of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any part of the said Forces or concerning the Admiralty and Navy or concerning the levying of Moneys for the raising maintenance or use of the said Forces for Land-service or for the Navy and Forces for Sea-service or of any part of them and if that the Royal Assent to such Bill or Bills shall not be given in the House of Peers within such time after the passing thereof by both Houses of Parliament as the said Houses shall judge fit and convenient That then such Bill or Bills so passed by the said Lords and Commons as aforesaid and to which the Royal Assent shall not be given as is herein before expressed shall nevertheless after declaration of the said Lords and Commons made in that behalf have the force and strength of an Act or Acts of Parliament and shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto Provided that nothing herein before contained shall extend to the taking away of the ordinary legal power of Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Bayliffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs or other Officers of Justice not being Military Officers concerning the administration of Justice so as neither the said Sheriffs Justices of Peace Mayors Bayliffs Coroners Constables Headboroughs and other Officers nor any of them do levy conduct employ or command any Forces whatsoever by colour or pretence of any Commission of Array or extraordinary command from his Majesty his Heirs or Successors without the consent of the said Lords and Commons And if any persons shall be gathered and assembled together in warlike manner or otherwise to the number of thirty persons and shall not forthwith disband themselves being required thereto by the said Lords and Commons or command from them or any by them especially authorized for that purpose then such person or persons not so disbanding themselves shall be guilty and incur the pains of High-Treason being first declared guilty of such offence by the said Lords and Commons any Commission under the great Seal or other Warrant to the contrary notwithstanding And he or they that shall offend herein to be incapable of any pardon from his Majesty his Heirs or Successors and their Estates shall be disposed as the said Lords and Commons shall think fit and not otherwise Provided that the City of London shall have and enjoy all their Rights Liberties and Franchises Customs and Usages in the raising and employing the Forces of that City for the defence thereof in as full and ample manner to all intents and purposes as they have or might have used or enjoyed the same at any time before the making of the said Act or Proposition To the end that City may be fully assured it is not the intention of the Parliament to take from them any priviledges or immunities in raising or disposing of their Forces which they have or might have used or enjoyed heretofore The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit XVII That by Act of Parliament all Peers made since the day that Edward Lord Littleton then Lord Keeper of the Great Seal deserted the Parliament and that the said Great Seal was surreptitiously conveyed away from the Parliament being the one and twentieth day of May 1642. and who shall be hereafter made shall not sit or vote in the Parliament of England without consent of both Houses of Parliament And that all Honour and Title conferred on any without consent of both Houses of Parliament since the twentieth day of May 1642. being the day that both Houses declared That the King seduced by evil Council intended to raise War against the Parliament be declared Null and Void The like for the Kingdom of Scotland those being excepted whose Parents were passed the Great Seal before the fourth of June 1644. XVIII That an Act be passed in the Parliament of both Kingdoms respectively for confirmation of the Treaties passed betwixt the two Kingdoms viz. the large Treaty the late Treaty for the coming of the Scots Army into England and the setling of the Garrison of Barwick of the 29th of November 1643. and the Treaty concerning Ireland of the 6th of August 1642. for the bringing of ten thousand Scots into the Province of Vlster in Ireland with all other Ordinances and Proceedings passed betwixt the two Kingdoms and whereunto they are obliged by the aforesaid Treaties And that Algernon Earl of Northumberland John Earl of Rutland Philip Earl of Pembrooke and Mungomery Theophilus Earl of Lincoln James Earl of Suffolk William Earl of Salisbury Robert Earl of Warwick Edward Earl of Manchester Henry Earl of Stanford Francis Lord Dacres Philip Lord Wharton Francis Lord Willoughby Dudly Lord North John Lord Hunsdon William Lord Gray Edward Lord Howard of Estrick Thomas Lord Bruce Ferdinando Lord Fairfax Mr. Nathaniel Fines Sir William Armine Sir Philip Stapilton Sir Henry Vane senior Mr. William Perpoint Sir Edward Aiscough Sir William Strickland Sir Arthur Hesilrig Sir John Fenwick Sir William Brereton Sir Thomas Widdington Mr. John Toll Mr. Gilbert Millington Sir William Constable Sir John Wray Sir Henry Vaine junior Mr. Henry Darley Oliver Saint John Esq his Majesties Sollicitor-General Mr. Denzel Hollis Mr. Alexander Rigby Mr. Cornelius Holland Mr. Samuel Vassell Mr. Peregrin Pelham John Glyn Esq Recorder of London Mr. Henry Martin Mr. Alderman Hoyle Mr. John Blakiston Mr. Serjeant Wilde Mr. Richard Barwis Sir Anthony Irby Mr. Ashurst Mr. Bellingham and Mr. Tolson Members of both Houses of the Parliament of England shall be the Commissioners for the Kingdom of England for conservation of the Peace between the two Kingdoms to act according to the Powers in that behalf exprest in the Articles of the large Treaty and not otherwise That his Majesty give his Assent to what the two Kingdoms shall agree upon in prosecution of the Articles of the large Treaty which are not yet finished That an Act be passed in the Parliaments of both Kingdoms respectively for establishing the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms bearing date the 30th day of January 1643. in England and 1644. in Scotland with the Qualifications ensuing 1 Qualification That the persons who shall expect no pardon be onely these following Rupert Maurice Count Palatines of Rhine James Earl of Darby John Earl of Bristol William Earl of New-castle Francis Lord Cottington George Lord Digby Matthew Wren Bishop of Ely Sir Robert Heath Kt. Dr. Bramhall Bishop of Derry Sir William Widdrington Col. George Goring Henry Jermin Esq Sir Ralph Hopton Sir John Biron Sir Francis Doddington Sir John Strangewayes Mr. Endymion Porter Sir George Radcliffe Sir Marmaduke Langdale Henry Vaughan Esq now called Sir Hen. Vaughan Sir Francis Windibanke Sir Richard Greenvill Mr. Edward Hide now called Sir Edw. Hide Sir John Marley Sir Nicholas Cole Sir Thomas Riddel Jun. Sir John Colepepper Mr. Richard
according to Law that sometimes he moderates the rigour of the Law according to Equity pardons Malefactors and in cases that are not decided by any Law interposes his Imperial Sentence Lastly that I may assert nothing rashly but all upon the credit of Lawyers the life force and authority of every thing that is acted in England is to be found in the King alone But because the King of England has not like Briareus an hundred hands nor can he like the Sun view all things at one glance he hath been accustomed to create from amongst the Nobility Bishops Judges and Commons of the Kingdom without the envy and emulation of any such and so many Counsellors as he pleases to assist and ease him in the weighty care of the Government Having named these Prerogatives of a most August and Imperial Crown what shall I call that barbarous and inhumane Principle and Purpose of bringing the King to Judgment before the Kings Tribunal and then to smite him with the Sword which he alone is to draw the King I say whom the Law it self openly declares can never die There is no necessity of curbing arbitrary government by such inhumane Tyranny upon the sacred Person of the King since whatever may be done in the administration of the Government either against the Laws of the Country or inconsistent with the good and profit of the People the blame and punishment of it is cast upon the publick Ministers so that it was not flattery but the highest Justice which gave ground to this noted maxime That the King cannot err nor do any wrong because the whole blame and all the punishment is wont and ought to fall upon the publick Ministers and Counsellors whose duty it is to admonish the Prince and to deny their concurrence with him in any thing that is unjust and to resigne their place rather than obey him when he commands any thing contrary to Law Nay the Laws are so sollicitous for the safety of the Prince as of him who is to maintain and preserve the Law that the next Heir to the Crown whatsoever Crime he might be guilty or accused of whilst he was a private person yet by the death of his Predecessor as by a certain postliminious Absolution he is freed from all taint and guilt and his stepping up into the Throne purges him from all defects It is enough to curb him that holds the Reins of the Government That he must expect the Judgment of God Nevertheless it is not lawful for the King to rule arbitrarily in England oppress his Subjects or make and abrogate Laws by his sole Authority But as the Law allows a decorous administration of absolute Authority in some things to the King so does it assigne to the Commons others and those no inconsiderable Priviledges in the Kingdom in common with the King that so the joynt Authority in Government might the more easily engage the Subjects to obedience For for the making and repealing of Laws and the interpreting and explaining former ambiguous Statutes for raising of Money out of the ordinary course when there is occasion for it legitimating of Bastards naturalizing of Strangers altering and setling the Rights of Possessions confirming by civil Sanctions the Divine Worship after it hath by the Convention of the Clergy been formed according to the Word of God setting Rates upon Weights and Measures and the like that the people may not seem to suffer any thing without their own consent and concurrence the Votes of Parliament which is the supreme Court of England and in conjunction with the King under God hath a certain Omnipotence in this little World are necessarily required The Parliament is an Assembly of the States of the Kingdom consisting of the Bishops Lords and Representatives of the Commons called by the King who is the Head of it who meet and sit in two distinct places called the Upper and Lower Houses in respect of dignity not of scituation The Upper House which is called the House of Lords contains two Estates to wit the Spiritual Lords who are the Bishops and the Temporal who are Dukes Marquesses Earls and Barons the Judges of the Kingdom assisting to give advice in matter of Law but not to vote The Lower House consists of the third Estate of the Kingdom who are the Commons and is therefore called also the House of Commons they are chosen by the plurality of Voices of the Freeholders of the Counties and Freemen of Corporations two Knights for each County or Shire and two Burgesses for the most part for every City and Corporation-Town according to the use and custom of the place The day and place of the meeting of the Parliament is appointed by the King by him also it is prorogued transferred and adjourned to another place or dissolved at his pleasure The Peers are summoned to attend in Parliament by Writs severally directed to them and signed by the King To the rest the Sheriffs of the several Counties by virtue of a Writ out of the Chancery give notice that the King within a certain time orders an Election to be made of Knights and Burgesses which he commands to be made by the Sheriff in time and place convenient Vetus Rescripti formula ad Dynastas Rescriptum Regis ad Dynastas seu Pares sic sonat Carolus Dei gratiâ c. Reverendissimo in Christo Patri c. si Episcopos compellet Consanguineo nostro si Duces Marchiones vel Comites alloquatur Dilecto fideli nostro si Barones Quia de advisamento Concilii nostri pro quibusdam arduis urgentibus negotiis Nos Statum defensionem Regni nostri Angliae Ecclesiae Anglicanae concernentibus quoddam Parlamentum nostrum ad Westmonast c. teneri ordinavimus ibidem vobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus dicti Regni nostri Angliae colloquium habere tractatum vobis in fide Dilectione si ad Episcopos mittatur Rescriptum per fidem Allegiantiam si ad Pares quibus nobis tenemini firmiter injungendo mandamus quod consideratis dictorum negotiorum arduitate periculis imminentibus cessante quacunque excusatione die loco dictis personaliter intersitis Nobiscum cum caeteris Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus super dictis negotiis tractaturi vestrúmque Consilium impensuri hoc sicut Nos honorem nostram ac salutem Regni praedicti Ecclesiae sanctae Expeditionémque dictorum negotiorum diligitis nullatenus omittatis si ad Episcopos scribat praemonere Decanum Capitulum Ecclesiae vestrae tolúmque Clerum vestrae Dioeceseos quod idem Decanus Archidiaconi in propriis personis ac dictum Capitulum per unum idémque Clerus per duos Procuratores idoneos plenam sufficientem potestatem ab ipsis Capitulo Clero habentes praedictis die loco personaliter
intersint ad consentiendum his quae tum ibidem de communi concilio Regni nostri Divinâ favente clementiâ contigerit ordinari Teste Meipso c. The ancient form of the Writ to the Peers The Kings Writ to the Nobles or Peers runs thus CHARLES by the grace of God c. to the most Reverend Father in Christ if it speaks to any of the Bishops to Our Cousin if it is addressed to any Duke Marquess or Earl To our Beloved and Faithful if to a Baron Whereas by the advice of Our Council We have ordained that Our Parliament shall be holden at Westminster c. for the dispatch of certain difficult and urgent Affairs concerning or pertaining to Us and the State and Defence of Our Kingdom of England and of the Church of England and there to hold a Colloquy and Treat with you and with the rest of the Prelates Great men and Nobles of Our said Kingdom of England Therefore We by the Fidelity and Love if the Writ be sent to the Bishops by the Fidelity and Allegiance if to any of the Peers which you owe to Us streightly injoyning command you that in consideration of the difficulty of the aforesaid Affairs and of the Dangers impending laying aside all Excuses at the day and place aforesaid you personally appear to treat with Us together with the rest of the Prelates Great men and Nobles concerning the Affairs aforesaid and thereupon give Us your counsel And this you are not to omit as you love Us and Our Honour and the Safety of Our said Kingdom and the expedition of the said Affairs And if the Writ be directed to a Bishop it goes on further thus And you are to forewarn the Dean and Chapter of your Church and all the Clergy of your Diocess that the said Dean and the Archdeacons be personally present and the said Chapter by one and the said Clergy by two sufficient Procurators having full and sufficient power from the said Chapter and Clergy at the day and place aforesaid to Consent to those things which then and there by the favour of the divine Clemency shall happen to be ordained by the Common Council of Our Kingdom Witness my self c. Ad Communes seu Inferioris Confessus Senatores Aliud Rescriptum ad Vicecomites Praesides Civitatum seu Municipiorum conceptis hisce verbis ità se habet Rex Vicecomiti salutem Quia de advisamento assensu Concilii nostri c. progreditur ut superius ibidem cum Praelatis Magnatibus Proceribus Regni nostri Colloquium habere tractatum Tibi praecipimus firmiter injungentes quòd factâ Proclamatione in Comitatu tuo post receptionem hujus Brevis nostri Parliamenti tenendi die loco praedictis duos Milites gladiis cinctos magis idoneos discretos Comitatûs praedicti de qualibet Civitate Comitatûs illius duos Cives de quolibet Burgo duos Burgenses de discretioribus magìs sufficientibus liberè indifferenter per illos qui Electioni huic interfuerint juxta formam Statutorum indè edictorum provisorum eligi nomina eorundem Militum Civium Burgensium in quibusdam Indenturis inter te illos qui hujusmodi Electioni interfuerint conficiendis sive hujusmodi electi praesentes fuerint sive absentes inseri eósque ad dictum diem locum venire facies Ità quòd iidem Milites plenam sufficientem potestatem pro se Communitate praedicti Comitatûs ac dicti Cives Burgenses pro se Communitatibus Civitatum Burgorum praedictorum divisim ab ipsis habeant ad faciendum consentiendum his quae tum ibidem de communi Concilio Regni nostri favente Deo contigerit ordinari super negotiis antè dictis ità nè pro defectu potestatis hujusmodi seu propter improvidam Electionem Militum Civium aut Burgensium praedictorum praedicta negotia infecta maneant quovis modo Nolumus tamen quòd tu nec aliquis alius Vicecomes dicti Regni nostri aliqualiter sit electus To the Members of the House of Commons Another Writ directed to the Sheriffs and Chief Magistrates of Cities and Corporations runs thus The King to the Sheriff greeting Whereas by the Advice and Assent of Our Council c. as before then and there to hold a Colloquy and Treaty with Our Prelates Great men and Nobles of Our Kingdom c. We command and streightly injoyn you that a Proclamation being made in your County Court after the receipt of this Our Writ concerning Our Parliament to be holden at the day and place aforesaid you do cause two Knights of the most fitting and discreet of your County aforesaid and of every City in the said County two Citizens and of every Burrow or Corporation two Burgesses of the most discreet and sufficient to be freely and indifferently chosen according to the form of the Statutes in that case made and provided by those who shall be then present at the said Election and you are also to insert the names of the said Knights Citizens and Burgesses whether the persons so elected be present or absent in certain Indentures to be made betwixt you and those who shall be present at the said Election and you shall cause them to appear at the day and place aforesaid so as the said Knights have full and sufficient power for themselves and the Community of the aforesaid County and the said Citizens and Burgesses for themselves and the Communities of the said Cities and Corporations severally to do and consent to those things which by the favour of God shall by the Common Council of Our Kingdom be ordained concerning the Affairs aforesaid so that by the want of such Power or by the improvident Election of the Knights Citizens or Burgesses aforesaid the Affairs aforesaid be not in any way left unfinished undispatched Yet We will not that you or any other Sheriff of Our said Kingdom be by any means elected These things being punctually performed according to exactness of Law the Members in a solemn and splendid Procession such as may imprint an Awe and Reverence in the minds of the People go first to Church and then to the Parliament-house And at that time the King coming into the House of Lords and having called up the Members of the House of Commons either speaks to them himself or causes the Lord Chancellor to declare to them the weighty causes of their meeting and what it is he would have them consult and deliberate about for the Publick Good The King is not obliged afterward unless he please to be present at their Consultations except at the end of a Session that he may give the strength and vigour of a Law to their Bills The Knights and Burgesses of the Lower House have severally the Oath of Allegiance administred unto them by one appointed for that effect by the King which amongst other things
onely for conveniency but even for Ostentation and Luxury Trade increasing dayly both in compass and profit had already enlarged it self to both the Indies onely unhappy in this that with the Wealth of Strangers foreign Vices were also imported Arts of all sorts never look'd gayer in Colledges Courts and Shops nor were the wealthy Inhabitants ever prouder Justice was administred according to Law nor was any man deprived of Life or Goods but by the lawful Verdict of a Jury of his Country-men to whom these things ought to be of highest value all the parts of Government were so administred that they seemed to conspire together for the publick good save onely in this that they could not repress the insolency and wantonness that sprung from so great prosperity and which is not to be dissembled being long unaccustomed to War we had been unfortunate in some foreign expeditions and the people were incensed at some impositions at home which though very moderate and countenanced by publick necessity and good reason in Law yet gave occasion to the people to pretend that the Right and Property of the Subject was opprest and to outcries of Injustice and also the imprisonment and lopping off the ears of four or five seditious persons sentenced by the Judges of the Star-Chamber seemed to be punishments too severe for those halcyon days of Peace and Tranquillity To this may be added that the Jurisdiction and Censures of Spiritual Courts wrought pity in some and indignation in others Besides the muster of Malecontents was made greater by some scrupulous Puritans who interpreted the enjoyning of Ceremonies and things indifferent in the Worship of God in the Canons of the Church to be the Fore-runners of Popery We may also take along with us the Zeal of the Archbishop in exempting the Clergie from the Suits and Injuries of Laicks and preferring them to civil employments which drew a great deal of envy and ill will not onely upon himself but upon all the Church-men also as also his endeavouring to bring into the Church of Scotland the use of the Service-book of England which though his designe was laudable that these three neighbouring Nations being under the government of one and the same King might also be joyned in an uniform manner of Worship was yet unseasonable and ill timed as we shall a little more fully relate Matters in Scotland were then ripe for a Rebellion for many took it ill that the King denied them the Honours and Titles to which they aspired others were vexed that they were forced to part with some portion of the Tythes though but moderate which they had upon the dissolution of the Monasteries in the minority of King James obtained from the Crown for making a competent Stipend for Ministers who then served the Cures at what easie rates the Patrons were pleased to allow them but most could not digest that the absolute Authority which they had for a long time usurped over their Vassals and Tenants should be taken from them and annexed to the Crown These chusing rather to shake the State than quit their hold those again rather to get Titles of Honour by the seditious Acclamations of the Mobile than to want them took occasion of the Liturgie and Ceremonies to buz the people in the ear that the reformed Religion was to be overturned to make way for Popery so that having taken up Arms and born down all that were of a contrary opinion they new model Church and State according to their own humour The King resolving to reduce those by Arms whom he could not reclaim by the milder causes of admonition being accompanied by the Flower of the Youth and Nobility of England who voluntarily and at their own charge set out upon the expedition marches to the borders but having by clemency and concessions brought them over to obedience which he preferred before Hostility and Arms he condescended to Articles of Peace and disbanded his Army The Scots afterward insisting upon Articles different from those that were agreed upon occasion new Broils and Dissensions which when neither Commissioners Messengers nor mutual Letters could compose both sides prepare afresh for a new War On the Kings side the Earl of Strafford then Deputy of Ireland raised an Army of eight thousand men with the assistance of the Parliament of Ireland being to be paid by them and being come over again into England bestirs himself in raising another Army here A Parliament is called wherein a certain Courtier making bad use of his instructions did purposely as most believed that he might confound affairs and increase Animosities betwixt the King and Parliament somewhat haughtily demand twelve Subsidies when the House of Commons had offered six in lieu of the Ship-money and this raised new discontents and grievances for putting a stop to which in those troublesome times the Parliament was sooner dissolved than many could have wished In the mean time the Scots whose Forces were not so dispersed but that they might be speedily drawn together into a body nicking the opportunity and by Agents entring into a Combination with the factious of England under pretext of petitioning the King came in a hostile manner into England and having beat some Troops that guarded the passage of the River Tine put all into fear and consternation took Newcastle and other Towns unprovided for defence and fortified them And though Strafford with the new-raised Army under his command had undertaken to drive them out of the Kingdom yet the most merciful King chose rather to refer the matter to a Parliament than without publick consent to pollute the Kingdom with bloud and slaughter A Truce was therefore made whereby the Scots were allowed a free Trade and Commerce with liberty to raise Contributions in the Counties where they lay and so a Parliament was called by whose prudence and Loyalty it was hoped all roots and Fibres of Animosities might be extirpated The Parliament being met the Factious who in great numbers had got into the House of Commons trusting now to the Patronage of the Scots and the Disorders of the times set about their business manfully they represent Grievances both publick and private accuse Courtiers and Magistrates and dart obliquely reproaches against the King himself exaggerating all with the highest strains of their Rhetorick Under pretext of reforming these Abuses they labour to overturn both Church and State and in imitation of the Scots to new-model the Government and that by these steps If in the first place they could deprive the King of the Counsels and Assistance of his most faithful Subjects and by loading him with Reproaches and false Crimes render him odious to the People and strip him of all Power and Authority they would next screw themselves into publick Offices and the power of the Militia and then with absolute dominion give Laws both to the King and People The Earl of Strafford and
amongst others is chiefly to be observed That the King having given secret orders to the Army then on foot which at his own charge he had raised against the Scots though after the Truce they were payed by the Parliament to march to London that he might more conveniently repress the Tumults and Insolencies of the People it was by the Factious charged upon him as a Crime But though he might lawfully do it yet they examined many Officers and Souldiers about the matter and finding none privy to it they made it their chief care by laying all the blame at the Kings door to incense the People more against him Now the Parliament has leisure the Power being in their hands to send the Scots home to their own Country who having received a promise of three hundred thousand pounds English to be paid within three years and being loaded with Thanks Pay and Booty of which they were not so free to the English Army they departed both the English and Irish Armies being at the same time disbanded Nay it was hotly disputed which of the Armies should first be dismissed this or that till at length with much ado it past in Parliament that both should be disbanded together The King followed the Scots into Scotland where having called a Parliament and having granted and confirmed by Law whatever Avarice Ambition and Wantonness could devise to his own loss he reconciles all Parties and for that time heals up all wounds of War and Dissention But the Parliament dogs the King with Commissioners as spies over all his actions who under pretext of cementing a stricter Union with their Friends and dear Brethren might break off their friendship to the King and indeed by tales whispers and crafty insinuations they had very near spoiled all the Kings business at that time The Parliament of England also during this space was by the Votes of both Houses prorogued to a certain day The King upon his return was received with applause in London and with the Queen and Royal Issue magnificently feasted by the City which the Parliamentarians and some others took ill lest the Kings Majesty being elevated by those Congratulations of the Citizens might think the people had received sufficient satisfaction or that his own affairs were setled to advantage And the King having sent for the Lord Mayor and chief Citizens to Hampton-Court gave them in recompence a sumptuous and Princely Treat which grated upon the Factious who were resolved to mingle sorrows with their joys After some days they congratulate his return with a Declaration or rather an infamous Libel In it the Parliamentarians mustered up all the grievances of the State or rather the murmurings of insolent and wanton men aggravating with the utmost spight and malice whatever had been committed by the Courtiers Courts Magistrates or Kings Officers what calamities or misfortunes had happened during his whole reign yea and those things also which being reformed ought justly to have been buried in silence and at the same time cause it to be printed and published This was forged during the Kings absence being moved under other pretexts by the chief Sticklers of the House and having been debated from three in the afternoon all night long until ten next morning and many wise men in the mean time through age and infirmity and others which is far worse through fear and cowardise withdrawing it was at last with much ado approved by the plurality of eleven voices The King finding fault that they had made it publick without expecting his Answer a few days after published another Declaration in refutation of it This was in a manner the first Declaration of War For though the King endeavoured a Cure by somentations and mollifying Remedies yet the Sore festered and was not to be cured without Fire and Sword The Rabble again broke out into Tumults under colour of the Ceremonies Liturgie and Church-government The Factious whisper that the power of the Militia must be taken out of the Kings hands which they intended immediately to seize By which it clearly appeared that the boldness of the disaffected and the ways of sedition were rather encouraged than conquered by patience and that the Troubles were no less raised by the consent than by the artifice and machination of the Factious the King having discovered some of them to have been accessary to the Scottish Invasion That the King therefore might not always suffer things to go on but obviate and timely stifle the growing Rebellion in the bud he accuses five Commoners and one of the Peers of High-Treason and desires them to be brought to a fair tryal according to Law before the Judges of the Kingdom But the Faction growing now more powerful and numerous in the Parliament many good men also being over sollicitous lest the Priviledges of Parliament might be in the least infringed the House of Commons which durst never before own the defence of any who were accused of Felony Murder or Treason takes them into protection and so far from complying with the King who undertook the prosecution himself they rather accuse him as invading the Priviledges of Parliament and will not suffer any Member to be brought to the Bar or taken off by accusations from the care of the Publick or that the Judges and Arbitrators of the Affairs of the Kingdom should be disgraced by criminal Processes The King being provoked at this by the advice of some of his Privy-Council who were themselves Members of the House went to Westminster-hall attended with about an hundred Noblemen and Gentlemen with their Servants and commands that no body else be suffered to come up stairs and that they should not upon any provocation offer the least affront to any man Entering the House of Commons accompanied onely by the Prince Palatine of the Rhyne he demands the Incendiaries to be delivered up to him and promises to proceed against them according to the known Laws They being warned as it was reported by means of the Earl of H. and of a Lady who was now willing to set off her wit as formerly she had done her beauty the gifts of different Ages amongst the Parliament-men had withdrawn themselves Wherefore the King having accused the Abscondents returned without any hurt or injury done to any man But when he perceived that the Members were in a chaff and highly displeased he mildly remitted the Suit and that he might soften the angry minds of the men he retracted what he had done and in a manner begg'd pardon for his fault Nevertheless they who lay continually at the catch to blow the Coals of Jealousies and Offences taking hold of this opportunity of inveighing against the King set the minds of the ignorant agog and scattered abroad in all places such sparks of Division as were enough to put the whole Kingdom in a flame The Rabble of the neighbouring
interposeth and very often whilst the Presbyterians were at the helm disturb the religious meetings of the other Sectarians by hurling of Stones amongst them The liberty of a great many being contrary to expectation restrained the Parliament settle the Presbyterian government onely for three years that in that time they might have a tryal how it would fadge This Novelty set mens humours wonderfully a working The Politicians and Lawyers were highly offended that there were as many Judicatures established as there were Parishes in England and these almost arbitrary putting the Rule into the hands of unskilful men and for the most part incapable of government and began to foresee at a distance I know not what calamities ready to spring from thence in Families Parishes Counties nay and in the whole Kingdom also Most part of the people grumble to be put again to School and to be taught the Rudiments and Principles of their Religion wherein they thought themselves already very well instructed Those that were zealous for Episcopal government and the Service-book bite the bit But none repined more than the Independants Anabaptists and the other Sects who saw their beloved liberty of Conscience in danger for which they had at first taken up Arms against the King hazarded their lives in so many battels and suffered so much labour cost watchings and danger Nevertheless the Government went bravely on in London but so and so in the other Cities and populous Towns and but very coldly in the Country so that the triennial Essay being over and no new Act made to confirm it it had much ado to keep life And thus far concerning Church-affairs which we thought fit to relate together though they happened not all at the same time Let us now return to the other arts whereby they wheadled the Scots Amongst which it was of greatest moment no less for endearing the Scots to them than for raising their power and authority amongst the Natives to sell the Bishops Lands at very easie rates so that Purchasers flocked in from all quarters who with the materials of demolished Palaces and the Timber they cut down having paid for their Purchases got large and entire Mannors almost for nothing And that once for all I may tell it they lay Excise Customs and such heavy and continual Taxes and Impositions upon the people as none of all the Kings that ever sat upon the Throne of England durst ever before that time impose and such as were not onely sufficient to defray all publick expenses but in some measure also the insatiable avarice and voraciousness of their Factors and Agents besides what they got by plundering sequestration and other ways The Scots being allured by these Morsels are tooth and nail for the interests of the Parliament The Scots the declared enemies of Episcopacy fearing the worst if the King should obtain the victory over the Parliament and being drawn in by the aforementioned baits enter into Articles of a Confederacy among which to give a colour of honesty and integrity to the rest the chief was That no hurt be attempted against his Majesties person nor prejudice done to the Rights or Heirs of the Crown an Oath being likewise taken by the Members of both Houses and all the Inhabitants of both Kingdoms being forced to do the same This they call the Solemn League and Covenant and in it promise That according to their Places and Callings they shall endeavour the preservation of the reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government The reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland in Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches and shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion c. That they shall also endeavour the extirpation of Popery Prelacy Superstition Heresie Schism Profaneness c. That they shall mutually endeavour to preserve the Rights and Priviledges of the Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdoms and to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms That the World may bear witness with their Consciences of their Loyalty that they have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his Majesties just power and greatness That they shall endeavour to discover all Incendiaries and Malignants branding with those aspersions all that favoured the Kings Party that they may be brought to publick tryal and receive condign punishment That they shall endeavour that the Kingdoms may remain conjoyned in a firm Peace and Vnion to Posterity shall assist and defend all those that enter into that League and Covenant and shall zealously and constantly all the days of their lives continue therein No inconsiderable Authors of entering into this Covenant were the Independents Anabaptists and Republicans and the chief and most severe in forcing it upon others who were unwilling to take the same though many of themselves purposely refrained from swearing it lest upon that account they should oblige themselves to the defence of the Kings person It is also to be observed that the clause of defending the Kings Majesties person and authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and Liberties of the Kingdoms was by their artifices foisted in contrary to the sence and tenour of the Covenant under colour forsooth that the safety of his Majesties person was sufficiently secured by other Oaths that the repetition of the same promise would but harden the Kings mind against the Parliament and make the People scrupulous in obeying the same But in reality as appeared afterward that all obstacles being as much as might be removed they might make way for the murther of the King These things being contrived and carried on betwixt the factious Scots and English those who took that Covenant with an honest purpose as many good men did being won over by fear delusion or false hope called themselves Presbyterians other Factious of less note as Independents Anabaptists and other Fanaticks not disdaining to list themselves in the same Cause These cruelly persecute all Dissenters who will not engage in that holy Covenant though they had acted nothing before against the Parliamentary Faction though they had not refused to pay any Taxes and Impositions nay though they had freely contributed for the pay of the Parliament-forces The Parsons especially who enjoyed fat Benefices are sequestrated and deprived of their Houses Goods and Livings put into Prisons and Dungeons for many years together nay and put on board of Ships upon the Thames in the heat of Summer in order to transportation without being either accused or heard where they suffered all the incommodities of hunger watching and nastiness By the Religion of this Covenant Children were taught to persecute inform against and
rob their Parents Fathers their Children Servants their Masters Wives their Husbands so that the mutual Offices to which men are bound in society were denied to those that differed from them in opinion For these reasons many contrary to the Dictates of Conscience run into the noose of the Covenant and at length whether that they thought themselves obnoxious to the Kings Laws or really bound in conscience by their Oath they seriously espoused the Party of the Parliament Against this many learned and pious men took up the Cudgels and in several Treatises amongst which was the Judgment of the University of Oxford an unanswerable piece in Latin confuted it as contrary to the Laws both of God and man the Covenanters in the mean time making no answer but with force and the sharper Arguments of the Sword The Scots who faithfully promised the King to give him no trouble in his affairs in England having by those previous artifices cleared their way into that Kingdom with twenty thousand men come to the assistance of the Parliament But first for forms sake they send Commissioners to the King to perswade him being inclinable enough of himself to make peace with the Parliament and to offer themselves as Mediators of the Controversie but the King having rejected them as unjust and partial Judges and commanded them to mind their own affairs at home they call a Parliament against all Law in the Kings name and then declare War The King foreseeing the Storm that was like to fall upon himself and Party had provided against it as well as possibly he could The Lords and Members of the House of Commons who though they were excluded the Houses thought it their duty still to stand by the Publick came over to the Kings side and the former to the number of forty with the Lord Keeper of the great Seal and the latter above two hundred transfer the Parliament to Oxford where being called to Council before they were admitted to take Arms by the King they held a Session of Parliament by the Kings authority nothing being wanting to the power and dignity of a Parliament but Walls and the place appointed by the Kings Writ To these the King gave strictly in charge that they would do what lay in their power to avert the Storm or at least consult how they might be able to resist it This Parliament wrote to the Scots that they would not in an hostile manner invade the King and Kingdom of England nor violate the Pacification formerly made They declare it Treason to take up Arms against the King or without his consent to call a foreign Nation into the Kingdom and that therefore the rump-Rump-Parliament sitting at Westminster were upon both accounts guilty of High-Treason They also pass an Act for raising as much money as could reasonably be expected from the exhausted Counties and Towns which still continued in obedience to the King for defraying the charges of a double War now approaching The King also by Letters earnestly dehorted the Scots from that unlawful attempt and prohibits them by Proclamation That being his Subjects and obliged by so many bonds they would not come to the assistance of Rebels But this being signed by the hands of nineteen Lords the prevailing Rebels of Scotland with matchless insolence in Subjects cause it publickly to be burnt by the common Hangman The Marquess of Hamilton is commanded to keep the Scots at home that they might not meddle in the affairs of another Kingdom who being discovered to have unfaithfully discharged that Office having under pretext of danger fled out of Scotland to the King was afterward committed to Prison The Marquess of Montross being made General and Commissioner of Scotland is dispatched thither that by giving them a diversion at home they might be kept from invading England This Commission was valiantly discharged by the Marquess having with a handful of men and those raw and undisciplined put whole Armies to flight and every-where wasted the Country However the Scots pursuing their point left not England before by the help of Fairfax they had routed no small part of the Kings Army which they had long diverted from quelling the Parliamentarians elsewhere taken Newcastle and other strong places and handed on the Victory into the more Southern parts Henceforward the Kings affairs do dayly decline and were at length totally ruin'd Victory everywhere smiling upon the Rebels The Republican Rebels having obtained many Victories began to vent their hatred and indignation against the Lords and especially after the last Newberry-Fight they grew sick of the Earl of Manchester For he in a Council of War giving his opinion and exhorting them to Peace which he judged more expedient to the State seemed not so thorough-paced and fierce upon the War as they could have desired and being therefore in a long Speech accused by Cromwel in the Lower House he defends himself in the Vpper retorting the accusation So that both Houses thought it more convenient to compose the difference betwixt them than to enter into the merits of the Cause The Kings Forces being at length scattered and broken by the Scots on the one hand and the Parliament-Rebels on the other Pay and Provisions being wanting and Factions arising betwixt the Commanders of the Army and the Lords that all things might conspire to draw down Judgments upon us His Majesty had in his mind first to come to London and trust himself in the hands of the Parliament next to cast himself into the arms of the English Army but being rejected by both and his affairs in a very doubtful condition he ventured to betake himself to the Scots the French Embassadour who then was in the Scottish Army and some Scottish Commanders having obtained from them promises of honour safety and freedom for his Majesties person This revived former Grudges betwixt the English and Scottish Rebels which had almost broken out into a War It was likewise given out that the Earl of Essex who from a General was now become a private person would joyn with the Lords and Commons that conspired for their ruine in new Articles and Resolutions with the Scots but his sudden death occasioned by lying on the ground when he was all in a sweat after hunting dissipated all those rumours Nevertheless the Rebels thought fit at publick cost to humour him with magnificent Funerals as being more for their interest to shew gratitude to a dead friend than to have him perhaps a living enemy Upon this they began to deny the Scots their Pay put a necessity upon them of exacting Money and free Quarters from the Counties where they lay expose them to hatred extenuate their merits undervalue the courage of the Nation call them mercenary Souldiers of fortune whilst they in the mean time paid them onely with Reproaches threaten to drive them out of the Kingdom by force of Arms publickly provoke
treacherous discovery of a certain Earl they understood was by the Captain of the Guard with full authority to be brought to London and having done so they endeavour to please him with officious and flattering promises of greater liberty and freedom and more dutiful usage pretending to lament his condition as being by the severity of the Parliament in a manner buried alive within his own Palace as in a Prison deprived of the company of his Friends and Servants Professing which to them was more than an Oath that they would never lay down their Arms until they had put the Scepter into his hands and procured better Conditions for his Friends They allow him the assistance of his Chaplains the exercise of his Religion and a free correspondence with the Queen by Messengers and Letters without any examination His Royal Children were likewise suffered to visit him that so far at least he might seem to be at home and to enioy the dearest part of his Kingdom In so much that the Camp seemed to be transformed into the Court whilst his Majesties domestick Servants return with joy to their Master and Courtiers increase daily in number And that they may seem to be serious in treating with the King about the setling of affairs they frame Propositions whereby they gave it out That things were contrived to the best for the interest of his Majesty of themselves and of the Publick to which if the King would condescend they engage on their parts immediately to restore him to the height of Royal Majesty When afterwards the King liked them not as they were proposed by their Commissioners they soften them and made as if they had almost accommodated them to the intentions of the King nay one or two of his Majesties Servants whensoever they had a mind to it were permitted to be present in their Councils of War In the mean time they publish Declarations and Remonstrances to the dishonour of the Parliament accuse them of Covetousness Selfishness Ambition Injustice Cruelty and Tyranny demand their Arrears accuse eleven able Commoners and as many Peers of the contrary Faction of High-Treason and having brought frivolous Articles against them they urge that being excluded the House they may be brought to a Tryal They desire nay command that the present Parliament be within a prefixed time dissolved foreseeing that to be the onely way whereby they might hope to gratifie the People and that a new and better Parliament should be called in place of it thereby to flatter the hopes of wretched Sufferers It is not to be denied but that they proposed many useful things that they might cajole the people wherein they never forgot sometimes obliquely and sometimes also directly to speak in favour of the King and that to this purpose That the King Queen and Royal Family be restored to their just Rights without which they cry no solid Peace can be expected Yet for the most part they play fast and loose by Conditions annexed or ambiguous words so that afterward they might easily extricate themselves from these Promises provided they had the luck to get the better of the Presbyterians But when the Parliament thought it neither honourable nor safe to comply with these military demands the Army inverting now the Cause declare for the King and People and march against the Parliament On the other hand the Parliament with the Londoners prepare for a defence and vote that the King should be invited to London the people in a manner forcing them to it who with importunate Petitions and Clamours thundred tumultuously in Westminster-hall In the mean time the Speakers of both Houses with about fifty Members partly Aristocraticks and partly Democraticks privily flie from London and betake themselves to the Camp in great consternation pretending violence offered unto them by their fellow-Members Citizens and some disbanded Souldiers and demand reparation by Arms yet all this while they left others of their own stamp behind them in the Parliament that might blow the Coals and disappoint the Councils of the rest The Citizens who like men in an Ague after a burning heat fall presently into a shaking cold were easily appeased by the fair promises of the Army That the King should be restored which was their onely desire the Parliament dissolved and publick Peace and Justice setled But the Country-people who heretofore were in a readiness to flock to the assistance of London were now equally disgusted both with the Citizens and Parliament as those who having first kindled the War were still unwilling to put out the flame and seemed to be the onely men that shut their Gates against Peace that was ready to return into the Kingdom What 's now to be done The Parliament desponds and the officious Citizens who were for the Army and Faction open the Gates and without any previous Articles tamely deliver up the City to the mercy of the Souldiers Upon this the fugitive Members are with no small pomp instantly restored to their places The accused Presbyterians flie and some as it is usual temporizing strike in with the victorious Party and the rest lose courage From that time forward the History of the Evils they had done is to be read in those they suffer Some of the Members of the House of Commons the Mayor also and many chief Citizens being committed to the Tower smart for their late fear and cowardise in abandoning the safety of their fellow-Citizens and their former obstinacy and insolence against the King Seven or eight Lords accused of Treason are cast into Prison but afterward the heat of Emulation by little and little cooling and being almost quite over the Prisoners without any Indictments brought against them are discharged from their loathsome Prisons to be an example to others not to presume hereafter to resist Nor could this satisfie them unless also to shew their strength and the continence and discipline of the Souldiers the Commanders of the Army led their men with Artillery and Ammunition as in triumph over the Citizens through the chief streets of London When the Army had now mastered the two strong Forts of the Kingdom the Parliament and the City of London being doubly victorious over their friends and enemies there remained no more to be done but how they might at their leisure settle and confirm themselves in the Power which now they had obtained The Lieutenant and Garrison of the Tower of London are chosen out of the dregs of the Citizens but such as had nobilitated themselves by being Slaves to the Faction the old Lieutenant with the accustomed Garrison being turned out for no other fault but that he favoured the Presbyterians The Commissioners who had the power of ordering the whole Army as also the Colonels Captains and other Officers are forced to turn out to make way for men of a new mould But some may think that it was overdoing that when
publick whilst the Parliament were at a stand wondering whither he might have fled his Majesty wrote to them sending therewith Concessions that were too easie and great to be expected or indeed to be wished for by any adding thereto invincible Arguments why he could not consent to the Proposals lately sent him by the Parliament He proposes his own Concessions and the Demands of the Army as a fit subject for a personal Treaty and for the sake of the People and Kingdom earnestly desires it being willing on his own part to condescend to any thing that by any means he might procure Peace and Tranquillity to his languishing Kingdoms The Republicans of both sorts as well they that were for a few as for a many-headed Commonwealth endeavouring by all means to put a stop to the Peace proposed and offered by the King take hereby occasion to oppose to his Majesties most just desires four unreasonable Demands as preliminary cautions which if his Majesty would consent to they promise to treat about the rest I. That the Parliament should have power to raise settle and maintain the Forces by Sea and Land within the Kingdoms of England and Ireland c. without the Kings consent it being declared High-Treason for any others to the number of thirty to meet together without the authority of Parliament II. That it should be lawful to the two Houses to sit and adjourn themselves when and where they pleased III. That all Oaths Declarations Proclamations and other proceedings against either House of Parliament during the War should be declared void and null IV. That all Titles and Honour of Peerage conferred on any by the King since his Majesty left the Parliament and since the great Seal was carried away should he declared void All these things they demand that the King would consent might be past into Law if not that things must remain as they were In the mean time the Scottish Commissioners who were then at London give in their Reasons in writing against these Demands and when nevertheless they saw that they were sent to the King they protest against them in his Majesties presence as being flatly opposite to Religion the Crown and the Agreements made betwixt the Kingdoms of England and Scotland What can the King do to get out of these streights If he grant the Demands he voluntarily resignes up the Government and if he refuse he must be deposed with the ignominious brand of Obstinacy The King though wanted neither greatness of Soul nor Wisdom and therefore sends presently back an Answer That the necessity of complying with all engaged interests in these great distempers for a perfect settlement of Peace his Majesty finds to be none of the least difficulties he hath met with since the time of his afflictions which is too visible when at the same time that the two Houses of the English Parliament do present to his Majesty several Bills and Propositions for his consent the Commissioners for Scotland do openly protest against them so that were nothing in the case but the consideration of that difference his Majesty cannot imagine how to give such an answer to what is now proposed as thereby to promise himself his great end A Perfect Peace And when his Majesty farther considers how impossible it is in the condition he now stands to fulfil the desires of his two Houses since the onely ancient and known ways of passing Laws are either by his Majesties personal assent in the House of Peers or by Commission under his great Seal of England he cannot but wonder at such failings in the manner of address which is now made unto him unless his two Houses intend that his Majesty shall allow of a great Seal made without his authority before there be any consideration had thereupon in a Treaty which as it may hereafter hazard the security it self so for the present it seems very unreasonable to his Majesty And though his Majesty is willing to believe that the intention of very many of both Houses in sending those Bills before a Treaty was onely to obtain a Trust from him and not to take any advantage by passing them to force other things from him which are either against his conscience or honour yet his Majesty believes it's clear to all understandings that these Bills contain as they are now penned not onely the divesting himself of all Soveraignty and that without possibility of recovering it either to him or his Successors except by repeal of these Bills but also the making his Concessions guilty of the greatest pressures that can be made upon the Subject as in other particulars so by giving an arbitrary and unlimited power to the two Houses for ever to raise and levy for Land and Sea-service of what persons without distinction and quality and to what numbers they please and likewise for the payment of the Arrears to levy what moneys in such sort and by such ways and means and by consequence upon the Estates of whatsoever persons as they shall think fit and appoint which is utterly inconsistent with the Liberty and Property of the Subject and his Majesties trust in protecting them so that if the major part of both Houses shall think it necessary to put the rest of the Propositions into Bills his Majesty leaves the world to judge how unsafe it would be for him to consent thereunto and if not what a strange condition after passing those four Bills his Majesty and all his Subjects would be cast into And here his Majesty thinks it not unfit to wish his two Houses to consider well of the manner of their proceeding that when his Majesty desires a personal Treaty with them for the setling of a Peace they in answer propose the very subject matter of the most essential part thereof to be first granted a thing which will be hardly credible to Posterity Wherefore his Majesty declares that neither the desire of being freed from this tedious and irksome condition of life his Majesty hath so long suffered nor the apprehension of what shall befal him in case his two Houses shall not afford him a personal Treaty shall make him change his resolution of not consenting to any Act till the whole be concluded Yet then he intends not onely to give full and reasonable satisfaction in the particulars presented to him but also to make good all other Concessions mentioned in his Message of the 16th of Novemb. last which he thought would have produced better effects than what he finds in the Bills and Propositions now presented unto him And yet his Majesty cannot give over but now again earnestly presseth for a personal Treaty so passionately is he affected with the advantages which Peace will bring to his Majesty and all his Subjects of which he will not at all despair there being no other visible way to obtain a well-grounded Peace However his Majesty is very much at ease within himself for having fulfilled the offices
be a sufficient Conviction of Popish Recuâ—ancy An Act or Acts of Parliament for Education of the Children of Papists by Protestants in the Protestant Religion VIII An Act or Acts for the true Levie of the Penalties against them which Penalties to be levied and disposed in such manner as both Houses shall agree on wherein to be provided that his Majesty shall have no loss IX That an Act or Acts be passed in Parliament whereby the practices of Papists against the State may be prevented and the Laws against them duly executed and a stricter course taken to prevent the Saying or Hearing of Mass in the Court or any other part of this Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ireland The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the four last preceding Propositions in such manner as the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit X. That the King do give his Royal assent to an Act for the due observation of the Lords Day XI And to the Bill for the suppression of Innovasions in Churches and Chappels in and about the Worship of God XII And for the better advancement of the preaching of Gods holy Word in all parts of this Kingdom XIII And to the Bill against the enjoying the pluralities of Benefices by Spiritual Persons and Non-Residency XIV And to an Act to be framed and agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament for the reforming and regulating of both Universities of the Colledges of Westminster Winchester and Eaton XV. And to such Act or Acts for raising of Moneys for the payment and satisfying of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom and other publick uses as shall hereafter be agreed on by both Houses of Parliament and that if the King do not give his Assent thereunto then it being done by both Houses of Parliament the same shall be as valid to all intents and purposes as if the Royal Assent had been given thereunto The like for the Kingdom of Scotland And that his Majesty give assurance of his consenting in the Parliament of Scotland to an Act acknowledging and ratifying the Acts of the Convention of Estates of Scotland called by the Council and Conservers of the Peace and the Commissioners for the common Burthens and assembled the two and twentieth day of June 1643. and several times continued since and of the Parliament of that Kingdom since convened XVI That the Lords and Commons in the Parliament of England assembled shall during the space of twenty years from the first of July 1646. arm train and discipline or cause to be armed trained and disciplined all the Forces of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed already raised both for Sea and Land-service and shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years raise levy arm train and discipline or cause to be raised levied armed trained and disciplined any other Forces for Land and Sea-service in the Kingdoms Dominions and places aforesaid as in their Judgments they shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and that neither the the King his Heirs or Successors nor any other but such as shall act by the authority or approbation of the said Lords and Commons shall during the said space of twenty years exercise any of the Powers aforesaid And the like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of the Parliament there shall think fit That Moneys be raised and levied for the maintenance and use of the said Forces for Land-service and of the Navy and Forces for Sea-service in such sort and by such ways and means as the said Lords Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years think fit and appoint and not otherwise That all the said Forces both for Land and Sea-service so raised or levied or to be raised or levied and also the Admiralty and Navy shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years be employed managed ordered and disposed by the said Lords and Commons in such sort and by such ways and means as they shall think fit and appoint and not otherwise And the said Lords and Commons during the said space of twenty years shall have power 1. To suppress all Forces raised or to be raised without authority and consent of the said Lords and Commons to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 2. To suppress any foreign Forces who shall invade or endeavour to invade the Kingdoms of England and Ireland Dominion of Wales the Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed or any of them 3. To conjoyn such Forces of the Kingdom of England with the Forces of the Kingdom of Scotland as the said Lords and Commons shall from time to time during the said space of twenty years judge fit and necessary To resist all foreign Invasions and to suppress any Forces raised or to be raised against or within either of the said Kingdoms to the disturbance of the publick Peace of the said Kingdoms or any of them by any authority under the Great Seal or other Warrant whatsoever without consent of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament or the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland respectively And that no Forces of either Kingdom shall go into or continue in the other Kingdom without the advice and desire of the said Lords and Commons of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland or such as shall be by them appointed for that purpose And that after the expiration of the said twenty years neither the King his Heirs or Successors or any person or persons by colour or pretence of any Commission Power Deputation or Authority to be derived from the King his Heirs or Successors or any of them shall raise arm train discipline employ order mannage disband or dispose any of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland the Dominion of Wales Isles of Guernsey and Jersey and the Town of Barwick upon Tweed Nor exercise any of the said Powers or Authorities in the precedent Articles mentioned and expressed to be during the said space of twenty years in the said Lords and Commons Nor do any act or thing concerning the execution of the said Powers or Authorities or any of them without the consent of the said Lords and Commons first had and obtained That after the expiration of the said twenty years in all cases wherein the Lords and Commons shall declare the safety of the Kingdom to be concerned and shall thereupon pass any Bill or Bills for the raising arming training disciplining employing mannaging ordering or disposing of the Forces by Sea or Land of the Kingdoms
but all their said several preferments places and promotions shall be utterly void as if they were naturally dead nor shall they otherwise use their Function of the Ministry without advice and consent of both Houses of Parliament Provided that no Laps shall incurr by such vacancy until six months past after notice thereof 6 Qualification That all persons who have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof are disabled to be Sheriffs Justices of the Peace Mayors or other head-Officers of any City or Corporation Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer or to sit or serve as Members or Assistants in either of the Houses of Parliament or to have any Military employment in this Kingdom without the consent of both Houses of Parliament 7 Qualification The persons of all others to be free of all personal censure notwithstanding any Act or thing done in or concerning this War they taking the Covenant 8 Qualification The Estates of those persons excepted in the first three precedent Qualifications and the Estates of Edward Lord Littleton and of William Laud late Archbishop of Canterbury to pay publick Debts and Damages 9 Qualification Branch 1. That two full parts in three to be divided of all the Estates of the Members of either House of Parliament who have not onely deserted the Parliament but have also voted both Kingdoms Traytors and have not rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 2. That two full parts in three to be divided of the Estates of such late Members of either House of Parliament as sate in the unlawful Assembly at Oxford and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom Branch 3. That one full moity of the Estates of such persons late Members of either of the Houses of Parliament who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and shall not have rendred themselves before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 10 Qualification That a full third part of the value of the Estates of all Judges and Officers towards the Law Common or Civil and of all Serjeants Counsellors and Attorneys Doctors Advocates and Proctors of the Law Common or Civil And of all Bishops Clergy-men Masters and Fellows of any Colledge or Hall in either of the Universities or elsewhere And of all Masters of Schools or Hospitals and of all Ecclesiastical persons who have deserted the Parliament and adhered to the Enemies thereof and have not rendred themselves to the Parliament before the first of December 1645. shall be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom That a full sixth part on the full value of the Estates of the persons excepted in the sixth Qualification concerning such as have been actually in Arms against the Parliament or have counselled or voluntarily assisted the Enemies thereof and are disabled according to the said Qualification be taken and employed for the payment of the publick Debts and Damages of the Kingdom 11 Qualification That the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of England who in Lands or Goods be not worth two hundred pounds sterling and the persons and Estates of all Common Souldiers and others of the Kingdom of Scotland who in Lands or Goods be not worth one hundred pounds sterling be at liberty and discharged Branch 1. This Proposition to stand as to the English and as to the Scots likewise if the Parliament of Scotland or their Commissioners shall so think fit Branch 2. That the 1 of May last is now the day limited for the persons to come in that are comprised within the former Qualifications Provided that all and every the Delinquents which by or according to the several and respective Ordinances or Orders made by both or either of the Houses of Parliament on or before the 24th day of April 1647. are to be admitted to make their Fines and Compositions under the rates and proportions of the Qualifications aforesaid shall according to the said Ordinances and Orders respectively be thereto admitted and further also that no person or persons whatsoever except such Papists as having been in Arms or voluntarily assisted against the Parliament have by concealing their quality procured their admission to Composition which have already compounded or shall hereafter compound and be thereto admitted by both Houses of Parliament at any of the rates and proportions aforesaid or under respectively shall be put to pay any other Fine than that they have or shall respectively so compound for except for such Estates or such of their Estates and for such values thereof respectively as have been or shall be concealed or omitted in the particulars whereupon they compound and that all and every of them shall have thereupon their Pardons in such manner and form as is agreed by both Houses of Parliament That an Act be passed whereby the Debts of the Kingdom and the persons of Delinquents and the value of their Estates may be known and which Act shall appoint in what manner the Confiscations and Proportions before-mentioned may be leavied and applied to the discharge of the said Engagements The like for the Kingdom of Scotland if the Estates of Parliament or such as shall have power from them shall think fit XIX That an Act of Parliament be passed to declare and make void the Cessation of Ireland and all Treaties and Conclusions of Peace or any Articles thereupon with the Rebels without consent of both Houses of Parliament And to settle the prosecution of the War of Ireland in both Houses of the Parliament of England to be managed by them and the King to assist and to do no act to discountenance or molest them therein That Reformation of Religion according to the Covenant be setled in the Kingdom of Ireland by Act of Parliament in such manner as both Houses of the Parliament of England have agreed or shall agree upon after Consultation had with the Assembly of Divines here That the Deputy or chief Governour or other Governours of Ireland and the Presidents of the several Provinces of that Kingdom be nominated by both the Houses of the Parliament of England or in the intervals of Parliament by such Committees of both Houses of Parliament as both Houses of the Parliament of England shall nominate and appoint for that purpose And that the Chancellor or Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Commissioners of the Great Seal or Treasury Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports Chancellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy Secretaries of State Master of the Rolls Judges of both Benches and Barons of the Exchequer of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Vice-Treasurer and the
some time prevail with them to delay the execution of the Villany Nor was Bradshaw the bloudy President secure from violent hands for one Burghill armed with sword and pistol watched him one night behind Gray's Inn-gate when he was to come home late but missing of his designe that night because Bradshaw did not come home next day being betrayed by one Cooke to whom he had discovered the matter he was brought before the Parricides However his Guards being drunk finding an occasion of an escape he saved his own life having onely laid in wait for another mans But all was in vain for the Rebels slighting these things pretend Gods providence and the motions of the Holy Ghost for their warrant and security Peters a brazen-faced Hypocrite who being disgracefully whipt out of Cambridge ever after that clove close to the Schismaticks bids them from the Pulpit Go on and prosper that now was the time When the Saints should bind Princes in chains and their Nobles with fetters of iron so lewdly did that profane Knave interpret holy Scripture telling them That they need not question but this Prophecy was to be fulfilled by them and in the Sermon he addresses himself to the holy Judges the title he thought fit to give them and protests that he was certain there were in the Army five thousand men no less Saints than those that conversed with God himself in Heaven Then kneeling in the Pulpit with flouds of forced tears and lifted up hands he earnestly begs in the name of the People of England That they would do Justice against CHARLES and not suffer Benhadad the enemy to escape Nay he most insolently inveighed against Monarchy it self and straining his virulent wit he relates the History How the Trees chusing a King and the Vine and Olive-tree refusing the office they submitted themselves to the sharper government of the bramble and compared Kingly government to briars By such kind of Arguments he stirs up and confirms those new Judges who of their own nature were already but too much enraged and fiercely bent against the King There was another besides Peters the Preacher an Herald one Serjeant Dendy also employed who being environed with a Guard of Horse for fear of being stoned by sound of Trumpet cited all those to appear who had any crime to object against the King and this he did first in Westminster-hall and then in the most publick places of the City Before these Judges of the new Court the most August Charles already stript of three most flourishing Kingdoms by the Rebels and having now no more but Life to be deprived of is brought without the least signe in his countenance of any discomposure of mind His indictment is read wherein he is accused In the name of the People of England of Treason Tyranny Murders and of all Rapines that were occasioned by the War with the highest aggravations of the Crimes But the whole stress of the Indictment lay in this That he had made War against the Parliament which the Army under the Parliaments pay had long ago trampled under foot scarcely any shadow of it remaining Great was the company of Spectators who with groans sighs and tears lamented the condition of the best of Princes Nor without injustice can I pass over the brave action of the heroick Lady Fairfax Daughter to the Lord Vere who out of a Belcony that lookt into the Court cried out publickly That that was a lye that the tenth part of the People was not guilty of that Villany but that it was a contrivance of the Traytor Cromwel And this she did with great danger of her life The King having heard this Indictment with a majesty in his looks and words that cannot be exprest puts the question to those new Judges By what Authority they brought their King to the Bar contrary to the publick Faith which was very lately made to him when he entered into a Conference with the Members of both Houses By what lawful Authority said he emphatically He knew indeed there were many unlawful and powerful Combinations of men in the world as of Thieves and Robbers by the High-ways He desires they would tell him by what Authority they had taken that Power such as it was upon them and he would be willing to answer but if they could not he bids them think well upon it before they go farther from one sin to a greater That he had a Trust committed to him by God by an ancient and lawful Descent and that he would not betray it by answering to a new and unlawful Authority The President replying That he was brought to answer in the name of the People of England of which he was elected King The King made answer That England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for near these thousand years That he did stand more for the liberty of the People by rejecting their usurped Power than any of them that came to be his pretended Judges did by supporting it That he did not come there as submitting to the Court That he would stand as much for the Priviledge of the House of Commons as any man there whatsoever but that he saw no House of Lords there that might together with a King constitute a Parliament That if they would shew him a legal authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom he would answer for that he did avow that it was as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a tyrannical or any ways unlawful Authority The President in the mean time often interrupted him and at length commanding him to be carried back to Prison Yet was the good King a second and a third time brought before the Bar of the Common People where the President puts him in mind of his Indictment and commands him to answer to the Articles brought against him or otherways to listen to his sentence But the King still protested against the Authority of the Court affirming That his life was not so dear to him as his Honour Conscience the Laws and the Liberties of the People which that they might not perish all at once there were great reasons why he could not make his defence before those Judges nor acknowledge a new form of Judicature for what power had ever Subjects or by what Laws was it granted them to erect a Court against their King That it could not be warranted by Gods Laws which on the contrary command obedience to Princes not by the Laws of the Land since by them no Impeachment can lie against the King they all going in his name nor do they allow the House of Commons the power of judging the meanest Subject of England And that lastly that pretended Power could not flow from any Authority or Commission from the People since they had never asked the question of the
tenth man he might have said of the thousandth of the Kingdom The President interrupting him again as before takes him up now more insolently bids him be mindful of his condition tells him that the Court is sufficiently satisfied and do affirm their own Jurisdiction and that no Reasons were to be heard that declined the Authority of the Court But shew me that Court answered the King where Reason is not to be heard We shew it you here replied the President and the next time you come you 'll know more of their pleasure But the King urged That at least he might be permitted to give in his Reasons in writing to which if they could give him satisfaction he would not decline their Jurisdiction Here the President not satisfied to deny his modest suit but falling also into a heat commanded the Prisoner to be carried away who made no other return but this Remember it is your King whom you refuse to hear it will be in vain for my Subjects to expect Justice from you when you will not hear your King make his lawful defence Now the King is the fourth time brought before this unjust Court of Justice where the President in his Scarlet-robe bitterly taxes the King of Contumacy and runs out in commendation of the Patience of the Court He bids him at length submit to the Court or to expect his Sentence But the King constantly refuses to plead before them telling them however That he had something to say that concerned the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject wherein he desires to be heard before the Lords and Commons Yet they refuse to grant him that favour which is not wont to be denied to men of the meanest condition pretending it would delay and put a stop to Justice To which the King replied That it would be better to admit the delay of a day or two than to hasten a Sentence that might bring on that trouble and perpetual inconvenience to the Kingdom that the Child that is unborn might repent it For if I had had said he respect to my Life more than the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberties of the Subject certainly I should have made a particular defence for my self for by that at leastwise I might have delayed an ugly Sentence which I believe will pass upon me and that the Zeal to my Country had not overborn the care that I have of my own preservation I should have gone another way to work than I have done Now since a hasty Sentence once past may be sooner repented than recalled I desire that having something to say more for the Peace of the Kingdom and the Liberty of the Subject than for my own particular I may be heard before Sentence be given Upon which Colonel Downs one of the Judges being prickt in Conscience contrary to what had been privately agreed upon amongst the Judges desires that they may withdraw and debate that Proposal privately Though this extreamly vexed the President Cromwel and most of the rest yet that they might not seem publickly to quarrel among themselves they all withdraw into an adjoyning Chamber where Downs being paid off with flouts and jeers intermingled with no small threats they return wonderfully unanimous and agreeing into Court Then the President with the same inhumane barbarity that he began proceeds to Sentence having premised a long Speech wherein he aggravates the Contumacy of the King and the haynousness of the Crime he asserts the Power of Parliaments producing instances both foreign and domestick especially from Scotland how aptly the Scots are to look to it wherein the People have punished their Kings and that the Power of the People of England over their King was not less than that of other Nations that the King's guilt was greater than that of all others seeing that according to the wish of Caligula he had endeavoured to have cut off the head of the whole Nation by undertaking a War against the Parliament Having ended his Harangue he orders the Sentence to be read in these words That whereas the Commons of England in Parliament had appointed them an High Court of Justice for the trying of Charles Steuart King of England before whom he had been three times convented and at first time a Charge of High-Treason and other Crimes and Misdemeanours was read in the behalf of the Kingdom of England c. Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid he the said Charles Steuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do c. For all which Treasons and Crimes the Court doth adjudge That he the said Charles Steuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murderer and a publick Enemy shall be put to death by severing his Head from his Body The Sentence being pronounced sixty seven Judges that were present as lifted up by the conscience of the Villany they had conspired in at the desire of the President the thing having been privately concerted stand up and confirm the same the rest amongst whom was Fairfax for the horrour of the Crime not daring to be present Then was his sacred Majesty hurried away by the Souldiers to be by them most like to his Saviour scoffed at before he suffered who laying aside all reverence to the name of a King as if they led their Captive in triumph with cruel barbarity the aforesaid Peters setting them on whereas in the beginning they cry'd Justice Justice so now they cry Execution Execution like the Jews of old Crucifie him Crucifie him They spit upon his Clothes as he passed by nay one or two had the boldness to spit in his majestick face which one of his Judges a Colonel took notice of to many then present commending the bravery of his Souldiers and more beheld with horrour They blew the smoak of Tobacco a thing which they knew his Majesty hated in his sacred mouth throwing their broken Pipes in his way as he passed along They also enjoyn inhumane rudeness to others beating those who with a hat or bow saluted him as he passed nay whilst one more compassionate than the rest sighing said God have mercy upon him they knockt him down dead Rushing into his Chamber both by day and by night they allowed him no retirement nor any private discourse not so much as with his Chaplain When with much ado they had suffered one Bishop onely I mean of London to have access unto him with loud laughing they interrupt him in paying his Devotions according to the Rite of the Church of England and even then when he was preparing for his last they disturb him with scoffs and frivolous and impertinent Questions But he with great presence of mind whilst they cried out Justice and Execution turning to those that were about him said Alas poor Souls for a piece of money they would do so for their Commanders Wiping off the Spittle when they spit upon him all that
the treachery of the Irish to deliver up to Jones Dublin with the whole Garrison and all that continued in their Duty From that time the Pope's Nuncio Commanded in Chief except in those places which were under Jones Coot and Monck which espoused the Party of the Rump-Parliament He took to himself the whole Power made Laws pronounced Judgments drew up and mustered Armies managed the War and imposed money with an absolute and despotick Authority But by this means he became both hated and despised so that having received one blow after another especially Preston's Forces being defeated by Jones he grew weak both in Men and Authority This opportunity was laid hold upon by Clanricard who Commanded one Army in Vlster and Taff who Commanded another in Munster who having consulted with Inchiqueen resolved upon it as the most expedient course to implore the Royal Assistance again Unite together into one and to send forthwith to the Queen and Prince of Wales to acquaint them with what they had done confessing that the Truce was not faithfully observed and discovering those by whose fault and instigation it was broken They moreover most humbly beg that the Marquess of Ormond may be sent over with Authority and Supplies and engage upon conditions which were not disliked by the King to fight under his Banner till the broken Forces of the Rump-Parliament should be utterly destroyed and his Majesty and they themselves fully restored to their former peace The Popes Nuncio suspecting that matters would fall out so and that the storm which his Government had raised would break over his own head forbids any farther Treaty threatens the Contraveeners with dire Punishments and at length strikes those that persisted in their purpose with the usual Weapon of Excommunication But that blunt Thunderbolt scared no body for they march against him and besiege him in the Town of Galloway Whilst in the mean time the Lord O-brian diverts the Succours that Ouen-Ro-Oneal designed to bring to his Party Then the Pope's Nuncio despairing of relief capitulated for a dishonourable Retreat and departed Whilst these matters were acting the Glorious King Charles the First Murdered by the Hands of Rebel Parricides Crowned his Death with Martyrdome Nevertheless the Marquess of Ormond being rid of that difficulty and having a new Commission and Instructions from King Charles the Second repairs to Corke and shortly after to Kilkenny where a Parliament or Convention of the States of Ireland was then kept and after long Debates on each side they came to a great many Articles of Agreement of which this was the substance After a Recognition whereby they owned his Majesty for Soveraign and lawful King of Ireland and that they would to the utmost defend him with their Lives and Fortunes they agree That the King should give the Irish free liberty of their Religion That if it seemed fit to the Deputies or Commissioners who were appointed to the number of eighteen a Parliament should be called within two Months wherein Papists as well as others should have liberty of free Voting and that the King shall confirm their Acts provided they be not grievous to Protestants All Acts and Decrees past since August 1641 that might be dishonorable to the Irish Nation shall be repealed That all Law Suits Sentences Actions or Processes commenced or determined since that time be wholly abolished and that the Irish be restored to the Lands and Estates whereof they had been dispossessed That all Impediments be removed that were wont to barr the Irish Papists from sitting in Parliament That all Debts be reckoned to be in the same state as they were in in the Year 1641 and that no body be molested nor troubled upon that account That the Lands of the Barons and Nobles in the Counties of Toumond Clare Tipperrary Limmerick Kilkenny and Wicklo be adjudged to the ancient Possessors and their Titles made good by new Acts. That Inns be Erected for the Students in Law wherever the Lord Lieutenant shall think convenient and where Degrees also in the Law may be taken as well as in England That Places and Titles of Honour and beneficial Offices may be free both to Papists and Protestants That the use and Exercise of Arms Commands and Governments may be in the power of the same and that during the War five thousand Irish Foot and two thousand Horse be kept in pay That the Court of Wards be abolished and in lieu of it twelve thousand pounds a year payed into the Kings Exchequer That no Peer have liberty to Vote by Proxy That the Nobles be obliged within five years to purchase Lands a Baron to the value of two hundred pounds a year a Viscount four hundred an Earl six hundred a Marquess eight hundred and a Duke a thousand That they may be free to treat of the independance of the Parliament of Ireland upon that of England That those of the Kings Privy-Council shall meddle with no Affairs but the Publick That Suits about Titles be referred to the Judges of the Kingdom to whom it belongs to try them That the Acts against the Exportation of Irish Wool Tallow and other Goods out of the Kingdom be repealed That they who have been under any pretext Fined or Punished in the County of Ulster since the first of King James shall be relieved according to Equity That the Inhabitants and Citizens of Corke Youghal and Dungarban be restored to their Possessions that they were turned out of in the beginning of the War provided they give Security for their Loyalty and that they shall not be troublesome to the Garrisons That an Act of Oblivion be past of all things before committed those excepted who stand guilty of Barbarous and Inhumane Crimes That it be lawful to none of the Nobles to Farm the Customes That Laws be made against Monopolies That the Jurisdiction of the Court called Castle-Chamber be moderated That the Law be abrogated which ordained That Horses should not draw the Plow by the Tail and that the Straw should not be burnt to separate the Corn from it That Law Suits about Sea Matters shall be decided in the Chancery of Ireland That for the future all Actions about the want of Title shall be suppressed if the owners have from ancient times possessed the Lands by any Right That also all Interest for Moneys since the beginning of the Troubles be discharged and that for the following years it exceed not five per Cent. a Year That the Deputies or Commissioners shall impose sufficient Taxes for carrying on the War both by Sea and Land either by way of Excise or any other way that they shall judge most convenient for the Publick That Justices of the Peace shall have Power to determine Suits under the value of ten Shillings That the Governours of the Popish Perswasion enjoy the Governments and Commands that they are at present in possession of That the Tenths of taken Ships and
the Beast that drew the Cart and in that posture he is carried to the Tolbooth the publick Prison for Malefactors many of the Spectators bursting out into Tears when they reflected upon the changeableness and inconstancy of Fortune Next day he is arraigned at the Bar of the Parliament It is objected against him That he had stopt the Kings Ears to the Parliament and to the rest of his Subjects who gave him good Counsel That he had brought over the Irish Rebels to make War in the very heart of the Kingdom That he had heretofore slain some of the Parliamentarians That he had committed many Spoils Depopulations and Devastations in the Lands of the Marquess of Argile That he had ill treated some Ministers upon his first coming into Scotland That upon his second landing in Scotland he had brought foreign Souldiers with him and that without Commission for what was known to others That he had been ill affected towards all Covenanters and that he had basely broken the League and Covenant which he had solemnly taken and Sworn These were the Crimes that were laid to his Charge But he foreseeing that a defence would not stand him in any stead answers in short and general terms That it was very well known he had made the Invasion by Commission from the King that he had never acted any thing which was not approved by the Kings Command and his own Conscience that by the League and Covenant he was bound to obey the Kings Majesty as well as the Commons He was only brought twice before the Parliament and a third time to receive Sentence pronounced by Chancellour Loudon with all maginable bitterness and Contempt which he undauntedly and without the least Sign of Consternation heard given against him in these Words That next day the one and twentieth of March one thousand six hundred and fifty he should be hanged on a Gibbet at the Cross in Edinburrough until he died his History and Declaration being tied about his neck and to hang three hours in publick view of all the People after which he should be beheaded and quartered his Head to be fix'd upon the Talbooth of Edinburrough and his Legs and Arms over the Gates of the Cities Sterling Glascow Dundee and Aberdeen And in case he repented whereby the Sentence of Excommunication may be taken off by the Kirk the bulk of his Body should be buried in the Gray Friers if not in the Burrough Moor a place like TYBVRN Nothing did his Blood descended from the Race of the ancient Nobility nor his Heroick Virtues avail him nor could the Clemency that he had us'd towards the Vanquished nor the Kings Commission whereby he had undertaken the War procure him any Favour Neither indeed did he desire any Favour but with a brave and undaunted Mind told them That he thought it no less honourable to have his Head put upon the Tolbooth than to have his Picture hang in the Kings Bed-Chamber wishing that he had Flesh and Parts enough to be set up in all places as a monument of his unshaken Loyalty to the King He piously and couragiously suffered the publick shame he was put to with so much Force in answering the Ministers such sincerity in speaking to the People and so much Zeal and Fervour in his Devotions that he made the Ministers ashamed cleared his Innocence to the People and gave a proof of his Piety towards God None of the Spectatours could refrain from Tears unless it was the Lady Lorn who could not forbear laughing but her Note and Carriage was changed when she might have seen the Head of her Father-in-Law Argile cut off in the same place as it happened not many years after Three or four Gentlemen more who could give any hopes of retrieving the Kings Affairs that were now sinking in Scotland were overwhelmed in the same ruin and publickly put to death The news of this horrid Cruelty no sooner came to the Kings Ears but afflicted with extream Sorrow he sent for Murrey and told him that he was grieved at the Heart that during the very Treaty when he thought the minds of all to be disposed to Peace the Parliament had polluted themselves with the Blood of his best Subjects demanding an account of the whole Tragedy and of the Blood that was spilt Yet he judged it most convenient not to give way to his just Anger but rather to moderate and restrain his Indignation no hopes being now left him him but what depended on the Scots The Scots make answer That they still persist in the same Mind and Loyalty towards his Majesty That they gladly heard that there were hopes of restoring Peace That he should not be moved with Obstacles that at first hearing were grievous That nothing had been acted in the case of Montross that the King himself could repent of or that did not consist with Reason and Justice This Answer past by Plurality of Votes in Parliament though two and thirty Republicans opposed it That he should hasten his Voyage into Scotland That they were ready with all their Might and Force to stand by and defend him against his Enemies tho they had intercepted Letters written to Montross which they chose rather to bury in Oblivion than mention At length the King by the advice of William Prince of Orange and others consents to the Articles of the Scots with some little Qualification and Restriction and bidding farewel to most of his Faithful Domestick Servants and to the Church-men his Chaplains whose company he thought would not be acceptable to the Scots he with the Commissioners but in different Ships set Sail from Scheveling in Holland directing his Course towards the River of Spey But by that time they were a little out at Sea the Commissioners came to the King having as they said received new Instructions and intreat him that he would Subscribe and Confirm the Solemn League and Covenant according to the Commands they had received from the Parliament For he had signed the National Covenant already and promised not to be against this he had allowed it also to be imposed upon all others and told them that if he might give his Reasons personally to the Parliament why he could not subscribe it he would comply This so stuck with the King and vexed him so much that he was about to have changed his Course and failed back again to Holland But being prevailed upon he at length subscribed and that no place of doubting might be left five or six are called to subscribe as witnesses to the Act and Deed. No sooner was this Evil over but he fell into danger by continual storms and English Frigats that lay in wait for him of all things most to be feared For those that looked from Land believed those Frigats to have been up with the Kings Ships though indeed they saw not one another by reason of a Cloud that interposed And so after
and the Officers of the Army to the Mayor and Common-Council of London and to Montague Admiral of the Fleet. Which were received with so universal a Joy and Applause that the Parliament forthwith ordained him to be proclaimed KING in the City and all over England with the accustomed Solemnities having made a Proclamation to this purpose Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the death of his most Royal Father of glorious memory without the ceremony or solemnity of a Proclamation yet since Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testifie their duty and respect and since the armed violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That immediately upon the decease of our late Soveraign King CHARLES the First the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to his most Excellent Majesty King CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Bloud-Royal of this Realm and that by the goodness and providence of Almighty God he is of England Scotland and Ireland the most potent mighty and undoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities The King being proclaimed throughout the City with the joyful shouts and acclamations of all and all things being prepared for his reception both Houses of Parliament appointed an honourable body of Commissioners to be sent to the King with their Letters all men of great Quality and Birth Obery Earl of Oxford Charles Earl of Warwick Lionel Earl of Middlesex and Hereford Viscount of Leicester the Lords Berkley and Brooks for the Lords The House of Commons chose Fairfax Bruce Falkland Castletown Herbert Mandiville all Lords Ashley-Cooper Townsend Booth Holland Chumley and Hollis Knights Who besides Letters carried Instructions with them humbly to beg that his Majesty would be pleased to hasten his long wished-for return into England And because they knew that the Exchequer of their exiled King could not be very full they order them to carry him a Present of fifty thousand Pieces of Gold and also ten thousand to the Duke of York and five to the Duke of Gloucester Clerges a person in great favour with the King carried General Monk's and the Armies Submission and Letters The City of London also sent twenty Commissioners chosen out of the Flower of the Citizens and the wealthy Citizens present the King and his Illustrious Brothers with twelve thousand pounds All things now succeeding beyond expectation Monk was secure in his fortune having so dexterously managed things with such innocent and harmless Arts defeated the Snares and Arms of the Parricides and procured the publick safety without bloud that the same Virtue of the General was both hated and admired whilst the praying Sectaries in vain called upon God who was not certainly the Lord of their Hosts now The Eleventh of May the Commissioners set sail from England and with all dutifulness waited upon the Kings Majesty at the Hague where they were gladly and kindly received by him Clarges had been with him before whom the King having first knighted sent back into England as a Messenger of his coming and having sent Letters to Monk full of expressions of good will and gratitude towards the General and Army he designed Dover for his place of landing In the mean time by the Kings command Admiral Montague since Earl of Sandwich came with the Fleet upon the Coast of Holland and waited for the King before Scheveling And now all things being in a readiness for his departure the best of Kings with the Dukes of York and Gloucester came on board the Admiral Thither they were attended by the Queen of Bohemia their Aunt their Sister the Princess of Orange and the young Prince their Nephew where after they had taken a glad Farewel with a joyful Huzza of the Sea-men they set sail Charles the Second now in possession of his Fleet the first Pledge of his Government which was speedily to waft him over to that of his Kingdoms with a prosperous Gale directs his course to Dover Monk having received Letters by Clarges accompanied with a numerous train of Nobility and Gentry hastened thither to welcome him on the shore and to pay Honour to that Virtue at home which he had reverenced at so great distance abroad So soon as the Fleet with full sail came in sight innumerable crouds of over-spied Spectators flocked to the shore and Sea-coast and to every other place from whence they might have any prospect being desirous to see and congratulate their restored Prince The Troubles of England Composed by his Majesties happy Restauration On the 25th of May amidst the roaring of all the Canon in the Fleet ecchoed and answered from the Castle and shore and which was a more glorious sound amidst the joyful and louder Acclamations of his Subjects AVGVST CHARLES landed at Dover with so much Piety Gravity and Gracefulness in his Countenance that he seemed to be come to pay his Vows to God the Protector of the Government His department shew'd no Vanity nor Pride but a mind rather above the reach of them yet capable of any fortune and so great was his Majesty in all his actions that he seemed more to deserve than to desire a Crown Here Monk falling upon his knees to welcome the King was by his Majesty embraced kissed and raised from the ground the rest of the Nobility having also performed their duty the same night the best of Kings advanced to Canterbury and next morning created Monk Knight of the honourable Order of the Garter the most illustrious Princes the Dukes of York and Gloucester putting the George about his neck Here the King spent Sunday and restored the service of the Church in the Metropolitan Church of England Setting forward from hence he lodged all night at Rochester and next day upon Black heath he viewed the Forces drawn up with much military pomp and splendour Forces heretofore onely brave in shedding of Civil Bloud whose Trophies and Triumphs were then disgraced with horrid Crimes but now upon the return of Charles loyally and deservedly triumphant The Regiments drawn up in a most lovely order made an Army worthy of King Charles The King having by the
the Clergy Which by the Deans Archdeacons and Deputies of the Clergy are holden in the Convocation Their Acts bind not the People without the consent of the King and Parliament The Rights Priviledges of the Vpper House Of the Lower The providence of the Law thae the Members might debate freely and without fear The modesty of the Parliament What honour Kings were wont to shew the Parliament But when occasion required reduced them into order The happiness of the Kingdom under this Government VVhat were the beginnings of the Troubles raised by some Members of the House of Commons Hence mutual Jealousies betwixt the King and Parliament And then the dissolution of Parliaments This gave occasion of stirring the people up against the King And yet the Kingdom in a most flourishing condition Though unfortunate in War abroad and some Taxes imposed at home Some seditious persons are punished New Ceremonies startle the Puritans The Archbishop endeavouring to impose the Liturgy of England upon the Scots offends them Vpon which pretext but for other causes they grow turbulent They take Arms alter the Government both in Church and State The King marches against them And upon Articles makes Peace with them The Scots innovating the Articles cause a new VVar. A Parliament is called in England And dissolved The Scots making a secret Combination with the Factious invade England Having made a Truce the Judgment of the Parliament is expected The Parliament meets The Factious in it Who under pretext of reforming Grievances endeavour to new-model the Government both in Church and State And by what steps Many are accused the E. of Strafford and Arshb of Canterbury The L. Keeper Judges And twelve Bishops The terrified Judges are freely discharged The Bishops also being deprived of the right of voting in the House of Lords Strafford is brought to his tryal before the House of Lords the King over-hearing The Earl in his defence clears himself of the Accusation The House of Commons make a new Law whereby they make him guilty of Treason Not without opposition many dissenting The Lords deliberating more seriously The Rabble beset the House And hinder the Lords and Bishops from entering it then they break into Westminster-Abbey And afterward run in tumult to White-hall And answer the K. sawcily Whilst the Justices of Peace repress the Tumults they are imprisoned by the factious House The factious Members of Parliament consult with the Apprentices and teach them the time and manner of tumultuating Whereby the Members being frightned forbear coming to the House and are therefore excluded Whence the Authority of Parliament wears out of date The Lords pass the Bill against the Earl of Strafford The Kings consent is very hardly obtained Till the Judges pronounced it lawful the Bishops removed his scruples And Strafford advised him to it The King by Letters desires the execution may be delayed The Lords deny it Courtiers fearful of their condition freely resigne their places The Sheriffs Justices of the Peace comply with the times In that thing alone the King withstood the will of the Parliament In the rest he left himself in a manner at their discretion He suffers the Jurisdiction of the Court of Stannaries of the Court of the President of Wales to be lessened The extent of the Forests also be abridged The Court of the Star-Chamber And of the High Commission to be abrogated As also that of the Lord President and Council of the North. He allows Monopolies to be rescinded He yields up also his right of levying Souldiers Ship-money Tunnage and Poundage Allows also a Triennial Parliament And that the present Parliament should not be dissolved without the consent of both Houses Yet with these the Factious are not pleased But are thereby emboldened to raise Animosities and Divisions The Scots are sent home The English Irish Armies are also disbanded The K. follows the Scots into their Country And upon his return is feasted by the Londoners The Factious congratulate the Kings return by a defamatory Declaration ☞ To which the King shortly answers New Tumults for snatching the power of the Militia out of the K.'s hands The K. obviates the Sedition by accusing the Heads of it of Treason Whom the House of Commons takes into protection Wherefore the K. enters the House of Commons in person That he may demand them Who fled The K. afterward desisted and in a manner acknowledged his fault But the Factious take thence occasion of slandering and of raising jealoâ—sies stirs Buckinghamshire Essex petition The accused Members abscond in London and with a Guard of Citizens are conducted to the Parliament-house The K. withdraws to Windsor-Castle Sends the Q into Holland Sends for the Prince Moves towards York Having first sent pacificatory Letters to the Parliament VVhich notwithstanding the House of Commons misinterpret as contrary to the Priviledges of Parl. and pretend to be in great fear Daring alone to demand the power of the Militia VVhich when they could not obtain they stir up the Corporations to take up Arms of their own accord The House of Commons pass a Vote for ordering the Militia by Deputies and having prevailed with the Lords with joynt address they demand the Militia of the King upon pretence of dangers The K. allows a share in the power of the Militia reserving to himself the supreme Authority he exhorts them to moderation and peace But the Factious slight these things fill the rest with idle fears and by them stir up the People Fearing that the K. might possess himself of the Magazine of Hull They send Sir John Hotham to prevent it Who shuts the Gates against the King And is proclaimed Traitor He is justified by the House of Commons Afterward repenting of what he had done and being about to deliver up the Town to the K. he is taken with his Son beheaded The Parl. sends Proposals of Peace to the King The Parl. Propositions to the King The King answers The matter comes to nothing as all future Treaties Propositions The Parl. proposing most rigid Conditions The mediation of the K. of France the States of the United Provinces and of the Scots is rejected The Parl. seizes the Militia The K. commands the contrary citing Laws that are against it They answer And the K.'s Majesty replies And opposes the Aggressors They skirmish on both sides in Apologies and Manifesto's wherein the K. has the better The Parl. levies an Army Having deceived the People by wheedles And the Ministers They raise Pay Who favour the King By their assistance and his own authority the King raises an Army such as he could The Irish Rebellion intervenes Macquire and Macmahon the Incendiaries of the Irish Rebellion are taken carried to London There to be punished with the utmost rigour Macquire upon the brink of death Constantly asserts the innocence of the K. Vpon whom nevertheless the Rebels charge the Crime Who were the Authors of it And what opportunities they
67 infra Strafford Earl 21 23. His Tryal 24. T. Tryal of his Sacred Majesty K. Charles I. 144 Tumults and Riots 25 Tunnage and Poundage 18 V. Vote of Non-Addresses 95. Is rescinded 102. W. War its beginning 42 Wight Isle the Treaty there 102. inf The Kings Concessions there voted satisfactory 136. Writs of Summons to Parliament the form 7 ERRATA'S To the First Part. PAge 1. line 8. for to read of p. 66. l. 3. r. honour p. 67. l. 33. for shewing r. shew p. 74. l. 9. adde from p. 82. l. 2. r. muttering p. 102. l. 10. r. levitie p. 137. l. 23. adde who p. 159. l. 9. r. reported ibid. l. 11. r. harmonious p. 162. l. 2. r. bounds ibid. l. 11. r. Rectitude p. 163. l. 3. r. Charge To the Second Part. PAge 22. line 7. read Rathmeenes p. 27. l. 3. r. Arts p. 30. l. 21. r. Butler p. 48. l. 15. r. envied p. 58. l. 7. adde most p. 66. l. 31. adde for p. 67. l. 12. r. Execute p. 74. l. 26. r. Nor p. 87. l. penult dele are p. 96. l. 14. r. make p. 104. l. 35. r. hand p. 108. l. 28. r. Dirlton p. 121. l. 35. r. Massey p. 124. l. 1. r. Coming presently to blows at the Town of Wigan p. 125. l. 23. r. Keith p. 204. l. 35. r. obey To the Third Part. PAge 15. line 2. read retained p. 41. l. 1. r. farce p. 44 l. 14. r. Leicester Vicount Hereford p. 53. l. 29. r. Sollicitor-General p. 63. l. 23. r. Sir Richard Baker's p. 66. l. 16. r. Mounson p. 82. l. 29. r. Falmouth p. 86. l. 20. dele was p. 90. l. 2. r. fight A short HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress OF THE Late Troubles in England ENgland as all the Records of our Antiquity tell us never was governed but by the authority of a King and though it hath been divided into several Kingdoms or rather Camps yet it never had rest from intestine Commotions nor foreign Invasions till it came under the Obedience and Protection to one sole Monarch Since that it is now above a thousand years that Kings in a continued succession have reigned with supreme Authority in England And so great all along hath been the Love and Reverence that the People have had towards a Prince that he was always judged the fittest and most worthy of the Government who was next in Bloud to the King so that no factious Election but lawful Birthright could ever warrant a Title to the Crown The Royal Heir of the last King though an Infant is immediately carried to the Throne even in the Cradle And in this kind of immortality in reigning the Laws glory That the King of England never dies Nay and by the ancient common Law all Subjects above twelve years of age are bound by Oath to bear a peculiar Faith by the Laws called Allegiance to the lawful Prince to him alone and for ever even before he be crowned and that their Obedience may be confirmed upon a double account a religious Oath that of Supremacy is likewise to be taken to the King I must here beg the Readers pardon if in the very beginning I speak of the Kings Prerogative the Priviledges of Parliament and Liberties of the People which to our Country-men who have studied the point perhaps may be tedious though to the Work we now undertake it be absolutely necessary seeing thereby it will appear who have been the Violators and who the Observers of the Laws In the first place what great power the King has over the lives and fortunes of his Subjects is hereby made manifest that mediately or immediately they all hold their Estates of the King that is to say that whatever Lands and Possessions they enjoy in fee or feudal rights they owe them more to the bounty of the King than to Fortune And therefore all Estates failing of lawful Heirs or when the Owners forfeit them by Felony or Treason flow back to the Kings Exchequer as to the Ocean from whence they have been derived The King as Father of the Country has the care of the persons of Pupils and Lunaticks and enjoys their Rents and Revenues Nay by the ancient Laws it is not lawful for them to contract Marriage without his consent and if they do they are to be severely censured And that what is to be given to Caesar may be known by the publick Money the matter form manner and value of Coyn is varied according to the will and pleasure of the King All Honours Titles and Priviledges all publick Corporations and Societies flow from and are constituted by the Crown the Admiral Chancellor Treasurer Judges Sheriffs Justices of Peace are onely made by the King in whose name alone their Writs Warrants and Sentences pass nor does any of them enter into Office before he hath taken an Oath of Fidelity to the King and of faithful administration None but the King has power of Peace and War who orders Military Discipline according to his will and pleasure and not by the forms or prescripts of Laws and as he himself thinks fit disposes of the Forces both by Sea and Land it being necessary that he who watches for the safety of the Common-wealth should be invested with sufficient Power to repress intestine Seditions and repel foreign Invasions Upon that account it belongs onely to him to appoint Musters and Levies of Souldiers secure the Castles and Garisons with which maritim Fortifications England even in the profoundest time of Peace is no less secured than by the Seas as often as there is need also to fit out a Fleet and to set Governours and Commanders over both Nor is the Sword neither to be weilded by any other hand but that which sways the Scepter so that if any one without the Kings command take up Arms for the defence of the Kings Person and Rights he is by so doing guilty of High-Treason and liable to the punishment of a Traytor without a special Pardon from the King Nor is his Power more limited in Ecclesiastical than Civil affairs for since the authority of the Pope being shaken off the Church was made part of the Kingdom and the Clergy after long reluctancy began to be contented with the common priviledges of Subjects the King became at length Custos utriusque tabulae and as he ever was in right before so was he then acknowledged and confirmed by Law to be supreme Head and Governour in spiritual as well as temporal affairs and owned to be in a manner the Bishop of the Kingdom wherein in the promotion of Bishops conferring of Dignities appointing Fasts enjoyning Rites and Ceremonies in the Church he hath with the advice of the Fathers and Rulers of the Church always exercised a supreme and sacred Power and Authority He hath also so great power over the Laws themselves though he obliges himself to govern
House of Lords onely save onely in making Laws or imposing Taxes and Subsidies unless when it shall otherwise seem fit to the Kings Majesty to require their particular counsel and assent for dispatching the publick Affairs of the Nation Nay it was of old the custom also that if any Controversie or Doubt arose about the validity of the Election of the Members of the House of Commons the matter was not determined by the other Members of the same House but either by the Lords in the Upper House or by the Judges in Chancery And if any of them also departed from the Parliament without leave from the King and both Houses he was brought before the Kings Privy-Council or Kings-Bench to receive sentence for his faults but he was never punished at the will and pleasure of his own House This also is peculiar to the House of Commons that we may again return to their Priviledges that it belongs to them first to debate and form the Bill for raising Money from the People Such therefore is the wonderful temper of our Monarchy that the King Lords and Commons have their several parts in the publick administration of Affairs yet with that harmonious proportion that All can help but none of them hurt the Publick For the Prerogative of the King that gives him the supreme power of Government and of Peace and War tends to this that he may have strength enough to defend the Laws against the Factions of the Nobility and the Tumults and Insurrections of the people whilst the Nobles by the high Authority they have in giving Judgment and making Laws can on the one hand put a stop to tyrannical attempts if any should be offered by the King and on the other curb the insolence of a tumultuous and seditious common People Nor are the Commons through the priviledge they have of accusing any man and giving or denying Money unprovided of means of restraining the licentiousness of the Lords and Privy-Counsellors and of preventing the arbitrariness of the Prince The Laws are very careful that the liberty of Debating and Voting be not obstructed through fear and the insolence of wicked men for it is enjoyned under severe penalties that no Member of Parliament come to the House with hidden or open Arms nor that any other person armed with a Sword or any other Weapon presume to walk in the Palace-yard or near the House thereby to give cause of terrour and apprehension or to lessen the reverence of the place Yea it hath been the custom that the Members of Parliament and their menial Servants should during the sitting of Parliament be protected from arrests for debt or other slight crimes but the Priviledge of Parliament excuses no man that is guilty of Treason Felony or Breach of the Peace from the ordinary prosecution of Law Yet if by the mistake either of the Magistrate or Officer any Parliament-man or their Servants happen to be arrested they cannot be set at liberty according to Law but by a Writ assigning the cause directed out of the Chancery So much heretofore did both Houses contain themselves within the bounds of modesty that if any one inconsiderately offended against the received customs or spake any way irreverently of the King he was severely punished for the fault and that at the suit and instance of the House of which he was a Member The Kings also did very seldom unless it were for weighty causes act any thing that might give offence to so August an Assembly Yet sometimes upon high provocations some of our mildest Princes have severely rebuked the whole Parliament and caused some Members to be brought to the Bar to answer for their offences and have punished others by Fine Imprisonment or Death according to the nature of their crimes These were the old customs and those the men that made England for many Ages past to flourish being happy at home and renowned abroad until too much happiness as often happens in humane affairs with Luxury and all sorts of Vice brought in amongst us Pride Ambition and the contempt of the Laws both of God and man so that with mutual emulation and envy men began to covet and invade the Rights of one another to despise and set at nought rather than to reverence and obey the King Religion and Laws and to gape after Novelties rather than to acquiesce in what was most excellently established Of late some perverse men and they at first but a few who had screwed themselves into the Lower House being desirous of changes and crafty Promoters of publick Debates began to clamour about the Rights and Liberties of the People and Power of Parliaments to arrogate to themselves unheard-of Priviledges to be very busie where they were no ways concerned take upon them what they were not capable of effecting and at length breaking out into insolent Expressions and Invectives against the the Kings power calling into question the Tunnage and Poundage which the Kings of England in all times enjoyed and forbidding them to be payed to the King nay and to offer violence to their Speaker within the very walls of the House and in a word to shake off their ancient modesty all reverence which they ought to bear to the Majesty of their King and to trample under foot the sacred Customs of the Kingdom and Priviledges of Parliament Hence arose mutual Heart-burnings and Jealousies that the King designed to invade the Liberties of the Parliament and the Parliament to encroach upon the Prerogative of the Crown For this reason the King put an end to several Parliaments much sooner than many desired but not without precedents in former times and checked the rashness of some by imprisonment Being some time afterward sollicited he refused to call new Parliaments that so the Heats and Animosities might be allayed and that they might learn for the future to bring along with them Modesty and greater Gravity to so great a Council But that gave occasion to crafty and restless men of spreading their poyson all over England so that every where they gave it out That Religion was ruined the publick Liberty opprest and the Laws in danger of being subverted hoping that it would be no difficult matter to perswade credulous people of this who were greedy of Novelties and prone to listen to Calumnies and Slanders especially of the great men They reproached the King with bitter Railings calling him uxorious imprudent addicted to the Popish Religion covetous and what else they knew to be infamous and hateful to the People They censured the best of his actions and strained them to the worst sence They wonderfully aggravated his Misfortunes and Failings and were more injurious than ill fortune her self in their horrid constructions Amongst so many Complaints and Outcries if you demand what real calamity happened Britain was never in a more flourishing condition stately Buildings both publick and private every where reared not
Archbishop of Canterbury are accused of High-Treason both the English and Scots impeaching them Against Strafford also out of Ireland where the greatest matter of accusation was to be pickt up both Witnesses and Accusers are brought For whilst he was Deputy of Ireland he had by some severities which though perhaps they could not stand the test of the punctilio's and niceties of Law yet were necessary for the publick raised the indignation of the Inhabitants in that he endeavoured to reclaim the native Irish from their wonted Barbarity to Industry Civility and better Manners and to enure them to the Customs and Practices of the English Whence in a short time he had been so successful in this that having setled Trades Husbandry and Commerce amongst those lazy and stubborn people they began to flourish more than in all Ages before and to bring money into the Exchequer of England which by Rebellions they had so often exhausted before From amongst these though they were Roman Catholicks and sworn enemies to the English Government and even then plotting a Conspiracy against it Accusers in name of the Kingdom of Ireland and Witnesses were sent for who being prone enough of themselves to the work that they might the more securely attempt the Rebellion which then they hatched in their minds the wise Deputy being taken off were by all civilities and kind offices caressed by the Factious that by accumulated crimes they might overwhelm Strafford The Lord Keeper Finch was also accused and all the Judges who being sworn had after long deliberation declared in favour of the King as to the lawfulness of Ship-money Twelve Bishops also who by the riotous Rabble having been barred from coming into the House of Lords protested against all Laws that should be made as invalid until all that were concerned in the Council of the Kingdom might safely be present Others withdrew to avoid the impendent storm The Judges scared with this Parliamentary Thunderclap and taught to obey their Lords and Masters are at last all freely discharged and some of them continued in their places or promoted to higher The Bishops having lost their power of voting in the Lords House by a Law made in their absence being likewise set at liberty Canterbury is reserved for a future Sacrifice All the Storm at present fell upon the head of the Earl of Strafford whose Tragedy since it lay heavy upon the King during his whole life and at his death and that he by the Rebels was reckoned the most guilty I shall more fully relate that by the instance of one judgment may be made of the rest what kind of men they were who were so hated by the Parliament With great pomp he is accused by the Commons of twenty eight Articles of High Treason before the House of Lords all the Commons were present of whom six of the most violent were his Prosecutors or Managers of the Tryal the King also Queen and Prince being there privately behind the Curtain The weight of his Impeachment lay in this That in Ireland he had acted many things arbitrarily contrary to Law That in time of Peace he had raised Money of the Inhabitants against their wills by Military Exactions That he had advised the King to force the Subjects of England to obedience by foreign Arms and to make War against Scotland The Tryal lasted many days during which the Earl with great presence of mind and judgment defending himself so refuted the Arguments of his Prosecutors that amongst so many Articles there was not one even in the judgment of his enemies that could amount to Treason nor could all put together be constructed an acumulative Treason which inraged the House of Commons so far that having no colour of Law to take his life they make a new Law ex post facto whereby he is made guilty of High-Treason with a clause therein That it should not be made a Precedent in other Courts But this past not without great debate and opposition many speaking and arguing to the contrary and fifty nine of the chief Members of the House dissenting whose names were posted up in publick places that being exposed to the view and fury of the Mobile they might learn to vote with the Factious for the future if they had not rather be torn in pieces alive This Bill was in two days time past and engrossed in the House of Commons and carried up to the Lords for their consent but a matter of such moment was more seriously deliberated about there The Factious impatient of this delay stir up the Rabble and Dregs of the People who armed with Staves and Clubs and what Weapons Rage put into their hands came rushing to the Parliament-house roaring out Justice Justice and growing dayly more and more insolent morning and evening persisted in their riotous Clamours These Blades besetting the House of Lords lay hands upon what Lords and Bishops they please and tossing them to and fro hinder them from entering and threaten them worse if they obstinately refused to comply with the Commons Next they break in into Westminster-Abbey pull down the Organs rob the Vestments and sacred Furniture of the Church and then with furious clamours run to White-hall the Kings own house Nay they proceeded to that impudence as to dare to affront the King by sawcy and insolent Answers when his Majesty from a Balcony told them as they passed by White-hall that they should keep at home and mind their business Whilst some of the Justices of Peace according to their Oath and duty imprison those of that Rabble whom they could catch to be kept there for condign punishment they themselves are clapt up by the factious House of Commons pretending that it was free for all to come and petition the Parliament though they had caused the Gates of London to be shut against the men of Kent who came to petition the contrary and frightened others who intended to have done the like And when some discreet and good men had desired the Factious that they would at length lay the Devils whom they had raised they made answer That they ought rather to thank their Friends Nay so far was the Parliamentary Dignity debased that many times Members of the House of Commons came to the Clubs of Apprentices where they consulted about related and examined the affairs that past in Parliament what was designed to be done what parts they themselves were to act and when Hence their Tumults became by this kind of schooling in a manner to be regular being distributed into proper Classes and Fraternities as of Porters Watermen Taylors c. who under pretext of petitioning at the least hint from their Demagogues flocked together into bodies And that once for all we may lay open the nature of this Sore if any difficult knot occurred which by other arts they could not unty they presently betook themselves
to this Sword to cut it By this means many being terrified and thinking it safer to keep at home and abstain from coming with danger to the House for that fault alone they were excluded by the prevailing Faction Others who did appear durst not for fear of their own lives give their Votes freely for the publick Good so that from that time forward all authority of Parliament seemed to be worn out of date since the Riff-raff of the People challenged the right of voting in Parliament and put a restraint upon the liberty of the rest But to return to Strafford The Lords being overcome by these Arguments succumb and scarcely a third part of them being present the Bill of the House of Commons past in the Lords House by the plurality of seven voices The King is not so easily prevailed upon though the riotous Rabble hardly forbearing their hands continually plagued him with Clamours and Threatnings and the Noblemen and Courtiers that were about him plied him incessantly with their Prayers and Remonstrances Nor would he signe the Bill until the Judges who durst not so much as mutter against the actions of the Parliament and People satisfied him that he might do it in Law and some Bishops in Conscience and until the brave Earl had by a Letter perswaded and almost besought him to do it like another Curtius that he might fall a Sacrifice for the publick Peace and the safety of the Royal Family The Sentence being past against the Earl the the King immediately sent the Prince with Letters to the Lords earnestly recommending it to them that at least they would delay the execution for some time But they having sent twelve of their number to wait upon his Majesty perswade him that without great danger to himself and Family it could not be done The fall of so great a man from the very Pinacle of Honour terrified the inferiour Lords who bore publick Offices The Master of the Court of Wards the Lord High Treasurer who had with great integrity discharged that Office and the Princes Governour freely resigne their places like some Creatures who biting off the Prize of the chace escape the fury of the Huntsmen The Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace who were formerly in Office comply with the times and worship the rising Sun In this thing almost alone the King abandoned not himself wholly to the will of the Parliament for afterwards he granted them every thing that they themselves were not ashamed to ask The Jurisdiction of the Kings honourable Privy-Council that of the Court of Stannaries wherein by Patent from the King the Lord Warden decided all Controversies relating to the Labourers in the Mines and the Officers concerned in that work as also of the Court of the President and Council of Wales established in the marches betwixt England Wales wherein as in Chancery Law-suits amongst the Inhabitants were by the Kings Substitute determined according to the Rules of Equity were stinted and limited by narrower bounds The extent also of the Kings Forests and Chaces was abridged into a narrower compass The Star-Chamber wherein the Chancellor of the Kingdom being President greater Crimes which were not at all or not sufficiently provided against by any particular positive Law were tried and punished such as Sedition Conspiracy Faction Scandalum Magnatum c. and those also who by cunning or power eluded the force of the Law was wholly abrogated The Court of High Commission wherein the Archbishop presiding some Nobles and the learned in the Law by the Kings authority past sentence upon the more enormous Crimes that fell under Ecclesiastical censure suffered the same fate also The Court of the Lord President and Council of the North was abolished which for a long time had administred Justice to that part of the Kingdom and wherein Seditions Conspiracies and Associations were by Royal authority supprest and Law-suits about civil matters determined amongst those who wanted money to go according to the Laws for a tryal to London With all these the King readily parted in prospect of the publick good though they were shining Jewels in the Imperial Crown He suffered all Monopolies to be rescinded leaving it fully to the Parliament to punish all those who in prosecution of them had acted any thing contrary to Law and Justice He renounced also his Right of raising Souldiers and the Ship-money in lieu of which alone the former Parliament had offered him six hundred thousand pounds He also freely parted with Tunnage and Poundage which none of the Kings his Predecessors who without any interruption had enjoyed it past all prescription would ever consent to And that all Grievances might be timely remedied for the future and that no Great man or Magistrate might infringe the lately-granted Concessions or oppress the People if he himself should omit to call a Parliament once in three years he gave power to the Chancellor to issue out Writs for that effect and the Chancellor failing to the Lords and Sheriffs and in fault of them to the People to meet for Elections Lastly at their desire he granted that which some magnified as a favour exceeding all former benefits and others complained of as a mischief surpassing all future Grievances to wit That they might have time to pay the publick Debts and secure to Posterity the Priviledges granted by his Majesty he suffered a Law to pass whereby the Parliament had leave to sit until by consent of both Houses it should be thought fit to dissolve it as if he would make amends for the many intervals of Parliaments by the long continuance of one Which however others may interpret it was an argument of his great candour and sincerity towards his Subjects or at least a symptom of a mind not inclin'd to Violence and War No man would think now but that the Kings Power was abundantly limited and that the Property of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament were sufficiently enlarged But alas these Harpies are not satisfied and one of them made answer to a Gentleman that put the question to him What more has the King now to grant That he may said he lay aside all Authority and commit himself and the management of all Affairs to our care That the Factious might attain their ends they suggest so many Fears and Jealousies to the weaker and less discerning Members that like the heads of Hydra more Divisions and Animosities sprung from the Kings grace and desire of appeasing them and his Concessions so far from satisfying them increased onely their thirst and made them insolent in demanding more as it usually happens in popular Councils where the people once infatuated with Jealousies some dance to the Pipes of others others that they may not appear shorter sighted or less publick spirited than the rest see Plots beyond the Moon and look for joynts in a Bull-rush This
Counties to wit of Buckinghamshire and Essex are egg'd on that being armed in several bodies they might come and petition that their Members might have free liberty of voting and that their Priviledges might be kept inviolate Although the Kentish-men who came to supplicate on the other side were denied liberty to enter the Gates of London and others who were about to do the like were restrained by threats and reproaches So that by polling and in a manner mustering the people they give the signal to War The accused Members abscond in London until they might feel the pulses and stir up the Citizens to draw out for their Guard and conduct them to the House in arms and triumph The King being advertised of this though at that time by the care and contrivance of Gurney the then Lord Mayor many valiant and loyal men offered themselves to mix with the Croud and being scattered through the streets like Spectators to oppose the Army if they attempted any thing against the King yet his Majesty hoping that these storms might break and spend themselves by giving way to them he with the Queen removed to Windsor-Castle But afterwards the Quarrel rising higher having sent the Queen beyond Sea under pretext of accompanying her eldest Daughter lately married to the Prince of Orange over into Holland but in reality that she might pass the Winter secure from the future storm and having sent for the Prince whom as he was informed the Factious did intend to seize by authority of Parliament he moves towards York but not before he wrote to the Parliament giving them the reasons of his departure perswading them by all means to Peace and desiring them That whatever it was they so much desired that he would grant and do for them they would set it down in writing that without ambiguiety they would state what the Parliament and People claimed and what on the other hand was to be granted to the King and he religiously protests that he would have the Rights of others no less to be inviolate than his own and that he would most willingly give his consent to all things that might contribute to the restoring of Peace and the just Rights of his Crown and Kingdom They not onely slight but caluminate this goodness of so gracious a King as if it were contrary to the Priviledges of Parliament to be informed what was fit to be done and that their consultations should be interrupted by Letters It can hardly be exprest how much the House of Commons proud of the favour of the Multitude pretended to be scared at these admonitions to Peace as portending new dangers and ruine in disguise Hence laying hold of the opportunity the House of Commons being onely the third and lowest Estate of the Kingdom the Lords being as yet averse from so unjust a desire had the boldness to demand that the power of all Castles and Forts and of the Militia should be put into their hands When they could not obtain this from the King they move all the Towns and Corporations that sided with them that as of their own accord they should make musters train up the Youth in Military Discipline and divide them into Companies which was afterward confirmed and approved in the House of Commons as done according to Law They pass also a Vote in their own House that by Authority of Parliament Deputies should be named in each County To exercise arm draw out and muster the Youth and those that were fit to carry Arms that they might be ready upon the future Orders of Parliament for suppressing Rebellions resisting Invasions c. Having at length by their known Arts prevailed with the Lords to give their consent both Houses joyn in an Address to the King That it was a thing not onely expedient but necessary to be done as well for himself as for the State pretending fears from France Germany and Spain who then were all in Arms and the intelligence they had from Paris Venice and Rome that the restless Papists and ill men were plotting and contriving how they might overset the Parliament of England and the reformed Religion The King willing to grant any thing for Peace sake yields them a share in the power of the Militia for a certain time reserving to himself the supreme Authority whereby he might be able to maintain the Dignity of the Crown and the Rights of Parliament He approves also the Deputies appointed by them some Londoners excepted and does pathetically exhort and adjure them That at length laying aside vain fears and mutual jealousies they would calmly and seriously consider by what means the troubled State divided into several Factions and torn almost into pieces by it self might be united again into one and that since no former Prince had made greater Concessions to his Subjects they would peaceably enjoy them But they slighting this Indulgence of the King and his sound Admonitions impose upon the rest with their bugbears of Fears and Jealousies They ordered strict Watch to be kept in suspected places the Beacons to be watch'd and prepare Pilots as for a War The People are dayly stirred up with false Rumours spread amongst the Multitude On Sundays when they are in Church at their Devotion they are put into panick fears as if the Papists who were to come no man knew whence were ready to burn their houses and to mingle their Bloud with their Prayers and by and by again that their throats were to be cut by enemies lurking in the Woods and Vaults under ground And many though not the wisest of the Londoners were perswaded that the River of Thames was to be blown up by Gunpowder to drown the City in the night-time so ridiculous were the surmises that gave occasion to most fatal changes By these and such-like tricks the Populace is frightened out of their senses and resolved to do any thing to rid themselves of these apprehensions Amongst the other preparatiss to War all the particulars whereof it is not our designe to trace the cunninger sort smelt a Plot as if the King in his progress to the North intended to seize the Town and well-provided Magazine of Hull which might be of great consequence in carrying on the War That they might prevent this the Factious of their own head without any authority from both Houses give the government of the place to Sir John Hotham which he instantly secured with a Garison and the assistance of some Towns-men So soon as the King had notice of this he marched thither attended with his Nobles and Servants but the Gates being shut and Souldiers planted upon the Walls he is denied entrance The King being highly offended commands the Governour to let him enter attended onely with twenty Gentlemen on horseback but he refusing to let him in unless alone is proclaimed a Traytor and the King by Letters to the Parliament
complains and demands reparation for the affront But the House of Commons approve Sir John Hotham's Fact and vote that the King had violated the Priviledges of Parliament in proclaiming a Member of the House guilty of Treason Before he was heard in their House they give Orders to the Earl of Warwick to send some Souldiers from on board into the Town and to transport the Magazine from thence to London But Sir John Hotham repenting too late when he perceived that these Sparks had put the whole Country into a flame having afterwards obtained pardon and being about to deliver up the Town to the King was taken and payed to the Parliament what he owed to the King both he and his Son being beheaded Amongst these preludes to War there is some mention and hopes of peace for after some months the Parliament send an Answer to the King's Proposals which he made at Windsor upon his departure for the North in nineteen Articles or Demands of which this is the sum 1. That all the King's Privy-Council great Officers and Ministers of State may be put out excepting such as the Parliament shall approve and to assigne them an Oath 2. That all affairs of State be managed by the Parliament except such matters as are transferred by them to the Privy-Council and to be concluded by the major part of the Nobility under their hands the full number not to exceed 25 nor under 15 and if any place fall void in the interval of Parliament then the major part of the Council to chuse one to be confirmed at the next Session of Parliament 3. That all the great Officers of the Kingdom shall be chosen with approbation of Parliament c. as before said 4. The government and education of the King's Children by Parliament c. ut supra 5. Their Marriages to be treated and concluded by Parliament c. 6. The Laws against Papists Priests and others be executed without Toleration or Dispensation except by Parliament 7. No Popish Lord or Peer to have vote in Parliament and their children to be educated in the Protestant Faith 8. To Reform Church-government as the Parliament shall advise 9. To settle the Militia as the Parliament have ordered and for the King to recal all his Declarations published against their Ordinances therein 10. All Privy-Counsellers and Judges to take Oath for maintenance of the Petition of Right and other Statutes which shall be made this Parliament 11. All Officers placed by Parliament to hold their places quam diu bene se gesserint 12. All Members of Parliament put out during this time be restored again 13. The Justice of Parliament to pass upon all Delinquents and they to appear or abide their censure 14. The general Pardon to pass with Exceptions as the Parliament shall advise 15. All Forts and Castles of the Kingdom to be disposed of by Parliament ut supra 16. The King to discharge all his Guards and Forces now in being and not to raise any other but in case of actual Rebellion 17. The King to enter into a strict Alliance with all Reformed States for their assistance to recover the Rights of his Royal Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong unto them 18. To clear the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members by Act of Parliament 19. No Peer hereafter to be made shall sit in Parliament without their consent And these Articles being confirmed the Parliament engage to make him a happy Prince To these Commands rather than Articles of Peace being such as were more proper to move Indignation than to gain an Assent the King sends an Answer by two noble and discreet Lords the Marquess of Hertford and the Earl of Southampton who were enjoyned to treat on more equal terms in the House of Lords But they not being admitted the Treaty came to nothing And because in this place we have made mention of Peace and Proposals we are to take notice that afterwards in the heat of the War at the instance of the King Propositions of Peace being mutually sent and Commissioners on both sides twice meeting to treat about it nothing could be effected and mostly by the Parliaments fault For seeing they proposed such severe Conditions on their own parts and which tended onely to their own advantages and the King on the other hand such just and equitable Terms more favourable to the Parliament and State than to himself and Family the People began to be enraged and to fall off dayly from the Parliament The King of France also how sincerely I shall not judge and the States of the Vnited Provinces interposed for accommodating the differences but were rejected by the Parliament and the Scots who likewise offered to mediate were refused by the King as partial But farewel Peace Bellona is now at the doors The People being in the disposition we mentioned before Deputies were sent with Commissions into all the Counties and the Parliamentarian Rebels by force and their own authority invade the Militia which they could not obtain from the King by petitioning The King on the contrary commands them to desist upon pain of Treason citing the Act of the 25 Edw. 3. whereby To contrive the death of the King Queen or Prince to violate the Queen or the Wife of the Prince to take up Arms against the King to assist the Kings enemies within or without the Kingdom to counterfeit the great Seal or Kings Coyn are for the future declared to be Treason having also alleadged other Acts whereby it is declared That the power of the Militia and taking up of Arms belongs onely to the King But they make answer That the Letter of the Law is for the King but the mind of it for them That it is not forbidden to take up Arms against the Kings Person but against his Authority which being in all Courts of Judicature was most eminently in the Parliament To this the King replies That that distinction was condemned above three hundred years since when the Spencers under that cover carrying on Sedition were condemned to death by the Parliament That besides the present Parliament was not free but the better part of the Members being excluded the rest were slaves to the Faction These courses taking no effect the King also sends Deputies into all Counties with authority from his Majesty to array and arm the Subjects and to have fit men in readiness if necessity should require for suppressing Rebellions and Seditions And from this we may date our Sorrows and Calamities whilst the King endeavouring to maintain his ancient Rights and they again to invade them War breaks out in the Kingdom But the Match was unequal on what side soever the Right stood The Parliament superiour in strength prevails and in most Counties usurps the Government the Royal Cause being very weak and in a few Counties struggling for life With no greater
difficulty also the Fleet under the command of the Earl of Warwick is divided but all this still without any fighting There was much skirmishing indeed on both sides by Apologies and Manifesto's but after that the King in the judgment of most men had got the better on 't at the Pen at length they come to try the matter by Armies and the Sword It was easie for the Parliament to raise an Army in London a City abounding with swarms of seditious and restless men where so many Arms so great quantity of Provision and Ammunition so much Money and so many thousand pieces of Ordnance were ready at hand Where by the publick Declarations of so many specious Causes for which it might seem even honourable to die and the plausible Motto's in their Colours they inflamed the minds of the deluded Rabble more than with the sound of the Trumpet or Drum pretending forsooth That they took Arms for the defence of the Kings Person and to remove evil Counsellors from him for maintaining the Priviledges of Parliament and the preservation of the Reformed Religion for asserting the Laws and ancient Government of England nay and for securing their Religion Lives and Estates and therefore inviting all to their assistance By which Artifices the Preachers being bewitched who were desirous of a change in the Church-government and somewhat tickled with the hopes which the Rebels had roundly promised that the Livings of the Loyal Clergy and the fat Benefices of the Bishops Deans and Chapters would fall to their share in the Dividend they sound the Trumpet to Rebellion from the Pulpit from whence they ought to have preached the Gospel of Peace The People upon this spurred on with other hopes of a future Golden Age and of the temporal reign of the Messias comes flocking from all quarters the men bringing a vast quantity of Money and Plate and the women their Wedding-Rings Thimbles and Bodkins and without any regard to their Families by a strange kind of a phrenzy casting them into the publick Stock or Treasury The men strove who should be first to list themselves in this holy War whence in a short time there was an Army of about twenty thousand men got together before the King had levied five hundred for his defence and they also having more Cannon than he had Muskets in his possession For raising Pay for their Army besides the profuse Contributions and Benevolences of the People they seize the Goods of the Nobility and Gentry whom they knew to be of the Kings Party they fall also upon the Revenues of the Bishops Prince Queen and of the King himself by way of sequestration so that the Kings Majesty was forced to complain That they had not left him enough to live on And now they thought there was no more to be done but to march and seize the person of the King who was overcome and in a manner taken in a toyl which they doubted not to promise themselves to be done within the space of a month But the Will of God was otherwise for the Juggles of the Rebels had not so blinded the understanding of the English but that most part of the Lords and Peers of the Vpper House and almost an equal number of the Lower who for Estates and Quality far exceeded the rest went over to the Kings Party Many also of those who tarried at London favoured the Royal Cause in secret and in all Counties of the Kingdom there were many Gentlemen and common people that stood for the interest of the King By the assistance of these and the Royal Authority which like the Sun in an eclipse drew together a crowd of Spectators and by a certain pity and commiseration of some men who were ashamed to behold the Head of the Kingdom depressed into such a condition as to be forced to flie from the Imperial City to York from York to Nottingham from Nottingham into Shropshire and the borders of Wales after he had wandered up and down above four months long and in vain imploring the help and assistance of his Subjects the King at length got together a kind of a small Army which afterwards increased to greater Forces the people the more readily flocking to the King because with him they thought the Government must stand or fall Many of the Nobility and Gentry also brought what Forces they could to the Kings Party amongst whom not to rob any of the Honour due to them the Loyalty and Interest of the two Marquesses of Hertford and Newcastle was eminently conspicuous of whom the first brought with him a considerable Body of Dutch and the other almost at his own charge raised no inconsiderable Army in the North the Queen also sending over Moneys and Arms which by pawning her Jewels she had raised for which dutiful office to her Husband the Rebels accuse her of Treason Whilst these Clouds overcast the Sky at home a dismal Tempest thunders from abroad upon the heads of the English which because it was of no small moment as to our affairs that I may not wholly pass by in silence the Reader must cross the Sea with me into Ireland The Irish who always bore impatiently the Yoke of the English Government out of a natural aversion heightened by the emulation of different Religions watched for an opportunity to shake off the one and to assert the other I mean the Roman Catholick Religion did now attempt the Enterprize which long before they had formed in their minds For the whole Nation of a sudden and which was strange by a clandestine and concealed Conspiracy fell upon the English scattered over Ireland who were secure and expected no such thing turn them out of house and hold and without distinction of Age or Sex without respect to Affinity or Relation barbarously butcher many thousands like so many humane Sacrifices to their Superstition And had not the Conspiracy been detected at Dublin and in other places the more cautious running to Arms had not withstood their fury the English name was in a fair way of being totally extinguished in Ireland The good luck was that the very day before the intended Insurrection the mystery of the Plot was discovered at Dublin by an Irish Footman belonging to Sir John Clotwaithie who having refused to act the part that was put upon him in the Conspiracy opened the whole Intrigue to his Master who presently informed the Privy-Council of it Though many of the Conspirators fled yet two of the chief Incendiaries and Promoters of the Rebellion who had also undertaken to surprize Dublin-Castle I mean the Lord Macquire and Macmahon were apprehended Being committed to Prison they were afterwards conveyed to London where having long suffered the incommodities of a Prison that we may at once make an end of them they made their escape but being by another Irish-man betrayed in the absence of the King who was then inevitably engaged
in a War with his Subjects of England they were taken and at the Kings-bench-bar tried for High-Treason Macquire being found guilty by a Jury had sentence pronounced against him according to the Laws of the Country That he should be dragged to Tyburn in a Hurdle hang'd by the neck till he be half dead his privy Members and Bowels burnt before his face his Head cut off and set upon London-bridge and his Quarters upon four Gates of the City This Sentence was punctually executed in the presence of the Sheriff of London and fifteen thousand Spectators at least Nor is it to be omitted that the Sheriff having adjured Macquire by the dreadful Tribunal of God before which shortly he was to appear and the clearing and easing of his Conscience which was then or never to be done that he would ingenuously confess whom he knew to be guilty of the same Crime though the Rope was about his neck and he half up the Ladder yet by name he acquitted King Charles from being any ways privy to it solemnly professing that he knew no English-man but one and he a Papist that had any hand in the matter Nay and being cast off the Ladder and when after he had tried what hanging was he was a little reprieved and had no small hopes given him of a pardon he still persisted in the same protestation But in the Pulpits Clubs and publick Pamphlets the Crime was charged upon King Charles nor did the Rebels blush to asperse even the sacred and innocent Majesty of the King with so heinous a guilt hoping that whilst they continued so boldly to vent their Calumnies and Slanders against him some of them at least would stick The Irish Nobility and Priests who were the chief Actors in this Tragedy were encouraged to the Villany by the late successes of the Scots who to speak in the language of Sir John Temple a Privy-Counsellor of that Kingdom who wrote the History of those Troubles having happily succeeded in their attempts obtained by their last Commotions considerable Priviledges from the King To this adde that our intestine Troubles seemed to offer fair opportunity of changes it being very rational and easie to conjecture that the English being ready to fall together by the ears at home there was no fear that they would cross over to Ireland to defend and assist their Colonies in that Kingdom Their boldness was increased by the Interregnum occasioned by the murder of Strafford and the change of the Magistrates of whom the severer and best acquainted with the State of that Kingdom were by the interest of the Irish Lords whilst they prosecuted Strafford in England either turned out of place or accused of High-Treason men who were either ignorant of the Affairs and State of Ireland or who were prone to Rebellion being put into their places Being thus in a readiness the unseasonable disbanding of an Army of eight thousand Irish who had been raised for the Scottish expedition did not a little strengthen their resolution for though the King after the pacification of the Scots lest they might occasion Stirs in Ireland had permitted the Spanish Embassadour to transport four thousand of them yet the Irish Lords put on by the Conspirators got the Parliament under pretext that the French King might take it ill earnestly to beseech that it might not be done And afterwards when the King had ordered the same number to be raised for the service of the French without any reasons alleadged they utterly rejected it Very few of the Captains and Officers of that Army dishonoured themselves by joyning in the Rebellion but the private Souldiers whose custom it is to be insolent and at length appear valiant when they are about to be dismissed from the dangers of War easily rushed into that Villany The Lords and Priests being soothed with these so many fair opportunities of fishing in troubled waters that they might weaken our Colonies divide and distract their thoughts and in the mean time incense the Natives to slaughter and rapine they cast about all ways To the English they brag That the Queen is in their Army that the King was coming with an Army to their assistance that the Scots were agreed with him and to make that the more credible amongst the slaughter of the English they spare the Scots They give out that they have the Kings Commission and act by virtue of his authority shewing indeed a counterfeit Commission to which one Plunket with the consent of many Lords and Priests at Farn-Abbey had appended the Kings Seal taken from another old Commission as appeared by the confessions of a great many afterwards That they defend the King's Cause against the Puritans Amongst their own men they divulge counterfeit Letters whereby they pretend to be informed from England That there was an Act lately past whereby all the Irish were to be forced to go to Church and assist at the Devotion of the Protestants upon pain of forfeiture for the first offence of their Chattels for the second of their Lands and Inheritances and for the third of their Lives They propose besides to the Natives the hopes of Liberty and of recovering their ancient Customs That the English Yoke is to be cast off a King to be chosen of their own Nation and the Goods and Estates of the English to be divided amongst the Natives By this hope of booty and of living at their own liberty for the future the Irish are allured to the War and being egg'd on with fury and rage they committed such horrid and heynous Crimes as hardly any Age can parallel The King foresaw the Storm a coming whilst he was in Scotland and therefore that he might prevent it whilst it was a gathering he presently dispatched Sir James Hamilton to the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy-Council of Ireland with instructions and what money he could raise of his own and from his friends on the sudden He earnestly desires the assistance of the Parliament of Scotland and acquaints the Parliament of England with it also But the one under pretext that Ireland was under the dominion of England refuse their assistance and the other takes but little notice of it The Factious tacitly rejoycing that new Troubles were arising to the King and that Kingly government being abolished alike in all the three Kingdoms they would shortly be turned into so many free Commonwealths But the Sparks breaking out into a flame and the report of the Irish barbarity being in every bodies mouth the Parliament was enraged and all were filled with an extraordinary zeal of revenging the bloud of their Country-men treacherously killed and of defending and protecting the surviving For the charges of a War in a short time three hundred thousand pound English was raised partly by benevolent Contributions and partly out of the price of the Lands and Inheritances of the Rebels which by the Parliament were sold to be
after the Victory that the goodness of the Cause made them not doubt of distributed amongst the Purchasers and many thousand English listed themselves for the service Nevertheless such was the misery of this Nation that that which is wont to procure some short Peace at least amongst those who are at greatest variance served onely to inflame our Broils On the one hand they who were altogether given to changes buzzing I know not what fears and jealousies into the ears of those who were but too prone to make the worst of things obtain in Parliament that the War be not carried on in the name of the King nor that any Souldier who had shew'd his Loyalty to the King or had served in the Scottish Expedition should be admitted into this War And for managing the War they also prefer factious men and such as were ungrateful to the King On the other hand the King intended to lead the Army against the Rebels in person urging and insisting That he might use the right and power of War which the Laws and Customs of the Kingdom entrusted him with The King at length desiring to overcome his Competitors by courtesie and yielding if he could not by power and strength consents that the War be carried on in his own and the Parliaments name and that the Commissions should run in the name of the King and Parliament granting the Parliament the power of levying and arming the Army and of chusing the Generals and Commanders and the King reserving to himself no liberty of making Peace or pardoning the Rebels without the consent of Parliament Yet neither so did the swellings of the Parliament abate for not long after the Civil War breaking out in England the Parliament make use of an hundred thousand pound raised for the Irish War and two or three Regiments of men that were to be sent over for suppressing that Rebellion for oppressing of the King here at home Nay and they make no scruple to employ the money that was charitably collected for the relief of the poor distressed Protestants and for building of Churches in paying their own Souldiers On the other side the King's Souldiers seize the Ammunition sent by the Parliament towards Chester which so soon as they gave it out that it was designed for the War in Ireland the King commanded to be restored The Parliament that by putting indignities upon the King they might raise their own Reputation alleadging some silly slight suspicions are not ashamed to impute the Irish Rebellion to the King as the Author of it But as the truth was his Majesty retorts the crime and infamy of it with far better reasons upon the factious Members of Parliament Yet these things hinder not but that our Auxiliary forces bâ—at the Irish Rebels and put them to flight in all places kill plunder burn and destroy many thousands of the Natives and by a great slaughter revenge the murder of their Country-men But at the same time they lay all the Country waste and desolate which at length was no less prejudicial to themselves than to the Natives for the War increasing in England the Souldiers wanting Corn Ammunition Clothes Pay and indeed all things necessary and at length being unable to support their wants it is hardly to be exprest what miseries and calamities our Country-men suffered in Ireland and having long struggled with these difficulties and with all importunity but in vain begg'd assistance from the Parliament The Privy-Council of the Kingdom Commanders of the Army and the Souldiers themselves write to the King earnestly begging to be disbanded or employed in other service where they might have any Enemy but Hunger to fight with The King at length seeing the Scots were coming with assistance to the Parliament-forces being too weak to make head against the Rebellion moved on the one hand by his own necessities and on the other by the importunate Prayers of his Subjects commands a Truce to be made with the Irish for a year that in the mean time if it were possible he might make Peace upon good terms A Truce being made with the Irish and Forces being left sufficient for maintaining the Garrisons the Souldiers return from Ireland to the assistance of the King whose fortune against the Parliament at home manifestly declined But the Scots who inhabited the greatest part of Vlster supplied with Pay and Ammunition by the Parliament refuse the Truce as also some English in Connaught and Vlster who lived in good correspondence with the Scots A little after the Lord Inchiqueen who commanded the Munster-Forces having brought over some thousands of men to the Kings assistance when he thought himself not treated according to his dignity and merit flying over secretly into Ireland tampers first with those of Cork and then with all such of the Province of Munster as were on the English side and having drawn them over to the Parliament he rejects the Truce and is presently assisted by the Scottish Forces and supplied with Money Provisions and Ammunition from the Parliament Ireland being now delivered from the English Souldiers the Natives lay hold on the opportunity of recovering the whole Kingdom under the command of Owen Ro General of the Rebels and having broken the truce which they had solemnly made and arming of a sudden they had surprized and seized the Marquess of Ormond not dreaming of any such thing had he not being informed of it a little before by by-ways mays made his escape to Dublin Having afterward joyned their Forces those who were willing to keep the Truce being instigated to the contrary by the Nuncio who produced the Popes Bull they all together besiege the City of Dublin by Land whilst at the same time the Parliament-Ships shut up the Haven The Marquess being overmatched by the Forces of three Nations acquaints the King with his condition who sends him instructions that if he could not defend the City he should rather deliver it up to the Parliament than suffer it to fall into the hands of the Irish Having therefore agreed upon Articles amongst which it was one That he should have liberty to go to the King that he might give his Majesty an account of all the affairs of Ireland the Marquess returned into England and found the King at Hampton-Court environed by the Parliaments Rebel-Souldiers where being informed that he was to be apprehended by Order of Parliament he secretly withdrew into France that he might escape their Snares Not long after when the King was committed to Prison in the Isle of Wight and that the Rebels had cut off all hopes of restoring Peace and Liberty by their Vote of no more addressing to the King of which more hereafter having received new instruction he returned in quality of Lord-Lieutenant into Ireland where he endeavoured with all care to make the best Peace he could and to unite the English Scots and Irish for
and scornfully raze out of their Journal as an Act unworthy of Parliament New Orders in place of the former pass in this House of Commons whereby they invade the Government by Votes which before they had snatched by Arms. They first vote That all Power resides in the People Secondly That that Power belongs to the Peoples Representatives meaning themselves in the House of Commons Thirdly That the Votes of the Commons have the force of a Law without the consent of the King or House of Lords a plain Horatian Law that what the lowest Order of the People enacteth binds the whole body of them Fourthly That to take Arms and make War against the Representatives of the People or the Parliament is High-Treason Fifthly That the King himself took up Arms against the Parliament and that therefore he is guilty of all the bloud shed in this Civil War that so they might seem to excuse themselves of the Villany and ought by his own bloud to expiate it These were the Preludes to that most horrid and abominable Villany I tremble to mention it which it behoved them to bring about by degrees for trusting now to their great power which indeed was as great as they thought fit to take to themselves they had the boldness to erect a new Tribunal of most abject wretches against the King to which they give the name of the High Court of Justice thinking that its name might procure it reverence In this Mock-Court they appoint an hundred and fifty Judges that they might in number at least represent the people the most factious Sticklers of the whole Faction to whom they give power of arraigning trying judging and condemning Charles Stuart King of England In the number of these they appoint six Earls out of the House of Lords and the Judges also of the Kingdom lately chosen by themselves But the greater part consist of the Commanders of the Army who first conspired the murder of the King and the Members of the House of Commons who were the most inveterate enemies to Monarchy The rest were Rascals raked out of the Kennel of London or the Neighbourhood Amongst these some were Coblers Brewers Silversmiths and other Mechanicks the greater part were Bankrupt Spend-thrifts Debauchees and Whoremasters who nevertheless by the Disciples of the Sect were called Saints Nay there was none of them but did expect impunity for his cheating the Publick Sacriledge Bribery and other enormous Crimes or did hope to glut his Avarice with the Kings Revenue Houses Furniture or gainful places to be conferred upon him for so bold an attempt or in a word that was not drawn in and allured up to the horrid fact by the tamperings threats and promises of Cromwel Ireton and the other Commanders of the Army In the mean time there was hardly any regard had to the Lords and it was commonly believed that being now terrified by so many and so great dangers they would of their own accords absent from the House except four or five that were slaves to that Republican Faction The Rebels thought that the authority of these was sufficient to confirm any attempt whatsoever as they had already oftener than once experienced Nor indeed were their hopes altogether frustrated However when the matter came to the push their luck proved somewhat worse than they expected for a few Lords used daily to come to the House but that day when the Bill for trying the King was to be brought to the Lords House for their consent unexpectedly seventeen Lords were present who all not excepting those who favoured the Republicans not onely deny their consent but cast the Bill over the Bar as destructive and contrary to Law This inraged the Oligarchick Rebels and put them upon thoughts of revenge taking it hainously that so publick an affront and disgrace had been put upon them However at present they thought it enough to dash all the Lords out of the number of the Kings Judges By and by also the Judges of the Kingdom were struck out of that black List because being privately asked their opinions in that affair though through the interest of this Faction they had been lately by authority of Parliament raised to their places they had answered That it was against the known and received Laws and Customs of England to bring the King to a Tryal For a President of this Court who might match it in fame and reputation they pitch upon one John Bradshaw a base-born broken Pettifogger a fellow of a brazen forehead and an insolent and sawcy tongue who a little before was of no value amongst those of his own Gang. One Cooke they make Attorney-General a fellow of the same stamp poor guilty as was reported of Polygamy who had plaid a thousand tricks and cheats to get Bread and now was ready to do any villany in hopes of profit They privately consult for some days about the matter and form of the Arraignment or the manner of perpetrating the Villany where in drawing the Kings Indictment one Dorislaus a Doctor of the Laws a German who was either banished or had fled his Country took the greatest pains In the mean time all the Presbyterian Ministers of London in a manner and more out of several Counties yea and some out of the Independents also declare against the thing in their Sermons from the Pulpit in Conferences monitory Letters Petitions Protestations and publick Remonstrances They earnestly beg That contrary to so many dreadful Imprecations and Oaths contrary to publick and private Faith confirmed by Declarations and Promises contrary to the Law of Nations the Word of God and sacred Rules of Religion nay and contrary to the welfare of the State they would not defile their own hands and the Kingdom with Royal Bloud The Scots by their Commissioners protest against it The Embassadours of the States General of the Vnited Provinces if they faithfully perform'd their Masters Orders intercede Some English Noblemen to wit the Earl of Southampton the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hertford and Earl of Lyndsey c. do what lies in their power they neither spare prayers nor money offer themselves as Hostages or if the Republicans demanded it their lives as being onely guilty if the King had offended in any thing The people whisper their rage for that was all they could now do hardly restraining their unarmed fury Our present King then Prince CHARLES used all means to assist his Father in this danger Besides the Embassadours of the States General whom he had procured to be sent he daily dispatched Agents as well from the Prince of Orange as himself and such as were Relations Kinsmen and Friends to Cromwel Ireton and the rest of the Conspirators who being warranted with full power might by prayers promises threats or what arguments they judged fit either disswade them from that unparallel'd Barbarity or at least for
be embowelled by a rascally Quack-Physician and some Surgeons of the Army most inveterate Enemies to the very name of a King his Majesties own Servants being removed who had orders carefully to enquire which was the same to them as if they had been commanded positively to affirm whether he had not the Venereal Distemper or any signs of Frigidity with a designe to take an occasion from thence of branding either himself or Posterity with Infamy But that Villany was crushed in the Egg by the presence of an honest Physician who getting to be admitted to the Dissection overawed them by his reverence and authority the same person having also reputed that by the healthfulness and vigour of his Constitution he might have outlived most men so that all who consider the humourous temper both of his body and mind are fully now satisfied of it Nay that they might strain their Malice to the highest pitch of Cruelty they make no less scruple to murder the Soul of the King and as easily damn him to the flames of Hell as they are wont to canonize all their own for Saints They make it their business also to blacken his Memory amongst men they cause his Statue that stood over the Porch of St. Paul's Church and another that was placed amongst the Statues of his Predecessors in the Royal Exchange of London to be thrown down putting these words into the empty Nich Exit Tyrannus regum ultimus most false both in the presage and crime They employ the mercenary Pen of the Son of a certain Sâ—rivener one Milton from a musty Pedant â—ampt into a new Secretary whose Talent lying in Satyrs and Libels and his Tongue being dipt in the blackest and basest venome might forge an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Image-breaking and by his livid and malicious Wit publish a Defence of the Kings Murder against Salmasius They rob the Bishop of London who was long kept a Prisoner of all the Papers which his Majesty had delivered unto him and ransaking all Clothes Trunks and Boxes they search into every corner that they might hinder any Paper written with the Royal hand from coming into the publick by which indeed they deprived mankind of many rare Monuments of Prudence and Piety Nevertheless by the extraordinary providence of Almighty God to their eternal shame and confusion and the everlasting praise of the boundless and Royal Virtue of the King a Book of MEDITATIONS or SOLLILOQVIES saw the light a posthumous work of which whosoever impartially considers the weight of matter the quaintness of stile the strength of Reasons and the ardour of Piety must in spight of Envy acknowledge that amongst Writers he deserved the Kingdom and that those ill minds that wrested from him the Civil Government must render him the dominion of Letters No King not onely of Britain alone but that ever sate upon the Throne left the World more bewailed and lamented For the news of his death being spread over England made women miscarry cast both men and women into Fits Convulsions and Melancholy nay some were so surprized that they outlived not the suddenness of the Consternation The Pulpits in all places uttered nothing but Sighs and Groans The same persons with useless grief bewailing him now he was gone who because of difference of Opinion concerning Church-government had no great kindness for him whilst he was alive The very little Children who seldom mind such things bursting out into Tears could hardly be comforted Men of all sorts and almost of all Sects enlarged in his praises comparing him to Job David and Solomon for Patience Piety and Wisdom Nor can I my self forbear in this place to hoist sail and with all the skill I have launch out into the Ocean of his Virtues though the nature of an Abridgment I am now about does lay an embargo upon my liberty I shall therefore by a few and those clouded beams give you what sight I can of that Sun He was indeed a Prince to be reckoned amongst the best of all past Ages whose great endowments of mind and greater Virtues rendered him in the opinion of all even his greatest Enemies Worthy of Government if he had not governed who by all mens confession attained to that height of perfection that he was the same in all places and at all times that the course of his Virtues was even and steddy his countenance and looks the same in the most different kinds of fortune that he had tried as if from the Torrid he had removed into the Frigid Zone without the least alteration in his temper Who pleased even the unwilling and as by a kind of Charm mitigated the hatred of many won his enemies to Friendship and turned Railings into Praises Who so excelled in Prudence and all Heroick Virtues that through Calumnies and Reproaches he shone out with greater lustre His Enemies feigned him to be a man of weak Judgment but found him to be a match if not superiour to the choicest Politicians and Divines They reviled him as cowardly and fickle without faith and of feminine inconstancy but in Battels they felt him to be valiant perceived him undaunted in Threats Dangers and Disgraces and unshaken in Prison and at Death They slandered him as a Papist but saw him in his Writings to be a Champion for the Reformed Apostolical Religion defending it not onely by his Pen but with his Bloud They who maligned him as cruel and bloud-thirsty advanced to that licentiousness of calumniating onely through the clemency of their King to which the Rebels promised themselves a too easie retreat until by the favour of fortune being transported beyond the bonds of pardon they chuse rather to deny mercy to a Prince of so much clemency than to ask it of him when he was disarmed If any thing could be objected to him it was so far from being a fault in so rare a Prince that it was the height of an unseasonable Virtue inconsistent with so vitious and corrupt an Age that is too much Lenity to the cruel Candour to the disingenuous and crafty a strict Justice and Certitude which is not commonly the Virtue of Kings a Modesty that distrusted his own Abilities and a Mind so far from pride that he was more apt to comply with the worse Counsels of others than to stick to the best of his own as if he had indeed believed the Calumnies of his Enemies to be true He was a great Example of Living but a greater of Dying Whom like slighted and unrewarded Virtue We hate whilst it 's in being and anxiously bustle for when it is gone The great Defender of the Laws being now cut off and the Government unhinged the new Vsurpers thought it time to turn all topsie-turvy and to make Laws according to their own pleasure They order CHARLES the Second by the name of CHARLES STEVART and the Duke of York wheresoever they could be found to be put
to death Out comes presently an Ordinance under pain of High-Treason That no man should presume to declare CHARLES STEUART commonly called Prince of Wales King And as if this had been but a small matter That no man should pray for CHARLES the Second under the name of Prince of Wales King of Scotland or eldest Son of the King or for the Duke of York or any of the Royal Family under pain of Sequestration Monarchy and the House of Lords being both abolished the first under pretext of change uselesness and danger and the other both of uselesness and danger they make an Ordinance for changing the most ancient Government of England into a Democraty or Popular Commonwealth and because the Mayor of London refused to publish the Ordinance they turn him out of his Office fine him in two thousand pounds and commit him to the Tower notwithstanding his alleadging That such an act was to be performed by the Sheriffs and not the Mayor of London and that being bound by so many Oaths he could not in conscience do it A dull blockhead one of the Kings Judges was forthwith put into his place and that others upon account of conscience might not boggle at any of their commands they abolish the Oath which all men upon their entry into publick place were obliged to take to the Kings Majesty They purge the Common Council of the City which was wont to consist of the richer and graver Citizens and turn out many Aldermen making this their colour for it that the year before though at the desire of the major part of the Parliament They had signed the Petition for a personal Conference with the King and filled their places with the abject Riff-raff of the Rabble many of them very young and most of them broken fellows They also turn out the Recorder Town-Clerk and other Officers of the City who had refused to attend the Mayor at the publishing of the Ordinance for abolishing of Monarchy other factious Villains of their own Gang being preferred to their places who leading the other Citizens by the noses the City of London in a trice became obedient to the Orders of the Mock-Parliament With one single Vote they repeal all the ancient Laws made against Sects and Schisms They deprive the Ministers of the promised Revenues I mean of Deans and Chapters Lands They also make profession of easing tender Consciences from the burthen of Tythes assigning some thousands a year out of the Kings Revenue for Stipends and Salaries for the Preachers that so they might be at the beck of the Republicans and be at length by Office constrained with mutual Assistance and Pay to conspire against Monarchy Nay it was debated whether they should not for some time shut the Church-doors and restrain the licentiousness of Presbyterians but milder Councils prevailing some having been imprisoned others threatned with death all are commanded upon pain of Sequestration to refrain from Invectives and to comply with their Rulers in keeping Fasts and Thanksgiving-days and whatever else concerned the affairs of the Church They break down the Kings Arms and Statues that were set up in publick places and put up their own instead of them They coyn new money with the impression of a Cross and Harp as the Arms of England and Ireland In a word as by Law and in full right they invade and appropriate to themselves all the Regalia which as by way of Sequestration they had before usurped From henceforward without any regard to Justice and Honesty they spare neither Sex nor any Order of men The Kings Children who remained in England to wit the Lady Elizabeth and Henry Duke of Gloucester Princes of singular accomplishments of Nature are many ways basely used by them Amongst the Regicides it was moved oftener than once whether they had not better put her out Apprentice to a Trade that she might get her living than to breed her up in a lazy life at the charge of the Publick From the gentle tuition of the Earl of N. she is turned over to the severer discipline of another with orders that when there was no occasion for it she should not be treated as the Daughter of a King Afterward she was confined to Carisborough-Castle in the Isle of Wight under the custody of one Mildmay an inspired fool but implacable enemy to the Royal Family that she poor Lady thus put in mind of her Fathers Imprisonment and Murder being already consumptive might the sooner be brought to her end And indeed when through the irksomness of Prison Grief and Sickness she visibly and daily decayed and pined away the inhumane Traytors deny her the assistance of a Physician nay the Physician whose presence she earnestly desired they so frighten from his duty that he durst not wait upon her She being dead they send the Duke of Gloucester into banishment having allowed him a small piece of money that I may not omit any act of their humanity to carry him over into Flanders They basely treat the Countess of Carlisle by an usage unworthy of her Sex and Quality as being one who of too much a friend before was now become an Enemy and commit her to the Tower of London Duke Hamilton and the Earl of Holland who now too lately repented their having been the first of the Lords and chief of the Factious who for their own safety had too much served the times against the King and of the Royal Party the heroick Lord Capel a prime Champion both for his King and Country are by the same President Bradshaw who dyed red with Royal bloud knew not what it was to spare the bloud of other men in the same Court of Justice sentenced to lose their heads Whom the Rebels thought fit they banished and seized all Estates and Inheritances how large soever at their own discretion There was a debate amongst them about making a Law that whosoever was by them suspected to be an ill willer to the Commonwealth or an enemy to the Army might be brought to a tryal before a Council of War and sentenced by them as they thought fit Nay they order the stately Fabricks of the Royal Houses and Palaces to be thrown down that Kings for the future might not have a house of their own to cover their heads under God any stately Temples wherein he might be worshipped or the Kingdom any publick Structures to shew its magnificence St. Paul's Church in London that of Salisbury and the Kings house of Hampton-Court Fabricks that may compare for stateliness with the best of Europe with much ado escaped the fury of their desolating hands A Council of forty persons is erected which by a gentle name to the common people they call the Keepers of the Liberties who altogether or at least seven of the number had the full administration of the Commonwealth Amongst these were three or four contemptible Lords Slaves to the Republican Faction admitted of whom
Bradshaw was made Head with the Title of Lord President and a yearly Salary of two thousand pounds as the price of Regicide Moreover a Writing is commanded to be taken by all whereby they were bound to approve whatsoever the Rebels had acted against the King and Kingdom Yet when many had refused to take it they were nevertheless admitted upon this condition That with their lives and fortunes they should maintain and defend for the future the State and Mock-Parliament in the same condition they were Henceforward none of the secluded Members nor of those who had withdrawn were admitted into the House unless they approved underhand the late Villanies Nevertheless they command all to appear against a certain day or otherways to be excluded for ever and others chosen in their places So that some for fear of Sequestration and I know not what hurt and damage they were apprehensive of others out of hopes of profit to be got in publick changes by a base temporizing strike in with the Republican Vsurpers and are admitted into a share of the labour and danger but not of the Government About the same time the secluded Members meet in Lincolns-Inne to consult together and take the advice of S. a Lawyer what was fittest to be done in the present state of affairs But he readily gave his opinion that the late changes were made against the tenor of the Laws the Customs and Interest of the Country and the Dictates of right Reason and that no commerce could be kept with the Usurpers without the guilt and horrid crime of Treason and indeed he frightened many of the Members from coming to the House who could never afterward be brought to joyn in council with the Regicides Nevertheless within a few days he himself became a leading-man in the Rebel-Parliament and the Council of the Keepers of the Liberties and submitted to their Authority nay and did not reject the place of Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas conferred upon him by the same men though the King before the Troubles had honoured him with the title of his Attorney-General These things are carried on under pretext of speedy setling the State but in reality with designe to secure the Government to themselves to whom all the rest almost being cow'd into a submission the Popular Republicans onely resist These demand that the Representative so often desired and so often promised might be established by a free and equal election of the people the Rump of the Mock-Parliament being dismissed In Writings and Conferences they inveigh against the arbitrary dominion of the Vsurpers the High Court of Justice Council of State or of the Keepers of the Liberties as onely the softer names of a harder Tyranny nay they cry out against the Kings murder as unjust and committed against all Law and just Authority that the People had changed but not shaken off the Yoke that they had rather live ten years under the government of the worst of Kings than one year under their dominion that the loins of King Charles were lighter than their little finger So great force has truth as that it draws such Expressions even from the unwilling At length they flie to Arms and the private Souldiers especially the Troopers who formerly consented with them in most things being everywhere stirred up they at length begin to gather together in form of an Army But the Vsurpers who were never wanting to occasion obviate the beginnings and under pretext of composing Differences amongst honest men who minded the same things though they mutually entertained bad opinions one of another having corrupted and gained some of them to their Party they suddenly fall upon the rest and defeat them disarm the Prisoners and having caused the chief Authors of the Stirs to be shot and others to be punished more mildly they terrifie all the rest from disturbing for the future the Rulers either with cutting Truths or sharper Arms. The Vsurpers being fixed in the Saddle publish a Proclamation forbidding all men to accuse them of Tyranny to object any thing against them by word or in writing or to attempt any alteration under pain of High-Treason They appoint a solemn Thanksgiving-day to render publick thanks to God for their prosperous success against the Democraticks that so by mocking of God they might the more easily make the silly people rejoyce in their Calamities And the same day they are sumptuously feasted by the Mayor and Aldermen of London not without the Reproaches and Curses of almost all the Spectators where amidst the tears and miseries of a great many that perished by a famine that then raged they junket it deliciously Fairfax and Cromwel are complemented with splendid Presents of Gold and Silver And that the wretched Citizens might not seem to have lost all their labour in feeding these Ravens they bestow upon them the Kings new Park under colour of making them some recompence for their late Magnificence but in reality that the distracted men being allured by the sweetness of that morcel might be won over to their Party and wish well to the new Government Henceforward there is nothing to them sacred or holy They either distribute amongst themselves or sell at easie rates the Kings Houshold-furniture Lands and Houses the Revenues and Lands of the Church which belonged to the Deans and Chapters and which remained intire till now by the Votes of both Houses of Parliament for the use of the new Clergy or Presbyterian Ministry That by these arts they might both glut their own Avarice and by involving many in the same guilt with themselves make them firmer to their Faction Nor being yet satiated by the Crown and Church-lands and the Estates of the Noblemen and Gentlemen who disagreeing from them made up the far greater part of the Kingdom which they had seized long ago by way of Sequestration nor by the Goods and Chattels of those aforementioned whom they had plundered and the vast sums of money which those that had been for the King dayly paid for redeeming their Estates and purchasing favour they daily raise an incredible quantity of money from the Customs and the Excise a Tax which before would not have been endured in England Not to mention the secret Veins of Wealth I mean Bribes and Gifts which those that stood for Places or had business and Law-suits slipt privately into their pockets Nay they were not ashamed to flea the so-often fleeced people by a most heavy Imposition of ninety thousand pounds a month to pay the idle Souldiers However the spoils and government of one Kingdom was not enough to satisfie them they invade the Irish also that were ready to submit to the King whom whilst they were Rebels most part of them praised few at least did hostilely assault them promising themselves certain victory over them and hoping that Ireland being subdued they might easily reduce Scotland
The Democratical Republicans stirring in Arms are routed Solemn Thanksgivings appointed for the Victory and the Conquerours feasted by the Londoners MDCL The Lady Elizabeth Daughter of Charles the Martyr dies in her Fathers Prison FINIS A short HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE Rise and Progress OF THE Late Troubles IN ENGLAND AND ALSO Of the KING's Miraculous Escape after the Battel at Worcester The Second Part. NOW are the Cruel Regicides Masters of England but of England alone The Scots were in suspence not being as yet fully resolved whether they should settle Charles the Second in his Fathers Throne or usurping the Soveraignty should Govern Scotland as a Common-wealth themselves Ireland almost entirely for the King was ready utterly to shake off the Yoke of the Mock Parliament The Islands belonging to England not only the adjacent as Jersey Man and Silly but the more remote also in America to wit Bermudos the Caribbe Islands Virginia and New-England upon the Continent which had been heretofore planted with English Colonies refuse to obey the Usurpers Ireland was to be the first Seat of War shortly to be subdued whilst the Scots were for some time left to themselves They think it enough at present to discharge all Trading with the Islands and Plantations that no Sugar Indico Tobacco and Cotton should be from thence imported into England nor any Cloaths and other necessary Provisions for Life be transported from England thither hoping by this Fetch that either being glutted with their own Commodities or at least pinched through the want of ours they would be forced to comply Nor was it doubted but some time or other as occasion offered they would bring them under the Yoke Now there was one thing mainly necessary for their future Designs which as they were pleased to flatter themselves was easie to be obtained The Friendship and Alliance of no Nation nor People seemed more commodious and necessary to them than that of the Dutch both in respect of Neighbourhood and Situation of the Country and of the Humour and Inclination of the People nor did they want a pretext of making application to them For Strikland who from the beginning of the Troubles had been Ambassadour or Envoy with the States of the Vnited Provinces being kindly treated by them They thought fit to send over Dorislaus who had had a chief hand in framing the Kings Indictment as their Ambassadour to Complement and Thank them in their Name assure them of mutual good Offices justifie to them by Reasons their Proceedings against the King and to colour the Villany by the specious Authority of what Laws he could scrape together Besides he had it in Instructions if he found it convenient to let fall some mention of a Coalition or Conjunction and to offer and press it seeing if it could be effected by the Consent of both Nations they might laugh at all Designs and Attempts of Foreigners and share betwixt themselves the Trade of the whole World But that Negotiation proved unsuccessful the Prince of Orange being Stat-holder and the People detested the Murder of the King Some Scots also who though at a distance had speedy notice of his Arrival entering his Lodgings before he had had Audience with many Wounds killed Dorislaus and made their escape before they could be apprehended Thus the shedding of Royal Blood is punished by Bloody hands and by the just Judgment of God whatever may be the Injustice of Men the Crime is brought home to the Author The Regicides often demanded of the States Reparation for the Fact but without any success But the Democratical Party in England managing things now somewhat more cautiously laid not aside their discontents Walwin Prince Lilburn Overton and others of that Gang prefer a Petition to the Rump Parliament wherein they propose many good things which might be useful to the Publick mingling with them Reproaches that were not altogether false For which they were committed to Prison there to lye by it till the fierceness of their tempers were allayed Nevertheless the private Souldiers of Ingoldsby's Regiment grow Seditious at Oxford under pretence of Petitioning That the Rump-Parliament might be dissolved a lawful Representative chosen in place of it that the Laws might be rendered into the vulgar Language and those that were superfluous abolished that there might be a Register kept of all Mens Lands and Estates that every one might know what Title they had to what they possessed that the Excise and all unlawful Exactions might be abolished To which they added over and above to increase their Party not that they repented for the Kings Murder that Charles the Second might be chief Magistrate of the Kingdom But the Collonel hastening thither and having caused some few to be shot to death by a timely remedy stifled the Tumult in the Birth Yet from these Embers a new Flame broke out for some Officers in Fairfax his Army present a smarter Petition to the same purpose though in different words To the former they add That the Tithes being abolished or converted to another use the Ministers might have more certain Stipends that the publick Money might be more sparingly distributed amongst the Parliament Men and that the Souldiers should have their pay The Rump-Parliament durst not slight this but gives them good words and being conscious to themselves how often they by Declarations had promised and how many times they had been reproached with unfaithfulness and breach of Promise they set apart a day weekly for deliberating about these Proposals First Concerning the Government and Representative where having examined and considered the Nature of all States and Republicks from that of Rome even to Ragusa they pretend to search out a kind of Government which might be best and most suitable for England But they could find none that was exquisit enough nor that seemed adapted to the Genius of this People And so like Penelope weaving and unweaving their Web they put off the time until the matter might be forgotten or something of greater moment intervene I know not whether it be worth the while here to mention the Prohibition made by the French at that time of any Trade with us in Wollen and Linen Manufacture which drew from the Regicides a reciprocal Prohibition that no Wine nor Silk Stuffs should from thence be Imported into England It was likewise to our advantage Ordered in Flanders that no Ships nor Goods taken by Privateers should be Condemned or Sold in their Harbours But it is worth taking notice of that a severer Inquisition was appointed against the Ministers all England over under pretext of Reforming the Church and introducing the Orthodox Religion and all were cruelly persecuted not only they who stuck close to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England but even they who wished well to it or had any Conversation with Men of
for the Irish Nation as an Appendix to the work I now return to the History In the very depth of Winter the Bishop of St. Cathdrin came seasonably as an Agent from the Duke of Lorrain who as a token of his Masters Affection brought with him a considerable sum of Money and promises of more if they agreed in Treaty pretending great kindness to the King Kingdom and People The sums of the Proposals which he made to the afflicted Party was That the Duke with ten thousand Foot five thousand Horse and thirty Ships should come into Ireland and with the Title of Protector carry on the War That the Duke of York should Marry his Daughter That Limmerick and Galloway with the Magazine Guns and Ammunition should be put into his hands That he should have some cautionary Towns for security of the Moneys to be raised That the Inhabitants should have a care to keep the Enemy out of Connaght until his Arrival These Conditions were debated but whether agreed to or not I am uncertain and the Envoy departed to acquaint his master with his proceedings But that Atlas was not strong enough to support the falling Firmament and there was so much time spent in the Treaty that the oppportunity of relief being past shewed only its bald Poll instead of the favourable Forelock The Spring began now to come on but Ireland seemed to be in its autumn ready to be cut down All that Clanricard could do was to shew his tayl and flap with some convulsive motions and vibrations of a dying Nation like the last blaze of an expiring light He views all places by which the Enemy might break into Connaght he posts Soldiers at all the passes of the river Shannon as also at the river Rour and the Collough mountains wherever any passage might be found In the mean time Ireton call'd Coot out of Vlster with two thousand horse and as many good foot that he might come and join him near Galloway Coot that he might deceive the Enemy pretends that he is to march to Slego and there stops as if he were about to besiege that Castle until he had drawn thither all the Irish Forces From thence turning suddenly back again he found a pretty easy passage over the tops of the Collough hills Now must I relate by what means Ireton got into Connaght He having left Broghill in Munster Ingoldsby in the parts opposite to Limmerick Huson in West Weath Venables in Canan and Zankie in Tipparary he marches to the River Shannon and at three several places together not without suspicion of Treachery at Killalve he passes over his Forces the Foot in boats and the Horse for most part swimming Whilst Huson in the mean time alarm'd Abhalone as if he were ready to attack it Clanricard's men being beat out of all places he then over a wooden Bridge sends over his Canon and Baggage and without longer delay joins Coot as it had been agreed upon The Enemy being too weak to make resistance Athalone Portumna Tagera and some lesser Garrisons are taken Then having divided the Army Coot marches to Galloway Ireton to Limmerick Coot had already forced Farel with an Army of three or four thousand men to retreat into the Woods Bogs and other unaccessible places about Galloway and therefore daring to approach nearer the place he encamps and entrenches himself and so summons the Town to surrender He is answered That if Conditions were offered for the whole Kingdom of Ireland they would willingly listen unto them But seeing he would grant none but private and particular Articles both Parties prepare for a Siege In the mean time Limmerick is blockt up on all sides the river Shannon being also stopt They had for about three weeks expected succours from Muskery whose motion Broghil observing he had opportunely beat him off destroyed and dispersed his Forces The City is therefore incessantly batter'd and the approaches carried on to the very Walls Nor was the danger within the walls less than without the Plague having long raged amongst the Inhabitants and intestine divisions a no less grievous Plague daily increasing amongst them Some are for surrendering the Town forthwith others again for suffering rather the utmost extremity The opinion that was for a surrender prevailing they came to Articles which before they were signed the Gates were opened and the Castle delivered to the Enemy as an Hostage The Conditions were That the Soldiers should lay down their Arms and depart whither they pleased except those who had embrew'd their hands in the innocent Blood of the English That all the Arms Guns Ammunition and publick stores should be delivered into the possession of the Conquerour That those that had a mind to be gone should have time to pack up their Goods and Ships to transport them whithersoever they pleased That four and twenty should be left to the mercy of the Conquerour So fell that beautiful and Rich Town much frequented by reason of the advantages of the Sea and of the River Shannon and strongly fortified but withal proud of its own Strength Wealth and Riches which if it had not been divided and if it had not again with a stiffness refused to obey the Governours would not in so short a time and with so small a loss of Blood have fallen into the Enemy's hands The Bishop of Ferne with many others are hanged And the Bishop of Limmerick made his escape in disguise But the place was fatal to the Conquerour for as Limmerick fell Ireton dies concerning whom since from a mean extraction he mounted to the Pinacle of Government it will not be amiss that I speak a little In Trinity Colledge of Oxford he was initiated in the liberal Arts and made therein no contemptible Progress afterward he applied himself to the Study of the Common Law in the Temple in which having got a little smattering from his very Youth he drank in the Errours of the Anabaptists and assisted the Fanaticks in drawing up a Petition against the holy order of Episcopacy which was afterwards by Pennington and a numerous rabble of Londoners ready at that time for such attempts presented to the Parliament Not long after the Troubles daily encreasing he struck in with Cromwel when he was in the Isle of Ely being first admitted into his Quarters then by Cromwel being made Governour of the whole Island he was presently after advanced to be his Son in law Having there served an Apprentiship he enured his body to the War by a voluntary lying upon the ground fasting watching and exercises before he came to the Tryal of it until by degrees he at length advanced almost to the Chief command in the Army Hence forward he became his inseperable Companion especially in assisting him in all Declarations Articles Letters and Treaties that were to be made He grew indefatigable in labour and pains being accustomed to spend night and day in his
and the suspicion of a sudden Insurrection again amongst the Irish because they parted so easily with their Inheritances is laid at their door as a ruine We purposely pass by matters of less importance least what we are about by the by should swell up to too vast a bulk The Officers of the Army what by craft and what by force turning Richard out of the Supream Power and the Rump-Parliament after five years interment being raised again from the dead the eyes of all are fixed upon Henry It was thought by some that he would defend his own Authority and vindicate that of his Brother Others hoped that he would favour the Royal Cause and so make his interest with the King the Navy especially giving no obscure marks of their inclination and the Army and Kingdom of Ireland being ready enough to promote such an Enterprize Nor dare I swear that he entertain'd no such Projects But the Lord Broghill and Coot deserting him in dubious Affairs and Steel and Tomlinson old Commissioners managing and Waller and Corbet new ones continually solliciting him he at length resigns himself to the Will and Pleasure of the Rump-Parliament and returns into England there to give an account of his administration Hitherto we have dwelt in Ireland that without interruption we might give the Reader an account of the Affairs of that Kingdom Now bringing our discourse back to former years we must return to the Democratical Republicans who after the murder of the King swayed Affairs in England under the Olygarchicks These being upstarts promoted for the most part men of their own Edition to places of honour and profit Which the Londoners took so ill that the Mayor and Aldermen came and petitioned the Rump-Parliament that the cheif Citizens or that some of them at least might be again admitted into the common Council of the City These were about three hundred whom either age or wealth at least recommended But the year before the Rump-Parliament had turned a great many of them out and judged them unworthy of carrying any office in the City for no other reason but because they had signed the Petition making Peace with the King which the greater and sounder part of the Parliament were also for But that desire of the Mayor and Aldermen though they seriously alledged the want of ingenious and honest men of moderate Estates for discharging the offices of the City is rejected with contempt nor would they have any but the Riff Raff and inconsiderable rable to manage Publick Affairs as being such who measured good and evil according to the will and pleasure of their Masters Whil'st these things are carried on at London CHARLES the Second was not asleep nor did he neglect his Affairs though the Regicides carried all before them in England but moves every stone and leaves nothing unessayd that the wit and power of man could devise or execrate for resetling the undone Nations asserting the publick Liberty and the Regicide being revenged recovering his ancient Inheritance He implores the assistance of Foreign Kings and Princes who are all equally concerned according to the Supream Power they have received from God and their common duty to give Sanctuary to the oppressed but especially to Kings whom above all men living they ought to protect not only upon the account of Kindred and Cognation but also for fear of Contagion least the horrid example of Rebellion might have an influence upon their own Subjects that if perchance they should be reduced to the like streights they might likewise obtain the like help and assistance He sends Ambassadours to the Emperour and German Princes to the Grand Signior the great Duke of Moscovie the Kings of Poland Denmark and Sweden to the republick of Venice and the States General of the united Provinces He sends into Spain from whence he had the greatest expectation the Lord Edward Hide who had formerly been Lord cheif Baron of the Exchequer and was afterwards Lord Chancellor and Earl of Clarendon whose Iuvenile and vegete wit might put life into the aged head of Cottington In France besides a particular Ambassadour the Queen Mother and Duke of York were there and the King himself to sollicite his own affairs But alass almost every where unsuccessfully the distance of place hindering the aid of some and either the want of money domestick seditions or dangers from neigbours obstructing the assistances of others None are touched with the sence or pity of the Calamities of another The Ottoman Court dealt barbarously in that for a little money they delivered up the Ambassadour Henry Hide a most accomplished Gentleman into the hands of the Rump-Parliament who being brought over into England for his unshaken Loyalty without any pretext of ancient Law he was beheaded before the Royal Exchange in London France with promises gives hope of large assistance so long as they could procure any help from the Subjects of the King of England especially from James Duke of YORK who commanding the English and Irish that served the French in Flanders had given many Noble and Illustrious proofs of his Heroick Valour and Courage Until that Blake had beaten the French Fleet under the Command of the Duke of Vendosme which came to the relief of Dunkirk at that time besieged by the Spaniards Then they sent Burdex to treat of peace at London whil'st the Regicides expected no less than a declaration of War And having afterwards entred into a strict allyance they inwardly rejoyced that the Kings Majesty was deluded and no small stop put to the fury of the Rebels The Spaniard seemed to be grieved at the Kings Murder but excused himself that it did not belong to him to determine about the controversies of England nor did he take pleasure to meddle in other Peoples Affairs out of his own Terrritories but that in the mean time he should be ready to do the King all the kindness he could within his Countries Nevertheless not long after Ascham being killed which I shall shortly relate he was the first King who Commanded his Hedge Ambassadour Don Alonso de Cardenas to Worship the rising sun of the Common-wealth wish the Parrcides all happiness intreat the continuance of Friendship and good Correspondence betwixt his Kingdomes and the New Common-wealth and promised severely to punish the Wicked Murderers of Ascham Now there are some not obscure Reasons why the great Mind of so Wise a King was by so unexpected a change that rather discovered than altered his Inclinations brought over to the contrary side For besides Ancient and Paternal enmities with Queen Elizabeth Philip himself had particular Quarrels against Charles It wounded him deep that his Sister being courted in Marriage even so far as to have had an interview and conference with her she should afterwards be slighted for a Daughter of France though a Princess of extraordinary Worth Besides the old offence
Youth Unhappy English who with blind rage have consumed the Relicts of the Palatinat and accursed Broils of Britain that shipwrack't that Life which escaped the Sword of Austria I should give way to lamentations if our shame could add Glory to the Dead or give comfort to the surviving Family But a Valiant man is not to be by womanish houling lamented neither does true Grief require an ambitious pomp of Words nor great sorrow admit it Let us only then which is all we can do with our Tears wash out the stain of our unlucky Age to which Crime it is no small accession that the Ocean and other World are also polluted with the destruction of the Royal Family But Prince Rupert which was some comfort having sent his Goods into France with much adoe was saved I return to Portugal from whence the steam of Sugar attracted an Ambassadour to London Now would God the Supreme disposer of all things suffer that so remarkable constancy of so good a King should turn to the dammage of his Subjects For the Ships being restored the War that was threatened was upon supplication averted a new League made and the Peace afterward more religiously observed The Rebels indeed think it below them to make reparation for dammages yet they make them good by a War they were to engage in with the Dutch and Spaniards to the great advantage of the Portuguese I mention not the Glory of assisting distressed Princes a rare thing amongst Kings But after all he himself has no cause to fear but that his kindness shew'd to a King heretofore in distress will by the same Prince who never forgets those that have deserved well of him now raised to the Throne of his Ancestours and joyned to him in Affinity be repayed to him and his Subjects with plentiful interest But now we have affairs nearer home and with the Dutch again to consider Strickland having long resided in Holland as Ambassadour is now slighted and being allowed no more a place in the Assembly of the States he returns home But that the Parricides might repay one Affront with another they command Jacobin Vanodenskirk the Dutch Ambassadour to depart the Kingdom of England upon pretext that the King being dead the Negotiation with the States was now at an end But soon after as if they repented what they had done Schaepie is sent to treat of Peace who though he was but an Agent and empowred only by one City to wit Amsterdam to treat yet by the Rump-Parliament he is honoured with the Title of Ambassadour who take occasion on the other hand to send two Ambassadours with Royal and Magnificent Equipage to wit Oliver St. Jones one of the Members of the Rump-Parliament and Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and Walter Strickland These have Instructions To clap up a Peace and that by a Coalition of both Nations into one they might live under the same Government have the mutual Priviledges of Habitation Trading and Harbours of each Country indifferently But these were not to be divulged but piece and piece and by degrees if they found the People inclineable and fit to comply with such Propositions But the States had no inclination to settle a Peace until they found the success of the affairs in Scotland But after much adoe having at length given Audience to the Ambassadours they put them off from day to day till they proposed at long run some long winded Articles of Peace drawn up in the time of Henry VII to be considered which so soon as the Ambassadours had rejected they devise others to drive away time until the Ambassadours finding themselves fooled might hasten their departure But during their stay in Holland the States were necessitated to place a Guard at their Door nor was that sufficient to secure them from Affronts but that their Windows were every night broken or they themselves disturbed by I know not what Bug-bears and Apparitions There was also a strong report that a certain Relation of St. Jones came to his House that with a Bow-string he might strangle him after the manner of the Turks Mutes but that because he saw no way to escape if he had committed the Fact he abstained from attempting it The Ambassadours being startled at these things and daily fearing worse and not knowing how long they might stay nor what answer bring back they return without any effect of their Negotiation But great were the Disorders that this Affront occasioned and severe was the Revenge which the Parricides hatched in their Hearts being resolved that if the affairs in Scotland succeeded according to their wishes they would never rest nor sheath their Sword before they had forced by Arms the Conditions which by Ambassadours they could not obtain In the mean time they thought it enough at present to give out Letters of Reprisal and by other mens hands revenge the Injuries done to themselves and to make an Act that no Merchandise of what Country soever it were should be brought into England unless imported in English Bottoms by English Sea-men or fraighted by English Merchants Let us make a trip over to Sweden the Queen whereof had lately sent an Envoy to Compliment and Congratulate the Regicides To her therefore Whitlock is sent in a splendid Embassie to return the Honour and Compliment and also to make Peace with her to which she very willingly consented But the Queen being shorttly after removed or to use a softer expession having resigned the Crown the King of Sweden sends over a Reciprocal and no less Honourable Embassy by the Lord Christopher Bond a Senator of the Kingdom to Cromwell who then had the chief administration of the Government The Isles of Silly lay very convenient for molesting the Trade of the English There the Royalists cruising too and again with four or five small Vessels did no little hurt to the Regicides and would have done much more could they have been morgaged to the Dutch as it was commonly reported For plucking out of this Thorn great preparations are made at Plimouth not above fifteen Leagues distant from the Islands Where Blake and Popham having provided some small Vessels and Boats they take the opportunity and set Sail from thence in the night time with three hundred Souldiers besides Sea-men and having had a fair Wind next morning they come to the Land There are in all ten adjacent Islands divided only by narrow Passages of an Eddy Sea and on all sides secured by Shelves and Rocks In three hours time they take Threscoe and Briari with the loss of fifteen Men but of the Garrison a Boat being sunck about fourty were drowned one hundred and twenty made Prisoners and about fourty Guns taken which the Royalists out of two Friggats had planted upon the shoar The raging of the Sea appeasing the Fury of the Souldiers made for two days time a Cessation not unlike to a
the future as occasion did present Windram being sent into Scotland the Kings Answer is kindly received and joyful hopes of concord begin to shine out over the whole Nation The Kings Majesty in the mean time writes to Montross to whom he had formerly given a Commission to invade Scotland acquainting him with what the Scots had done what answer he had sent to them and that a Treaty was to be held at Breda for settling a Peace That he nevertheless should go on in levying Souldiers that he might with as many men as possibly he could make be ready in Scotland at the time that the Scots began their Treaty For so he doubted not but that they would insist upon easier terms when they perceived him in a readiness to revenge by Arms the injuries that might be offered to him Now his Majesty thought it fit to leave Jersey both because he had intelligence that the Rump-Parliament were preparing a Fleet for invading the Island and also that all things necessary might be in readiness against the time of the following Treaty In the mean time the convention of the Estates of Scotland consult about Proposals and the chusing of Commissioners to be sent to the King Where the Ministers forgetting all Modesty and Justice propose Conditions extreamly rigid difficult and impossible for qualifying and mitigating which the Lay-men bestir themselves and at length they ioyntly agree upon this That the Commissioners be the Earls of Cassils and Louthian the Lord Burleigh and Laird of Liberton Smith and Jeffreys to represent the Laity and Brodie Lawson and Wood the Clergy That the Proposals should be these That a Proclamation should be issued out prohibiting all Excommunicated Persons to come to Court That the King should bind himself by his Royal Promise under Hand and Seal to take the National Covenant and the Solemn League and Covenant of the three Kingdoms That he should besides ratifie all Acts of Parliament whereby the League and Covenant Presbyterian Government the Directory of Worship Confession of Faith and Catechism are enjoyned and that he should use the same in his own Family and not suffer them to be innovated or abolished by any Moreover that in all Civil Affairs he should govern according to the direction of Parliament and in Ecclesiasticals according to that of the Assembly of the Kirk These Proposals are after a Sermon were delivered by the Earl of Cassils at Breda The King asking if they had any more to say They answer Nothing and after if they were obliged by any engagement to be revenged on the Regicides They answer By none Whil'st his Majesty was consulting about these other Commissioners come to wit Murrey and the Earl of Carnwath with some few additions to the former Proposals as that His Majesty would forbid Montross and his Followers to enter the Kingdom and by his assent confirm the last Acts of Parliament And now it is time to relate the misfortune of Montross He being honoured with the Kings Commission uses all his endeavours amongst the Sweeds Danes Poles Germans and all the Northern Nations that being furnished and assisted with Men Money Arms and Provisions he might pass over into Scotland And without delay having for haste left behind King with a Body of Horse in Sweden who designed to follow him and Ogilbey also in Holland to gather the disbanded Souldiers of the Prince of Oranges Army who misapplied the Money designed for that purpose with fifteen hundred Arms furnished by the Queen of Sweden fuor Ships of which two were cast away upon the Rocks and four hundred raw Souldiers raised in a hurry he arrives at the Isles of Orkney and there having ioyned about a thousand of the Islanders most part Fishermen he set Sail and landed at the Wick of Cathness chearfully reflecting upon what he had done before and full of hopes that he should in a short time get together a considerable Army by the concourse of those who had heretofore been for the King But alas that hope deceived Montross The Nation was now of another mind being tired out and broken with the Wars their dangers over inclinable to Peace and restrained by the severities of the Covenanters The whole Country was in Arms so soon as they heard of his arrival The Parliament happened at that time to be sitting and not without the King's Command and had seven or eight thousand men under the Command of Lesly The Clans chose rather to have a Peace from any Masters than an uncertain one though more favourable and to enjoy with security rather an incommodious rest than with the danger of Fortune to endeavour a change by stirs Nay many who were even ready to lay down their lives for the King having now at length capitulated with the Parliament and promised obedience and submission think they cannot act contrary without a Crime Nevertheless he takes Dumbeath Castle with a resolute mind advances farther and expecting that the Earl of Seaforth would joyn him with two thousand Men whom he had raised for the King He hastens to possess himself of a narrow and difficult pass which being taken would facilitate their Conjunction But Straughan met him upon his march who was sent before by Lesly with three hundred choice Horse that he might watch his motion beat up his Quarters withstand his Progress intercept Men and Provisions that might be sent to his Camp and if a fair occasion offered not only Skirmish with him but put it to the hazzard of a Battel This Man perceiving them to be out of order weary and only Foot in an open and plain Champion falls suddenly in upon them and tries the fortune of War and with that success that the Souldiers of the Isles at once throwing away both their Arms and Courage betake themselves to flight The Germans in the mean time defending themselves until getting leave to depart they sailed over Seas All the Baggage was taken by Straughan and the Standard bearing the Figure of a Head cut off with this Motto Judica vindica causam Domine Judge and avenge the Cause O Lord. Montross fled and having changed his Cloaths with a certain High-lander for three or four days he lurked accompanied only with one Servant till being weakned and spent with Hunger and Fasting he trusted himself with the Laird of Aston who although he had formerly served under him yet having changed his Faith with his Fortune betrayed him to Leslie for a reward of two thousand pounds The Lord Freuderick Colonel Hurrie Francis Haye of Dalgetty another Haye of Naughton Sibbald Grey Spotswood and others were likewise taken by Straughan But Montross is made a subject of triumph when he was come within a Mile of Edinburrough is ordered to be bound by the Hangman in a Chair and planted backwards in a Cart that he might be seen of all the Executioner riding with his Cap on upon
place standing in the middle of the Forth leaving behind them sixteen piece of Cannon and Blackness Brantiland also on the other side of the Frith over against Leeth surrenders no less disgracefully delivering up the Guns Ammunition and Ships Cromwell being informed of these successes would not lose time by waiting the motions of the King's Army Wherefore he passed over to Brantiland whence sending Whaley to take in the smaller Garrisons which lay upon the Coast of Fiffe he himself marches towards St. Johnston which the King had entrusted to the defence of the Lord Duffus with twelve hundred men though to no purpose For Cromwell having drained the water out of the Mote and Ditches and battering the Walls with his Cannon forces a surrender of the place Cromwell being now at a great distance from Sterling and wholely taken up about these matters the King having given the best Orders he could about the Affairs of Scotland sets out upon his march into England that in that Kingdom of his he might try his fate which had been very cross to him in the other Therefore on the last of July one thousand six hundred fifty one at Carlisle he enters England with about fourteen thousand men Horse and Foot But the Soldiers march with so much hardship and so severe discipline that hardly any Age hath seen the like so that from Carlisle to Worcester about two hundred Miles distant from one another no man much less any house received the least injury if you 'l except the breaking of one Orchard and the taking of four or five Apples for which notwithstanding the Soldier that committed it was presently shot to Death In all places on their march the Garrisons are summoned in the Kings name to surrender but without any success And in the more eminent places by Heralds CHARLES the Second is proclaimed King of England Scotland France and Ireland the people in the mean while being in great Consternation So soon as the news of this expedition was by Post brought to the Rump-Parliament and the report flying that the King having mounted his Soldiers on Horses which he found upon the Rode hastened his March towards London as it is common to fear to make dangers far greater than they are such Horror and Consternation invaded the minds of the Parricides and Rebels that in despair they began to cast about for lurking holes and places of escape and accused Cromwell of rashness and precipitancy Until they had notice that the King had diverted to Worcester and received fresh comforts from Cromwell's Letters who bad them be of good cheer and use their utmost force to obviat that last danger and wholely destroy the Enemy Harrison on the left hand with three thousand Horse waited the motion of the King's Army being for that end left behind on the Borders of England after followed Lambert with two thousand both as occasion offered harassing and hindering them in their March At Warrington Bridge they made the chiefest attempt to hinder the King's Forces to pass it But before the Bridge could be cut Lambert's men being engaged and forced to retreat the Scots get over And now leaving London Rode they resolve to rest at Worcester a City scituated upon the Savern from whence they hoped to receive succours from Wales and make great levies in Glocester and Oxford shires by the means of Muffey who heretofore had with reputation been Governour of Glocester for the Parliament Thither therefore they march and having met with one repulse from some of the Paliament Souldiers that were there by chance they possess the City but were much weakened and impaired in strength by the tediousness and length of the march From hence the Kings Majesty by Letters invites the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London to Arm for his Defence and for their own just Liberties promising Pardon to all for what was past except the Murderers of his Father But these Letters are burnt at the Royal Exchange by the Hand of the Common Hangman a Copie of them is also burnt by the Hand of the Speaker Lental at a general Muster of the Trained-bands of London in Moor-fields The King presently after his arrival in Pitchford-field near Worcester by Proclamation Commands all from sixteen to sixty years of Age according to the Ancient Laws of the Kingdom to come to his Assistance In obedience to that Proclamation shortly after Francis Lord Talbot eldest Son of the Earl of Shreusbury with sixty Horse Thomas Hornihold with fourty John Mashburn with fourty John Parkinton Walter Blunt Ralph Clair and many more both Knights and Esquires besides two thousand common People come in this desperate State of Affairs to hazard their Lives in the Kings Service The conjunction of these makes in all fourteen thousand two thousand Scots either for fear or because of the tediousness of the March having dropt off by the way Why more did not come into the Kings Camp any Man may guess at the reason of it to wit That the late suppression of the Insurrection of the Welsh Londoners and Norfolk and Suffolk Men and the cruelty of the Rump-Parliament in punishing the fruitless attempts of rising run in all Peoples Minds Besides the sudden and unexpected coming of the King gave no truce to the well affected of animating one another and of associating for his Service Nor lastly could the injuries done by the Scots not long before in England be got out of the Minds of the English it seeming much the same to them whether they suffered Bondage under the Tyranny of their Countrey-men or the Insolence of the Scots And above all we are to consider the great diligence of the Republicans of both sorts in stirring up the Countries encreasing their Forces and in observing and suppressing those who were Loyal to the King Cromwell who left Monck in Scotland with Eight thousand Men to carry on his Victories there being now come back into England animates with new Vigour the Forces of the Rebel-Parricides and presently joyning his Men with Lambert Harrison Gray and Fleetwood and those who from all parts came flocking in partly voluntarily and partly by compulsion he made up an Army if some be not mistaken in their reckoning of fourscore thousand Men and more whom he posts round the City of Worcester But the brave though unfortunate attempts of the Earl of Derby which happened about that time are not to be past over in silence He with a small handful of two hundred and fifty Men from his own Isle of Man arrived at a little Town in Lancashire and in that Countrey raised almost fifâ—n hundred Men with whom he marches to â—chester there to joyn five hundred more bâ— to his misfortune he met with Lilburn a Colonel of the Rump-Parliament Forces with sixteen hundred Men. For coming presently to blow up the Town of Wigan after a smart conflict the
that they seemed rather to decline than promote the Determination of the Controversie by opposing this rapid Motion However he resolved to connive and allow them liberty to trade in England with an Indulgence of their Religion according to the Rites of Moses without any publick Examination going before or as it is usual amongst Catholicks coming yearly after and without teaching or catechising them But this Year was famous for the Actions of Mountague since Earl of Sandwich and of Blake For they with a Joynt-Commission commanding the Fleet whilst they were cruising upon the Coast of Spain without the Straits Mouth met with Eight great Spanish Ships whom Stainer presently engages with Three Frigats onely for the rest could not come up because of the Wind but with so much Bravery and Resolution he plied them with his Broadsides that within three or four Hours space he mastered them all one being sunk another burnt two escaping into Cadiz and two more forced ashore and broke to pieces wherein were lost Sixty thousand Wedges of Silver besides other rich Goods of vast Value However two of them fell into the hands of the Victorious with a great deal of Coyned Gold to the quantity of Six hundred thousand Pieces much Silver curiously-wrought Plate and other things of value together with two Sons of the Marquess de Baydexio Don Joseph de Savega and Don Francisco de Lopes the Marquess himself with his Lady and Daughter who was to be married to the Son of the Duke of Medina Sidonia being burnt The two Brothers that remained alive were by Cromwell discharged without any Ransom England now being sufficiently plagued by those petty Tyrants whom they called Major-Generals who as we said before began to be uneasie to all another Parliament is called but not after the ancient manner but onely made up of the Commoners or People Thirty being called out of Scotland and as many from Ireland Cromwell tampering with many and the Major Generals hindring the Elections and Votes of several that the House might not be filled with Republicans In the mean while no Man is suffered to enter the House till first he subscribed to the Authority of the Protector so that by that means most of the Republicans of either sort are excluded from sitting Sir Thomas Widdrington is chosen Speaker Many things passed here in favour of Cromwell as That it should be Treason to conspire his Death and That the Royal Family should be renounced Nor is it in this place to be omitted that about this time many things were publickly talked of to the prejudice of the King as That he was Consumptive and could not live long That he was also Melancholy and inclinable to a Monastick Life laying aside all desire of Government and that the Duke of York was a Professed Papist that by that means they might wheadle over the credulous and unwary to their Party by removing every thing that might curb and keep them in awe The Customs are renewed a vast Triennial Tax also imposed upon all Houses built upon new Foundations in London and witbin Ten miles round that every one of them should pay a years Rent At length at the Motion of a certain Citizen of London the Parliament resolves to give Cromwell the Title of King with most of the Ensigns of Royalty which he had already long ago usurped and many Members apply themselves to him beseeching him that he would vouchsafe to accept of it which he sometimes made a shew as if he would embrace but by and by again appeared doubtful and at length shifted it off I think it will not displease the Reader if I give in this place a short hint at the main Reasons whereby the Members of Parliament endeavoured to incline Cromwell to accept of the Title of King which inwardly he was most ambitious of though outwardly he affected a reluctancy This Affair was by the Parliament committed to the diligent management of six or seven of their number These Men urg'd That the name of King had always been in vogue from the very beginning in this Nation for the space of above thirteen hundred years that the Person of the King had sometime displeased the People but that the Title was never before abrogated that moreover the same was fitted to our Laws and the Humour of the People and approved not onely by the Votes of the preceding but of this present Prarliament also Cromwell answers That these were persuasive but no cogent Arguments that the Title of Protector might be adapted to the Laws that Providence was against them which hath now altered the Name and that he could not without a Crime displease so many Godly and Religious Men. But the Commissioners reply That the Title ought to be fitted to the Laws not the Laws to Titles nay that the Innovation of Titles is suspected as a Cloak for Vnderhand Tyranny and that the disadvantages of such a kind of change are never felt in in the same Age for which very Reason when King James came to the Crown of this Kingdom the Parliament would not give way that in his Title instead of England and Scotland he should insert Great Britain That by refusing the Title of King he does not derogate so much from himself as from the Nation whose Honour it is to be governed by a King That the supreme Magistrate was never designed by the Name of Protector unless for a time during the Nonage of the King for the Administration of the Government and a Title for the most part unfortunate That that Name at present having its Original from the Souldiers sounded Victory and might be lawfully rescinded by another Parliament That the Title of King being once abolished the Government would become mutable and unsafe not durable if the Foundation tottered that in the space of five years it had been three or four times altered and was yet as wavering as heretofore the alteration of Title was ominous to the Roman People who neither could endure the Name of Prince nor of Perpetual Dictator nor of the Prince of the Senate till at length the Pleasure of Caesar went for Law But the strongest Argument of all was The Statutes of the Ninth of Edward the Fourth and of the Third of Henry the Seventh wherein it was enacted That no Man carrying Arms though unjustly for the King in being shall be punished for it and that in the late Wars more trusting to that Law were in Arms for the King than of those who loved his Cause That as to Providence it was no less conspicuous in changing the Government again into Monarchy for avoiding confusion and quelling a tumultuous People than in changing the Name of a Monarch into that of Protector That lastly Good and Godly Men would submit to a Decree of Parliament though perhaps they might seem to differ in private A great deal of time is spent betwixt Cromwell and the Committee in
famous Colonel Knight received the Salutations and Respects of the Forces in their Arms and having praised them for their dutifulness and affection proceeded forwards the people strewing Flowers and Leaves of Trees in the way and in all places offering him the choicest marks of their Honour When he was come near the City the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London welcomed him upon their knees The Mayor delivered his Majesty the Sword the Badge of his Dignity which the King graciously gave him back again and being conducted into a large and richly-adorned Pavillion was entertained at a splendid Collation From thence with a magnificent train of Persons of all quality over London-bridge he entered the City amidst such a glorious appearance of brave and great men that scarcely in any Age the triumphal Bridge of Rome ever bore a greater Pomp or victorious Tyber saw or Euphrates of old or the yet more ancient Tygris Along the Streets from London-bridge to White-hall on the one side in a continued order the Trained-bands of the City were drawn up and on the other the Companies in their Livery-gowns the houses on each side being hung with Tapistry The tops of the houses and windows were filled with vast multitudes of Spectators the People from all places flocking to this glorious and joyful Show There were no less than twenty thousand richly attired on horseback The first that led the Cavalcade were some Troops of young Gentlemen in a various most rich dress and shining Arms with Trumpets sounding before them The Sheriffs of London's men with their Spears followed after next after whom marched six hundred of the chief Citizens in Velvet-coats and Gold-chains Then followed the Kings Horse-guards led by the Lord Gerrard their Captain With the chearful musick of Drums Trumpets and Waits next advanced the Sheriffs and Aldermen of London in their Scarlet-gowns and their Horses richly deckt with Trapings their Footmen attending them shining with Gold and Silver Then followed the Kings of Arms and Heralds in their rich Coats and next to them the Lord Mayor carrying in his right hand the naked Sword and after him the Illustrious Duke of Buckingham and the renowned General Monk And now appeared Charles the Wishes of all good men and the Joys of the happy conspicuous in a triumphant Majesty On the right hand rode the Duke of York on the left the Duke of Gloucester he himself on a stately horse in the middle carrying all Triumphs and Diadems in his looks which seemed then more than humane After his Majesty came his chief Courtiers and Servants General Monk's Life-guard commanded by Sir Philip Howard and then five Regiments of Horse of Monk's Army led by Colonel Knight This Triumphal Procession was brought up by a vast body of Noblemen and Gentlemen with red Colours fringed with Gold in rich Attire shining Arms their Swords drawn and Plumes of Feather in their Hats In this order the King marched slowly through the City amidst the shouts acclamations and joyful looks of his Subjects which he triumphantly heard and beheld And now entring his Royal Palace he mounted the Throne of his Forefathers on the twenty ninth of May heretofore the day of his Birth and now of his Restauration after he had been since Worcester-fight ten years banished his Country The Members of both Houses of Parliament came to wait on his Majesty in the Banquetting-house there to express their joyful Congratulations for his Return and unfeigned Loyalty to the Government which was eloquently done by the Earl of Manchester for the House of Lords and Sir Harbotle Grimstone for the Commons The King tired out with the Fatigues of his triumphant Journey made them this short Answer I Am so disordered by my Journey and with the noise still sounding in my ears which I confess was pleasing to me because it expressed the Affections of my People as I am unfit at the present to make such a Reply as I desire yet thus much I shall say unto you That I take no greater satisfaction to my self in this my Change than that I find my heart really set to endeavour by all means for the restoring of this Nation to their Freedom and Happiness and I hope by the advice of my Parliament to assert it Of this also you may be confident That next to the honour of God from whom principally I shall ever own this Restauration to my Crown I shall study the welfare of my People and shall not onely be a true Defender of the Faith but a just Assertor of the Laws and Liberties of my Subjects The night following was consecrated to Joy The Conduits running Wine and the whole City lighted by Bonfires The loyal Citizens willing to lull asleep the memory of twenty years Calamities merrily spent the night in the noise of Trumpets Drums and Volleys of shot The providence of God Almighty never appeared more visible in humane affairs for now the Golden Age returns a Happiness too good for our times the blessed day shone forth wherein King Charles being restored to his Country restored his Country to it self and united Liberty and Monarchy two things thought incompatible under the traiterous Usurpers The honour of the Laws which makes all things firm and durable returned The splendour of the Church of England and the ancient Rites of Worship also returned Piety coming in place of Sectarian Superstition The King having tasted a little of the delights of his Return seriously set about the setling of the State entangl'd with so many Civil Dissentions and rent by Divisions and in the first place appointed a Privy-Council and disposed of the chief places of his Kingdom and Court The King makes the most Illustrious James Duke of York Lord High Admiral a Prince renowned at home and abroad and crowned with many Victories Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon was made Lord Chancellor in Eloquence not inferiour to the most famed Orators nor in Prudence to the greatest Statesmen The uncorrupted Earl of Southampton with Honour and Integrity discharged the Office of Lord High Treasurer The Illustrious charge of Steward of the Kings Houshold was conferred upon the Duke of Ormond a Peer of a steddy Judgment of the Honesty of elder times and renowned both in Peace and War The Earl of Manchester whose Loyalty had been proved was created Lord Chamberlain of the House Nicholas and Morrice two aged Knights and consummated in business were the Principal Secretaries of State Monk the Restorer formerly by the Kings Commission made General of all the British Forces is now advanced to be Master of the Horse and honoured with the Illustrious Title of Duke of Albemarle For his noble Extraction gave him a claim to the Honour of the Albemarlian Family and the bounty of the King in rewarding his good Services an Estate to support it Nor was the most Religious King less careful of the
Church Those Bishops who had survived the fury of the Hereticks he restored to their Sees and chose others conspicuous for Primitive Piety Learning and a good Life in place of those that were dead who with the same Piety and Humility that they had suffered the Reproaches of Sectarians and born the Calamities of a Civil War now in their old age carried the Miter and governed the Church of God The King made Juxon Archbishop of Canterbury and primate of all England a Prelate of Primitive Piety venerable both in his books and words heretofore Confessor to Charles the Martyr and his Assistent to the last whilst amidst the fury and reproaches of bloudy Traytors he took his leave of this world Et nullo gemitu consensit ad ictum Despexitque nefas When without sighing he received that Blow And bravely scorn'd the Villanies below And now it was no small comfort to many that they to whom the Parricides had formerly been liberal were as poor as those whom they had robbed but it was fit that Clemency should usher in the new Administration of the Government and therefore Charles imitating God Almighty in mercifulness past in Parliament an Act of Indemnity and Oblivion for all his Subjects except those who had embrewed their hands in his Fathers Bloud the rest of the guilty Rebels being wonderfully pardoned but whether with greater Policy or Mercy let Posterity judge The King now secure in his own Majesty and the Loyalty of his Subjects resolved to disband the Army which for so many years had been the Burden and Grievance of the Nation for the paying of which a Tax by way of Poll was imposed on every head in England The Souldiers had also a Donative bestowed upon them and many of the Officers were rewarded according to their merit Amidst the Joys wherewith the first three months of his Majesties government was blessed Henry Duke of Gloucester fell sick and was fatally too soon snatched out of this world by the Small Pox so much the more lamented by the King his Brother and by the Kingdom that at twenty years of age he had given such sublime proofs of his Princely Accomplishments And this alone may seem an Eclipse of the Glory of Charles that almost in his own triumph he beheld the Funeral of his dear Brother Manibus date Lilia plenis Purpureos spargam flores Bring plenty of white Lillies to his Herse Whilst sad there the purple Rose disperse The affairs of England being setled Scotland and Ireland were to be taken care of The King therefore appointed Privy-Councils of the most Loyal Subjects of both Kingdoms to manage the Government till he might advise about calling a Parliament in Scotland and sending over a Lord Lieutenant into Ireland After the dutiful Addresses of his Subjects at home the neighbouring Kings of France Sweden Denmark and many Princes of Germany by honourable Embassies congratulate the Kings happy Restauration all which were outdone by the pompous and splendid train of the Prince Ligny Embassadour from the Catholick King And now it was time to bring the Murderers of Charles the Martyr to their Tryals many of whom were before clapt up in Prison others fled away secretly and wandered in foraign and distant Countries and some trusting to the hopes of a Pardon obeyed the Kings Proclamation and freely surrendred themselves Therefore on the tenth of October Harrison Carew Clements Jones Scot and Scroop who had been of the number of the Judges that condemned the King Cooke Attorney-General the famous infamous Peters Chaplain to the Traytors Axiell and Hacker Commanders of the Guards were brought to the Bar not before an accursed and new-made High Court of Justice but according to the ancient Laws of the Kingdom before the chief Justices and the rest of the Kings Justices to be tryed by a Jury of Twelve men after the usual manner of England They were chiefly charged by the Attorney-General and the Kings Council That they the aforesaid Traytors and others guilty of High-Treason conspiring with an accursed Army of Fanaticks had carried away to Prison King Charles securely treating a Peace with the two Houses of Parliament which was almost concluded in the Isle of Wight So that the House of Lords being abrogated and the founder Members of the Commons six and forty Villains that remained took to themselves the name of a Parliament invaded the Government and decreed to bring the King to a Tryal By whose authority these Parricides an High Court of Justice being impudently constituted had condemned and caused to be put to death the King of England who was above the Laws contrary to the will and to the great grief of the People To their Indictment rightly laid and fully proved having made many false and frivolous Answers concerning the supreme authority of the Parliament which indeed in this case had no authority at all they were by the Verdict of a Jury of Twelve men found guilty of and condemned for High-Treason The same Verdict past also upon nineteen other of the Kings Judges but with a different event as shall be mentioned in the proper place On the third of October a Gibbet was set up at Charing-cross near Whitehall whither in the morning Harrison being brought the first of the surviving Regicides both in guilt and punishment with the same madness and obstinacy as he had behaved himself at his tryal the cruel Traytor affecting an undauntedness at his death was hang'd and quarter'd as he well deserved CAROLE tuis jam Victima mittitur umbris Nec satis hoc fortuna putat procul absit ut ista Vindictae sit summa tui Great CHARLES a Victim to thy Ghost does fall And yet thy Fates are not appeas'd no all That just Revenge is not yet paid that shall Harrison rather of a base than low Birth was the Son of a Butcher bred at first a Pettifogging Country-Attorney but in the heat of the Civil Wars when the onely way to get into Power was Fanaticism and Treason he fled to the Rebellious Army and there turning a furious Anabaptist and advanced to be a Colonel he grew very intimate with Cromwel and his Competitor in Villany But being a proud and haughty fellow and a most desperate Republican he fell out and was highly displeased with Oliver when he was made Protector not that he hated the Tyrant Cromwel but disdained to be outstripped and to submit to one who from a fellow-Souldier was become his Prince Carew came next and suffered the like death but his Relations who had served the King in the Wars obtained as a mark of favour the liberty of burying his body which was the same night obscurely performed The day following Cook and Peters in the same place suffered the same punishment where Peters by a drunken and base death disgraced his infamous life Cook was an obscure ragged beggarly Lawyer and ambitious to get a
for the deceased or sung their Praises in hanging Elegies his Poetry surpassing his Oratory especially when he treated of such monstrous subjects Strangers may perhaps wonder and no less our Posterity at home that such base and contemptible fellows many of them Brewers others who drank as they had brewed and spent their Estates and some again whose ignominious Poverty was a scandal to the Nation should overturn the flourishing state of England and get to the top of Authority and Government Would we know the cause of it These were the Spoils and these the Trophies of Heresie which taking its rise from the Sermonizing Presbyterian Ministers increased by the Independants hurried on by the Kennel of all the Sectarians and by a kind of flying Contagion spread over all the Forces could not be stopt till they had shed the Royal Bloud subverted the Parliament and made one ruinous heap of all good Subjects Some time before September the twenty third the Princess of Orange was come into her Native Country more fatal to her than a foreign Land to congratulate his Majesties return but falling sick of the Small Pox at London on Christmas-Eve she died being snatched away amidst the Triumphs and fresh Lawrels of her Brother Charles she onely shared in the adverse fortune of her Family and renewed the Mourning wherein the Court still was for the untimely death of the Duke of Gloucester I shall begin the year with the Solemnities of the Coronation of King Charles On the two and twentieth of May the King from the Tower of London as the custom is at the Coronation of our Kings passed through the City where in honour of so great a Solemnity the Citizens of London in the more eminent places of the streets erected four Triumphal Arches of a vast height and bigness elaborate Pieces of Art and exquisite Engines of Pomp bearing Inscriptions and Devices and adorned with Painting and gilding The first Arch bore in its Frontispice the Triumph of Charles upon his return To CHARLES the II. By the grace of G. K. of G. Brit. To the Best and Greatest And ever most Venerable Ever most August The most Happy most Pious Who was born for our Good Who of his Native Britain And of Mankind in general Has deserved most To the Father of our Country The Extinguisher of Tyranny The Restorer of our Liberty The Founder of our Quiet In memory of his happy And long-desired Restitution We Willingly and Joyfully Have placed this S. P. Q. L. CAROLO II. D. G. Britanniarum Imp. Optim Maxim Vbique Venerando Semper Aug. Beatissimo Piissimo Bono Reip. Nato De Avitâ Britan. De omnium Hominum genere Meritissimo P. P. Extinctori Tyrannidis Restitutori Libertatis Fundatori Quietis Ob Faelicem Reditum Ex voto L. M. P. S. P. Q. L. The second being a Naval bore this Inscription To the British Neptune CHARLES the II. By whose Authority The Sea Is free or restrain'd NEPTVNO Britannico CAROLO II. Cujus Arbitrio Mare Vel Liberum vel Clausum The third placed in the middle of the City represented the Temple of Concord with this Inscription The Temple of CONCORD Erected in honour of the best of Princes By whose return The British Sea and Land being appeas'd and By its ancient Laws reform'd He has restored Enlarged and adorned it S. P. Q. L. Aedem CONCORDIAE In Honorem Optimi Principis Cujus Adventu Britannia Terrâ Marique Pacata Et Priscis Legibus Reformata est Ampliorem Splendidioremque Restituit S. P. Q. L. The last exhibited the Garden of Plenty and Cornucopia's with the Statues of Bacâ—bus Ceres Flora and Pomana with this Inscription To Plenty and to Augustus The fire of Civil War Being Extinguished And the Temple of War shut This Lofty Altar Was built by the S. A. P. O. L. VBERTATI Aug. Extincto Belli Civilis Incendio Clausoque Jani Templo Aram Celsiss Construxit S. P. Q. L. Under all these the King rode on horse-back streight to his Palace in a triumphant manner with Trumpets Musick and the joyful Acclamations of the People being attended by the Nobility his Majesties Ministers and Servants the Heralds Kings at Arms the Kings Judges and Knights of the Bath The solemnity of this day though it was not so great in the number of Attendents yet in richness and splendour of Cloaths and Arms it surpassed the triumphant Entry of the King upon his return Next morning the King was in great pomp conducted to Westminster-Abbey where in his Imperial Robes the Prelates in their Myters and the Nobles in their Parliament-Robes conducted him to his Throne and the Archbishop of Canterbury anointed him with the sacred Oyl Afterwards all the ancient and usual Ceremonies upon such occasions were performed ¶ The Author of this History designing the utmost brevity hath not mentioned any of these Ceremonies but Mr. Philips in his Continuation of Dr. Richard Baker's Chronicle has very exactly set forth all the Rituals then used but hath omitted the Coronation-Oath and onely given an Epitom of it and there having of late years been strange Pretences raised upon the account of this Oath it is thought fit to insert the same here from Mr. Sanderson's History of Charles the First with that variety of Circumstances which were used in the Coronation here mentioned expressed by Mr. Philips Coronation-Oath SIR said the Bishop of London will you grant and keep and by your Oath confirm to the People of England the Laws and Customs to them granted by the Kings of England your Lawful and Religious Predecessors and namely the Laws Customs and Franchises granted to the Clergie by the Glorious King St. Edward your Predecessor according to the Laws of God the true Profession of the Gospel established in this Kingdom agreeable to the Prerogative of the Kings thereof and the ancient Customs of the Realm The King's Answer I grant and promise to keep them Bishop Sir Will you keep Peace and goodly Agreement according to your power both to God the holy Church the Clergie and the People King I will keep it Bishop Sir Will you to your power cause Law Justice and Discretion with Mercy and Truth to be executed to your Judgment King I will Bishop Sir Will you grant to hold and keep the Laws and rightful Customs which the Commonalty of this Kingdom have and will you defend and uphold them to the honour of God so much as in you lieth King I grant and promise so to do Then the Bishop of Rochester read this Admonition to the King before the People with a loud voice Our Lord and King we beseech you to pardon and to grant and to preserve unto us and to the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and do Law and Justice and that you would protect and defend us as every good King to his Kingdoms ought to be Protector and Defender of the Bishops and the
Churches under their government The King answered With a willing and devout heart I promise and grant my Pardon and that I will preserve and maintain to you and the Churches committed to your charge all Canonical Priviledges and due Law and Justice and that I will be your Protector and Defender to my power by the assistance of God as every good King in his Kingdom in right ought to protect and defend the Bishops and Churches under their government Then the King arose and was led by the Bishops of Duresme and Bath and Wells to the Communion-Table where he made a solemn Oath in sight of all the People to observe the Premises and laying his hand upon the Bible said The OATH The things which I have here promised I shall perform and keep So help me God and the Contents of this Book On the eighth of May a new Parliament met which continued many years Since the year before the Regicides had been brought to condign punishment the three Estates of Parliament now condemned to the flames the Solemn League and Covenant the Bond of the English and Scottish Conspiracy and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Villany The same was done by the Parliament of Scotland and Ireland and that which had raised a Civil Combustion and propagated the same all over Britain and Ireland is now burnt by the hand of the Hangman and by its own ashes expiated at length the wickedness of three Nations This year was concluded or the new begun by the further punishment of Regicides For by Order of Parliament Mouson an upstart Lord Sir Henry Mildmay heretofore Keeper of the Jewels to the late King and therefore the more criminal and Robert Wallop on the seven and twentieth of January the day whereon the blessed King had been condemned were in Hurdles with Halters about their necks dragged to Tyburn and back again to Town being sentenced to perpetual imprisonment It was sufficiently made out that they had been Members of that execrable High Court of Justice but because they had not signed the Warrant for the Kings execution they were onely punished by Bonds and Imprisonment Hazelrigg in the mean time one of the bitterest of all the Traytors being sentenced to the same punishment pined away with anger and grief and unable to bare his disgrace prevented the dishonour and his captivity by a timely death in the Tower of London The same punishment was inflicted upon the Traytors who as we said before came in upon the Kings Proclamation For being brought to the Bar because waving all defence they humbly acknowledged their Crime and that they were a Crew most part of them of silly seduced Rascals drawn in either by the arts or threatnings of Cromwel they redeemed their necks from the Gallows which they had so often deserved by a perpetual imprisonment to which being closely confined they lived to see their Villany punished by Infamy But fortune was more favourable to the Traytors that came in at home than to those who fled abroad for about that time Sir George Downing being Embassadour in Holland had intelligence that three of the Fugitive Regicides Barkstead Okey and Corbet being come back out of Germany lurked in Delf He therefore having obtained a Warrant from the States General seized them and sent them over to England where being brought to a tryal they were condemned for High-Treason and April the nineteenth executed at Tyburn They went all to death with a fanatical ostentation of Piety But Barkstead and Corbet approaching to their end after many ugly delays and cups of Strong-waters unwillingly put their trembling necks into the Halter which quickly put an end to the Wretches half dead already for fear But Okey being a man of an undaunted mind and making use of his courage to the last went off with the bravoury of a Souldier and not undecently had he so died for his Country Corbet was heretofore an inspired prating Lawyer more skilful in the Principles of Fanaticks than in the Laws he got to be a Member of that long and black Parliament and no man was more professedly an implacable Enemy to the King The low extraction of Okey is buried in obscurity Being a Tallow-chandler in London and weary of his poor condition he followed the profitable Wars of the Parliament where his daringness advanced him to the place of a Colonel and at length to be one of the chief Judges in trying and sentencing the King Barkstead was heretofore a whifling Goldsmith in London and had raised himself upon the Ruines of his Country But those who knew the cunning of Oliver in chusing his Magistrates wondered that he preferred so silly and idle a fellow even to be a Colonel and Lieutenant of the Tower of London besides other Offices But that kind of stupid fierceness was more useful to Cromwel than the cunninger knavery of others for the Tyrant himself for the most part looked another way and commanded the Villanies which he would not behold so that this fellow no doubt was privy to the furious Councils of Cromwel and a trusty Minister of his Protectoral Cruelty And so long as he was chief Jaylor to Oliver the barbarous Villain was never startled at the sight of the Murders and Imprisonments of so many Nobles and worthy Subjects His head was set upon a Gate of the Tower whereof heretofore he had been Governour that upon the same Stage where he acted his greatest Crimes he might suffer his greatest Punishment The first Prodigy of the Regicides was their matchless impudence in putting to death the King and their next their obstinacy to the last For when they had murdered the best of Kings to the shame of Christianity the infamy of the Reformation and the universal reproach and malediction of Fanatick Zeal these godly Regicides were ashamed when Treason stuck in their breasts to confess their hypocritical pretending Religion even at the last gasp Nay their Godliness made them so impudent as rather to know themselves guilty and deny it to save their reputation amongst their Brethren than humbly and modestly to acknowledge their Crimes The Authority of Parliament was the onely thing that all of them alleadged to justifie their Parricide as if a Gang of fifty Robbers who had so often violated that Authority had been worthy of that name when there was neither the colour nor resemblance of a House of Commons left Nec color Imperii nec frons fuit illa Senatûs But since they could live no longer to do mischief their whole care was at their death to harden the minds of their Party by a fanatical assertation of dying good men when it was rather the highest Judgment of an offended God to let them fill up the Cup of their bold Indignities by a desperate end It was time now for the King who was a Batchelour to think of Marriage that he might leave a Posterity for the future
security of his Kingdom and therefore communicating his intentions to the Parliament he addressed himself to the most Illustrious Catharine Daughter of Portugal descended from the ancient Race of the Family of Braganza with the universal Applause and Congratulation of the Estates And a Fleet was sent to Portugal to bring over the Royal Bride who having had a favourable passage to the English Coast was by his Royal Highness the Duke of York met and saluted with Naval Solemnities at the Isle of Wight The King received his Bride at Portsmouth and was with great Solemnity in presence of many Nobles there married the Office of Matrimony having been performed by Gilbert Sheldon Bishop of London The King from thence conducted his Royal Consort to Whitehall where after the reiterated festivity of the Royal Nuptials the dutiful Complements of the Great men and the Presents of the Lord Mayor and chief Citizens of London slighting the wanton Pleasures of a Court by the innocence of her Manners and an exemplary Piety of Life she consecrated the trancient Delights of a Palace to the severer Sanctity of a Monastery A Queen that wanted nothing to render her self and us happy had she been as fruitful as good On the second of June the last of the Traytors Sir Henry Vane after a two years imprisonment is brought at length to the Bar where after he had defended himself by shifts and strained querks of Law rather than by any colourable Plea he is found guilty of High-Treason The first advance he made in the career of his Villany was in the death of the Earl of Strafford afterwards being a great Incendiary in the Civil Wars and equally ungrateful and perfidious to Charles the Martyr he cherished and strengthened the Party of the Traytors and though more cautiously than innocently he was not present at the Condemnation of the King yet after the Murder of Charles he was very active in changing the Monarchy into a Commonwealth and in abolishing for ever the Government of Kings But at length when Cromwel got into the Supreme Power being ill-affected and envious against all Government by a single Person he was neglected and laid aside But when the Rump came again into play with the pretences of a Brutus or Cassius he stept again to the Helm of Government and was one of the Committee of Safety He was as to Religion a man of an inconstant and unsetled mind who professedly hating the name of a King was treacherous to Charles the First and envious to Charles the Second January the fourteenth being brought to a Scaffold on Tower-hill with a most affected shew of a composed and sedate mind as the rest of the Traytors had already done he insisted upon the Supreme Authority of Parliament and spake much of the Presbyterian Covenant the Engine of all our Evils which heretofore when he was a far more refined Heretick he had so often despised and laughed at And whilst he still persisted in asserting his own innocence not without reproaching his Judges Sir John Robinson Lieutenant of the Tower wanting patience to hear any more interrupted him Being vexed at this like a mad man he tore the written Speech that he had in his hand and though he had never shew'd great resolution amongst his Party yet resolutely or rather ragingly he submitted to the blow of the Executioner and fell a Sacrifice to the Ghost of the Great Strafford and to the Subverted Monarchy But Lambert who stood indicted with Vane had better luck and behaved himself with so much modesty in his looks and words at his tryal that though he suffered the Sentence of Death as deserving the utmost Rigour yet he tasted the Kings Mercy and ransomed his Life by a perpetual Imprisonment About the middle of Summer the Duke of Ormond went over to Ireland as Lord Deputy of that Kingdom there to give as great instances of Civil Prudence as heretofore he had erected Trophies of Military Glory during the Irish War The Parliament now sitting the Convocation of the Clergie sate also and the Licentiousness of Fanatical Sects increasing made the distressed Church look to the King and Parliament for relief It was therefore enacted by the King in Parliament That the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper and the publick Prayers and Liturgie of the Church should be celebrated after the ancient manner of the Reformed Church of England the Fanaticks on all hands crying out against it and refusing to conform For though they enjoyed Impunity with the rewards of their Crimes yet no gracious condescensions of the King could oblige them The Clemency of the Prince was maliciously interpreted by the Sects and the Power of this indulging Monarch was grievous to these Fanaticks Nor had the King granted so much to Traytors but that they still thought they might take to themselves more and the brazen-faced Sectarists demand of the Son the same liberty of Religion which had undone the Father And without any respect or reverence to Majesty and the Laws frequent Conventicles of seditious men were kept Meetings were to be found everywere in Towns and Villages and the Insolence of the Rabble growing greater by the boldness of their Preachers and the Lenity of the King there was nothing but a mustering of Parties boasting of strength and polling of heads amongst the Factious all which seemed to threaten imminent Dangers The year before the Fifth-monarchy-men under Venner raised the first Stirs amongst the Preaching Rout but their Fury like the thundering Rage of Marius of old was confined within the City and there expired the fiercest of the Traytors being killed upon the spot and others at length brought to the Gallows But this year a darker and therefore more dangerous Conspiracy was hatched the same being the cause of this as of all other Plots to wit a loose and obstinate licentiousness in Religion Many of all Sects were concerned in it several Officers of Cromwel's late disbanded Army Members of the late Rump-Parliament and many who were turned out of the Kings and Churches Lands which they had heretofore sacrilegiously purchased And a secret Committee at London had the direction of all their Councils and Actings The chief designe of their Villany was to kill the King and Duke of York murder the Duke of Albemarle set fire to the City seize the Tower of London rifle the Exchequer and through the Bowels of the Nation drive on a new Fanatical Government In the mean time to make way to the bold Attempts of these Rascals it was resolved that impudent Libels should be scattered about but the Papers being seized at the Press the Printer was hanged and payed dear for his officious medling But the licentiousness and boldness of the Conventiclers growing greater and greater daily the Parl. made an Act to put a stop to the seditiousness of the People commanding the doors of the Meeting-houses to be
the King who on the first of February returned from Oxford to London where the Bonfires during the night expressed the hearty Joys of the People glad to see their Prince and that he saw the City now again in health Neighbouring Nations as yet looked at a distance upon the bloudy War betwixt the English and Dutch But Louis the French King powerful in men and money after he had for some time stood neutral thought and hoped that the Dutch and we having mutually weakened and tired our selves out in War he might have a fair opportunity to raise his power at Sea though the genius of that Nation seems not to be cut out for that profession He therefore smoothed up the Dutch with promises of assisting them with his Fleet being willing that they should have the dominion over the Seas whom he intended to conquer by Land and thereupon declared War against the English which was reciprocally proclaimed in London against the French In the same condition we stood with Denmark that the triumphs of Charles might be the larger Now besides the Dutch our Rivals at Sea the English Valour alone as yet unshaken resisted the threatning French and Denmark then alied with Holland as was equal to them all The affairs of England never succeeded better at Sea than under the auspicious conduct of his Royal Highness James Duke of York who always prefered the welfare of his Country before his own life yet he was dearer to the King and Kingdom being the second hopes of Britain than that his Princely person born to the highest Honours should be any more exposed to so mean and base an Enemy Therefore in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty six Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle were pitched upon for the command of the Royal Navy who going on board equal in Power and Concord they put to Sea with a Fleet well appointed for War but presently after Prince Rupert by Letters from the Privy-Council has orders sent him in all haste with twenty good Frigats of the Fleet and others lying at Portsmouth to stand over for the Coast of France and hinder the French Fleet from joyning the Dutch I would to God it had not been judged of such an importance to make so great an effort to hinder the coming up of an Enemy who would not have much injured us nor assisted their Friends nor was there any thing to be feared from the French Fleet after the late overthrow of the Dutch But they laying hold of the opportunity of the English Fleet being divided and never fighting but by wiles and upon the advantage of number with fourscore and five Men of War attack the Royal Navy now much diminished in number With Albemarle there were not above fifty Frigats but he being a General without fear unacquainted with flight and judging nothing too hard for his fortune despised the Enemy which so far surpassed him as if they had been inferiour to him in number so confident a thing is Courage and preferring Glory before Safety on the first of June the day being pretty far advanced he drew up his Fleet and bravely engaged the Dutch Here number strove with Valour but the Sea being rough the English could not then use their lower tire of Guns which never failed to shatter and tear their Enemies Albemarle did great actions in this Engagement and everywhere behaved himself bravely being fearless amidst the thickest dangers and bold to admiration for bearing down with his own Ship upon the Enemies main Fleet he broke quite through them furiously firing on both sides till at length having given and received great loss and being disabled in his Masts Sails and Rigging he bore off Part of the Royal Fleet defended the Duke whilst he refitted his Ship and the rest continued obstinate in the Engagement till they were parted by the night In this Engagement four Dutch Ships were burnt and a Vice-Admiral and another of a less value sunk And the Dutch took three English Ships who being separated from the rest of the Fleet were engaged at a distance The Royal Fleet in the mean time suffered most in their Rigging and Tackle but all things by the diligence of the Sea-men being repaired in the night-time next morning the second of June Albemarle having called the Commanders to a Council of War on board his own Ship spake to them to this purpose HAd we been afraid of the double number of the Enemy we should have ran for it yesterday but though we be inferiour to them in Ships in all things else we have the better on 't Number made the Dutch bold and Courage us let us reflect upon that Fortune upon that Valour which heretofore the Dutch have felt to their woful experience we have the same Enemy to deal with whom we have so often beaten and made it our custom so often to overcome Let our Adversaries find to day that though our Fleet be divided our Courage is entire and when we consider our own Glory and ancient Renown how much more honourable will it be to die not unrevenged upon the Seas than to be carried Prisoners in our own Ships as a Spectacle of Triumph to the Dutch It is less disgrace to be overcome than to flie and Death is to be preferred before Fear The Fleet thus encouraged equally despising their own safety and their too numerous Enemy and being eager to retrieve their Honour all desire an Engagement and Albemarle confident in his own Valour and in the eagerness of his Souldiers declined not the Fight so that both Fleets fell to it afresh and engaged Pell-mell The English whose courage is redoubled by danger put the Enemy hard to it though they had had a fresh supply of Ships Men and Ammunition from Holland The Royal Fleet being incompassed by so many Dutch Ships had nothing else to trust to but to fight stoutly and make way for themselves in the best manner they could till at length many of the English Ships being disabled in their Sails and Rigging stood away and left the rest to deal with and maul the Enemy The Dutch sunk one Ship of the Royal Fleet and we our selves destroyed another that could not be brought off The Dutch in the mean time had but one Vice-Admiral Ship burnt and in this days Engagement with so numerous an Enemy it was a harder thing for us to keep our selves from being beaten than it was many times heretofore to have overcome them But after that with more than humane force and courage they had asserted their own Honour and the Glory of Britain lest they might make that Engagement which the resolution of the English had rendred famous by an inconsiderate boldness to be thought rash it was next day resolved in a Council of War to send off first the disabled Ships draw up the rest that were in a condition of fighting which were not above sixteen to make head
Parl. should adhere The flight of the Members of Parl. is approved The Rebels having got the power into their hands forget the K. some being for an Oligarchy and others for Democraty All conspire against Monarchy and the K. Whose murder they plot some privately Others by a Council of War Some under pretext of a Parliamentary Authority To which they make way gradually sending Propositions to the K. with a pretence of peace but in reality to find a cause of accusing him Which though the Commanders of the Army had procured in Parl. yet in the Camp they perswade the K. not to condescend to them The K. makes answer to the Parl. proposals Appeals to the Demands of the Army as more conducing to peace Where at Cromwel and the Commanders seem to rejoyce But from thence labour to incense the rest of the Members against him They juggle with the K. putting him by turns in hope and fear At which his Majesty being moved makes his escape to the Isle of Wight From thence he speedily writes to the Parl. sending also Concessions Vpon which he demands a Treaty with the Parl. Thus the Rebels oppose and take occasion of asking Demands preliminary to the Treaty Which the Scots oppose both in Parl. and before the King The King answers Is confined to close imprisonment The Oligarchick Commanders reduce the Democraticks to order and restore Military Discipline They openly rail against the King And pass a Vote of none Addresses to the King But surreptitiously in the Lower House By force and threats in the Vpper House Cromwel excuses himself of perfidiousness They publish a Declaration Which they stuff with all the Calumnies they can against the King They command it to be read publickly by the Ministers in all Parish-Churches And sooth them with promises that they may commâ—nd it in their sermons They endeavour by their Emissaries to procure gratulatory Petitions The K. Majesty is justified by many Apologies The Parsons coldly execute their orders very few congratulate All the people grumble and fret Many petition for a personal Treaty with the King The Rebels in vain opposing it ☜ First were the Essex-men Next those of Surrey who are abused by the Souldiers But nevertheless more Petitions come from other Counties And the Kentish and Essex men with several others being repulsed betake themselves to Arms. The Fleet also falls off from the Parl. The Scots rise in arms for delivering the K. out of prison The English are overcome by the enemy And the Scots Hamilton the General being taken The ships prepare to make a defection from the Prince matters succeeding ill at Land The Parl. in the mean time think of making peace The Act of None Addresses is rescinded They appoint a Conference with the K. by Commissioner in the Isle of Wight No notice taken of the Scots To what Conditions the Commissioners are tyed The Conference to be held at Newport The K. is allowed his necessary servants The K.'s wonderful prudence in the Conference In the middle of the Treaty the Parliamentarians require that the Marquess of Ormond's Commission be recalled The K.'s Answers are censured in Parl. The K. unexpectedly granted many things * There is no mension of the Court of Wards in these Articles thô it is expressed both here and in Baker's Chronicle and perhaps was thought of after these Articles were printed The K. makes some Proposals To which the Parl. in a great part consent The promising hoâ—es of Peace Are disappointed by the Rebels In what manner The Commanders of the Army pretend to be pleased with Peace They stir up the common Souldiers against it and to destroy the King The souldiers are drawn together near London Ireton makes a Remonstrance against the Peace And that in name of the Army The Army being called together And a Fast appointed ☞ Which was often abused by them It is read and approved And presented to the Parl. in name of the Army and People Nevertheless the Lower House persists in considering of the Kings Concessions at which the Commanders of the Army are angry and carry the K. away from the Isle of Wight They march to London and post themselves about the Parliament-house Yet the Members meet And debate about the Kings Concessions They vote them to be a sufficient ground for a Peace The House of Lords agreeing to it This incensed the Oligarchick Rebels The Commanders of the Army beset the Parl. house imprison many Members debar others from entering Some they carry away by force out of the House And abuse the Captives The Oligarchick Faction to the number of about forty men snatches the Authority Who are still over-ruled by the souldiers They enact concerning the highest affairs and of bringing the King to a tryal They confirm the Votes of None Addresses and rescind that concerning a Conference with the King They pass Votes preliminary to the Kings murder * M. Horatius Cons of Rome caused a Law to pass Ut quod tributim plebes jussisset populum teneret that is That what Laws or Orders the Com-Counc or Tribes of Rome should make should oblige the body of the Common-wealth by which the Senate Nobility lost their power way was made for the turning that State into a Democracy to the ruine of it Liv. l. 3. c. 55 They erect a Trib. of subjects against the K. And appoint 150 Judges of their own Faction to do the fact Some Nobles and Judges also Commanders of the Army Members of the House of Com. Mechanicks Bankrupts All obnoxious men The Vpper H. is slighted But the Republicans send them their Bills to be confirmed They are rejected as hurtful and unlawful Wherefore the Lords are dashâ— out of the number of the Kings Judges And the Judges of the Kingdom as contrary to their Bill They chuse a President of the Court And an Attorney-General In the mean time the Presbyterian Ministers cry out against it The Scots also protest against it The States General intercede English Loâ—ds offer themâ—ves Hostages for the King The whole People rages Burghill lies in wait for Bradshaw But in vain and with danger of his life But all attempts are in vain Peters from the Pulpit encouraging the Judges Accusers and Witnesses against the K. are cited by a Herald The King is brought to the Bar. Is indicted in name of the People of England The Lady Fairfax publickly contradicting it He calls into question the Authority of the Court. Which the President affirming to be derived from the People that chuse the King the King denies it * But then that neither one nor both the Houses nor any other Tribunal upon Earth had any power to judge the King of England much less a parcel of pack'd Judges of the Lower House who were masked onely with the oppressed power of that Court. The King is again and a third time brought to the bar And being about to alleadge Reasons against the Authority of the Court The President
Aspersion of Cowardise they give Cromwell assurance that they would shortly fight him And march to the right hand and come to a halt He presently following finds a Marish betwixt them From thence he marches to Musselbrough to hinder its being surprised and presently after to Haddington Next day to Dunbar the Scots molesting them in their march Who encamp thereabouts About break of day Lambert first falls in upon the Scots and presently after Cromwell who obtain a great Victory Leslie himself the Messenger of the defeat renders vain the confidence of the Pulpits Edinburrough and Leeth forthwith yield to the Conquerour But the Castle inexpugnable by Scituation and Art holds out Therefore he commands works to be cast up against it From thence he pursues the remnâ—nt of the Army to Sterling but in vain and leaving that place visits the Ministers at Glasgow endeavouring to allure thâ—m to hâ—s side and by Letters tries what he could work upon Ker and Straughan After three days having taken Jedbrough he returns to Edenburrough Monck marches against Robbers Takes Roslan and the strong Castle of Tantallon As Fenwick did Hume Castle almost as strong Cromwell earnestly sets about the reduction of Edinburrough Castle And having therefore in vain essayed Mines he batters it with hâ—s Cannon Till the Governour having in vain desired a conference and liberty to write to the Council of Scotland And his Wife at length being bruised by a Granado-shell Consented to these Articles And delivers up the Castle The Scots consult what is best to be done The King slighted resolves to fly to the Highlanders who were in Arms apart And by whom he was invited And privately flies to the house of the Lord Diddop Montgomery follows him And prevails with his Majesty to return The Prince of Orange dies The Scots at length admit all to the War But not till they took the Covenant Those that resisted were by the King's means united to the rest The Ministers disagree among themselves The Remonstrance subscribed by many Who behaving themselves seditiously Ker is ordered to apprehend Straughan who presently after died Cromwell pursue Ker Who unexpectedly falls upon Lambert But unfortunately A Conspiracy discovered at London For raising an Army in Scotland to invade England All that were found guilty of this are condemned and two suffer * Love he and Gibbons were the two that suffered Another Conspiracy in Norfolk Suffolk and Cambridge-shire But in vain The Welshmen with like success The King is Crowned at Scoon And sets himself wholly to the defeâ—ce of the Kingdom Dissentions are extinguished The Favourers of the Rebel-Parricides are punished The King sets up his standard And having mustered his Army encamps at Torwood The Scots celebrate the Kings-Birth-day Cromwell visits Torwood Not daring to attempt it Overton passes Forth And presently after Lambert Who obtained a Victory over the Scots Garrisons being summoned presently surrender Cromwell takes the town of St. Johnston The King in the mean time marches streight to England By Carlisle Troublesome to no man In the chief Towns he is prâ—claimed King of England c. The Parricides quaking at the news of it Harrison and Lambert wait the motions of the King and in vain oppose him at Warrington Bridge The King easily possesses himself of Worcester He kindly invites the Londoners to his assistance Who unworthily receive his Letters He demands aid of all his Subjects Many Gentlemen come But only two thousand of the Common People Why so few came in Cromwel with a vast Army Besieges Worcester The Earl of Derby with a handful of new raised Men Is defeated by Lilburn Massey is beat out of Upton which the Cromwellians possess themselves of Middleton in the night time Sallies cut upon the Enemy To his loss The King himself marches out to defend Powick-bridge Which the Enemies possess themselves of There is a sharp engagement at Perry-wood where the King behaved himself most valiantly But being over-powered by number He returns into the Town Where in vain encouraging his Men now in disorder he slips out at St. Martins Gate He exhorts the Horse to renew the Fight but they are deaf to all entreaties The Town is taken and the Fort Royal the Soulders that kept it being put to the Sword The number of the slain And Prisoners The King leaving the Scottish Horse betakes himself to By ways And at the perswasion of the Earl of Derby goes towards Boscobel When they came to the House called Whitladies He commits himself to the hiding of the Pendrels Brothers Wilmot being before sent to London Whilst the Nobles essay to overtake Lesly They are dispersed by Lilburn's men Derby and others being taken Lesly and his men became a prey to the Enemy Or what was worse to the Countrey People Massey yielding himself to a noble Lady is Câ—st into the Tower of London From whence he escapes in disguise A full account where the King lurked in England Ashenhurst's Souldiers search the Monastery A Countrey-man's Wife brings Victuals into the Wood for the King to feed upon In the Evening he comes to Richard Pendrell's House From thence intending to go into Wales That Night he goes on Foot towards the Severn Richard Pendrell being his Guide He is frightned by a Miller At Madely he is lodged in a Barn The River being strictly guarded he returns into the Wood from whence he came Early in the Morning he is by Carlos brought into Boscobel-house Having taken refreshment he climbs up upon an Oak In the Night time he is hid in a Priests-hole Pendrell the Miller being asked concerning the King Preserved his Loyalty unviolated Wilmot coming out of a Marle-pit is committed to the care of Whitgrave To visit whom the King mounted on a Millers Beast goes to Mosely Soldiers câ—me to seize Whitgrave And depart The King is again searched after in the Abbey He removes to Bently from thence to go to Bristol as the servant of Jane Lane He sets forth upon his journey accompanied with Lassels and Wilmot At Bromsgrove he falls in discourse with a Smith about himself At Stratford he passes through Soldiers without any hurt Lodges at Cirencester Then at Marsfield and the third day at Norton where he pretends himself sick And is visited by Doctor Gorge In the Buttery he discourses with a bragging fellow about the King He is discovered by the Butler A most faithful man By whose means VVilmot is introduced He sounds VVindham's mind With good success Jane counterfeits Letters as from her dying Father For a pretext of departing late at Night They go to Carew-Castle And next day to Trent where VVindam lived A report of the King's Death Elden freights a Ship at Chayermouth Peters's device whereby he provides lodgings in that place The King goes thither carrying Juliana Conisbey with him as his Bride But losing hopes of a Ship he presently departs Why the Master of the Vessel failed so foully They came to Bridport full of Soldiers Where
Treasurers at Wars of the Kingdom of Ireland be nominated by both Houses of the Parliament of England to continue Quam diu se bene gesserint and in the intervals of Parliament by the afore-mentioned Committees to be approved or disallowed by both Houses at their next sitting The like for the Kingdom of Scotland concerning the nomination of the Lords of the Privy-Council Lords of Session and Exchequer Officers of State and Justice-General in such manner as the Estates of Parliament there shall think fit That the Militia of the City of London and Liberties thereof may be in the ordering and government of the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council assembled or such as they shall from time to time appoint whereof the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs for the time being to be three to be employed and directed from time to time in such manner as shall be agreed on and appointed by both Houses of Parliament That no Citizen of the City of London nor any of the Forces of the said City shall be drawn forth or compelled to go out of the said City or Liberties thereof for Military service without their own free consent That an Act be passed for the granting and confirming of the Charters Customs Liberties and Franchises of the City of London notwithstanding any Nonuser Misuser or Abuser That the Tower of London may be in the government of the City of London and the chief Officer and Governour thereof from time to time be nominated and removeable by the Common Council And for prevention of inconveniencies which may happen by the long intermission of Common Councils it is desired that there may be an Act that all by-Laws and Ordinances already made or hereafter to be made by the Council assembled touching the calling continuing directing and regulating the same Common Councils shall be as effectual in the Law to all intents and purposes as if the same were particularly enacted by the Authority of Parliament And that the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Common Council may adde to or repeal the said Ordinances from time to time as they shall see cause That such other Propositions as shall be made for the City for their further safety welfare and government and shall be approved of by both Houses of Parliament may be granted and confirmed by Act of Parliament That all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process proceedings and other things passed under the Great Seal of England in the custody of the Lords and other Commissioners appointed by both Houses of Parliament for the custody thereof be and by Act of Parliament with the Royal assent shall be declared and enacted to be of like full force and effect to all intents and purposes as the same or like Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things under any Great Seal of England in any time heretofore were or have been And that for time to come the said Great Seal now remaining in custody of the said Commissioners continue and be used for the Great Seal of England And that all Grants Commissions Presentations Writs Process Proceedings and other things whatsoever passed under or by any authority of any other Great Seal since the 22th day of May Anno Dom. 1642. or hereafter to be passed be Invalid and of no effect to all intents and purposes Except such Writs Process and Commissions as being passed under any other Great Seal than the said Great Seal in the custody of the Commissioners aforesaid on or after the said 22th day of May and before the 28th day of November Anno Dom. 1643. were afterward proceeded upon returned into or put in ure in any the Kings Courts at Westminster And except the Grant to Mr. Justice Bacon to be one of the Justices of the Kings-Bench And except all Acts and proceedings by virtue of any such Commissions of Goal-delivery Assize and Nisi prius or Oyer and Terminer passed under any other Great Seal than the Seal aforesaid in custody of the said Commissioners before the first of October 1642. And that all Grants of Offices Lands Tenements or Hereditaments made or passed under the Great Seal of Ireland unto any person or persons Bodies politick or corporate since the Cessation made in Ireland the fifteenth day of September 1643. shall be null and void And that all Honours and Titles conferred upon any person or persons in the said Kingdom of Ireland since the said Cessation shall be null and void That the several Ordinances the one intituled An Ordinance of Parliament for abolishing of Archbishops and Bishops within the Kingdom of England and Dominion of Wales and for seâ—ing of their Lands and Possessions upon Trustees for the use of the Common-wealth the other intituled An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for appointing the sale of Bishops Lands for the use of the Commonwealth be confirmed by Acts of Parliament These were the Conditions of Peace proposed by the Parliament as the subject matter of that Conference which all passionately wished and a great many fought for They were the very same that had been heretofore sent to the King when he was at Hampton-Court and not onely rejected by his Majesty but by the Army also as being too unreasonable they onely differed in this that in those last there was no mention made of the Scots In the mean time the Pacificators are invested with no other authority but that of answering the Royal Arguments and of returning Reasons to induce the King to assent they had no power of softening any Proposition or altering the least word nay nor so much as of omitting the Preface Their Instructions likewise bear that they are to acquaint the Parliament with the Kings Concessions and the whole progress of the Negotiation to treat altogether in writing nay and to debate the Propositions as they lay in order not descending to a new Proposition until the former was adjusted Nor was it thought enough that the Conditions and Commissioners were so strictly limited they confine the Conference also to the Town of Newport in the Isle of Wight and the continuance of it to the space of forty days The King also who was to be present at the Conference was so far well treated as to be permitted to come out of his Prison and have that Island allowed him for a larger confinement but upon promise given that he would not depart out the Island within forty days after the conclusion of the Conference and the sly Oligarchick and Democratick Republicans who had a hand in the Councils were the Authors of those scruples and restrictions With great caution the Parliament permitted some of his Majesties necessary Servants by name some Lawyers Divines and a Secretary to be present but not to be admitted into the Conference onely to be without behind the Curtain in the Lobby So that the King alone was singly to sustain the person of a Politician and Divine against the
ablest Parliamentarian Politicians and Divines of the whole Kingdom In managing the Conference the King alone with such incredible Prudence and Eloquence sifted and bafled all their strongest Arguments with so great lenity and readiness of condescension granted their Demands even when he had made it appear they were unreasonable so far as with Honour and a safe Conscience he could that he ravished them all into admiration of him and which was an Argument of a supernatural Wit he brought over the Commissioners who were his most inveterate enemies even against their will to his Opinion though their Employment and the danger of their heads obliged them against their Conscience to continue in opposition to him Without doubt in this as in all things else he gave a glorious proof of his Fatherly goodness in that with his own loss and prejudice onely he would gladly have redeem'd his people from the havock and miseries of War The Conference had for some time been taken up in composing affairs when of a sudden news is brought to the Parliament that the Marquess of Ormond was arrived in Ireland to govern that Kingdom in quality of Lord Deputy by authority from the King and that he was to settle a Peace there upon the best conditions he could as also to levy an Army for delivering the King out of prison Upon this Letters are sent to the Commissioners in the Isle of Wight with instructions to demand of the King that he would recal Ormond's Commission and turn him out of that authority which was somewhat uneasie to the Pacificators In the mean while report is made to the Parliament by piece-meals of what was transacted in the Conference where many with a mind as averse as the Kings was inclinable to peace quible at and censure the least punctilio of every thing unless all were condescended to in every tittle according to their own words and prescribed form for they were afraid which some of them openly professed that the Propositions being fully granted and no more place left for Animosity or Grievance they might if not by force from the people yet out of shame be compelled to conclude a Peace in good earnest which they onely desired in shew For the the King having contrary to the opinion of all condescended to many things had not onely admitted the subject matter but also the scrupulosities and niceties of words To the Preface which aimed not so much at the publick Peace as the branding of himself and his party with a note of Ignominy he would not consent but with this clause That nothing in that Conference should be taken for granted unless all were aagreed upon in general He agreed to the Ist Proposition of recalling the Declarations to the XVIth of the Forces the XIXth of the government of Ireland the XVth of the payment of publick Debts Provided these Debts were stated within the space of two years to the XVIIth of anulling Titles of Honours the XIXth of the chief Magistrates of the Kingdom the XIXth of the Great Seal the XIXth of the Priviledges of London Of the Court of Wards provided he had an hundred thousand pound a year paid him in lieu of it In all these points he made himself an easie prey to the avarice and ambition of others and that he might render the Kingdom more peaceable to others he even suffered it to be snatched out of his own hands He gave his consent to all the Articles of the IIId Proposition except one concerning Bishops and their Revenues yet in that he was not altogether wanting to the desires of the Parliament for whatever did not plainly appear to be of Divine Institution he allowed might be abrogated so that he suffered Archiepiscopacy to be abolished Episcopal Jurisdiction also that is the exercise of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and the state and priviledge of holding Ecclesiastical Courts but he would not suffer the power of conferring Orders and administring Church-censures as being Apostolical to be altered and lessened But at length the little Rabbies of the Assembly and Pacificators interweaving with the other Arguments which he could better refute that of invincible Necessity and promising privately that if he would consent to these at present they would hereafter enlarge his Bonds as also giving him hopes that the Parliament would condescend to him in other matters provided in this he would remit somewhat of his strictness of Conscience he consents that for the space of three years Orders shall not be conferred by the Bishops without the consent of Presbyters nay that the power of Ordaining shall be suspended until twenty Divines of his chusing and an Assembly called by the Parliament do meet determine and settle the Government of the Church to which he promised to acquiesce if the Parliament would do the like In the mean time he is not against it but that Presbytery may be setled for a tryal Abhorring the thought of Sacriledge he would not suffer Bishops and Church-lands to be divided and alienated from the Church but permitted them to be let out by lease for ninety nine years paying a small yearly rent for the maintenance of the Bishops and as a token of their Tenure provided after the expiring of the Lease they should return to the Crown to be employed for the use of the Church which in the mean time he was firmly resolved to redeem with his money and to restore them to the Church-men to whom in right they belonged Nor would he being mindful of his Friends amidst his own dangers consent to the XVIIIth Proposition concerning Delinquents but he allowed I. That they might be moderately fined II. That they may be debarred from the Kings presence and coming to Court that some of them also may be banished but not as Traitors nor yet to lose their Lives and Estates if they act to the contrary III. That for three years they be excluded from sitting in Parliament IV. That they might be brought to tryal if it were thought fit and be condignly punished if they had acted any thing against the known Laws of England which certainly favoured the Kings Party But he thought it unjust that any man should be punished for his Loyalty to him according to the dictates of his Conscience and the municipal Laws by a Law made ex post facto Yet he condescended to other Articles of the same Proposition upon this condition that pious and learned Church-men free from scandal might enjoy a third of their Livings and not be totally deprived of the liberty of preaching He could not as he said recal the Authorities which he had given to the Marquess of Ormond at the very time when himself was confined to prison The Parliament agreed with him in the rest which succeeding then according to the Concessions in the XIXth Proposition the Parliament should have the sole administration of the affairs of Ireland In the mean time however he wrote to the Marquess of Ormond