Negative voyce The levying of Warre against the Personall commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of Warre against the King but a levying Warre against His Lawes and Authority which they have Power to declare is levying of Warre against the King Treason cannot bee committed against his Person otherwise then as Hee was intrusted They have Power to judge whether hee discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paternes there would bee no cause to complaine of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged only to them to Judge of the Law 27 of May The King by his Proclamation forbids all his Subjects and trayned bands of the Kingdome to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Command all Sheriffs Justices of Peace and Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of Yorke to seize and make stay of all Armes and Amunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to bee void in Law Command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after Commanded with the posse Commitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should bee drawne thither by his Command Secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties Protect all that are Delinquents against him make all to bee Delinquents that attend him and censure and put out of the house of Peeres nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to him 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the Countie of Yorke declared to them the reasons of providing himselfe a guard and that he had no intention to make a Warre and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willoughby of Parham to Muster and Trayne the Countie of Lincolne who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to doe it 1â— June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against his Parliament invited the Citizens of London all others well affected as they pleased to mis-call them within 80. miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild-Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Army to maintaiâ—e the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority â—ree course of Justice Lawes of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affaires of the Kingdome and Militia may bee mannaged by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Priâ—y Councell Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges bee chosen by them that the Grvernment Education and Marriage of the Kings Children bee by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdome put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peeres to bee made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament with severall other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put his Subjects out of his protection but have deposed both himselfe and his posteritie and then they would proceede to regulate his Revenue and deliver up the Towne of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of his Royall Priviledges then his demanding of the 5. Members and Kimbolton if it had not beene Lawfull for him so to doe could be of theirs granted a Commission of array for the Countie of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present only to Muster and Array the Trayned-Bands And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That Hee would not engage them in any Warre against the Parliament unlesse it were for his necessary defence wherupon the L. keeper Litleton who a little before had either beene affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salsbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earle of Kent and divers Earles and Barrons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia had not the Royall assent to it And fourteenth of June 1642. Being informed That the Parliament endeavored to borrow great summes of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffes of London disavowing any purpose of making a Warre declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unlesse Hee should bee compelled to doe it for His owne defence and forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses And within two dayes after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earle of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earles and 14. Barons the Lord Chiefe-Justice Bancks and sundrie others of eminent qualitie and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that Hee had no intention to make a Warre but abhorred it and That they perceived no Councells or preparations tending to any such designe and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the meane time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the Cittie of London for the raising of Horse vizt. 15. June 1642. Made report to the house of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeede there had beene some designe and Resolution a yeare before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earle of Warwick to bee Lord Admirall and keepe the Navy though the King had commanded him upon payne of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brooke sent downe into Warwick-shire to settle the Militia 17. June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to goe to the Citie of London to enquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18. June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make Warre against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great-Seale And 20. June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfullnesse of His Commissions of Array That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawfull and the Earle of Essex himselfe had
King CHARLES the First no Man OF BLOOD BUT A MARTYR FOR HIS PEOPLE OR A sad and impartiall enquiry whether the King or Parliament began the Warre which hath so much ruined and undon the Kingdom of England and who was in the defensive part of it Exoritur aliquod majus è magno malum Nondum ruentis Ilij fatum stetit SENEC Traged in Troade Act 3. Printed in the Yeare 1649. King CHARLES the First No Man of Blood BUT A Martyr for his People THAT there hath beene now almost seaven yeeres spent in Civill-Warres aboundance of Blood-shed and more Ruine and Misery brought upon the Kingdome by it then all the severall Changes Conquests and Civill-Warres it hath endured from the time of Brute or the first Inhabitants of it every mans wofull experience some only excepted who have beene gayners by it will easily assent unto No mervaile therefore that many of those who if all they alledge for themselves that they were not the cause of it could bee granted to be true might eyther have hindred or lessned it would now put the blame of so horrid a businesse from themselves and lay it upon any they can perswade to beare it And that the Conquerours who would binde their Kings in Chaynes and their Princes with fetters of Iron and thinke they have a Commission from Heaven to doe it the guilt of it being necessarily either to bee charged upon the Conquerors or conquered are not willing to have their triumphant Chayres and the glories as they are made beleeve that hang upon their shoulders defiled with it but do all they can to load their Captives with it But howsoever though the successe and power of an Army hath frighted it so farre out of question as to charge it upon the King and take away his life for it by making those that must of necessity bee guilty of the fact if he should have beene as in all reason hee ought to have beene acquited of it the only Judges of him It may well become the judgement and conscience of every man that will bee but eyther a good Subject or a Christian not to lend out his Soule and Salvation so much on trust as to take those that are parties and the most ignorant sort of mens words for it but to enter into a most serious examination of the matter of Fact it selfe and by tracing out the foote-steps of Truth see what a conclusion may be drawn out of it In pursuance wherof for I hope the originall of this Sea of blood will not prove so unsearchable as the head of Nile Wee shall enquire who first of all raysed the Feares and Jelousies Secondly represent and set down the truth of the matter of Fact and proceedings betwixt the King and Parliament from the tumultuous seditious coming of the People to the Parliament and White-hall untill the 25. Aug. 1642. when he set up his Standard at Nottingham from the setting up of his Standard untill the 13 Sep. 1642. when the Parliament by their many acts of hostility a negative Churlish answer to his propositions might well have put him out of hope of any good to be obteined from them by messages of Peace sent unto them Thirdly whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppresse or punish a rebellion of the People be tied to those rules are necessary to the justifying of a warre if it were made betweene equalls Fourthly suppose the warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or between equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it Fiftly Whether the Parliament in their pretended magistracy have not taken lesser occasions to punish or provide against insurrections treasons rebellions as they are pleased to call them Sixtly Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it Seventhly Who laboured to shorten the Warre and who to lengthen it Eightly Whether the Conditions proffered by the King would not have beene more profitable for the People if they had beene accepted and what the Kingdome and People have got insteed of it CHAP. I. Who first of all Raised the Feares and Jealousies THE desiring of a guard for the Parliament because of a tale rather then a plot That the Earle of Crawford had a purpose to take away the Marquis of Hamiltons life in Scotland the refusing of a legall guard offered by the King and His Protestation to bee as carefull of their safety as of the safety of His Wife and Children The dreame of a Taylor lying in a ditch in Finsbury fields of this and the other good Lord and Common-wealths men to be taken away The trayning of horses under ground and a plague plaister or rather a clout taken from a galled horse back sent into the house of Commons to Mr. Pym A Designe of the Inhabitants of Covent-Garden to murther the City of London News from France Italy Spaine and Denmarke of Armies ready to come for England and a supposition or feaverish fancy That the King intended to introduce Popery and alter Religion and take away the Lawes and Liberties of the People and many other the like seditious delusions the People so much as their misery will give them leave have now found out the way to laugh at either came from the Parliament partie or were cherished and turned into advantages by them For they had found the way and lost nothing by it to be ever jealous of the King And whilest he did all he could to shew them that there was no cause for it they who were jealous without a cause could bee so cunning as to make all the haste they could to weaken Him and strengthen themselves by such kind of artifices But hee that could not choose but take notice that there were secret ties and combinations betwixt his English and Scottish Subjects the latter of whom the Earle of Essex and Sir Thomas Fairfax themselves understood to be no better then Rebels and therfore served in places of Command in His Majesties Army against them That Sir Arthur Haselrig had brought in a Bill in Parliament to take the Militia by Sea and Land away from him saw himselfe not long after by a Printed remonstrance or declaration made to the People of all they could but imagine to bee errours in his government arraigned and little lesse then deposed The Bishops and divers great Lords driven from the Parliament by Tumults Was inforced to keepe his gates at Whitehall shut and procure divers Captaines and Commanders to lodge there and to allow them a table to bee a guard for him and had beene fully informed of many Trayterous Speeches used by some seditious mechaniques of London as that It was pitty Hee should raigne and that The Prince would make a better King was yet so farre from being jealous or solicitous to defend himself by the Sword and power which God had intrusted him with as when he had need reason enough to do it he still
it 1. March 1641. Petition for the Militia and tell him If he would not graunt it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earle of Northumberland Lord high-Admirall to Rig and send to Sea his Majesties Navie and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641 by his Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that hee would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Towne of Hull the only fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trayned Souldiers of the County of Yorke to help him to guard it And eighth of March 1641 Before the King could get to Yorke it was Voted That whatsoever the two houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to goe in person to suppresse the Irish-Rebellion That was Voted to bee against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebells and they Declare that whosoever shall assist him in his Voyage thither should bee taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the severall Commissions granted under the great-Seale to the Lievetenants of the severall Counties were illegall and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should bee accounted a disturber of the Peace of the Kingdom Aprill 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Towne denies him though hee had then no Order to doe it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of Aprill 1642. they Vote That what hee had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaming him to bee a Traytor was a high breach of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Officers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the meane time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all manner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to bee imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could bee heard to say in the house of Comons That the King was not worthy to Reigne in England And Henry Marten That the Kingly Office was forfeitable and the happinesse of the Kingdome did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House Nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principall part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to bee a King or to governe and the Sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand yeeres together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdome since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to aske for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legall way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levie men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdome Voted to bee illegall The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earle of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himselfe to bee meerely passive and only busying himselfe in giving answeres to some Parliament Messages and Declarations and to wooe intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to doe it unles they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of his Followers unarmed in his Company and undertaking to returne and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. Of May 1642. The King being informed That Sir John Hotham sent out warrants to Constables to raise the trayned bands of York-shire writes his letter to the Sheriffe of that County to forbid the Trayned bands and commands them to repaire to their dwelling houses 12. Of May 1642. Perceiving himselfe every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against him and Sir John Hotham so neere him at Hull as within a dayes journey of him moves the County of Yorke for a Troope of horse consisting of the prime gentry of that County and a Regiment of the trayned bands of foot to bee for a guard unto him and caused the Oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councell intended to make a War against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are traytors by the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome The Earle of Essex Lord-Chamberlaine of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold Ser. ants forbid to go to him the Kings putting some of them out others in their places Voted to bee an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earles and Barons about him and some of his Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to him with the great-Seal when he sent for him voted to bee a breach of priviledge and pursued with a warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffes to apprehend him Cause the Kings Rents and Revenues to bee brought in to them and forbid any to bee paid him Many of his Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyall unto him and those that were ill affected to him put in their Roomes and many of his owne Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and bee false and active against him The twenty sixt day of May 1642. a Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before hee could receive it That Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to bee questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no
in the beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the Countie of Yorke Gave His People to understand That Hee had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legall way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majestie to put them into a Military postuâ—e they should bee drawne and engaged in any opposition against Him or His Just Authority But 21. June 1642. The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The Designe of their Propositions of raising Horse and Moneys was to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authoritie and Person and that The Forces already attending His Majestie and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appeare to bee intended for some great and extraordinary designe so as at this time also they doe not charge the King with any manner of action of Warre or any thing done in a way or course of Warre against them and gave just cause of feare and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a Warre against their Soverainge did forbid all Mayors Sheriffes Bayliffes and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the Citie of London And declare that if Hee should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should bee held a levying Warre against the Parliament and all this done before His Majestie had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any manner of provision of Warre to defend Himselfe when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to Yorke but to give a weekely account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should bee sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should bee trayned and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His letter under His signe Manuall commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits to use all meanes to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawfull assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintaine the Protestant Religion and the Lawes of the Kingdome and not to governe by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation Hee would spedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both houses of Parliament Commanding That no Sheriffe Mayor Bayliffe Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having beene imprisoned for proclaming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaime any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings name which should bee contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order That in case any Force should bee brought out of one County into another to disturbe the Peace thereof they should bee suppressed by the Trayned Bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Towne of Hull whilest the King is at Yorke seizeth on a Ship comming to Him with provisions for His Houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants Prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queene to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Towne which the Parliament allowes of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5. July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to bee made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should bee sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drummes were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earle of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawne up to bee sent to the Deputie-Lievetenants of the severall Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the house of Commons ordered to meete every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foote to bee raised in London and the Countrey bee imployed by dirction of the Parliament and the Lord Brooke is furnished with 6. peeces of Ordnance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earle of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councell of London should consider of away for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foote and that they should bee listed and put in Pay within foure dayes after 11. July 1642. The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Towne of Hull to bee delivered unto him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall bee forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both houses of Parliament and those who have obeyed their Orders and Commands in perserving the true Religion the Lawes Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdome and that they would live and dye with the Earle of Essex whom they nominate Generall in that Cause And 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King to forbeare any preparations or actions of Warre and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come neerer to them and harken to their advice but before that Petition could bee answered wherein the King offered when the Towne of Hull should bee delivered to Him hee would no longer have an Army before it and should bee assured that the same pretence which tooke Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull Hee was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison Hee would also remove that Garrison and so as his Magazine and Navy might bee delivered
unto him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid downe the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place hee would lay downe Armes and repaire to them and desired all differences might bee freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Libertie Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdome a blessed Peace and Prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull had Armed their Generall with power against Him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their Generall of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information That some of the Towne of Portsmouth had revolted to Collonell Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majestie Order forces to bee sent thither spedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earle of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraigne forces comming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earle of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brookes carrying the peeces of Ordinance to Warwick Ordered 5000 Horse and Foote to bee sent to assist Him 9. August 1642. Upon information That the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array and to have the Magazine of the Countie to bee delivered unto them Gave power to the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall the Lord Brooke and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earle of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earle of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the Suppressing of any should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation 2. dayes before Declaring the Earle of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yeild to His Majestie within 6. dayes to be Traytors vote the said Proclamation to bee against the Fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome Declare their resolutions to maintaine and assist the Earle of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppresse the Kings Party Though all that the Kings Loyall Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legall way of the Militia and within a day or two after Ordered the Earle of Essex their Lord Generall to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an answer would bee afforded to the Kings message sent from Hull where whilst Hee with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of His fellow Subjects 12. August 1642. The King though hee might well understand the greate leavies of Men and Armes ready to march against Him by a declaration published to all His Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by him in this Parliament should bee as equally observed as those which most of all concerned his owne interest and rights and that his quarrell was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might bee delivered into the hands of Justice to bee tried by their Peeres according to the knowne Lawes of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brooke Sir John Hotham Major Generall Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance hee would cause Indictments to bee drawne of high Treason upon the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. and if they submit to triall and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should bee acquited But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours Hee had used for peace Hee that saw the Hydra in the mud and slyme of Sedition in its Embrio birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devoure him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and beleeve no more in the hopes of other remedies had so often deceived Him but if Hee will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any manner of satisfaction to his own Judgement and discretion betake Himselfe to the Sword which God had intrusted Him with and therfore makes the best use he could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His Servants and Friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to beare Him Company in His Troubles provides what Men and Armes Hee could in His way towards Nottingham where Hee intended to set up His Standerd But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that Hee intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare That now it appeares to all the World that there is good ground of their feares and jealousies which if ever there had beene any as there was no cause at all of any more then that meaning to murder and ruine Him they were often afraid Hee should take notice of it and seeke to defend Himselfe there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certaine ground appearing that Hee intended to defend Himselfe against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the actours and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdome who should persist to serve the King in this Warre against the Parliament and That it should bee Lawfull for any number of persons to joyne and defend themselves and That the Earle of Essex their Generall should grant out Commissions for Levying and conducting forces into the Northerne parts And Sir John Hotham the Governour of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffes of the Countie of Yorke and the adjacent Counties with the Power of the Counties and Trayned-Bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majestie who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since they have brought to passe against Him 25
August 1642. being some dayes after the Earle of Bedsord had marched with great forces into the West that His Subjects might bee informed of His danger and repaire to His succour seteth up His Standard at Nottingham being a thing of a meere legall necessity if Hee would have any at all to come to help Him and not forfeit and surprise those that by tenure of their Lands or by reason of offices fee's or annuities enjoyed under Him were more immediately bound to assist Him And yet here Hee must weepe over Jerusalem and once again intreate the Parliament and His Rebellious Subjects to prevent their owne miseries and therefore sends the Earles of Southampton and Dorset to the Parliament to desire a Treaty offering to doe all on His owne part which might advance the Protestant Religion oppose Popery and Superstition and secure the Lawes and Liberties of his Subjects and just priviledges of Parliament Which after severall scornes put upon those noble Messengers as denying the Earle of Southampton to come and sit in the house of Peeres a right by birth and inheritance due unto him and causing the Serjeant at Armes of the house of Commons to goe before him with the Mace as they use to doe before Delinquents They refuse to accept of unlesse the King would first take downe his Standard and recall his Declarations and Proclamations against them To which the King the 5. Sept. 1642. notwithstanding the Earle of Bedford had with great forces in the meane time besieged the Marquis of Hartford in the Castle of Sherbâ—râ— in Dorset-shire replying That hee never did declare nor â—â—er intended to declare both his houses of Parliament to bee traytors or set up his Standard against them much lesse to put them and the Kingdome out of his protection And utterly protesting against it before God and the World offered to recall his Declarations and Proclamations with all cheerefullnesse the same day that they should revoke their Declarations against those had assisted him and desiring a Treaty and conjuring them to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the danger of England undertakes to bee ready to grant any thing shall bee really good for his Subjects which being brought by the Lord Falkland one of his Majesties Secretaries of State and a Member of the house of Commons and not long before in a very great esteeme with them all the respect could bee afforded him being to stand at the Barre of the house of Commons and deliver his Message unto them had only an answer in a printed Declaration of the Lords and Commons returned unto him That it was Ordered and Declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament That the armes which they have beene forced to take up or shall bee forced to take up for the preservation of the Parliament Religion and the Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdome shall not bee laid downe untill his Majestie shall withdraw his protection from such Persons as have beene voted by both houses of Parliament to bee Delinquents or that shall by both houses of Parliament bee voted to bee Delinquents which after their mad way of voting might have beene himselfe his Queene or his Heire apparent and leave them to the Justice of Parliament according to their dâ—merites to the end that those great Charges and damages wherewithall the Common-wealth hath beene burdened since his Majestie departed from the Parliament might bee borne by the Delinquaâ—ts and other Malignant and dis-affected Persons and that those who by Loans of money or otherwise at their charges have assisted the Common-wealth or shall in lâ—â—e manner hereafter assist the Common-wealth in times of extreame danger and here they would also provide for future freinds and quarrells may bee re-paid all sums of money â—ent for those purposes and satisfied their charges susteyned out of the estates of the said Delinquents and of the Malignant and disaffected partie in this Kingdome And to make good their words 8. of September 1642. Before their answer could come unto the Kings hands Ordered certaine numbers of horse and foote to bee sent to Garrison and secure Oxford and the morrow after before the King could possibly reply unto it their Lord Generall the Earle of Essex marched out of London against Him with an Army of 20000. men horse and foot gallantly Armed and a great traine of Artillery to attend him notwithstanding all which and those huge impossibilities every day more and more appeared of obtaining a Peace with those were so much afraid to bee loosers by it as they never at all intended it The King must needs send one message more unto them to try if that might not give them some occasion to send Him gentler conditions and therefore 13. September 1642. Being the same day they had impeached the Lord Strange of high-treason for executing the Kings Commission of Array and Ordered the propositions for furnishing of horse plate and money to bee tendred from house to house in the Cities of London and Westminster and to bee sent into all the Shires and Counties of England to bee tendred for the same purpose and the names of the refusers to bee certified Mr. May one of the Pages to the King comes to the Lords house in Parliament with a message from Him bearing date but two dayes before That although Hee had used all wayes and meanes to prevent the present distractions and dangers of the Kingdome all His labours have beene fruitlesse that not so much as a treaty earnestly defired by Him can bee obtained though Hee disclaimed all His Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of His Standard as against His Parliament unlesse Hee should denude Himselfe of all force to defend Him from a visible strength marching against Him That now Hee had nothing left in His power but to expresse the deepe sence Hee had of the publique misery of the Kingdome and to apply Himselfe to a necessary defence wherein Hee wholy relied upon the providence of God and the affection of His good People and was so far from putting them out of His protection as when the Parliament should desire a treaty Hee would piously remember whose blood is to bee spilt in this quarrell and cheerefully embrace it But this must also leave them as it found them in their ungodly purposes for the morrow after being the 14. day of September 1642. Mr. Hampden one of the 5. Members by this time a Collenell of the Army brings letters to the house of Commons from the Parliaments Lord Generall that hee was at Northampton in a very good posture and that great numbers of the Countreys thereabouts came in dayly unto him and offered to march under him and that so soone as all his forces that are about London shall come unto him which hee desires may bee hastened hee intended to advance towards His Majesty and it was the same day voted That all things sealed by the Kings Seale since it was carried away by the
and thereupon every man of Israell followed after him and forsooke their King David who knew that Moses would not make a Warre upon the Amorites though he had Gods commandement for it without offers of Peace messengers sent first unto them said to Amasa assemble me the men of Judah within three dayes and when hee tarried longer said unto him Take thou thy Lords Servants and pursue after him lest hee get him fenced Citties and escape us For they that would take heede of Cocatrices have ever used to kill them in the shell And diligenticuiquè Imperatori ac magistratui danda est opera saith Bodin ut non tam seditiones tollere quam praeoccupare student For sedition saith hee once kindled like a sparke of fire blown by popular fury may sooner fire a whole City then bee extinguished Et tales igitur pestes opprimere derepenté necesse est Princes and Soveraignes who are bound to protect and desend their Subjects are not to stand still and suffer one to oppresse another and themselves to bee undone by it afterwards But put the case the Parliament could have beene called a Parliament when they had driven away the King which is the head and life of it or could have beene said to have beene two houses of Parliament when there was not at that time above a third part of the house of Peeres nor the halfe of the house of Commons remaining in them and what those few did in their absence was either forced by a Faction of their own or a partie of Seditious Londoners for indeed the Warre rightly considered was not betwixt the Parliament and the King but a Warre made by a Factious and Seditious part of the Parliament against the King and the major part of the Parliament and had beene as it never was nor could bee by the Lawes and constitution of the Kingdome coordinate and equall with the King and joint tenants of the Kingdome it would have â—â—â—ne necessary to make the Warre as just as they could and to hace done all that had beene in order to it and therefore wee hope they which pretend so much to the Justice of the Kingdome will not bee offended to have the Justice of their Warre somthing examined CHAP. IIII. Suppose the Warre to bee made with a neighbour Prince or betweene equalls whether the King or Parliament were in the defensive or justifiable part of it PLaerique saith learned Grotius tres statuunt bellorum just as causas defensionem recuperationem punitionem For any defence the Parliament might pretend a necessitie of The King neither assaulted them nor used any violence to them when they first of all granted out their Propositions and Commissions of Warre unlesse they can turne their jealousies into a Creede and make the Kings demanding the five Members and Kimbolton being done by warrant of the Lawe of the Land and the Records and precedents of their owne houses appeare to bee an assaulting of them Or if any reasonable man knew but how to make that to bee an assault or a necessary cause of Warre for them to revenge it the Kings waving and relinquishing of his charge afterwards against them might have certainly beene enough to have taken away the cause of it if there had beene any howsoever a Warre made only to revenge a bare demand or request of a thing was neither so much as forced or a second time demanded of them but was totally laid aside and retracted can never bee accounted just As for the recovery of things lost or taken away The Parliament it selfe had nothing taken from them for both they and the People were so farre from being loosers at that time by the King as the Remonstrance of the house of Commons made to the People 15. December 1641. of the Kings errours as they please to call them in the government but indeed the errours rather of his Ministers and themselves also in busying him with brawles and quarrells and denying to give him fitting supplies mentions how much and how many beneficiall Lawes the King had granted them And so the Parliament and People being no loosers and the King never denying them any thing could in honour or conscience bee granted them That part of the Justyfying of a Warre will no way also belong to them But if the punishment for offences and injuries past if they could bee bee so properly called being a third cause of justifying a Warre could bee but imagined to bee a cause to justifie the Parliaments Warre against the King Yet they were to remember another Rule or Law of Warre Ne nimis veteres causae accersentur That they doe not pick quarrells by raking up past grievances and that it bee not propter leviusculas injurias or for trifles For when the King who if he had been no more then coordinate with them had called them to councell to advise him followed their advice in every thing hee could finde any reason for taken away all grievances made a large provision to prevent them for the future by granting the Tryenniall Parliament and so large an amends for every thing they could but tell how to complaine of there was so little left to the People and the Parliament to quarrell for as they were much behind in thankfullnesse for what they had got of him already Or if any other causes or provocations should bee imagined as misusing the Parliaments Messengers or the like wee know the King unlesse it were by his patience and often Messages for Peace was guilty of no provocations but on the contrary though hee had all manner of scornes and reproaches cast upon him and his Messengers evill intreated by them could never bee brought to returne or retaliate it to any of theirs But nothing as yet serving to excuse them It will not be amisse to examine the Causes as they are set downe by themselves to justifie their warre and so wee may well suppose there are no other A Warre against the King for safety of his owne Person was needlesse and then it comes within that rule of warre and lawe of Nations Ne leves sint causa belli not to make a warre unnecessary for the King would looke to that himselfe and as they were his Subjects they as well as every honest Subject were bound to defend and assist him but not whether hee would or no and in such a way of defence as would tend to his ruins rather then his safety For surely should any stranger of another Kingdome or Nation have casually passed by Edge-hill when the Kings and the Parliaments Armies were in fight and have beene told that the King shot at them for the safety of his owne Person and that they also shot against him for the safety of his owne Person and being asked which of the two parties hee beleived did really or most of all intend the safety of it wee cannot tell how to think any man such
a stranger to nature reason or understanding as to think the King should not fight as the Dictates of nature perswaded him to or that the King could tell how to fight against those that fought for him or that if hee should bee so hugely mistaken in that one yeare or Battell hee should bee in severall other yeares and Battells after To sight for the defence of the Religion established as they made also the People believe that was as needlesse when the King offered to doe every thing might help to promote it and they are so little also to bee credited in that pretence as wee know they did all they could from the beginning to ruine it tooke away Episcopacie the hedge and bounds of it brought in Presbitery to preach up and aid their Rebellion and when their owne turnes were served encouraged Conventicles and Tub-preachers to pull down the Presbitery And being demanded at the treaty at Vxbridge by the Kings Commissioners what Religion they would have the King to establish were so unprovided of an answer as they could not resolve what to nominate nor in any of their propositions afterwards sent to the King though often urged and complained of by the Scottish Commissioners could ever find the way to doe it but have now set up an Independent extemporary enthusiastick kinde of worshiping God if there were any such thing in it or rather a religious Chaos or gallimaufrey of all manner of heresies errours blasphemies and opinions put together not any of the owners of which wee can bee confident will subscribe to that opinion that warres may bee made for Religion or that Conscience ought to bee forced by it As for the restrictive part of the Lawes to keepe the People in subjection wee can very well perswade our selves no such Warre was ever made yet in the World nor any People ever found that would engage in a Warre for that they obeyed but against their wills And for that part of the Law that gives them the Kings protection priviledges immunities and certainties of deciding controversies which are more fitly to bee called the Liberties of the People then to have 45. of the house of Commons or a Faction to make daily and hourely Lawes and Religion and Government and vote their estates in and out to pay an Army to force their obedience to it if wee had not outlived the Parliaments disguises and pretences saw them now tearing them up by the roots that there may bee no hope of their growing up again and seting up their owne as well as the ignorant and illiterate fancies of Mechaniques and Souldiers in steede of them wee might have said that also had beene needlesse when the King had done aboundantly enough already and offered to grant any thing more could in reason bee demanded of him And as touching their priviledges of Parliament They that understand but any thing of the Lawes of England or have but looked into the Records and Journalls of Parliament can tell that all priviledges of Parliament as King James said were at first bestowed upon them by the Kings and Princes of this Kingdome That priviledges of Parliament extended not to Treason or Felony or breach of the Peace That 32. Hen. 6. Sir Thomas Thorpe Speaker of the house of Commons being arested in execution in the time of the prorogation of the Parliament the Commons demanded hee might bee set at liberty according to their priviledges whereupon the Judges being asked their Councell therein made answer that generall supersedeas of Parliament there were none but speciall supersedeas there was in which case of speciall supersedeas every member of the house of Commons ought to enjoy the same unlesse in cases of Treason Fellony or breach of the Peace or for a Condemnation before the Parliament After which answer it was determined that the said Sir Thomas Thorpe should ly in excution and the Commons were required on the behalfe of the King to choose a new Speaker which they did and presented to the King accordingly That Queene Elizabeth was assured by her Judges that shee might commit any of her Parliament during the Parliament for any offence committed against her Crowne and dignitie and they shewed her precedents for it and that primo tertio Caroli Regis upon search of precedents in the severall great cases of the Earles of Arundell and Bristoll very much insisted and stood upon the house of Peeres in Parliament allowed of the exception of Treason Fellony and breach of the Peace For indeede it is as impossible to think there can bee any priviledge to commit Treason as to think that a King should priviledge all his Nobility and every one of his Subjects that could get to be elected into the house of Commons in Parliament to commit Treason and to take away his life in the time of Parliament whensoever their revenge or malice or interest should find the oportunity to doe it or that if it could bee so any King or Prince would ever call or summon a Parliament to expose himselfe to such a latitude of danger or give them leave to sit as long as they would to breed it or that priviledges of Treason can bee consistent with the name or being of a Parliament to consult and advise with the King for the defence of him and his Kingdome or that when Felony and breach of Peace are excepted out of their priviledge Treason that is of a farre higher nature consequence and punishment should be allowed them or if there could have beene any such priviledge and a meaner man then their Soveraigne had broke it a small understanding may informe them they could not without breach of the Peace have fought for it against a fellow Subject and then also could not their priviledges have reached to it but the King might have punished them for it and if they cannot upon a breach of priviledge as it was adjudged in Halls case without the Kings writ and the cause first certified in Chancery deliver one of their owne servants arrested It is not likely any warrant can bee found in Law to inforce the King to reparation though hee himselfe should have broken it but to petition the King for an allowance of that or any other priviledge as well in the middle or any other time of their sitting in Parliament as they alwaies doe at the presenting of their Speaker in the beginning of it Wherefore certainly the People never gave the Parliament Commission if they could have given a Commission to make a Warre against their Soveraigne to claime that was never due to them or to fight for that was never yet fought for by any of their forefathers nor ever understood to bee taken from them much lesse for their ayrie innovated pretences rather than priviledges which have since eaten up all the Peoples Lawes and Liberties as well as a good parte of their lives and estates with it and are now become to bee every thing their
and his Commissioners at Vxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few daies added to it if the King could in honor Conscience have granted all the other parts of the propositions must grant them an act not only to confiscate the Estates of his Friends and those that took armes to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemne them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them were only guiltie of it a thing so unfitting and unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to bee cut off and making them to gather the crumbes from under his table or Benhadads demande of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and Children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and People of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace was not to bee asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yeild unto a thing nature it selfe would abhorre and the worst of Villaines and reprobates rather loose their lives then yeild to would never bee demanded by any but a Devill nor granted by any but his Equalls And if their desiring of a war more then a peace and to keepe the King out of his owne had not beene the only cause of such unnaturall and barbarous propositions it may well bee wondred why they that have made to themselves for wee cannot beleive they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of peece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to doe that they are now so busie to doe of themselves and as if they had beene afraid all this would not bee enough to keepe the doores of Janus or the Devill open for feare lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must bee made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocriticall pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to bee ever since to whom their Masters the People wee meane as to the house of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a Warre against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the booke of God and their owne Consciences to perswade them to it That duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other waies to come by pretended rights then by a Warre and wee ought never to make use of a Warre which is the worst of all remedies if wee may obtaine it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre The Rebellious Barons of England in the raigne of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the king of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that meanes only stopped Charles the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well Intelligendum eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per desceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt illco eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere et ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a Warre without assaying all other just meanes of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge only according to their owne will and opinion doe turne their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will bee found faulty For the French King and the Estates of the united Provinces did by more then one request and embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and his Parliament and desired to have all things in defference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it and how satisfactorily hee had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But wee have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the companie of so much wickednesse wee shall remove to the Kings partie and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is cleere enough alreadie if hee were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the businesse The King as hee was defensor et protector subditorum suorum and sworne to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority Commited to him in vaine And if hee had had no manner of just cause of feare either in his owne Person or authoritie or no cause given him in relaesae Majestatis the imprisoning of his Subjects and plundring and taking away their estates from them long before he had either armed himselfe or had wherewithall to doe it had beene cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Commitatus to bring him to Justice and might by the same reason doe it in the case of more and by the same reason hee might doe it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason hee might doe it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poore mans only Sheepe hee that understood well enough the dutie of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure as the Lord liveth this man shall surely dye And can any man think that the King when hee saw so much Sedition and Treason among the People countenanced and cherished Tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and Warlike assemblies proposiâ—ions made to bring in Horse and Money to
and conditionall as it is alwaies to bee understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unlesse their be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth bee judge if the King did not aboundantly endeavour to save his People and if the Parliament had not neede of a justification when they used all manner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon him they therefore that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all hee had but his Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of his Loyall Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts penned up and used with all manner of hardship and and extremities and every day like to bee murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus are but inserted or added inâ—casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse depend on subsequencies or following effects which not hapning or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if there no such matter at all had bene acknowledged or expressed in them That Cooke his accuser who when hee comes to bee hanged for it will never bee able to prove that the People who substituted or gave him warrant for to accuse him And Bradshaw who sate higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow murderers tooke the Kings conditionall consenting to the Preamble to bee so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not only acquit him of any Confession or guilt to bee inferred from his conditionall yeilding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that hee who in his Royall Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments votes of non addresse and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrooke-Castle had clearnesse of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgment wee hope it cannot bee suspected when Mr. Carill the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say hee was a second Salomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight report him to bee the master of the greatest wisdome and understanding That hee had the feast of a good Conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity and Conscience doubted not but his Innocency would find God to bee his protector rejoyced in the comfort of Imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousnesse sake and thanked God hee could pray for them that God would not impute his Blood to them further then to convince them what neede they had of Christs Blood to wash their Soules from the guilt of Sheding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and his murderers heard to say upon the Scaffold Hee never did begin a Warre with the two houses of Parliament and called God to his witnesse to whom hee was shortly to make an account hee never intended to incroach upon their priviledges but they began upon him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was his and that any that would looke into the date of their Commissions and his might cleerely see that they began these unhappie troubles and hoped God would cleer him of it Could bee so much more then a man and so great a protectour of his People as not only to bee content to bee robbed and despoiled of all that hee had for their sakes but to save the Lawes and estates of his People when there was no other way to doe it deliver up himselfe so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoyling those that had robbed and undone him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Protens through all this disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured a great and accursed thing is committed in our Israel and the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may bee labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and prov'd that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the Warre to send into Achans tent and search and see what is there to bee found concerning this matter and here we find the Lord Say the Lord Brooke and their complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament setled and conveyed their estates to prevent any dangers might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament man was heard to say a little before this holie Warre began to break out That the Government of the Kingdome would within a year or two bee altered A little before the second Scottish invasion Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses the Covenanters of both Kingdomes were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid downe Armes the joynt declaration of both Kingdomes in January 1643. professes they will never lay down Armes till the pretended reformation bee accomplished many declarations and remonstrances of the Parliament if they may bee so called and the Army mention the originall power and Soveraignty to bee in the people the common Rights and Freedome of the Nation and the opertunities God hath put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20. October 1645. concerning rules and directions for Tryers and Judges of the abilitie of Elders declares it was the wonderfull providence of God in calling them which hee never did by force of Armes Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of regall authority to the great and difficult worke of reformation and purging the Church The Lord Fairfax and his generall councell of Officers in their Remonstrance of the 16. November 1648. made to the Parliament call the putting downe of Monarchy and the Establishing of their unjust ends the publique interest originally contended for on the Parliaments part and the declaration and votes of those that call themselves the Commons of England in Parliament assembled 15. January 1648. affirm the bringing of Delinquents to punishment which if they had beene Delinquents is certainly a part of the Kingly office the maine if not the only end of making this Warre And in another place thereof acknowledges the rooting out of Episcopacy and bringing Delinquents to punishment to bee the only motives that induced them to undertake this Warre And though Achan will neyther confesse nor bee brought to punishment till the wroth and never failing judgement of God shall bring them and their sons their daughters and their successes the asses that follow them to be consumed in the field of Achor and the Fig-leaves which they have patched together to palliate hide their nakednesse cannot keepe out the eyes and understanding of a ruined Nation bleeding under the burden of of their iniquity but whether ever confessed or never will bee as plaine as the most infallible demonstration they were never
necessitated to make a Warre but were so farre from the Justification of a defensive Warre as that they were altogether in the offensive For beside all that hath beene said to prove them guiltie of the blood and misery of this Nation who can think or bee beleeved if hee should bee so mad as to say it That they were forced to make a Warre for that was none of their owne or to take away tenures in Capite which was a principall flower of his Crowne or for a Reformation of Religion was already the envie and ambition of the best of the Reformed Churches or to commit sacriledge and abolish Episcopacy which at the least was of Apostolicall institution or to preserve the Statute of 25. E. 3. concerning what was Treason when they themselves committed most of the Treasons were mentioned in it and more then their fore-fathers and the makers of that Statute ever thought on But that wee may doe all the right wee can to them have done so much wrong and the better carry on our judgements to a certaine conclusion of that which God and all good and just men know to bee true enough it will not wee hope bee impertinent in this our search and disquisition of the truth to proceede to the enquiry CHAP. V. Whether the Parliament in their pretended Magistracy have not taken lesser oceasions to punish or provide against Insurrections Treasons and Rebellions as they are pleased to call them ALL in the neighborhood of their Proceedings that know but any thing of them can tell it The Parliament have not beene wanting to their owne Preservations and purposes in the exercise of the greatest jealousie vigilancy terror and authority over those they could but get within their pretended Jurisdiction Witnesse Edward Archer who was whipt and punished almost to death for speaking but his ill wishes to the Earle of Essex when he was marching out of London with their Army against the King the imprisonment of their owne Members for speaking against the Sence and Cabal of the House of Commons men and women old and young shut up under Decks ready to bee stifled a ship-board upon suspicion that they affected the King hanging of the two Bristoll Marchants Master Bourchier and Master Yeomans for an endeavor to deliver up Bristoll Putting Colonell Essex out of the government of that Towne upon suspicion of favouring the enterprise hanging of Master Tompkins and Master Chaloner â—or a purpose to force the delivery up of some factious men to Justice banishing Master Waller an eminent Member of the House of Commons for the contrivance of it searching the houses of forraign Ambassadors intercepting and opening their Letters Beheading Sir Alexander Cary for an intention to deliver up Plymouth and Sir John Hotham who adventured first of all to set up their authority and was magnified and almost adored for it for an intention only to deliver up Hull to the King executing of his sonne for joyning with his father in it hanging Master Kniveton one of the Kings Messengers but for bringing his Majesties proclamation to London for the adjourning of the Tearme being a greater misusage then Davids Messengers received from King Ammon imprisoning starving and undoing of any that durst but owne the King or send or bring any Message from him or his partie or that did but give any aide or assistance to him to which their Oathes and Consciences and the jugling Covenant they themselves took and forced upon them did obliege them shooting and cannonading of the Queene when shee came but to aid her husband and chasing and shooting after her at Sea a yeare after when shee was going back into France from him sequestring wives and mothers that did but relieve their husbands and childrens wants when they returned out of the Kings service putting thousands of Orthodox ministers out of their benefices and livelyhoods for using the Common-Prayer-Booke Preaching true Doâ—â—â—ne and obedience to the King or Praying for him at the same time when they pretended libertie of Conscience and preservation of Religion voting the Prince a Traytor for wishing well or being in companie with his Father for hee was too young to doe any thing else for him and making or rather supposing charges of high Treason against those that either fought for the King or counselled him how to defend himselfe for but obeying the knowne Lawes they themselves made the World believe they made some parte of the Warre for ordering all to dye without mercy that did but harbour the King when hee fled in a disguise before their armies condemning men by a Court martiall after the Warre was ended and shooting them to death but for words or intentions And if this and many things more might bee said of it bee not enough what meanes so many sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheepe and Oxen taken away from them since the Warre was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and Fathers undone for what their Wives or Children did without their privity the Mayor of London divers Aldermen Imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or somthing in pursnance of the Covenant they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with free quartering and Taxes kept up after the Warre was ended and the People like sheepe devoured to maintaine them so much complaining in our streets and taking away the fift part of many men in whole Counties as Essex Kent c. for joyning with some of the Kings forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up armes some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King out of Prison and causing the Soldiers not only to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of Petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and sequesteâ— many of them for putting their hands to it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any office in the City or Common-wealth for but putting their hands to the Petition for the Treaty though Cromwell himself had not long before set on som to Petition for it and the ruine and undoing of two parts of three in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Warres but were only sacrificed to their pretended reasons jealousies of State doe sufficiently Proclame and remaine the wofull Registers to after generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and a tender-heartednesse to hiâ— People as to have used but the five hundreth part of the Parliaments jealousies and sharpe and mercilesse authority in the mannaging of this Warre so much of his Kingdoms and People had not beene undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyn faults and scandalls against him nor to wrest the Lawes to non sence and the Scriptures
granted them that he might not seem to deny what might but seeme to bee for the good of his People every thing they could reasonably aske of him or hee could but reasonably tell how to part with though hee could not be ignorant but an ill use might be made of them against himselfe As the putting downe of the Starre-Chamber and high Commission Court the Courts of Honour and of the North and Welch marches Commissions for the making of Gun-powder allowing them approbation or nomination of the Lievetenant of the Tower and did all and more then all his Predecessors put together to remove their jealousies And when that would not doe it stood still and saw the game plaid on further Many Tumults raised many Libels and Scandalous Pamphlets publiquely Printed against His Person and Government and when hee complained of it in Parliament so little care was taken to redresse it as that the Peoples comming to Westminster in a Tumultuons manner set on and invited by Pennington and Ven two of the most active mechanick Sectaries of the house of Commons it was excused and called a Libertie of Petitioning And as for the Libels and Pamphlets the Licensing of Bookes before they should bee Printed and all other restraint of the Printing presses were taken away and complaints being made against Pamphlets and seditious bookes some of the Members of the house of Commons were heard to say the worke would not bee done without them and complaints being also made to Mr. Pym against some wicked men which were ill affected to the Government Hee answered It was not now a time to discourage their Friends but to make use of them And here being as many jealousies and feares as could possibly be raised or fancied without a ground on the one side against all the endeavours could bee used on the other side to remove them Wee shall in the next place take a view of the matter of Fact that followed upon them and bring before you CHAP. 2. The Proceedings betwixt the King and the Parliament from the Tumultuous and Seditious comming of the People to the Parliament and White-Hall till the 13 of September 1642. being 18 dayes after the King had set up His Standard at Nottingham VVHEN all the King could doe to bring the Parliament to a better understanding of Him did as they were pleased to make their advantage of it but make them seeme to bee the more unsatisfied that they might the better mis-represent Him to the People and petition out of his hands as much power as they could tell how to perswade him to grant them and that hee had proofes enow of what hath beene since written in the blood and hearts of His People That the five Members and Kimbolton intended to roote out Him and His Posterity subvert the Lawes and alter the Religion and Government of the Kingdome and had therefore sent his Serjeant at armes to demand their persons and Justice to bee done upon them instede of obedience to it an order was made That every man might rescue them and apprehend the Serjeant at armes for doing it which Parliament Records would blush at And Queene Elizabeth who was wont to answer her better composed Parliaments upon lesser occasions with a Cavete ne patientiam Principis laedatis and caused Parry a Doctor of the Civill Lawes and a Member of the house of Commons by the judgement and advice of as sage and learned a privy councell and Judges as any Prince in Christendome ever had to bee hang'd drawn and quartered for Treason in the old Palace of Westminster when the Parliament was sitting would have wondred at And 4. January 1641. desiring only to bring them to a legall-tryall and examination went in Person to demand them and found that his owne peaceable behaviour and fewer attendants then the two Speakers of the Parliament had afterwards when they brought a whole Army at their heeles to charge and fright away eleven of their fellow Members had all manner of evill constructions put upon it and that the Houses of Parliament had adjourned into London and occasioned such a sedition amongst the People as all the trayned bands of London must guard them by Land when there was no need of it and many Boats and Lighters armed with Sea-men and murdering-peeces by water and that unlesse Hee should have adventured the mischiefe and murder hath beene since committed upon him by those which at that time intended as much as they have done since it was high time to thinke of his owne safety and of so many others were concerned in it having left London but the day before upon a greater cause of feare thâ—n the Speakers of both Houses of Parliament in July 1647. to goe to the Army retires with the Prince his Sonne whom the Parliament laboured to seize and take into their custody in his company towards Yorke 8. January 1641. A Cimmittee of the house of Commons sitting in London resolved upon the question That the actions of the City of London for the defence of the Parliament were according to Law and if any man should arest or trouble any of them for it he is declared to be an enemy to the CoÌ„mon-wealth And when the King to quiet the Parliament 12 Jan. 1641. was pleased to signifie that for the present he would waive his proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton and assures the Parliament that upon all occasions hee will bee as carefull of their Priviledges as of his Life or his Crown Yet the next day after they Declared the Lord Digby's coming to Kingstone upon Thames but with a Coach and six horses in it to be in a Warlike manner and disturbance of the Common-wealth and take occasion thereupon to order the Sheriffes of all Counties in England and Wales with the assistance of the Justices of Peace and trayned bands of the severall Counties to suppresse any unlawfull assemblies and to secure the said Counties and all the Magazines in them 14 January 1641. The King by a second Message professeth to them hee never had the least intention of violating the least priviledg of Parliament and in case any doubt of breach of Priviledges remain will bee willing to cleere that and assert those by any reasonable way his Parliament shall advise him to But the Designe must have been laid by or miscarried if that should have beene taken for a satisfaction and therefore to make a quarell which needed not they Order the morrow after a Charge and Impeachment to bee made ready against Sir Edward Herbert the Kings Attorney-Generall for bringing into the House of Peeres the third of that instant January by the Kings direction a Charge or Accusation against Kimbolton and the five Members c. In February 1641. Seize upon the Towre of London the great Magazine and Store-house of the Kingdome and set some of the trayned-bands of London commanded by Major Generall Skippon to guard
Lord Keeper Littleton should bee Null and of no force in the Law and that a new Seale should bee provided The King therefore seeing what Hee must trust to 19. September 1642. Being at Wellington in Shrop-shire in the head of such small forces and friends as Hee could get together for the Parliament that very day had received letters That the King but the weeke before having a muster at Nottingham there appeared but about 3000. foote and 2000. horse and 1500. dragoones and that a great part of His men were not provided with armes made His Protestation and Promise as in the presence of almighty God and as Hee hoped for His blessing and protection to maintaine to the utmost of His power the true reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England and that Hee desired to governe by the knowne Lawes of the Land and that the Libertie and propertie of the Subject should be preserved with the same care as His owne just rights and to observe inviolably the Lawes consented to by Him in this Parliament and promised as in the sight of almighty God if Hee would please by His blessing upon that Army raised for His necessary defence to preserve Him from that Rebellion to maintaine the just priviledges and freedome of Parliament and governe by the known Lawes of the Land In the meane while if this time of Warre and the great necessity and straights Hee was driven to should beget any violation of them Hee hoped it would bee imputed by God and man to the Authours of the Warre and not to Him who had so earnestly desired and laboured for the Peace of the Kingdome and preservation thereof and that when Hee should faile in any of those particulars Hee would expect no aide or reliefe from any man nor protection from Heaven And now that the stage of Warre seemes to bee made ready and the parliament partie being the better furnished had not seldome shewed themselves and made severall traverses over it for indeede the King having so many necessities upon him and so out of power and provision for it might in that regard only if Hee had not beene so unwilling to have any hurt come to His People by his own defending of Himselfe bee backward and unwillingly drawn unto it wee may doe well to stand by and observe who cometh first to act upon it 22. Of September 1642. The Earle of Essex writeth from Warwick that hee was upon his march after the King and before the 6. of October following had written to the Countie of Warwick with all speede to raise their Trained bands and Voluntiers to resist his Forces if they should come that way and to the three Counties of Northampton Lecester and Darby to gather head and resist him if hee should retire into those parts and by all that can bee judged of a matter of fact so truely and faithfully represented must needes bee acknowledged to have great advantages of the King by the City and Tower of London Navy Shipping Armes Ammunition the Kings Magazine all the strong Townes of the Kingdome most of the Kingdomes plate and money the Parliament credit and high esteeme which at that time the People Idolized the fiery Zeale of a Seditious Clergie to preach the People into a Rebellion and the People head-long lie runing into the witcheraft of it When the King on the other side had little more to help him then the Lawes and Religion of the Land which at that time every man began to mis-conster and pull in peeces had neyther men horse armes ammunition ships places of strength nor money not any of his partie or followers after the Parliament had as it were proclaimed a Warre against Him could come single or in small numbers through any Towne or Village but were either openly assaulted or secretly betrayed no man could adventure to serve or owne him but must expose Himselfe and his Estate to bee ruined either by the Parliament or People or such as for malice or profit would informe against him All the gaines and places of preferment were on the Parliaments part and nothing but losses and mis-fortunes on the Kings No man was afraid to goe openly to the Parliaments side and no man durst openly so much as take acquaintance of his Soveraigne but if hee had done a quarter of that which Ziba did to David when hee brought him the 200. loaves of bread or old Barzillai or Ittay the Gittite when hee went along with him when his sonne Absolom rebelled against him They should never have escaped so well as they did but have beene sure to bee undone and sequestred for it So much of the affâ—ctions of the People had the Parliament cosened and stolne from them so much profit and preferment had they to perswade it and so much power to enforce those that otherwise had not a minde to it to fight against him Who thus every way encompassed about with dangers and like a Partridge hunted upon the Mountaines marcheth from Shrewsbury towards Banbury perswading and picking up what help and assistance His better for of Subjects durst adventure to afford Him in the way to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabboth then loose an opportunity of murdering their Soveraign Tâ—e Earle of Essex and Parliament Army powring in from all quarteâ—s of the kingdom upon him had compâ—ssâ—d Him in on all sides and before the King could put His men in battell Aray many of whom being young country fellows had no better armes then clubs and staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put His two young Sonnes the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Yorke in the guard of a troope of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earle of Essex's Cannon grazâ—d at His heeles as hee was kneeling at His prayers on the side of a bâ—â—ke for Blague a villaine in the Kings Army having a great Pension allowed Him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Annointed then of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earle of Essex was so loaden with Victories as hee left five of His men for one of the Kings dead behinde him lost his baggage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to blesse God in the field where Hee supped with such Victualls as the more Loyall and better naturd neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off His ordnance and marched to Banbury and yet hee could not forget to pitty those were at such paynes and hazard the day before to murther him but before
representatives will and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legall priviledges by setting up illegall and fantastique kinde of Priviledges as they are pleased to call them instead of them as there is nothing now left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor forme nor any thing at all remaining of it For the upper and lower houses have driven away and fought against the King who was their Head the lower after that have driven away the upper and fourtie-five of the house of Commons whereof eleven are great officers and commanders in the Army have after that imprisoned driven away foure hundred of their fellow members And from a degenerate and distemperate peece of a Parliament brought themselves to bee but a representative or journey-men-voters to a Councell of Warre of their owne mercenacy and mechanique Army and may sit another eight yeares before ever they shall bee able to finde a reason to satisfie any man is not a foole or a mad-man or a fellow Sharer in the spoiles of an abused and deluded Nation Why the Kings demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton by undeniable warrant of the Lawes of the Land and the Records and precedents of their owne houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamentall Lawes of the Kingdome which the Parliament and they themselves that were accused have more then once declared to bee Treason should bee taken to bee so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraigne when the forcing and over-awing the houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven members and imprisoning and bannishing some of them upon imaginary and fantasticall offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall bee reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the houses by the same army within a yeare afterwards by setting guards upon them violently pulling two of the members of the house of Commons out of the house and imprisoning them and 39. more of their fellow members all night in an Alehouse and leading them afterwards to severall prisons with guards set upon them as if they had beene common malefactors can bee called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten members out of the house of Commons But now that wee can finde nothing to make a defensive or Lawfull nor so much as a necessary warre on the Parliaments part for causa belli saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno et periculo the Parliament feares and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the People into a misery far beyound the utmost of what their feares and jealousies suggested to them did amount unto wee shall doe well to examine by the rules and lawes of warre and Nations the wayes and meanes they used in it Injustum censetur belium si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a Warre cannot bee just if it bee not made by a Lawfull authoritie Armorum delatio et prohibitio ad Principem spect at It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid armes and the Records of the Parliament which wee take to bee a better sence of the house then their owne purposes can informe them that the Prelates Earles Barons and Commonaltie of the Realme did in the seveneth yeare of the raigne of King Edw the first declare to the Kâ—ng That it belongeth and his part is through his Royall Signorie streightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall doe the contrary according to the Lawes and usages of the Realme and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraigne Lord the King at all seasons when neede shall bee How much adoe then will they have to make a warre against their Soveraigne to be Lawfull or if by any warrant of Lawes Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselves from their oathes of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledements of Subjection to the King finde a Supreame authority to bee in the People at the same time they swore an allegiance and obedience to the King and at the same time they not only stiled themselves but all those they represented to bee his Subjects Or how will they bee able to produce a warrant from the People their now pretended Soveraignes â—â—ll they shall bee able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a Warre to unâ—â—e them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should bee treated of by the King and his Lords for the defence of the King and his Kingdome Or how could a tenth parte of the People give warrant to them to fight against the King and the other nine parts of the People Or can that bee a good warrant when some of them were cheated and the other by plunderings and sequestrations forced to yeild to it Or could the pretence of a warre for defence of the Kings Person and to maintaine the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the People bee a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any thing for the King and People but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to doe every thing was contrary unto it But if that could have legitimated their actions as it never did or will bee able There is a two fold rule of Justice in the practise of Warre and Nations si bellum geratur sine denunciationâ— in captivos tanquam latrones animadverti possit It is a thievery rather than a Warre not to denounce or give notice of it beforehand and in that also the Parliament was faulty for they took Huâ—â— and Portsmouth and the Kings Navy and Magazine from him when hee hoped better things of them and sent out their Armies and the Earle of Essex against him whilest hee was in treaty with them and offered all that hee could for to have a peace with them Bellum item impium injustumque sit si modus debitus non observetur A Warre is unjust if their bee not a due way of proceedings held in it which especially consisteth in not hurting the innocent Church-men Husbandmen weake or impotent People as old men women and Children and in this also they will fall short of an excuse For how full is every Towne and Village of the truth as well as the complaints of the unchristian usage of old and sick people Women and Children beaten wounded or killed upon no provocation Women and Maids ravished and their fingers cut off for their rings old Best of Canturbury hanged up by the priviâ—ies others tortured and had burning matches tied to their fingers to make them confesse where their money was Women and Children and sick and aged Persons starved
for want of the sustenance they had taken from them Husbandmen had their corne and hay spoiled in the field and the barne their sheep cattel and provisions devoured houses ruined or burnt and their horses thay should help to plough and doe other workes of Husbandry taken away in so much as some were inforced to blinde and put out their horses eyes that they might not bee taken from them Churches that escaped defacing prophaned and made Stables or Goales or Victualing or Bawdy houses Monuments defaced and Sepulchers opened as were those of the Saxon Kings at Winchester and the Priests and Ministers not so much as sustered to weepe betwixt the Porch and the Altar but their benefices and livelyhood taken from them by Wolues put in the Shephards places had their bookes burned and all their meanes and maintenance plundred from them and those that were newtralls and medled on neither side but lived as quietly as they could either totally undone or cast in prison not for that they did them any hurt but because they might doe it and if they were not imprisoned their Lands money or goods were sure to bee in the fault and taken away from them Vt bellum illaesa conscientia geratur necesse est ut adsâ—t intentio bona there ought to bee a good intention to make the Warre conscionable which in this appeares to faile also For the Charge against the five Members is now as true as it was then they meant to ruine the King and they have don it and to alter the Government subvert the Religion Lawes and Liberties of the Kingdom and they have don a great part of it and as fast as they can are pulling down the remainder Quaerere debemus victoriam rationibus honestis ne salutem quidem turpibus Wee ought to pursue victory and the just ends of Warre by honest and Lawfull meanes and not to doe foule and dishonest things to procure our safety from the latter of which the made feares and jealousies which the Parliament made use of to usher in their pretences their fayning of victories and scandaling the King and his actions not to insist upon their buying the Kings servants and secrets Battells Townes and Garrisons and making too many Judases of all that were about him will hardly bee able to free them or if they could the making use of men and money intended for the support of Ireland and leaving them wallowing in their blood for seven years together whilest they were ruining their King that would have helped them violating of their oathes of allegiance and Supremacy which many of their members had taken six or seaven times over breaking their oathes taken in their protestation and Nationall Covenant and not so few as 100 solemne promises and undertakings in their severall Petitions Remonstrances and Declarations forcing the People to take the Protestation and Covenant and compell them as soone as they had taken it to breake them and by cosening and forcing them into Rebellions and perjuries cheate them out of their Religion Loyaltie Lawes and Liberties will without very good advocates bee sure enough to condemne them and if the great Turke carrying the Covenant which Ladislaus the unfortunate King of Hungary was perswaded to breake with him as an ensigne of publique detestation in the bettell wherein hee slew him invoked the God of the Christians to help him to revenge so grrat a treachery there will bee more reason now for all that are but Christians or but pretende to any morality to carry in their banner the pourtract of the Kings bleeding head as it was cut from his shoulders and make Warre in revenge of the maisterpiecee and totum aggregatum of all manner of wickednesle and perfidiousnesse who besides all their owne and the Peoples oaths taken to defend him when those they called Delinquents some few onely which were specially named and excepted for obeying the knowne Lawes of the Land as well as their oaths and Consciences were never questioned for their lives but suffered to compound for their estates would not suffer the King that was neither a Delinquent or Excepted Person to enjoy either his Life or Estate though to save his people and keepe them from killing one another hee yeilded himselfe and became a Prisoner upon the publique faith of the Kingdomes of England and Scotland Paxaequa non est recusanda Licet victoriae spes adsit saith Besoldus A good or fitting Peace is not to bee refused though the victory were certaine And in this also the Parliament will bee as farre to seeke for a justification as in the other For instead of offering any thing which was likely to bring it they caused men and women in the first yeare of their Warre to bee killed because they did but petition them to accept of a Peace and in the third and fourth yeare of their War plundred robbed others that petitioned them but to hearken to it and put out of office and made all as Delinquents in the seventh yeare of their War that did but petition them for a Treaty with the King and refused all the Kings many very many Messages for Peace not only when hee was at the highest of his successe in the war but when hee was at the lowest and a Prisoner to them and conjured them as they would answer at the dreadfull day of Judgement to pitty the bleeding conditions of his Kingdomes and People and send propositions of Peace unto him quarters and halfe yeares and more then a whole yeare together after the battell of Naseby insomuch as their fellow Rebells the Scotch Commissioners did heavily complaine of it were at severall times trifled away and spent before any propositions could bee made ready though those which they sent to Oxford Vxbridge Newcastle and Hampton-Court were but substantially and materially the same with their nineteâ—ne Propositions which they made unto the King before the Earle of Essex was made their Generall and in all the Treaties made Propositions for themselves and the Soveraignty and great offices and places of the Kingdome but would neither for Gods sake or their Kings sake or their Oathes or Consciences sake or the Peoples sake or Peace sake which the People petitioned and hungred and thirsted for alter or abate one Ioâ—a or tâ—ttle of them but were so unwilling to have any peace at all as 6 or 7 Messengers or Trumpeters could com from the King before they could be at leisure or so mannerly as to answer one of them but this or that Message from the King was received and read and laid by till a weeke or when they would after and the Kings Commissioners in the Treaties must forget their due titles of Earles Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the Warre or else must bee neither Treaty nor Peace there At Vxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. dayes and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King
the Tribe of Benjamin and the men of Gibeah for committing lewdnesse and folly in Israel that of David to rescue his Wives that were carried away captive by the Amalekites or to fetch home the Arc of God from the Philistines that which Ahab made with Benhadad the king of Syria who was not half so Tyrannical in his Propositions as the Parliament were aproved of in sacred Story or that which was made by Judas Machabeus and his Brethren to rescue the decayed Estate of the people of the Jewes or that which was used to be made by the heathen pro aris focis wer never yet so much as suspected to be unlawfull How shall this of the kings be condemned that had as much as Abraham David Ahab against Benhadad Judas Machabeus and the tribes of Israel or those heathens that made it pro aris socis put them altogether to warrant it Or by what reason or Law is any man by the Lawes of England excused for killing a man in his owne defence when hee is necessitated or hindred by a Wall or a Water that hee can goe no further or for killing theeves that come to assault or Rob him in his house or Castle If the King shall bee hunted from his house through all the parts and corners of his Kingdome for his Life and not only for his Life but his Honour and not only for his Life and Honour but his Conscience and yet must never draw his Sword or seeke to defend himselfe or have any body else to doe it for him Or how have all the Kings Princes and Magistrates of the world hitherto governed and defended themselves and their people or shall ever bee able to give an account of the people committed to their charge if they may not bee at libertie to make a Legall use of the sword power and reason God hath given them Or how can those State riddles like those of Sphinx only made to destroy men withall that they fought for the King and Parliament as is alledged in many of their Orders and Declarations and that the warre was a Rebellion raised against the King and Parliament as is expressed in the Ordinance of Parliament for association of the Counties of Pembroke Cardigan and Caermrthen bee ever understood by any rules of sence or reason if hee were on the offensive part of the warre and had begunne it against them But if any shall bee so in love with the sense of the house of Commons as to bee out of their own senses and think that though there bee no manner of evidence or proofe to bee had for love or money that the Parliament were constrained to defend themselves by a warre yet the Kings admitting of the Preamble of the Parliaments Propositions presented to him at the Isle of Wight that the Parliament was necessitated to take up Armes in their just and lawfull defence makes him who must needs be best acquainted with his owne actions to bee so clearly guiltie of all the blood hath beene shed in these warres as it puts to silence all that can bee now alledged or said in his behalfe They that made the preamble and placed it in limine and threshold of the Treatie on purpose to catch and insnare him for either hee must have denied it at the very beginning and entrance into the Treatie and leave his Kingdomes and People to wallow in the blood and miserie their Parliament Idols had brought them to and have all the blame laid upon him for hindring a Peace hee had so much longed and laboured for or put himselfe and all his Loyall Subjects that helped to defend him under the burden of those Sinnes and Shames the Parliament themselves had all the right to can tell their undone and deluded Proselites how much the King stuck at it how unwilling hee was to breake off the Treatie and was unwilling to wrong his owne Innocency and that when the Parliament Commissioners had not any thing either in Law or Truth or Reason or Argument to perswade him to yeild unto it but laid it only as a case of necessitie before him though there was no such preamble at the Treaties of Oxford and Vxbridge nor any such necessity at those times insisted upon that unlesse hee would take the guilt upon himselfe his two Houses of Parliament and the People had engaged with them must necessarily bee guilty of Treason and could not have any security from the guilt and punishment The King bemoaning himselfe and people that must bee thus shut out from any hopes of peace intreated some expedient or medium might bee found out to reconcile the difference But Cains sinnes being greater then could bee forgiven him unlesse Abell can bee brought to say hee killed Cain they that could afterward finde an expedient for 21. of their great Councell of estate that refused to subscribe to the Lawfullnesse of murdering the King after it was done could finde none at all for the King to purchase a peace for the People though many kinds of wayes and expedients as allowing him to make the like preamble to his owne proposition or the like might have beene easily contrived and thought upon For the truth was the Independent partie desired no Peace at all and the Preshyterian desired it only to get into their hands the Kings Power and Authoritie and lay the guilt of all the blood they had shed for it upon him and â—oth of them were so well content to have him allow of the preamble as the latter thought himselfe safe and out of controversie if the King tooke the blood upon him and the former that it would prove no small advantage or colour to take away his Life for confessing himselfe guilty of it by allowing of the preamble in this unparalel'd demand never before stood upon by Subjectâ— to their Prince or Conquerours to their Captives Nero himselfe was so farre short of as though hee had cuuning enough when hee set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they did it The King after Protestation that hee could not without a manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of his Honour and Conscience take upon him a guilt could no way bee charged upon him or those that appeared in his defence was yet for peace sake and his peoples sake content to say It will bee a great self deny all to take this supposition of a guilt upon my selfe and a Christian virtue to undergoe any affliction that may bee for the good of my People and I am confident those that have adventured so much for me will bee content to share with me for so good a purpose in the suffering for it I shall therefore Conditionally consent to the Preamble so as there follow a conclusion upon the whole matter in Treaty and Propositions betwixt us otherwise it is but sub modo
to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Lawes and Liberties of his People who are now cleerely cheated out of them And here our misery tells us wee must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeede it is so playne it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered faireliest for it TH' abundant satisfaction the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving him who gave them all their Life and Being That which he did and all which hee would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie were beleeved and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or ingaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or look't to have any profit in the murthering of him for a tryall of a King without either warrant or colour of Scripture or the Lawes of the Kingdom or the consent of the major part of the People if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages bee otherwise interpreted unlesse wee shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the fourth of France if hee had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will bee as Pillars and lasting-Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tuggedâ—â—rder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty-God did his first days work did ever doe with Superiors Equalls or Subjects it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all christian Churches complayning so bitterly that he sought Peace with those that refused it and in the meane time prepared for warre against him To say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for Peace then ever hee did for any thing is extanc or appearing to us for surely so many messages of Peace as one and twentie in two yeares space from the 5. of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could bee imagined to bee for the good and safety of his People and condemne those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and riune of the People could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for terme of his life and in a manner to un-king himselfe and was afterwards content to doe all that his Coronation-Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to doe and to purchase a Peace for his People was content to have borne the shame and reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himselfe and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed the king had offered so much as nothing more could bee demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledge the King offered all and the Parliament refused all The King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing The King was willing for the good of his People to give away almost every thing of his owne but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their owne And thus may the account bee quickly cast up betweene the King and Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that wee may not too hastily give the sentence to try the businesse as they use to doe at the Counsell of Warre or the new Invented way of Justicel sitting with their Will or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other Wee shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who Laboured to Shorten the Warre and who to Lengthen it THe ods was so great betwixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that which swayes the ballance in most mens actions will bee argument enough to conclude they were more likely to loose by a peace then a war therfore the more willing to continue it and if their owne interests would not put them so farre upon it their vaine glorie and ambition would bee forward enough to perswade them to it and if not that the successe of their armes or miscalled providence would make them looke as experience tells us they did upon any tenders of peace as Alexander the great did upon Darius his offer of halfe his Kingdome and if not that their feares and jealousies now growne greater by wronging of the King then ever they were when they suspected him could never think it safe to let an inraged Lion into his den they had so long kept out of it But the King could not fight for his owne but hee must adventure the undoing of his owne and could not but know that so much as was lost of his Subjects would bee so much lost of a King and therefore doth all hee can to preserve a People had no minde to preserve themselves and before hee had gathered up the bayes hee wonne at Edge-hill sends a Proclamation of pardon to those that the day before did all they could to kill him and in all his actions of warre afterward behaved himselfe rather like a weeping father defending himselfe against the strokes and violence of disobedient Children Had the Parliament accepted of his offers before hee came to Beverley or besieged Hull hee had never set up his Standard at Nottingham or had they loved his People but halfe so much as he did their Armies had never seen his Banners displaid at Edge-hill Had they hearkned to his many endeavors for Peace after that battell and not sought to surround or ruine him when hee came so neere as to their very doores to intreat for it they had never beene troubled to frame an accusation against him for defending himselfe at Braynford Had his Treaty at Oxford beene proceeded in with the same desires of Peace hee brought to it the blood that was shed at Caversham-bridge had beene kept for better purposes had hee sought his owne advantages hee had not besieged Glocester or had hee not beene so unwilling to put the People in it to the hazard of a storme might have taken it had they not sent their Generall to assault him at Glocester whil'st hee was as David besieging the strong hold of the Jebusites