he had often encouraged his Souldiers to Fight for an Earthly Diadem Being come to White-Hall he spent most of his time there in his Devotions And having received the Blessed Communion he was much raised by the reading of the History of the Passion of our Saviour described by the Evangelist St. Mathew and more particularly when he knew it was not done upon Design but prescribed by the Rubrick for the Service of the Day Being brought through the Banquetting-House to the Stage covered with Black the Block the Axe and the masqued Executioners presented themselves to his Sight Which did not so much dismay his Heart fortified with Innocence and Piety but that his Care for the Living seemed no less than his Solicitude for Dying He therefore lest he might seem to submit to the Guilt as well as the Punishment in Vindication of his Innocency demonstrated That it was not He but the Two-Houses that began the War He acknowledges God 's Justice in punishing one Unjust Sentence with another He not only forgiveth his most bitter Enemies but prayes also that God will Pardon them Being solicitous for Peace he warns them not to seek it by Conquest but to give God the King and People their due God by setling the Church the King according to Law and the People by such a Government whereby their Lives and Goods might be most their own Finally he told them He dyed the Peoples Martyr and a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England After some short Prayers he submitted his Head to the Axe an unheard of and surprizing Example of Human Fragility It is wonderful with how much Constancy and Christian Fortitude He his Murthered he laid down his Head used to wear Crowns and with what Meekness who by all Laws Divine and Human was exempt from the Penalties of any Perhaps insulting in that he was to change this Earthly Crown however splendid yet heavy for that of Immortal Glory As he seemed to intimate in that prophetick Anagram composed by himself the Day preceding his Martyrdom CAROLUS REX Cras ero Lux. And truly as there was never any Parricide except that of our Saviour so detestable as this so never any Man was equally lamented as this best of Princes No Sex nor Age nor Order of Men was found that did not mourn this universal Loss Children how little soever sensible of the Public dissolved in Tears could hardly be appeased Those who were more advanced in Years could scarce bear their Sorrow Whilst the Weaker not able to support their Grief as Thunder-struck sunk under it And Breeding-Women laboured with Untimely Births and like her who when the Glory was departed from Israel would admit of no Consolation And truly not only his own Subjects but
General and Lieutenant General they had their Quarters surprized and beaten up about Mid-night by Reynolds where Four Hundred of them were made Prisoners and Nine Hundred of their Horses taken The Democraticks or Levellers being thus defeated our brave Hero's march to Oxford where both of them Fairfax and Cromwell were made Doctors of Law who had themselves trampled upon all Laws both Divine and Human. After this having visited Portsmouth they return to London in Triumph where after a Thanks-giving for their late Successes they were together with their Servile Senate invited treated and regal'd by the more Servile City who again not to seem ungrateful or rather to intangle them in their Interest bestowed New-Park with all the Deer in it upon the Citizens The Regicides being now secure at home at least in Appearance began to look after Foreign Correspondence and Amities Amongst which the Friendship of the Vnited Netherlands seemed preferable by reason of their Neighbourhood of their Resemblance in Government and the Genius of the Nation Dorislawes and Ascham in their Embassies Doctor Dorislawes a Civilian as also a German by Birth was sent thither with Instructions not only to propose a strict Friendship but also a Coalition of both People But he was prevented in it being assassinated in his Lodging by one Whitford a Scot who with Ten or Twelve more having perpetrated the Fact withdrew without any Pursuit though they were afterwards colourably summon'd in by the States The reason of this Remissness was his presuming to appear as it were in the King's presence having contributed so eminently to the Ruine of his Father And thus God permitted one Injustice to be retaliated with another Nor had Ascham another of their Envoy's at Madrid better Fate being kill'd in his Inn upon his Arrival by one Sparks an English-man who though he took Sanctuary was pulled thence by the Spaniard apprehending the rising Greatness of the new Common-wealth for the Regicides had declared though they much esteemed the Amity of so great a King yet they ought and did require the punishment of so Nefarious a Parricide as they called it adding that unless Justice were immediately satisfied they did not see how the Friendship betwixt both Nations could be sincere and durable The King acknowledged at the Hague The King had continued hitherto at the Hague acknowledged and reverenced by all and though the States that they might not altogether seem to displease their Sister Common-wealth of whom they began to be jealous had dispensed with the Ceremony of Public Congratulation yet the Swede and Danish Embassadors had saluted His Majesty with the usual Testimonies of Condolence and Congratulation He was also King in Possession Scotland having proclaimed him and Ireland being upon the point of being reduced so that his Affairs calling him away he left the Hague and being attended by the Princess Royal his Sister and the Prince of Orange his Brother-in-law to whose generous Friendship he owed all Things through Rotterdam Dort and Breda Treated magnificently by the Arch-Duke being received at these Places with the noise of their Cannon and Bells and all other marks of Honour he came to Antwerpe the principal City of the Spanish Netherlands where he was magnificently entertained and presented with a rich Chariot and Eight brave Horses sent him by Arch-Duke Leopold Governour of the Low-Countries His Majesty was also Royally treated by him at Brussels from whence after some Stay being conveyed on his way to France by the Duke of Lorrain Goes into France and feasted and honoured every where with the same Grandeur as if the King of Spain had been there he came to Compeigne where the French King accompanied with a great Train of his Nobility received him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour and brought him thence in State to his Mother the Queen of Great Brittain then at St. Germians Whilst the King was in France the Duke of Gloucester his Brother and the Lady Elizabeth his Sister both Princes of divine Endowments and Hopes were removed from the Earl of Northumberland's Guardianship to Carisbrook Castle infamous for having been the Prison of their Martyred Father to the custody of that impure Villain Anthony Mildmay The Lady Elizabeth dyeth and the D. of Gloucester is banished where the Princess afflicted with the daily Sight of that odious Mansion and consumed with Grief and the Maladies it occasioned breathed her last being denied by those barbarous Parricides the Assistance of such Physicians as she had desired Her Brother the Duke was presently after banished out of England by the Regicides the only agreeable Thing they did in rescuing him out of their Bloody Hands by their own Act. The Kingdom being thus subdued and the Army reduced to Obedience the Mock-Parliament or Rump for Continuation of the History of Ireland it grew famous by that Title of Infamy thought Ireland now worthy their consideration They therefore Vote Eleven Regiments to be sent thither under the conduct of Cromwell with the Title of Lord Governour whereof he was very fond which he could not forbear testifying for all his Dissimulation The Fame of these Preparations immediately flew over which obliged the Irish Rebels however dissenting amongst themselves to think of uniting for their Public Safety and although the Nuntio opposed this Confederation with all his Power excommunicating the Authors of it whilst they declared him and his Party Traytors resolving to force him by Arms which they did The Popes Nuntio expelled driving him into Galloway for his security where they prest him so hard that notwithstanding the Thunder of his Excommunication he was necessitated for his personal safety to abandon his Principality and the Kingdom The Irish-Grandees thus at Liberty invite and obtain the Marquess of Ormond as is mentioned in our former Commentaries with an Assurance of an entire Obedience to his Majesty's Lieutenant He being arrived the Confederates grew formidable by the Accession of the Lord Inchequin President of Munster and the Scots in the Province of Vlster Both these had served the Parliament with much Vigor until the King and Monarchy had been destroyed in England but abhorring the sordid Tyranny of the Regicides they deserted that Party they had so unjustly followed and return to their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign Owen-Roe-Oneal refused to be included in the Confederacy upon pretence that sufficient Provisions had not been made for the Security of their Religion but in reality because the Confederate Delegates had foolishly denied the no extravagant Conditions which his Quality seemed to require and he had demanded The Difference was about the Command of Four Thousand Men which they were willing to grant and Six Thousand which he insisted upon which they afterwards tho too late after his conjunction with Monk and Coot and his relieving of London-derry were glad to assent to During these Traverses the Marquess of Ormond entered upon the Government The
He had no command in the Common-wealth altho all its Forces were raised in his Name And even now their Army being lost they did not cease unseasonably to torment this excellent Prince with their Impertinencies They impose new Conditions upon him pretend to reform his Family and endeavour to extort a Declaration from him against himself and such who were faithful to him Provoked with these insufferable Indignities and with the Impatience of bearing with their reiterated Follies he withdrew himself privately our of their Guardianship and taking Horse under pretence of taking the Air in his Shoes and Steekings he rode towards the Provinces of the North where the Atholians and the Guordons expected him in Arms. It is incredible how unworthily he had been used since his first Arrival in Scotland It may not be impertinent to mention some of those barbarous Passages In his way from Spey to Edinburgh some of the Towns did not only congratulate his happy Arrival with their Acclamations but with their Presents also Aberdene bestowed Fifteen Hundred Pounds upon him which the Commissioners took so ill that to prevent the Liberality of the other Towns they commanded That such who had Money to lavish away should bring it into the Treasury Cautioning hereby that the People should not demonstrate their Affection to their Prince or the Prince be sensible of the good Will of his Subjects towards himself Yet more when the English Parricides had reproached them with their Agreement with their King they declared They would not own his Cause until he acknowledged and repented his own Sins the Transgressions of his Father and the Idolatry of his Mother By all which it is evident That his Majesty was now in the same Danger his Royal Father had formerly been in the Hands of the Presbyterians But the Parliament seriously considering the King's Recess and perceiving their own inevitable Ruin at Hand if they persisted in their Obstinacy and Follies they sent Montgomery with a choice Party of Horse after his Majesty humbly to desire his Return Which he also effected upon promise of better Conditions for the future which were also performed the Grandees being much mollified by their late Overthrow And now the King was admitted as concerned in the Publick Transactions tho the Ministers mainly opposed it not yet sensible of the imminent Destruction which threatned the continuance of their Dissensions and Feuds The King now at the Helm Orders were given out for new Levies his Friends were admitted to Publick Employments and he was crowned with as much Pomp and Magnificence as the Troubles would permit at Scone And now the Minds of the most Seditious being in some sort appeased the King's Standard was set up at Aberdeen and all who were fit to bear Arms were invited to take them up against their invading Enemies Whilst the King is busied in raising Forces Cromwell was no less intent in Prosecution of his Victory Edinburgh and Leith opened their Gates to him And the Castle annexed to the City Inexpugnable in it self by reason of its Situation after no long siege was surrend'red to him He took also all the Fortresses by himself or Liuetenants on this side the Frith so that the King solicitous for Sterling encamped under the Walls of it He removed thence to Torwood where being well entrenched he slighted the Provocations and Attempts of the Enemy resolving to hazard nothing before his new Levies which were raising for him in the Northern Counties were come up to him Whilst the Two Armies were thus in fight of each other a Presbyterian Plot was discovered which was detected by I know not what Letters found in a Ship at Ayre The Design was formed by their Parsons in London who expecting a choice Body of Horse from Scotland under the Command of Massey pretended to raise some considerable Disturbances in Absence of the Army But the Secret being laid open Love and Gibbons for Terror to others were by Cromwell's Recommendation both heheaded Cromwell when he saw he could neither provoke nor compel the King to fight impatient of Delay he commanded Col. Overton to attempt a Passage into Fife which he did with Fourteen Hundred Foot and Four Troops of Horse And after some light Skirmishes landing at North-Ferry he immediately cast up some Works for his Defence where he also contained himself until more Succors came Which quickly happened for Lambert flying to his Aid with Two Regiments of Horse and as many of Foot they fought and defeated Browne who was sent thither by the King with near Four Thousand Men. Him they slew and kill'd and took well nigh all the Royallists Whilst this was in Action Cromwell braved it before the King's Trenches and seemed to design to assault them but hearing of Lambert's Success he marched back with his Army and passing the Forth joined the rest of his Victorious Forces and marching with speed to St. Johnstone after having drained the Mote and planted his Cannon he had the Place delivered to him without any further Resistance The King who had long since designed to march into England is now necessitated to do it and to transfer the War into England which he was not in a Condition to support in Scotland Hearing therefore of the Siege of St. Johnstone whilst the Rebels were busied there he removes his Camp with swift Marches towards England permitting all such who were dissatisfied with the present State of Affairs to depart at pleasure Many especially of the Faction of Arguile and the Kirk leaving him he led the Rest now entirely at his Command along with him Cromwell being informed of the King's Departure sent his Horse after him and having left Monk behind him with Six Thousand Men to finish the Reliques of the War in Scotland follows with the Strength of his Army whilst the rest of his Forces which guarded the Borders endeavour to hinder the King's Advance The Rump terrified with the Rumour of this Invasion condemned Cromwell of Temerity and Precipitation but raised with his Letters prepare for Defence And lest the Provinces wearied with their Tyranny should look back towards their Lawful Prince they fill them with their numerous Troops forcing the Trained Bands of the Counties to joyn with them against the Invading Scots The King's Army not exceeding 12000 Effective Men had entred England July 1. 1651. and being advanced into Lancashire notwithstanding Lambert and Harrisons Interruption with their numerous Cavalry joyning with the Earl of Darby out of the Isle of Man forced their Passage at Warrington-Bridge and continuing their March through the thick Squadrons of the Enemy and the Opposition of frequent Encounters came at Length to Worcester a City affectionate to His Majesty's Service The King left the Earl of Derby behind him in Lancashire to raise new Forces But this excellent Personage however great in Reputation in that Country had scarce got Fifteen Hundred Men together when he was attacked by Collonel Lilbourne with far greater Numbers
and being unequel to those Veteranes after a sharp Fight he was defeated by them And however he escaped their present Fury by Flight he was afterwards taken in the Battel of Worcester and being brought to Chester was there notwithstanding the Quarter given him beheaded by the Regicides finishing his Course with no less Gallantry than he had lived with Glory The King upon his Entry into England was ploclaimed by a Herald at Arms King of ENGLAND SCOTLAND FRANCE and IRELAND which was also done in all the chief Towns as he passed along and was now repeated at Worcester with greater Pomp and Splendour He had by Letters and Messages in his March invited several of the Rebel-Commanders and Governours to the return of their Duty but in vain He had also desired the same of the Mayor and Common-Council of London but with the same success There were however several Noble Persons who came in to him as the Lord Talbot Packington Howard Broughton and others with about Two Thousand private Souldiers The rest kept back either surprized with the sudden Advance of the King and consequently unprovided or terrified with the Cruelty of the Rump and so durst not appear or averse to the Scots now unseasonably mindful of the former Injuries received from them and would not come The King had been advised and it was his own Opinion to march from Warrington directly to London which in probability ought to have been done if the Army had not been so much wearied with their former Toyles and Labours They therefore came to Worcester a Place convenient enough where having recovered and repaired their Strength they might either expect or promote the War Hither Cromwell came Six Days after with the conjoyned Forces of the Party amounting to near Sixty Thousand Souldiers and Trained-Bands and having beaten Massey from Vpton-Bridge approached the Town The Rebels having passed the Rivers Severne and Tame upon Bridges and Boats advance towards the Walls however very bravely opposed by the Scots out of the Hedges and Ditches in their way But the Royallists being out-numbered were forced to retreat towards the City The Rebels having repulsed and wounded Montgomery at Powick Cromwell advancing drew up near ..... Wood. The King with Forbes's Foot a small Body of Horse for Lesley with Two Thousand more stood a loof of and did not approach and some English Voluntiers charged the Van of the Enemy with so much intrepid Bravery that he not only repelled them but took their Cannon which yet he could not keep by reason of their numerous Reserves and Supplies incessantly relieving each other Insomuch that the King having performed all the Parts of a Great Commander by rallying his broken Troops and embodying his scattered Foot and encouraging them by his Example and Presence in their renewed Encounters being over-pow'red by the adverse Legions Duke Hamilton who kept close to him being also wounded of which Hurt he shortly died he was forced to retreat towards the City which he entered on Foot at Sudbury-Gate being then obstructed by a laden Waggon overthrown in the Passage Nor did he long stay there but mounting another Horse when he saw all was lost and that the Enemy entered on all sides he at length slipping away in the Croud escaped out of the City The Royal-Fort defended by Col. Drummund with Fifteen Hundred Men was taken by Assault where all were put to the Sword The slaughter in the City was not less barbarous the Citizens and Souldiers being promiscuously slain all being filled wiâ—h Rapine and Murther There fell as well without as within the Walls where the Slaughter was greatest Three Thousand Five Hundred and the Prisoners were above Six Thousand most of the English escaping by the Benefit of their Tongue Duke Hamilton having his Thigh broken died there and amongst the Prisoners of most Note were the Earls of Derby Cleveland Lauderdale Rothes Carnworth Kelley as also Packington Greves Fanshaw the King's Secretary and many other Noble Persons taken in their Flight It is a Wonder that the King escaped the Diligence of his Pursuers but the Means by which he escaped doubles the Miracle Five Poor Brethren by Name Pendrills with Francis Yates married to their Sister and Three Females their Companions who concealed conducted and nourisht him justly merited the Glory not only of saving a Citizen as they had done before in the Person of the Earl of Derby whom they had formerly secured but of preserving their Prince No Threats of Punishments or Death nor the offer of a Thousand Pounds to those who discovered him would prevail with these however needy Plebeians whose Loyalty surmounted both their Hopes and their Fears The King having spent several Days in this miserable Solitude passed through many Hands of both Sexes and Religions Men and Women of the Middle and Lowest Sort. And by many Accidents and Spottings of Fortune wandering as it were in a Cloud for the space of Two Months he at length going on Board a small Collier and not unknown to the Master at Bright-hemston in Sussex was conveyed together with the Lord Wilmott his Achates and Companion in Dangers into France reserved by Divine Providence for the Glories that attended his Restitution At Rohan he discovered himself to some English Merchants where he changed his Apparel and went the next Day to Paris where his Fame arriving before him he was met in the way by the Queen his Mother and the Duke of Orleance with a great Train of Nobility Thus convoyed he was brought to Court where he was received with the Applause of all Men and the particular Congratulations of the French King and all the Peers of that Kingdom BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character THE Scotch Army being defeated at Worcester and Lesley Midleton and the other Chief Officers who fled with the Horse taken Cromwell having sent his Prisoners before him entered London the Westminster and City Senates and Grandees receiving him with all imaginable Honour and Flatteries And now the Common-wealth having overcome all their Enemies exceedingly gloried in their Acquisitions Ireland was also subdued the remaining Natives being transported into Connaught But of these Tumults it will be expedient to treat more particularly Ireton having been left by his Father-in-law to command in Ireland as
changed his Battery and will now try to gain them by Civilities and a more gentle Usage But that taking no effect with Men immoveable in their Loyalty and whom nothing could oblige to abandon that Cause they had so religiously maintained he thought of other ways to be rid of these Men so averse to his Tyranny Upon this accompt he permits Foreign Ministers in League with him to make Levies of them for their Wars the Prisons having often times been emptied for that purpose The Colonies in the West Indies consumed many of them by Slavery and others allured into the unfortunate expedition of San Domingo perished in it His Domestick Enemies being thus removed or oppress'd the Vsurper became also formidable to Strangers And now it seemed seasonable for him to think of transmitting his Tyranny to his Posterity As he had usurp'd the Power of a King so he ambition'd the Title which a Parliament he had convened for his Purpose endeavoured to invest him with But he was opposed by the Chiefs of the Army who expected and hoped after his Fate to have their Turns in the Supremacy However he managed his Design so well that he was created Sovereign Protector with Power to name his Successor which was in effect what he desired in rendring his Tyranny Hereditary The Spaniards to repay one War with another seized and confiscated all the English Merchants Goods and Shipping in his Dominions and by a Publick Edict declared War against the Nation But Cromwell acting more Effectually sent Blake and Montague with a Fleet to shut up the Haven of Cadiz where the Rich Ships from the Indies usually arrived Stayner with his Squadron of Seven Frigats 1656. Sep. 1. fell upon Eight of them in the Absence of their Admiral whereof he took Two burnt One with the Marquess of Badaiox the Vice-Roy of Peru and his Lady in it sunk Another forced Two on Shore and the other Two escaped into Port. This was a great Victory wherein they took above Two Millions of Pieces of Eight But that which Blake won at Teneriffe the Year following surpassed all other in Nobleness of Action and Resolution of the Undertakers The West India Fleet consisting of Sixteen Rich Ships 1657. Apr. 20. having Intelligence that the English were cruising upon the Atlantick Ocean put into the Haven of Santa Cruz where by the Advantage of their strong Castle at the Entry and Seven Forts round the Bay they thought themselves secure But Blake perceiving their Order sending Stayner a brave Commander with some nimble Frigats before followed himself with the rest of his Fleet. And plying the Castle and Forts with his great Ships beat the Spaniards from their Guns and after a sharp Fight took the Fleet abandoned by the Sea-men who ran on Shore but not being able to carry it away with them they set in on fire consuming both it and the immense Riches it was fraughted with A Thanksgiving-Day being appointed in England for this so eminent a Victory Blake was honoured by the Parliament with a Present of Five Hundred Pounds But this so famous Admiral did not long survive so many Victories expiring at his Entrance into Plymouth Road by the Malignity of the Dropsy and Scurvy Thus ended this brave and fortunate Warriour worthily to be celebrated if he had not so audaciously resisted his own Prince Nor was it at Sea only that Cromwell plagued the Spaniard for he sent Six Thousand Men under the Command of Collonel Reynolds into Flanders who much facilitated the Successes of the French Montmedy and St. Venant were taken by their Asstance and some time after Mardike which was delivered to the English and by them so strongly fortified that it firmly withstood the Assaults of the Brittish Regiments in the Service of Spain Hereupon Dunkirk was Besieged by the Confederates But Don Juan of Austria Governour of those Low-Countries Solicitous for the conserving of so considerable a Sea-port and to prevent the Excursions of the French into Flanders on that side having drawn his Army together and strengthened it with Veterane Souldiers taken out of their Garrisons and being joyned by the Duke of York with four Batalions of English and Irish then under his Command he marched to the Relief of the Besieged and suddenly possessing the Height of the Sand-Hills opposite to Turin's Camp pitcht his there Marshal Turin having left Guards to Defend Forts and Posts against the Sallies of the Besieged drew the rest of his Army out of his Trenches The English were in the Van who notwithstanding the Showers of shot powered upon them ascended the Hill and after a sharp encounter at push of Pike and Butt-end of Musket forced the Enemy from their Ground This being done the French Horse charged the opposite Cavalry which being long sustained by the Valour and Vertue of the Duke of York and his Brother Gloucester was at last the English advancing upon them obliged to leave the Field There were above a Thousand slain and more then Two Thousand taken Prisoners The Cannon and Spoil of the Field were the present Reward of the Victors and some time after Dunkirk it self Which by the Death of the Governour the Marquess of Lede was surtendered upon Conditions and put into the Possession of the English by Contract Cromwell however heightned by this Victory did not long survive it being oppressed with a Melancholy which he had contracted upon the Death of his beloved Daughter Cleypoole Which accompanied with a Fever and Faintings snatcht him hence deprecating his immature Destiny in vain to that Tribunal where he was to give an Accompt of his Rebellions Sacriledge Perjury Parricide and Tyranny He died indeed like other Men in his Bed but not without some extraordinary Commotions of Spirit Nay the whole Frame of Nature suffer'd violent Concussions by a dreadful Tempest at the Exit of this Impostor which threatn'd by Tumult and Noises loud as his Sins to reduce the World into its pristine Chaos again We cannot with Justice deny this great Artist in Dissimulation and Imposture Courage and Vastness of Mind since he raised himself up from a Private Condition and a simple Gentleman to the Supream Height of Empire not altogether unworthy the Degree he attained to if he had not acquired it by ill Means BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles OLiver having during his Sickness been vainly
confident of his Recovery which he also had been deluded into an Assurance of by his Chaplains and Flatterers had neglected the Nominating of a Successor as he was authorized to do by the Petition and Advice 'T was thought he ballanced in his Choice betwixt his Son and Son-in-law Fleetwood which his Council finding and perceiving his Spirits and Senses to fail demanded of him If he did not appoint his Son Richard to Succeed him To which he answering as is supposed in the Affirmative Richard as soon as he expired was saluted and proclaimed Protector in his Fathers Room But very unlike him in Fortitude and the Arts of Government as will appear by his being disturbed from the quiet Possession of Three Kingdoms by those he neither had Wit nor Courage to suppress or oppose He was in the mean time as well as his Father acknowledged and saluted by the Army the City the Provinces and Foreign Ministers and Embassadors The Beginning of his Reign was serene and his first Care the Funeral of his Father Which was performed with a more than Royal Magnificence there having been Sixty Thousand Pounds expended in it this Treasure as it had been extorted by Tyranny being consumed in Luxury His Corps however wrapt up in a Sixfold Cerecloth a Lead and a Wooden Coffin fermenting in this restraint burst out of it and filling all with a most noisom Odour was privately deposited in Henry Vll 's Chappel amongst the Ashes of King's but by the just Judgment of God to be transferred and buried under the Gallows as we have since seen The Officers of the Army after all their Addresses to Richard grew weary of him as soon as they had well owned him and unmindful now of their Duty and Promises to him by the Insinuations of Lambert formerly cashier'd by his Father and the Concurrence of the Democraticks having also drawn Fleetwood his Brother-in-law and Desbourough who had married his Aunt into the Cabal consult how to abolish the Protectorate and restore themselves to their former Freedom Nor was Richard ignorant of their Designs but wanted Resolution to suppress them and indeed courage to countenance the Undertakings of others who offered their Service for the scizure or killing of these Mutineers He had called a Parliament by whose Authority he supposed these Heats might be allayed and they endeavoured it But this Puny Prince affrighted with the Threats and Noises of the adverse Party was perswaded to dissolve that Convention however addicted to him Hereupon he is likewise laid aside The Rump composed of those Antimonarchists which his Father had formerly ejected being introduced and seated in the Government again His Brother Henry Vice-Roy of Ireland quitted also that Kingdom and the Army there by command of this restored Senate with the like Pusillanimity Whereby it appears how sordidly these Fellows degenerated from their Father in Audaciousness though they resembled him well enough in Wickedness Monk who commanded in Scotland did likewise submit but kept his Employment thinking he had done enough in congratulating their Restauration by Addresses and Messages The odious Oligarchy being restored under the Title of a Common-wealth and acknowledged by the Army and their Partisans in the Provinces drive more furiously than before endeavouring to remove all Obstacles and Impediments to their designed Tyranny In order to this they exact a spontaneous Abdication of the Protectorate from Richard which he tamely granted promising further To behave himself peaceably under the Government from which he expected Protection And thus this Mushrom-Prince the untimely Birth of a short Relgn turned out of White Hall vanished and will be no more heard of but with Obloquy and Infamy And yet if he had had either Honour or Honesty in him he might have had one Game more to play no less probable than glorious which was the restoring of the King several Overtures having been made to him by the Royal Party to that Purpose The which with his Interest in the Army and Two Houses before their Dissolution might have been effected without a Miracle The Rump was no sooner seated but they began to divide the Inheritance amongst themselves and whatever the Cromwellian storm of Hail had left these rapacious Locusts did consume and devour But the Universality of the Nation trembled at these Preludes of Tyranny and Slavery and being resolved to suffer any thing rather than the known Domination of the Regicides took up Arms in divers Counties Nor were the Parriciaes ignorant of these Designs They therefore to prevent them fill the Prisons with the most suspected and command all those who had served the King to leave the City and not to return without Permission The swift Motion of their Horse hindred the Risings in Kent and Surrey and some other Counties And yet they got together in Cheshire under the Command of Sir George Booth to a considerable Body being assisted by Sir Thomas Middleton Randal Egerton Major General and Colonel Worden with others Asserters of Liberty and a Free Parliament Having possessed themselves of Chester Manchester and Warrington they became formidable The growing Power of these Royallists for such they were esteemed extremely terrified the Rebels at Westminster and therefore Lambert was ordered with Seven Regiments of Foot and Two of Horse to march with all speed against these new Adversaries and suppress them Which he also did with no great Difficulty their raw unexperienced Militia not being able to stand the shock of an Army flusht with so many Successes So that attacking them at Norwich-Bridge where Morgan a brave Youth was slain they forced it routing and defeating the whole Party Chester and the other Fortresses were all retaken and Booth himself being fled was afterwards discovered in Womans Cloths at Newport and was cast into the Tower The Men at Westminster swoln with this Victory having thereby reduced the Kingdom to their Obedience resolve to call the Authors of this Late War to a very severe Accompt thirsting no less after their Estates and Possessions than their Blood In the mean time Montague who had been sent in Richard's Protectorate into Denmark with a great Fleet invited by the King unto whom he was reconciled and commanded by him sailed towards England with his Naval Power to help to free his Native Country from Oppression and Slavery But hearing by the Way of the Defeat of the Royallists the Secret was not discovered tho he returned with the Fleet and was commanded by the Rump who suspected his Faith to his House till they should be at leisure to take an Accompt of his Voyage and Actions The Enemy being subdued these Blood-Canibals judging of the Justice of their Cause by the Success and thinking nothing bad but what was improsperous looked upon themselves as owned by Heaven But yet their joy was but short-liv'd for whilst they go on securely they were yet again by the Just Judgment of God disturbed by their own Servants Lambert after his Victory aiming at greater Things
them as St. Johns and others were for imposing Conditions upon the King for they no more doubted of his Restitution that might restrain him from acting beyond their pleasure But His Majesty's Rights and Prerogatives were inviolablely restored to him by the Prudence and noble Endeavours of Monk This enraged the Regicides to that height that they began now to condemn their own Precipitation and Folly accusing themselves of Madness in that that they did persecute Lambert so rashly and unseasonably to their own Destruction They now call to mind how ridiculously they had rejected the King's Gracious Letters presented them by Nevil who had accidentally received them wherein they were assured of Indignity for all their monstrous Crimes and Treasons if they yet at length would return to their Duty They therefore like Men in Despair agitated by the Flagitiousness of their Guilt resolved to vindicate their Crimes by attempting greater and to try the Matter once more by the Sword Nor was it long before an occasion presented it self Lambert who had been imprisoned in the Tower because he had refused to give bail for his good Behaviour had escaped thence and appear'd armed about Northampton Some Sectaries and several disbanded Souldiers repaired to him all the Fanaticks of the Army being upon the Wing till stay'd with the News of his Defeat This Sedition was extinguish'd in its Birth And Lambert being taken by Ingolsby without a Blow hâ—s Party was easily dispersed whilst he was returned into a more safe Custody in the Tower During this Interval of Parliaments the Council of State administer'd Affairs with much Prudence and Courage and putting out a Proclomation against all Disturbers of the Peace easily restrained the Seditious Minds of the most dissenting Monk also purging his Army by the Casheering of Fanaticks and living more familiarly with his Officers than usual reconciled the most fierce amongst them to an Acquiescence in the Resolves of the future Parliament The Disturbers of our Peace being thus suppressed or quieted the Loyal Party as if indued with new Spirits put on more chearful Countenances and shaking off their Fears with their Shackles appeared more eminently conspicuous But being traduced by their Adversaries as thirsting after Revenge and Blood they abundantly demonstrated by their Declaration their own Innocence and the Enemies Malice restifying That they would leave Vengeance to God and Justice to the Disposal of Parliament And now the City of London did also publish a Declaration whereby they endeavoured to clear themselves from the Guilt of the Regicide and Vsurpation as being actuated and oppressed by the Counsels of Despair and Violence Nor will we deny but that they contributed by the like Tumults to the Restitution as they had formerly fomented the War We have hitherto made but little mention of the Particular Actions of our King for we would not intermingle the History of the Best of Princes with that of the most Scelerate of Subjects We shall therefore deliver the Series of his Actions by themselves wherein notwithstanding will appear as Extreams do best shine by Contraries not only the Eminency of his Vertues but the Errors Impieties Rebellions Treasons Slaughters Sacriledges Pride Rapine and Infamy of his Enemies For what Mischief did they not commit and were guilty of After the King 's miraculous Escape from Worcester through a thousand Hazards he at length got safe into France being received at Paris as if sent from Heaven A pregnant Example of the Care of Providence for the Persons of Kings That Monarchy was actuated then with well-nigh the same Spirit of Division which had so lately distracted England the Parisians inveighing against the Errors of the Government and Evil Counsellors pointing particularly at Mazarin with the same Rage and Passion as the Londoners did against Strafford The Princes were grieved that a Stranger should be First Minister of State and would have him therefore removed In order to which they raised an Army obtaining Assistance from Spain that Nation being very officious in helping their Neighbours upon such like Accompts Nor did they find King Lewis unprovided but resolved to oppose them with all his Power King Charles perswaded Lewis and the Princes by his own example to peace but could not prevail tho he carried himself with that Equality that both sides were Jealous of his Conduct For the Princes refused to lay down Arms unless the Cardinal were removed And the King with the Queen-Regent his Mother would not have Laws prescribed to them by their Subjects The Princes had called the Duke of Lorrain to their Aid who also entered France with an Army but returned upon the Interposition of King Charles who had discoursed with him about his undertaking the Protection of Ireland This enraged the Princes against Charles who blamed him much and the Parisians did dare to calumniate and affront him to that Height that he was forced to retire to St. Germains Where he also for the most part continued until a League being made betwixt Cromwell and that Crown which he had opposed in vain he was compelled again to go into Exile out of his very Banishment The Duke of York had thus long served in the Armies of France with such Bravery and Fortitude particularly in the Battle of Estampes that he attracted the Eyes of all Men upon him And his behaviour in General in Court and Camp were so signal that the Duke of Longville would have bestowed his Daughter upon him the greatest Fortune in France And Marshal Turene being very Sick recommended him to his King as the fittest Person in that Great Monarchy to command his Armies But he would not stay in France after the King his Brother though he was offered to be Liuetenant-General of their Forces in Italy but leaving that inhospitable Land accepted the Invitation of Don John the Governour of the Spanish Low-Countries where he largely asserted the Glories of his former Actions The King in his passage to Germany was received at Leige with all imaginable Honour and going thence to the Spaw met his Sister the Princoss of Orange there Very many Persons of Quality as is usual at the Season but in unusal Numbers upon this Occasion were come thither out of the Neighbouring Nations as well to see this Royal Congress as to take the Waters And all of them paid His Majesty as much Reverence and Honour as if he had been their own Natural Prince or would have vyed with us who had the Happiness then to attend him in Duty and Obedience and Veneration for him He was afterwards received at Colen by the Magistrates there which the same Testimonies of good-will and Esteem Where he resolved to fix his Court for some Time as a place delectable and convenient for his Designs A while after he accompanied his Sister in her Return to Holland as far as Dusseldorp where he was magnificently received by the Duke of Newburgh and treated during his Stay with Hunting and other Royal Divertisements Being
returned to Cologn he found his Brother the Duke of Gloucester there lately arrived from France The King had been informed now he had been thrust out of England by the Regicides which they had done to save the Expence of his Maintenance and to Ship-wrack his Religion Besides it was supposed that Cromwell had designed his Removal for that some in his Council had moved his Assumption to the Crown as no ways obnoxious or prejudiced by reason of his Youth as is already mentioned 'T is scarce imaginable with what Constancy he defended his Religion however very young In so much that armed with Instructions from the Lord Hatton and Doctor Cousens he eluded the Assaults of Abbot Montague and the Marquess of Plessis the one employed by the Queen-Regent of France and the other by the Queen of England Neither the charming Pleasures of the French Court nor the Purple Dignities of the Church of Rome nor yet the extream Severities of the Queen his Mother who did not only refuse him his ordinary Sustenance but denied him the Solace of her Benediction were of strength to shake his Faith Which they yet would endeavour to force by shutting him up in the Jesuits Colledge if the King his Brother displeased with these Novelties had not sent the Marquess of Ormond to his Rescue and to bring him to Cologn to him which he did though not without Difficulty But nothing was impossible for this Great Man After this the King went to Franckfort famous for its Marts And in his Progress saluted the Queen Christina of Sweden at Koningsteyn Where after a Reception worthy Two such great Princes and some private Discourses the Duke of Gloucester and his Royal Sister did the same The Marquess of Ormond Earl of Norwich Lord Newburgh and others of His Majesty's Train being also admitted paid that great Princess the Respects due to her Highness The Queen continued her Journey to Insprug where after a splendid Reception from the Arch-Duke she made Public Profession of the Roman Religion The King leaving Franckfort with the universal Acclamations of the People and thundring of their Cannon went to Ments whither he had been invited by that Elector where his Reception was truly Royal. And after three Days Treat parting with the same Magnificence returned to Cologn Nor did his Majesty spend the Time idly whilst the Regicides triumphed in England He had already sent Embassies to all the Princes of Europe to desire their Assistance against his Rebels But with little success though the Cause were Common The French flourishing in Promises made a League with the Regicides The Spaniards though they seemed to grieve at the Murther of the King were yet the first that acknowledged and owned this rising Common-wealth The Grand Seignior corrupted with English Gold delivered Sir Henry Hyde the King's Embassadour at that Court against the Law of Nations into the Hands of the Parricides who Murthered him by cutting off his Head before the Exchange Swedeland was then in an unsetled Condition Portugal unable being attacked both by the Spaniard and Dutch in the Indies Poland was worried with her own Domestick Distractions Denmark was exhausted with the Treasure formerly lent to Charles I. Others indeed restified their good-wills by their Contributions as the Great Duke of Muscovy the Count of Oldenburg the Electors of Mentz and Brandenburg and some other Princes of Germany by the Earl of Rochester's negoriating at Ratisbone But what could this import to make a new and great War Whereas it scarce sufficed to defray the Charges of the Embassies The King then seeing no Hopes of his Restauration from abroad wisely sought a Remedy where the Wound was received from the Benevolence and Loyalty of his Subjects which the Eminence of his Vertues could not in Justice refuse him Neither was he any way wanting to himself but most intent upon all Occasions leaving nothing unattempted whereby he might raise his sinking Affairs He kept constant Correspondence with his Friends in England Caus'd great Disturbances to the Rebels on every side and exposing himself to the Danger did more than once incite the People to arm against the Usurpers He now kept his Court at Bruges in Flanders nearer hand having been invited by the Spaniards repenting their too early Compliments to the Regicides and supplied with 9000 l. per annum which Money was punctually repaid upon His Majesty's Restitution The Duke in the mean Time having recalled all the Kings Subjects in the French Service joyning them with those in the Spanish Low-Countries composed a considerable Body which he commanded with no less Honour than he had done in France although they were well nigh destroyed by the fatal Valour of the English Rebels at Mardike and the Battle of Dunkirk The Duke more illustrious by Misfortunes did not only for some time resist but retard the Progress of the Victors until oppressed by multitudes as is already said he was necessitated to comply with the Fate of the vanquished Cromwell dying soon after however a way seemed thereby to be opened to the Kings Restauration his Majesty received the News of it with remarkable Constancy and Calmness of Mind in no ways insulting though he saw his most Mortal Enemy extinguished in the Person of this Vsurper Cardinal Mazarin however averse to King Charles did at the same time congratulate the Queen his Mother upon the Hopes of her Sons Restauration since he was by the Death of that Tyrant delivered from his most implacable and successful Enemy The sudden Change in England followed by the Deposing of Richard and the Resurrection of the Rump and the other Innovations already mentioned which followed as they augmented the Hopes of the King at Home so they varied the Counsels of Princes abroad Which his Majesty applyed in as much as was possible to his own Use by Negotiations and Embassies But there being now a Treaty in Agitation betwixt France and Spain he would himself be present at it For if a Peace were concluded which was more than probable betwixt these great Princes it was but reasonable to suppose that they might spare some of their numerous Forces to assist an injured King their Ally by Blood and Common Interest And yet the King would rather reduce his Rebel-Subjects to Obedience by the Appearance of his Power than by the Use of his Forces In the mean time accompanied with the Duke of York his Brother and the Marquess of Ormond he hasted Incognito through France having saluted the Queen his Mother at Paris in his way to St. John De Luz where the Great Ministers of the Two Crowns were then in Treaty Don Louis de Haro upon Notice of the Kings Approach went to met and receive him Which he did alighting from his Horse and Embracing and kissing his Knees with as much Honour and Splendour as if he had been his Master the King of Spain The next Day his Majesty was visited by Cardinal Mazarin the other great Plenipotentiary who was
courtly though reserved And yet the King behaved himself with so much charming Prudence to both these Ministers and gained so much upon them that he not only defeated the Designs of Lockhart the Regicides Embassadour then there but having obtained an Assurance of being assisted by the Forces of the Two Crowns for his Restitution he was dismissed with the same Honours he had been received At Paris in his Return he was splendidly treated by the Duke of Orleance as King of England and acknowledged such by all Men none now doubting of his sudden Restauration From thence he came to Brussels entering into that City publickly and with a Pomp worthy his Grandeur where he also was magnificently caressed and where he designed to continue until the Dissolution of the Parliament Whilst these things were in Agitation the Distractions and Risings in England were various the Impatience of the Royal Party to restore their Prince precipitating them as usually into great Inconveniencies And yet they got to a Head in Cheshire under Sir George Booth as is already mentioned and the King himself was in private about St. Malos attending some favourable Occasion to transport him into England These Risings especially Booth's were lookt upon as formidable it being supposed that Monk was intermingled with them But they being supprest every where the King returned again to Brussels in expectation of the event of the Pacification concluded betwixt the Two Crowns He had not continued long there when being informed of the Differences betwixt the Army and Rump his Hopes being raised thereby he took also a Resolution not to be wanting in himself He had tryed the ways of War and had also attempted the perfidious Fidelity of his Enemies but with no Success He will therefore put himself upon other Counsels And seeing Monk commanded the Rebels in Scotland in Chief he will enquire into the Secret of his Intentions and Mind The King had found him a sharp Enemy but Noble free from Calumnies and Revilings nor any way distained with the inexpiable Guilt of the Regicide In the former Wars he had served King Charles I. but being taken and perhaps neglected he preferred Liberty before Confinement and the Management of Arms to the clinking of Shackles It was therefore thought expedient to attempt him under these Circumstances and endeavour to reclaim him with the Charms and Honour of being the Deliverer of his Country and King the Church and State Sir John Greenvill eminent for his Loyalty and of kin to Monk was employed to manage this important Secret Who in order to it having gained Mr. Nicolas Monk a Minister the General 's Brother on whom as Patron he had bestowed a very considerable Benefice he sent him into Scotland with Commission in the King's Name to offer him any Conditions he should please to Demand But Monk wisely suspicious under pretence of the incertain Vicissitudes of Affairs answered ambiguously neither openly declaring his sentiments nor wholly concealing them He also having exacted an Oath of secresie from his Brother sent him back with his Daughter which was the Pretext for his coming into Scotland as also a Message to the Members outed by Lambert to assure them of his Fidelity to the Parliament These Gentlemen raised with these Hopes presumed all things upon that Accompt and was a plausible Vail for him in the modelling and forming his Army according to his Designs But Greenvill being not well satisfied with the Parson's Declaration acquainted the King with it Who notwithstanding the Abstruseness of it drew no ill Augury thence commanding Greenvil to attend the General when he came to London and make all imaginable Enquiry of what Intentions he was towards His Majesty's Restitution And this he happily performed being admitted by the Assistance of Mr. Morrice a great Confident of Monk's and afterwards Secretary of State to the King The Enterview was in Morrice his Chamber where no Body but themselves being present Greenvill delivered Monk the King's Letters To which after Twice reading of them he answered That he would not only comply with the King's Desires but also restore him without Conditions or any the least Diminution of his Royal Authority Neither would he think of any Terms for himself humbly submitting that to the King's Pleasure when he returned Greenvill ecstasi'd with the Joy of his Success desired Letters to the King to testifie so great a Secret but he replied That he would commit nothing to Writing nor send any Body to the King besides himself whom he had found so faithful and secret He hoped His Majesty would Pardon what was past professing That he always had a Veneration for the King and now upon this first Occasion would testifie his Obedience to him with the Hazard of his Life and Fortune Greenvill overjoyed with this happy Conclusion hastened to acquaint the King with it at Brussels who was infinitely pleased with Monk's generous Actings especially having received Letters out of England from some Friends there desiring him to accept of the Isle of Wights Conditions they being the best they could at present procure him But Greenvill was by Advice of Sir Edward Hyde then made Chancellour and the Marquess of Ormond presently returned into England with a Commission for Monk as General of all the Forces in the Three Kingdoms and a Letter all writ with the King 's own Hand full of gracious Expressions and Acknowledgments for so great a Benefit Greenvill had also other Letters which we shall mention in their Place And lest he might himself return empty after he had been so signally meritorious the King honoured him with a Warrant for an Earldom and 3000 l. a Year Whilst these things were in Agitation the English observing that the Treaty betwixt France and Spain upon the Borders would end in a Peace shewed themselves likewise not averse to it especially considering the vast Commerce they always had with the Spanish Countries Hence followed a spontaneous Cessation from Arms. But the King would not expect the Event of it for fear of being imposed upon here as he had been in France and therefore removed his Court to Breda belonging to his Sister the Princess of Orange The sudden Change in England occasioned Changes of Councils And now it was supposed that the King should take shipping from Calais or some Part in Flanders having been earnestly invited thereto from both France and Spain But to content both he accepted of neither but continued at Breda cluding thereby the Arts of both Princes the French Designs as well as those of the Spanish longing for the return of Jamaica and Dunkirk to their Obedience The King then being secure at Breda was saluted there by Deputies from the States-General where he was also magnificently treated by the Publick The Parliament being now met consisting of Two Houses free and full in their Numbers their first Care was to give Publick Thanks to God for rescuing their Country from Usurpation and Tyranny and the next to thank
the General who by his Courage and Conduct had contributed so mainly to it They then Vote Declare and Decree That the Government of England is Monarchical consisting in a King and Two Houses of Parliament After this King Charles I. his Statues thrown down by the Sectaries were set up again and the New Arms of the Common wealth with extream Contumelies tâ—rn and defaced those of the King being put in their Places A â—â—w Days after the King himself the Members of Bâ—th Houses assisting and an Iâ—fâ—nity of People was with the usual Ceremonies but unusual Transports of Joy proclaimed at Westminster in London and afterwards in the whole Kingdom King of Great Britain and Ireland In these following Terms Although it can no ways be doubted but that his Majesty's Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the Death of his most Royal Father of glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such Cases have been always used to the End that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testifie their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other Calamities of many Years last past have hitherto deprived us of any Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and Proclaim That immediately upon the Decease of our late Sovereign King Charles I. the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to his most Excellent Majesty King Charles II. as being Lineally Justly and Lawfully next Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God He is of England Scotland and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever At the Ceremony of this Proclamation the Publick Joy expressed by Shoutings Acclamations of God bless the King Bells and Bonfires were no less extraordinary than infinite the People being at length redeemed out of so long and so wretched a Captivity by the miraculous Restauration of their Beloved Prince Our most August Monarch had hitherto as is already mentioned wandered in Foreign Courts and as usual in the Disgraces of Fortune too much neglected especially where Reason of State seemed more prevalent than all the Tyes of Blood or Hospitality He was at Brussels the Metropolis of the Spanish Netherlands when he first heard of this Change in England from whence he removed to Breda a more secure place under the Circumstances of the present Times And now he hastens Greenvill away again with Letters to the Two Houses of Parliament to the City to Monk and to Montague joynt General at Sea In these Writings He Pardons all Men and all Crimes committed against his Royal Father or himself except such as the Parliament should except against promising further The Souldiers their Arrears tho' they bore Arms against him and That he would from that time receive them into his own Trust and Service upon the same Terms they did now enjoy c. This Declaration being received and read in Parliament with inexpressible Satisfaction and Joy was voted infinitely Satisfactory and a splendid Embassy ordered to the forthwith sent to the King with their humble Thanks for his Gracious Declaration and Letters and to invite and press His Majesty's return to his Parliament and People Six Lords and Twelve Commoners with Twenty Principal Citizens with a noble Train of Attendants were sent upon this happy Occasion Who the Wind favouring them after a quick Passage found His Majesty at the Hague in Holland where he had been treated and defrayed by the States of that Province with all imaginable Demonstrations of Honour and Friendship The Embassadours being admitted to the King's Presence and graciously heard had their Desires crowned with a wisht-for Answer So that nothing now impeded His Majesty's Return to his Dominions but the Wind which in favour to the kind Dutch kept him some little time longer there In the interim the Duke of York visited the Fleet lying at Anchor before Scheveling under the Command of General Montague formerly as is mentioned reconciled to His Majesty After a magnificent Reception his Royal Highness taking the Oaths of Allegiance from the Sea-men and having changed the Names of several of the Prime Ships restored this first Pledge of Empire to our Monarch The King having taken his Leave of the States General and of the States of Holland in their Assemblies the Honour of which visit they acknowledged in a most Elegant Speech with all the Expressions of Gratitude and Satisfaction he imbarked in a Boat prepared for him by the States whose Flag had this memorable Inscription Quo Fas et Fata vocârunt The Ways the Downs the Sand Hills and Shores were crowded with an innumerable Multitude of all Sorts of People ecchoing his Departure with Vows for his good Success By the way upon the Approach of a Brigandine from the Fleet he entered into it And going aboard the Royal Charles formerly the Naesby with his Two Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Gloucester he was receieved there by Montague with all submissive Veneration who again treated him with a Gracious Testimonial of his Affection The Season was very clear and the Sea so calm that his Majesty mounting upon the Poop did daiâ—n to turn his Eyes to the Shore which he had so lately left and seeing the infinite Crowds of Spectators there he was pleased to say That he thought his own Subjects could scarce have more Tenderness for him than those People on whose Affections he saw he reigned no less than he was going to reign on the Wills of the English After this having kiss'd his Nephew * Prince of Orange and the Queen his Aunt * Queen of Bohemia and bid them farewel he had much aâ—o to be separated from his Sister * Princess Royal. This matchless Princess who had born and slighted so many Vicissitudes of Evil and who had frequently solaced the Calamities of her Brothers by her charming Discourses can scarce now without shaking her Constancy endure the Absence of a few Days being what she had desired with so much Impatience and what was so glorious to both of them The Anchors being at length weighed he left this friendly Shore with the thundering of the Cannon on both sides and sailed towards England now truely his own On the 25th of May he came into Dover Road where upon his landing he was received by Monk with Joy and Observance This best of
being husht up by the Treaty of Breda The Plague did devour our People no more its Poison being extinct And the City lately of Wood was now by the King's Munificence rebuilt of Brick and Stone When one Titus Oates who had had his Education and Orders in the Reformea Church of England being afterwards reconciled to that of Rome passed over first into Flanders and thence into Spain Where under pretence of Religion and his Zeal for it he gained so much Favour with the Priests and Jesuits that he had Opportunities as he pretended to penetrate into their most secret Councils This new Proselyte changing Parties again returned into England where he informs the King of a Design of the Papists against his Life against the Reformed Religion and the present Government And naming several Lords as Bellasis Powis Peters Arundel Castelmain Stafford and other Men of Quality as prime Conspirators in this Treason gained so much Credit with the Parliament that the accused were all imprisoned the Papists commanded to remove Ten Miles from the City and all of them to be cashier'd out of all Employments both Military and Civil The mysterious Death of Godfrey inflamed the Parliaments Credulity to Vote That there was a Plot execrable and Hellish as they termed it Insomuch as the King at their instant Desires past a Bill to disable all Popish Peers or other Members so affected to fit in either Houses of Parliament Offering further to comply with any Expedient they should propose for the Security of the Protestant Religion so as they tended not to impeach the Right of Succession Coleman Ireland Pickering Groves Fenwick Whitebread Langhorn Staley Green Berry and Hill condemned by the Testimony of Oates and others of his Associates solemnly attested their Innocence at their Death Nor did so great Effusion of Blood suffice to remove the Jealousies they had of the Papists so that the Houses of Parliament to whom the King had granted all things for the security of Religion not contented with these Concessions proceeded so far as to press the King to remove the Duke of York from his Presence and Councils To this they added the Imprisonment of his Secretary Williamson without his Knowledge Which did so far irritate his Majesty that he dissolved this Parliament after it had continued Seventeen Years Fanaticism which had lurk'd for some Time under a Protestant Mask and infused its Contagion into the Parliament began now under Pretence of Godliness to appear more openly The King having dissolved the Parliament as is said had summon'd another from which he hoped for more good than he had hitherto experimented And lest the Presence of his Brother might prove any Obstacle he commanded him to retire until the Heat of the Faction did a little cool Which he obeyed without Repugnancy that he might in no wise occasion any the least Dissension betwixt the King his Brother and the Parliament But the King's Indulgence and the Duke's Observance were equally valu'd Nor could all his Concessions with those Limitations not meddle with the Succession or his Prerogatives satisfy their Contumacy year 1679 Nay he had dismissed his Privy Council as being ill look'd upon by the Parliament surrogating others in their rooms not so obnoxious to the Faction making the Earl of Shaftsbury President But all this was to no purpose for the Parliament omitting those Things which they were to have treated of and postponing the King's Demands of Subsidies they again attacked the Duke of York absent then in Flanders the Commons voting his Exclusion from the Succession But the King seeing the contumacious Animosity of the Party and not obscurely perceiving that he himself was aimed at through the Duke's Sides July 10. Octob. 17. dissolving this present Parliament commanded another to convene in October following Whilst these things are in Agitation in England the Tumults in Scotland flew higher Dr. Sharp the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews was most inhumanly murthered in his Coach by a Party of the barbarous Covenanters Which done the Rebellion they designed was by the Concourse of those Multitudes that flockt together suddainly formed into a considerable Army consisting of Sixteen Hundred Horse and above Four Thousand Foot Nor were the Royallists less active the King having sent the Duke of Monmouth thither as General who joying with the Scots Nobility they raised such a Force that fighting the Rebels at Bothwel-Bridge chey defeated them The Slaughter was not great for the Enemies Horse not being prest or pursued by the Connivance if not Command of Monmouth for he himself had other Designs as it afterwards appeared retreated in a Body at least Twelve Miles from the Place they had fought in and separating there dispersed themselves some of the Foot being slain A few of the Prisoners were punished for their improsperous Treason After this the King fell sick of a Fever at Windsor which was so violent that the Physitians despaired of his Recovery Upon News whereof the Duke hastened from Brussels to Court But it seemed otherwise good to the Almighty who was pleased to prolong his Life until he could leave the Kingdom agitated at present with so many Distractions settled and composed to his Successor Being restored to his Health the Joy of it was celebrated by the Universality at least the Good Part of the Nation the City also sending their Lord Mayor and Aldermen with a great Train with Thirty Coaches and a Troop of a Hundred Horse for their Convoy to Windsor to congratulate his Hapyy Recovery But Monmouth however illegitimate blinded with Ambition and not content with those great Honours and Places he enjoyed aspired to the Crown it self inviting and alluring with the Baits of Employments and Rewards some of the most interested to his Party But this caballing was discovered to the King by the Earl of Oxford who abhorring the Treason preferr'd his Loyalty before all the Offers of Ambition and Greatness The King being justly incensed against the Ingratitude and Vanity of the Pretender divested him of all those Dignities and Offices which he enjoyed and banished him the Kingdom Moreover to prevent the Chymerical Delusions which the Report of his being married or contracted to the said Duke's Mother might occasion his Majesty by repeated Declarations publickly emitted as also by Writings under his own Hand declared Vpon the Faith of a Christian and the Word of a King that he never Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to Queen Katharine his Wife This the King did with so much Solemnity to prevent the Peoples being abused by these false and malitious Reports and lest the Factious might thereby mislead them to disturb the Publick Peace or violate the Rights of Succession Whereby also the vain Pretences of Monmouth and the ridiculous Machinations of the Seditious might be disappointed The Parliament 1679. 1680. which the King had summoned to meet in October being delayed by several Motogatives did not come together before the October
following Nor were their Councils now less violent punishing some of their own Members by expelling them the House and persecuting several of the Judges and others faithful to the King Nor did this suffice For they not only voted but past a Bill which they called An Act to aisable the Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and all the Territories thereunto belonging But it went no further for being carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel after a second reading it was thrown out of the House After this Dec. 17. the Lord Viscount Stafford was brought to his Tryal being prosecuted by the Commons upon the Testimonies of Oates Turberville and Dugdale and condemned by the Suffrages of the Peers was beheaded Not were the Commoners thus satisfied They press the Bill of Exclusion a-new and demand Permission for the Protestants to associate themselves for security of the Protestant Religion They declare all other Remedies in sufficient and obnoxious to Dangers And that therefore they could give the King no Supply without Danger to his Person Hazard to the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted Nay they required That the Lords Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Rochester and Feversham should be removed from all Offices of Honour and Profit and from his Councils and Presence for ever And with the same Breath with unheard of as well Fury as Arrogance Vote That whosoever shall lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the. Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Custom Excise or Hearth-Money should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and should be responsible for the same And when they perceived that the King wearied with such monstrous Insolence designed to Prorogue their Session they had 〈◊〉 vote and denounce That whosoever advised the King to prorogue that Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing the Bill of Exclusion should be lookt upon as a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner of France But Mar. 24. the Parliament being however Prorogued and then Dissolved by Proclamation the King intimated his pleasure to call another which should convene in March following at Oxford as a place less Subject to Faction and Tumults Which so stung the Common Council of London and such Peers as were emancipated to the Party that they endeavoured by Petitions to divert his Majesty from thoughts of so remote a Design upon imaginary reason of Danger and Unfitness praying it might therefore sit at Westminster But to no purpose So that the Parliament met at Oxford composed for the most part of the same Delegates The major Part of the Deputies as also the Fanatick Lords depending upon their numerous Attendants and Friends which they were accompanyed with drove on futiously and neglecting the King's Admonitions who had declared That as he had resolved never to use Arbitrary Government himself so he was resolved never to suffer it in others rage with more Fierceness against the Duke and press the Bill of Exclusion with so much Violence that the King putting a stop to their career immediately dissolved them And it was time seeing they designed not only to retrench his Prerogative but also to seize his Person Upon that Accompt Rouse Hains White College and the Earl of Shaftsbury were committed to Prison Of those College and Shaftsbury were brought to their Tryals But in vain being acquitted by their Juries against the Testimonies and Evidences of irreproachable Witnesses Which was no Wonder the very Coâ—rts of Justice being enslaved to the Faction and acted by their Prescripts So that the King who himself was religious in the equal Distribution of Justice to all Men could not obtain Justice for himself But College being brought before another Tribunal less subjected to the Authority of the Faction received such Punishment as his Treason deserved He had no less offended at Oxford than at London and was try'd and executed there The Fellow was of the Lees of the Rabble a Joyner by Trade vain restless inquisitive and perpetually busie in Affairs that least concerned him But Shaftsbury's Fortune was better who eluding the Publick Justice by a Jury addicted to himself and the Faction and retorting the Danger upon his Accusers triumphed whilst they hardly escaped the Fury of the Rabble And 't was no wonder for this destructive Faction was so prevalent in the City that it had infatuated the People and the Companies of Tradesmen with a reverent Opinion of their Sanctity And spreading wider the Contagion had diffused it self into most of the Provinces of the Kingdom And now all such whose Crimes had rendered them Guilty or Indigence bold such whose Zeal made furious or Ambition lofty joyned themselves to them The same Pretences of Liberty Property and Religion and the same Methods wherewith the Reign of Charles the Martyr had been involved in Blood and Confusion were now again made use of mostly by the same Men cunning restless and implacable to seduce weak and irresolute Persons as also to disturb that Peace which we hitherto enjoyed to the Envy of all Europe By such Instruments the mildest of Governments was branded with the Name of Tyranny The Church of England is traduced and the faithfullest Ministers and Servants to the King and Crown calumniated with Male Administration In the mean Time Schism and Sedition are every where promoted Jealousies and vain Terrors are suggested proditorious Discourses and infamous Libels are scattered about and things abhorring from Christianity are dayly exercised under the genuine Veil of Protestantism Finally the old Opinions and Doctrines of the Democraticks so ruinous to Monarchy are now again countenanced and asserted with the same Fierceness and Confidence as they had been in the late Rebellion With these pickeerings of Rebellion they gradually proceeded to Action Parties are distinguished Names and Signs of Separation are distributed Unlawful Conventicles in despite of the Laws are patronised Tumultuous Banquets and factious Clubs are every where set up Clandestine and seditious Assemblies are frequented Unusual Quantities of Arms are bought up by private Men. Insolent Progresses are made through the Country to the End they might shew how numerous they were spread their Terror about as they moved discover their Party and demonstrate their readiness upon all Occasions Nor were these Caballings unknown to the King who when he saw his Clemency so highly abused by those whom he had pardoned yet greater Offences resolved to chastise them and oppose the severity of Law to their Extravagancies In the Two preceding Years Two Favourers of the Faction being Lord Mayors by Turn had promoted turbulent Fellows to the Magistracy and chief Employments in the City Of these the Two Sheriffs were chief who directed the choice of Jury's at pleasure which gave the licentious Liberty to offend For what durst they not attempt who were
horrid a Design discountenanced the Credit of the Relator until verified by demonstrative Arguments which gave Opportunity to the Conspirators to withdraw themselves Yet some of them were taken as Howard Essex Russel Rumsey Sidney Walcot Hone Rowse and the Lord G. but he escaped out of the hands of the Messenger The Lord Russel and Collonel Sydney were both beheaded Walcot Rowse and Hone were executed at Tyburn and others in other places suffered the punishments due to such execrable Treasons The Earl of Essex the unfortunate Son of a good Father by his own hands prevented the Kings Clemency who could not shew the utmost of his Severity against a Son of my Lord Capels Of those who fled some obtained the Kings Pardon by their ingenious Confessions as Barber Blaney Bourn How Howard Rumsey c. Nor is it unworthy of Notice that scarce any of those who were executed did dye without confessing enough to demonstrate their Crime though not their Repentance Amongst the Fugitives the most considerable were Armstrong Ayloff Burton the Two Goodenoughs Brothers Gray Holloway Norton Nizbet Row the Two Rombalds Brothers Smyth Wade Tyley and Ferguson the Shame of his Coat and Calling a Canting Teacher and more cruelly wicked than all those he had endeavoured to mislead Sir Thomas Armstrong and Holloway being intercepted the First at Leyden in Holland the other at Mevis one of our Western Plantations and brought into England were both executed according to the Merit of their Crimes The Parricide designed thus in England against His Majesty and the Duke being discovered and prevented the Conspiracy in Scotland fell also as depending on it James Stuart Monroe Melvin Cockran Bayley Castares Spence Alex. Gordon Nezbet c. were the Chief of the Party acting in all Things by Agreement with Argile This perverse Son of a wicked Father had Demanded 30000 l. of the English to buy Arms engaging himself to make a powerful Diversion in his own Country Which he also effected as we shall see hereafter having procured Supplies by other means The Duke of Monmouth youthfully rash inconstant ambitious and hurried on with the Pretense of vindicating Liberty and Religion agitated now with the Guilt of his Crimes had also withdrawn himself But being proscribed and finding but little safety in a Retreat though it his best course to implore that Clemency which he had so cruelly offended Which he did by his Letters seemingly full of Ingenuity wherein he acknowledges his Crimes of Unfaithfulness against the King and of Ingratitude to the Duke bewailing what he had done and humbly supplicating Pardon for what was past With Imprecations of Vengeance upon himself if he offended any more or violated the Promises he then made of his future Fidelity The King the mildest of Princes moved with his Submissions answered him under his own Hand in these Terms That if the Duke of Monmouth would render himself capable of his Mercy it was necessary he should surrender himself into the Hands of Secretary Jenkins and should tell His Majesty all that he knew submitting himself as to the rest entirely to his Pleasure This peremptory Declaration of the King's Will extorted other Letters from Monmouth wherein he patheticalâ—y aggravates his Sorrow and Tortures of Mind for his failings against his Majesty Confessing that being fatally circumvented by the Enchantments of others he was drawn into their Design and precipitated into those Evils the Consequences whereof he had not suspected He declares that his Crimes appeared to him with so terrible an Aspect that he would rather dye than be tormented with their stings he therefore implores the King's Grace and Pardon which he did not desire but by the Mediation of his Royal Highness He further professes That he saith this seriously and sincerely not only submitting himself for this Time to the King's Pleasure but for his whole Life Concluding That he should be the unhappiest of Men until he were raised with a grateful and mild Answer The King after this 1683. Nov. 25. not questioning the sincerity of Monmouth's Conversion admitted him to his presence Where throwing himself at his Majesty's Feet he plainly and fully acknowledged himself conscious of all the Conspiracy except the Parricide discovering many things to the King which they had hitherto been ignorant of Monmouth being by the Intervention of the Duke restored to his Majesty's Favour as formerly obtained also the Favour not to be produced as a Witness against any Body which Grace had been formerly refused to the Duke of Orleance in France and that undoubtedly was the reason that his old Associates and Friends impudently gave out that he had discovered nothing of the Conspiracy but contrarily had vindicated the Innocency of those that had so injuriously suffered The King moved with so great Arrogance and perceiving that Monmouth did continue his Society with those who seduced his unwary Youth after some Admonitions he commanded him to publish in Writing what he had declared to himself and to the Duke his Brother Nor did he refuse it writing to the King in these Terms That he was informed that it had been reported of him as if he had designed to extenuate the late Conspiracy and traduce the Testimonies against them that suffered His Majesty and the Duke knew how ingeniously he confessed all Things and that he was not conscious of the least Evil against his Majesty's Life It grieved him however that he had so greatly countenanced the said Conspiracy He would publish this for his Vindication beseeching his Majesty not to look back but that he would please to forget those Injuries which he had forgiven It should be his Care for the future to sin no more or suffer himself to be misled from his Duty Yea he would spend his whole Life to deserve that Pardon which he had granted to his most Dutiful Monmouth But these Flourishes were no less fickle than short-liv'd For the unhappy Youth being bewitcht by the Artifices of wicked Men and his own Ambition broke that Faith which he had so solemnly promised to preserve inviolable For being foolishly perswaded That the Declaration he had so lately made was a Diminution to his Honour and might rise up in Judgment against him hereafter he redemanded it from his Majesty Who tender of his Good endeavoured to divert him from so preposterous an Attempt but being more obstinately pressed he in great Anger restored it him banishing him at the same time from his Court and Presence The King did not long survive this for being intercepted by a violent Apoplectic Fit he changed his Terrestrial Crowns for one of Glory being so universally lamented by the Good and leaving so great a Desire of him behind him that our Loss was in a Manner inconsolable He was succeeded by James Duke of York who was immediately proclaimed King But he was scarce setled in his Throne when the Hydra of Rebellion lift up her Head again out of the Lake of Schism and Faction BOOK
could have had no Aid from abroad France and Spain being engaged in a War and the Pope though he might wish well remote and not over liberal so that they must necessarily have been ruined by the Forces of England and Scotland The Conspiracy being brought to Maturity many of the Gentlemen first The Conspiracy is discovered and afterwards most of the Nobility as also the entire Multitude of the Romish Religion joined in it and with unheard-of Secrecy assaulted suppressed and took most of the Towns and Fortresses of the Kingdom and sparing none these barbarous Traytors massacred without Respect of Sex or Age them of the English Nation and Religion filling all Places where they came with Ruine Rapines Burnings and infinite Slaughters Dublin the chief Seat of the Government and Kingdom was not surprized being saved by the seasonable Infidelity of one O Conall an Irish-man who being convinced by the horridness of the Fact or greatness of the Reward he hoped for from its Discovery lays open the whole Conspiracy acquainting the Chief-Justices with the Design the Night before it was to have been put in Execution London-derry Colrane Tredagh with some other Towns and Fortresses standing upon their Defence escaped the Danger which with the Arrival of some few Forces from England occasioned a very long and very bloody War The Lords Justices having secured the Castle of Dublin where the King's Magazines were Dublin secured and the City as well as they could with armed Men they the next Morning apprehended Hugh Mac-Mahon Grand-child to the late rebellious Earl of Tyrone who by his unwary Confidence or rather divine Providence had occasioned the Discovery by entrusting O Conalli with the Secret Being brought before the Council he boldly avowed the Conspiracy affirming That as it was universal and to be put in execution that instant Morning so it was not humanely possible to be prevented Some of the Conspirators taken He acknowledged himself their Prisoner and being in their Power they might use him as they pleased he was sure to be suddenly revenged The Lord Macquier another of the principal Conspirators was also taken but few more of Quality the rest of the Undertakers as Roger More Plunket Birne and others having escaped The Citizens with such as could be confided in were immediately armed and Proclamation made and sent into all Quarters of the Discovery of this flagitious Rebellion and their Disappointment of their Attempt upon Dublin as also to exhort all good Subjects to betake themselves to their Defence Upon this Proclamation the Lords of the English Pale being of British Extraction and who in all former Rebellions had been true to the Crown pretending Ignorance of any Plot before this publick Notice repaired to the Council with Assurances of their Fidelity and offer of their Service And they were not only entrusted it being dangerous to suspect them in this Juncture but had also Arms delivered to them upon their Desires and Commissions to levy Men for their own Defence and that of their Provinces The standing Forces in Ireland consisting of scarce 1000 Horse and 2000 Foot were dispersed in the several Fortresses of the Kingdom but so remote that it was not possible the ways being intercepted by the Rebels to draw them to a Body besides many of them being Catholicks revolted and others were surprised or intercepted so that few of them could be brought to Dublin The City was in the mean time fortified with all imaginable Industry being also daily filled with Numbers of such who fled from the cruel and inhumane Barbarities of the Rebels Of these and the neighbouring English two Regiments were formed whereof Sir Henry Tichburne had one together with the Government of Tredagh and Sir Charles Coot the other with the Command of Dublin These two Places being the principal Fortresses of the Party The Justices and Council dispatched an Express to the King who was then in Scotland and to the Parliament at Westminster of the Discovery and Progress of the Conspiracy His Majesty highly perplexed as most concerned with this monstrous Rebellion offers all his Assistance for the suppressing of it acquaints the Parliament of Scotland with it and demands their Aid in it conjures the two Houses at Westminster and empowers them to use the utmost of Force and Counsel to prevent the Progress of the Rebellion and deliver his Protestant Subjects from the Calamities that threatned them Nay sometime after he offered to go in Person and raise 10000 Voluntiers for that Service if the Parliament would but pay them all which they refuse under pretence of not exposing his Sacred Person to so eminent Danger but in truth preferring their own Fears to the Solace of so many desolate Sufferers and lest when he had conquered those Rebels he might be sensible of the Injuries done him and being armed become formidable to the Parliament it self The Houses indeed voted a powerful Relief of Men Money and Provisions but they were but slow in Performance retarding the Supplies they had so eagerly ordered with their undutiful Disputes and Quarrels with the Court till the whole was well nigh lost Bleeding Ireland was the Subject of their Discourse not their Care being too much taken up with the Management of their own Designs at Home so that they went no farther besides exclaiming at the Obstacles they themselves created and that by a Calumny black as the Rebellion it self they cast the Odium of those Delays upon the unsulliedst Innocence in the World the King than whom no Prince could be more sensibly affected with the greatness of the Calamity nor desired the Wellfare of his Subjects with more Affection The King returns out of Scotland The King having appeased Scotland returned to London where he was received with the general Acclamations of the People and all the Pomp imaginable being met by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and royally feasted together with the Queen and Prince at Whitehall But the Parliament being much disturbed with this solemn Entertainment had prepared another reception for his Majesty They had used all their Arts to hinder his going into Scotland lest peradventure he should tamper with his Army by the way of which they had already created to themselves several Jealousies it being as yet but in disbanding or that he should gain too much upon the Scots-Parliament by his Concessions and Favours But what they more openly acted was to press the King to substitute a Lieutenant in his absence who might personate him not obscurely designing the Earl of Essex for this honour by which grant they might have divested him of every thing but his Title before his return which he perceiving wisely refused them so ruinous a Concession And yet he commissioned him General on the South-side of Trent with Power to raise Forces in case of Necessity But the Faction impatient of every Repulse in revenge framed a Remonstrance in his absence wherein whatever was defective in the Government was as