their Trust and revolting from the parliament have had entertainment and commission for the continuing and renewing of war and hostility against the said Parliament and People as aforesaid By which cruel and unnatural wars by him the said Charls Stuart leavied continued and renewed as aforesaid much innocent blood of the Free-people of this nation hath been spilt many families have been undone the publick treasury wasted and exhausted trade obstructed and miserably decayed vast expence and dammage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the land spoiled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of his said evil designs he the said Charls Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forraigners and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charls Stuart All which wicked designes wars and evill practises of him the said Charls Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the personall Interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to himself and family against the publique interest Common Right Liberty Justice and peace of the people of the nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charls Stuart hath been is the occasioner author and contriver of the said unnatural cruel and bloody wars and therein guilty of all the treasons murthers rapines burnings spiols desolations dammage mischief to this nation acted or committed in the said wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by protestation saving on the behalf of the people of England the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against him the said Charls Stuart and also of replying to the Answers which the said Charls Stuart shall make to the premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so Exhibited doth for the said treasons and crimes on the behalf of the said people of England impeach the said Charls Stuart as a tyrant traitor murtherer a publike and implacable enemy to the common-wealth of England And pray That the said Charls Stuart King of England may be put to answer all and every the premises that such proceedings examinations tryals sentence and judgment may be thereupon had or shall be agreeable to justice The King was oftentimes observed to smile in indignation during the reading of the Charge especially at the words Tyrant Traitor Murderer and publick enemy to the Common-wealth L. President Sir you have now heard the Charge read containing such matters as do appear therein you have observed that in the Conclusion thereof It is required of the Court in the Name of the Commons of England that you answer to your charge which the Court doth expect The King I would be satisfied by what power I am called hither It is not long since that I was in the Isle of Wight How I came thither the story is longer than I I conceive fitting in this place to declare But I there entred upon a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publick faith as it is possible to be obtained from any people in the World I there treated with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen and I treated honestly and faithfully with them I cannot say but they dealt very ingeniously with me and we proceeded so farr that the Treaty was even concluded Now I would understand by what Authority I mean lawfull I am brought hither There are many unlawfull Authorities in the world as Thieves and Plunderers in the high-wayes I would know by what Authority I was taken from thence and carried from place to place I know not where When I have understood the lawfulness of the Authority I will make my Answer In the mean time remember that I am your King your lawfull King and weigh well with your selves what sins you heap on your own heads and the anger and judgments of God which you will bring upon this land I say seriously weigh it before you further do proceed from one sin to a greater Therefore declare unto me by what lawfull Authority I sit here and I will not refuse to Answer you In the mean time I will not betray my trust I have a trust committed to me by God by an ancient and lawfull succession I will not betray that by answering to a new and an unlawfull Authority wherefore satisfie me in this and you shall hear further from me L. President If you had but pleased to observe what the Court did suggest unto you when you first came hither you had understood by what Authority you were brought hither which Authority doth require of you in the Name of the People of England by whom you are elected King that you make answer to them King No Sir I deny that L. President If you do not acknowledge the Authority of the Court they ought to proceed against you King I tell them that England was never an Elective Kingdome but hereditary for almost these two thousand years Therefore declare unto me by what Authority I am brought hither I labour more for the liberty of my people then any of you who pretend to be my Judges and therefore I say declare unto me by what lawfull Authority I am placed here and I will answer you otherwise I shall make no answer at all L. President Sir how well you have administred the power committed to you is sufficiently known The method of your Answering is to put Interrogatories to the Court which doth not become you in this Condition Twice or thrice it hath been represented to you King There is present here a Gentleman Lievtenant Colonel Cobbet demand of him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I come not hither to submit my self to this Court I will do as much for the Priviledges of the House of Commons rightly understood as any other I see not here the House of Lords which is able to constitute a Parliament and the King ought to be the Super-intendent there Is this to bring the King to his Parliament Is this to bring the publick Treaty to an end by the publick Faith of the world Either show me your Authority established by the Scriptures which are the word of God or confirmed by the constitutions of the Kingdome and I will answer you L. President Sir you have propounded a question and an answer hath been rendred but if you will not answer to what they to propound the Court will take it into their consideration how to proceed against you In the mean time they who brought you hither shall return you back again The Court desireth to be satisfied whether this be all the Answer that you will give them or not King I desire that you would resolve me and all
appear very plainly to the Court that you have gone upon very erronious principles The kingdome hath felt it to their smart and it will be no comfort to you to think of it for sir you have been heard to let fall such language as if you had not been subject to the law or that the law had not been your superiour The Court is very sensible of it I hope so are all the understanding people of England That the law is your superiour you ought to have ruled according to the law you ought to have done so and your pretence hath been that you have done so But sir the question is who shall be the expositors of the law whether you and your party out of the Courts of Justice shall take upon you to expound the law Or whither the Courts of Justice shall be the expounders themselves nay this soveraign and high Court of Justice the Parliament of England who may be well be obliged to be the highest expounders of the law since they are the sole makers of it Sir for you to set your self with your single judgment or for those who adhear unto you to set themselves against the highest Court of Justice there is no law for it Sir as the law is your superior so truly there is something that is superiour to the law which is the Parent or Author of the law and that is the people of England For as they are those who at first as other countries have done did chose unto themselves this form of Government that justice might be administred and the peace preserved so they gave laws unto their Governours according to which they were to govern and if those laws should have proved inconvenient or prejudiciall to the publick they had a power in them reserved to themselves to alter as they should finde cause It is very true what some of your side have alledged Rex non habet parem in regno This Court will affirm the same in some sense that whilest King you have not your peer for you are major singulis but they will aver again that you are minor universis and the same Author tells you that in exhibitione juris you have no power but they are quasi minimus This we know to be law Rex habet superiorem Deum legem etiam Curiam and so sayes the same Author and he makes bold to proceed further Debent ei fraenum ponere they ought to bridle him We know very well the stories of old we cannot be ignorant of those wars that were called the Barons wars when the Nobility of the land did stand out for the liberty and the propriety of the subject and would not suffer the Kings that did invade their liberties to play the tyrants but did call them to an account for it and did fraenum ponere But sir If the Nobility of the land do forbear to do their duty now and are not so mindfull of their own honour and the kingdoms good as the Barons of England of old have been certainly the Commons of England will not be unmindfull of what is requisite for their preservation and their safety Justitiae fruendi causa Reges constituti sunt By this we learn that the end of having Kings or Governours is for their enjoying of justice that is the end Now sir If the King will go contrary to that end or if any governour will go contrary to the end of his government he must understand that he is but an Officer in trust and that he ought to discharge that trust and order is to be taken for the animadversion and punishment of such an offending Governour Sir This is not a law of yesterday since the time of the division betwixt you and the Parliament but it is a law of old And we know very well both the Authors and the Authorities that acquaint us what the law was in that point on the election of Kings when they took their Oath to be true unto the people and if they did not observe it there were those remedies instituted which are called Parliaments The Parliaments were they that were to adjudge the very words of the Authors the plainenesse and wrongs done by the King and Queen or by their children such wrongs especially when the people could have no where else a remedy Sir this is the Case of the people of England they could not have their remedy else where but in Parliament Sir Parliaments were instituted for that intent it was their main end that the grievances of the people might be redressed and truly if the Kings of England had been rightly mindfull of themselves they were never more in Majesty or State than in the time of the Parliament but how forgetfull some have been Histories have informed us and we our selves have a miserable a lamentable and a sad experience of it Sir by the old Laws of England I speak these things the rather to you because you were pleased to affirm the other day that you thought you had as much knowledge in the law as most Gentlemen of England It is very well Sir and truly sir it is very fit for the Gentlemen of England to understand the laws under which they must live and by which they must be governed And then Sir the scripture saies they that know their Masters will and do it not you know what follows the law is your Master the acts of Parliament the Parliaments were antiently to be kept twice in the year as we finde in our old Author that the Subject upon any occasion might have a remedy and a redresse for his grievance Afterwards by several acts of parliament in the dayes of your Predecessor Edward the third they were to be but once a year What the Intermission of parliaments in your times hath produced is very well known and the sad consequences of it as also what in the interim instead of parliaments there hath been by you by a high and arbitrary hand introduced upon the people But when God by his providence had so farre brought it about that you could no longer decline the calling of a parliament a parliament was called where it may appear what your ends were against your antient and native Kingdom of Scotland but this parliament of England not serving your turn against them you were pleased to dissolve it Not long after another great necessity occasioned the calling of this parliament and what your Designs and Indeavours all along have been for the crushing and confounding of it hath been most notorious to the whol kingdom And truly Sir in that you did strike at all It had been a sure way to have brought about that which this Charge doth lay upon you your intention to subvert the fundamental laws of the land for the great Bulwarks of the peoples liberty is the parliament of England and to subvert and root up that which your aim hath been to do would certainly at one blow have confounded
those men to effect all their bloody designes in hand against us Sir we will say and we will declare it as those Children in the fiery furnace who refused to worship the Golden Image that Nebuchadonazar had set up That their God was able to deliver them from the danger they were neer unto but if he did not deliver them yet they would not fall down and worship the golden Image We shall make this application of it That though we should not be delivered from those bloody hands and hearts who conspire the overthrow of the Kingdome in generall and of our selves in particular for being actors in this great work of Justice though I say we should perish in the work yet by the grace in the strength of God we are resolved to go on with it And those are the intire resolutions of us all Sir I say for your self that we do heartily wish and desire that God would be pleased to give you a sense of your sins that you may see wherin you have done amisse and that you may cry unto him that God would deliver you from blood guiltinesse A good King David by Name was once guilty of that particular guilt he was otherwise upright saving in the matter of Vriah Truly Sir the History doth represent unto us that he was a repentant King and and he had died for his sinne but that God was pleased to be indulgent to him and to grant him his pardon Thou shalt not die saith the Prophet but the childe shall dye Thou hast given cause to the Enemies of God to blaspheme King I would onely desire to be heard but one word before you give sentence and it is that to satisfie the world when I am dead you would but hear me concerning those great Imputations which you have laid unto my charge President Sir you must now give me leave to proceed for I am not far from your Sentence and your time is now past King I shall desire you that you will take these few words into your consideration For whatsoever sentence you shall pronounce against me in respect of those heavy imputation which I finde you have laid to my charge yet Sir It is most true that President Sir I must put you in mind I must Sir although at this time especially I would not willingly interrupt you in any thing you have to say which is proper for us to admit but Sir you have not owned us as a Court and you look upon us as a sort of people huddled together and we know not what uncivill language we receive from your party King I know nothing of that President You disavow us as a Court and therefore for you to addresse yourself to us whom you do not acknowledge to be a Court for us I say to judge what you shall speak is not to be permitted and the truth is all along from the very first you have been pleased to disavow and disown us The Court needed not to have heard you one word for unlesse they be acknowledged a Court and ingaged it is not proper for you to speak Sir We have given you too large an indulgence of time already and admitted so much delay that we may not admit of any more If it were proper for us we should heare you very freely not decline to hear the most that you could speak to the greatest advantage for your self whether it were totally or but in part excusing those great hainous charges which are laid upon you But I shall trouble you no longer your sins are of so large a dimention that if you do but seriously think of them they will drive you into a sad consideration and we wish that they may improve in you a sad and serious repentance And it is the desire of the Court that you may be so penitent for what you have done a misse that God may at least have mercy on your better part As for the other it is our part and duties to doe that which the law prescribeth we are not now here jus dare but jus dicere we cannot be unmâ—ndfull of what the word of God tels us To acquit the guilty is of an equal abomination as to condemn the Innocent we may not acquit the guilty what sentence the law pronounceth to a traytor a tyrant a murtherer and a publike enemy to the Country that sentence you are now to hear read unto you and that is the Sentence of the Court Hereupon the Lord President commanded the Sentence to be read Whereupon M. King who was Cryer of the Court having commanded silence by his Oyes the Clerk read the sentence which was drawn up in Parchment and did run in these words Whereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an high Court of Justice for the tryall of Charls Stuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at the first time a Charge of High Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanors was read in the behalf of the Kingdome of England which Charge followeth in these words This Charge being read said the Clerk Charls Stuart was required to give his answer which he refused to do but expressed these passages and many more such as these are in refusing to answer The Clerk having repeated many passages during the time of his triall in which the King shewed an aversenesse to acknowledge the Court did proceed to read the Sentence which was in these words For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge That the said Charls Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his Head from his Body This Sentence being read the Lord President said This Sentence now read and published is the Act Sentence Judgement and resolution of the whole Court Hereupon the Court stood up as assenting to what the President said King Will you hear me one word Sir President Sir you are not to be heard after the Sentence King No Sir President No Sir By your favour Sir Guard withdraw your Prisonner King I may speak after the sentence By your favour Sir I may speak after Sentence ever The Guard drawing to him he said unto them by your favour hold and turning to the President he said the Sentence Sir I say Sir I do but being not permitted to proceed he said I am not suffered to speak expect what Justice other people will have Cryer All manner of persons that have any thing else to do are to depart at this time and to give their attendance in the Painted Chamber to which place this Court doth forthwith adjourn it self Then the Court arose and the Kings guard did bring him to Sir Robert Cottons house and he was afterwards conducted to Saint Jameses The names of those who were present at that High Court of Justice when the Sentence of Death was pronounced against Charls the first Monarck of great Brittain SErjeant Bradshaw President John Lisle
he himself was but a petty robber and thus Sirs I do think that the way you are in is much out of the way Now Sirs for to put you in the way believe it you will never do right nor will God ever prosper you untill you give God his due and the King his due that is in their course of time my Successors and untill you give the people their due I am as much for them as any of you are You must give God his due by regulating aright his Church according to his Scripture your church is now out of order for to set you particularly in a way now I cannot but onely by a Synod of the whole Nation who being freely called and freely debating amongst themselves may by Gods blessing settle the Church when every opinion is freely and clearly discussed For the King indeed I will not much insist Then turning to a Gentleman whose cloak he observed to touch the edge of the Ax he said unto him Hurt not the Ax meaning by blunting the the edge thereof for that he said might hurt him Having made this short digression he proceeded For the King the laws of the land will clearly instruct you what you have to do but because it concerns my own particular I onely do give you but a touch of it As for the People truly I desire their liberty and freedome as much as any whosoever but I must tell you that their liberty and freedome consists in having of government by those laws by which their lives and their goods may be most their own It is not for them to have a share in Government that is nothing Sirs appertaining unto them A Subject and a Sovereign are clean different things and therefore untill that be done I mean untill the people be put into that liberty which I speak of certainly they will never enjoy themselves Sirs It was for this that now I am come here If I would have given way to an arbitrary power to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword I needed not to have come hither and therefore I tell you and I pray God that it be not laid to your charge that I am the martyr of the people In troth Sirs I shall not hold you much longer I shal onely say this unto you that in truth I could have desired some little longer time because I had a desire to put this that I have said into a little more order and to have a little better digested it than I have now done and therefore I hope you will excuse me I have delivered my conscience I pray God that you do take those courses that are most for the good of the Kingdome and your own salvations Doct. Juxon Will your Majesty although the affection of your Majesty to Religion is very well known yet to satisfie expectation be pleased to speak something for the satisfaction of the world King I thank you very heartily my Lord because I had almost forgotten it In troth Sirs my Conscience in Religion I think is already very well known to all the world and therefore I declare before you all that I die a Christian according to the profession of the Church of England as I found it left by my Father and this honest man * I think will witnesse it Then turning to the Officers he said Sirs excuse me for this same I have a good cause and I have a gratious God I will say no more Then turning to Colonel Hacker he said Take care they do not put me to pain and Sir this if it please you but then a Gentleman one Mr. Clerk comming neer the Ax the King said take heed of the Ax pray take heed of the Ax Then the King turning to the Executioner said I shall say but very short prayers and when I stretch forth my hands Then the King called to Doctor Juxon for his Night-cap and having put it on he said to the Executioner Will my hair trouble you who desired him to put it all under his Cap which the King did accordingly by the assistance of the Executioner and the Bishop the King then turning to Doctor Juxon said I have a good Cause and a gracious God on my side Doctor Juxon There is but one stage more This stage is turbulent indeed and troublesome but very short and which in an instant will lead you a most long way from earth to Heaven where you shall find great Joy and Solace King I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown where can be no trouble none at all Doctor Juxon You shall exchange a temporall Crown for an eternall one it is a good change The King then said unto the Executioner Is my hair as it should be He then did put off his cloak and his George which he gave to Doctour Juxon saying Remember He immediately afterwards did put off his Doublet and did put on his cloak again and looking on the Block he said unto the Exkcutioner you should make it to be steddie Execut It is so King It might have been something higher Execut It cannot be made higher now King When I shall stretch forth my hands in this manner then After that when standing he had spoke two or three words unto himself with his hands and eyes lifted up towards Heaven immediately stooping down he laid his neck upon the Block and when the Executioner had again put all his hair under his cap. The King said Stay till I give the Sign Execut So I do if it please your Majesty and after a very little respite the King did stretch forth his hands and immediately the Executioner at one blow did sever his head from his Body Sic transit gloria Mundi The present Warre parralel'd Or A brief Relation of the five years Civil Warres of Henry the the third King of England with the event and issue of that unnaturall War and by what course the Kingdome was then settled again HEnry the third of of that Name a man more pious than prudent a better man than King swayed the Scepter of this Kingdome 56. years The former part of his Reign was very calm the latter as tempestuous The main Tempest was thus raised the King for many years during that high calm had sequestered himself wholly to his harmlesse sports and recreations and intrusted the whole managery of the State to his officers Ministers These taking advantage of his Majesties carelesnesse the main fault of this King insensibly suck'd and drained the Revenues of Crown and Kingdome till the King awakened by extream necessity began to enquire not how he came in for his necessities would not permit that but how he might get out The best way that his evil Counsellours could find to relieve their Master and save themselves was the ordinary way of supply in Parliament declined to have recourse to Monopolies Patents and other extraordinary and illegal Taxations But praeter naturall courses are never
the world in this one particular Give me leave to acquaint you that it is a thing of no small importance which you go about I am sworn to keep the peace according to the duty which I do ow to God and to my Land and I will here perform it to the last breath of my Body you shall therefore do wel first to satisfie God and afterwards the Land by what Authority you do this If you do it by an usurped Authority you cannot defend it God who sitteth in the Heavens will call you and all those who have conferred this power on you to give him an account of it Satisfie me in this and I shall answer you for otherwise I should betray the Faith committed to me and the liberties of my people Wherefore consider of it and I shall be willing to answer you For I do professe it is as great a sin to resist a lawfull Authority as to submit unto a Tyrannicall or any other unlawfull Authority wherefore resolve me in this particular and you shall receive my Answer L. President The Court expecteth that you should give them a finall Answer and will adjourn untill Munday next If you cannot satisfie your self although we tell you our authority our authority will satisfie our selves And it is according to the authority of God and the Kingdome and the peace of which you speak shall be preserved in the administration of Justice and that is our present work King I give you this for my answer you have not shown me any lawfull authority which may satisfie any reasonable man L. President It is onely your apprehension we are fully satisfied who are your Judges King It is not my apprehension nor yours which ought to determin this L. President The Court hath heard you and disposed of you accordingly as their discretions have thought expedient The Court adjourneth to the Painted chamber untill Munday at ten of the clock in the morn-ning and from thence hither Some thing that was ominous ought not to be passed by in silence when the Charge was read against the King the silver head of his staff did fall off which he much did wonder at and observing no man so officious to assist him he stooping towards the ground did take it up himself As the King returned looking on the Court he said I fear not thee meaning the sword As he came down the stayres the people who were in the Hall cryed out some of them God save the King but the greater part Justice Justice The second dayes proceeding against the King January 22. c. THe Cryer having thrice pronounced his Oyes and silence cōmanded after that the Judges were called and every one did particularly answer to his Name Silence was again commanded under pain of imprisonment and the Captain of the Guards was ordered to apprehend any that should endeavour to make a tumult At the comming of the King into the Court there was a great shout and the Court commanded the Captain of the Guards to apprehend and imprison those who should make either a noise or tumult The Court being sat the Sollicitor turning to the President said May it please your Lordship my Lord President In the former Court on Saturday in the Name of the Commons of England I exhibited and offered to this Tribunal the charge of high Treasons and other grievous crimes against the Prisoner with which I did charge him In the Name of the People of England and his charge was read and his Answer demanded My Lord It pleased him at that time to return no answer at all but instead of answering he questioned the Authority of the High Court My most humble motion to this High Court in the Name of the People of the Kingdome of England is that the Prisoner may be compelled to give a positive answer either by way of Confession or Negation which if he shall refuse that the subject of his Charge may be taken for granted and the Court proceed according to Justice L. President Sir you may remember that on the last convention of this Court the cause was expounded to you for which you were brought hither and you heard the charge against you read it being a charge of High Treason and other grievous crimes against the Kingdom of England you heard likewise that it was required in the name of the people that you should answer to your charge that there should be a proceeding thereon as should be agreeable unto Justice you were then pleased to move some scruples concerning the authority of this Court and you desired to be satisfied in your knowledge by what authority you were brought hither you severall times did propound your questions and it was often answered to you that it was by authority of the commons of England Assembled in Parliament who did judge it requisite to call you to an account for the great and grievous crimes of which you are accused After that the Court did take into their serious consideration those things which you objected and they are fully satisfied in their authoritie and do conceive it requisite that you should admit it they therefore require that you give a positive and a particular Answer to the charge exhibited against you they do expect that you should either confesse it or deny it If you shall deny it it will be proved in the behalf of the Kingdome the whole World doth approve of their Authority So that the kingdome is satisfied and you ought thereby to be satisfied your self you ought not therefore to waste time but to give your positive answer King It is true that when I was last here I moved that question and indeed if it were onely my businesse in particular I should have satisfied my self with that protestation which I then interposed against the lawfulnesse of this Court and that a King cannot be judged by any superiour jurisdiction on earth but my own interests are not onely involved in it but the liberties also of the people of England and pretend what you will I doe indeavour more for their liberties then any whatsoever For if Power without laws can make laws and change the Fundamentall laws of the Kingdome I know not what subject in England can be secure of his life or of any thing which he doth call his own Wherefore when I came hither I expected particular reasons that I might understand by what law and what Authority you would proceed against me I should then perceive what most especially I have to say unto you for the affirmative is to be proved which seldome the Negative is capable of but because I cannot perswade you thus I will give you my Reasons as briefly as I can The Reasons for which in conscience and duty which I ow first unto God and afterwards to my people for the preservation of their lives their liberties and their fortunes I believe I cannot answer until I am satisfied of your legality of it All proceedings against any
man whatsoever President Sir I must interrupt you which I would not do but that which you do agreeth not with the proceedings of any Tribunal of Justice you enter into a controversie and dispute against the Authority of this Court before which you appear a prisoner and are accused as a great Delinquent If you will take upon you to controvert the Authority of this Court we cannot give way unto it neither will any tribunal of Justice admit it you ought to submit unto the Court and to give an exact and direct Answer whether you will answer to your charge or not and what is the answer that you make King Sir I know not the formalities of the law I know the law reason although I am no professed Lawyer I know the law as well as any Gentleman in England and I am more eager for the Liberties of the people of England then you are and if I should believe any man without he gives me Reasons for what he saith It would be absurd but I say unto you that the Reason which you give is no wayes satisfactory L. President Sir I must interrupt you for it cannot be permitted to you in this manner to proceed you speak of law and reason it is fit that there should be both law and reason and they are both against you Sir the Vote of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament is the reason of the Kingdome and they ordained this law according to which you ought to Reign Sir It is not lawfull for you to dispute against our Authority This again hath been told you by the Court Sir Notice will be taken that you contemn the Court and this contempt of yours will be recorded King I know not how a King can be interpreted to be a Delinquent but by any law that I ever heard all men whether Delinquent or what you will may lawfully make objections against their Processe this is that which I require and I again desire that my Reasons may be heard If you deny this you deny Reason L. President Sir you have objected something to the Court I will declare unto you their opinion Sir It is not lawfull for you or any man else to dispute against this Subject It is Decreed you ought not to dispute against the jurisdiction of this Tribunal If you shall yet do it I must intimate unto you that they are above objections They sit here by Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you your self are bound to be accountable to them King I deny that shew me one example L. President Sir you ought not to interrupt but attend whilest the Court speaks unto you This Subject is not to be disputed by you neither will the Court permit that you should object against the jurisdiction of it they have considered of their jurisdiction and do approve it King Sir I say that the Commons of England were never a Court of Judicature and I would fain know how they came to be made so now President Sir It is not permitted to you to proceed in those discourses Then the Secretary of the Court did read as followeth Charls Stuart King of England you have been accused in the Name of the People of England of High Treason and other grievous Crimes The Court hath determined that you shall answer to your Charge King I will answer as soon as ever I shall understand by what authority you do these things President If this be all that you will speak Gentlemen you who brought the prisonner hither take him back again King I demand that I may be permitted to exhibite my Reasons why I answer not unto the Charge and give me time to perform this President Sir It is not for prisonners to demand King Prisonners Sir I am no ordinary prisonner President The Court hath considered of their own jurisdiction and they have also confirmed their jurisdiction If you will not answer we will give order that your Default be recorded King You have not yet heard my Reasons President Your Reasons are not to be heard against the Supream Jurisdiction King Shew me that jurisdiction in the world where Reason is not to be heard President Sir We shew it you here the Commons of England the next time you are brought hither you shall understand further of the pleasure of the Court and peradventure their finall sentence King Shew me where the House of Commons was ever a Court of Judicature in that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisonner King Sir Remember that the King is not suffered to declare his Reasons for the Libertie and Immunities of his Subjects President Sir That Freedome of speech is not permitted to you how great a friend you have been to the Laws and the Liberties of the people let England and all the world judge King Sir By your leave I have alwayes loved the Liberty the Immunities and Laws of the subjects If I have defended my self by Arms I have not taken them up against the people but for them President You must obey the Decree of the Court you give no answer to the Charge against you King Well Sir And so was he brought to the House of Sir Robert Cotton and the Court was adjourned to the Painted Chamber untill Wednesday following at twelve of the clock at what houre they intended to adjourn again to Westminster-hall where all whom it doth concern are commanded to be present The third dayes proceedings against the late King at the High Court of Justice Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. THe Cryer according to the Custome having with his Oyes commanded silence and attention the King being sate Mr. Atturney Generall turning to the Lord President spake in these words May it please your Lordship This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the prisoner hath been brought to the Bar and yet by reason of his refusall to put in his Answer there is yet no issue joyned in the cause My Lord I did at the first exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest practices of Treason that were ever wrought on the Theater of England That a King of England trusted to keep the Lawes of England and who had taken an Oath so to do and had tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of so wicked a design as to subvert our Laws and introduce an arbitrary and tyrannicall Government and set up his Standard of Warre against his Parliament and his people and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the people of England that he might speedily be required to make an answer to his charge But my Lord instead of making an answer he did then dispute the Authority of this Tribunal and your Lordship being pleased to give him a further day to put in his answer which was yesterday I did move again that he might be required to put in a direct and positive answer to his charge either by
denying or confessing it but he was then pleased to debate the Jurisdiction of the Court although he was commanded to give a positive answer My Lord by reason of this great delay of Justice I shall humbly move for speedy judgement against him I may presse your Lordship upon the known Rules of the Laws of the Land that if a prisoner shall stand in contempt not plead guilty or not guilty to the charge given against him it by an implicite confession ought to be taken pro confesso as I may instance in divers who have deserved more favor than the prisoner at the Bar hath done But I shall presse upon the whole fact The House of Commons the Supream Authority of the Kingdome have declared my Lord that it is notorious The matter of the charge is true and clear as chrystall or as the Sun that shineth at Noon day in which my Lord President if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied I have severall witnesses on the behalf of the people of England to produce and therefore I do humbly pray and not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is great for Justice and Judgement that speedy judgement may be pronounced against the prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what hath been moved by Mr. Sollicitor on the behalf of the Kingdome against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget the delayes which you have made You have been pleased to propound some Questions and amply you have had your resolution on them you have been often told that the Court did affirm their own Jurisdiction and that it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the highest Authority of England from which there is no appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did deport your self in that manner that you gave no obedience nor did acknowledge any Authority either in them or the Supream Court of Parliament that constituted this high Court of Justice Sir the Court gives you to understand that they are very sensible of these demurres and that being thus authorised by the High Court of England they ought not to be trifled withall especially seeing if they please they may take advantage of these delayes and according to the rules of Justice proceed and pronounce Judgement against you Neverthelesse they are so favourable as to give directions to me and therefore on their behalf I do require you to make a positive answer to this charge that hath been read against you Justice knows no respect of persons You are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether guilty or not guilty of the Treason laid to your charge The King having meditated a little did answer in these words When I was here yesterday I desired to speak for the Liberties of the people of England I desire yet to know whether without interruption I may speak freely or not President Sir on the like Question you had yesterday the resolution of this Court you were told that having a charge of so high a nature against you your work was to acknowledge the Jurisdiction of the Court to answer the charge after you have done that you shall be heard at large to make the defence you can for your self but Sir the Court commands me to make known unto you that you are not permitted to run into any other discourses untill such time that you have returned a positive Answer to the matter that is charged upon you King I value not the charge a rush It is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for For me who am your King and should be an example to all the Courts in England to uphold Justice and maintain the old Laws for me I say to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before is a thing that I know not how to do You did speak very well on the first day I came hither concerning the obligations that I have laid upon me by God for the maintenance of the Liberties of my people I do acknowledge that I do ow the same obligations to God and my people to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore untill I be satisfied that this is not against the fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome I can put in no particulars to the Charge If you will give me time I will shew you my Reasons wherefore I cannot do it and Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me How I came here I do not know There is no Law to make your King your prisoner I was in a Treaty upon the publick faith of the Kingdome that was the known two Houses of Parliament that was the Representative of the Kingdome and when I had almost made an end of the Treaty I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore I would President Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court King By you favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to run into these discourses you appear here as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court once more doâ—h command you to give your positive Answer M. Broughton Do your Duty King Duty Sir M. Broughton reads Charls Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court now requires you to give your positive and finall answer either by way of confession or by deniall of the Charge King Sir I say again unto you If therby I may give satisfaction to the people of England of the uprightness of my proceedings not by way of answer but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their priviledges to alter the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdome you must excuse me if I shall refuse to do it President Sir This is the third time that you have publiquely disowned this Court and put an affront upon it How far you have preserved the priviledges of the People your actions have spoke And truly Sir If mens intentions can be known by their actions you have written your intentions in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdome But Sir you are to understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the Default And Gentlemen you that are a guard to the Prisoner take him back again King I will onely adde this one word If it were onely my own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you at all President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and notwithstanding you will not understand it you are to finde that you are before a Court of Justice The King going forth Proclamation was made that all
your Office is an Office of Trust and indeed an Office of the highest Trust that can be lodged in any single person For as you were the grand Administrator of Justice and others were but as your delegates to see it executed through your Dominions If your great Office were to do Justice preserve your people from wrong if instead of executing Justice you will be the grand and publick disturber of the peace surely this is contrary to your Office and your Trust Now Sir if it be an office of inheritance as you speak of your Title by descent let all men understand that great Offices are seizable and forfeitable as if you had it but for a year or for your life It will therefore much concern you to take into your serious consideration your great miscarriages in this nature Truly Sir I shall not in this place undertake to give you the particulars of the many miscarriages of your Reign whatsoever they have been they are notoriously known It had been happy for the Kingdome and for your self also if they had not been so much known and so much felt as they are every where complained on and reported Sir that we are now upon by the command of the highest Court hath been and is to bring you to your Triall and to judge you for these great offences of yours Sir the Charge hath called you Tyrant a Traytor a murtherer and a publick enemy to the Common wealth Sir it had been well if these terms might rightly and justly have been omitted nay if any one of them all King Ha! President Truly we have been told Rex est qui bene regit Tyrannus qui populum opprimit and if that be the definition of a Tyrant then see if you come short of it in your Actions and whether not the highest Tyrant by that way of arbitrary Government which you sought to introduce and were putting upon the people Examine with your self if that were not as high an act of Tyranny as any of your predecessours were guilty of yea many degrees beyond it Sir the Term Traytor cannot be spared we shall easily conclude that it doth enforce and denote a breach of Trust and it must be supposed to be done by a superior and therefore as the people of England might have encurred that term if they had been truly guilty of it as to the definition of the Law so on the other side when you did break your Trust to the Kingdome you did break your Trust to your superior For the Kingdome is that for which you were trusted And therefore when you are called to an account for this breach of trust you are called to account by your superior Minimus Majorem in judicium vocat And Sir the people of England cannot be so wanting to themselves whom God hath dealt so miraculously and gloriously for they having both power and their great enemy in their hand but they must proceed to Justice to themselves and to you For Sir the Court could heartily desire that you would lay your hand upon your heart and consider what you have done amisse and that you would endeavour to make your peace with God Truly Sir These are too high Crimes Tyranny and Treason There is a third if those two had not been and that is murther which is laid to your charge also All the bloody murders that have been committed since the Division betwixt you and your people must be laid to your charge Sir It is a hainous and a crying sinne and truly Sir If any man will ask us what punishment is due unto a murtherer let Gods law let mans speak I will presume you are so well read in the holy Scripture as that you know what God himself hath said concerning the shedding of mans blood Gen. 9. and Numb. 35. will tell you what the punishment is and this Court in the behalf of the Kingdom are sensible of that innocent blood that hath been shed the land indeed stands still defiled with that bloud and as the Text hath it It can no way be cleansed but by the shedding of the blood of him who shed that blood Sir We know no dispensation from this blood in the Commandement Thou shalt do no Murther we do not know but that it extends to Kings as well as to the meanest peasants the meanest of the people the Command is universall Sir Gods law forbids it mans law forbids it nor do we know that there is any manner of execution not even in mans laws for the punishment of Murther in you T is true that in the Case of Kings every private hand is not to put forth its self to this work for their reformatian or punishment but the people represented having power in their hands were there but one willfull Act of murder by you committed have power to convent you and to punish you for it The weight Sir then lying upon you in all these respects that have been spoken for your Tyranny Treason Breach of Trust and the murders that have been committed surely it should drive you into a sad consideration concerning your eternall estate I know it cannot be acceptable to you to hear any such things as these mentioned from this Court for so do we call our selves and justifie our selves to be a Court and a High Court of Justice authorized by the highest and solemnest Court of the Kingdome as hath been often already said And although you have indeavored what lay in you to discourt us yet we do take knowledge of our selves to be such a Court as can administer justice to you as we are bound in duty to it Sir All I shall say before the reading of the Sentence is but this The Court doth heartily desire that you will seriously consider of those Evils that you stand guilty of You said well the other day you wished us to have God before our eyes Truly Sir I hope all of us have so that God whom we acknowledge to be King of Kings and Lord of Lords that God with whom there is no respect of persons that God who is the avenger of Innocent blood that God have we before our eys that God who bestows a Curse upon them who in the case of guilty malefactors that deserve death do withhold their hands from shedding of blood Sir That God we have before our eyes and were it not that the Conscience of our duty hath called us into this place and this imployment you should have had no appearance of a Court here But sir we must preferre our respect unto God and to the Kingdome above any respect whatsoever and although at this present many of us if not all of us are severely threatned by some of your party what they intend to do yet we do here declare that we shall not decline or forbear the doing of our Duty in the administration of Justice even to your self and that according to the merit of your offence although God should permit
William Gray Ol. Cromwell L. G. Comissary Gen. Ireton Sir Hardres Waller Colonel Harrison Colonel Haley Colonel Pride Col. Ewer Lord Gray of Groby Sir John Danvers S. Thomas Malleneret Sir John Bourchier William Heavningham Alderman Pennington Henry Martin Col. Purefoy Col. Berkstead Col. Thomlinson Mr. Blakston Mr. Millington Sir Gregory Norton Col. Harvey Col. Ven. Mr. Scot Alderman Andrews Mr. Cawley Mr. Burrel Col. Stapeley Col. Domnes Mr. Norton L.S. Hammon Mr. Love Mr. Potter Mr. Garland Sir William Constable Col. Ludlow Col. Hutchinson Sir Miles Livesey Mr. Dixwell Colonel Fleetwood of Bucks. Mr. Main Jacob Temple Mr. Blagrave Col. White Col. Titchburn Col. Rout. Col. Scroop Col. Lilburn Col. Dean Col. Okey Col. Hewsen L. Col. Goff Cornelius Holland Mr. Carew John Joanes Miles Corbet Mr. Allen Peregrine Pelham Col. Moors Mr. Eldicer Mr. Smith Mr. Edwards Mr. Clement Col. Wogan c. His Majesties Reasons Against the pretended Jurisdiction of the High Court of Justice which he had intended to have given there on Monday Jan. 22. 1649. Faithfully transcribed from the originall Copy of the King SInce I have already made my Protestation not onely against the illegality of this pretended Court but that no power on earth can justly call me who am your King into question as a Delinquent I would no longer have opened my mouth on this Argument but have referred my self to those things which I then spoke if this onely concerned my own particular But the duty which I ow to God to preserve the true liberty of my people doth not permit me at this time I should be silent for how can any free born Subject of England call his life or any thing he doth possess his own if power without law can daily make new and abrogate the old and Fundamental Laws of this Land which I judge to be the present case Wherefore when I was brought hither I expected that you would have studied to satisfy me in these Fundamentalls which do hinder me from putting in my Answer to the pretended charge but since I do observe that nothing which I can alledge can perswade you to it although negatives are not so naturally proved as affirmatives yet I have thought good to declare unto you the Reasons for which I am confident you are not in a capacity to judge me nor the vilest man in England for without showing my Reasons I will not as you be so unreasonably importunate as to exact either belief or obedience from my Subjects Here was I restrained and not suffered to speak any more of Reasons there is no just processe against any man which deriveth not its authority either from the Law of God or from the municipall Laws of the Land Now I am most sure that the Processe at this day made against me cannot be confirmed by the law of God for on the contrary the necessity of obedience is clearly confirmed and streightly commanded in the old and new Testament which if it be denyed I am prepared presently to prove it and as for the question now in agitation it is said there Where the word of a King is there is power and who can say unto him what doest thou Eccles. 8. v. 4. Then as to the laws of the land I am as confident that no learned lawyer will affirm that any charge can be brought against the King since they all go forth under his name and it is one of their axioms that the King can not do an injury Moreover the law on which you do ground your processe is either old or new if it be old shew that law unto me if it be new tell me what Authority established by the Fundamentall laws of this land did give it birth and when but how the House of Commons can erect a Tribunall of Justice which was never one it self as all lawyers will confesse with me I leave it to God and to the world to judge and it will seem most strange to any who ever have heard of the laws of England how they can pretend to make laws without either the King or the House of Peeres Neverthelesse it be admitted but not granted that a commission from the people of England is able to confirm your pretended power yet I see nothing that you can show for it for I am confident that you never asked that questiō of the 10th man in the kingdom in this method you do a most apparent injury even to the poorest ploughman if you ask not his consent neither can you pretend any colour to this your pretended Commission if you have not the concurring voyces of at least the greatest part of this Nation of every degree and quality which you are so far from obtaining that I am confident you never so much as sought it You see then that I do not onely speak for my own Right as I am your King but also for the true liberty of all my subjects which consisteth not in dividing the power of Government but in living under such laws and such a Government as may grant them the best security of their lives and the propriety of their goods In this I ought not to be forgetfull neither do I forget the priviledges of both Houses of parliament which these proceedings do not onely violate but give an occasion of the greatest breaking of the publick faith and such I believe as the like was never heard of before with which I will not at all charge both Houses for the pretended crimes which they impose upon me are far before the Treaty at Newport in which when I assented to and did conclude as much as possibly lay in my power and did justly expect the assent of both Houses I was suddenly taken from thence and carried away as a prisoner and against my will I was hurried hither and since I came to this court I cannot with all my Indeavours defend the ancient laws and liberties of this Kingdome together with my just priviledges and as much as I can possibly discern the upper House which is the House of Lords is totally excluded And as for the House of Commons it is too much known that the greater part of them are either imprisoned or affrighted from sitting so that if I had no other Cause this was sufficient enough to make me to protest against the authority of your pretended tribunall Besides all these things the peace of the Kingdome is not the least part of my cares and what hope can there be of establishing it as long as power reigneth without the Rule of the Law changing the whole frame of the Government under which this Kingdome hath flourished these many ages neither will I speak what is likely to follow if these unlawfull proceedings shall yet continue against me for I believe the Commons of England will give you no thanks for this change especially when they shall call into their minds how happily they heretofore have lived in the Reigns of Queen Elisabeth and of the
King my Father and in my own Reign before the beginning of these unhappy tumults and they will have a just cause to doubt if they shall be so happy in any new Government In that time it will most evidently appear that I onely took up Arms to defend the Fundamentall Laws of this Kingdome against those who opposed my power and totally would have subverted the ancient Government Having so briefly declared my Reasons to you for which I could not submit to your pretended Authority without violation of the Trust which God hath committed to me for the safety and liberty of my people I expect from you either clearer Reasons to convince my Judgement by demonstrating to me that I am in an Error and then surely I shall be ready to give you an Answer or else that you suspend your present proceedings This I had determined to have spoken in Westminster Hall on Monday the two and twentieth of January but against Reason I was prohibited to pronounce my Reasons In the year 1648. English style 1649. vulgar style The End The Speech of King Charls upon the Scaffold at the gate of White Hall immediately before the execution January 30. ABout ten in the morning the King was brought from Saint Jameses Court he did walk on foot through the Park with a Regiment of Foot one half before him and the other behind him their Colours flying and their Drums beating his private guard of Partisan with some of his Gentlemen did go immediately bare headed before him and some part of them behind him but those who were next of all unto him behinde were Dr. Juxon and Colonel Thomlinson to the last of whom the care and charge of his Person was committed these two being barehead did talk with him all along the Park and as you go up the stairs into the Gallery and so into the Cabanet chamber where he used to lye in which place he continued at his Devotion and refused to dine because he that morning had taken the Sacrament onely about one hour before he came forth he drank a Glasse of Claret wine and did eat a crust of bread about twelve of the clock at Noon From thence he was accompanied by Doctor Juxon Col. Thomlinson and other Officers formerly appointed to be his Guard and with the private Guard of Partizans with musquetiers on either side through the banquetting house at the farther end on the outside whereof the Scaffold was erected near unto the Gate of White Hall The Scaffold was hung round with black and the floore was covered with black the ax and the Block laid on the middle of the Scaffold There were severall Companies of Foot and Troops of Horse placed on the one side of the Scaffold and the other and multitudes of people that thronged to see so rare a spectacle were very great The King was no sooner come upon the Scaffold but he looked very earnestly on the Block and asked Col. Hacker if there were no higher and then spake thus directing his speech chiefly to Colonel Thomlinson I Shall be very little heard by any of the people I shall therefore speak a word or two to you who are here Indeed I could hold my peace very well if I did not think that my silence would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as well as to the punishment but I conceive it is my duty First unto God and afterwards to my Countrey to vindicate my self as an honest man a good King and a good Christian I shall begin first with my Innocency Introth I think it not very needfull for me to insist long upon this for all the world knows that I never did begin Warre with the two Houses of Parliament and I call God to witnesse to whom I must shortly make my account that I never did intend to incroach upon their priviledges they began with me It was the Militia they began upon they confessed that the Militia was mine but they thought it fit to have it from me and to be short if any man will look to the Dates of Commissions of their Commissions ormine and likewise to the Declarations will finde clearly that they began those unhappy troubles not I so that as for the guilt of these enormous crimes which are laid upon me I hope in God that God will clear me of them I am in charity I will not and God forbid that I should lay it upon the two-Houses of Parliament there is no necessity of either I hope they are free from the Guilt for I do believe that evill instruments between them and me have been the chief cause of all this bloodshed so that by way of speaking as I find my self clear of this I hope and I pray God that they may too yet for all this God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods judgements are just upon me Many times he does inflict Justice by an unjust Sentence this is ordinary I will onely say that an unjust Sentence * That I suffered to take effect is punished now by an unjust Sentence upon my self This is to shew you as I have said how far I am an innocent man Now for to show you that I am a good Christian I hope there is a good man * who will bear witnesse with me that I have forgiven all the world and even those in particular who have been the chief causers of my Death who they are God knows I do not desire to know I pray God forgive them But this is not all my Charity must go further I wish that they may repent for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular I pray God with Saint Stephen that this be not laid to their charge nay not onely so but that they may take the right way to the peace of the Kingdome for my charity commands me not onely to forgive particular men but my charity commands me to indevour to the last gasp the peace of the Kingdome This Sirs I do wish with all my Soul and I do hope there are some * who will carry it further that they may indeavour the peace of the Kingdome Now Sirs I must show you both how you are out of the way and I will put you into a way First you are out of the way for certainly all the way in which as yet you have gone as I could ever find out by any thing is in the way of conquest certainly this is an ill way for conquest Sirs in my opinion is never just except there be a good just cause either for matter of wrong or to defend a just Title and if in the prosecution of the quarrell you shall go beyond this it will make that unjust at the end which was just at the beginning But if it be onely matter of conquest therein it is a great robbery as a pirate said to Alexander that he was a great robber and that