the space of sixteen or eighteen years past Hoping for the future to write the Heroick Actions of this Nation in unexpugnable Characters to leave unto Posterity as an eye witness the Rehearsal of those Victories which Heaven shall bestow on England under Your Glorious Government that so I may the better satisfie my Zeal and Fidelity to Your Highness and approve my self to be Your Highnesses most Humble most Obedient most Faithful Servant and Loyal Subject S. Carrington The Preface Courteous Reader THat which I do here intend to present you with all is the Life and Death of Oliver Cromwel late Lord Protector of the Common-wealth of England that Grand Personage whose Conduct and Fortune all the world doth admire and who in the space of ten years time did accomplish the work of a whole Age nay more he perfected the work of future Ages having settled England on such good Foundations that if she continues to build thereon she may expect to produce second Edwards and second Henries This Illustrious Personages life is presented unto you in three several Scenes First you will finde him Dormant like unto David midst his Flocks untill the Troubles of his Countrey awake him And that the Almighty was pleased to call upon him to appease them as well as to en crease his glory you may reflect upon the course and progress of his valour by which being elevated almost to the sublimest pitch of his Grandeur he was left to act more absolutely according to his own prudence and was enforced to lay hands on the Reins of the most confused State that ever was Where you will finde his late Highness demeaning himself like unto a well resolved skillful Pilot in a Vessel tossed and tumbled by a tempest bestirring himself amidst the contrariest of Winds and wisely and dexterously avoiding those Rocks Shelves and Quicksands which threatned England with a second Shipwrack This his sage conduct being the more to be admired in that as then he had but a limited Power although the whole was due to his dexterity and prudence yet each one thought they had as great a share as himself in the Sovereign Power which as they supposed they had acquired by the Pen or the Sword either in the Army or in the Parliament so that all this great Politician could as then do was to reconcile those several Opinions then in agitation and to suffer himself to be swayed by the current of those windes and streams which he was neither willing nor well able to withstand at that time Now as there is nothing more dangerous in States then great and sudden changes so nothing more difficult to be managed and this being the Master-piece which a Politician hath to act this ensuing History will discover unto us the chief and several Motions Turnings Windings and Settling of the same His late Highness like unto an expert Physician was first put to read the Temperment of England her former way and manner of actings before the Current of her Humors and the Symptomes of all the Evils and Malignities which threatned her He likewise reflected on the Body Politick which he found as well as the Humane had its Replenishments and Evacuations and Crisis and then observed that as well in the one as the other those sudedn changes which happen are either Destructive or Salutary He observed that these Bodies nourished Choller as well as other Humors and thence deemed War to be the best Rubarb to purge them least otherwise they might evacuate of themselves Moreover he observed these Humors were subject to grow sharp and to rebell and that they oftentimes caused such violent and hot fits as that without the assistance of an expert and accomplished Physician death was like to ensue or which is worst most violent languishing and intollerable diseases So that the thing which is most to be admired at in the conduct of this grand Politician is that he could governe a People and procure a perfect Union and Tranquillity amidst three Nations whose mindes were agitated by several Opinions and whereby they are continually stirred against each other no motion transporting men more impetuously towards civil Dissentions then those which arise from the several Professions in Religion For besides the chief Religions profest in these three Nations viz. that of Geneva the Protestant the Episcopal and some Roman Catholicks there are sprung up throughout all England an infinite number of other Sectaries which like unto so many Hidra's did seem to issue forth from each others neck and whereby the mindes of men were so discomposed and hurried away into such violent Enthusiasmes as they stood in need of a good Guide to conduct and refrain them from a total precipitation And as it would be a difficult task to give you the several Denominations Derivations and Off-springs of all these several Schismaticks I shall therefore pass them by as being numberless Wherefore if we acknowledge as it is most assuredly true that Religion is the chief principal part which doth most of all contribute to the well ordering quiet and peaceable settling and Governing of a People we may easily judge that his late Highness the Lord Protector stood in need of more then ordinary Sagacity Prudence and Conduct to procure that Tranquillity Plenty and Splendour to England wherein he left it and the which without example is hardly to be found in all the other parts of Europe But to come nearer home to my own enterprize the Life of an Historian is the Life of History and his truth the most proper Preface to it Thus much I can safely write for my self that I have entertained no design beyond Truth as I have not made this History subservient either to Flattery or Interest I question not but the prejudice of some may go about to detect but I am so confident of my own integrity as to believe no person can forme a truer Relation of the late disturbed Affairs of these Nations I acknowledge where Originals have failed me and must do others I have conformed to Copies but of so near extraction as that they are but once removed from their Fountain I being so truly acquainted my knowledge so strongly established to trace this History as to discerne how to write so also for the credit of my laborious Industry I can affirme That my Information was not without near approaches as I continually conversed with the most principal Instruments in these admirable Transactions persons Unbiased that had certain and full Intelligence of the highest emergences whether Forreign or Domestick If I have been but as judicious and clear-sighted to perceive and write as I have been honestly unconcerned to transmit this History to posterity I shall not need to fear but stand secure against the most malicious or otherwise impertinent Imputations Having thus discharged my Conscience in these my honest endeavours I have no more to write but to bid thee read and then censure Impartially Farewell Thine S. C. The
Postscript REader Be pleased to take notice that this History is Translating into five other Languages it is in French ready for the Press the other Translations for other parts of the World being in such forwardness as that they will be speedily extant An Advertisement Courteous Reader BE pleased to take notice that in the Page 195. seven lines before that never till now published an Incomparable Poem of the English Virgil of our times Mr. Edmund Waller on General Mountague's wonderful Victory at Sea over the Spaniards at Sancta Cruze that in the Printing this escaped for shaming read sublime for other lesser Mistakes the expedition of the Press may obtain thy excuse THE HISTORY Of his Highness OLIVER The late Lord-Protector From his Cradle to his Tomb. The Introduction IF those Writers who pen the Histories of great Men had the same advantage as Painters have who oblige those whom they are to Portraict to seat themselves in such a posture as they may best consider and judge of them who do choose their Lights and thereby discover most apparently the most delicate and neatest feature of the Faces which they are to represent I might hope to give unto the publick and to Posterity a perfect Resemblance of his late Highness the Lord Protector of England although I should meet with a great deal of difficulty in the well applying of the Colours and to make choice of such exquisire Ones to trace the Footsteps of so glorious a Life True it is that the Soul is not visible as Mens Bodies are for as it hath its Origine from Heaven we must of necessity ascend up thither and enter into the Councels of the Almighty to observe those Lights and Inspirations which he gives unto those persons whom his Divine Providence doth make choice of to command here on Earth and those designs which he doth frame in these great Souls for the encrease of his Glory and for our Peace and Tranquillity So that our Ignorance doth oblige us herein to immitare the modesty and good behaviour of Painters who instead of a beautifull nakedness render it to our view wrapt up in fine Linnen and not discovering unto us the Brain whence the severall motions of the Body do proceed they only set before our eyes a dumb Image without Motion and some few Physionomical Marks which do help us to guess who the party is they intend to represent unto us My intent is to give you a rough Draught of this most excellent Personage whose Actions are so glorious and surpassingly winning in themselves as that we shall only need to enter upon a Relation of them and so insensibly compleat a Naturall Panegyrick much like unto those exquisite Beauties the advantages whereof we so much the more lessen and detract from by how much the more we go about to embellish them with Ornaments and Cloathing so that the Resplendency of my Subject it self will spare me the labour of making a long Introduction and the vastness of its Renown saves me the care I ought to have taken in duly preparing the Readers Mind to conceive worthily of this my HEROE and to have begot in them a Love and Esteem of his Person His late Highness was born in the Town of Huntington the chief of the Shire which beareth the same Name of a Noble Parentage being descended from the Ancient and Illustrious Family of the Williams's of the County of Glamorgan which Name in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth was changed into that of Cromwell as will appear by the ensuing History His Parents left him not much Wealth but caused him to be educated in the University of Cambridge where as it is reported a publick Representation being to be performed he that was to represent the Kings part falling sick this our Cromwell was said to have taken the Part upon Himself and so well imployed the little time he had to get it by Heart as it seemed that it was Infused into him and whereby he represented a King with so much Grace and Majesty as if that Estate had been naturall unto him And truly thus much may be averred that his Soul comprehended all those Seeds and Foundations of such Vertues as do usually render a Person capable to govern others Having finished his course of Study at the University when he had perfectly acquired unto himself the Latine Tongue which Language as all men know he made use of to treat with Strangers his Parents designed him to the Study of the Civill Law which is the Foundation of the Politicks It being very requisite that he who was Ordained to give Law to three Kingdomes and to the whole Sea besides should have a smack of the Law and chiefly of those which were the most Essentiall and Universall for he dived not over deep into this Study but rather chose to run a Course in all the rest of the Sciences and chiefly in the Mathematicks wherein he excelled as likewise he may be justly said to have yeilded to no Gentleman whatsoever in the knowledge of the rest of the Arts and Sciences But to keep more close to our History His Fortune and Rise did commence by those very means which by degrees elevated him to the Supream pitch of Grandeur The conjuncture of Affairs brought him on the Stage his Valour raised him up and the Politick part taking the upper hand as belonging to Her by Birth-right Crowned him with all those Blisses which both the former and latter could justly discern Wherefore the Disorders of England and Scotland being not possible to be appeased without the intervening of a Parliament there was one summoned in the year 1641. in which the late Protector assisted in the quality of a Burgess for the Town of Cambridge one of the most famous Universities of England who could not fail in making so good a Choice and so worthy of such Eminent persons as themselves verst in all Sciences and Profound Knowledge Things growing past an amicable reconciliation between the King and the Parliament after severall and infinite Treaties and Proposalls the last Reason both of the one and the other terminated in the loud Volleys of Canons each Partie took the Field and those Parliament Men who were minded to engage in the War did with a generall consent and approbation obtain leave to suspend their Imployment in the House whereunto they were called To maintain the Liberties of Parliament with the points of their Swords His late Highness was none of the last that proferred his Service to the Parliament and the better to witness his Passion and Zeal to the Cause he raised a Troop of Horse at his own costs and Charges The esteem he had in the House and the value which the County of Essex put upon his Person obliged the Parliament to grant him a Commission to levy as many men as he could that so he might make up a compleat Regiment And as he was Burgess of the
after they had promised quarter to the English they killed three of them and hurt all the rest There was no English Soldiers but had a Prisoner in this Battel there being taken ten thousand most of all which except the Officers were suffered to steal away amidst which there was ten Colonels twelve Lievetenant Colonels nine Majors forty seven Captains seventy two Livetenants and eighty Ensigns and amongst the Prisoners of Quality there was the Lord Libberton and his Son the Lord Cranstone Sir James Lundsdale Livetenant Generall of the Foot and Sir Pickerten Adjutant General all their Baggage and Canon was taken to the number of two and twenty great Guns and severall lesser ones two hundred Colours and Armes for 15000 Men of the English there was but one Officer killed and Major Rooksby who afterwards died of his Wounds as also Captain Sloyd of the Lord Fleetwoods Regiment dangerously wounded His late Highness obtained this memorable Victory on the third day of September 1650 on which day he also obtained another no less famous then this And on this very day God crowned his Labours with a peacefull and resolved quiet death whereby he no less triumphed over the World and the rage of Hell then he did in this last Battel we have related over a most puissant raging Enemy at which time his Army as a man may say brought low by Want and Sicknesses was even Bedrid and at deaths very Door And as the Parliament of England had caused a day of universall Prayers and Fastings to be kept for the good success of their Army in Scotland so likewise did they order a day of generall Thansgiving for this so notable and famous Victory and the General likewise on his part did not faile with the whole Army to acknowledge the good handy work of God who had so visibly gained him and them this Battel And the better to prosecute the said Victory and to reap the fruits thereof On the seventh day of September four Regiments of Foot were sent to possess Lieth a very considerable and advantageous place where seven and thirty piece of Ordnance were found mounted on Plat-forms and a considerable quantity both of Ammunitions of War and Provisions of Victuals And on the same day his late Highness became Master of the City of Edinbrough the Metropolitan of all Scotland and caused his whole Army to march into it without any loss save the Arme of one Soldier which was shot off by a Canon-bullet from the Castle And on the next Lords-day he sent a Trumpeter to the Castle to give notice to such Ministers as had abandoned their Pulpits to come and perform their Duties in their said Callings which they having refused to do he caused English Ministers to Officiate in their places in the mean while all possible diligence was used in the Fortifying of Lieth it being concluded to be the best and most commodious sheltring-place the English could have in Scotland for the Winter Season And after his late Highness had by sound of Trumpet both at Lieth and Edinbrough caused the freedome of Traffick and liberty of Trade to be published and established a sure way for the publick Markets himself on the fourteenth marched toward Nethrife six miles from Edinbrough leaving Major General Overton with his Brigade in Edinborough On the fifteenth the Army adadvanced toward Linlithgo but by reason of the ill Weather they could not pass on forward On the sixteenth they marched toward Falkirk and the next day they came up within one mile of Sterling On the eighteenth the Councel of War being assembled a Letter was drawn up to be sent thither by which the tenderness and affection of the English towards the Scotch Nation was represented alledging that though formerly it had not taken its desired effects Notwithstanding seeing that at present the Fortune and Success of Armes had been so contrary to them they desired them to reflect on those Proposals which had been formerly made unto them and to surrender that place unto them for the use of the Common-wealth of England and a Trumpeter being sent with the aforesaid Letter who coming up almost to the VValls met with a Gentleman on foot with a Pike in his hand who told him he should not be suffered to come into the place and that his Letter should in like manner not be received In the Afternoon that very day those of the Town sent a Trumpeter to demand the Prisoners with a proffer to pay their Ransoms To whom the General made answer That they were not come into Scotland to trade in Men nor to enrich themselves but to do Service to the Common-wealth of England and to settle and establish those Dominions On the same day Orders were issued to draw up the whole Army to the very VValls of the Town and by setting scaling Ladders to the place to give a generall Assault but after it was found that there was but a little appearance to effect the same in regard of the good Condition the Place and Garison was in they changed their resolution and on the nineteenth the Army retired to Linlithgow which was accounted a very fit place to make a Garison of whereby both Sterling and Edinborough might be bridled and curbed and the necessary Orders for the fortifying of the place being given there were five Troops of Horse left in Garison and six Companies of Foot and the Body of the Army returned to Edinborough where on the twenty third of September there was a day of Humiliation celebrated and solemnly kept And much about the same time the Churches of Scotland likewise ordered a solemn Festivall for the ensuing Reasons Viz. I. To humble themselves before God and to crave his pardon for having too much relyed on the Arme of Flesh II. For the wickedness and profaneness of their Armies III. For the Spoils and other Misdemeanours their Soldiers had committed in England IV. For having not sufficiently purged their Armies that is to say For not having put out such persons as were not godly and of their Belief V. For the indirect and sinister Means which their Commissioners made use of in their Treaty with their King and the indirect waies by which they had brought him into Scotland VI. For their not having sufficiently purged the Kings Family VII For the just Grounds they had to believe that his Majesties repentance was not reall nor from his heart The rest of the Month was imployed in the making of the Siege and Approaches against the Castle of Edinborough and in applying the Mines to the VValls And on the thirtieth the English with so much gallantry surprized one of their Bulwarks as they carried thence three hundred Muskets one Ensign and severall other Armes without the loss of one Man On the first of October the Besieged began to make their Salleys to hinder the working of the Miners upon whom they fired incessantly with their great and small Shot yet however they
with the neighbouring States It is a thing worthy of observation and admiration both together that our Protectors Ancestors did alwayes bear this Motto in their Arms Pax quoeritur Bello which seemeth onely to belong to Soveraign Princes as if by a prophetical chance or else rather by a Divine Providence this Family which as it seems was designed to bear the Scepter and to restore and give peace unto England after so bloody a Civil War and so many other forreign broyls had received this glorious Motto as an earnest of its future Grandeur which said Motto doth in substance contain all the mystery of the Politicks and comprehend the two powers which God doth give to those whom he establisheth his Lievetenants upon Earth In effect we may observe that peace which seemed to have embraced our incomparable Oliver and as it were to have been incorporated with him hath ever since grown up with him until such time as its powerful branches which encreased and grew up to an infinite height had spread it felf so far as that this dutiful Daughter of Heaven whose growth is limitted by God being not able to follow him no longer was constrained onely to fix her self to the body of the tree and to suffer the branches to extend themselves to the other sides of the Sea-Coasts for to deprive that Nation of Peace which doth least deserve it having extended the War and her Tyrannies throughout all the inhabitable parts of the World For as soon as his late Highness our dread Protector had attained to the power by the means and force of Arms in England Scotland and Ireland Peace immediately brake forth and resplendently shown throughout all those parts and stopt those floods of Blood which could never have been stanched but by the greatest branches of our illustrious Oliver and not sooner had his Voice a transcendency in and over the Councels but Peace continually accompanied his Oracles Do but with me track the course of his fortunes and you will finde that bright Astrea doth follow or rather doth conduct and lead by the hand this blessed Deity and chains her up to the triumphal Chariot there to humble her and to make her know that this our Oliver was not the work of her hands but rather of her own since it is the end which doth alwayes Crown glorious and magnanimous Actions Now whereas the last Victory which General Blake obtained at Sea had gained a great stock of credit unto his late Highness both at home and abroad the whole English Nation began to witness a desire that he would undertake the Management of Affairs and put himself at the Helme of the Government and likewise all Strangers and Forreigners endeavoured to be in a good understanding with England The King of Portugal sent an extraordinary Ambassadour over into England with a gallant retinue the stateliness whereof savoured of the profusion of Peace which was also immediately granted them on very advantageous Conditions for England And almost at the same time two deputations were admitted from France which Kingdom was again for the second time unfortunately divided by a Civil War The French King by his Deputy demanded the restitution of those Ships which had been taken by the English as they were going to the relief of Dunkirk and on the other part the Prince of Conde sent a Deputy from Bordeaux besieged by the King to demand relief but all the Civility England could shew either of them at that time was not to assent at all to their demands and by that means remove all occasions of jealousie from each party besides that business being too much exasperated between England and France there could not so suddain an occomodation be expected and as to the Bourdelois all men know those French Quarrels are as short as violent In like manner several other forreign Princes and States sent over Deputations into England to endeavour to moderate a Peace between this Commonwealth and the Hollanders as amongst the rest the Queen of Sweeden The Cantons of Switzes the Imperial Hansiatick Towns of Hamborough and Lubeck But at that time there was such a combustion in the minde of the English who were at variance amongst themselves as that there was no appearance of thinking of any peace with strangers and forreigners Affairs being therefore thus embroyled at home his late Highness as then General seeing that in the Parliament the particular Interests overswayed the publick Good and that it was aparent all their drifts tended but to establish themselves into a perpetual Senate contrary to the ancient Customes and Liberties of England which require that Parliaments should have their successions and should onely be convocated from time to time and that therefore the members of the house wiredrawed Affairs by unnecessary Centestations which onely served to publish the designs and to retard the execution of them This our General I say who was designed by the Divine Providence to establish peace and tranquillity in England upon surer more sollid and more glorious Foundations entred the Parliament House accompanied by the Chief Officers of the Army and briefly represented unto them the Reasons why the Parliament ought to be dissolved which was also accordingly done The Speaker with the rest of the Members immediately departing the House some by force some through fear and others not without a great deal of reluctancy and murmuring No one living soul was aggrieved at this action neither was it so much as endeavoured to be questioned or redressed by any one all the world believing that in case the said change should bring no good with it at least it would not put Affairs in a worse predicament then they were so that the sovereign Senate was dissolved as you have heard and the power thereof was transferred into the hands of those who better deserved it since they acquired it by the points of their Swords and that they have since made appear that they knew how to use it with more prudence and moderation Nay the Parliament-men were even made so cheap unto the people that they became their reproach and obliquie and so were a consolation to the unfortunate who saw themselves revenged on them by those from whom they had least cause to suspect or expect it There was not so much as the least questioning nor censuring of the cause of this revolution but every one found it expedient according unto the several satisfactions which he thereby received or hoped for and as the Army was onely looked upon as Souldiers of fortune whom the necessity of the Affairs or the dangerous conjuncture of the times had enforced to take up Armes so that which was past and gone was not laid to their charge and the world could not choose but applaud them for what happened at present but expect from them for the future that generosity which the Millitary profession doth inspire into great courages as to this very day all men do enjoy
so much dexterity diligence and vigour as that they had reason to confess that the change of the Pilot and the entire obedience which is rendered to an absolute Captain who hath the sole power in his hands are but ill signs that the Vessel should be therefore the worse guided and conducted And to give you a proof of the truth the Hollanders having at that time a vast number of Merchant-men in their Harbours ready to set Sail durst not hazard them through the Channel although they had a Fleet of ninety Men of War to conduct them But conducted them by North of Scotland to reach the Sound where they met with another great Fleet of their Merchant-men some coming from Russia some from the East-Indies and others from France all which they carryed home into Holland after which hearing that the English Fleet was steered Northward instead of seeking them out and to take the advantage of the English divisions as they had pretended and bragged they amuzed themselves in making several bravadoes in such places where there was neither honour glory nor benefit to be acquired at length they steered towards the Downs where they carried away two or three despicable Barks and sent some volleys of Cannon into Dover their Hearts and their Sails being equally puffed up with these imaginary successes which savouring something of their old Masters Jack Spaniards Rodomontado's they thought they could not better express them then at that time saying That the English Fleet was to be cryed out by the sound of Trumpets and Horns as if she had been lost But the Winde being as unconstant as the Sea it self and as dangerous quickly tacked about to their confusion and the Old Proverb That all the evil comes from the North was made good to their cost and charges For the English Fleet returning on a suddain from the Northward on the twenty eighth of May came into Yarmouth-Road and on the first of June next ensuing being at an Anchor they discovered two Dutch Galliots to which they gave chase till they came up to the body of the Dutch Fleet. But the weather proving over-covered and dusky they could not joyn with them On the third the English being at Anchor near unto the South-point of the Gober descryed the Enemy about two Leagues to Leeward of them being about one hundred Sail of Ships wherefore without loss of time the English weighed and made up to them The engagement began between eleven and twelve at noon and for some hours the fight was sharp untill about six in the evening the enemy bare right way before the winde and so ended that dayes fight On the next morning both Fleets came in sight of each other but there was so little winde stirring that they could not engage each other till twelve at noon when as they fell to it again for good and all and after four hours fight which proved very disadvantagious to the Hollanders they thought it not fitting to contest any longer but to get away as well as they could However a fresh westerly gale arising very opportunely the English being encouraged by their flight bare in so hard amongst them that they took eleven Men of War and two water Hoyes in which fight one thousand five hundred prisoners were taken and six Captains besides which six Holland Men of War were sunk and all the rest of the Dutch Fleet had according to all probability been cut off had not the night happily closed in for them But the darkness growing on and the English finding themselves near the Flats and necessitated to stay and mend their Sails and Rigging which were much shattered and torne about ten at night they came to an Anchor The greatest loss the English sustained was of General Dean one of their Admirals who was taken off by a great shot in the first dayes ingagement and whose death did sufficiently recompence all the Enemies loss he having been a person of reputed Valour and great experience besides which there was one Captain slain and about one hundred and fifty men and two hundred and forty hurt but not one of the English Ships were lost That which greatly encouraged the English and disheartned the Dutch was the arival of General Blake to their aid and succour with sixteen good Men of War very opportunely Now the Dutch by the favour of the night being gotten off and having retired themselves into the Weilings the 〈…〉 and the Texel the English called a Councel of all the Officers to advise on what would be most expedient to be undertaken to improve this Victorie to the best advantage and it was resolved to advance with the whole Fleet as fast as they could to the Weilings as far as they could possibly approach with safety by reason of the Flats and Shelves and in this wise forrage the whole Dutch Coasts till they came to Texel which being accordingly performed and being arrived at the said height they there remained a pretty while taking every day some prizes more or less to the great prejudice of the Dutch whose Ships could neither get in or out of any of their Ports as long as the English continued there Nor could their Men of War unite and come to a head to make a body to come forth Wherefore leaving them to take breath and to recollect their spirits again and so to think of the best means for their Deliverance we will return for England again with our Fleet and see how squares stands there General Cromwel who alwayes made use of more moderation then power in the Rise of his Fortune being unwilling to deprive England of her ancient Liberties and Priviledges resolved together with the chief Officers of his Army to assemble a Parliament To invest them with the power of administring and exercising the Laws and to appoint them as it were Judges of his Councel and Government And the Warrants requisite thereunto were issued out unto such persons as through England Scotland and Ireland were chosen by himself and his Councel to assist in the said Parliament for them to meet in the Councel-Room at White-Hall on the fourth day of the moneth of July in the year of our Lord. 1653. A forme of which said Warrant you have as followeth viz. For asmuch as upon the dissolution of the late Parliament it became necessary that the Peace Safety and good Government of this Commonwealth should be provided for and in Order thereunto diverse persons fearing God and of approved sidelity and honesty are by my self with the advice of my Councel of Officers nominated to whom the great charge and trust of so weighty Affairs is to be Committed And having good assurance of the love to and courage for God and the interest of his Cause and the good people of this Commonwealth I Oliver Cromwel Captain General and Commander in chief of all the Army and Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth do hereby Summon and
his Life as freely as he formerly had done for the peace and tranquility of their City and for the Liberty of England The Lord Major rode all the way bare-headed as also carried the City Sword drawn before his late Highness the Lord Protector By the one representing the Respect and Obedience of the City and by the other its Fidelity and Resolution to spill their Blood in the defence of the Peace of the State and for the preservation of the Life and new Dignity of his Highness The Streets were railed up and the several Companies of the City in their Liveries sate on both sides of the way with Streamers sticking up to distinguish each Company Moreover it is a thing worthy to be observed how that the Character which God doth imprint on the Forehead of those whom he hath designed to be his Vicegerents on Earth doth beget an astonishment and fear in the hearts of those where it cannot raise a respect but in the others both admiration and love so that on all sides the Divine Providence compasseth its Glory either by the means of its Justice or Mercy And thus you see his Highness the Lord Protector passing through this great City which was drawn up in Arms having his Head onely covered with Laurels and his guarded with a simple though resplendent morsel of Glory The one surrounding him to cover and protect him with her wings and the disarmed Justice which accompanied this great Heroes footsteps seemed to Lead a naked and fettered Mars by a silken thread And thus after his Highness had been most splendedly entertained by the City before he departed he conferred the Honour of Knighthood upon the Lord Major and left all the City filled with an admiration of his Heroick Vertues and with a general satisfaction of his candor and generousness their hopes being freighted with acclamations and good wishes No sooner was his late Highness settled in the Supreme degree of his Protectorship but just like the Sun elevated in a high sublime Sphere he begat an infinite number of malignant Exhalations which however were soon dissipated by his luster and resplendency and at the same time by his vertue he gave a life and being to all those glorious actions which knowing men did expect from his sage Government On the Eighteenth of February 1653. a most dangerous Conspiracy which was hatched by the Royalists was discovered several of the Conspirators were taken and sent to the Tower of London But his Highness willing to begin his Government by an Act of Clemency and to let the world see that the Grandor of his new Dignity did onely render him powerful to do good he pardoned the said Delinquents and caused them to be set at liberty Much about which time arrived Deputies from the several Counties and Shires as well of England Stotland and Ireland to congratulate his Highness happy Inauguration and to assure him of their fidelity and submission to his Commands all which his Highness received with a great deal of Candor and repaied them with Use to wit the establishing of good and salutary Orders for the Peace and Tranquility of the Commonwealth and each Member thereof in particular Nor did he forget to regulate the Spiritual Affairs and out of an infinite number of Opinions he begat a pleasant harmony the seeming dissonance and harshness whereof was onely unsavory to the ignorant and to such as had stopped their ears Mean while the Scots animated by several discontented persons here in England did levy an Army by Command from their King and began to take heart of grace again reassuming their former courage and hopes The Earls of Glencarne and Kenmore were at the Head of four thousand Horse and Foot joyning several other small parties which from all sides flocked down unto them But Collonel Morgan was so vigilant and active that before they could have time to Form a greater Body he marched with fifteen hundred Horse and Foot and on the seventh of February he arrived at Lough which was the Enemies appointed Rendezvouz where having charged them after a short but smart Fight he killed one hundred and fifty of them and defeated all the rest the Earl of Glencarne with much ado making his escape onely with forty Horse But all these small Bickerings and as it were shadows of War did onely serve as a foil to that most important and considerable Peace which both England and Holland was to reap at our Olivers hands When as most part of the Winter was well nigh passed over in this Negociation at London where the Hollanders had four Ambassadours who daily laboured to compass the same Two of them to wit the Lords Newport and Youngstall re-passed into Holland about the Moneth of February to communicate unto the High and Mighty Lords the States their Masters the Conclusion of the Treaty and to get them to ratifie the same On the third of March 1653 4. of the same Year they returned back again where they were received with all the pomp and state that could possibly be imagined and might demonstrate the Joy which the Merchants conceived of the happy effects of so happy a Reconciliation The next day they had Audience from his Highness where declaring the full powers they had from the Lords States to ratifie the said Peace which they had made they desired a speedy Cessation of Arms should be published on both sides and in conformity thereto on the fifth Day of April next ensuing the Articles of Peace were signed sealed and delivered on the behalf of both parties and were accordingly published and proclaimed to the general satisfaction of all men And his Highness the better to testifie the particular pleasure he took therein did most sumptuously treat the Holland Ambassadours witnessing unto them by his noble Noble treatment all the marks of Joy which might manifest and make good by his Conduct and Entertainment the old Motto of his Family That War hath no other end save to beget a Peace And as to the Affairs of Ireland his Highness by his good Orders and establishing the Natives in the Province of Cannaught which is in the heart of Ireland had settled all things so well in those parts as that the English needed not to fear any either abroad or at home and the Irish beginning to be sensible that the Yoke of a vigilant and absolute Protector was far more tollerable and to be preferred before the Servitude of a feeble and tottering multitude who onely heeding their own preservations and particular interests do abandon the People and their wellfares either to their own capriciousness or to the imbroils of ambitious and hot spirits who abusing of the Commonalties simplicity and sincerity run them headlong into Ruine But some enemies of the State perceiving that it was impossible to hinder the Earth from bringing forth of good fruits as long as it was animated by so sensible and feeling a warmth resolved to
to consult on their Business were seized with a Pannick fear and no one of their Enemies appearing or pursuing them they cryed out that they were betrayed and so betook themselves to their heels some one way some another in a confused manner So likewise did Collonel Lilburn send word out of Northumberland that they were busie in framing of a party there also but that they had dissipated themselves through their own Fears and Jealousies Finally in Yorkeshire Sir Henry Slingsby and Sir Richard Maleverer had also assembled some Forces to have seized the City of York having two Cart-loads of Ammunition with them but they dispersed themselves on their own accompt seeing but little appearance to succeed in their designe Sir Henry Slingsby was taken and Imprisoned and afterwards Beheaded upon another accompt The first party commanded by Wagstaff and Penruddock was defeated by Captain Vnton Crook at a place called South-melton some whereof were killed and others were taken who were Tried and Condemned and those which dyed of note were Mr. Lucas Thorpe Kensey Graves and Penruddock Sir Joseph Wagstaff had the hap to make his escape and to get away Moreover a little afterwards to rid the State of such like Incendiaries and Firebrands the several Prisons and Goals of England were delivered from the Royalists which were detained prisoners on the foregoing accompts who were sent away to the Plantations and Collonies in America In like manner the rest of the other risings before mentioned were quelled and dissipated which both struck a terror in those who had not as yet shewn themselves and restored peace and quietness to the State By this time the subtil Spaniard whose quaint policy doth for the most part hug the prosperous and destroy the miserable and distressed seeing that Fortune did daily more and more incline to favour his late Highness the Lord Protector that his Vigour and Force increased by opposition and that the sole resplendency of his glory dissipated all those fogs and mists which endeavoured to obscure it thought it meet to court England and to endeavour to engage this State in his interests in which was omitted no proffers which a Puissant Monarch could possibly make unto a Prince whose Power was but as it were in the bud and beginning to sprout forth To which purpose the Marquis of Leda arived at London in the quality of an extraordinary Ambassador to his late Highness where he was received with all the Demonstrations of Honour and Pomp. But his late Highness being over-sensible of all those gross injuries which the Spanish Nation for several years together have committed against the English and also against all Europe besides and being not willing to conforme his Maximes with the tyrannical and unjust principles of the Spaniards returned civil and ceremonious Answers to the said Ambassadors Proposals who returned back again very speedily with all sorts of contentment and satisfaction save onely to that which he chiefly expected and most of all insisted upon And England being at that present time in a peaceable posture the Almighty having Crowned his late Highness the Lord protector with several signal Victories and Deliverances of his person from an infinite number of Dangers his Highness thought he could not in a better wise express his acknowledgements for so many mercies then by the imploying of all his Care and Forces to oppose and beat down the Ambition nay I may justly say their Sacraledge and Impiety and Avarice of the Spaniards since it onely belongs to a God to Stile himself the Universal Monarch who at the expence and charge of an hundred thousand Murders and Devastations have rendred themselves Masters of the whole worlds Treasures And withall totally to extripate and root up the profound plots and devices which the Spaniards had long since laid in England to become Masters thereof or at least to breed divisions in it at their own pleasures Nor shall I need to enlarge upon the ambitious and cruel designes of that invincible Armado of Philip the Second which was to have invaded England and to have made it swim in its own Blood nor of those several entreagues and policies which Spain hath hatched in Ireland by assistances of men and monies as also by their several Conspiracies in England abusing of the Religion and blind zeal of some particular persons there I shall onely begin with Gundamore that arch Machiavilian Spanish Ambassador who had gained such a Credit and Power in the Court of England as that when he pleased he could dispose of the Lives of the greatest and best men in the State when he had discovered they were his Masters Enemies I shall onely instance in one that admirable personage Sir Walter Rawleigh who by reason he had undertaken to visit their Treasures in Hispaniola and had Committed some hostillities in those Seas in former time Gundamore never left importuning of King James whom he had in a manner bewitched till he had obtained his death and thus bereaved England of one of the great Politicians and Universallest men that ever this Isle brought forth leaving us a testimony of his vast knowledge and experience to wit his famous History of the World From hence his late Highness resolved to begin his just War against the proud Spaniard and to sacrifice to the memory of this great Captain and one of the most experienced Sea-men of all the World all the Spanish Blood which the valour of the noble English hath so generously by way of retaliation drawn and let out since his late Highness's expedition against them There are some friends with whom a man is forced to break off all friendship because they will be too much our friends that is because they over-act the part of friendship by prying too deep into our Affairs and Designes and by interesting themselves too far into the concernments of those who depend on us as that thereby they steal away their hearts from us and such like friends have the Spaniards been to England who buy their friendships at such cheap rates as that they feed those who side with them onely with imaginary speculations here on earth making them eternally miserable and with specious promises in the world to come which would be obtained at cheaper and more assured rates without the interposing of their Hippocritical and Ambitious trains But to return to our History again his late Highness whose Genius affected the greatest difficulties and the most extraordinary and rarest Designs fix'd his thoughts upon New Spain not to bereave them of their Treasures which are with more ease to be interrupted at their coming home but to revenge all Europe unto whom the Jealous humor of the Spaniards denies Traffique and Commerce into those parts having at all times exercised unheard of Cruelties and horrible Treacheries on such as were driven into those parts accidentally and forcibly by storms and tempests or such as were by themselves under the notion
have since enjoyed in the heart of their Dominions and the Victories and Conquests which they may yet atchieve by this happy Union if their victorious and gallant Prince doth continue to accompany his Valour with those Vertues which are onely capable not onely to give him addition of Crowns but also to preserve them And lest I might insensibly out-slip my chief intent and purpose and engage my self in the giving of you a Relation of the chiefest and most important Wars and Transactions of all Europe should I recount unto you all the glorious Actions which have hapned since the Breach between England and Spain in which our late Protector bare away all the share at Sea and a very great part also by Land as in our joynt Conquests in Flanders and our particular ones in Lorain I shall therefore contract my pen a little and onely give you a Breviate of the chiefest Actions remitting the Reader to the more ample Histories both of France and England to peruse the Relation of those Victories wherewith Heaven hath blessed this Alliance for these late Years past In which the mature deliberations and good Councels do more concern his late Highness then the execution of those gallant Attempts which proceeded from them although in truth both the one and the other may well be attributed to his great prudence and to those Blessings which it hath pleased the Almighty to shower down upon his admirable good fortune of which take some few Instances It is apparent to all the world in what a manner his late Highness provided for the preservation of Jamaica notwithstanding all the force and attempts of Spain and the Indies to free that Island again although they never yet did set foot thereon save to their own shame and confusion having been driven thence again with the loss of all their Cannon and Baggage and the which happened two several times when as the Spaniards assembling all their Forces in the Indies came and encamped themselves in the Island with two or three thousand men had the time and opportunity to build and erect Forts and for the space of some dayes to settle themselves Notwithstanding which the English as if they were but newly arrived from England to attempt a new Conquest of the Island were constrained to imbark themselves and put to Sea again the wayes being not passable by Land and in that wise compassing the whole Island they made their descent at the very place where the Enemies were encamped and assailed them in their Forts and Breast-works with a far less number of men then theirs and drave the Spaniards quite from them and out of the Island killing and taking several of their men and retaining several of their great Guns and stately Standards as Trophies of their Victory Nor shall I enlarge upon that glorious Victory obtained by General Mountegue over the Spaniards at Sea which was the first that made this entrance into that famous War and gave the Spaniards to understand that it would cost them far more to transport their Gold from the Indies to Spain then to dig it out of the Mines or to refine it The ensuing Poem penned by one of the most exquisite Wits of England upon that subject may better suffice to satisfie the Reader of the gloriousness of the Fact and the shaming Stile which it is described by is more proper to express this Heroick Action then my low and unpolished Prose which might haply obscure and detract from the lustre and splendor of so brave an Exploit wherefore I have thought fit to insert the Poem it self Upon the present War with Spain and the first Victory obtained at Sea Now for some Ages had the pride of Spain Made the Sun shine on half the World in vain While she bid War to all that durst supply The place of those her Cruelty made dye Of Nature's Bounty men forbare totaste And the best Portion of the Earth lay waste From the New World her Silver and her Gold Came like a Tempest to confound the Old Feeding with these the brib'd Elector's Hopes She made at pleasure Emperors and Popes VVith these advancing her unjust Designs Europe was shaken with her Indian Mines VVhen our Protector looking with disdain Vpon this gilded Majesty of Spain And knowing well that Empire must decline Whose chief support and sinews are of Coyn Our Nation 's sollid vertue did oppose To the rich Troublers of the World's repose And now some moneths encamping on the Main Our Naval Army had besieged Spain They that the whole Worlds Monarchy design'd Are to their Ports by our bold Fleet confin'd From whence our Red Cross they triumphant see Riding without a Rival on the Sea Others may use the Ocean as their road Onely the English make it their abode Whose ready Sails with every Winde can flie And make a covenant with th'unconstant Skie Our Oaks secure as if they there took root We tread on Billows with a steady foot Mean while the Spaniards in America Near to the Line the Sun approaching saw And hop'd their European Coasts to find Clear'd from our ships by the Autumnal Winde Their huge capacious Gallions stuft with Plate The laboring winds drives slowly towards their fate Before Saint Lucar they their Guns discharge To tell their Joy or to invite a Barge This heard some Ships of ours though out of view As swift as Eagles to the quarry flew So heedless Lambs which for their mothers bleat Wake hungry Lions and become their meat Arriv'd they soon begin that Tragick play And with their smoakie Cannon banish day Night horror slaughter with confusion meets And in their sable Arms imbrace the Fleets Through yielding Planks the angry Bullets fly And of one Wound hundreds together dye Born under different Stars one Fate they have The Ship their Coffin and the Sea their Grave Bold were the men which on the Ocean first Spread their new Sails whilst shipwrack was the worst More danger now from men alone we find Then from the Rocks the Billows or the Wind. They that had sail'd from near th' Anartick Pole Their Treasure safe and all their Vessels whole In sight of their dear Countrey ruin'd be Without the guilt of either Rock or Sea What they would spare our fiercer Art destroyes Excelling storms in terror and in noise Once Jove from Hyda did both Hoasts survey And when he pleas'd to Thunder part the Fray Here Heaven in vain that kinde Retreat should sound The louder Canon had the thunder drown'd Some we made Prize while others burnt rent With their rich Lading to the bottom went Down sinks at once so Fortune with us sports The Pay of Armies and the Pride of Courts Vain man whose rage buries as low that store As Avarice had digg'd for it before What Earth in her dark bowels could not keep From greedy hands lies safer in the Deep Where Thetis kindly doth from mortals hide Those seeds of Luxury Debate and Pride
for that himself would be her son since the preservation of his life had its being from her entralls that both her and his Duret was with a better Master a Master who was his Master also and whose recompences and rewards were for greater and more assured then these worldly ones And that the great thoughts of his heart might not lose their force and energy by his imploying of anothers tongue to express them this great Personage who never made use of the French language to entertain the Ambassador of Kings and Princes withall did put himself to the trouble of learning some French words with which he alwayes was used to chear up and comfort the good old Woman whensoever he met her and he that was wont to swim in the blood of his enemies and could look with an undiscomposed brow on thousands of men and of his friends lying dead on the Field after a battle had so much tenderness for the loss of one of his domestique Servants as that he could not refrain from tears when he beheld any of Durets relations Nor need we to wonder hereat since his late Highnesses general spirit contained as well private as publique Vertues And his Reason which was alwayes mistress of his Passions knew full well how to imploy them on such occasions and at such times as they were most requisite and commendable to let us see That the Dignity of a General and a Protector had not made him relinquish the quality of a Man and that Maximes and Reasons of State had forced several things from him which were absolutely repugnant to his natural inclinations Besides this great Politician knew that the greatest part of Famous Men which Fortune had elevated to the top of her Wheel were for the most part come to untimely ends by the corruption of their domestique Servants or the treachery of their intimatest Friends and bosom Favourites in regard whereof his late Highness lamented the more the loss of this his Faithful Servant Nor need we to wonder hereat since Fortune had heaped all the perfections of Vertues in his great Soul which he evidently manifested by his so orderly and peaceably re-uniting and as it were matching together the Vertues both of War and Peace the ruffness and harshness of War with the tenderness of Nature their Licentiousness with Piety Confusion with good Order and so resplendent an eminent Greatness to such inconsiderate abject and humble domestique considerations Wherefore this Nation may account it self thrice happy in enjoying such sublime rising Powers to govern it who are able to distinguish between Good and Evil and who suffer not themselves to be puffed up so high as that they scorn and disdain to look downwards and so stand not in need as the waters poured far from the Ocean of a borrowed and corrosive salt to preserve things from corruption Thus as I have already given you rather a Glimpse then a Character of his late Highness his Person I shall now render you some other considerable Remarks of his Affairs After the discoveries of an hundred Plots and Designs laid open and frustrated the defeating of many jealous parties all of them convinced and finally sundry Forreign Negotiations and Treaties which hath given you occasion as well to admire his Judgement as his Valour whence you have found as bold undertakings to have proceeded from his late Highness as ever were commented and as admirable Conquests on the Continent as may well answer the ancient though long time dormatick Valour of the English Nation To consider how he joyned the Piety and good Order of Numa with the Vigour and Force of Romulus in those foundations which he laid of this new and Warlike Empire which although they scarce budded forth of the earth are never the less substantial enough to bear up a solid building and do sufficiently discover all the several beautiful Repartitions of the same in a most exquisite manner and in a goodly ground plot First his late Highness settled such a Military Discipline as partaking of the Vertues of the three first Roman Founders did strike a terrour into the most ambitious Monarchs of the earth and doth give Instructions or rather read Lectures on both the Christian and Moral Vertues unto that Nation which pretends to be the wisest and most Religious of all the world I believe that if a Croysade had armed all the Priests and Religious Men there would not be so strict an order observed in their Christian Military Discipline as that which we now see is established in England where Sobriety flourisheth amidst abundance in a Countrey where formerly Debauchery was accounted as a Gallantry and converted into a custom where Modesty is wedded to Cruelty Justice with the extremity of Power Meekness with the stubborness of Arms War with Piety Valour with Fear and Obedience And since we speak of the Piety of this English Pompilius may we not say that the Goddess Ageria did nightly in his solitudes appear unto him Nor need we to say that he made use of fire and flames by a barbarous and unchristian-like Zeal to establish the truth of the Gospel Nor did he send millions of Pagans to Hell thereby to be strong enough to force five hundred against their wills into Heaven The Piety of this our Common Father was void of Envy and Cruelty He hath defied the Tyrants over mens Consciences by Clemency and Charity and hath caused those who profess those two Vertues before all others which are more sublime though less profitable to our neighbours and consequently of less concernment to doubt whether or no the Quality of the most Christian King is not far better then that of the Catholique All which being maturely considered we may say when a State erreth both in the Ecclesiastique and Politique Government he that is invested with the Sovereign Power far from being reputed a Tyrant is accountable before God if he doth refuse the same and if he lets that Talent remain useless which may otherwise be advantageous to the whole world To say more of his Generosity this Vertue he highly recommended above all others unto his Ministers of State and unto his Ambassadors and unto his Children and whereof that noble Lady Cleypoll his Daughter of worthy memory did give so many evidences during her life and even at the Article of her Death as that she thereby did beget tears in the most obstinate and hardiest enemies of this State A worthy Daughter of so famous a Father whom Heaven too soon snatched away both from the Vertuous and from the Miserable and whose soul did admirably correspond with her Fortune and the Majesty of her Comportment How many of the Royalist prisoners got she not freed How many did she not save from Death whom the Laws had condemned How many persecuted Christians hath she not snatcht out of the hands of the tormenters quite contrary unto that Herodias who could do any thing with her father She imployed her
The Most excellent Oliver Cromwell Lord Gen ll of Greate Brittay Chancellor of the Vniversity of Oxford L d Cheife Gover r of Ireland ☜ Claude lib de laud Stil Similem Quae protulit Aelus Consilio vel Marle VIRUM THE HISTORY OF THE Life and Death Of His most Serene Highness O LIVER Late Lord Protector Wherein from his Cradle to his Tomb are impartially transmitted to Posterity the most weighty Transactions Forreign or Domestique that have happened in his Time either in Matters of Law Proceedings in Parliaments or other Affairs in Church or State By S. Carrington Pax quaeritur Bello London Printed for Nath. Brook at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1659. FUIMUS The Right honble Charles Viscount Bruce of Ampthill â—en â— Heir Apparent of Thomas Earl of â—â—â—â—bury Baron Bruce of Whorleton To His most SERENE HIGHNESS RICHARD Lord PROTECTOR OF THE Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging May it please Your Highness AS nothing can be presented to the Potentates of the World of greater value then the Labours of Famous Historiographers who describe to the life the Examples of such Eminent Personages as were transcendent in preceding Ages and may in their Successours beget both Emulation and Experience so shall I not need to apprehend that this History which in all humility I present unto Your Highness will prove unacceptable since therein You may encounter with such a Model of all kinde of Vertues and Perfections as I hope may take a deeper impression in Your Highnesses Breast in regard that it will be found that Art herein is seconded by Nature And whereas I am under the lash of a severe Castigation for my presumption in profering this History to Your Review as I acknowledge when I seriously consider how You have attracted to Your Self that lively Pourtraiture of his Great Soul that You appear the true Embleme both of his Vertues and Majesty May it please Your most Serene Highness I cannot chuse but address this present Oblation as to Your Self so in other Languages to the rest of the Princes and Potentates of the Earth I bequeath it unto posterity very humbly craving the favourable Protection of Your Highnesses Patronage Nor durst I publish so glorious a Work to the World before I had craved Your Highnesses pardon for my Rashness in adventuring to trace those Vigorous Lineaments in the Alexander whom Your Highness so well resembleth and in whom your Highness beareth so great a part Moreover as a sole Apelles could onely be capable of so great an Enterprize so it will be altogether unnecessary for me to endeavour the Description of that Pourtraiture which so evidently is manifested to all the World both in Your Highnesses Person and Actions Wherefore my Lord I must needs confess that Your Highness is the true Original and mine onely relating to the Out-side of so Great and unalterable an Albionist The truth is I finde not in my self ability to express the Real Worth of His Accomplishments and Hardy Features accompanied with that Vivacity and Lustre which secret Mystery lyeth onely in the Hand of that great Master of Nature and Extant in that very Personage whose Simile is hardly this Day to be found in the whole Vniverse except in Your Inimitable Self Nor doth Art or Humane frailty allow so much to be in the Possession of the best men Therefore those who go about to Pourtraict such like Incomparable Personages cannot avoid one of those extremities which Painters run into when they go about to represent the Sun who either place themselves at so great a distance as that they can onely discover an ineffications and feeble Reflections of its Beams or approach so neer unto it as that being dazled with its Resplendency and overcome with its Heat they are bereaved of their Senses and retain onely their Hearts at liberty to adore and admire that powerful Hand which formed so glorious a Creature To the like Non plus am I reduced who rashly ascend to the very summit of the Throne of Honour thence to contemplate his late Highness Person surrounded by so glorious a Resplendency as no eyes are able to behold nor to be comprehended by the mindes of men so that I must needs sink under the burthen and content my self with the Poets Expression Inopem me copia fecit In which extasie all my Senses being surprized my Heart is onely left free to admire and my Tongue to plead Excuses and offer up good Wishes which I most humbly Dedicate and Devote unto Your most Serene Highness Nor could the Heavens have ever established a more fitting Personage to bear a share in or inclination unto this Work then Your Highness as well as to defend it from Envy it self And if so be History be a second Life Your Highness may judge by the black Attempts which threatned Your Glorious Father how this Work will be assailed and how many Enemies its Authour must resolve to enter into the Lists withall their Rage being thereby renewed and augmented by their perceiving that the Tomb hath onely bereaved us of the least part of this Great Heroe And how malicious soever their Envy may appear in such Stories which possibly may be written in Contradiction hereof it will onely publish from Truth it self to the World their inveterate Spleen which can never pierce through the bright Rayes of his Innocent and Glorious Actions Moreover whereas the Divine Providence hath so often and miraculously preserved the first life of his late Highness against the Attempts both of men and monsters Your most Serene Highness is also engaged as well by Imitation as by the Interest of Your Care and Royal Dignity to watch over the Preservation of his second Life which is in Your Highness by so Lawful a Succession as is devolved upon Your Self The Glorious Course whereof I resolve to trace from this very moment that I may the better publish the Illustrious Transactions thereof in five other Languages which during my Travels I have acquired In which also I intend to publish this present History the French being already perfected and fit for the Press His great Soul expecting proportionable Honours to its Dignity and his vaste Minde requiring number less Elegies which may remain as so many living Monuments not to be defaced by Times Violence nor Envy But I press this Subject too home to Your Highness since You bear so great a share therein and my self dare attribute so little of it to my own incapacity of compassing so great an undertaking Wherefore I shall onely hereby endeavour to attract others and to shew them the Borders and Coast of that vaste Sea into which they ought to lanch so that like to a Forelorn Hope I shall onely first mount the Breach and by diverse Languages animate all the Trumpets of Fame to Celebrate the Glory of his late Highness in those parts of the World where I have conversed for