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A97273 A brief view of the late troubles and confusions in England, begun and occasioned by a prevailing faction in the Long Parliament: deduced to the auspicious [sic] coming in of General Monck, and the most glorious and happy restitution of King Charles the Second. / By William Younger. Younger, William, 1605-1662. 1660 (1660) Wing Y198; Thomason E1873_2; ESTC R204143 45,037 159

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Nottingham commanding all men who were bound to assist him by vertue of their Tenures to repair unto him But at Nottingham there being no great appearance though Essex his Army was at that time listed and formed ready to march his Majesty marches with those few Forces he had to Leicester Worcester Shrewsbury and so upon the borders of Wales gathering an Army Essex all this time marching after him and pursuing him After some little conflict at Worcester wherein the Kings Forces under the conduct of Prince Rupert Maurice had the better the two Armies meet at Edge-hill near Keynton in Warwickshire where the first Signal Battel was fought between them with great losse and slaughter on either side The Kings standard being taken yet recovered again his General the Earl of Lindsey slain but the King had the better keeping the field all night and Essex Retreating with his broken Forces to Warwick-Castle and from thence soon after with a few horses to London This Battel was fought on Sunday Octob. 23. and the Guns were heard all that afternoon to Thetford in Norfolk The King presently after enters Oxford and fortifies it and matches to Reading and Windsor and so towards London The Citizens arming and sending forth all the power they could make against him At Branford he encountred them about Novem. 12. and beat the party that opposed but fearing least he should be surrounded with their numerous Army of Citizens he Retreated back to Windsor and Fortifying Reading he marches back to Oxford but about the latter end of the year Reading is besieged by the Parliaments Forces and the Governour Sir Arthur Ashton being unhappily wounded with a brick falling from a Chimney beaten down by a Canon-shot the Garison is yeilded upon composition by Colonel Fielding Anno 1643. year 1643 The Kings Forces prevail in the West under the Command of Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Richard Grenvile and others beating out the Earl of Stamford who commanded there for the Parliament The Earl of Newcastle for the King growes very strong in the North beats the Lord Fairfax in several Encounters and takes in all places of strength except Hull into which the Lord Fairfax had fled The Queen lands at Bridlington with arms and ammunition out of Holland she marches by Nottingham and so to Oxford The King the mean time takes Bristol thence he removes summons Gloucester which refusing to yield he sets down before it The terror of Newcastles Army affrights Norfolk and the Associated Counties in so much as many of the Parliament side are preparing to flie beyond sea for their security But the King setting down before Gloucester and Newcastle before Hull wasted their Armies and trifled away their time whereas had they joyned and marched directly up to London all had lain prostrate at their feet The King lay so long before Gloucester that Essex had raised a great Army for the relief thereof which Army appoaching the King arose and marched off Essex relieves the City and pursues him they encounter at Newbury where the King was worsted and lost many gallant men Newcastle in the mean time lay before Hull till the Earl of Manchester besieges and takes Lyn in Norfolk untill Lincoln and many other places were reduced to the Parliament with much loss to the Kings party The same year the Parliament treats with the Scots for their assistance against the King and the better to engage them they impose the Covenant fr●med in Scotland upon the whole Nation for putting down of Bishops changing the whole Frame of Church Government in England and Ireland with Doctrine Discipline and worship to that of Scotland the Scots accordingly come in with an Army of 20000. or thereabout in winter they besiege Newcastle upon Tyne and at length take it Mean time the Forces of the Association besiege Newark upon Trent a Garison of the Kings and much straiten it Sir John Meldrum Sir Miles Hobart and Sir John Palgrave commanding the forces against it But in their march towards the latter end of the year when they every day expected the surrendring of the Town Prince Rupert comes suddenly upon them with a party of Horse his body of foot being three or four miles behind assaults and surprises the Besiegers disarms them all and so relieves the Town Many of the Souldiers and some Commanders were plundered and stript contrary to Articles for which the Kings party were afterward served in the like kind Anno 1644. year 1644 The Earl of Essex and Sir William Waller were sent forth with two Armies to pursue and take the King The King fortifies Oxford and lodging the rest of his Artillery in Dennington Castle with a light Army he takes the field Essex goes towards the West then mostly ●n the Kings possession Waller understanding which way the King was marched pursued him At Cropdie Bridge in Oxford-shire a place of advantage he sets upon the Kings Forces but is himself beaten and routed this was about the latter end of June Waller being thus defeated the King follows Essex into the West drives him by degrees as far as Lestithrell in Cornwell and there coops him up Essex takes the Sea in a Boate and leaves this Army to capitulate for themselves The Horse under the Command of Sir VVilliam Balfore break through the Kings Quarters and get away the Foot commanded by Skippon capitulate for their lives leaving their Arms Ordnance and Ammunition upon the place Septemb. 4. and t●king an Oath not to serve any more against the King which nevertheless many of them presently after broke The King after this hard service marches back with his Army leasurely and at Newbury is assaulted by the broken Troops of Essex his Army assisted by Manchester and Cromwell commanding the Forces of the Association A sore fight there was in the night with much loss to both parties The King gains the Town and the next day or the day after takes his Ordnance and Ammunition from Dennington Castle in the sight of the Enemy without opposition and so marches with them to Oxford This Sommers service lost the credit of Essex Manchester and VValler they were never imployed after But in the mean time while Essex and VValler were thus imployed against the King the Scots with the assistance of the Associated Counties and other of the Parliaments Forces had so far prevailed against the Earl of Newcastle and his Army as they had besieged him in York for many months Prince Rupert with a great Army out of Lancashire and the parts adjacent to his relief Upon the Prince his approach the Besiegers rise in disorder and are ready to break and run The Prince thought it not enough to relieve the City but would also beat the besiegers and setting upon them July 14. they Rally and beat him a great slaughter there was not lesse than seven thousand slain of both parts but most they say of the Princes party The Earle of Newcastle in discontent at the Prince
Peers as useless inconvenient and an hinderance to the proceedings of Parliament a just reward for so ignoble degenerous spirits And because great Personages like great Trees in a Forrest seldom fall alone to compleat the Tragedie within a few weeks after they impeach Duke Hamilton General of the Scottish Army and the Earl of Holland as also the Lord Capel and Lord Goring taken in Colchester and some others None of these seared to be questioned for their lives till now for they yielding had quarter given them But an high Court of Justice must not be set up for the King alone They mean to go the same way to work with others the Law taking no hold of them they 'l make a Law that shall and therefore the like Court is erected again for the trial of these Lords and others though the same President sate not yet others did that had the same power All that were accused were condemned but Goring being a Gentleman of no great fortune and never before engaged against them found mercy at their hands Capels great estate drove on his ruine Hamilton and Holland are observed to have suffered deservedly because they had played on both parts sometimes for the King and otherwhiles against him as affairs changed The poor spiritness of the rest is observed in cowardly submitting to their pretended authority only the stout Lord Capel so Lilburn cals him would not in the least buckle to acknowledge them a lawful judicatory but after the example of his Royal Master denied their Anthority and when he came to suffer which he and the other did March 9. he took his death with a most resolute and undaunted courage not only to the admiration of all men but even to the very terror of his enemies they that neither loved him nor his cause yet highly commended him for his courage and magnanirnity and as much despised Hamilton for his timerous baseness using all means possible to save his life but all would not do much confidence he reposed in Hugh Peters that Clergy Mountebank who at last betrayd him as himself had formerly betrayed the King After the King was thus put to death and the Government changed into a Commonwealth a new Seal and new Coyn being made this Piece of the Parliament that put the King to death governed the Nation till April 20. 1653. what time they were thrown out forcibly by Cromwel being then their General and his Army Officers to the great content and rejoycing of the People But in the mean time presently after the death of the King the Scots proclaimed the Prince King of Scotland by the Name of Charls the second Ireland was almost all revolted soon after the death of the King year 1649 only the City of Dublin held out for the Parliament But Cromwel going over thither about September 1649. in less then a years time reduces that whole Kingdom to the obedience of the Parliament driving the Natives for the most part out and cooping up the rest in the Western parts of the Kingdom Scotland having as is said before proclaimed the Prince King they received him into that Kingdom and crowned him at Scone the first of January 1649. 1650. whereupon the Parliament having reduced Ireland they resolve to send an Army into Scotland about June 1650. Fairfax upon this layes down his Commission and Cromw ll is made Captain General in his stead He marches into Scotland with a great Army where he lay a long time before he could engage the Scots to fight insomuch as the English were in great distress for provisions and had been famished or forced to return long before had they not encamped near the sea and had the sea free and open to them At length the Scots set upon them at Dunbar but were defeated and routed at least 10000. of them slain and taken upon the place all of the Presbyterian party and such as had formerly engaged in England for the Parliament against the King An hundred Ensigns at least are taken brought up to London and hung up in triumph in Westminister Hall and which is remarkable great numbers of those Souldiers that at their coming into England in 1643. had heathenishly prophaned the Cathedral Church of Durham were now brought prisoners and lodged in the very same Church shut ' up together and fed like swine with roots and other trash so that with hunger and cold and stench lying there a long time most of them perished some of them acknowledging the just hand of God for their sacrilegious prophaness committed in that place this is a certain truth reported by credible persons living near and in that City And thus our Brethren the Scots were in part payd for their brotherly assistance But Cromwel hath not yet done with them he stayes still after the battel of Dunbar and pursues his victory he presently takes Leith and Edenburgh and afterward that strong and impregnable Castle called by the Scots the Maiden Castle because never before conquered Nor can I say it was now conquered by Cromwell He took it not by assault nor yet by hunger but as is credibly reported surrendred by the treachery or cowardize of the Lord _____ that commanded there in chief This Cast e being taken Cromwel enlarges his conquest all over the South of Scotland from Leith and Dunbar on the East to Glasco and Ayre in the West without any great resistance But the City and Castle of Sterling held out for the King together with the Fife the fertilest part of the Kingdom and all the North of Scotland from Endinburgh Frith Northward the Scots being now grown so wise after their beating at Dunbar as to take and call in to their assistance all the Kings party both Scots and English whom formerly they rejected under the notion of Malignants and Cavaleers putting the Earl of Montross most barbarously to death who landed in Scotland a little before the Kings coming thither and whom if they had entertained might possibly by the blessing of God have prevented their being beaten at Dunbar being a man of extraordinary experience conduct and courage in war exceedingly beloved of all the Royallists in Scotland and one that had formerly with an handful of men done incomparable service for the King But the Presbyterian Scots were as bitter against the Kings party as they were against Cromwell and his army and would have the glory wholly to themselves and their Covenant in restoring the King that thereby they might the better advance their Covenant and carry on their pretended work of reformation both in Scotland and England Cromwel and his Army lay long in Scotland year 1651 after Dunbar fight and did little not able to advance any further At length towards the latter end of July he gets over Edenburg Frith and lands his Army or a considerable part of them in the Fife with a great loss and defeat to the Scots who resisted The King soon after quits Sterling and suddenly marches away in
in their place and gave solemn thanks by their Recorder to his Majesties Messengers The Lords received their Letter by the Lord Mordant with the like joy and loyal affection The House of Commons having read their Letter and the Declaration voted it satisfactory and presently voted the Government of the Nation to be in his Majesty as the rightful and undoubted heir of the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland They ordered also a Committee to meet for drawing up a Letter of thanks to his Majesty for his most gracions Declaration And to Sir John Greenvile who delivered the Letter they gave five hundred pound as a gratuity to buy him a Jewel Both they and the Lords further ordered that six of the upper House and fifteen of the House of Commons should be forthwith sent to his Majesty to invite and attend him into to England Montague the Admiral at Sea is commanded to wait upon him with a Squadron of Ships and fifry thousand pound is ordered for his Majestjes expences as also ten thousand pound to the Duke of York and five thousand pound to the Duke of Glocester The Letter also and Declaration to the Army gave no lesser satisfaction both to the General Officers and Souldiers they all unanimously owning his Majesty in an high degree On Tuesday the eighth of May the King was solemnly proclaimed in London with the greatest expressions and acclamations of Joy that possibly could be and the like was soon after done in all Counties Cities Corporations and inlet Towns all over England No King ever coming to his Throne with so great satisfaction and rejoycing of the People thereby giving an evident Demonstration to the world that it was not the People of England nor the Parliament or Representatives of the People but only a factious and seditious party encouraged and supported by a perfidious and traiterous Army that murdered the late King disinherited his children and overthrew the ancient Fundamental and well constituted government of the Nation turning it from a Monarchy to a Common-wealth and thereby occasioned these horrid confusions and frequent changes and reelings of Government that afterwards ensued to the high reproach and dishonour of the English Nation For no sooner were the People and Parliament of England by the mercy of God delivered from the vassallage of an imperious and domineering Army and put in a condition of freedom but they presently return to their Allegiance and call in the undoubted Heir of the Crown submitting to his Government with the greatest cheerfulness and rejoycing that could be imagined And thus God who only doth wonders hath wrought wonderfully for this sinful Nation turning our Captivity as the Rivers in the South smoothly gently calmly without any tumult or torrent after so many horrid confusions as we have lain under for so many years together even to the wonder and astonishment not only of our selves but of all the Neighbour Nations round about us who must needs acknowledge in our behalf as was sometimes done in the case of Israel that the Lord hath done great things for them and we must needs with the Israelites answer by way of eccho Yea the Lord hath done great thing for us already whereof we rejoyce Psalm 126. The People of England were never conceived or reported to be so much against their King as now they manifestly appear to be for him even all of all sorts but such only whose guilt makes them desperate like Cain thinking their wickedness greater then can be forgiven And here for a conclusion we may fitly and truly in a sence take take up that saying of the Psalmist and apply it to the present occasion The same stone which the builders refused is become the head-stone of the Corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes To the same God be Glory for his great and Glorious Work May 21. 1660. FINIS Books printed for Robert Gibbs at the Ball in Chancery Lane STemma Sacrum The Royal Progeny by Giles Fleming Minister of Waddingworth in the County of Lincoln Epinicia Carolina or an Essay upon the Return of his sacred Majesty Charls the second by S. Woodford Gent. quarto The blessed Estate of them that die in the Lord by Tho. Manton Minister of Covent-Garden preached at the Funeral of Mrs. Jane Blackwell Wife of Elidad Blackwell An hundred choice Meditations Divine and Moral by Henry Tubb M. A. of Saint Johns Colledge in Cambridge Sensuality dissected or the Epicure's Motto opened censured improved preached at the Kentish Feast The Saints Gods precious Treasure being a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Darcy Wyvil Esq Eldest Son to the truly honourable Sir Christopher VVyvil The Excellent Woman a Sermon at the Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Scot. The vanity of glorying in the flesh in a Sermon preached at the Funeral of Kingswel Lucy Esq These four Sermons all preached by Tho. Case Minister of Saint Giles in the Fields and may be bound in one volume in 120.
A BRIEF VIEW OF The late troubles and confusions in England begun and occasioned by a prevailing Faction in the Long PARLIAMENT Deduced to the auspicious coming in of GENERAL MONCK And the most glorious and happy Restitution of KING CHARLES the SECOND By WILLIAM YOUNGER Psal 118.22 The same stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the Corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes London Printed for Robert Gibbs at the golden Ball in Chancery-lane 1660. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE Reader THis brief Relation was composed Chiefly out of the Authors own observation of the transactions in these late sad times Many things are purposely omitted especially in the former part for brevity sake which otherwise might have been inserted For his intentions at first were to leave it in the Register book of his Parish in which he first began it for the use of his successors but it growing too big for that design he drew the rest down in papers to the coming in of General Monck and the happy Restitution of King Charles the Second to his Throne He hath endeavoured herein to set down nothing but truth and hopeth he hath not much failed therein However if any errors or mistakes be they are not wilfull and possibly not much material His purpose only is to set forth the stupendious mercy of God in raising up a temporary Saviour such a one he accounts General Monck to be for the deliverance of this sinful Nation from an oppression or slavery as bad as Egyptian and from a confusion no less than Babylonish If God may have the glory by an humble ackowledgement and real thanks to be given him by the people of these Kingdoms it is all the Author expects or desires A Brief View of the late troubles and confusions in England begun and occasioned by a prevailing faction in the Long Parliament ANNO 1640. Novem. 3. began the Parliament called the Long Parliament year 1640 we may truly term it the Black or the Bloody Parliament that involved the three Nations in blood and destroyed the King the Parliament it self and thee Kindoms The King in the beginning of this Parliament had for the security of the Subjects in their Persons Liberties and Estates passed many and several Acts of grace to the no small diminution of his Royal Prerogative more than all his Predecessors Kings of England from the Conquest downward had ever done and all this to remove from them all jealousies and fears After this in May 1641. he gives way at the great and pressing importunity of the House of Commons ●●●1 to the Condemnation and Execution of the Earle of Strafford a loyal Subject and a most able and accomplish'd counsellour as any Prince in Christendome ever had The King was very hardly moved to yield either to his attaindor or execution as not being satisfied in conscience of any guilt or crime in him deserving such punishment but yield at length he did though with much reluctancy to satisfie the importunity of the people and indeed at the request of the Earle himself who desired Jonah-like to be cast over-board thereby to appease the violent rage of a tempestuous people The truth is this Nobleman as also the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury afterwards Anno 1644. were meerly sacrificed to the malice and revenge of the Scots In August following the King goes into Scotland to compose differences there between himself and his Subjects of that Kingdom which done he returns again to London and is there received with exceeding joy and triumph of the people in or about the beginning of December The House of Commons to welcome his Majesty home instead of giving him thanks for the many gracious Acts he had lately passed they present him with a Remonstrance Dec. 15. laying open all the miscarriages and misfortunes of his whole Government from the beginning of his Raign even to that present and this they publish contrary to his express desire to the whole Kingdom whereby they gave occasion to the people to conceive jealousies and suspicions of a malignant party about the King still carrying on their own designs both against Religion and the Laws of the Land After the publishing of this Remonstrance fears and jealousies encrease among the people the vulgar rabble in and about London frequently flock down to Westminster with Petitions and clamours against the Bishops and Popish Lords and disaffected Members as they termed them in the House of Commons and no redress could be had again them though the House of Lords and the King himself had moved the House of Commons to declare against them The truth is they were favored and countenanced under hand by some Members of that House The King to avoid the danger of these tumults withdraws from White-hall to Windsor from thence afterwards to Newmarket and so by Cambridge into the Northern parts and thence to York The Parliament soon after his removal from Whitehall petition Him at Newmarket and elsewhere for the Militia to have it put into such hands as the two Houses shall think fit but he denyes them telling them that the Law hath setled it in Him that to divest Himself of the power of the Sword is to bereave Himself of power to protect his people and support the Laws This Petition was much insisted on by the Parliament under pretence of feares and jealousies but the King absolutely and peremptorily denyes it The King by several journeys comes year 1642 to York in the beginning of the year 1642 and there he settles His Court. Soon after his coming into those parts he was denyed enterance into Hull by Sir John Hotham when he offer'd to go into the Town but with twenty persons attending Him The King thereupon fearing lest the same armed force that kept Him out of Hull might surprize His Person at York he entertaines a guard of the Gentry of that County This by the house of Commons is Voted a levying of War against the Parliament though they themselves had long before three times as many of the Trainedbands of the City to guard the houses dayly Many Petitions Answers and Declarations passed between the King and Parliament during his Majesties being at York wherein it is evident to all understanding men that the King had the better cause and was more able to maintain it by the pen and by reasons and arguments than the Parliament was for the truth is his Declarations and Answers to their Messages Petitions and Propositions were unanswerable But words and writings not being sufficient to compose these differences they proceed from words to blows About July they Vote that the King is seduced by evill and Malignant Counsellers and thereupon they Vote an Army to be raised under the Command of Robert Earle of Essex the pretence is for King and Parliament against these Malignant Counsellers but they accuse or name none in particular The same year Aug. 24. the King sets up his Standard at
his rashness quits the place and all his Command and with some others of note leaves the Kingdom York soon after is again besieged and Sir Thomas Glenham undertakes the defence of the place but at length was forced to yield upon honourable terms Anno 1645. year 1645 The beginning of the year the Parliament new moulds their Army By a self-denying Ordinance as they termed it they cast out Essex Manchester and VValler and all others that were Parliament Members both Lords and Commons only Oliver Cromwell one of the Burgesses for Cambridge is dispensed with Sir Thomas Fairfax is made Captain General Cromwell his Lieutenant General Skippon also hath a great command amongst them and many of Cromwels kindred and Relations have great imployment and commands in this new modelled Army most of Essex his Officers being laid aside In May the King marches out of Oxford with a very good Army and takes Leicester by assault about the latter end of the moneth having then also a very considerable Army in the VVest about 15000. as was reported under the command of Goring who at that time besieged Taunton After the taking of Leicester the King was requested by Sir Marmaduke Langdale and the Northern Gentlemen to march Northward for the Relief of Pomsret Castle then straitned by the enemy But receiving intelligence that Fairfax intended to besiege Oxford he marches against him hoping if he could deseat their new model'd Army all other places and forces would easily be reduced At Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies meet on Saturday June 14. where at the first encounter the King had much the better his Right Wing of horsemen Defeating and Routing the Left Wing of the Parliaments Army wounding Skippon and taking Ireton Cromwels son in law prisoner But the Left Wing of the Kings Army consisting most of Northern Horsemen and they discontented at the first Encounter were broken turn'd head and ran the King did what possibly could be riding up and down the field to stay their flight and Rally them but all would not do and the Right Wing of Horse were so farre engaged in the pursuit as they could not timely and orderly Retreat to succour the Foot The Horse being thus routed and defeated the Foot were not able to stand but after some little resistance and slaughter yielded themselves prisoners four or five thousand of them The Kings Coach and in it his Cabinet with Letters and Papers taken all Arms Artillery Bagge and Baggage lost the King himself hardly escaping to Leicester and from thence that night to Ashby de la Zouch This was the fatal battel of Naseby for after this the Kings affairs never prospered but Town after Town was taken and in all encounters the Kings party was worsted all the VVest parts by degrees taken in that Sommer and the Queen and Prince forced to flie beyond sea anno 1646. year 1646 Oxford the Kings chiefest Garrison was besieged and much straitned About Ascention time the King in a disguise got out of the City came as far a Downham in Norfolk and from thence went to the Scots Camp lying in siege before Newark and to them his native Subjects he yields himself hoping by their means to make some better terms with the Parliament They used him civilly and respectively gave notice to the Parliament of his yielding himself to them having made use of his Authority for the pr●sent surrendring of of Newark and from thence carryed him to Newcastle a Garrison then in their possession where he remained all that year and from thence gave Order to several other Garrisons as yet holding out for him to surrender to the Parliaments Forces upon honourable terms At Newcastle he remained all that summer and afterwards upon Treaty between the Parliament and Scots Commissioners the Parliament paying them 200000. l. in hand and securing as much more to be paid And promising as the Scots affirm to treat the King honourably and not to do any violence to his Person they deliver the King up to the Parliament and quitting Newcastle and the rest of the Garrisons they held in England they departed with their Army into Scotland The King from Newcastle was removed to Holdenby year 1647 a house of his own in Northamptonshire there he is kept an honourable Prisoner attended by some Commissioners of Parliament and a slender Guard of souldiers none of his own servants are permitted to wait upon him nor any of his Chaplains or Ministers of his Opinion though he earnestly desired it in a Message to the Parliament but they force upon him Presbyterian Ministers of the Parliaments Opinion and appointment These would not suffer him to celebrate the Feast of Easter as being against their Directory of late established This summer the Wars being finished all Garrisons surrendred and the Kings Forces utterly subdued and forced to compound for their estates taking an Oath never to bear Arms against the Parliament they take a resolution to disband the Army sending some part of it into Ireland against the Papists still in Arms there and only to keep 5000 Horse and Foot in England to preserve the peace of the Kingdome against any risings that might happen The souldiers fearing the Wars would cease and their trade decay began to Mutinie first they pick quarrels against the Parliament and at once impeach eleven of the Members of the House of Commons all rigid Presbyterians as enemies to the Army and desire they may be secluded the House They Act now not as Souldiers but as Commonors and Freemen of the Nation pretending to stand for the Native Rights and Liberties of the people And to carry on their designes the better the common Souldiers who began the work chuse their Agitators as they termed them two or more out of every Regiment to represent their grievances to the General and chief Officers of the Army And in conclusion they peremptorily refuse to disband or to send or go any of them into Ireland till all their grievances were redressed and their desires satisfied But all this ye must know was underhand countenanced if not contrived by Cromwel and some principal Officers of his Faction And because the Parliament had made themselves sufficiently odious by keeping the King under so strict guards denying him the attendance of his Chaplains and the use of the Common-prayer Book and tendering such harsh Propositions to him both in relation to himself and his party that had already suffered so much for his sake The Souldiers to ingratiate themselves to the people pretended much for the King and for his restitution of his Throne and Government upon fairer terms by much than the Parliament would afford him And suddenly by a Party Commanded by one Cornet Joyce they seize upon the King at Holdenby June 4. in the night and bring him into the Armies quarte●s then about Newmarket or Cambridge The General would not suffer him to pass through Cambridge lest the Schollers more than ordinarily addicted to him
offers it them wholly by Land and Sea during his whole Raign so as after that it may return intirely to the Crown Thirdly For the arrears of the Army he will undertake if he may have the benefit of Sequestrations from March last and compositions to be made before the conclusion of the Peace and the Assistance of the Clergy and the arreares of the Rents of his own revenew that were yet behinde to pay 400 thousand pound within eighteen months and if that will not do then to make sale of forrest Lands for raising the rest Fourthly He gives them power to dispose of the great Offices of State as also to nominate and appoint his Privy Counsellours during his raign Fifthly For the Court of Wards if it cannot be regulated without being a grievance to his Subjects he is willing to abolish it for a valuable compensation Sixthly He offers to recall and null all Proclamations and Declarations against the Parliament and all Indictments against any person for adhering to them or acting by their authority and to pass an Act of general pardon and Oblivion to all his Subjects whatsoever Those and some other things he offers by that Massage of Novemb. 17. and for all other things he desires they may be debated and composed in a personal Treaty between himself and the two Houses of Parliament at London Which personal Treaty the Scots Commissioners soon after desired to be assented to and held forth his Majesties offers to be very just and reasonable But to this Massage of his Majesty the two Houses return answer by sending him four Bills to sign and confirm under the great Seal of England 1. To settle the Militia by sea and land both in England and Ireland in the two Houses of Parliament for ever with power to raise what Forces they please as also what moneys they thought good upon the Subjects for support thereof thereby divesting the Court wholly of the power of the Militia 2. To justifie the proceedings of the Parliament in the late War and to make void all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other proceedings against the Parliament 3. Against all Peeres lately made or to be made without consent of both Houses of Parliament 4. For the adjournment of the Parliament from place to place as the two houses should think fit These Bills being assented to and confirmed by his Majesty they will yield to treat with him concerning the rest of the propositions in the Isle of Wight Which propositions I must further tell you were such as the Scotch Commissioners declared their dissent upon them before they were sent The King apprehending these four Bills especially in the way they were penn'd not only destructive to Monarchy but to the peoples libertie refuses to confirm them yet in a message or writing to the Houses gave his reasons against them Whereupon the House of Commons presently Vote to make no more addresses to him but to settle the Kingdom without him and further by the same Vote they make it high Treason for any person whatfoever to send any Message or Letter to him or to receive any from him without consent of both Houses of Parliament This was about the beginning of January The House of Lords would not be drawn suddenly to pass these Votes divers argued strongly against them and the House was equally divided about the question but within three or four dayes after the Army sending solemn thanks to the House of Commons for their passing these Votes and drawing down some of their Forces to garison Whitehall and the Mewes it turned the Scale in the House of Lords and they also passed those Votes Soon after the passing of these votes of Non-address discontents grew high in all parts of the Kingdom And the common people especially in the parts about London were wonderfully oppressed and even eaten up with Free-quarter The Commissioners of Scotland withdrew and went home and with the assistance of Duke Hamilton formerly imprisoned by the King and lately set free by the Parliament called a Parliament in Scotland wherein they resolve Maugre the Kirk to raise an Army for the delivery of the King The beginning of this year 1648 was full of discontents year 1648 The Welchmen were the first that appear in Arms under the Command of Poyer Ponel and Laugherne formerly for the Parliament holding out Pembrook Castle a● gainst the Parliament and defeating a party of 2500 that were sent against them The Lord Inchequen that was President of Munster in Ireland declares against the Parliament and joyns with the Marquess of Ormond for the Kings interest for which the Parliament imprison his son a child of eight or nine years of age that was Borded and went to School at Thistleworth near London Petitions came from many Counties of England and from the City of London requiring a Revocation of those Votes for Non-address and desiring a Personal Treaty with the King and his future settlement These Petitions being slighted and many Surrey Gentlemen wounded by the Souldiers at the Parliament door and in Westminster-hall and some slain outright for presenting their Petition the Kingdom grew into a general flame Tumults arose in many places as at Norwich April 24. where the Committee-House was by accident blown up that part of the City exceedingly shattered and above 100. people slain At Bury in Suffolk ●here the Town was held out some dayes by the meaner sort of people against the Troopers In Huntingtonshire Bedfordshire and other places so that the Troopers were posted from place to place to subdue tumults and as fast as they subdued them in one place they brake out in another The Kentishmen rise up in armes to the number of ten thousand and possess themselves of some strong Castles They in Essex also under the command of Sir Charles Lucas and others second them and seize upon the Committee for the County at Chelmesford Pomfret Castle is taken by stratagem and a great party of the Kings possess it and command the whole Country round about Many if not most part of the Navy revolt and setting Raynsborough their late made Admiral on shore in a Cock-boat they go to the Prince with whom also joyned the Lord Willoughby of Parham and others so as the Prince had a matter of thirty or forty ships one and other under his command at Sea The Scots under D. Hamilton invade the North by the way of Carlisle with an Army of fifteen thousand besides a party of English about 3000 under the command of Sir Marmaduke Langdale All this time the Parliament are consulting about Propositions to be sent to the King as also of the place and manner of a personal treaty with him which was desired by the Londoners and most of the Kingdom to be had at London Thus the time was spun on and the Summer well-nigh spent before they could agree upon termes for a personal treaty and at length it was resolved to be in the Isle of Wight
In the mean time while the Parliament thus deferre the Treaty Cromwel is first sent into Wales to subdue them where he found work enough for most part of the Summer Fairfax is sent against the Kentishmen where though he were worsted at Rochester Bridge and lost many men yet at Maidston he had the better got the Town and dispersed them Presently after five thousand of the Kentishmen under the command of the Lord Goring Earl of Norwich being denied passage through London transport themselves over the Thames and so into Essex where after some skirmish about Bow-bridge with some of the Parliament Forces they march to Rumford and so to Chelmesford and joyn with the Essexmen at that time there Rendezvouz'd Fairfax pursues them with all expedition they march to Colchester but were scarce set down in the Town before Fairfax with his Army was at their heels A sore fight there was in the Suburbs June 13. the next day after their coming into the Town a thousand men and more slain upon the place most of them of Fairfax his party Had they of Colchester pursued that dayes victory it is probably thought they might easily have destroyed Fairfax his Army The Kings Party fortifie the Town hoping the Gentry of Suffolk and Norfolk will come in to their assistance Fairfax on the contrary by degrees begirts the Town forcing all the Country thereabout both Essex and Suffolk to assist him against it During the siege of Colchester the Duke of Buckingham with Lord Francis his brother the Earl of Holland and the Earl of Peterborough appear in Armes with five or six hundred Horse at Bamsted Downe in Surrey or thereabouts where they would soon have increased had they not been suddenly surprized by a party of the Army out of London the Lord Francis was slain and the rest scattered Buckingham escaped but Holland was soon after taken at St. Neots in Huntingtonshire cowardly yielding himself without resistance The Scots mean time lingered and came on slowly insomuch as Cromwel having subdued them in Wales he marches immediately from thence into Lancashire and at Wiggon and Preston defeats them taking Duke Hamilton prisoner basely yielding himself in his Chamber Aug. 18 19. From thence he pursues his victory into Scotland even to the City of Edenburgh where he is highly applauded and magnified by Argile and the Churchmen who were alwayes against this engagement of Hamilton Colchester after this pressed with a long siege and pinched with hunger at last yields to Fairfax upon very hard termes Aug. 28. where the very same day that they entred the Town they caused Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle too gallant men as ever England bred to be shot to death in the Castle Yard All the rest of the Nobility and Gentlemen of quality were carried away Prisoners The Treaty with the King is at length begun a fixed number of days are at first appointed that expired a fortnight more is added so that upon the finishing of the treaty a little before all was concluded Cromwel returnes with his victorious Army out of Scotland The Army fearing the Parliament would agree with the King and re-establish him in his Throne though the conditions were extream hard on his side they first publish that shameless vile Remonstrance at Saint Albans Novemb. 16. 1648. wherein they declare their resolutions to question the King for his life as the Capital Enemy or grand Delinquent to bring him to trial They prefix a time for the appearing of the Prince now beyond Sea to answer for his crimes and in case he refuse to come in and submit to a tryal to banish his person as a Rebel and Traytor and confiscate his estate This Remonstrance was sent to the House of Commons with a Letter signed by Fairfax the General whom Cromwel abused and made his Stale in all this action to take it speedily into consideration as a matter admitting no delay But the Commons laying it aside and making the more speed to conclude with the King upon the Treaty voting his concessions satisfactory so far as to be ground of peace Suddenly on Tuesday December 5. A Party of the Army seize upon the Members of the House whom they conceive to be opposite to their design They imprison many and seclude and deterre more in all to the number of above two hundred leaving about sixty or seventy if that in the House and those either Army men or devoted vassals to Cromwel and his faction these vote the Kings concessions not satisfactory and thereupon break off the Treaty The Army then presently seize upon the King in the Isle of Weight they remove him in the night from Caresbrow Castle to Hurst Castle in Hampshire an unwholesom place standing two or three mile into the sea upon a very narrow neck of Land there they closely imprison him and soon after obtain a Vote in their new modell'd House of Commons to bring him to trial The Lords refusing to consent they proceed without them and draw up an impeachment against his Majesty by the advice of one Dorisley an outlandish Doctor of Law and that many years before had been History-Reader in Cambridge preferred thither by the Lord Brooks to read that Lecture by him first founded but soon after silenced and put out by the Vice-chancellor and Head of the University for seditious Doctrine by him there delivered against Monarchy For the Kings Trial they appoint seventy or eighty Persons the most of them Army-men all of them his mortal enemies to be his Judges the Judges of the Land and most eminent Lawyers refusing to joyn with them or assist them they appoint one Bradshaw a poor petty-fogging Lawyer but of an audacious impudent forehead to be President of their high Court of Justice so they call it more properly their Court of high injustice The King is brought from Hurst Castle to Windsor about Christmas where they would not allow him a Minister to keep the Festival with him From thence they bring him to White-Hall and Saint James about the tenth of January by water And there afterwards being brought four several times before their pretended Court of Justice where he every time refusing to answer and disclaiming their authority offering to give his reasons but they refusing to hear him at last Saturday January 27. he is condemned to the block and his head cut off on a Scaffold erected before his Palace gate at White-Hall on Tuesday following January 30. to the unexpressable grief and sorrow of all true English People And thus perished the best the wisest and the most Religious King that ever England had The House of Lords that had basely complyed with the Commons and supported them from the beginning hitherto against their King because they would not go along with them in this last most wicked act are kickt off by a Vote The very same day that they voted the abolition of Regal Government February 7. 1648. they voted down the House of
the beginning o● August with an Army of about eleven thousand horse and foot into England by the way of Lancashire and forcing his way at Warrington bridge against a party that opposed he comes by easie marches without resistance to Worcester Massey being with him hoping the Presbyterians in those parts and about Glocester would generally have risen and joyned with the Scots The Parliament upon the first intelligence of his entrance into England arm all that possibly they can against him publishing a Proclamation against him and all his adherents as Rebels and Traitors and forbidding all men upon pain of high Treason to joyn with him or to aid or assist him in the least Cromwel also pursues him out of Scotland with as great a part of his Army as he could well spare at Worcester all forces assembled against him meet there they fought and the Kings party in conclusion is beaten the Scots they say many of them refusing to fight at all The King in a disguize very hardly escapes yet it pleased God that at last he got safely out of England many of the Scottish Nobility and some of the English being taken prisoners and kept long after in the Tower of London This fight at Worcester happened Septemb. 3. 1651. a remarkable day for Cromwels Victories Scotland after this is with little difficulty wholly reduced to the obedience of the Parliament and Garisons maintained in several places even to the utmost Northern Coasts and they who formerly would not be subject to their King are now inforced to submit to Cromwell and his Faction Afterwards in Anno 1652. year 1652 the Parliament falls out with the Hollanders many fierce and bloody battels were fought at Sea with great loss of both sides in one of which Admiral Dean for the English and in another Van-Trump for the Dutch were slaine The Hollanders have the worst in conclusion so that at last they sue for peace and obtain it But some while before this peace was concluded year 1653 Cromwell being now grown great with his Victories in Ireland and Scotland having subdued both these Kingdoms upon the twentieth of April 1653. he suddenly and forcibly turns out the Parliament who had for four years and as much as from January to April since they put the King to death with bloody cruelty and heavy oppression governed the Nation The Parliament being thus turned out Cromwel and his Army Officers take upon them the government of the Nation They presently impose six Months Tax and erect a new Council of State Bradshaw who formerly for his good service was President is now not so much as a Member of the Council Cromwel soon after cals a Convention of about an hundred and twenty persons pickt out by himself out of the several Counties of the Nation most of them inferiour persons and of the Independent and Anabaptistical faction These were summoned by particular Warrants or Tickets in paper under his own hand only to meet at Westminster and consult for t setling the Nation Being met according to their summons Iuly 4. 1653. in the Commons House of Parliament and having chosen them a Chairman or Speaker Cromwel comes in amongst them and puls a writing out of his pocket thereby giving them the supream authority of the Nation upon this they presently vote themselves to be a Parliament and to requite his courtesie they vote him to be a Member of their Parliament Thus being seated in Authority they make an Act for six Months Tax at the old rate of 120000 li. a Month and another Act concerning marriages appointing Justices of Peace to marry and none other marriages to be valid or lawful In the same Act they ordain a Register to be kept in every Parish in which is to be set down all births and burials not so much as mentioning Baptism as a thing in their opinion at least not necessary thus they lessen and diminish the use and authority of Ministers whom they intended by degrees to take wholly away In order whereunto they had a design to take a way Tithes but the Ministers of London being called to alledge what might be said in defence of them by their Counsel learned in the Law and by Arguments out of Scipture they opposed so strongly as that debate was laid aside for the present But that failing they had another device namely by an Act in one day to have unbottomed all Ministers in England and to have lockt up the Church doors as some affirmed and then afterward to have taken in whom they had thought good which may probably be conceived should have been only such as would have renounced their orders if not their baptism Things being carried so high and in such a frantick manner the more moderate among them weary of the work and fearing they should rather bring things into further confusion then settle any thing they repair to Cromwel the General desiring him to take again into his hands his Writing or conveyance of the supream power whereupon he presently dissolves them but some of the Anabaptists refusing to obey and continuing still in the house at their prayers he sent Souldiers who pulled them out and lockt up the doors against them Decemb 12. 1653. This Schismatical Convention called by some the little horn being thus timely and happily outed Cromwel upon the sixteenth day of the same month having by advice of his Army-Officers and Council of State framed an Instrument of Government presently after printed and published consisting of fourty two Articles and therefore by some called his forty two string'd sidle by others the Magna Charta takes upon him the Government of the three Nations as Supream Magistrate under the Title of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland And sending for the Commissioners of the great Seal the Lord Maior and Aldermen of London with the Judges of Law and the chief Officers of his Army Proclamation thereof being made in London he is solemnly installed in Westminster-hall taking an oath to govern according to that Instrument and the Laws of the Land though nothing could be more repugnant to the Laws then that Instrument was According to that Instrument year 1654 he cals a Parliament to begin Septemb. 3. 1654. though it fell out that year to be Sunday accounting the day auspicious by reason of his two great victories upon that day at Dunbar and Worcester This Parliament was not to be chosen according to the ancient manner two in a County and two in a Corporation but ten eight six more or less in a County according to the proportion of it and the small decayed Corporations as Thelford and Rising in Norfolk and the like elsewhere were wholly left out There were also added to the Parliament Thirty Members for Scotland and as many for Ireland chosen or nominated from thence so as it was a Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland whereof as before he had made himself
Protector It is probable the Protector foresaw that little or nothing would be done by this Parliament and therefore to make sure work he and his Council besides this Ordinance for his stile and Title for the issuing out Writs and for Law-proceedings to go according to that Stile and Title and some others of the like nature made in the beginning of his government immediately upon the Change I say besides these before the Convening of this Parliament a very few dayes he publishes by Authority of himself and his Council above twenty Ordinances as some reckoned them which were observed as valid Laws and amongst them one remarkable one for the Ejecting of Ignorant scandalous and insufficient Ministers by any five or more of the Commissioners therein named and by which in a quarter of a years time they ejected many Ministers especially in Norfolk out of their livings scarce one of twenty that were accused or complained of but were ejected And this was done I suppose to gratifie the Anabaptistical and Independent party who hitherto beheld Oliver with an evil eye since he was Protector looking as they thought too like a King The Parliament convened according to appointment at Westminster Septemb. 3. they presently question the Protectors Authority though he had at their first meeting in a very large speech presently after printed and published magnified the same as if he had been called to the Place by the concurrent and universal consent of the whole Nation It is true they consented because they could do no otherwise being forced thereunto by his armed power to silence and suppress this question within a few dayes after their sitting he enjoyns a Recognition or acknowledgement of his power by a particular subscription of every one of the Members before they were admitted to enter the House any more and such as would not subscribe were forcibly secluded by a guard of Souldiers but at last all or most of them subscribed No sooner were they set again but they fall in hand with the Instrument of Government examining it in every particular and the Protector suffered them to go on without interruption They would have been content to have made him Protector but they would not allow of the Instrument of Government in all things Ye must know by the way that one Article of the Government was that the Parliament called and convened must sit five months if themselves think good and during that time the Protector had not power to dissolve them but afterwards at any time he might It was further ordained that whatsoever Acts they made and tendred to him if he did not consent within thirty dayes or satisfie them to the contrary they were to be Laws valid and binding without him To conclude they spent so long time in tuning the instrument that just at the five moneths end counting precisely twenty eight dayes to a moneth the Protector calls them together tells them he thought they had been asleep having not of a long time heard from them That they had sate long and done nothing and therefore tells them they may repaire every one to his several home Thus they are dissolved with a kind of jeer Ianuary 22.1654 But I must tell you the Parliament would not tender him any Bill to passe nor receive any Laws from him till such time as they had regulated the Government of the Nation and confirmed his authority upon him The truth is they thought him not to have power to enact Laws till themselves had given it him And therefore they would have nothing pass till altogether were done and finished After the breaking up of this Parliament it was generally thought we should never have had any more in his time For the Protector betakes himself to other Methods of government That year 1655. year 1655 he institutes his Major General He divides the whole Kingdom into seven Provinces or Cantons three four or five more or fewer Counties in a Province And over every of these he placeth a Major General with his Deputy and sufficient Authority not only in Military affairs but also in Ecclesiastical and Civil none came amiss to them they would meddle in all upon occasion on complaint Especially in Church-affairs they take upon them the soveraign power they put out silence and inhibit what Ministers they please by vertue of the late Ordinance against scandalous Ministers and other orders private instructions to them from the Protector his Council They will not suffer any ejected Minister to teach a School either publickly or privately to pray or preach or to perform any Ministerial duty in any Church or private Family in a word they would have starved them if they could denying all means of livelyhood to them and theirs And because divers ejected Ministers had during the sitting of this last Parliament and soon after commenced suits in Law for the recovery of their Livings and had gotten some of them damages against their Intruders and had hopes of recovering the possession of their Livings and some of them had already got into possession by Law The Protector publisheth a Proclamation thereby strictly commanding them to quit their possessions and to release all judgements obtained and further inhibiting all Attournies Lawyers and Advocates to commence or prosecute any Suits for or to plead in the behalf of such Clients And all Judges are likewise inhibited to admit of any such Actions or Pleas in any of their Courts All which was apparently to deny them the benefit of the Law which is the highest Act of Arbitrary and Tyranni-power that can be and consequently to condemn that Authority as illegal by which they were first ejected Furthermore upon occasion of a rising in the Spring by some of the Kings party in the West he not only proceeds against Col. Iohn Penruddock and divers other Gentlemen by Capital punishment but he decimates all the Cavaleers or Gentlemen of the late Kings party that had been in arms for him all over England that is he enjoyns them to pay yearly the tenth part of their whole Revenue notwithstanding their former Compositions made for their Estates and their Pardon 's sued out as the Parliament had enjoyned and also the late Act of Oblivion anno 1651. And this Decimation was put in execution by these Major Generals And in this Government he much resembled the Turk Himself like the Grand Signior ruling by sole command had his standing Army as a guard for his Person answerable to the Janizaries and his Major Generals representing the Bashaws in their several Provinces And besides these he had his Auxiliaries lately set up in every County viz. certain Troops of horse and Companies of foot armed and ready upon all occasions maintaining and finding their own horses and arms for a constant yearly salary the horsemen had 8 li. per annum and the foot 3 li. and these were upon any occasion to be drawn forth and march in a few hours warning Anno 1656. The Protector
cals another Parliament year 1656 according to the lade mode ten in a County c. These convene at Westminster Sept. 17. Upon their first meeting many of the Members of several Counties were excluded because they had been somewhat busie and active in the Parliament before This exclusion of Members being noised abroad many that were not yet gone up went not at all lest when they came there they should be excluded and sent home again There were in all about sevenscore or more that absented themselves or were secluded the House by order from the Council of State and yet not any reason alledged against them They represent the injury to the House but find no redress the House dare not offend the Protector by admitting their Fellow-Members This Parliament thus purged and garbled was for the Protectors turn he gave them leave to sit almost two five moneths without dissolving or adjourning About the begining of the next spring year 1657 there is a project set on foot by some in the House for making the Protector King First a petition or remonstrance from many of the City desireing it was presented by an Alderman of London to the Speaker sealed up in a box Afterwards a Bill is prefered for it the House are very forward in the business only the Protectors pleasure is not known They very humbly and solemnly petition his Highness to accept of it as an honor not only merited by himself but much inducing to the settlement of the Nation But he makes strange at it gives them thanks for their good affection towards him and the publick yet desires time to consider of it before they press him to a resolution Mean time the Independents and Factious people fast and pray to avert the judgment that is like to fall upon them in having a King Some great Commanders in the Army and many of the common-souldiers express their dislike of it amongst whom Lambert the Leiutenant-General is the cheif conceiving it a barre to his ambitious hopes It is more then probable the Protector himself thirsted after it and that the designe was first hammered in his own forge for Thurloe his Secretary openly promoted it and as it was said brought in the Bill But when the Parliament made their second address to him he modestly denied it yet he gave them thanks for their good affections to him This Parliament sat from the 17. of September to the 26. of June And then by an Act entituled The humble Petition and advice they constitute him Protector and give him power to nominate his Successor which was all one as to establish the Government in his Family They erect another House of Parliament in place of the Lords for which they could invent no other name but The Other House It was to consist of a number of persons not exceeding seventy nor less then fourty all chosen or nominated by the Protector and to be called particularly by Writs as the House of Peers were wont to be They also ordain some other qualifications for future elections of Parliament men and appoint an Oath to be taken by the Protector and by all successive Protectors and also another Oath by all the Members both of the one and Other House upon their enterance to sit in Parliament Some other things they ordaine in that Petition and advice for setling the future Government All which the Protector ratifies and confirms by giving his solemn assent in those words the Lord Protector doth consent Further in that Act they limit him so far as not to impose any Tax or payment upon the People without their consent in Parliament and in lieu thereof they give him 35000 li. a month by way of Tax for three years to come from June 24. 1657. besides the Excise Tunage and Poundage the Customs all the Crown lands that were unfold and all Forfeitures Penalties and other accidental Emoluments that the Kings of England were wont to have amounting in the whole to Thirteen Hundred Thousand Pounds per annum for so much they promised to settle upon him forthwith as a certaine standing Revenue besides land Taxes This done he does not dissove but only adjourn the Parliament to the 20. of January following But in the mean time soon after their adjournment the Protector Cashiers Lambert his Lieutenant-General and Hacker Colonel of his life-guard and some other Officers of his Army who were conceived to be averse to the business of his Kingship which gave men cause to conclude that he still thirsted after the Kingly dignity as indeed it is more then probable he did And here let me tell you there goeth a story very credibly and confidently reported by some persons knowing and well-affected to the late Protector That he when he was a boy and going to schoole at Huntington where his father dwelt dreamed one night thar he should be King and Ruler over all the Kingdom of England but afterward he should be hanged This dream he tells to his fellow school-boyes and by that meanes it came to his Masters eare who lashed him soundly for it How near the former part of his dream was fulfilled appears by this story and how justly he deserved the latter part I leave it to others to judge Against the meeting of the Parliament by adjournment he sends out his Writ for summoning the Members of his other House Some antient Peers of the Land he summoned as the Earl of Warwick the Earl of Manchester the Lord Say I cannot say whether or no the Earl of Salisbury was one because he seldom wanted a place in the House of Commons Others some of them were Gentlemen of quality in several Counties and of good repute but the most of them were of his Army-men or of his alliance that had married into his Family Amongst his Army-men there were Pride the Dray-man Hewson the Shoomaker Barksted the broken Thimble-maker and others the like all Colonels of his Army and Lambert also to gratifie him is made one of his Peers and Haselrig that was a great stickler against him in all Parliaments is another There is a Catalogue extant of them all and therefore it is needless to repeat them When the time came according to the Adjournment January 20. the Nobility though called disdained to appear Many of the Gentry absented themselves yet some of all sorts except only the Nobility enough to make a competent number appeared Some that were called to his other House were elected for the House of Commons and chose that place rather then the other House Sir Arthur Haselrig always an enemy to the King and no friend to the Protector was one of the number The House of Commons would by no means digest that other House nor own them though some messages were sent to them yet would they not vouchsafe them any answer Besides this there was another business set on foot in the House of Commons that touched the Protector very nearly and that was their tampering with the
power of the Militia The People were to pay the Army and it was thought just by many that the Parliament should have command of them And it was suspected had they sate but a little longer that the Army or a considerable part of it would have adhered to the Parliament To prevent this mischief that was a working the Protector suddenly and unexpectedly dissolves them Febr. 4. with this word of comfort nevertheless to his other House My Lords ye are Lords and shall be Lords The Parliament thus again dissolved in discontent things rested as formerly though not without much murmuring and secret discontent both in the Protector and People About the latter end of August year 1658 or the beginning of September the Protector dyed having lain somewhile in a very sad condition with extream pain and torment in his bowels Some strongly fancy that he died on Tuesday Aug. 30. what time was the most furious violent wind that ever happened in the memory of man And it s very probable that he died that day or soon after but it was given out and commonly reported that he dyed on Friday Sept. 3. His Funeral was a great while deferred his body embalmed and kept above ground many moneths together with mourners continually attending his corpse and meat carried up and served on his Table as if he had been the greatest Prince in Christendom and afterwards he was interred with as great funeral solemnity as ever any King of England was interred and his Hearse or Statue set up after the manner of Kings and a most most magnificent Monument erected for him It is worth the remembring that about a year or two before his death he made a new broad Seal with the Arms of England viz. a Saint Georges Cross quartered with Saint Andrews Cross for Scotland and the Harp for Ireland and his own Coat in a little Escutcheon in the midst his Helmet and Mantle with a Crown imperial and a Lion puissant for his Crest and and the supporters a Lyon and a Dragon the Motto underneath his Arms Pax quaeritur Bello And this inscription about Sigillum magnum Reipublicae Anglioe Scotiae Hiberniae On the other side himself on Horseback richly trappered as the King Seal was wont to be and the Inscription about it Oliverus Dei gratia Reipublicae Angliae Scotiae Hiberniae Protector And though he usually coined no money yet I have seen some pieces of Silver of an half crown bigness with his Arms as before on the one side and his Picture crowned with bays on the other side and the former Inscription In these respects so near he approached to the Royal dignity sure I am he assumed more power and authority then ever any King of England did The Protector before his death had according to the fore-mentioned Humble Petition and Advice appointed his eldest Son Richard Cromwel to succeed him in his place and accordingly immediately after his Fathers death he was proclaimed in London and soon after all over England The Independents Anabaptists and other Sectaries were not well pleased at it they had rather have had Fleetwood in the place who had married the late Protectors Daughter Iretons Widow for Richard had formerly been reputed a kind of a good fellow and a Royallist and never was in Arms against the King as all the rest of his Fathers Family and Allies had been Richard soon after cals a Parliament to begin at Westminster Jan. 27. not according to the Instrument of Government but after the old way two in a County c. Before the calling of the Parliament and after congratulatory Addresses are made to Richard from most Counties Cities and Corporations of Note in England extolling the merits of his heroick Father expressing their joy for the succession of such a Son and promising to adhere to him withall faithfulness and loyalty In some of their Addresses they compare the Father to Moses and the Son to Joshua the Guiders and Conductors of Gods People out of Aegyptian thraldom with other the like blasphemous expressions Richard receives these Addresses with as much gravity as they were tendered with humility so that no man could imagine but that he was most firmly fixed in his Throne And Lilly the States mercenary Prognosticator assures it from his Astrological Predictions of that year AT the opening of the Parliament Jan. 27. he makes a Speech to both his Houses wherein he minds them of his just and lawful Title to the Government not only by the wonderful Provindence of God but by the disposition of the Laws he tels them he had convened them together for important affairs of State for the honour and safety of the Nation willed them to take into consideration the necessity of the Navy and Army whom he commends for their patience and obedience to the best Army in the world some other things to this purpose he commended to them and told them in conclusion that they should find him ready and willing to concur with them in any thing for the good of the publick and to deny them nothing that was just and fit And that if this were not an happy Parliament it should not be his fault And all this says the Book was spoken with so gracious and Princely a deportment as hath gained this opinion amongst the wisest Hearers that he deservedly holds the place of Supream Magistrate in these Nations Thus the Parliament began and great hopes there were of good agreement between the Protector and the People and doubtless he for his part would have given them leave to have setled the Nation as they thought good both for Religion and Civil Government But still the other House though called as formerly and many of them convened would not down with the Commons they would not in the least own this new made House of Lords sit they might if they pleased but little or nothing they had to do for the Commons would never impart any thing to them nor indeed have any intercourse with them A pitiful company of Peers they were and accordingly regarded But Richard and the House of Commons agreed very well he was willing to leave all to them And there being a very great number of young Lawyers in the House that gaped for preferment they were willing to give him power enough too much as many suspected Ye must know that in all Parliaments since Olivers time there was a faction of men in the House called Common-wealths men that were for a free State as they called it and against a single Person These were such as had purchased the Lands of Bishops Deans and Chapters and those belonging to the late King Queen and Prince And they feared that these Lands might be at one time or other restored unless the Government were again setled in the way of a Common-wealth for a single Person they thought might possibly come to be a King With these also concurred all such both Parliament-men and Army-men as
being thus restored who had for eleven years and more been kept out from discharging their trust there is great rejoycing and triumphing again both in London and all parts of the Kingdom with Ringing and Bonefires making c. but some of the Rump upon their restoring it is said withdrew and would sit no more Presently after their restoring they vote Monk to be General of all the forces of England Scotland and Ireland Sir William Waller one of the secluded Members to be Leiutenant-General and Rossiter a Lincolnshire Gentleman and one that had formerly served the Parliament to be General of the Horse They constitute Montagu to be Admiral at Sea instead of Lawson and they appoint a new Council of State Soon after they make an Act for setling the Militia of the Kingdom together with some Acts concerning Ministers And taking order for calling of a new Parliament to convene at Westminster April 25. they dissolve themselves on Friday the 16th of March. And thus by Gods great blessing we have lived to see an end of that unhappy long Parliament that hath been the cause of misery and calamity to these three late flourishing Kingdoms for these nineteen years and more last past And all this brought to pass without one drop of bloodshed by the prudent and politick conduct of General Monk who with a small Army an handful of men in comparison not past four thousand foot and eighteen hundred horse and those not very well accommodated marched from Berwick through the heart of England to the City of London without the least opposition and at length gained the power and command of that opulent and potent City Lamberts Army being at least twelve or thirteen thousand men well hors'd and well appointed breaking in pieces and mouldring away in a moment the Troops and Companies marching from place to place where they might find quarter till afterwards most of them their Officers cashierd were received and listed under the command of General Monk Afterwards by degrees he purges his Army putting out all Anabaptists Quakers and other Fanaticks both Officers and common Souldiers as they are or can be discoverd both in the Army and Garisons and placeth others in their steads Overton a fifth Monarchy-man who pretended to hold Hull for the Lord Jesus Christ was yet notwithstanding commanded to surrender it to Mr. Charls Fairfax a Yorkshire Gentleman which accordingly he did and the like was done in all other Garisons the Army-men displaced and Gentlemen of the Country of other confiding persons put in their steads Soon after the putting in of the secluded Members Lambert is committed to the Tower Haselrig Scot and others are under examination but dismissed upon their promise or engagement to demean themselves peaceably Lambert not long after finds means to escape out of the Tower and about the middle of April or soon after appears in Arms about Northampton in the head of a party many of the cashierd Officers and Souldiers of the Fanatick and discontented party being got together And it is generally conceived that all the Anabaptists Quakers and other factious people in all parts of the Kingdom had a design to have risen and joyned with him had he not been timely suppressed But Colonel Ingoldsby being sent against him with a party he surrounds them all being not above five or six hundred whereupon most of the common Souldiers come in and yield themselves and Lambert with some Commanders are taken upon the place without a stroke striking only a scour of Lamberts they say was slain Colonel Okey and some others escaped by flight lambert being thus taken is brought to London together with Colonel Cobbet Major Creed and young Haselrig Sir Arthurs Son These were all brought up in a Coach through Hide Park on Tuesday April 29. what time there was the greatest general Muster of Citizens that ever was seen in or near London Of trained men and Auxiliaries there were at least twenty thousand some say thirty thousand men in Armes Some of the Nobility and many Gentlemen of quality trayling pikes voluntarily amongst them The Prisoners brought through the Army and sufficiently hooted at they afterwards drove the Coach under Tyburn and there made a stand This was done I suppose to minde them of their destiny or at least of their desert and to disgrace them who had so long time insulted and domineered over the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Kingdom A just reward to use them uncivilly who had so barbarously abused both King and People The Parliament according to Appointment began at Westminster April the twenty fifth the House of Commons being elected and called by Writs issuing out in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England by authority of Parliament a Title invented presently upon the change of the Government from as Monarchy to a Common-wealth in the year one thousand six hundred forty eight the Lords and Peers of the upper House taking their places by vertue of their birth-rights and ancient dignities Soon after the sitting of the Parliament there arrived at London the Lord Mordant and Sir John Greenvile with a Declaration from his Majesty as also several Letters One to the House of of P●e●s another to the House of Commons a third to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London and a fourth to General Monk to be by him communicated to the Council of State and to the Officers of the several Armies under his Command which Declaration and several Letters from his Majesty were presented according to their several directions May the first In his Declaration he offers 1. A general Pardon to all of all sorts excepting only such as the Parliament should think fit to except provided that they sue out their Pardons under the great Seal of England within fourty dayes after the publication thereof 2. He offers a Liberty to tender Consciences for matters of Religion so far forth as the Parliament should think fit and to consent to such an Act as the Parliament for that purpose shall tender to his Majesty 3. For the sales and purchases of Lands made since these late troubles he is willing to leave it to the determination of Parliament whom he presumes best able to provide for the satisfaction of all such as are concerned therein And Lastly he promiseth full satisfaction of Arrears to all Officers and Souldiers of General Monck's Army and to receive them into his service upon as good pay and conditions as they now enjoy This was the sum of his Declaration published at Breda April 14. 1660. in the twelfth year of his Majesties Reign This Declaration together with his several Letters afore-mentioned were highly accepted The Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council after the reading of them cried out unanimously God save King Charls and presently took down the Common-wealths Arms that hung in the Guild-hall and as they say brake them in pieces ordering the King Arms to be hung up