you that grace which will teach and enable us to want as well as to wear a Crown which is not worth the taking up or enjoying upon sordid dishonourable or irreligious terms Do you always keep firm to the true Principles of Piety Virtue and Honour and you shall never want a Kingdom It will be your honour to afford all respect love and protection to your Mother who hath many ways deserved well of me especially in being a means to bless me with so many hopeful Children and being content with incomparable magnanimity to suffer with me and them May you be an Anchor of hope to these weather-beaten Kingdoms your Wisdom Justice Piety and Valour a repairer of what the folly and wickedness of some men have so far ruined as to leave nothing intire to the Crown Nobility Clergy or Commons of Laws Liberties Estates Order Honour Conscience or Lives Let those that love me find me when I am gone in your presence and vertues What good I intended do you perform when God shall put it into your power I pray God bless you and establish your Kingdom in Righteousness your Soul in true Religion and your Honour in the Love of God and your People Farewel till we meet if not on Earth yet in Heaven The good King having thus resigned himself and all his Affairs into the hand of God patiently submitted to his Cross and in a way of renunciation as it were and self-disposition of his Government transferred and bequeathed the Scepter together with his Advice and Direction for his wielding of it He applied himself wholly to the making preparation for his departing from an earthly to a heavenly Kingdom being assisted in his Piety and Devotion by Dr. Juxon Bishop of London And being upon the fatal 30th of January brought upon a Scaffold erected before his own Palace of Whitehall where he was barbarously murdered by his own Rebellious Subjects he delivered himself in the following Speech Being not likely to be much heard I could be silent did not silence intimate a submission to the guilt as well as to the punishment charged upon me But in my duty to my God and Country to clear my self an Honest Man a good King and a good Christian I protest before God to whom I must instantly give an account that as may appear from the date of their Commissions and mine I begun not the War against the Parliament nor intended I any incroachment upon their Priviledges they began with me and the Militia which they confest was mine but thought it fit to have it from me yet I charge not the guilt of these unhappy troubles upon the two Houses for I believe ill instruments betwixt us was the cause of all this Bloodshed however this Sentence is just upon me for an unjust Sentence permitted by me What Christian I am this good Man pointing to Dr. Juxon and others that have been inwardly familiar with me and know me as well as my self may bear witness I die in Communion with the Professors of the Reformed Religion that hath been Establisht in the Church of England in Queen Eliz. and my Fathers time of Blessed Memory and in Charity with all the World forgiving the worst of mine Enemies and praying God that this be not laid to their Charge As a good King I advise my Subjects not to ground your selves in Conquests without a good cause that you would give God the King and the People their dues You may give God his due by the advice of a national Synod freely chosen and freely debating among themselves How you may give the King his due the Law will instruct you and the People have their due when they have that Government and those Laws whereby their Lives and Goods are most their own I have delivered my Conscience I pray God you take those courses that may be for the Kingdoms and your own good Having finisht this Speech and poured forth his Divine Soul to God in Prayer it was sent by death to him that gave it where the great Assembly in Heaven joyfully welcomed that Martyred King and made room for Charles of Great Brittain The Life and Reign of Charles the first being thus determined by this untimely and fatal stroak his Eldest Son who likewise bore his Name immediately Succeeded him by the Title of Charles the Second Who was the Lawful and undoubted Heir not only of all his Dominions but also of his admirable and Heavenly Vertues being endowed with all those Qualifications which are requisite to or could possibly be desired in a Prince and under the influence of whose happy Reign these Nations might have enjoyed as much happiness and felicity as their Hearts would wish had not their own folly and madness for a time prevented it For no sooner had the Fatal Ax severed England and her Liberties by cutting off the Head of her King but the Parliament as the Juncto still presumed to call themselves the better to crush Monarchy and maintain what they had now so far prosecuted issued forth a Proclamation that none under penalty of being deemed guilty of High Treason should presume to Proclaim declare publish or any way promote the Prince of Wales Son to the late King or any other Person whatsoever to be King or Chief Magistrate of England or of any part of the Dominions or any part thereof by Colour of Inheritance Succession or Election or any other claim or pretence whatsoever without the free consent of the People in Parliament and which Proclamation altho not publisht till the 2 of February yet was in part Proclaimed on the very day of the Kings Murder And for the more ensuring and the better carrying on their Government with the more plausibility they publish an Act of State for the alteration of Writs wherein instead of King the Name Stile and Test and Custodes Libertatis Angliae Anthoritate Parliamenti should be used and no other All Writs being ordered to run so and those concerned in the Law required to take notice thereof yet they provided that all Patents granted by the late King should still stand in full force and vertue And having cast off the chief of those three Estates by which the Nation had been so long Governed they think likewise of abolishing the second that so they might usurp the whole power into their own hands in order whereunto having first Voted that they would make no farther Addresses to them nor receive any from them they made an Ordinance for abolishing the House of Lords as dangerous and useless And then having abolished the Ancient Governments of this Kingdom they proceeded to the consideration of Establishing another but found it a work of so much intricacy that they could come to no resolution but only agreed in a Negative Voice that there should for the future be no Government in England either by King or House of Lords and thereupon ordered the old Great Seal to be broken and a new one to
be made which was delivered to the keeping of three Commissioners viz Keeble Whitlock and Lisly and considered of new Oaths to be adminstred to the Judges who thereupon met and upon debate six of them were contented to continue in their Employments provided the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom were not altered For whose satisfaction the Juncto by their Declaration of the Ninth of February did assure them that they were fully resolved to maintain and would uphold preserve and keep the Fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the Laws Properties and Liberties of the People with all things incident thereunto They proceeded likewise to appoint such Persons as they thought would be most firm to their Interest to exercise the Offices of Justices of the Peace throughout the Nation and constituted a Council of State consisting of about forty in number whereof five might be Lords And finally to secure all whereas they had before onely repealed they now abolish and make void the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy But notwithstanding all their endeavours to render themselves secure and firm in their Government yet the People began now to be generally discontented And those who had formerly affected them growing sensible of the Inconveniencies that were like to ensue upon the cutting off of their Prince beginning to abhor their practices there was a general Plot carried on against them in all the Counties of England Which obliged them to send Forces into most parts to awe them and thereby the better to keep them in order Notwithstanding which Contrivances of theirs to bar up the way to that Imperial Throne which they had impudently invaded and parted into shares amongst themselves there were some who had Courage and Loyalty enough left them to assert the King's Right and their own Duty in a Printed Proclamation thrown about the Streets And to convince the Juncto at Westminster that all men would not be wheedled to run a gadding after their Calves at Bethel but that there were some still left who would tread in the old Path and beaten Tract of Government in the succession of Charles the Second to the Crown of England which Proclamation was as follows We the Noblemen Judges Knights Lawyers Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders Merchants Citizens c. and other Freemen of England do according to our Allegiance and Covenant by these presents heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim the Illustrious Charles Prince of Wales next Heir of the Blood Royal to his Father King Charles whose late wicked and traiterous Murder we do from our Souls abominate and all Parties and Consenters thereunto to be by hereditary Birthright and lawful Succession Rightful and undoubted King of Great Brittain France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging And that we will faithfully constantly and sincerely in our several places and callings defend and maintain His Royal Person Crown and Dignity with our Estates Lives and last drop of our Blood against all Opposers thereof whom we do hereby declare to be Traitors and Enemies to His Majesty and His Kingdoms In testimony whereof we have ordered and caused to be published and proclaimed throughout all Countrys and Corporations of this Realm the first day of February and the first year of His Majesties Reign God save King Charles the Second Which Proclamation although without any Solemnity or indeed open Appearance met with the same chearful Reception and inward Loyal Resolutions as if Vent had been given to a publick manifestation of Duty and Joy by His Majesties present ascending the Throne For it revived the hearts of his mourning and disconsolate Subjects to see the sure and certain Succession thereof asserted and continued in the same most beloved and darling Name the Eldest Branch and descended of their martyr'd Soveraign in whose Ruins the Regicides thought to have rak'd up and buried all Claims and Just Titles to the Imperial Diadem of these Kingdoms The said Out-cries and lamentable Groans sent forth by all Loyal Subjects at the Loss of their Head together with the Martyrs Instructions and his George which were according to his Fathers desire sent him by the Dutch Embassador found him at the Hague in Holland where he then kept his Court and was first saluted King and the horrour thereof so seized his great Soul with wonder and astonishment that it had certainly sunk under the weight of it had not the Religious Consideration that he ought not to sorrow as one without hope buoyed up his Spirit and Reason forbid him to cast away himself with grief who was then become the only hope of three Kingdoms Generous Rage prompting Princes to Revenge rather than Despair which was not to be accomplisht by weeping Eyes but by wise Counsels and valiant Performances Wherefore he bravely cheered up and reassumed his wonted Courage Comfort State and Majesty And for the better managing of his Affairs went soon after to Paris to solicit that Court to embrace his Interest and afford him some Assistance for the recovery of his Right and the redressing his Subjects miseries by discountenancing the English Rebels and furnishing him with that competency of Money Men Arms and Ammunition which might enable him not to Invade his Country but to encourage his own Subjects to rescue themselves from a forced Slavery But the French King being under Age and Cardinal Mazarine who then governed the great Affairs of that Kingdom being no Friend to this banisht and distressed King but holding a correspondence with his rebellious Subjects he was able to procure no Assistance from thence Whereupon he next applied himself to Spain whither he sent the Lord Cottington as his Embassador who upon his arrival there was confronted by a Competitor viz. Ascham who called himself an Embassador from the then New Majesties of England until he was dispatcht by some Switz After which Cottington was dismist with this Answer That were it any thing in the King of Spain's own Dominion which his Master of Great Brittain had desired it should have been no sooner requested than granted But being a Forreign Quarrel he could not interest himself therein in regard it was not reasonable he should busie himself in other mens matters who had so many Irons in the fire himself But in the mean time the Emperor the Princes of Germany the Kings of Denmark and Sweden being acquainted with the present circumstance of his Affairs by his several Embassadors sent to each of them they highly resented his deplorable condition and resolved his speedy assistance and supply And Holland upon his Account and the Interest of his Sister the Princess of Orange did upon terms agreed on between the late King and their Embassador two days before his death resolve not to vail to this younger Sisters State as they had been wont to do to the Kings of England but by the Forlorn of some private acts of Hostility begin that difference which soon after brake out into an open War Nor
believe the King was the least Thing in him And Posterity shall know the happiness of England and this Age when it shall see we are not silent of a good Prince after his Decease for it is a sign that there is as good a One or a better on the Throne And this Task I the more willingly undertake MY LORDS First because it is impossible for any man to want or matter or words while he writes of him and 't is a Subject that even Dulness it self wou'd Treat of wittily And secondly because not only all Europe but the whole World and Posterity it self will joyn with me in his Praises For the Outmost Rounds of the Earth were acquainted with him and he establish'd our Commerce so universally that whatever Product was generated in any Country seem'd to be the Native of Ours and in every Season of the Year we had a perpetual Autumn Fruits arriving from every part of this Globe And as his Name will be laid up in the Libraries of Asia and men must hear his Praises by Interpreters so likewise our Posterity no doubt will help us in praising him who are at present too much over-loaden with one burthen that of Grief for His inexpressible loss to undertake such another as that of celebrating him I shall not seek to fetch Encomiums from comparing him with his Ancestors and so try by lessening them to amplifie his Greatness That is a trick I do not pretend to let his fame stand at the expence of no mans else For as all the Talents and Virtues of his Forefathers he in such wise united in himself as that not one of them was wanting while he lived and as it is common for a Prince to be better than his Predecessors but to be better than all his Predecessors belong'd to him alone so he that detracts from them detracts from him And for one instance who dare sacrilegiously invade the Majesty of CHARLES the 1st in hopes to diminish it who neither said nor did nor wrote nor begot any thing but what was Great So Divine a Prince none was thought worthy by Heav'n it self immediately to Succeed but he And therefore after that Nature had made several Tryals in Henry the Great 's Daughter for five Years space towards the Production of something perfect and absolute she at length made this acceptable Present to the World As soon as Born Heaven took notice of him and ey'd him with a Star appearing in defiance of the Sun at Noon-day either to note That his Life shou'd be continu'd with Miracles as it began with one or that his Glory shou'd shine like a Star or else to prove That if it be question'd whether Sovereigns be given us by chance or by the hand of the Almighty it is here manifest that this Prince came from Heav'n and that there is a World of difference put betwixt Kings supernaturally made by God and those electively made by Man In his Education afterwards he excell'd in all those corporal Exercises and that growth of Body for which Antiquity appointed the Sons of the Gods and Husbands of the Goddesses to be so Remarkable And as the shape of his Body so the form of his mind was truly and universally Imperial It had the command of whatever Notion or Thing was presented to it whether Divine or Humane without any foreign Explication and as it were by Intuition he saw the Ideas of all things in his own breast In his first Years he promis'd that Virtue which his Fathers and his own Miseries gave him an early and a large Field to shew to the World and which he kept entire and unshaken to the last his Mind being still more and more strengthned by difficulties And to speak a little freely MY LORDS when Ye remember him amid all his distresses and the most insupportable stroaks of Fortune unrepining and not letting the least complaint escape from him or the least fear seize upon him You must either fancy something in him above Man or that the gods themselves might learn of him one Virtue that of constancy and firmness of mind For Seneca shews us that Hercules himself the great and perfect Model of true Virtue and Valour in his last Agonies did complain ev'n to Desperation Adorn'd with such Virtues who cou'd not but love him Even Sea-Rebels as rough and boisterous as their own Element grow tender-hearted and set their Admiral on shore delivering themselves up to him and the Love of the Prince prevails more with them than the Piety of their King When in Exile as with his Fame he had before fill'd other Nations so now he bless'd 'em with his presence By barbarous Rebels he was forc'd to venture the Hospitality of Princes yet the King of France was not afraid of abiding in the French Kings Dominions But whatever jealousies he might conceive of his own safety whatever bad news he received from England how great soever were the Progresses made by Cromwel he thought this his greatest Unhappiness that he shou'd have so many Calamitous Friends both at home and abroad His Restoration I can compare to nothing better than that easie delicious and jocund Temper of the Elements of Heaven the Air and Sea after a violent and outragious Tempest or rather after the great Deluge of the World at which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove that finding no Rest any where was receiv'd again into his own Ark and brought a peaceable Olive-Leaf in his Mouth Which Revolution was the alone work of Providence and the General For nothing but an Almighty Power hath Dominion over the minds of Men. He did not leap on Shore with his Sword in his Hand by way of Compulsion but he was saluted with the free and unanimous Voice of three great Nations As he had no other real Enemies but his own Country so in this he appeared more than Conqueror that he vanquish'd the very minds of his enemies Never was such a Triumph seen at Rome Others have rode on a Chariot with four white Horses or more arrogantly have been carri'd on Mens Shoulders but he was brought in by the hearts of Men. That Name which others get by conquer'd Natâ—ons he got by repenting ones and only by returning out of exile into his own Country which was exil'd when he was so he lookt in the Poets Language Like Mars returning from the Noble Chace Of flying Nations through the Plains of Thrace At one time never was so much Joy heap'd together in England It seem'd as if all the Melancholly of the former years was purposely designed to introduce and heighten the so extravagant gladness of that great Day that some were ready to wish for a Renovation of the Civil Wars that they might have that day repeated to them over again Every man thought that himself received the shouts he gave and every subject fancied himself a Monarch The sick imagine they are restored to health by seeing his God-like Person Some cry they
have lived long enough Others Now they ought rather to live longer Traitors themselves drink the King's Health heartily They admire him more that he wou'd not than that ever he should be in a possibility to revenge himself and that he shou'd remember Injuries only to forgive them Let him ascend and there was a due Majesty restor'd to the Throne Authority to the Laws Reverence to inferior Magistrates and the sacred Order of Bishops to Religion like a Treasure found from a Ship-wrack after many Years rouling in a tempestuous Sea Thus terminating all publick differences and confusions by Peace he adorn'd Peace it self with good Arts which receiv'd both their Countrey with him and their Protection under him by his opening the Temple of Janus and that of the Muses at the same time For himself had as great a Knowledg in Letters as any Prince in Christendom and he most acurately understood Navigation Astronomy and most parts of the Mathematicks An huge delight he took in conversing freely with the most knowing Men in those pleasant and useful Studies And he endeavour'd to promote them as much as possible in others by publick Endowments and Liberal Rewards Besides this severer sort of Notices he had a great insight into all those softer Arts which become a private Gentleman And in his Reign we may say That Wit did first reign here and appear'd upon the Stage as on a Throne It was scarcely more encourag'd and environ'd with greater Pomp and Splendor at Rome under the peaceable Reign of Augustus after that long Civil War wherein the Sword would permit nothing else to be sharp besides it self Tho he had as much Good-Nature as wou'd perhaps have serv'd an Hundred other Men a Word peculiar to our English Tongue and a Thing peculiar to this Prince as the Great Chancellor remark'd yet he was observed to take an extream delight in that Part of Poesy which is not very famous for Good Nature I mean Satyr Doubtless this sort of Writing is the best and most beneficial of all others which the Poets follow for it not only tells Mankind of but it chastises them for their Faults And I wonder that the Ancients when they bestowed so many several kinds of Poetry to the Favour and Influence of so many Muses they could not find in their hearts to allow one Goddess to Satyr But whatever unkindness it finds in Heaven I am sure in our Age it has found Protection upon earth witness the great good Offices the French King hath done it in the Person of Boileau For that Prince is not like Alexander of a Spanish stamp and Complexion so wholly transported with the Giddiness of Romantick Stories as that he cannot dream of conquering the World without having Homer for his Bed-fellow but what he reads is good sense and honest Nature without any vain and extravagant additions And this he does in imitation of his Late Majesty who was the oldest and by consequence the most exemplary Prince in the Christian World tho under far worse Circumstances For the latter was much better capacitated through his extensive Knowledg in Nature and the Intricacies of Matter and Motion as well as in all Polite Learning and I think I shou'd do no man an Injury if I say he understood Butler the best in England How Good and Gracious a Master he was You MY LORDS can best declare Ye knew him the most searching Judg of Men that held in his hands both rewards and punishments In the last indeed he was very sparing and the offending Courtier was usually excus'd before hand very seldom to be excus'd The Punishment he thought was sufficient in the very Vexation of the Delinquent Warily and by Degrees his Rewards were distributed that there might still be a further Prospect in view by way of Encouragement For nothing conduces more to following Honours than the former well administred And never at one leap was any supreme place conferred unless for some Transcendent and as I may call it supernatural piâ—ce of Loyalty Our Noblesse he both preserved and augmented lest the condition of such should be worse as deserved to have a Noble Posterity than of such as had Noble Ancestors Not a Soldier was there that had received Wounds in his Service but he counted and rewarded them in an ample manner And thorough all succeeding Ages He will be a Benefactor as well as an example to Soldiers at Chelsea where as long as we shall have a Country to Defend or an Enemy to Combate His Name will be evermore remembred for what is bestow'd upon Posterity ought to be Immortal You likewise MY LORDS can give the best Attestation to his Offices of Privacy and his great Virtues of Humility and Condescention which yet had a kind of Majestick Royalty with them Ye remember him when he was in Exile and as a private man how he resembled a King and how whilest a restored Monarch and in his most illustrious days he seem'd to be a private Citizen That in his greatest Prosperity he had not the least Haughtiness nor Elation of Mind but being secure of his own greatness was not afraid of degrading himself into the likeness of a Subject Ye know how much time he bestow'd on the cares of Empire how much on the Duties of Devotion Philosophy and Vertue how short his Sleeps and the unbendings of his mind were A smart walk a mouthful of fresh Air and a little ingenious raillery Such a Prince must needs be no less lov'd than admir'd The Affection and Reverence of his Subjects wou'd stand him instead of terror His own Virtue wou'd serve him for a Guard and his Sword rather for Ornament than Defence But what Charms can withstand the Ingratitude and Malice of accursed and diabolick Rebels Against his Sacred Life we had a Salamanca-Plot wherein the Sufferers seem'd to be more choqu'd at the Injustice of the Evidence than at the severity of the Sentence They seem'd to bear all magnanimously and with the bravery of Innocence And with good reason might they do so since they had for a Co-partner in Dishonour which to her was worse than Death the most Pious and Virtuous Princess that England ever deserv'd to see We had likewise a most hellish Fanatick Conspiracy the Discovery of which discover'd ALL. Then Heaven began to look kindly down upon us and withdraw its Plagues especially that great Egyptian Darkness wherewith we had been blinded And the Froggs and Vermine which were got into the Royal Bed-Chambers found it high time to recede Then the Delatores began to fear as much as they were fear'd before And the Laws were now more dreaded than perjur'd Schismaticks Then Sham-Magistrates put off their consulary Honours and public Spoils And the King of England became first LORD OF LONDON Which City while he restrain'd its Liberties he rendred more free But here MY LORDS we come to a full point and here ye must take your leave of him For when he had
p. 187. r. ordering p. 188. r. directly p. 191. d. they p. 194. r. contrive p. 198. r. discourse l. 10. r. effect p. 200. r. them p. 225. r. whom p. 247. r. Six p. 225. r. resplendent p. 263. r. beatissimo p. 264. r. Generis p. 299. r. places of sev p. 341. r. thereof were p. 343. r. liv'd and died p. 366. r. All this very c. p. 415. r. shou'd p. 425. d. they p. 443. r. very great p. 484. r. pretensive in 't p. 492. r. King-craft THE Publishers Advertisement TO THE READER THere is no question but many at the first sight of the Title page will Wonder that so Sacred a Name shou'd be there and that the Life of so Great a Prince should be pretended to be written in so little time History they will say is a Work of Time it self as well as that part of it call'd Biography which Treats of the Lives of Eminent and Great Men and of Illustrious Heroes informing us in the Nature of Things and of Duties and Teaching us the great Arts of Life and Death which are no such easie and trivial matters as to be thrown over the left Shoulder And what shall we say to the Confidence of this Author who now in less than two Months space has huddled up the Life of the greatest Monarch of the British Line which perhaps is more difficult to be wriâ—â—â— than that of any of his Predecessorâ— and would claim a Century or at lest as many Years as it was acted in to be absolutely and thoroughly digested by the most reaching Genius and most consummated Wit Wherefore to satisfie thee Reader and thy Objection I will tell and assure thee That the Author is partly I do say more acquainted with the great difficulty as well as use of History in general and that for his own Part This which thou hast here he hath been long about these many years and that it is no Mushroom business springing up from a foggy Brain in one Night and as likely to perish by another It is a thoughtful Piece no illegitimate Brat no Sham-extract Verbatim out of other Books which thou hast perhaps read and paid for already For I should be very loath if I knew such a thing to so be unconscionable to impose upon thee But now perhaps from my Answer to the former Objection thou wilt be ready to raise another and look upon my Author as no kind Wisher to his Prince to go and write his Life before his Demiss which resembles a kind of an Expectation of his Death rather than the putting up any hearty Prayers for the Continuance of his Life as every good Subject ought to do In return to this I am still of the Affirmitive side and will again assure thee That he is a very Loyal and Worthy Gentlemen and that thou wilt believe me as soon as thou hast read his Book And besides to consider the thing in it self 't is so far from being an Act that looks any ways Disloyal to write a Princes Life before his Decease that on the other hand it is extreamly Loyal and Meritorious As we see now in France where an Annual Pension is setled upon the Great Satyrist to write the Life of his Master the French King Indeed this I will add in my Authors behalf that I have heard him say he never desir'd to live to finish his Book but Addressed Heaven to the contrary hoping it might prove a Picture and Draught of the Kings Life only to the middle But since Heaven has thought fit to take our Gracious Prince to it self I prevailed with him to revise the whole Work and make an addition to such years as was wanting Which being compleated I here present to the Publick View For you may ghess Reader that when we Book sellers have got any thing of this Nature it is as severe a piece of Mortification and Self-denial to keep it private as it is for our Gallants to keep their Chambers the same Day they have got a new Suit Adieu A Table of the most Remarkable matters couch't in this Royal Story Anno à Virginis partu 1630 KIng Charles the Second born at St. James's A Prodigious Star then appearing at Mid-day page 5 Baptiz'd by Dr. Laud Bishop of London 7 Committed in his Infancy to the Countess of Dorsets care then to the Government of the Earl of New-Castle and the Tutorage of Dr. Duppa Ibid. 1638 First called Prince of Wales by Order not creation 7. Accompanies his Royal Father in Progresses Ibid. Takes his Seat in Parliament Ibid. Carries a reprieving Message from the King to the Parliament about the Earl of Strafford 8 1640 Goes with his Father into the North. 10 At York is made Captain of a choice Guard of Loyal Nobles and Gentlemen 11 1642 Gives the first proof of his Bravery at Edghill-fight 12 Committed at Oxford to the care of the Marquess of Hartford Chancellor of that University 13 1644. Endeavours to Heal the Differences 'twixt his Father and the Factious Diet. 15 A Match propos'd between him and the Infanta of Portugal Ibid. 1646. Sails to the Scilly Islands 19 His Answer to the Parliaments swimming Invitation Ibid. Their barbarous Ordinance that follow'd thereupon 20 The manner how he employed his time in those Islands 21 His first Visit to France ibid. Desires leave to go into the French Army but declines it upon his Fathers Prohibition 22 Made Generalissimo by his Father 23 The Scots tender of him ibid. His Answer to a Letter of theirs 25 1648. He appears with some Forces in Jersy-Isle ibid. Grants Martial Commissions to several Persons of Honour 26 Sets forth a Declaration 27 The Kentish men rise in his behalf 30 But are worsted by Fairfax 32 He Seizes some Merchants Ships and attempts the Relief of Deal-Castle ibid. Colchester taken by Famine and Fairfax 35 He retires into Holland ibid. His Letter to the King his Father 36 The Treaty at the Isle of Wight ibid. Cromwel and the Armies proceedings with the Parliament to bring the King to a Tryal 37 An Ordinance past by the Commons for his Tryal but oppos'd by the Lords 39 The Juncto resolves to Try him without the Lords consent 40 The Princes behaviour and pious Acting thereupon 41 The King accursedly Sentenc'd to be Beheaded 42 His Sacred Memoirs and Papers of Advice to his Son 43 King Charles the first most sacrilegiously Assassinated 57 Prince Charles succeeds him 59 The Juncto declare it High-Treason to Proclaim him 60 Vote down the House of Lords ibid. Appoint Judges and Justices 62 The People open their Eyes detest them 63 King Charles the II. Proclam'd in England 64 Receives at the Hague the news of the Royal Martyrdom 65 His Comportment thereupon 66 Sends Embassadors to several Princes 67 1649. Proclaim'd in Scotland by Penitent Rebels 68 Passes through Flanders where he is highly Caress'd and Regal'd into France 72 The Scots invite him over 74
Montross his deplorable Fate ibid. The Kings Letter to the Scots 75 His shrewd Treaty with their Commissioners 76 The English Juncto sit uneasie alarm'd with the Scots Proceedings ibid. Cromwel call'd out of Ireland and made General 81 The King Lands at the Spey in Scotland 82 1650. Cromwel Marches Northwards ibid. The Scots at difference before among themselves thereupon Unite 83 The King most Solemnly Crown'd at Schone 84 Raises an Army himself Personal Valour 162 The Kings promotes a Peace between France and Spain 165 Goes Incognito to the place of Treaty 166 The Duke of York offer'd the Constableship of Castile 169 1659. The King gives forth new Commissions 171 Sir George Booth Rises 172 Is unfortunately defeated 174 And taken Prisoner 175 The King at St. Malloes 176 An Overture to try Monk 177 Monks Brother sent into Scotland to him 178 Monk undertakes the Kings Restauration 182 Sends his Brother to the Parliament 184 A Prophetick Speech 185 Monk prepares for England 187 Whence Dr. Clergies comes to him 189 Lambert sends Morgan into Scotland 192 A Convention at Edenborough ibid. Monks Commissioners sign an Agreement 193 The Rump sits again 194 Invite Monk to London but distrust him 195 The People address to him 196 He desires the Parliament to remove their Guards 197 Was to have been sent to the Tower 198 But goes to the Parliament ibid. Made one of the Council of State 199 Pulls down the City-Gates 201 Sends a Letter to the Rump 202 Marches into the City 203 The Rump dissemble their Indignation 204 Employ their Adjutators 205 A Conference about the secluded Members 206 Who are readmitted 207 Monk made General ibid. They discharge Booth ibid. Dissolve themselves and call a free Parliment 208 Appoint a Council of State ibid. 1660. Greenvile introduc'd to the General by Morris 210 Delivers him a Letter from the King 211 The General commends his Secrecy 212 Desires him to acquaint the King with his Resolution to Restore him 213 Which was accordingly done at Brussels 214 Monk leaves his Reward to the Kings pleasure 215 The King gives Greenvile a Warrant for an Earldom 216 Signs a Commission for Monks being General 217 Removes privately to Breda ibid. Lambert escapes from the Tower but is retaken by Ingolsby 218 The free Parliament meets 219 Greenvile delivers the Kings Letter to the General 220 And his Letters and Declaration to the two Houses 221 The Reverence exprest by the Commons at reading them with Resolves thereupon 222 The Kings Letter delivered to General Mountague and the Joy it occasioned in the Fleet. 224 The Parliament Invites the King 〈◊〉 225 The Commissioners arrive at Breda ibid. The King Proclaim'd 226 The King prepares for his Return 228 Treated and presented by the Dutch ibid. The Sâ—ates Speech to him â—â—at parting 229 He leaves Holland with a glorious Fleet. 232 And Arrives at Dover 234 The General meets him there ibid. He goes to Canterbury 235 To Chattham 230 Is presented with an Address ibid. Views the Army ibid. Comes to London 237 Rides in Triumph through London ibid. Is received by the Parliament 240 He thanks them for their Loyalty ibid. He goes to the Parliament house 241 Chooses his Privy-Council 242 The Act of Oblivion 243 The General madâ— Duke of Albemarle c. 245 Several others advanc'd ibid Resignation of Purchases 246 Embassadors congratulate his Restauration ibid. The Oblivion-Act comprehensive 247 29th of May Annisary ibid. The Army Disbanded ibid. The Kings Speech at the Adjournment 248 Duke of Glocester dies 349 The Kings care to settle the Church ibid. Regicides brought to Tryalâ— 251 The Queen Mother comes into England 252 Argile sent back to Scotland 253 Princess of Orange dies 254 The healing Parliament dissolv'd ibid. Cromwels Carkass upon the Gallows 255 The Fifth-Monarchy mens Adventure 256 Preparations for the Kings Coronation 260 1661. Four Triumphal Arches erected by the City 261 The Order of his Cavalcade through the City 268 The manner of his Crowning 273 The Thunder that day the Censures thereon 279 He calls a fresh Parliament 280 The Presbyterians stickle in Elections 282 He Rides in State to the Parliament which he acquaints with his design of Marrying the Infanta of Portugal 283 A Convocation of the Clergy 284 The Act of Oblivion confirmed by that Parliament 285 The Act for Regulating Corporations ibid. Pryn censur'd by the Parliament 286 The Bishops restored to their Peerage ibid. The Lord Munson and others censured 287 Parliament adjourn'd by the King ibid. The Duke of York Captain of the Artillery Company 288 Barbone and others secured 289 The Kings Piety to the memory of his Friends 290 The Quarrel between the French and Spanish Embassadors 291 Harry Martyn no humble Servant to Proclamations ibid. The Duke of Ormond made Deputy of Ireland ibid. Episcopacy restored in Scotland 293 1662. A Fleet sent for the Queen and a Garrison to Tangier ibid. The Agreeableness of the King and Queens Fortunes 294 Her arrival at Portsmouth ibid. Queen of Bohemia dies 295 The King married at Portsmouth 296 The African Potentates allarmed 297 Tangier made a free Port. 298 The dreadful St. Bartholomew 299 Several Cities and Towns dismantl'd ibid. Dunkirk return'd to the French 300 Philips and others excuted for Plotting 301 An Embassy out of Russia ibid. 1663. The Kings Progress into the West 303 Oates and others executed 304 1664. The Parliament for War with the Dutch ibid. The King fits out two Fleets 306 His Personal care and industry 307 The Plague begins in London ibid. Prince Rupert at the Spithead 310 The Dutch afraid to put to Sea ibid. An Embargo on Dutch Ships 311 The Act for a Royal Aid 312 War Proclaimed against Holland 313 1665. A General Fast enjoyned 314 His Royal Highness Lord High Admiral ibid The Dutch allarm'd 315 Are Beaten 316 The Sickness increasing in London 317 The King and Parliament at Oxford 318 The Duke of Albemarl left in London 320 A Fast kept on every Wednesday ibid. The English Fleet upon the Coast of Holland 321 The Earl of Sandwich Attacques the Dutch in Berghen ibid. France takes part with Holland 322 A Plot discover'd ibid. 1666. Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle Admirals 324 They fight the Dutch 325 London in Ashes 327 The Kings great compassion in that distress 330 Various Opinions about that Fire ibid. The Kings Prudence and Care in its Rebuilding 331 The first Invention of Ensuring houses from Fire 332 An Act of Parliament for the Rebuilding of London ibid His Pious care for Rebuilding the Churches 335 Sir Jonas More the first Rebuilder 336 A Prodigious Storm 337 A Commotion in Scotland ibid. War with Denmark 338 A Treaty at Breda 339 The Dutch spend a Summer in needless Preparations ibid. They come to Chattham 340 Peace concluded with Holland 341 1667. The Earl of Clarendon in disgrace 342 1669 Earl of Carlisle Embassador to Sweden 343 Queenmother dies 344 The Duke of Albemarle
ibid. 1670 Designs to unite England and Scotland 345 Prince of Tuscany in England ibid The Dutchess of Orleans at Dover 346 Sir Thomas Allen before Argeir 347 Sir Edward Spragg destroys three Men of War 348 1671 Bloud steals the Crown 349 The King takes a Sea-Progress 351 A stop upon the Exchequer 352 Sir George Downing committed to the Tower 353 A Declaration of Indulgence 354 Sir Robert Holms falls on the Dutch Smyrna Fleet ibid 1672 The King declares War against the Dutch 355 He views the English and French Fleet joyning ibid His Royal Highness's name terrible to the Dutch 356 The States remove to Amsterdam 357 The King Invites their Subjects into England ibid The Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arlington Embassadors 358 Nimeguen taken ibid 1673 the Dutch beaten 359 The King grants Peace to the Dutch 360 1677 Grows Jealous of the French Kings greatness 362 The Lady Mary marri'd to the Prince of Orange ibid The Kings Speech to the Parliament 363 France threatned with a War 365 The King endeavours a general Peace 366 But provides for the worst 367 His Speech to the Parliament ibid 1678 The Siege of Mons raised 359 A peace concluded at Nimeguen ibid A hugeous strange Plot of Black Bills and Spanish pilgrims discover'd by Titus Oates 371 The Lords Bellasis Powis Peters and Arundel sent to the Tower 3â—2 Godfrey found murthered 373 The King prevents the Parliament 375 His refusal to part with the Militia 376 Some try'd for the Plot ibid Some of the Parliament accuse each other 377 Sir Joseph Williamson released by the King 378 The Long Parliament dissolv'd ibid The Kings Letter to the Duke 379 The Duke goes into Flanders 380 The Kings Speech to the new Parliament ibid 1679 They begin with the Earl of Danby 384 Who surrenders him self ibid The Lords in the Tower Impeacht in Parliament 385 The King dissolves his Privy-Council and constitutes a new one ibid. Shaftsbury President 387 The Lords Answer to their Impeachments ibid. 1680 The Kings proposal to the Parliament 388 Their Address to the King 389 The Bill of Exclusion brought in ibid The two Houses differ about Danby's pardon and the Tryal of the Lords 390 The King Porogues them 392 The Bishop of St. Andrews most barbarous Muther forerunner of a Scotch Rebellion ibid. Whence the name of Whigs 393 The Parliament dissolv'd and a new one call'd 394 Sir G. Wakeman and others acquitted ibid. The King taken Sick at Windsor 395 Monmouth in disgrace 397 A Declaration about him 398 He is banished 402 Dangerfields discovery ibid The Duke of York goes into Scotl. 403 Sawcy Petitions for the Parliaments fitting 404 Forbidden by Proclamation ibid. Kings Speech to the Parliament 405 The Duke returns out of Scotland 406 Sir Lionel Jenkins made Secretary 407 Addresses of Abhorrence ibid. The Lord Shandios Embassador to Constantinople 408 A prodigious storm of Hail ibid The Parliament sits 409 Fall foul upon Sir Robt. Can and others ibid. Revive the Attempt of the Exclusion Bill which is bravely thrown out by the Lords 411 The Tryal of the Lord Stafford 412 The Blazing-star 413 The King presseth the Parliament for supplys ibid. The Address ibid. His Answer 414 Their Proceedings thereupon 415 They are Prorogu'd 416 Their lewdly extravagant Votes ibid. Petitions about the Oxford Parliament 417 The Country treats their Members 418 1681 The King goes to Oxford 419 His Speech to the Parliament there ibid. Wi. Williams Speaker 421 Fitz-Harris his story 422 25 26 27 28. The Oxford-Parliament dissolv'd 423 A Declaration touching it 424 Doct. Pluncket 427 The Lord Howard committed to the Tower 428 The Oxford-Plot 429 The Protestant Joyner ibid. His Royal Highness High Commissioner in the Parliament of Scotland 430 An Act past there about the Succession ibid. The King Favours the French Protestants 431 Shaftsbury sav'd by an Ignoramus 432 Esquire Thinn murther'd 433 1682 The Royal Passenger's miraculous deliverance 435 Sir John More Lord Mayor of London 436 A Riot in the City about Sheriffs 437 Prince Rupert dies 442 The Earl of Nottingham dies ibid Two remarkable and unusual Embassadors ibid. 1683 Bantham lost 444 An unpresidentable action ibid A Quo Warranto brought against the City Charter 447 A Petition in reference to it 447 The Kings gracious Condescention ibid Shaftsbury's Plot discover'd 449 The King to have been kill'd at the Rye 451 Sav'd by an accidental Fire ibid. Keeling the first discoverer 452 The Plotters taken ibid. Lord Gray Escapes 453 The Lord Russel and Coll. Sidney Beheaded and others executed at Tyburn ibid. Holloway and Armstrong executed 454 A Declaration of Thanksgiving ibid. The difference between the two Plots 455 The Lady Ann Married to Prince George ibid. Judgment enter'd against the Charter 456 Prichard Mayor by Commission ibid. The Factious Aldermen displac'd 457 Monmouth submits himself 458 The great Frost 459 The Kings Charity 460 Vienna besieged ibid Lord Landsdown ' Valour at its 〈…〉 46â— Tâ—ngâ—er demolish'â— ibid. Earl of Danby relievâ—d ibid. The rest of the Lords out of the Toweâ— 462 684. Commissioners for Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. A Scandalum Magnatum against Oates 463 His Royal Highnesses Patience 464 A Statue-peice of the King in the Royal Exchange ibâ—d A Muster on Putney Heath 466 Several tryed 467 The Sodom Doctor Indicted 468 Danvers his Libel 469 〈…〉 Scroop How receiv'd to favour 470 The King 〈…〉 Fit 471 The manner of his lingring Death 472 The Solemnity of his â—uneral 475 His Person 481 His Justice 483 His peaceable Inclination 486 His care of the Crown Prerogatives 488 His Prudence and Conduct 491 His great Piety and Devotion â—94 His Travels 499 His Learning â—01 His Recreations 504 His Conjugal Affectionâ— 506 Epigraphe 509 A Prayer for the King 511 An Essay of HISTORY ROYAL In the LIFE and REIGN OF HIS Late Sacred MAJESTY CHARLES the Second The Introduction HIstory in all Ages hath not undeservedly been accounted the great Light and Mistress of Humane Life as it both pleasurably instructs and most efficaciously persuades all Ranks and Degrees of men to their several respective and proper Offices For in laying the Foundation of a Good Mind Examples have a peculiar force to move men to Virtue and a much Greater than any bare Precepts whatsoever since they have this excellence in them that they prove what they recommend possible to be done and a Precept without an Example adjoyn'd to it looks like a good Law never put into Execution When men read of an Excellent Virtue they still carry away some Tincture from it whether they will or no as if they had been in Conversation with it's Possessor And when they read of any deformity and vice they have a natural aversion for it and will take care to avoid in themselves what looks so ugly in others Nor does History tend only to form men's manners in order to an happy Life but it also exalts and enlarges their minds while they
take a prospect of all Generations that have been upon Earth before them They seem to give Eternity to themselves à Parte ante and to live as many years as they have read in Chronicles And by this knowledge of the time past they judge of the present and proceed to the fore-sight of the future For the best Astrology in the World is to be deriv'd from History and from the Consideration of those Luminaries that have mov'd in a Sphere above us either in point of Time or of Place Which since we see to be the Proper ends and uses of History without doubt that History is highly to be esteem'd which does not consist so much of Magnificent and Pompous things as the Description of Wars of Great Buildings and such matters as only bring an empty pleasure to the Reader but which does exhibit things useful and worthy his Imitation and that will fill up his mind Vpon this account the Lives of Eminent Men writ with fidelity and truth have certainly the greatest use since from thence we learn how to live well to moderate our passions and govern our selves in the various Circumstances of Life But whereas we cannot live well unlesâ— we live in Society and all Societies must have Rulers and Governors over them or else we must all disband and turn Barabbas's there is 〈◊〉 one Higher Degree of History whith we may looâ— upon as the most compleat for Estimation Proâ—â— and Vse And that is a Narration of the Liveâ— of Princes representing withal every action bearing a Relation and Analogy thereunto And his kind cannot stand without the fore-mention'd Additionals as I may Stile them and not Essentials of History as Arms and Fortifications and the like matters Which though they do concern no man in himself as to point of Happiness yet together with the great Delight they bring along with them they are mainly conducive to the well-fare of mankind in general and the Knowledge of 'em is requisite to many particular men as immediately ingag'd in them and is likewise universally Ornamental Which things being well weigh'd I think I have got under my Pen one of the most profitable as well as diverting Histories the Sun ever yet saw acted It being the Life of a Prince which may be an Example not only to publick but private men For it affords us the knowledge of Heaven and reads us a Lecture of Piety Justice Patience Fortitude and Clemency Which being virtues in a Prince have a singular Grace with ' em It is not an account of the Robberies of an Alexander but a Register of Providential Bounties and Appointments beautified with the various Scenes and Landskips of Humane Life to instruct our Judgments and amuse our Imagination It teaches us the Arts of Vnity and Concord and draws out the true lines of the English Government It cures those diseases of the mind Insolence self-conceit and Ambition and shews that it is the Subjects Interest as well as Duty to obey These are all things but of Yesterdays standing and very well known and remembred So that before hand I need not make any Professions here of my truth and sincerity in the following Relation it being not so easy to deceive as to be refell'd in things not in the least remote from our knowledge This indeed is all I have the vanity to fear that if this Book should happen to descend to Posterity they will rather think it the Panegyrick than History of our late admirable Prince because when I report nothing of him but what was landable they may ghess that I have pretermitted what was worthy reprehension The most renowned and mighty Monarch CHARLES the Second late King of England was in greatness of his Royal Descent Superiour to all the Princes in Europe being descended from our Royal Martyr Charles the good and great and Henrietta de Bourbon Daughter to Henry the Great the Fourth of that name of France By descending from which two Royal Persons he was related to all the Princes in Europe had some of all the Bloud-Royal of the Christian World concenter'd in his Princely Veins By his Father he deriv'd in a lineal descent from all the Brittish Saxon Danish Norman and Scottish Kings of Great Britain and by his Mother from the Bourbons of France the Austrians of Spain the Mediâ—es of Florence c. Being also allied to all or most of them by his own the Marriages of his Royal Brother our present most Glorious Monarch his Aunt his Sisters and his two Nieces their Royal Highness Mary Princess of Orange and the Princess Ann of Denmark He was born at St. James's May the 29th 1630 it being the Birth-day of St. Augustine who was sent by Gregory the great to our Ancestors the Saxons and was the first founder of the Archbishoprick of Canterbury At which time a new Star appeared over the Palaâ—â— where he was born which seemed from Heaven to congratulate his Birth by darting its promising Influence upon the place of it and displaying is officious Beams in the midst of that Air wherein he first drew breath notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of the shining Sun which thing was generally lookt upon as an Emblem of his future greatness and glory The Sun likewise soon after suffered an Eclipse which was a sad presage as some even then divined that his Glory should be for some time eclipsed His Royal Father having in him obtained that blessing which he desired above all things in the World went to St. Pauls and there in a publique and solemn manner gave thanks to Almighty God from whose bounty he received him He was baptized in the 27th of the following June by Dr. Laud Bishop of London Abbot who was then Archbishop of Canterbury being under an Irregularity according to the decent and laudible Custom of the Church of England whereof he was then made a Son that so â—he might hereafter be her Supream Head and Mediator His Godfathers were his two Uncles Lewis 13. King of France and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine represented by the Dukes of Hamilton and Richmond who were then the two first Peers of the Realm and his Godmother was the Queen Mother of France represented by the Dutchess of Richmond He was committed in his Infancy to the indulgent Care and pious Tuition of the Countess of Dorset and when his growing parts rendred him too masculine for a Feminine Conduct he was delivered to the Earl of Newcastle under whose Direction and Government he imbib'd those Principles of Virtue and desire of Learning which serv'd as an Introduction to fit and prepare him for his farther and more liberal Education under the Learned Dr. Duppa Dean of Christ-Church and Bishop of Chichester by whose extraordinary Pains and Industry his Great Soul was first seasoned with those Rudiments of Knowledge and Learning which afterward by his own observation and experience received so vast an increase and rendred him that sagacious and politick
obnoxious to the Laws as to remove all Jealousies not out of strict Policy or Necessity but out of Christian Charity and Choice For be confident as I am that the most of all sides that have done amiss have done so not out of malice but through a misapprehension of things And that therefore none will be more Loyal to you than those who sensible of their Errours and our Injuries will feel in their Souls most vehement motives of Repentance and earnest desires to make some reparations for their former defects As Your Quality sets you above any Duel with a Subject so the Nobleness of your Mind must raise you above the meditation of any Revenge upon the many that have offended you The more conscious you shall be to your own Merits upon your People the more prone you will be to expect all Love and Loyalty from them and by inflicting no punishment for former miscarriages you will find more inward complacency in pardoning of one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of God's mercy and my Subjects affections towards you both which I hope you will study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own Mercy If God should see fit to restore me and you after me to those Enjoyments which the Laws should have assigned to us and no Subject without high degree of guilt can divest us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall see you in Peace to let you freely understand the things that belong to God's Glory your own Honour and the Kingdom 's Peace But if you never see my face again and God will have me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity which the perfecting some mens Designs require where in few mens hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or look with me I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or dissatisfaction from the true Religion establisht in the Church of England which upon trial I find to be the best as Christian and Reformed keeping the middle way between the pompous Superstition of Tyranny and the meaness of Phanatick Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Discipline some Lines as in very good Figures do peradventure need some sweetning and polishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportion of the whole The Scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion establisht in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts Duel with a Subject so the Nobleness of your Mind must raise you above the meditation of any Revenge upon the many that have offended you The more conscious you shall be to your own Merits upon your People the more prone you will be to expect all Love and Loyalty from them and by inflicting no punishment for former miscarriages you will find more inward complacency in pardoning of one than in punishing a thousand This I write to you not despairing of God's mercy and my Subjects affections towards you both which I hope you will study to deserve yet we cannot merit of God but by his own Mercy If God should see fit to restore me and you after me to those Enjoyments which the Laws should have assigned to us and no Subject without high degree of guilt can divest us of then may I have better opportunity when I shall see you in Peace to let you freely understand the things that belong to God's Glory your own Honour and the Kingdom 's Peace But if you never see my face again and God will have me buried in such a barbarous Imprisonment and Obscurity which the perfecting some mens Designs require where in few mens hearts that love me are permitted to exchange a word or look with me I do require and intreat you as your Father and your King that you never suffer your heart to receive the least check against or dissatisfaction from the true Religion establisht in the Church of England which upon trial I find to be the best as Christian and Reformed keeping the middle way between the pompous Superstition of Tyranny and the meaness of Phanatick Anarchy Not but that the draught being excellent as to the main both for Doctrine and Discipline some Lines as in very good Figures do peradventure need some sweetning and polishing which might here have easily been done by a safe and gentle hand if some mens precipitancy had not violently demanded such rude alterations as would have quite destroyed all the beauty and proportion of the whole The Scandal of the late Troubles which some may object and urge to you against the Protestant Religion establisht in England is easily answered to them or your own thoughts in this that scarce any one who has been a beginner or an active prosecutor of this late War against the Church the Laws and me either was or is a true lover embracer or practicer of the Protestant Religion establisht in England which neither gives such Rules nor ever before gave such Examples It 's true some heretofore have had the boldness to present threatning Petitions to their Princes and Parliaments which others of the same Faction but worse Spirits have now put in execution But let no counterfeit and disorderly Zeal abate your value and esteem of true Piety both of them are to be known by their Fruits The sweetness of the Vine and Figg-tree is not to be despised though the Brambles and Thorns should pretend to bear Figgs and Grapes thereby to promote their Rule over the Trees Nor would I have you to entertain any aversation or dislike of Parliaments which in their right Constitution with Freedom and Honour will never injure or diminish your greatness but rather be as the interchanging of Love Loyalty and Confidence between the Prince and his People The sad Effects of the Insolence of popular Dictates and tumultuary Impressions in this Black Parliament will make all Parliaments after this more cautious to preserve that Freedom and Honour which belongs to such Assemblies when they have once shaken off that Yoke of vulgar Encouragement since the Publick Interest consists in the common good of Prince and People Nothing can be more happy for all than in fair grave and honourable ways to contribute their counsels in common enacting all things by publick consent without either Tyranny or Tumults And we must not starve our selves because some men have surfeited of wholsom food If neither I nor you be ever restored to our Rights but God in his severest Justice will punish my Subjects with continuance in their sin and suffer them to be deluded by the prosperity of their wickedness I hope God will give me and
short but pithy Speech to the People telling them that he did esteem the Affections of his good People more than the Crowns of many Kingdoms and should be ready by God's Assistance to bestow his Life for their defence wishing to live no longer than he saw Religion and that Kingdom to flourish in all Happiness with many other expressions of like Love and Affection toward them The Ceremonies of the Coronation being ended and a plentiful Entertainment prepared he sate down at one Table and the Lords at another many Caresses and Testimonies of Joy reciprocally passing between them And Dinner being ended they all returned to St. Johnstons in the same Order and Pomp as they came from thence to Schoneâ— Bonfires Ringing of Bells and the loud Acclamations of the People were sufficient demonstrations of the Publick Joy which the Scots were filled withall and the great expectations they had of Happiness and Felicity under the Influence of his mild and easie Government Having now obtained the actual possession of one of his Kingdoms and being reconciled to that Parliament he was not in the least daunted by the late Miscarriages but as if he had been encouraged by his former Unhappiness and raised in mind like Anteus by his Fall he proceeded to the raising of such an Army as might then have been rather wisht for by the Affectionate than expected by the Reasonable And indeed such was the Confluence of Faithful Subjects that continually resorted to him and were resolved to carry on and if possible maintain an endangered and an endangering Cause against the most successful and hitherto prevailing Interest that he was in a little time Master of a greater Army in the Field than either his own hope or his Enemies guilty fear could suspect Wherefore he bravely appears himself in the management of his own Affairs as Generalissimo of that Army which consisted of two and twenty thousand fighting Men. Nor was his care less employed about his Garrisons than it was about those Forces he had in the Field knowing that it was prudence to provide for a Retreat though he expected a Conquest and not neglect the providing a Refuge in the worst of Dangers whilst according to Reason he need to think of nothing but Safety in the best of Victories Wherefore to hasten the work for every minute of delay was then fatal and cherish the dejected Vulgar who were now somewhat discouraged by lying under the burden of a double Army with the honour and pleasure of his gracious presence He took a progress to view the most considerable of them and see them well fortified and furnisht with all necessary Provisions encouraging the Engineers by his Bounty and directing and guiding them by his Skill But those vast Preparations were too formidable to his Enemies for them to suffer 'em to go on without an Attempt at least to hinder and defeat them Wherefore before the Levies were well compleated Cromwel makes hard toward him thinking each minute tedious that past without some Action But the King prudently declined joyning Battel with him until he might if possible draw him who had a greedy desire of Fighting into some disadvantage which he was in a probability of doing soon after For Cromwel having commanded two Regiments to pass over into a narrrow Island hoping thereby to intercept his passage he sent against them five or six Regiments under the Command of Major General Brown who had certainly cut them all in pieces had not Cromwel hastened thither with a supply in the very last minute of opportunity whereby he rescued his own Forces and beat back Brown although not without a considerable loss on both sides And being flusht with those successful beginnings pursued his Advantage and transporting his Army over Fife marcht immediately unto St. Johnstons which he took almost upon the first Summons Whereupon the King who was not able to beat them back thought it high time to look about him And since Cromwel that successful Rebel had now gained all on the other side Fife took the Earl of Eglington Prisoner possest himself of St. Johnstons and grew every day more powerful he resolved with all imaginable speed to advance into England expecting that the Justice and Equity of his Cause together with the long Tyranny exercised over them by the Juncto would incite his English Subjects to return to their Allegiance and joyn with him against theirs as well as his Enemies And knowing by experience that the Scots always exprest their Valour better in other Countries than at home in their own whereupon Cromwel re-crosses Frith and sends Lambert with a select Party of Horse and Dragoons to fall upon the King's Reer himself following presently after with the Body of his Army The King entred England by the way of Carlisle the Royal Army marching through the Country with that Civility and exact Obedience to Military Discipline that as some affirm the Country was not damaged six-pence by them But whether it were that their former Villanies had left such a deep impression in the hearts of the People or that they were now dull'd and besotted with Slavery and with Issachar's Ass were content to couch under their Burdens or that they were over-awed by an Armed Power which is the most probable few or none came in to his Assistance save only the Lord Howard's Son of Escrick with one Troop of Horse notwithstanding his earnest Invitation The Juncto at Westminster hearing of the King's March were exceedingly terrified therewith and presently raised all the Countries against him and declared it High Treason for any to assist him either with Men or Money But the Earl of Darby who was always Loyal both to him and his Father not fearing their Bug-Bear Threatning brought him a supply of Two hundred and fifty Foot and Sixty Horse out of the Isle of Man He met with no opposition till he came at Warrington in Lancashire where some considerable Forces of the Parliament were ready to cut down that Bridge and dispute his Passage But the Scots falling on them before they were aware prevented the breaking down of the Bridge and by their Valour forced their way over the Planks and put the Adversary to such a confused Retreat that had it been pursued as himself would have had it but was opposed by Lesly it might have proved the Conquest of all England and that unhappy and miserable War might thereby have been ended much sooner than it was From thence he marched toward Worcester in such excellent Order and with so little Damage to the Country that it lookt more like a Progress with his Nobles than a March with an Army which was a great demonstration of the powerful Influence of his goodness and care which could so easily frame Rudeness it self to so smooth and even a temper and form an unruly Camp into a well managed and orderly Court In his way to Worcester he summoned Shrewsbury by a Letter directed to Collonel Mackworth
Rebels whereupon the Lords with their followers faced about and repelled them But when they were got a little beyond Newport some of Lilburn's Regiment meeting them in the Front and other Rebels from Worcester pursuing them in the Rear themselves and Horses being very much beaten out and tired Darby Lauderdale Gifford and some others were taken and carried Prisoners first to Whit-Church and then to an Inn in Banbury from whence Gifford found means to escape But Darby was conveyed to Westchester and there tryed by a pretended Court Marshal held by a Commission from Cromwel grounded on an execrable Rump Act which traiterously pretended to prohibit all correspondence with Charles Stuart under penalty of High-Treason loss of Life and Estate by which he was condemned to lose his Life notwithstanding his just Plea that he had Quarter granted him by Captain Edge who took him Prisoner and was shortly after Executed at Bolton in Lancashire in a most Barbarous and unhuman manner Lauderdale and others were conveyed first to the Tower and afterward to Windsor Castle where they continued divers years But whilst the Rebels were plundering those Noble Persons whom they had taken Prisoners the Duke with Leviston Blague Darcey May and others forsook the Road and betaking themselves to a by-way got into Cessardine Woods not far from Newport where they received some refreshment at a little obscure House and afterward by two honest Labourers whom they met withal in an adjoyning Wood and to whom they communicated the misery and distress which the fortune of War had reduced them to were directed to places of safety The Duke in imitation of his Royal Master quitting his Horse and delivering his George which was given him by the Queen Mother to Mr. May who having preserved it in several eminent dangers restored it to him again in Holland and changing habit with one of the Workmen he was in that disguise conveyed to the House of one Mr. Haley at Bistrop in Nottinghamshire Leviston and the rest all quitted their Horses likewise and severally shifted for themselves The King being safely Landed in Normandy he went forthwith to Diepe where he provided himself with such necessaries as might serve him until he came to his Mother in the French Court who so soon as they heard of his safe arrival sent several Persons of Quality to meet him with great Pomp as became his Person who received him with much gladness and very much rejoyced at his safety conveying him to Paris in the Duke of Orleans his own Coach where he found such a welcom as his Person and Worth deserved and as great as that Court could express for the safety of their best Allie and by his Mother and the two Dukes with as great a joy as became them upon the receiving of him whom they once thought had been lost and perished These Complements being once over he pursued his interest in Holland by the mediation of his Sister the Princess of Orange and his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia indeavouring to prevail with them according to their former promises to undertake a War against the English Parliament which they accordingly did but being not able to cope with the Valour of the English nor prevail against that success which seemed to be entailed to the Rump in all their undertakings they were unsuccessful therein and it contributed very little toward the promoting of his designs The King being once again excluded out of all his Dominions they quickly after reduced Corn-Castle in the Isle of Guernsey the Isle of Man and all other places both in England Scotland and Ireland which stood out for him Which was no sooner done but there happened a strange alteration in the Scene of affairs in England for Cromwel whose ambition was now ripe knowing that he could not expect a fairer opportunity to Usurp that supreme Power which he had so long been aspiring too in regard every one began now to grow weary of the base actions of the Rump whose dilatory proceedings and apparent intentions of perpetuating themselves rendred them hateful to all Mankind he entred into their House attended by some of his principal Officers where having delivered divers reasons why he thought that Parliament ought to be Dissolved and a period put to its sitting He commanded them notwithstanding they were his Masters and from whom he derived his Commission immediately to depart which was done accordingly for how unwilling soever they were to obey yet it was now out of their Power to dispute his Authority so that those who had murthered one King and refused to restore a second were turned out of door and deprived of all Authority and Power by their own Servant Whereat the whole Nation rejoyced and scarce a Man grieved for their Dissolution but themselves every one believing that though the Nation might not peradventure be bettered by that change yet it was almost impossible it should be worse but however Cromwel fearing that some might be discontented with his Proceedings Published a large and specious Declaration shewing his Reasons for his Dissolving of them But his design being only to make himself great he did not intend to give relief by taking away the tyranny but by changing of it only and therefore instead of that Juncto which he pulled down set up another of his own arbitrary election who knowing before-hand what they had to do after having sate a while resigned up their power to him who resolving to make the best of that resignation pretended that the whole Supream Power and Authority of the three Kingdoms both Civil and Military was thereby in course devolved upon him and thereupon calling a Councel of Officers to consult about setling the Government they resolved after several debates to have a Common-wealth in a single person and that person should be Oliver Cromwel by the name and style of Lord Protector c. He at first seemingly refused the Dignity altho' it was the only thing he aimed at but being press'd by the Officers of the Army he consented to accept of it and was install'd with great pomp in the Chancery-Court at Westminster-hall and shortly after concluded a Peace with the Dutch He was afterward importuned by his Parliament to exchange his Title of Lord Protector for that of King which he refused and chose rather to continue the old The King when he came into France found that Court very much embroil'd on the account of some mis-understandings between the Prince of Conde and other Princes of the Blood and the Cardinal Mazarine which he undertook to compose urging his own danger to the King and advising him to beware how he provok'd his Subjects and urging the King's power to the Princes of the Blood whereby he unhappily drew upon himself the jealousies of both parties being suspected by the Cardinal to be for the Princes and by them to take part with him against their interest which they were the more induced to believe because he withdrew the
defence the French Marquess finding himself over-match'd by their Reasons in great passion return'd without the success suspected at the Palace-Royal where the French Queen stayed very late till he came back whose Report when both Queen 's heard they were then so fully satisfied in the Duke's firmness to his Religion that after that time no considerable attempt was made on him altho' he continued for near two Months there being nobly entertained all that time by the Lord Hatton until through his and the Marquess of Ormond's interest Necessaries were provided for his going into Germany to the King From the interview of the Queen of Sweden which was held at a small Village near Frankford at the same time when the Fair was there he returned with great satisfaction to Cologn where he was welcomed with all imaginable demonstrations of Joy by the Magistrates and the whole City where he had not staid long before the Duke of York came to him being complemented away from France upon the conclusion of the Treaty with Cromwel notwithstanding his incomparable worth discovered in the Court and in the Camp where he behaved himself so well that the Duke of Longueville was willing to have match'd his Daughter to him altho' he was in exile and the Marshal Turein commended him in the time of his sickness to the French King as the fittest person to be Commander in chief of all his Forces And so desirable was his company â—â—ong all Princes that Don Lewis de 〈◊〉 and Don John of Austria mighâ—y importun'd him to come over to â—â—em in Flanders which invitation he â—â—cepted of and he repaired thither 〈◊〉 to promote his own cause and 〈◊〉 King of Spains affairs in order â—â—reunto he commanded all his â—â—glish Scotch and Irish Subjects in those â—â—rts to be listed for his Service which â—â—ounted to about three or four thouâ—â—â—d besides the two Regiments of 〈◊〉 and Glocester and maintained a â—â—â—nstant correspondence with his â—â—iends in England which Cromwel susâ—â—cted but had no certain knowledge â—â—ereof having now no Mannings in the â—â—ngs Court to betray his Majesties seâ—â—ets wherefore he contrived a Plot â—o which by his Emissaries he ensnaâ—â—d the reverend Dr. Huet Sir Henry 〈◊〉 and others and had them tryed â—â—fore a High Court of Justice and â—â—ndemned and executed for that preâ—â—ded Conspiracy But though he â—as represented to the City by Cromwel 〈◊〉 be twenty thousand strong when he â—as acquainting them with the pretenâ—â—nded Plot against him yet he was not able to attempt any thing upon 〈◊〉 own account in regard his Forces weâ—â— but inconsiderable for number 〈◊〉 therefore he joyned them with tâ—â— Spaniards and at one attempt to 〈◊〉 the Siege of Dunkirk were defeate and almost all slain being deserted 〈◊〉 the Spaniards who were not able to eâ—dure the hot charge that Cromwels Sâ—â—diers gave them notwithstanding 〈◊〉 endeavours of the undaunted York 〈◊〉 rally them who did Wondâ—â— with his own Regiment putting 〈◊〉 whole French and English Army oâ— to a disorder and twice to a stand 〈◊〉 his own Guard only and some 〈◊〉 remnant of his overthrown Forces 〈◊〉 which defeat the Kings whole desiâ—â— being disappointed he betook himâ—â— from his Arms to his Prayers and aâ—pealed from Earth to Heaven Hoâ—ever he still remained in Flanders 〈◊〉 kept his Court in Bruges about 〈◊〉 Leagues from Brussels About this 〈◊〉 Cromwel being resolved to continue 〈◊〉 Protectorship in his own Family 〈◊〉 the matter so that his Parliamâ—â—â— should earnestly Petition solemnly â—â—vise him to name his Successor 〈◊〉 was the thing he chiefly desired notwithstanding all his former Oaths and Protestations against suffering the Nation to be rul'd by any single Person which when the King heard he said to a Person of quality who was then by him that Cromwell had certainly lay'd the best Foundation that a short and troublesom reign could possibly admit of at once to deprive him of his just and rightful Dominions and to settle his own Posterity in his unjust and usurpt Authority And when he receiv'd the news of his death he shew'd an admirable calmness and serenity of Spirit Reason Religion and Discretion having such a powerful command over his passions that though it seem'd in all probability to be a considerable step toward his Restauration in regard his most implacable as well as successful Enemy was now gone yet he did not discover any extraordinary symptoms of Joy But as that great alteration in England did change all the publick Councels of Europe in general so did it likewise somewhat alter his for he now set up new negotiations in most of the forraign Courts that so he might not be wanting to himself whilst there were the most hopeful designs that had ever yet been on foot in England for the promoting his Journeys The new Protector being look't upon as one weary of that power which was then desolv'd upon him in regard he knew himself to have as little ability to manage it as he had right to enjoy it and was suppos'd not to have that implacable aversation to the Royal Family which his Father had always discover'd However it was not long before the Army thrust him from his Throne and set up the Rump again which his Father had pull'd down after which there were so many alterations and new forms of Government that it is almost impossible to give the World a particular account of them every Week almost producing some new Model or other and there springing up some new Heads of that Hydra-Common-Wealth The King was not in the mean time idle but laid out all his Interest and Policy for the promoting his designs and the procuring such supplies as might encourage those Loyal Subjects that incessantly endeavour'd by his Restauration to restore their Native Countrey from the Paws of those Lions into which it was fallen and themselves to the Glorious Liberty of being â—â—bject to so great and good a Prince 〈◊〉 although Holland offered fairly 〈◊〉 some Princes with the Emperor of â—â—rmany began now to pity forlorn â—â—d exiled Majesty especially dwelling 〈◊〉 a Prince of that worth as he was acâ—â—unted to be by all those who had 〈◊〉 happiness to know him yet the â—â—eatest hope and expectation from any 〈◊〉 those Forraign Affairs was the peace â—â—at was then mediating by the Pope beâ—â—een the two Kingdoms of France and â—â—ain managed by the two great Faâ—â—urites of each Kingdom the Cardiâ—â—l Mazarine and the Count de Olivarez â—â—on the Borders of St. Jean de Luz â—hich if it succeed must in all probaâ—â—lity prove advantageous to his affairs 〈◊〉 regard both Crowns could not upon â—â—e conclusion of peace between them â—estow their Forces upon any service â—â—at would render more to their honour â—â—an that of endeavouring his Restauâ—â—tion although he rather desired to â—mploy their Interest than their Arms 〈◊〉 intended to let England know what â—â—ey might do for him rather then to â—ake them feel the effects of any
John Owen and Sir Thomas Midleton who declared their just sence of the grievances of that Commonwealth whereof they were Members and their resolution to have the Laws Liberties and Properties of the People establisht by a free Parliament which was all that was intended at that time by those commissioned by his Majesty in regard designs were to be discover'd gradually and by peice meals only as occasion and opportunity should require Notwithstanding the Rump had prevented most of those designed insurrections yet that of Sir George Booth who was one of their secluded Members appeared very formidable wherefore they resolve with all imaginable Speed to suppress it and in order thereunto having first proclaimed Sir Thomas Booth Sir Thomas Middleton Coll. Warren and Major General Egerton and all the rest of their Adherents Traytors to the Commonwealth they commanded Lambert to march with three Regiments of Horse the like number of Foot and some Dragoons to reduce him and his Forces to their obedience ordering some militia Forces and some Regiments out of Ireland under Zaachy and Axtell to joyn with him for his assistance therein Coll. Desbrough being likewise sent by them with the same command and some Forces into the West to redeem Midleton and a Proclamation issued out against Mordant the Earl of Lichfield Major General Brown and William Compton Sir Thomas Levinthorp and Mr. Fensher the three last wherof surrendring themselves within the time prefixt therein the two first fled and the major General waiting another opportunity absconded himself at Stationers Hall where he was preserved by the faithful Secrecy of Captain Barrough And the Earl of Samford who was likewise engaged in that business was taken at his own house in Arms and carryed Prisoner to Lester which was at that time the condition of many other Loyal Gentlemen the Earle of Oxford being committed Prisoner to the Serjeant at Arms the Lords Faulkland and Dellaneer to the Tower whither not long after was brought the Lords Faulconbridge Bellasis Chesterfield Castleton and Howard Lambert in his march toward the confines of Chester made no very great haste being desirous to make a lasting war of it whereby he hoped to settle himself the better in the affections of the Soldiers and thereby tread the step that Cromwel had done before him however such methods were taken by his Masters that very few accessions of Strength came in to Sir George more then what were at first numbred who nevertheless bravely resolved to abide the fortune of battel and justifie the equity of their cause by the dint of Sword In order thereunto they drew up near Nantwich whether Lambert was advancing in the adjoyning meadows having the Rivers before them and the Bridges strongly guarded but Lamberts Horse and Foot resolutely faling on together at the Bridge the post was soon gained and the fight as quickly over the chief defence being made by Memorgan a loyal and valiant Gentleman who with some Horse of his Troop who presently died of his wounds There were in the flight about 3 hundred killed and five hundred taken prisoners among whom was most of the Gentlemen and Officers Lambert having obtained this victory presently advanced with his Army to Cheshire where Collonel Croxton still held out the Castle and had it presently delivered from whence he advanced to Liverpool which was yielded likewise by Coll Ireland and so was Chink and Harding Castles whereby that whole design perished and came to nothing Sir George himself had made his escape out of the Field and got away accompanied with four of his Servants only in disguise but being discovered at his Inn in Newport-pannel was taken and secured One Gibbons who immediately posted away to give the Rump an account of it was highly rewarded for that acceptable news and so were two or three others who were sent before from Lambert with the particulars of the Cheshire defeat when he was brought up to London Fleetwood was ordered to meet him with a guard at High-gate secure him to the Tower where he was the next day examined by Vane and Hazâ—erick as to his design and accomplices bâ—t such was his reservedness and resolution that notwithstanding their suspicion that the restoring of the King was at the bottom of it in regard Monk was said to be privately engaged with him in the same design Ormond being reported to have been seen about that time at his House at Dalkeith that they could get nothing out of him When this design was about to be put in execution the King withdrew himself privately from Brussels and lay privately upon the coast of Brittany about St. Malloes to take shipping for England upon the first good event of those loyal undertakings of his faithful Friends and Subjects Kent or Essex being designed for the place of his landing one Turene the French General having engaged to wait upon him if he would command it but the news of this unhappy defeat reaching his Royal Ears which had been too long accustomed to such unfortunate and unsuccesful stories he returned again to Brussels resolving for the present to give over the prosecuting of his Right by the sword and attend the good effects of the Treaty between France and Spain But being informed that affairs in England were as unsetled as before and that the Rump and the Army wholly applied themselves to undermine and subvert each other he would not wholly desist from attempting to carry on his interest there by the help and assistance of his Friends And therefore wisely considering that Monk who was then General in Scotland had formerly been in his Fathers Service wherein he was taken Prisoner and was thought to embrace the Parliament interest only because his Ransom was neglected and that during the whole time of his serving under them and the Protector he had not discovered any particular Spleen or Malice to his Person but had in all things carried himself as a Soldier of Fortune only who fought for his pay he conceived there might be some probable hopes of gaining him to his side if a dexterous application was made to him in regard he had not that guilt which others had contracted either by murdering of his Father or the malignity they had discovered against himself to render him jealous and suspicious of him And therefore resolving as near as possible to make use of the most peaceable and bloodless means to recover his lost Dominions he ordered Sir John Greenvile who was one of those Commissioners that resided at London for his service to find out some way to treat secretly with him But before Sir John would proceed therein he thought it convenient to inform him by whom and in what manner he had designed to do it which he did in a Letter written in Cyphers and directed to Sir Edward Hide at Brussels with whom only he was by the Kings order to correspond wherein he proposed the sending of Mr. Nicholas Monk who was Minister of his own Parrish
and hearty thanks for the same and to assure him of their Loyalty and Duty And that they would give him a speedy Answer to his gracious Proposals Resolving moreover that the sum of 50000 l. should be presented him from that House and 10000 l. to each of his Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Glocester Which Resolves were no sooner reported in London then the Citizens were extreamly transported with Joy The harmony of Bells and the flaming Piles which enlighted every Street surrounded with incredible Shouts and Acclamations being sufficient demonstrations of the infinite Pleasure and Satisfaction which every one took in that no less strange than happy Revolution And the several Countries taking Allarm from London contended which should outvy the other in expressions of Loyalty and Joy And General Mountague having communicated to the Fleet the Letters he received from the King and the Duke of York together with those directed to the Parliament they unanimously declared their Resolution to adhere to him and to live and die in his defence humbly desiring the Generals to present the same to the King whereupon Mountague himself immediately fired a Gun crying God bless His Majesty and the whole Fleet. Thereupon presently appeared in its pride and glory with Pendants loose Guns roaring Caps flying and Vive le Roys loudly ecchoing from one Ships Company to another which were answered by the great Guns from Dale and Sandwich Castles nor was this Joy confined to England but spread it self into Scotland and Ireland also And now the Parliament longing for the King's presence amongst them as the Israelites did for the return of King David drew up a Letter in answer to that which they had receiv'd from him superscribing it to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty wherein they requested his speedy return to the exercise of his Kingly Office appointing Commissioners to go over to Holland and attend him during his stay there and in his Voyage for England There being six appointed for the House of Lords and twelve for the House of Commons to which upon the Request of the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London was added twenty on the behalf of that City who having receiv'd their Instructions set sail for Holland with several Frigots appointed by the Parliament to attend them the whole Fleet being likewise committed to the King's pleasure the General whereof had Orders from the Parliament to obey such Orders and Directions as he should receive from His Majesty The Commissioners upon their arrival at Breda delivered their respective Messages with all imaginable reverence and veneration according to the Instructions they had received from their Principals beseeching His Majesty in the name of his Parliament and People to return to his Inheritance and re-assume his Crown and Scepter assuring him that he should be infinitely welcome to them without any Tearms which Invitation was gladly accepted and the Commissioners were received by him with a Grace and Port like himself and entertain'd with extraordinary Magnificence and Bounty The Parliament in the mean time proceeded to the Proclaiming of him which was perform'd with all that Joy Splendor and Magnificence that their Loyalty could inspire the Lord General attended by all the Peers the most Eminent of the Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with the Trained Bands of London assisting at the Ceremony The Proclamation being as followeth viz. Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties 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 testify 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 Soveraign King Charles the First 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 the Second 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 Undoubted King and thereunto we Most Humbly and Faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever At the reading whereof the whole City rang with the Sound of God Save and God Bless King Charles the Second the Shouts and Acclamations of the crowding multitudes being so extraordinary that although all the Bells throughout the City and Suburbs were then Ringing their Noise was not to be heard The King having now by his extraordinary Wisdom and Conduct thus happily contriv'd his return to his Crown and Kingdom without the spilling of his Subjects Blood and having brought his Affairs to their desired Issue prepared to leave Holland and after so long and tedious an Exile returned to his Harass'd and almost ruined Realms being upon his departure Splendidly Treated by the Dutch for a Fortnight together with all the Pomp and Magnificence imaginable and presented with the Richest Bed and Furniture together with Tapestry for Hangings Embossed with Gold and Silver and adorned with Pictures that could be procured and Highly Complemented by all the Forreign Ministers then Resident there For these Noble Entertainments which together with the Present of the Dutch about one hundred Thousand Pounds he gave the States General and those of Holland his Hearty Thanks in their Publick Assemblies whither he went on Foot and having taken his leave of them and commended to them the interest of his Sister and his Nephew the Prince of Orange they delivered their sence of the present circumstance of Affairs and declared the greatness of that joy they conceived for his Miraculous Restauration in the following Speech If one may judge of the content which we have to see your Majesty depart from our Province by the satisfaction we had to possess you we shall have no great trouble to make it known to you your Majesty might have observed in the countenance of all our People the Joy they had in their Hearts to see a Prince cherished of God a Prince wholly miraculous and a Prince that is probable to make a part of their quietness and felicity your Majesty shall see presently all the Streets filled all the ways covered and all the Hills loaden with People which will
Judicial proceedings And then he return'd to White-Hall where he chose the Lords of his Privy Council amongst whom were several of the long Parliament that had given sufficient Testimony of their sincere repentance and their resolution to be Loyal for the future and he appointed Judges for the Benches and Courts of Judicature Several Addresses were likewise made to him from the Nobility and Gentry of all the Countreys in England wherein they congratulated his Restitution to his Crown and Kingdom assuring him of their exceeding Joy and willingness to maintain his Royal Person and Authority Divers persons that had been eminent for their service and affection to him were about that time also dignified with the honour of Knighthood And several men guilty of his Fathers murder having made their escape beyond-Sea a Proclamation was Issued forth wherein all those persons who had â—ate gave Judgment or any way assisted in that horrid and detestable fact were commanded to surrender themselves within fourteen days to the Speaker or Speakers of Parliament to the Lord Mayor of London or the Sheriff of that County wherein they then resided forbidding all persons to conceal or harbour them under misprision of Treason whereupon divers submitted themselves and were secur'd in the Tower The Commons in drawing up the Act of Oblivion order'd that some others besides those who had actually sate in Judgment upon the late King should be excepted out of it viz. Broughton Phelps Cook Dâ—nby and Hugh Peters which so affrighted others who had a hand in that execrable murder that Col. John Hutchinson a Member of that Parliament and Coll. Frâ— Lussels presented their Petition to them wherein they confest their guilt and declar'd the artifices which were us'd to draw them in by which submission they obtain'd pardon upon some small forfeitures only But Peters being shortly after taken in Southwark was clapt up into the Tower And the Parliament not looking upon themselves nor the people of England free from the guilt nor safe from the punishment which in those unhappy times they had contracted unless they laid hold of the Kings offer of Grace in his Declaration from Breda did therefore resolv'd in a full house that they did in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England lay hold on the gracious pardon mention'd in that Declaration with reference to the exclusion of such as should be excepted in an Act of Pardon and they order'd a Declaration that their Resolution should be drawn up which was done accordingly and presented to the King by Denzell afterward Lord Hollis some of the most eminent in Office under the late Usurpers having in the mean while to make sure of that Grace gotten their particular pardons exemplified under the great Seal of England To prevent which trouble the King was more than ordinary pressing for the speedy passing the Act of Oblivion taking care to express his grateful sentiments of the Loyalty and services of several Illustrious personages that were principally instrumental in accomplishing his Restauration by dignifying them with Places and Titles of honour And to shew how highly the Generals Loyalty had advanc'd him in his good Opinion he was dignifi'd by him with the Titles of Duke of Albemarle Earl of Torrington and Baron of Potheridge Beauchamp Teyes had his Temples deserv'dly incircl'd with a Ducal Coronet by the hand of his Majesty being thereby invested with the right of Peerage in all the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he had preferr'd before his own and therefore now most deservingly shar'd with them therein by his Investure in those Dignities which were compleated on the 13th of the following July by his taking his place in the House of Lords being attended by the Commons and introduc'd by the Duke of Buckingham Montague was made Earl of Sandwich Ormond Earl of Brecknock and Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain Manchester L. Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold Southhampton Lord High Treasurer Greenvile Earl of Bath and Groom of the Stole Sir Frederick Cornwallis Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old grant and Sir John Berkley Controller Divers rich Presents were now made to him from the several Cities and Burroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and the resignation of several Feefarm Rents which had been purchas'd from the Usurpers the City of London among the rest with a Complement of their good Stewardship rendred their grant of new Perk in Surrey and all the Rents accruing at Michaelmas Day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Crown and Church Laws to the utter disappointing of their unjust and covetous expectations from such base and unwarrantable Penny-worths A Peace was now made Proclaim'd between us and Spain and a Splendid Embassy dispatcht from Denmark to congratulate his happy Restauratian The Court of Soissons who had Married Cardinal Mazarines Neece being sent from the French King on the same Errand entring London with all the sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence imaginable and there was no Prince nor State in Europe but what sent an Embassador thither to congratulate him upon that happy and wonderful occasion And the Parliament having after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finish'd the long desir'd Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent even to the regret of many injur'd Loyalists who found no better Argument to perswade their acquiescing therein than their unchangeable Loyalty to the King whose special Act that was There were no more excepted out of it but only the Regicides and Murderers of the late King only Lambert Vane and twenty more were thereby reserv'd to such forfeitures as should be afterward declar'd by Parliament the principal whereof was Hazelrick St. John Lenthal the Speaker Philip Nye Burton of Tarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major Generals of the Army among whom was Desbrough Pine Butler Ireton c. They likewise past an Act for the perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May which was the day both of his Birth and Restauration and therefore deserv'd a perpetual memorial and to be made by a Parliamentary Canonization the most auspicious in the English Kallender to both which he gave his Royal assent and shortly after at their adjournment to another for disbanding the Army and paying off the Navy which although they once threatned us with a perpetuating our slavery yet were now forc'd by the happy conjunction of his Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness after many models to submit to its last desolation And the Commons having after the passing of their Bills acquainted him that they had nothing more to ask or offer at that time but that if his Majesties occasions would permit they might adjourn and go into their own Countries where they should endeavour to make his subjects sensible of their extraordinary happiness in having such a King to Rule and Govern them He consented to it telling
Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle which was performed with abundance of splendor at Colchester the place which they had bravely defended for him and where they were at its Reduction basely shot to death all the Gentry of those Parts together with the Townesmen in Armes and Mourning attending their Hearses As he had done a little before for the Earl of Montross in Scotland Count Coningsmark who was sent hither from the Young King and Queen of Sweden being upon his departure another more splendid Embassy was sent from thence at whose Reception near the Tower a Fray or Conflict happened between the French and Spanish Ambassadors upon a Quarrel for Precedency whose Coach should follow next after that wherein the Swedish Ambassador rode Both Parties came prepared for the Encounter but the French were basely worsted and seven or eight of them slain which was like to have proved the ground of a new War between those Crowns the French King sending a Messenger to Madrid to demand satisfaction But at the entreaty of the new married Queen and the Spanish King consenting that the French Ambassador should for the time to come have the Precedency upon such occasions the difference was composed Now also several Prisoners in the Tower Regicides and others were by reason of the unwearied Practices of their Parties abroad sent to several remote Castles and Islands for securing the Peace The adjournment being expired the Parliament met again on the 20th of November when the Lords Spiritual the Bishops by vertue of the Act of Repeal made in the former Session took their places again in Parliament which the King was very much pleased to behold and in his Speech to both Houses did Congratulate with them for their enjoyment of their former priviledges as a Felicity he had much desired to see accomplisht in that goodly restored and re-establisht Fabrick of the Government and the Regicides that came in upon Proclamation and were upon that account respited after Sentence to the Pleasure of the Parliament being brought to the Bar of the House of Lords and demanded what they had to say Why Judgment should not pass upon them according to Sentence pleaded the Proclamation Harry Martyn adding that he never obeyed any Proclamation before and therefore hoped he should not be then hanged for taking the Kings word whereupon they were remanded back again to the Tower till further Order Ireland having been hitherto governed by three Lords Justices The Duke of Ormond having been a faithful Servant and constant Attender upon the King in all his Troubles was now nominated Deputy of that Kingdom and Episcopacy after it had been so long banished out of Scotland and so many Miseries and Confusions had befallen that Kingdom through the Fury and Zeal of the Kirke was reduced with all gladness and sufficient testimonies of a welcome reception the four Bishops that had been a little before Consecrated at Lambeth restored whereof Dr. James Sharpe Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of Scotland was one who Consecrated others in that Kingdom the whole Order being defunct by the long Usurpation of the Presbyterian Discipline A Fleet was at this time sent to fetch home the Queen from Portugal and carry Forces to Garrison Tangier which being part of the Queens Dowry was delivered by them to Sir Richard Stayner who with Five Hundred Men had taken possession of it in his Masters behalf and was to maintain it till the Earl of Peterborough who was nominated for Governour should arrive and the King supposing her to be by this time at Sea on her way for England acquainted the Parliament therewith and desired that as a Complement to her they would cause the Streets and High-wayes of London to be fitted and cleansed against Her Reception This Royal Bride seems to have been fitted and predisposed by Heaven for his Princely Embraces for besides being designed for him by her Father in the beginning of the late Troubles her Family had suffered a long Eclipse by the interposition of the Spanish Monarchy for the space of near one hundred Years and had now newly recovered its Splendor by her Fathers assuming the Crown which was almost as miraculous a Revolution and as strange a turn of Providence as that of our Captivity by his recovery of his Dominions On the 14th of May She arrived safe at Portsmouth in the Charles which had brought the King over to England after a tedious and dangerous Voyage the joy whereof served to alleviate the grief and wipe away the Tears occasioned by the death of his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia who died a little before having lived to survive all the Misfortunes of her Family which almost from the very time of Her Marriage in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twelve had fallen very thick upon it Her death was followed with a most violent and Tempestuous Wind whereby divers Persons were killed and much damage done as well in Forraign parts as in these Kingdoms as if Heaven had designed thereby to intimate to the World that those Troubles and Calamities suffered by that Princess and the Royal Family and by which most parts of Europe had been tempested were now all blown over and was like her to rest in a perpetual Repose Several Bills which were ready for His Royal Assent detained him at White-Hall somewhat longer then he was willing had their weight and tendency been of less importance but in regard their being past into Acts would set the Nation right where it was before the Troubles began by providing remedies against those mischiefs which had then unhinged the Kingdoms happiness such as the Forbidding armed or tumultuary Petitions and ordering that not above Twelve shall resort together at any time to deliver Petitions to the King whereby they provided so far as Humane Wisdom could foresee against the like dangers by insensible degrees brought upon the Nation in the late Confusions But having once signed those Acts and thereby furnisht his Subjects with so many good and wholsome Laws as no Age of our fore-Fathers could ever boast of he posted away to Portsmouth having sent the Bishop of London thither before Him who was to consummate the Sacred Rights of Marriage which was performed in private and the Queen Conducted soon after by Him to Hampton-Court and from thence to London in great Pomp and Splendour The Parliament of Ireland having about that time for the better defraying his necessary Charge given him a subsidy of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds to be raised in two Years The Affrican Potentates alarumed by the Arrival of the English and terrified by the Fame of those Warlike and Martial Atchievements began to fear that if they suffered them quietly to possess Tangier they should thereby give them incouragement to incroach farther upon them which consideration drew thither Gayland a War-like Prince but then a Rebel against the Emperour of Fez and Morocco having usurpt part of his Dominions who continued there
be the better able to entertain War when they had made provisions for it And he being sensible of their drift therein thought it not convenient for him to be altogether idle and therefore resolved so to order his Affairs as to be in as good a readiness as they whensoever the War should commence To which end he required the City to lend him One Hundred Thousand Pound referring them to the Lord Treasurer for Terms of Repayment which Request was receiv'd with such a dutiful compliance by the Common-Council that it was presently granted thereby acquitting themselves at once both in point of Loyalty and Prudence by serving the KINGS present Necessity and providing for their own future Safety This Money he imploy'd in fitting out two considerable Fleets and intending to employ Sir John Lawson who then blockt up Argier and some of the Ships under his Command therein he commanded his Return for England Captain Allen being ordered to succeed him there who brought these Pirates into such distress that shortly after they were forc'd to accept of Peace upon terms advantageous enough for England The Dutch Embassadour propounding such conditions as were not to be accepted he sent back Sir George Downing thither with full Instructions how to behave himself towards them who had upon his Arrival several Conferences with the States about Satisfaction for Damages received but could not prevail with them to return a positive Answer to any thing he propounded nor come to any terms of Agreement which they were the more willing to delay in regard they expected the speedy Arrival of a vast Treasure in several great Fleets of Merchants Ships But this being not unknown to him and he being a Prince that well enough understood how strong the Nerve of War Money was resolved to way-lay those vast Masses of Wealth as they past homeward through his own Channel especially being informed by secret Intelligence that they were resolved in contempt of his Power to send their Guiney Preparations by Sea and that Opdam should convey them through the Channel To which end and purpose that he might be before-hand with them in their preparations he endeavoured with all imaginable speed and diligence to make his Navy ready not sparing to oversee and order things with indefatigable paines and industry in his own Royal Person which was abundantly answered by the success For such was the Alacrity of his Subjects when they saw him continually Travelling from place to place to forward the work and see all things effectually and speedily performed encouraging them by his Presence that the City at the very first mention of it by the Earl of Manchester Chamberlain of His Household supplyed him with a second Loan of One Hundred Thousand Pounds By which means while the Dutch flattered themselves with suppositions of his want of Men and Money and his being broken with the Calamities of the Raging Pestilence which hapned about this time and was the severest that ever was known in England they were only forced to look on and with Envy behold his Vigorous preparations and see the Sea covered with such a Magnificent Navy as the Ocean had scarcely ever supported in any former Age. However having duely considered the dangers of the Northern passage they seemingly laid aside all thoughts of going about by Scotland and continued firm to their former Resolution of forcing their passage though the Channel In order whereunto having Re-victualled Opdams Fleet they commanded him to hasten to Sea with the first Wind and conduct the Guiney-Succors through the Channel having ordered some other Ships from the Vlie and Texel to Joyn with him and sent a Galliot before to give notice to their Director General in Guinea of their Proceedings therein Which Resolution taken and carryed on with so much Vigour most men Imagin'd to have been extorted from them by the exigency of their present condition for they had scattered many base contempts upon the King and Subjects of England Nor was the Issue of that Bravado other than what their Fears presented For about the middle of October Prince Rupert appeared at the Spitt-Head with sixteen Saile of Ships who was not long after joyned by the Duke then Lord High Admiral of England and the Earl of Sandwich so that it was a matter of the greatest difficulty and hazard for them to unlock the narrow Seas And great dispute there was amongst them whether Opdam who lay with his Fleet in the Gore should adventure out or no but the Wind continuing cross put an end to that dispute and furnisht them with a plausible excuse for their not appearing at Sea upon so great disadvantages as they would in all probability have met withall However Prince Rupert kept the Sea with the English Fleet to attend their Motion and was rewarded by all or most of their Bourdeaux Fleet falling into his hands which with other Prizes taken that Year by the English amounted to about One Hundred Thirty Five There having been as yet no Publick Declaration of War on either side the King still continued to Treat for Peace with His Arms in His Hand and ordered Sir George Downing to press in the heat of all that preparation and action for satisfaction of Damages And finding that they were not like to be brought to such terms as he expected and knowing that it would mightily advance his Credit and strike Terror into his Enemies to be alway before hand with them he caused an Embargo to be laid upon their Ships with so much Secrecy that His Embassadour there had notice of it at least eight dayes before the States that so he might give secret Intelligence to the English and hasten their departure by which means when their Embargo came it found only two small inconsiderable Vessels and an Oyster Boat to seize And the King acquainting the Parliament which met in November how unkindly he had been Treated by the Dutch and what preparations he had thereupon made for War and telling them he had out of his own Credit set forth a Navy which he was sure would not decline meeting with all the Power of the Dutch for the Finishing where of he had borrowed so liberally out of his own stores and of the City of London that to discharge the one and replenish the other would require little less then Eight Hundred Thousand Pounds They to demonstrate their Love and Affection to their Soveraign and how hearty they were in their Resolutions to support His Honour and their Countries Rights against Forreign Encroachments gave him more then thrice that Summ in an Act Entituled An Act for granting a Royal Aide of Twenty four Thousand Threescore and Seventeen Thousand and Five Hundred Pounds And finding that the Dutch did but trifle with him in hopes of gaining time he resolved to forbear them no longer and therefore in the February following denounc'd War against them by a Publick Declaration prohibiting all Manufactures coming from thence and granting Letters of
Holland-Coast the alarum whereof brought back Bankert who had been about three Weeks at Sea with some of their Ships and caused them to make de Ruyter after his long expected arrival from the West Admiral of their Fleet. But the Bishop of Munster's Drums who then likewise threatned them with a War sounding in their Ears almost as terribly as the English Cannon made them order a flying Army to the Frontiers tho' with little satisfaction to the fearful Inhabitants who daily fled to the fortified Towns for their security In the mean while the English Fleet in three Squadrons sailed towards Norway and the Earl of Sandwich having notice that fifty Hollanders had sheltred themselves in Berghen sent a Squadron of twenty two Men of War under the Command of Tyddeman to attack and fire them in the Harbour which Enterprise had proved very fatal had not the Wind befriended them and the Dane permitted them to plant their Guns on shore against the resolute English however they received very great dammages and had many of their best Ships in that Harbour dissabled And the Earl himself meeting with a Convoy of theirs who had several Merchants and some East-India men in his Company attacked them with so much resolution that notwithstanding the storminess of the Weather did much favour them yet he took Eight of their Men of War two of their best East-India Ships and twenty Sail of their Merchants and some few days after the Fleet encountering with eighteen Sail of the Enemy took the greatest part of them with above one thousand Prisoners However the French King supposing the Ballance of Affairs not yet even enough and affecting a Sovereignty in the Mediterranean-Sea not only continued his friendship to them but in their behalf declared War likewise against England upon pretence of succouring them according to the Conditions of the Treaty in 1662 which Declaration the King who altho he was as great a lover of Peace as any Prince in the World yet being provoked would not be behind hand with his Enemies soon returned with the like denunciation of War against him protesting that he was resolved to prosecute that War against France with his utmost force by Land and Sea And it was admirable to behold the cheerfulness and alacrity wherewith the Maritine Countreys offered him their Service upon their first receiving his Orders to put themselves into a posture of defence but being unwilling to continue them under the trouble and charge of a needless Duty he dismiss'd them for the present and only ordered them to be ready if there was occasion The Pestilence being now pretty well abated he returned again to London where he was joyfully received and welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen about which time eight persons formerly Officers or Soldiers in the Rebellion were Indicted at the Old-Bayly for conspiring the Death of the King and the Alteration of the Government having in his absence from the City plotted the surprisal of the Tower killing the General Robinson and Brown and then according to their old levelling humour to have declared for an equal division of Lands The better to effect which Design of theirs the City was to have been fired the Portcullices to have been let down to keep out all assistance and the Horse-guards to have been surprised in their Quarters the Tower having been viewed by them and its surprisal ordered by Boats over the Moat and so to scale the Wall One Alexander was the chief Conspirator having distributed several Sums of Money amongst them and he told them for their encouragement of several great ones that sat continually in London and issued out all necessary Orders which Counsel he said received their Directions from another in Holland who sat with the States The third of September being found by a Scheme erected for that purpose a lucky Day a Planet then ruling whose direful effects portended the downfal of Monarchy was pitch'd upon for the Attempt They were found guilty of High Treason and executed at Tyburn Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle being made joynt Generals at Sea for that Summer's Expedition divided the Fleet the Prince commanding the blew Squadron wherewith he sailed toward France upon intimation that the French were hasting to joyn the Dutch Fleet and the Duke the other two who meeting the Hollanders on Friday about 4 or 5 Leagues from the North Foreland couragiously attacked them notwithstanding he had not above half their number bravely maintaining the Fight two days and part of the third when he had been hardly put to it had not the Prince hearing the Guns tacked about and made towards him Upon his approach de Ruyter sent out 30 stout Ships to intercept him and prevent his joyning the Duke but avoiding them he hastened forward and sent Albemarle word that if he liked the design he would keep the wind of them and engage the 30 Ships de Ruyter had sent against him but the Duke not liking his purpose advised him rather to joyn the Fleet which he did and the approaching night soon after put an end to their farther proceedings And the next morning so soon as it grew light they perceived the Dutch to be fled and gotten almost out of sight St. Georges Chanel having proved too dangerous and stormy for them but making all the sail they could they pursued them and the Prince with his fresh Squadron falling in with them with an undaunted courage and bravery pass'd five several times through the whole Body of their Fleet so that not able longer to endure it with all the sail they could make they began to run and sheltred themselves in their shallows But both Fleets having repaired their dammages got out to Sea again and meeting soon after begun a second Engagement no less bloody than the former both sides fighting with all the Courage and Valour that could be expected from the most inveterate and enraged Enemies de Ruyter resolving to revenge his lost disgrace and recover if possible his lost honour and the Prince to maintain his former by obtaining a second Victory They began to fight about Nine in the Morning pouring Broad-sides upon each other with such fury that the roaring Canon seemed to outvy the Thunder and the Smoak clouded the Sun and rendred the Air more dark and dismal than was black Munday There might have been seen the Heads of some the Arms Leggs and Thighs of others shot off some divided in the middle with Chain-shot breathing out their last in anguish and pain or burning in Fired Ships whilst others exposed to the mercy of the Liquid Element implored pity from their very Enemies whom they intreated to save their Lives although with the loss of their Liberties But in the midst of all those deplorable miseries the survivers fought with as much resolution and fury as ever their Courage and Valour being rather heightned than daunted thereby For which Victories a solemn thanks giving was observed throughout the
according to his accustomed Wisdom foreseeing it would otherwise be impossible to have it uniform and decide the Controversies which would arise about dividing the Ground belonging to each House and oblige the Repairers to build with Brick or Stone provided an Act of Parliament for the setling all things in relation thereunto and the erecting a Court of Judicature to judge and determin all Differences that might arise between Party and Party prohibiting in the mean time the hasty building any publick Edifices and proclaiming a general Fast through England and Wales ordering the distresses of those who were ruined thereby to be then recommended to the Charity of all well-disposed persons and the Money so gathered to be afterward distributed by the hands of the Lord Mayor The Act was pass'd in the approaching Parliament wherein besides the provision for the building the Houses of Brick or Stone it was enacted That the most eminent Streets should be of a considerable breadth and those toward the Water-sides wide enough to render Passages convenient that a fair Wharf should be left all along the River's-side and no Houses built thereon but at a convenient distance appointed therein none whereof were to be inhabited by Dyers Brewers or Sugar-Bakers And that an exact Survey should be made of the Ruins for the satisfaction of particular Interests and a Model framed of the whole Building the better to understand if it were convenient for them to appoint any alterations therein And to shew his Pious Care for the Rebuilding of the Churches for the Service of God as well as Houses for his Subjects to dwell in he recommended that Work to the Charity and magnanimous Bounty of publick spirited Persons and for an encouragement to others promised to Rebuild the Custom-house and Enlarge it for the Benefit of Merchants at his own Charge which he afterward performed engaging to part with all his Right and Benefit arising from his own Lands within the City for the Publick Good and to remit the Duties arising from Hearth-Money to those who should Erect any New Buildings according to his Declaration for Seven Years And to demonstrate his Resolution to perform whatsoever he had promised in his Declaration commanded one Knight to be committed to Prison for presuming to Print certain Propositions for the Rebuilding the City with considerable Advantages to the Crown which were repugnant to his gracious Offers in that Declaration So that London being ashamed to lye longer smothered under Ashes when all those Provisions were made for its Resurrection was by Sir Jonas Moore according to the appointed Model first roused in Fleet-street and from that beginning grew so hastily towards a perfection that within the compass of a few years it outvyed all its ancient Glory and Splendour and appeared far more beautiful in its rise than its fall had rendred it abject and desolate But the burning of London was not the only unhappy Accident that fell out in that Year of Wonders for the Fire which had laid the City in Ashes threatned the Court with the like dissolation for having by the misfortune of a Candle falling into the straw violently seized upon the Horse-Guard in the Tilt-Yard over against White-Hall it burned down the North-West part of that Building but being so close under the King 's own eye it was by timely help in a little time mastered And at a place called Welbourn in Lincoln-shire after a prodigious Thunder with Hail-stones of a more than ordinary bigness there followed such a Storm and Tempest that its violence threw down most of the Houses to the ground tore up Trees by the Roots and dispersing several Ricks of Corn and Hay passed to the next Village called Willington where it threw down firm Houses and going forward to Nanby it fell so violently upon the Church that it dash'd the Spire in pieces and so tore and rent the Body of the Church that it almost levelled it with the ground And that Scotland might likewise bear a share in that Year's Calamities a Seditious Zeal having inspired some Malecontents with revenge against Sir James Turner for executing too vigorously as they pretended the Laws against them they committed an insolent Ryot upon his person taking him out of his Bed and carrying him naked into the Market-place where they were hardly restrained from cutting him in pieces which Tumult was first raised by a small and an inconsiderable Rabble but in a short time increased to a Body of One thousand six hundred Men who marching toward Edenburgh were encountred and defeated near Glencarn many of them being slain and more taken the Ring-leaders whereof were executed and most of the rest pardoned But in the midst of all these unhappy Distractions he did not neglect the making all necessary Preparations for carrying on and maintaining his War with Holland France and Denmark the latter whereof was now entered into a League offensive and defensive with the States of the Vnited Provinces upon pretence of the Assault made upon the Dutch in his Port of Berghen although he had the freedom of that Port frankly offered him by the King of Denmark himself at a time when he thought nothing of it and that in order to the doing those very Acts of Hostility wherewith he was then unjustly reproach'd by that King as he declared in his Declaration of War against Denmark published about that time And for a good Omen of his future success he not long after his Declaration of War received News that the Vice-Admiral of Denmark was taken by some of his Frigots upon the Coast of Scotland However the King of Sweden having become a Mediator for Peace between him and the States-General and prevailed with him to condescend thereunto and appoint Breda for the place of Treaty the Dutch notwithstanding busied themselves in making Preparations for continuing the War resolving to treat of Peace in a posture and condition to fight if it succeeded not and he not being ignorant of their intentions to make him spend that Summer in needless Expences for War and only keep himself upon his own guard But we having therefore but a small Fleet abroad the Dutch upon intimation thereof got out to Sea betimes and finding no Enemy to resist them made an attempt on Burnt Island but being beaten off with loss they next attempted the Fort of Sheerness which being then a place of small force was after a short but stout resistance abandoned by Sir Edward Spragg and so the Mouth of that narrow River was left open to them And being encouraged by this success they landed about three thousand men near Felton-Cliff and with two thousand of them adventured to make two Assaults upon Languard-Fort but were beaten off and forced to retire in such haste that they left their Scaling-Ladders behind them and had about one hundred and fifty slain upon the place the other thousand which were left behind the Cliff to secure their retreat being encountered by the Trained-bands
under the Command of the Earl of Suffolk a smart Skirmish pass'd between them and continued till Ten at Night when it was renewed again by the return of the beaten Companies from the Fort but the English Horse not being able to come up there was not that execution done upon them which otherwise might have been However the Dutch lik'd not that hot Service well enough to abide their coming but as soon as their Boats were afloat embarqued with all haste and returned to their Ships and sailing for the Humber they engaged a Squadron of the English which they found there but being worsted shewed themselves before Portsmouth and made some slight Attempts in Devonshire and Cornwall And after de Ruyter their Admiral had been civily treated in the West by the Earl of Bath and Sir Jonathan Trelawney and received advice that the Peace was concluded they sailed back for Holland This Peace was concluded at Breda upon the twenty first of June in the Year 1667. when the Articles were signed by the several Plenipotentiaries and upon the fourteenth of the following August the Ratifications thereof interchanged the Mediators first bringing the Ratifications and other Instrustruments of the Dutch French and Danes into the English Embassadors Lodgings and received theirs in exchange which done the English Embassadors went into the apartments of the Dutch and their Allies where they made and received the Complements usual in such cases and the Peace was thereupon immediately Proclaimed before the Doors of the several Plenipotentiaries and on the twenty fourth of that Month at the Exchange which was then kept at Gresham Colledge and other places in London But the Foundation of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil being about that time appointed to be laid the King was pleased to shew his readiness to countenance that Work by being present at and assisting in the solemnity thereof with his own Royal hands as his Brother the Duke of York did shortly after who laid the first stone of the second Pillar which Edifice was in a short time finished and is now the most curious Fabrick of that kind in the whole World About this time that wise and useful States-man and Privy-Counsellor Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon and Lord High-Chancellor of England who had always behaved himself with abundance of Loyalty and Faithfulness to his Master as well before as after his Restauration falling into disgrace with the Parliament was forced to abscond and leaving that Office which he had so long managed with advantage to the King and honour to himself retired into France where he lived in a voluntary Exile 'till he died A sort of idle and licentious Persons getting together in the Holy-days at Easter and pretending former custom took the liberty to pull down some Houses of bad repute about the Suburbs of London under the notion of Apprentices yet others being found guilty of it four of them were apprehended Tryed Condemned and Executed and two of their Heads set upon the Bridge for a terror to others Having dispatch'd the Earl of Carlile as his Embassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden with which King he always maintained a friendly correspondence he directed a Letter for the Earl when he was at Copenhagen on his way to Sweden to be by him delivered to the King of Denmark in answer to an obliging Letter he had a little before received from him which Letter of the King 's was so acceptable to the Dane that upon the Earl's request he immediately dispatch'd orders to all his Ports and Towns of commerce especially those in Norway for restoring the English to the same Freedom and Priviledges in Trading thither as they had before the War And the Earl upon his arrival in Sweden presented that King with the George worn by the Knights of the Garter and after his having been entertained in that Court with all imaginable respect upon his Masters account and dismiss'd with particular marks of the King of Sweden's favour and testimonies of the acceptableness of his Embassie he was upon his return home solemnly Installed in that Order at Windsor While the King was diverting himself this Summer with the Duke and others of his Nobles in the new Forrest in Hampshire he received the doleful tidings of his Mothers death at Columbe the thirty first of August she being nobly buried in the December following at St. Dennis And to close the publick affairs of this Year the restorer of the Crown to the King and happiness to the Kingdom George Duke of Albemarle and Lord General of all the Kings Land Forces exchanged his temporary Coronet for an Eternal Crown and the King as a mark of Gratitude to the Father sent his Garter to his Son and Successor the present Duke of Albemarle whom he continued in many of his Honours and Preferments promising withall that himself would take care of his Fathers Funeral which he accordingly did and after he had publickly lain in State at Somerset-House for some time caused his Funeral to be solemnized with that Pomp and Splendor that it is verily believed no Subject was ever honoured with the like In the following Spring the King having a great desire to unite Scotland and England into one Kingdom endeavoured to have it accomplish'd by procuring an Act of Parliament in order thereunto and nominating Commissioners for each Kingdom to meet and treat about it But they not being able to agree it was wholly laid aside and came to nothing The King's Wisdom and Conduct being famed throughout all parts of the World like a second Solomon drew to his Court several Foreign Princes to see and admire him And about this time the Prince of Tuscany came upon the same Errand and was by him treated both at London and Windsor with great Respect and Splendour and by several of his Nobles in his Progress through England the chief Cities whereof he was desirous to take a view of after which he departed for Holland and so returned into his own Countrey where not long after besides his splendid Entertainment of the Earl of Northumberland in acknowledgment of the King's Kindness and Affection express'd to him when in England he built and gave to the King two very stout Galleys for a guard of the Coast about Tangier which were of great importance to his Service in those parts But altho' the King was well pleased with this Princes visit yet he shortly after received a more welcome one from his Sister the Dutchess of Orleans who came to Dover to pay him her last Visit and was there entertained by him with as much Affection and Bounty as the time of her stay which was but short would permit Nor was her stay in this World much longer for soon after her return she died suddenly to his unexpressible grief The King being now at peace at home employed his Naval Forces against the Algerines a People that never keep Peace longer than till they can have an opportunity to break
it and they having taken some of our Merchants Ships Sir Thomas Allen was sent to revenge the Injury who coming before the Town they desired a Treaty offering to make restitution of what Money they had taken from an English Ship bound for the East-Indies but not agreeing to some other Demands he resolved to beat them into a complyance and having seized a Barque loaden with Corn and a Brigantine which rowed in the Harbour in view of the Town departed to Tripoly the Bassa of which place sent him an assurance of his readiness and resolution to preserve a Peace and continue a good Correspondence with his Master And the Hampshire Portsmouth Jersey and Centurion Frigots under the Command of Captain Beach not long after meeting with Seven of the Algerines notwithstanding the least of them had Thirty eight Guns and were all full of Men forced them to run their Ships on shore which were all burned two by themselves and the rest by the English in which Action most of their Men were lost and Two hundred and fifty Christian Captives redeemed But Sir Thomas Allen after having made many Attempts upon those Pyrates whose Cowardize still shun the Fight returned home and left Sir Edward Spragg to Command in his room who meeting with Nine of their Men of War and three Merchantmen near Bugia they retired upon his appearance under the shelter of the Castle and put themselves into the best posture of defence but Spragg in the mean time attacked them with so much Valour and Success that he set most of them on fire and those which escaped the flame fell into his hands and were made Prizes of And to compleat the Victory Captain Beach brought him another Ship which he had newly taken of Forty Guns and Three hundred and fifty men So that Spragg believing that this Loss might dispose the Algerines to accept of Terms of Peace made a speedy return to his station before that Port whereupon constrained by necessity they concluded a Peace as honourable and advantagious as any we ever had with those Rovers About this time a strange and odd kind of Action happened which for its unusualness was the matter of much wonder and discourse For one Thomas Bloud commonly called Captain Bloud being discontented upon pretence of an Estate detained from him in Ireland and having a little before with five persons in his company armed and mounted seized the Duke of Ormond as he was going home between St. James's and Clarendon-house forcing him out of his Coach and attempting to have carried him away had he not been rescued by others coming in to his assistance a Fact which rendred him not more bold in the undertaking than the Duke memorable in forgiving But not being able to carry off the Duke he next adventured to attempt the Crown In order whereunto he coming to the Keeper of the Jewel-house and desiring to see the Crown and Jewels which being shewed him he gratified the Keeper more liberally than it was usual for others to do in such cases telling him that he had some Friends who were very desirous to see them and that he would bring them the next Morning Accordingly he came with three others with him and the old Gentleman being prepared by Bloud 's liberality gave them a ready admittance into the Jewel-house but their design being to take and not to see they gagg'd and secured the Keeper and then putting the Crown and Ball into two Baggs which they brought with them for that purpose fairly walked away and had certainly carried them off having pass'd most of the Centinels with them had not the Keeper's Son-in-law accidentally came by and seeing the condition his Father lay in run out hastily and cryed to the Guards to stop them Whereupon fear making them to mend their pace they became the means of their own discovery and being thereupon suspected and commanded to stand they fired a Pistol at the Centinel but others coming in to his assistance two of them were seized and carried to White-Hall and after examination sent Prisoners to the Tower where they had committed that bold Attempt The King now finding himself at leisure resolved to look after the condition of his Western Sea-port Towns and spend the Summer in a kind of Sea-Progress For going first to Portsmouth he went in his Yacht to the Isle of Wight and took a view of most of the considerable Ports in that Island from whence he returned to Hurst-Castle and from thence to Corfe-Castle and having viewed and taken order for the furnishing those places with all necessary Provisions returned again to Portsmouth and from thence attended with five Frigots sailed to Dartmouth Plymouth and other places in those parts knowing that according to the ancient Proverb the Master's eye quickens the Servant's diligence Notwithstanding the many Losses sustained by the Dutch in their former War with England and the difficulty they met withal in attaining a Peace yet they took no care to preserve it but by new Affronts laid a foundation for a second War and therefore the King having long concealed his just Displeasure against them resolved now to let them know his ill Resentments of their unworthy Dealings towards him Pursuant to which he declared in the following Spring That seeing his Neighbours were making great Preparations both by Sea and Land He thought himself obliged to appear in such a posture as might best secure his own Government and his Peoples peace to make such Preparations as should be answerable to the preservation of both which could not be done without fitting out a considerable Fleet against the approaching Spring In order whereunto Money being at that time wanting he was forced to put a stop to the payment of any Money then brought in or to be brought into the Exchequer for the space of one whole Year declaring that nothing could have moved him thereunto but the looking upon his Government as unsafe under the threatening Preparations of the States General and other neighbouring Princes without appearing in the same posture And that therefore seeing the necessity was inevitable some extraordinary course must be taken until Money could be otherwise procured However before he would enter into War with them he endeavoured to bring them to terms of Peace by the threatning of it and therefore ordered Sir George Downing who was his Embassador to the States to be very urgent with them on the Affair of the Flagg which notwithstanding it had ever been accounted a Ceremony due to the Kings of England as an acknowledgment of their Sovereignty in the narrow Seas had been for some time denied by them But having by several Instances and Memorials pressed for an Answer to his Demands and finding nothing but delays and several personal affronts to him he returned without Orders for England and was for so doing after a private Examination by some Lords of the Council and Report thereof made to the King Committed to the Tower for not
observing the Orders sent him At which Proceedings of the States the King being â—ustly enraged resolved to trifle with them no longer but make them feel the effects of his Indignation And knowing that whilst he had Wars abroad it was necessary to have Peace and Union at home he put forth a Declaration of Indulgence to all Dissenting Persons promising notwithstanding that Indulgence to maintain the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as it was then established Sir Robert Holmes Cruising with five of the King's Frigots near the Isle of Wight about the middle of March met with the Dutch Smyrna and Streight Fleet Convoyed by six of their men of War and standing with them gave them a Gun to strike and lower their Flag which they refusing he poured a Broad-side upon them whereupon their Convoy coming up the Fight began about two in the afternoon and continued until night and the next morning was again renewed five of their richest Merchant-men being taken their Reer-Admiral sunk and the rest made their escape for want of more assistance The first blow being thus given the King denounced open War against them by Publishing his Declaration wherein he gave the World an account of the Grounds and Reasons of his Quarrel with them which together with the French Kings preparations and proceedings towards them in laying great Impositions upon their Manufacture which they foresaw tended to a rupture with them they fortifiing themselves with all imaginable speed and diligence endeavoured to procure Allies abroad and made the Prince of Orange their Captain-General at Land and Admiral at Sea And looking upon Maestricht as the first place that would in all probability be attacked by the French King they repaired the Fortifications thereof and re-inforced that City with Men and Provisions The King resolving to prosecute the War with all imaginable resolution and vigour provided for the security of his own Subjects by allowing them sufficient Convoys and giving them liberty to make use of what Foreign Mariners they could procure And his Fleet being now ready to put to Sea he went to Rye to see them joyn with a Squadron of French Ships which that King according to agreement was to furnish him with under the Command of the Count d' Estree Vice-Admiral of France And so soon as he was returned the two Fleets being now joyned stood over for the Coast of Holland Commanded by His present Majesty then Duke of York whose very name was terrible to the Dutch And on the twenty eighth of May meeting with the Enemies Fleet about five Leagues off the Wheelings there ensued a very fierce and bloody Engagement both sides being emulous for Honour and desirous of Victory fighting with extraordinary eagerness But the night coming on and the Dutch finding themselves unable to bear up against the Valour of the English stood towards their own Coasts and were pursued by the Duke who resolved to have renewed the Engagement the next morning had not a Fog prevented and favoured their securing themselves in their Shallows The loss on the Dutch side was very great both as to Men and Ships but on the part of the English there was little Dammage beside the loss of the Earl of Sandwich and the Royal James This loss at Sea was attended with many more on Land the French King having taken several of their Frontier Towns which possessed them with such a Consternation that many of the wealthy Inhabitants forsook their Habitations resolving not to hazard their Persons and Estates in a Countrey falling into the hands of a Victorious Foreigner And the States not thinking themselves secure enough at the Hague removed to Amsterdam and to impede the French King's approach causeâ— the Sluces to be opened and the Country be put under Water to the incredible Prejudice and Dammage of the miserable Inhabitants Which Distraction of theirs the King of England wisely improved to the strengthening himself and the weakening of them by putting forth a seasonable Declaration wherein he promised That if any of their Subjects out of affection to him or his Government or to avoid the oppression they met with at home would take refuge in his Kingdom they should be protected in their Persons and Estates and have an Act pass for their Naturalization and that such Ships as they brought with them should be accounted as English Built and enjoy the same Priviledges and Immunities as to Trade Navigation and Customs as those of his own Subjects Yet commiserating the deplorable condition into which the States were reduced and supposing their misfortunes had rendred them more humble he sent the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arlington to try if they would at length offer any reasonable terms of Peace who were received by the Common People with great joy and satisfaction crying out God bless the King of England and God bless the Prince of Orange but the Devil take the States But their Pride being not sufficiently abated the Embassadors returned without bringing them to any Conclusion which together with the French King's taking Nimeguen and the English Fleets appearing upon their Coasts so enraged the People that they brake out into tumultuous Insurrections and there was scarce a Town in Holland where they were not masterless And therefore the States that they might appease them commanded their Fleet to go out and beat the English from their Harbours which De Ruyter attempted with all the force that Courage and Resolution could inspire him with but finding himself overmatched was forced to retire with considerable loss The Fleets having both repaired the Dammages of this Fight hastened to try their fortune in a second Engagement which being as unsuccessful to the Dutch as the former De Ruyter stole away in the night But having increased his Fleet was not long before he got to Sea again and meeting about the middle of August with the English Fleet endeavoured to get the Wind of them which then blew North-East resolving if possible to redeem his lost reputation but night coming on both Fleets came to an Anchor The next day the Fight began with the morning wherein the Dutch sustained a very great loss and the greatest part of their Fleet had in all probability been destroy'd and the contest about the Dominion of the Narrow-Seas ended had not the Cowardly French who were then Masters of the Wind behaved themselves as though they had been sent thither only to be spectators of the Bravery and Valour of the English Whereupon the States-General finding they could no longer withstand the successful Arms of that fortunate King sued for Peace by their Embassador and had it granted as well out of Pity to them as Jealousie of the French King's too growing greatness whose Progress they were now at leisure to oppose The King having now consented to admit the Hollanders to terms of Peace became a Mediator for the like accommodation between the Crown of France and Spain endeavouring by his
Embassador the Lord Lockhart to compose the differences between them and resolving whether he succeeded in that Mediation or not to be no partaker with them in their Quarrels and Commanded by Proclamation that none of his Subjects should enter into the Service of any Foreign Prince And for the better securing of Trade to and from his Ports which was much disturbed by the Insolency of several Dutch Spanish and French Privateers betwixt whom the War still continued he Publish'd a Proclamation wherein he declared That all Ships to what Party soever they belonged should be under his Protection during their stay in any of his Ports or Harbours Commanding the Officers of his Navy to use their utmost endeavours to hinder the Roving of any Private Men so near his Coast as to give apprehension of danger to Merchants And that if a Man of War of either Party and one or more Merchant-Men of another should come into any of his Ports the Merchant-Men should sail out two Tides before the Man of War should be permitted to stirr forbidding his Sea-men to List themselves on Board any Foreign Man of War or other Ship designed for Traffick or the Fishing-Trade without his Licence laying down several other Rules in Relation to the security of Trade and the Maintaining his Sovereignty in those Seas which were punctually observed and thereby many Merchants and Traders preserved from being made prize of by their Enemies And that he might secure the Peace of his Kingdom for the future as well as for the present he procured the Parliament to give him the sum of five hundred eighty four thousand nine hundred and seventy eight Pounds for the speedy building thirty Ships of War which he caused to be built so large and substantial that they cost him one hundred thousand Pounds more than they gave him And now beginning to reflect upon the success of the French King's Arms and fearing lest the growing Greatness of that Monarch might too much obscure his own Glory and threaten the future Peace of his Kingdom resolved with himself by entring into an Alliance with some Princes and States abroad to put a stop to his further Conquests in Flanders And that the French might not think him in jest only he immediately applied himself to the raising of Forces and in a short time had a brave Army on Foot ready to be transported into Flanders and Married his Niece the Lady Mary eldest Daughter to his only Brother the Duke of York to the Prince of Orange The Parliament having at their last sitting desired him to hasten his entering into such Councils and Alliances as might save what remained of Flanders from being devoured by the French he acquainted them at their next Meeting with what he had done telling them that he had made such an agreement with Holland and the rest of the Confederates that if seconded by plentiful supplies from them and due care from the Spaniards for their own Preservation he doubted not but to restore such an Honourable Peace to Christendom as might not be in the Power of one Prince alone to disturb which he had endeavoured by a fair Treaty And was resolved if that succeeded not to enter into an actual War with France laying before them the expences he had been at already and what sums of Money such a War would necessarily require And to remove all sorts of Jealousies he had Married his Niece to the Prince of Orange thereby giving full assurance never to suffer that Prince's Interest to be ruined if assisted by them as he ought to be to preserve it To Alarm the French King the more with a noise of War the Parliament made several Addresses to the King wherein they intreated him to enter into an Actual War with that Crown promising to stand by him with their Lives and Fortunes to that end And a Book was Published Intituled Christianissimus Christianandus wherein reasons were given for reducing the most Christian King to a more Christian state in Europe And finding that the French King still went on in his Conquests he sent some Regiments of his new raised Forces over into Flanders to secure the places of greatest consequence there and Commanded a Fast on Wednesday the tenth of April to be kept in London and on that day fortnight throughout the whole Kingdom to implore the blessings of Heaven on his undertakings And the Parliament to assist him with Money which is the sinews of War raised him a liberal sum by a Pole-Bill and that they might weaken the French as well as strengthen him Prohibited French Wines and other things of the Growth and Manufactury of that Country a contrivance that would certainly have reduced him to terms of Moderation and Peace had the rest of the Confederates done the like but for want of that the design of the Prohibition fell and he received little or no dammage thereby However remembring how fatal the Arms of England had formerly been to France and being Thunder-strook with the Fame of the King 's having in forty days raised an Army of thirty thousand Men and fitted out a Navy of ninety Ships he durst not adventure notwithstanding his success in Flanders to run the hazard of a War with that Nation To prevent which he resolved to consent to a Peace with some of the Confederates hoping thereby to break the measures already taken by King Charles and therefore presently offered a separate Treaty with Holland which People according to their usual though unjust and base Custom of serving themselves and leaving their Confederates in the lurch without acquainting the King of England therewith accepted of and afterwards concluded upon condition that he would give up Maestricht and other places which he had taken from them during the War But besides their usual custom of waiting the first opportunity of slipping their own necks out of the Coller they being informed that the League Offensive and Defensive which the King of England had entred into with them was not well understood at home and had met with some unfitting and very undeserv'd Reflections and that the Parliament had taken up a Resolution of giving no Money till satisfaction was first had in some Matters of Religion and those Jealousies removed which they had without all ground taken up of his Proceedings very much influenced their entrance into that Treaty concluding that it was now vain to rely any longer upon England since England was no longer it self by reason of those Divisions and Misunderstandings between the King and his Parliament But the King who was not ignorant of what the Dutch were doing resolving to save Flanders either by a War or Peace perswaded the King of Spain and the rest of the Conferates to accept of the same Treaty with them endeavouring to procure a Cessation of Arms on all sides during the time of the Treaty the better to make way for the desired Peace However considering the influence that Peace would have upon England
it on certain factious persons unknown to them which they desire Mr. Withins Steward of that Court to represent in their Names to the King which he accordingly did and received the Honour of Knighthood as a Reward of his Loyalty After which several such like addresses were directed from many of the Counties and that from Norfolk had a farther acknowledgment of their humble thanks to the King for calling home the Duke And the Lord Shandois having been elected by the Turky Company to go Embassador to Constantinople and desiring the Kings approbation the King 〈◊〉 him that having been concerned in promoting petitions which were â—â—rogatory to his Prerogative and tended to sedition he could not think him fit for his Favour whereupon he humbly acknowledged his fault to the King in Council protesting â—â—at he had been misled and drawn into it by being perswaded it was for his Mâ—jesties Service but being now better informed he abhorred and disowned all such Practices and humbly begging his Pardon he as freely obtained it Upon the 18th of May so great a Storm of Hail fell in London and the adjacent parts that the like had not been seen in many Years before the Stones being of an extraordinary bigness and very hard till they had lain a while many of them being as large as Pullets Eggs. One which I saw measured was somewhat more than Nine Inches about several Rooks in the Temple Garden being beaten down and killed with them and the Glass of many Sky-lights battered and broken to pieces And now the Parliament which had been several times this Summer prorogued met on the 21st of October according to â—he King's Declaration to them at their meeting in April to whom he declared in a Speech to both Houses That he had during that long prorogation made Alliances with Holland and Spain and desired money of them for the relieving Tangier the defence whereof had very much exhausted his Treasure and advising them not to meddle with the Succession of the Crown but proceed to the discovery of the Plot and the Trial of the Lords The Commons having chosen Mr. Williams a Barrester of Grays Inn and Recorder of Chester for their Speaker to convince the World that the King had not without Reason deferred their sitting so long and that neither he nor the Nation would have been losers if they had not sate then fell to purging their house expelling Sir Robert Can a Burgess for Bristol for having said there was no other Plot but a Presbyterian one and Sir Francis Withins for having declared himself an Abhorrer of the late tumultuous Petitions for the Parliaments sitting The former was committed by them to the Tower and both ordered to receive their Censure on their knees from the Speaker Several other Members were likewise declared guilty of the same Offence with Sir Francis Withins And not content with punishing their own Members they take notice of others who were without their Walls amongst whom Sir George Jeffries Recorder of London one of the King's Serjeants at Law and Chief Justice of Chester became the Object of their displeasure and was Voted a Betrayer of the Subjects Rights and an Address was made to the King to remove him from all publick Affairs and Impeachments Voted and drawn up against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir William Scrogs Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench Sir Thomas Jones one of the puisny Judges of that Court and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer for several pretended misdemeanors that of Sir Francis North being the advising and drawing up of the Proclamation against Petitions But not contenting themselves to deal with Subjects they proceeded next to a matter of a far greater concern For on the 11th of November notwithstanding the King's desire at their opening That they would not meddle with the Succession a Bill past in the House of Commons intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Territories thereunto belonging which notwithstanding all the opposition made against it by the unbiassed and Judicious Loyalists who tho their Reasons were strongest yet their number were fewest was carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel attended by almost all the Commons who gave a Hum at the delivery of it The Lords having ordered it upon their departure to be read put it to the Vote whether it should be read a second time which being carried in the Affirmative by Two Voices only after the second reading it was debated till Eleven a Clock at night the King being present all the while and then thrown out of the House by a Majority of about Thirty Voices in which number were all the Bishops then present to shew how careful the Prelacy is to promote Monarchy Soon after the Parliament proceeded to the Trial of William Lord Viscount Stafford which began in Westminster-Hall on Tuesday the 30th of November and the Impeachment and Evidence upon the same were managed by a Committee of the Commons and the Witnesses against him were Oates Turberville and Dugdale The Lord Chancellor Finch was created Lord High Steward for the solemnity of his Trial which lasted a whole week and being found Guilty by the Majority of Four and Twenty Voices he received Sentence on the 17th of December and on the 29th of that Month was beheaded on Tower-Hill protesting his Innocency with his last breath as all those had done who died for the Plot before him Some were so bold as to question the King's power to dispence with the Rigor of the Sentence and the unhappy Lord Russel was said to be one of them During these publick Transactions a large and prodigious flame of Light appeared in the West The Star from which the Blaze proceeded was but small and when first discovered seemed to be not much above the Horizon but every night after appeared somewhat higher in the beginning of the night and consequently set later its lustre and magnitude decreasing by degrees Whether this finger of the Almighty so visibly seen in the Heavens portended good or bad Events to the World in general or England in particular is a matter too mysterious for me to unfold and therefore shall I leave it till made more plain by the Effects which will be the best Commentatary thereon The King finding the Commons taken up with other business without taking the least care of providing him Money for the supplying his pressing wants and the relieving Tangier then besieged by the Emperor of Morocco recommended the matter more seriously to them in his Speech on the 15th of December But all the Answer he could obtain from them was an Address complaining of several pretended Grievances and refusing all supplies of Money for the Relief of Tangier or any other use unless he would pass a Bill for the Exclusion of the Duke and to enable all Protestants to associate
themselves for the security of the Protestant Religion which Address he answered by a message to the Commons wherein he let them know That he had received their Address with all the disposition they could wish to comply with their reasonable desires but upon perusal of it he was sorry to see their thoughts so fixt on the Bill of Exclusion as to determine all other Remedies for the suppressing of it to be ineffectual telling them That he was confirmed in his Opinion against the Bill by the Judgment of the Lords in their rejecting it advising them to consider of all other means for preservation of the Protestant Religion to which they should have no Reason to doubt his concurrence and urging them again to make some speedy provision for the preservation of Tangier Upon the consideration of which Speech they were so far from complying with his reasonable desires that they Resolved as the Opinion of the House That there was no security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without the Bill of Exclusion and that to rely upon any other Remedy were insufficient and dangerous That till such a Bill was past they could give the King no supply without danger to his Person hazard to the Protestant Religion and unfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted And that all persons who advised him in that Message to insist upon an Opinion against the Exclusion-Bill had given him pernicious Counsel and were promoters of Popery and Enemies both to him and the Kingdom naming Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Feversham and Laurence Hide Esq against whom they Voted an Address to the King to remove them from all Offices of honour and profit and from his Councils and presence forever Voting moreover 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 But their presumption running so high the King resolved by a Prorogation to give them time to cool themselves which he did on the Monday following being the 10th of July when he past Two Bills one about Irish Cattel and the other for burying in Woollen the latter whereof proved very advantageous to the Nation by the advance of Wool which is accounted the most staple Commodity of this Kingdom The Commons by some means or other were informed of the King's design of proroguing them and therefore so soon as they were set that morning the very first thing they did was to thunder out their Threatning Votes 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 to France And in a Common-Council assembled bout Two or Three days after in London a Petition was ordered to be drawn up and presented to the King wherein they set forth That the Parliaâ—â—â—t having convicted One of the Poâ—ish Lords and being about to convict the other Four and having impeacht the Chief Justice and being about to impeach other Judges and all in order to the preservation of his Life c. they were much surprised to see it prorogued in the height of their business and that their only hope was its being done with a design to bring such Affairs about again as were necessary to the setling the Nation Praying that they might therefore sit at the day appointed and so continue till they had effected the great Affairs before them But before the 20th of January arrived to which they had been prorogued the King declared them dissolved by Proclamation and intimated his pleasure to call another to sit on the 24th of March at Oxford After which a Petition was delivered him by Essex and some others of the popular Lords for the altering his Resolution for the Parliaments sitting at Oxford upon pretence That neither himself nor they could be in safety there but would be daily exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents whereby their Liberty of Speech would be destroyed and the Validity of their Acts and Proceedings left disputable Urging likewise the straitness of the place which they affirmed was altogether unfit for the entertaining such a concourse of persons as now followed every Parliament And that the Witnesses which were to give Evidence upon the Commons Impeachment were unable to bear the charges of that Journey and unwilling to trust themselves under the protection of a Parliament which was it self under the power of Guards and Soldiers praying it might therefore sit at Westminster The Parliament which met at Oxford was for the most part made up oâ— Old Members which were chosen again for the same places for which they had served before And contrary to the ancient custom of their Treating thâ— Country the Country now in many places Treated them or at least every man bore his own charges Abouâ— Eight days before their sitting the King having appointed certain Companies of Foot and several Troops of Horse to keep Guard in the Mews during his absence removed to Oxford where he was received and presented by the Mayor and Body of that City at the East-Gate and from thence attended with great Acclamations and all other demonstrations of Joy and was the next day waited on and complemented by the body of the University who presented him with a large Oxford-Bible and the Queen with the Cuts belonging to the History and Antiquity of the Vniversity both richly bound Most of the Members as well Commons as Lords went thither attended with a numerous Train of Friends At the opening of the Sessions the King told them That the unwarrantable proceedings of the last House of Commons was the only Reason why he had dissolved them And that â—s he would never use Arbitrary Government himself so he was Resolved never to suffer it in others That whosoever should calmly consider the proceedings in the last Parliament might perhaps wonder at his patience so long rather than that he grew weary at last That it was as much his interest and care as theirs to preserve the Liberty of the Subject since the Crown could not be safe when that was in danger And that neither Liberty nor Property could long subsist when the just Prerogatives of the Crown were invaded or the Honour of the Government brought low and into disreputation Assuring them That he had called them so soon to shew that the Irregularities of Parliaments should never make him out of love with them And that he thought the just care they ought to have of Religion should not be so managed and improved into unnecessary Fears as to be made a pretence for changing the Foundation of the Government and therefore hoped
considered the Plea and consulted with other Judges about it and were of opinion it was insufficient and was therefore overruled and the Prisoner ordered to plead over Whereupon he pleaded Not guilty and had till the first Thursday in the next Term allowed him for his Tryal In the mean while many Loyal Addresses flowed from all parts of the Nation full of Congratulations and Thanks to the King for his late Declaration And in Trinity-Term Dr. Oliver Plunket was Try'd for High-Treason the Evidence against him being all profest Papists affirmed he was made Primate of Ireland by the Pope at the French Kings Recommendation and that he having thereupon engaged to do that King all the Service he could had actually levied amongst his Popish Clergy great Sums of Money to introduce the French Dominion and extirpate the Protestants out of that Kingdom upon which evidence he was found Guilty and was together with Fitz-harris who received his Tryal the next day executed at Tyburn on the first of the following July protesting his innocency and praying for the King Queen and Duke Presently after the Tryal of Fitz-Harris his Wife and Maid accused the Lord Howard of Escrick of contriving the Treasonable Libel for which he was convicted who was thereupon committed to the Tower And in a Paper delivered at his Execution to Dr. Haukins Minister of the Tower for his Wife he confirmed that accusation denying what he had formerly confest about Danby and the Plot affirming he was drawn into that confession only through hopes of saving his Life thereby But a Bill of Indictment against Howard being delivered on the last day of the Term to the Grand-Jury of Edmunton Hundred sworn to by Fitz-harris's Wife and Maid and by some others that Jury pretending to be unsatisfied with the Evidence would have indorsed it with an Ignoramus had not one of the Clerks of the Crown who attended them withdrawn it from them for which notwithstanding they were told by the Court the Kings Attorney might stop such proceedings as he saw occasion they preferred a Bill of Indictment against the Clerk to the Jury of Oswelston Hundred there attending for that pretended Misdemeanor The Reason why some Persons went so well attended to the Oxford Parliament began now to appear for about this time there was discovery made of a design of seizing the Kings Person whilst he was there and several factious People were thereupon committed to the Tower viz. Rouse Haynes White Colledg and the Earl of Shaftsbury whose Papers were likewise seiz'd At the Sessions which began soon after he and Howard moved to be bailed but the Judges told them it lay not in their power to bail out of the Tower At this Sessions and Indictment of High Treason was preferred to the Grand-Jury of London against one of those lately committed to the Tower whose Name was Colledg But in regard he was a busie factious Fellow and ever loved to meddle most with that he least understood and pass his ignorant censures upon the great Affairs of State He was the more commonly known by the Name of the Protestant Joyner But notwithstanding the Evidence against him was full and clear they returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill whereupon part of the Treasonable Words and Matters for which he was there Indicted being transacted at Oxford whilst the Parliament sate there the Cause was removed to that Assizes where he was before the Lord Chief Justice North tryed upon the same Evidence and condemned and executed In a Parliament held at this time in Scotland the Duke of York presided as the Kings High Commissioner and an Act was past which asserted the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland asserting it to be by inherent right and that the nature of the Monarchy was such that by the fundamental and unalterable Law of the Realm it transmitted and devolved by Lineal Succession according to proximity of Blood and that no difference in Religion no Law nor Act of Parliament could alter or divert the Right of Succession of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heirs and declaring it High Treason either by Writing Speaking or any other way to endeavour the least Alteration therein The French Protestants being greatly opprest and persecuted by that King flockt into England in great multitudes and were received by the King of England with abundance of Kindness and affection ordering that his Officers and Magistrates should give them the same Countenance and Favour with his own Subjects assuring them he would take them into his Royal Protection and grant 'em his Letters of Dennization and promising to procure in the next Parliament an Act for their Naturalization A special Commission of Oyer and Terminer being granted by him for the Tryal of Shaftsbury and others at the Old Bayly the Bill of High Treason preferred against Shaftsbury notwithstanding the Evidence swore very full to the Treason was returned by the Grand-Jury the Foreman whereof was Sir Samuel Barnardiston Ignoramus as a former Jury had done that of Colledg Whereupon the people whose Idol he was gave a great Shout and assaulted those who were Witnesses against him with that violence that the Sheriffs to prevent mischief were forced to guard them as far as the Savoy homeward Bonfires were that Night made by the Rabble almost in every Street at one whereof Capt. Griffith was knockt down and wounded in the Head for endeavouring to put it out And a rout of people marching down Warwick-lane one whereof had his Sword drawn sometimes cryed No York no Popish Successor and then bawl'd out a Monmouth a Shaftsbury a Buckingham till they were stopt by the Watch at Ludgate But tho the factious Rabble were thus overjoyed at the acquittal of their Idol yet the sober and Loyal part of the Nation had other sentiments about it and declared their Indignation in several Loyal Addresses against the most Execrable and Traiterous designed Association which was discovered in Shaftsburys Closet amongst his other papers which threatned not the King alone but Monarchy it self In February 1682 there hapned a strange and Barbarous Murder which for the boldness of the Attempt and the baseness of the manner wherein it was perpetrated is scarcely to be parellel'd in any History For Thomas Thin of Long-Leat Esq a Gentleman of an Estate of about 10000 l. per annum having privately married Elizabeth Daughter and sole Heir of Jocelin Earl of Northumberland and Relict to Henry Earl of Ogle Son and Heir apparent to the Duke of Newcastle And some of her Friends who were not so well satisfied with the Match as her Grand-mother was by whose means it was said to be made up having perswaded her before ever her New Husband had bedded her to withdraw her self secretly into Holland the Town was thereupon alarumed with the approach of a mighty Suit in Law concerning the Validity of the Match the best Civilians being engaged on the one side or the other And Count
joyn with him therein went on by themselves and poll'd for Four Heads with a Salvo Jure to their former Election The next day the Mayor having caused his Books to be cast up and finding the Majority of Voices to be for Box he declared North and him to be Sheriffs But Box refusing to serve and paying in his Fine according to Custom the Mayor call'd another Common-Hall on the 19th of September and proposed Peter Rich Esq to be chosen in his stead who having the Majority of Voices and being declared Sheriff the Mayor dissolved the Court and returned home But the Two Sheâ—iffs notwithstanding the Mayor's dissolution continued this Assembly as they had done the former and demanding of their own Party the rest being departed with the Mayor whether they would abide by their former Choice for Papillion and Duboise proceeded likewise to a Poll and having cast up their Books declared them to be Sheriffs Elect. Whereupon the Mayor acquainting the King with their Proceedings he commanded them to attend him in Council where they were severely checkt and not dismist without giving sufficient Bail to answer to an Information which should be exhibited against them for their unwarrantable proceedings But notwithstanding this ill success they were not so discouraged as to desist from the like practices for the future For on Michaelmas-day when the Citizens met for the Election of a Mayor they mustered up their utmost strength and appeared with as much Violence against Sir William Pritchard the next in course as they had done against North and Box setting up Gold and Cornish against them altho Cornish had been Sheriff but the very year before However Pritchard carried it by the Majority of Voices In this year died the Illustrious Prince Rupert in the 63d year of his Age The Constableship of Windsor-Castle which had been enjoyed by him for many years being after his Death conferred by the King on the Earl of Arundel And on the 18th of December died Henâ—eage Earl of Nottingham and Lord High Chancellor of England who had enjoyed that place ever since it was taken from Shaftsbury in the year 73. and was succeeded by Sir Francis North Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas This year was very remarkable also for the Arrival of Two Extraordinary and Famous Embassages from Two Princes never known to have sent any into England before one from the Emperor of Fez and Morocco who in his Letter exprest much Kindness and a great Veneration to the King His Name was Hamet Benhamet Benhaddu Otter a man of a Majestick Presence and great Wisdom His business was about setling a Peace in relation to Tangier and his Person and Conversation was so pleasant and taking that he was received and caressed with more Honour and Respect both by the King and his Nobles than any Embassador I ever knew at Court And so he was by both Universities which he visited seeming to have an equal Esteem and Valuation for our Nation Nor was there ever any Embassador before him so much admired by the common people great multitudes always attending before his House which was near Katherine-street in the Strand to gaze upon and wonder at the strange Garb worn by him and his Attendants one whereof was an English Renegado formerly a Barber somewhere about Temple bar but being afterward a Soldier in Tangier he ran away from that Garison to the Moors and was by them highly advanced for his perfidious directing them in their Wars against that Town The other Embassage was from the King of Bantham in the East-Indies whose business was about the East-India Trade who would have been as much admired as the former if he had come another time but all mens Eyes were so generally fixt upon the Morocco that they were less minded than otherwise they would have been They brought the King several rich presents of Diamonds and other things of great value But not long after their return we received ill news when we least expected it For the Dutch having under pretence of assisting the Rebel Prince who was commonly called The Young King of Bantham against his Father the Old King seized upon that Town turn'd out the English whom they found there and seized on their Factory to the great damage of the English Nation On the 24th of April hapned one of the most famous and extraordinary Exploits that was ever known in London For one Broome Clerk of Skinners-Hall and Coroner of Landon having a Latitat out of the Kings-Bench in an Action upon the Case at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise agaiâ—st the Lord Mayor Sheriff North and several Loyal Aldermen Upon acquainting them therewith they all submitted to his Arrest and went with him as Prisoners to Skinners-Hall where they remained till about midnight Eight Companies of the Trained Bands being raised by order of the Lieutenancy upon that altogether new and unusual attempt to prevent Tumults But one Fletcher a Serjeant of the Poultrey-Compter having an Action of Debt upon a Bond of 400. l. agaiust Broome who had the Week before promised to give Bail to it but neglecting it and seeing him act so imperiously against the Chief Magistrate of the City took him into custody and carried him forthwith to the Compter The Mayor and his Fellow-prisoners seeing Broome carried away by a Serjeant demanded if there were any in the house who had Orders to detain them which being answered in the Negative they all peaceably departed to their several homes In the next Month was tried at Guild-Hall before the Lord Chief Justice Saunders Pemberton having been removed to the Common-Pleas upon North's receiving the Seal the great Riot committed the year before at the Election of Sheriffs Fourteen being found Guilty thereof and Fined And the better part of the City both for Number and Quality Resolved at a Common-Council held on the 22d of that Month That notwithstanding the Action in which the Mayor was Arrested at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise was said to be prosecuted at the Instance of the Citizens of London yet they to deliver themselves and the said Citizens from that false imputation did declare they were no way privy or consenting to that Action and therefore did disown and disapprove the same But the City having in the Judgment of Lawyers forfeited their Charter by several illegal proceedings the King thought the best way to prevent such kind of Tumults which might be of ill consequence to the Nation in general for the future would be the taking that Forfeiture that so by having the Charter delivered up into his hands they might by a more absolute dependance upon his Goodness be obliged to a stricter performance of their Allegiance and take the greater care to preserve the publick peace and quiet Whereupon he ordered a Writ of Quo Warranto to go out against their Charter which was grounded chiefly on their illegal exacting of Tolls in their Markets and their having framed and printed a scandalous
City and Suburbs for the Relief of many Thousand miserable Wretches who would otherwise have perished and to encourage others to so needful a charity by his own example ordered several great Sums of Money to be issued out of his Treasury for that Purpose On the 23d of January being the first day of Hillary Term the Lawyers went over the Ice to Westminster and back again as familiarly as on the Land some on Foot and others in Coaches and there was for above a fortnight together a Fair or Mart kept between the Temple and that part of Southwark which is opposite to it This Year Vienna the Imperial City of Germany was closely besieged and greatly distressed by the Turks who brought it to the very last extremity but were then beaten off and forced to raise their siege by the Blessing of God upon the Valour of the King of Poland and the Duke of Lorrain in which Action the Lord Landsdown Eldest Son to the Earl of Bath behaved himself with so much Valour that he was afterward as a Reward of his Courage created a Count of the Sacred Empire And Tangier having cost the King abundance of Treasure to defend it against the Moors and make the Mole there he now resolved in regard the charges were so very great and the Expectation of Advantage very uncertain to relinquish it and therefore ordered the Lord Dartmouth to repair thither wih about 20 sail of Ships and demolish the Town Castle and Mole choak up the Haven to render it useless to any who might otherwise have thought the Town worth rebuilding and bring off the Inhabitants which was done accordingly About the middle of February 1684. was the Earl of Danby after a long and tedious Imprisonment admitted to Bail by the Eminent and Loyal Sir George Jeffrys who succeeded Sir Edward Sanders in the Lord Chief Justiceship of England all the Judges of the Kings-Bench having first given their several opinions about it and delivered their Reasons why he ought to be bailed and the other four Lords one of them viz. Peters being dead sometime before having just before his Death in a Letter to the King denied upon his Salvation his being any way Guilty of what he stood accused of being within the like Reasons were admitted to the like advantage and so was the Earl of Tyrone who had been almost as long a Prisoner in the Gate-house as they had been in the Tower The King having about the Year 81 appointed under him certain Deputies or Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Offices viz. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London the Lord Radnor Hallifax Hide and Mr. Seymor to whom he delegated his Power to dispose of all such Ecclesiastical Preferments as were within his immediate Patronage was pleased this Year to revoke their Commission and take those preferments again into his own immediate disposal as likewise a commission formerly granted to several Persons to execute the Office of Lord High Admiral of Eugland which was now again fully enjoyed and exercised by his Royal Highness Acts of Hostility being this Spring-fiercely pursued between the French and Spaniards by Sea and Land he commanded by Proclamation that being at Amity with both those Nations the Peace should be kept inviolably by them whilst they were in any Roads Creeks and Ports of his Dominions and that his Commanders and Officers should oppose themselves against those who should presume to assault any of the Ships of his Allies in any of his Roads or Places under his Protection Oates the Salamanca Doctor and Plot-Master-General not content with having falsly charged his Royal Highness the Kings only Brother and Heir with divers base and improbable Stories as tho he had plotted with the Papists against the King his Brother suffered his Spleen to boil to such an exorbitant degree that he saucily and impudently abused him with base and scurrilous Language calling him Traytor declaring That he hoped to see him hang'd with divers horrid devilish and abominable Expressions The Dukes patience not being easily provoked bore long with him but finding that forbearance did but render him more bold and increase his malignity at last he brought his Action of Scandalnm Magnatum against him upon which he was arrested at the Amsterdam Coffee-house on the back-side of the Royal Exchange and carried to Woodstreet Compter and from thence removed by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench and having let Judgment go in the next Term by default a Writ of Enquiry was issued out and executed before the Lord Chief Justice in the Kings-Bench Court when the Jury upon hearing the Evidence to shew their detestation of such an unheard of impudence gave 100000 Damages The Hambrough Company out of Gratitude for some great Favour received from the King did this Spring erect a most elaborate and curious Statue of him in Gray Marble in the very middle or Center of the Royal Exchange cut by Mr. Grinlin Gibbons the most Famous Statuary that England ever produc'd and equal if not superior to the best at this Time in Europe in the Garb and Habit of a Roman Caesar It was placed upon a curious Pedestal made of the same Marble upon which was the following Inscription Carolo II Caesari Britanico Patriae Patri Regnum optimo Clementissimo Augustissimo Generis Humani Deliciis Vtriusque fortunae Victori Pacis Europae Arbitro Maris Domino Vindici Societas Meâ—catorum Adventur Angliae Quae per CCCC jam prope Annos Regia Benignitate floret Fidei Intemerata Gratitudinis Aeternaâ— Hoc Testimonium Venerabunda posuit Anno sal Humanae MDCLXXXIV The Council sitting on the 28th of May at Hampton Court as it used frequently to do when he was at Windsor as the most convenient place for his coming to it he told them that he thought it fit and did intend his Brother should be present at the Meetings of the Council who accordingly took his Seat that Day and ever after during his Brothers Life And in October following the King made a Review or Muster of his Land-Forces upon Putney Heath where there was a most gallant Military Appearance the Horse consisting of the Three Troops of Guards the Granadeers the Earl of Oxford's Regiment of Horse and the Lord Churchels Regiment of Dragoons and the Foot of two Battalians formed and the Regiment of Guards with their Granadeers one from the Coldstream Regiment of Guards and Granadeers one from the Earl of Dumbartons Regiment and another from the Admiral Regiment with their Granadeers the whole Number of Horse and Foot between 4000 and 5000 being all exactly trained and well cloath'd most of the Horse march'd in the morning in Gallant Order through the Streets of London and so over the Bridg to Putney This Michaelmas Terms several Factious Persons were convicted of speaking scandalous and seditious Words against the Government for which one Best commonly call'd the Protestant Hop-Merchant was fined 1000 l. and ordered to stand in the Pillory
thrice and find security for his Good Behaviour during Life And one Butler of Northamptonshire for Presenting and Reading to the Knights of the Shire at the last Election for that County a seditious Paper of Address was fined 500 Marks and order'd to find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during Life And Dalby and Nicholson two Retainers to the Salamanca Doctor were ordered to stand in the Pillory for several false and scandalous Speeches utter'd by them But the most remarkable of all was the Business of one Roswell a Conventicle-Preacher about Redriff who was this Term tryed and convicted of High Treason in certain treasonable words spoken bâ— him in his Preachment on the 14th of September But some question arising about the Form of his Indictment which was argued by Council on both sides the Court took time to consider of their Judgment till the next Term before which time Roswel obtained the Kings Gracious Pardon who ever loved to endear his Subjects by Acts of Kindness rather than to terrifie them by Examples of Justice In this Term also was Oates indicted for Perjury in relation to Irelands being in London at the time sworn to by him at Irelands Tryal and being brought up to the Kings Bench-Bar to hear his Indictment read and pleading Not guilty his Tryal was appointed the next Term and at the Sessions which followed soon after at the Old-baily he was again Indicted upon a second Indictment for Perjury and upon pleading Not Guilty that was also appointed to be Tryed the next Term at the Kings Bench Court The Roads being now exrteamly infested with Robbers the King order'd for the ease and safety of his Subjects that all his Officers of Justice and others should with their utmost diligence endeavour the apprehending of High-way men and other Robbers promising That those who should apprehend any of them should have a reward of Ten Pounds for every Offender taken by them and delivered into Custody A little before Christmas when the minds of men in regard they were then to celebrate the Commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of the Prince of Peace shou'd have been wholly taken up with thoughts of Peace the restless and implacable Spirits of the factious and designing crew that were not yet so deprest as to be deprived of all hopes of reviving their Game were notwithstanding otherwise employ'd for about this time they dispers'd in a secret and clandestine manner a most wicked false and treasonable Libel relating to the Death of the late Earl of Essex Wherein they would have born the World in hand that he did not murder himself Strict enquiry was made after the Author and several of the Books seiz'd but the Author could not be discovered only Henry Danvers commonly called Collonel Danvers an Anabaptist by Profession and a Principal Officer in the late Rebellious Army was found to be the Author of a certain Sheet which was an abstract of that Libel wherein the very Qâ—intescence and Venom of it was crowded into a smaller Compass and a Warrant thereupon was sent out for his Apprehension but being an old cunning Fox he fled upon the discovery whereupon the King gave Publick Notice in the Gazette That whosoever should apprehend him and cause him to be deliver'd into safe Custody that he might be proceeded against according to Law for those dangerous and treasonable Practices should have a reward of 100l to be immediately paid by the Lords of the Treasury In the beginning of this Hillary Term Sir Scroop How one of the Knights of the Shire for the County of Nottingham in the late Parliaments appearing in the Kings Bench to answer to an Information exhibited against him for Words spoken against the King and his Brother pleaded Guilty confessing his Offence and with much sorrow cast himself upon the Kings and the Dukes Mercy whereupon being the next day introduc'd to them he was after his humble submission to them and promises of future Loyalty and Obedience receiv'd to Grace and being deeply affected with that unmerited favour acknowledg'd that he did in point of Gratitude for the Kings Goodness therein owe him his Life and Estate and would for the future dedicate Both to the service of him and the Royal Family But Englands Glorious Sun of Happiness and Tranquility which had shined bright and resplendent for near Five and Twenty Years together must now suffer a fatal Eclipse and be for some few days wrapt up in Black and Mournful Clouds and have it's Glory totally tho not finally obscur'd by the Lamented and much Deplored Death of this happy and wonderful Monarch for upon Monday the second of February he was suddenly taken with an Apoplectick Fit which was so violent that in all probability he would never have reviv'd again had not Doctor King who being one of his Physicians was then present having been that morning with some others of the Kings Physicians to look upon a sore Heel which he had for some time immediately let him blood by which and other proper means afterward used he seemed to be in so fair a way of recovery that the Lords of the Council thought fit for the preventing of false Reports to publish on Thursdâ—y That some Hours after the Kings being first taken an amendment appeared which wlth the Blessing of God improved by the Application of proper and seasonable Remedies was then so far advanc'd that the Physicians conceiv'd him to be in a condition of safety and that he would in a few days be freed from his Distemper The People in divers Places of the Country where it had been positively reported he was dead receiv'd this news of his Recovery with incredible joy exprest by the Ringing of Bells and Bonfires but in few days all was dampt again by the certain and unwelcome news of his Death For when neither the endeavours of men nor the invocations of Heaven could prevail he expired on Friday the Sixth of February having lain all that time in abundance of pain and misery which he endur'd with incredible Patience often lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven and breathing forth the fervent desires oâ— his Holy and Pious Soul in several Short but sweet and Pathetick Ejaculations Kings in respect of their Office are stiled Gods in the Sacred Writ and are like him immortal and therefore can never die but their Persons being made of the same mouldring Principles with the meanest of their Subjects they must die like men and when the time appointed for their dissolution is come it is impossible either for men or Angels Physick or Physicians to detain them longer here for they may with as much ease dissolve the Covenant of the Night and Day keep the Sea from flowing and the Sun from shining as preserve Kings from being hurried as well as the rest of mankind to the place appointed for all Living As no King was ever better beloved by his Subjects whilst living so none ever died more lamented than
he for an Universal grief possest the minds of all men and like a Cloud suddenly spread it self over the whole Nation upon the arrival of that doleful Tidings He died in the Fifty fourth Year of his Age after he had reigned Thirty six Years and some few days leaving his Kingdom which he found almost ruin'd with a bloody and unnatural War in a state of Tranquility and Peace Which as it magnifies the happiness of his Subjects by comparing their present felicity with their past Troubles so it lays the highest obligation imaginable upon them for ever to entertain the sacred Memory of his Name with the greatest Love and Veneration His redâ—cing a People plnnged and almost â—wallowed up in confusion into a quiet not to be expected and scarcely to be hoped for and asswaging by his incomparable Prudence a Faction blown up into atempestuous flame more violent and deaf than either the Winds or the Seas rendred him the most Glorious and Admired Prince and his Subjects the most happy People in Christendom and therefore in what Words or rather with what Deeds can they ever expect to express a Gratitude any way equal to his merits Statues of Marble and tryumphal Arches may indeed be an acknowledgment of our Veneration but these are Trifles too mean to discharge our debt and therefore all true Englishmen shall raise him a more lasting Monument by entombing him in their Hearts and expressing their love to their Dead Sovereign by their unfeigned Loyalty to their Living One our present Gracious King and Governour James the Second who immediately upon his Death succeeded to his Throne For Nature is not more careful to prevent a Dissolution of being than the Constitution of England to prevent an Inter-Regnum of Government so that the same minute which seems to threaten the involving our Isle in Darkness and Confusion by the setting of one really revives our dying-hopes and dispels our sable Clouds by the rising of another Sun for whom I shall pray as the Israelites did for King Solomon That God by whom alone Kings reign and have their Governments Crown'd with Peace and Felicity may pour upon him the Blessings of Heaven in as great a measure as upon his Royal Predecessor and make his Throne greater than the Throne of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles and grant him long to Live and Reign over us in Peace and Tranquility His Funeral was privately Solemniz'd on the 14th of February with as much Decency and Splendor as the greatness of the Sorrow for his Death would permit His Corps being convey'd sometime before to the Painted Chamber in the Palace at Westminster was carried from thence to the Abby-Church under a Velvet Canopy born by Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber the Pall being supported by six Earls The proceedings begun with the Servants of the Nobility Their Royal Highnesses the King and Queen the Queen Dowager and His own after whom followd the Barons Bishops and others of the Nobility according to their respective Degrees together with the great Officers and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury His Royal Highness the Prince of Denmark was chief Mourner supported by the Dukes of Somerset and Beaufort in the Collors of the Order as were all the rest of the Knights of the Garter then present and his Train born by the Lord Cornbury The Assistants to the chief Mourner were sixteen Earls The Crown and Cushion was carry'd by one of the Kings of Arms The rest of the Heraulds and their Officers Attending and Directing the Ceremony which was clos'd with His Majesties Band of Gentelmen-Pensioners and the Yeomen of the Guard As soon as they entred the Church the Dean and Prebends of Westminster with the whole Quire met the Body and went before it to Henry the Sevenths Chappel where it was interr'd in a Vault under the East end of the South Isle THUS have I endeavour'd to present the World with a Brief draught of the Life of this most Excellent King from the Time of his Birtâ— to the never-enough lamented and most deplorable Murder of his Royal Father and of his Reign from that Time until the hour of His Death And having now traced him through all the stupendious Labyrinths and wonderful Revolutions of His Life to his exchanging a Crown of Gold for one of Glory I shall close my History with his Character A Character which were I able therein to represent him to the Life and give him his Just and deserved Praise would not be parallel'd in Ancient and remain a Wonder to all succeeding Generations But his Perfections were so sublime and rare that my Representatious of him will no more bear Proportion to his real worth than the twinkling Figure of the Sun shining in the Water wherein he views himself as in a Looking-Glass is adequate to the Greatness of that real body of Fire and Light whereby he claims the Regency of Heaven This Monarch as to his Person was of a tall and goodly Stature and so exactly form'd that the most curious and penetrating Eye after the exactest Scrutiny could not discern the least Error in his Shape his Countenance very Majestical His Person and the Visage of his Face rather Grave than Severe being very much softned whenever he spake His Complection somewhat dark but much enlighten'd by the brightness of his Eyes that were quick and sparkling His Hair which before he wore a Peruke in great plenty was of a shining black not frizled but naturally Curling into large Rings and very Ornamental But as the Jewel is more valuable than the Casket that contains it so the perfections of his Mind did much exceed those of his Body if we can allow the same Man any Preheminence over himself in respect whereof he seemed to be a perfect Miracle of Art and Nature having in the Mysteries of Both a most capacious and profound Knowledg or one of the best sort of Wonders both in respect of his Virtues and his Fortune a Wonder to Wise men who admired his vast Parts a Wonder to His Enemies who admir'd at His Preservation from their Snares a Wonder to his Friends that admired at the Adversity of his Fortune and the Patience wherewith he endur'd it a Wonder to the World which admired the strangeness of His Restoration and were astonish'd to see him notwithstanding there was at that Time an Army on Foot to keep him out which had been flush'd with so many Victories and as it were by Prescription was able to beat the World or at least had Courage and Confidence enough to attempt it return without spilling one drop of Blood or having an Hand held up against him to oppose his Entrance He had been himself a Sufferer and had thereby learnt to Govern his Subjects with Moderation He had been in Misery and that taught him to be Merciful He had been unjustly dealt with and that made him the more careful to see right done to all men His Justice and measure his
spoiled but left her Wealthy and Rich. Her Prelates He restored to their Ancient Rights and Dignities and filled Her Converts with Joy and Gladness His Religion and Piety He did not like most Princes make Religion an Artifice of State only but accounted it the Glory and Comfort of his Life His Soul in His private Devotion soared so high that he seemed to be wholly swallowed up with the Contemplation of the Holiness and Majesty of the God whom he adored and with whom he would plead in Prayer so earnestly and with such Affection as tho he were resolved to take no denial And one of the Presbyterian Ministers who attended the Commissioners sent over by the Parliament at Breda passing accidentally by when he was private in his Closet he was so astonished at the Ardency and Zeal wherewith he offered up his Sacrifices of Prayer and Praises to Almighty God that he suddenly clapt his hand upon his Heart and with a kind of Emotion of Spirit cried out to those that were with him We are not worthy of such a King And that which was the perfection of all his piety and zeal proceeded not so much from a desire to seem Religious as from a solemn Dedication of his great Soul to the Honour and Glory of his God by whom alone he knew Kings reign and Princes decree Justice Accounting himself like Theodosius the Emperor more happy in being a servant of Christ than in his being King of great Brittain and Ireland He was from his Infancy Eduducated in the Protestant Religion and Instructed by the Royal Martyr in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England And yet he was not a Protestant so much by Education as Choice as appeared by his constant adhering to the Church of England in the time of his unhappy Exile when he was absolutely free to have profess'd what Religion he pleased and had so many Temptations from the baseness and villany of his own Subjects and the kindness of those Popish Princes by whom he was entertained and from whose Assistance he expected relief against the unjust Oppression of those that had Vsurp'd his Throne to embrace the Doctrine of the Church of Rome And the reason why he so strenuously endeavoured to promote and maintain an Vniformity in Religion through all his Dominions was not so much to Justifie his own Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Causes as thereby to strengthen the Protestant Interest knowing that the safety of England consisted chiefly in the Vnion of her Inhabitants So that his knowledg in the sacred Mysteries of Religion was the Crown and Glory of all his other Perfections and the great end and design whereat He aimed in all his other Studies was the improving them to the Glory of God and the increasing in Himself the knowledg of more sublime and heavenly things wherein He so much excelled that He might have said with King David I am wiser than all my Teachers Knowing likewise that nothing obstructed the growth of Piety and the power of Godliness more than the wasting those parts and spending that time in disputing about Forms which ought wholly to be employed in promoting Holiness of Life and Sincerity of Heart He had during his Exile visited the Courts and Travelled through the Countrys of the three greatest and most Potent Monarchs of Christendom His Travels viz. Germany France and Spain and had by his Observation made himself Master of what was excellent and worth learning in their Forms and Methods of Government and exactly inform'd himself what were the Excellencies and what the defects of each of them And to the Admiration of those who had the Happiness to converse with him had by that means obtained an universal insight into all the great and weighty Affairs of Europe and understood by what Principles they were first moved and by what Counsels and to what ends they vvere aftervvards carried on vvhich tho he chiefly learned from themselves yet vvhat he gathered from them all in General vvas strange and surprizing to every one of them in particular who greatly wondred at the Comprehensiveness of his Knowledg So that as he had by right of Nature a Power of Empire over the Bodies of one Part of Europe He might seem by a Natural and acquired right to claim an Vniversal Monarchy over the Intellectual Powers the Minds and Wills of Mankind in all the Parts of it besides He understood Spanish and Italian and spake and wrote French correctedly was well versed in Ancient and Modern History and had read the choicest Pieces of Politicks and Divinity and understood the fundamental Laws of England so well His skill in Arts and Sciences that he could readily answer the most difficult Queries and resolve the greatest Mysteries and Critical Niceties that were at any time started about them and had his mind so well furnished with the knowledg of Nature and the Reasons of Things that He comprehended almost all kind of Arts which contributed any Thing either to the Delight or Service of Mankind He understood the truest and best Method for Building of Ships and could better than those who pretended themselves the greatest Crafts-masters therein direct the making them far more useful both for Strength and Sailing than any which had been formerly built and was as well acquainted with Rigging and Fitting forth a Fleet for Sea He had great Skill in Guns knew all that belonged to their casting and could tell upon first view whether they were mounted to do Execution or not He was a great Lover of stately Buildings and several Curious Edifices were either built or repaired by Him But his greatest Cost and Care in that kind was laid out in Windsor-Castle which he took more delight in than in any other of His Palaces Nor were His Buildings all for Pomp but some for Charity witness that Curious and Stately Fabrick of Chelsey-Colledg for the Entertainment of decayed Soldiers He understood Navigation Astronomy and all the parts of the Mathematicks to such a Degree that he is supposed to have attained a greater Perfection therein than any Prince ever did before Him and took so much delight in those Pleasant and Useful Studies that he endeavoured as much as possible the promoting them in others Witness His Worthy Gift to the Hospital of Christ-Church for the Annual breeding up a certain Number of the most Ingenuous of their Children in the Mathematical Studies and the Liberal Rewards which were frequently bestowed by Him upon Ingenious Men that had any way contributed toward the making those Studies more easie and delightful or had been imployed by him in any thing relating thereunto His Recreations for the most part were very stirring and such as tended to the making his Body more Robust and strong His Recreations and maintaining it in Health which he enjoyed to as great a degree as any Prince in the World ever did such as Riding Hunting Fishing Tennis and the like He loved Walking extreamly