Kingdom also into severall factions each labouring to advance their own though to the Ruine and Destruction of the publick Peace Onely to take off somewhat of the imputation he made so much use of his power and interesse with the King as to prefer three of his servants unto Titles of Honour Anno 1621. viz. Sir Robert Cary Chamberlain of his Houshold to the Title of Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard second Son to the Earl of Suffolk and Master of his Horse to the Honour of Viscount Andover and Lord Howard of Charlton and Sir John Vaughan Controller of his Houshold to the Honour of Lord Vaughan of Molingar in the Realm of Ireland 1618. On the eighteenth day of November Anno 1618. There appeared a great blazing Star the fore-runner of many woful events in these parts of Christendom But the first sad effect thereof which we found in England was the death of Queen Anne which hapned on Tuesday the second of March next following A losse which the Prince bare with great equanimity or evennesse of Spirit neither banishing all shews of grief with a Stoical Apathie nor spending his time in too much womanish lamentation At the Funerall of this great Queen he was principall Mourner and it became him so to be she having always been to him a tender and indulgent Mother expressing more affection to him then to all the rest of her Children 1619. Not long after the death of the Queen King James fell very sick at Newmarket and having a desire to come to London advanced on his way as far as Royston where he was fain to stay till his sickness was over which at last became so dangerous that his death was feared At what time Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester attending on him bewailed with great Affliction the sad condition which the Church was like to fall into if God should take away his life the Prince being in the hands of the Scots which made up the greatest part of his Houshold and not well principled by those which had the tutelage of him either as to the Government or Liturgie of the Church of England The King acknowledgeing this sad truth and condemning his own negligence in it made a solemn vow that if God would be pleased to restore him to his health he would take the Prince into his own immediate care instruct him in the Controversies of Religion and set him on so right a bottome that there should be no fear of his disaffection either unto the Hierarchy or the rites and Ceremonies of the Church which he did accordingly And he did it so effectually that at such time as the Prince made his journey into Spain and that some principal persons in all the Places and Offices belonging to him were to follow after Dr. Maw and Dr. Wren two of his Chaplains being appointed for that service came to King James to know his pleasure and commands The King advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be onely on the defensive part if they should be challenged And when it was answered that there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where there could be no Moderator the King replied that Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile on the other the King proceeded and told them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premisses 1619. On Friday the twenty fourth of March Anno 1619. The Prince with the Marquesse of Hamilton Marquesse of Buckingham divers Earls and others performed great Justing at White-Hall in honour of the day being the day of King James his happy coming to the Crown of England 1620 And on the Sunday after being Mid-lent Sunday he attended his Father to S. Pauls Crosse conducted in a most solemn manner from Temple Bar to that Church by the Lord Major and Aldermen and at the entrance into the Church received by the Dean and Chapter in their rich Copes and other Ecclesiasticall Habits and by them conducted into the Quire where having heard the Divine service for that day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbots they went to a prepared place where they heard the Sermon at the Crosse preacht by Dr. King then Lord Bishop of London and from thence unto the Bishops Palace where they were entertained with a Banquet Infinite was the concourse of People at both those Solemnities and all of them returned with great joy and comfort to see him so bravely accomplisht in the one so devoutly reverent in the other 1622. On Tuesday the eighteenth of February Anno 1622. Accompanied with the Duke of Buckingham M. Erdimion Porter and M. Francis Cottington he took ship at Dover arrived at Bulloign in France and from thence rode Post to the Court of Spain The occasion this Frederick Prince Elector Palatine had inconsiderately taken on himself the Crown of Bohemia An. 1619. and for so doing was by the Emperor deprived of his Ancient Patrimony the Electorall dignity together with the upper Palatinate being conferred on the Duke of Bavaria and the lower on the K. of Spain who possest himself of all of it except the towns of Heidelberg Frankendale and Manheim well manned and Garrisoned by the English For the preserving of which places and the recovery of the whole when all means else had proved ineffectuall it was held most expedient to negotiate a Marriage betwixt Prince Charles and the Daughter of Spain Which being first managed by the Leiger Embassadors in both Courts was afterwards prosecuted with more particular instructions by John Lord Digby well verst and studied in that Court whom the King sent as his Embassador extraordinary to conclude the match But Digby being fed with delaies from one time to another it was resolved by King James without making any of his Councel acquainted with it that the Prince himself should go in Person that he might either speed the Businesse or break off the Treaty According to this Resolution he began his journey no otherwise accompanied or attended then with those three persons above mentioned all of them passing in disguise to avoid discovery Being come to Paris they adventured to see the Court where at a Mask he had a view of that most excellent Princesse whom he after married But no sooner had he left the City then the French King had Advertisement of his being there who thereupon dispatcht away severall Posts to stay him in his journey and bring him back but the Prince had past beyond Bayonne the last Town in France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid entred the Lord Embassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents onely News of his safe Arrivall there being brought to the King there was
Natives of that Countrey sent thither purposely in a new and unprecedent way to lie as Spies upon his Counsels and as controllers to his actions Some Messages there were betwixt him and the Houses of Parliament concerning the attoning of these differences whilst he was at York But the XIX Propositions sent thither to him did declare sufficiently that there was no peace to be expected on his part unlesse he had made himself a cypher a thing of no signification in the Arithmetick of State And now the War begins to open The Parliament had their Guards already and the Affront which Hotham had put upon his Majesty at Hull prompted the Gentlemen of York-shire to tender themselves for a Guard to his Person This presently voted by both Houses to be a leavying of War against the Parliament for whose defence not onely the Train-bands of London must be in readinesse and the good people of the countrey required to put themselves into a posture of armes but Regiments of Horse and Foot are listed a Generall appointed great summes of Money raised and all this under pretence of taking the King out of the hands of his evil Counsellours The noise of these preparations hastens the King from Yorke to Notingham where he sets up his Standard inviting all his good Subjects to repair unto him for defence of their King the Lawes and Religion of their Countrey He increased his Forces as he marched which could not come unto the reputation of an Army till he came into Shropshire where great bodies of the loyall and stout-hearted Welch resorted to him Strengthened with these and furnisht sufficiently with Field Pieces Armes and Ammunition which the Queen had sent to him out of Holland he resolves upon his march towards London but on Sunday the twenty third of October was encountred in the way at a place called Edge-Hill by the Parliament Forces The Fight very terrible for the time no fewer then five thousand men slain upon the place the Prologue to a greater slaughter if the dark night had not put an end unto that dispute Each part pretended to the victory but it went clearly on the Kings side who though he lost his Generall yet he kept the Field and possessed himself of the dead bodies and not so onely but he made his way open unto London and â—n his way forced Banbury Castle in the very sight as it were of the Earl of Essex who with his flying Army made all the haste he could towards the City that â—e might be there before the King to â—ecure the Parliament More certain â—gns there could not be of an absolute â—ictory In the Battel of Taro between the Conâ—derates of Italy and Charles the eight â—f France it hapned so that the Confederates kept the Field possest themselves of the Camp Baggage and Artillery which the French in their breaking through had left behind them Hereupon a dispute was raised to whom the Honour of that day did of right belong which all knowing and impartiall men gave unto the French For though they lost the Field their Camp Artillery and Baggage yet they obtained what they fought for which was the opening of their way to France and which the Confederates did intend to deprive them of Which resolution in that case may be a ruling case to this the Kiâ—g having not only kept the Field posseâ—â— himself of the dead bodies pillaged the carâ—iages of the enemy but forciâ—â—y opâ—â—eâ— his way towards London which the enemy endeavoured to hinder and finally entred triumphantly into Oxford with no fewer then aâ— hundred and twenty Colours taken in the Figâ—â— Having assured himself of Oxford foâ— his Winter Quarters he resolved on hiâ— Advance towards London but had made so many halts in the way that Essex was got thither before him who had disposed of his Forces at Kingston Brentford Acton and some other places there abouts not onely to stop his march but to fall upon him in the Rear as occasion served Yet he goes forward notwithstanding as far as Brentford out of which he beats two of their best Regiments takes five hundred Prisoners sinks their Ordnance with an intent to march forwards on the morrow after being Sunday and the thirteenth of November But understanding that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of Kingston and joyning with the London Auxiliaries lay in the way before him at a place called Turnham-Green neer Cheswick it was thought safer to retreat towards Oxford while the way was open then to venture his Army to the fortune of a second Battel which if it were lost â—t would be utterly impossible for him â—o raise another At Oxford he receives Propositions of peace from the Houses of Parliament but such as rather did beseem a conquering then a losing side But being resolved to treat upon them howsoever he found the Commissioners so straitned in time and so tied to such particular instructions as the Houses had given them that nothing could be yielded to which might conduce to the composing of the present Distempers At the opening of the Spring the Queen came to him who had landed at a place in York-shire called Burlington-Bay in the end of February and now brought with her unto Oxford some supplies of men with a considerable stock of Powder Arms and Ammunition 1643. The next Summer makes him master of the North and West some few places onely being excepted The Earl of New-castle with his Northern Army had cleared all parts beyond Trent but the Town of Hull of the enemies Forces And with his own Army under the command of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice two of the younger Sons of his Sister Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia he reduced the Cities of Bristol and Exeter the Port Town of Waymouth and all the Towns of any importance in the Western parts except Pool Lime and Plimouth So that he was in a manner the absolute Commander of the Counties of Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwall And though the Towns of Plimouth Lime and Pool still held out against him yet were they so bridled by his neighbouring Garrisons that they were not able to create him any great Disturbance The noise of these successes was so loud at London that most of the leading men in both Houses of Parliament prepared for quitting of the Kingdome and had undoubtedly so done if the King had followed his good fortunes and advanced towards London But unhappily diverting upon Glocester he lay so long there without doing any thing to the purpose that the Earl of Essex came time enough to raise the Siege and relieve the Town though he made not hast enough to recover London without blowes For besides some skirmishes on the by which fell out to his losse the King with the whole body of his Army overtook him at Newberry where after a sharp fight with the losse of the Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Viscount Falkland on his Majesties side
he had the worst of the day and had much ado to save his Canon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Reere were fain to make their way over a great part of his Foot to preserve themselves Being returned to Oxford with Successe and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on the twenty second day of January then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holdernes and Duke of Cumberland and creates James his second Son born the Thirteenth day of October Anno 1633 Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might sit and vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsome motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them a Morgrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen then they were willing to allow of 1644. And now the Summer coming on and the time fit for Action he dismisses them to their severall dwellings and betakes himself unto the Field The frequent traverses whereof the interchangeable taking and losing of Towns by the chance of war are too many in number to be comprised in this short Abstract It must suffice if I take notice of those onely which are most considerable His Majesty prevaling in the North and West 'T was thought fit by the ruling party in the Houses of Parliament to crave aid of the Scots whom they drew in the second time by the temptations of entring into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that sharing amongst them all the Lands of the Bishops and sacrificing to their malice the Archbishop of Canterbury as formerly they had done the Earl of Strafford But besides these plausible allurements the Commissioners of that Kingdome were to have so great a stroke in the Government of this that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present war no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without their consent Upon these baits they entred England with a puissant Army consisting of one and twenty thousand men well armed and fitted for the service and having made themselves Masters of Barwick Alnwick and all other places of importance on the other side of the Tweed they laid Siege to York where they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the associated Counties and the remaining York-shire forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax The news whereof being brought to Oxford Prince Rupert is dispatcht with as much of the Kings forces as could well be spared with a Commission to â—aise more out of the Counties of Cheâ—ter Salop Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster So that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand Men relieved the Town with all things necessary and might have gone away unfought with but that such Counsell was too cold for so hot a stomach Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the enemy at a place called Marston-Moor where the left Wing of his Horâ—e gave such a fierce Charge on the right Wing of the enemy consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Reere that they fell foul on that part of their own Foot which was made up of the Lord Fairfax his Regiments and a reserve of the Scots which they brake wholly and trod most of them under their Horses feet But the Princes Horse following the execution too far and none advancing to make good the place which they had left the enemy had the opportunity to rally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners of good note and making themselves masters of his Canon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field he marched off ingloriously squandred away the greatest part of his Army and retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day then other York yielded upon composition on the sixteenth of July being a just fortnight after the fight the Marquesse of Newcastle and some principall Gentlemen past over the Seas and the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots on the nineteenth of October following In the mean time the Queen being with child began to draw neer the time of her Delivery And it was generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim on Oxford as the Seat Royall of the King the Residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy In which respect it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter as a place more remote from danger and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served On the sixteenth of April she began her journey the King bearing her company as far as Abingdon where they took leave of one another neither of them having any the least presage that the parting Kisse which they then took was to be their last Convoi'd with a sufficient strength of Horse for her security on the way she was received there with as much magnificence as that City was able to expresse and on the sixteenth day of June was safely delivered of a Daughter whom she Christened by the name of Henrietta Assoon as she had well passed over the weaknesses and infirmities incident to Child-bed she committed the young Princesse to the Lady Dalkeith a Daughter of Sir Edward Villiers one of the half Brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and wife unto the Lord Dalkeith the eldest Son of the Earl of Morton Which having done according to some instructions which she had received from the King she took shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July and passed into France there to negotiate for some supplies of money Armes and Ammunition for the advance of his Majesties service and to continue howsoever in the Court of the King her Brother till she might return again in Honour and safety And to say truth her Removall from Oxford was not onely seasonable but exceeding necessary at that time the Earl of Essex and Sir William Wâ—ller with their severall Forces not long after her departure drawing neer to Oxford on whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly towards Wales Upon the News whereof it was thought fit by the two Generalls to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Sir William Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march toward the West for the regaining of those Countries And now