Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	king_n	parliament_n	prerogative_n	1,812	5	9.9546	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80477	The copy of a letter, sent from a well affected gentleman of the county of Surrey, to a gentleman in Kent. Communicating unto him the whole processe of that horrid massacre in Westminster, on Tuesday, May the 16. Together, vvith his owne, and others sense thereupon, in relation to the good of both counties.		1648 (1648)	Wing C6141; Thomason E445_3; Thomason E445_11; ESTC R204768	3,523	8

THE COPY OF A LETTER Sent from a well affected Gentleman of the County of Surrey to a Gentleman in Kent Communicating unto him the whole processe of that horrid Massacre in Westminster on Tuesday May the 16. TOGETHER VVith his owne and others sense thereupon in relation to the good of both Counties Printed in the Yeare 1648. The Surry Mens Declaration c. Sir WEe are certainely informed in our parts That you in Kent are preparing an addresse unto the Parliament in a petitionary way a course which without reflection upon our selvs we cannot censure as having been newly engaged in that same way But when we shall have given you a just account of our successe which you have I suppose received imperfectly and by peece-meale already you may perhaps become more plyable to other resolutions It was thus Wee came on Teusday last in as innocent a posture as men could devise to Westminster with our Petition we had before hand made our application to the Lord Mayor desiring free passage through the City which wee found and though wee were able to come much better appointed yet none sure a few Gentlemen that doe not use to ride without them had so much as a Sword by their side When we came to the Parliament our Petition was received and an answer promised which we have now wit enough to beleeve was no other but this that the Souldiers bespoken before and then fetched by one Member of the House of Lords and two of the House of Commons as we are credibly informed from Whitehall and the Mewes were let loose upon our innocent and unarmed men who poore soules having nothing else in their expectation but an answer of their Petition were most unhumanely shot and hackt and hewde and scarce so well as butchered whiles the Countrymen whatsoever is impudently pretended to the contrary by shamelesse men did not so much as lift up their empty hands unlesse it were by instinct to save their heads No occasion was given by them though very artificiall provocations were offered them to force a quarrell save onely that the poore men sayd impardonable crime that They would have their King againe Some whose interest it is to make all things just that are done by that shadow of authority have most miraculously made the unfortunate sufferers drunke after they were dead they were not I assure you before and I am confident some of them as far of the day as it was lost their lives as fresh and fasting as they arose out of their beds Nor did these gallant Murtherers use my Countreymen worse then they did others the necessi●y of so pious a worke it seemes dispencing with any respect of persons or else the haste of it bearing all things downe before it for the men that cryed nothing but Oares and Scullers fared as if they had beene Surrey Petitioners a Miller was slaine and stript for that great sin of having sixty peeces in his pocket whilst one of the new Courtiers of Whitehall had not so much There were slaine outright and dead since of their wounds two or three dayes after no lesse then thirty of the poore Innocents and many more will never recover Who shall answer for this God knowes but I am sure their blood lyes at the Parliaments doore and calls for justice in the very Courts of justice I beleeve and though I say it I have read some Histories that this is the first time since its foundations were layd that that reverend Hall from which Law and justice hath beene peaceably conveyed to all parts of the Kingdome for this four hundred and fifty yeares was made a field of blood and a stage whereon mercenary Souldiers were authorised and commanded to act their furious parts And though the Souldiers might very well have satisfied themselves that with free quarter and contributions they left us sufficiently poore yet to bee sure they dived into the pockets not onely of the slaine whom they stript also of their cloathes unto which doubtlesse their poore Widdowes and Orphans had more right and of the Prisoners whose lives out of the aboundance of their charity they saved but also of diverse Gentlemen and Citizens who had the misfortune to be there present for then and there two hundred sixty and odde most of them strangers to our Petition had their pockets pickt and many were glad they escaped with the losse of their cloakes and hats into the bargaine Thus Sir as briefly as I could I have given you an answer of our Petition an answer promised unto us a weeke beforehand both by a Parliament man and an Assembly man though wee had more mistaken charity then to beleeve either of them An answer which the Parliament avow to be their owne in so disclaiming it for they referred the examination and punishment of the Souldiers whom underhand they incouraged unto their owne Commanders and what that signifies I need not tell you Good God! that the Kings Bench which used to have a further reach cannot now bee permitted the Cognizance of horrible Murthers committed within sight and hearing of the Court I shall onely adde thus much which I received from an eare witnesse that the Souldiers when they had got this honourable victory whispered among themselvs whether they should depart before they had the money was promised them This Sir was our successe in our Petition if you goe on with yours I wish you better You and I can neither of us forget what then wee both approved that when the King complained of Tumults which were too truely so not much above sixe yeares agoe the Parliament declared that if the Subjects came up unto them with a Petition though they were ten thousand though a hundred thousand though a million yet it was no tumult because it was the undoubted right of the subject to petition And then Mr. Fines made a learned Speech to that effect Yet when we now made an appearance of scarce a thousand in as harmelesse a manner as nothing could bee more because it did not jumpe with the humour of a few Traiterous Heretiques or Atheists ours is called and Pampleted by every Rogue A Tumult at Westminster on Tuesday last and the suppressors forsooth of it had the thanks of the House No tumult then and a tumult now have wee acquir'd at this great price not onely a moveable Religion but moveable Law and reason too Wee see the inconvenience there is in having a Parliament sit so long till they forget their owne resolutions and when they have left nothing else to confute fall a confuting themselves but this is not the first time they have done so Wee see into what a condition we have brought our selves I confesse it is all the reason in the world that they that will buy their slavery should have a good pennyworth but though we have payd our money before hand I hope it is in our power to recal the bargaine wee have been so grosly cheated that in all equity we ought to have reliefe We expected a reformation of the Church which I cannot tell whether needed or no and they have sent us men who give us stones for bread we thought our selves much intrenched upon by the Kings Prerogative but finde the Priviledges of a shuffled Parliament much more boundlesse we were perswaded against our senses to beleeve the Kingdome was impoverished whilst they by an easie retrograde Alchymie have turned all our Gold into Iron Which by my consent they shall feele whiles wee are yet so able as to mixe a little steele with it I know you to be a Gentleman of much power in your Country and I am sure neither of us have been so active in this wrong way but that our future service to our too much abused King may easily redeeme his favour and our owne reputations we have neither been Committee-men nor Sequestrators nor have either of us got so much by ●he times as to purchase Bishops lands We see our selvs lool●● upon with as ill and suspicious an eye as if we had been which I could wish we had been Malignants all this while Now when we awake out of that sleepe into which their Opium hath cast us we finde our selves greater slaves then any in Europe nay greater then any in Turky except poore Captives If we release not our selves we shall never be able to answer it to the King nor his nor our posterity nor scarce having these opportunities offered to our selves neither Why should we put that off which first or last we shall be inforced to doe especially when we shall never be our owne men till we doe it Therefore if I be worthy to advise lay aside your Petition let our answer serve you though we onely pay for it let your County and ours come into our wits together Cavaliers would say honesties too there is no doubt but not onely Essex but all the Counties in England successively and some as quick as you can will joyne with us which will at once expiate our offences and bring us a double blessing an old King and a new Parliament Or if you be resolved to goe on with your Petition lest you receive as sharpe an answer or sharper then we did take example from our Masters dear Brethren you may doe it with more honesty and come with a supplication in one hand and a sword in the other And be sure that you trust more to your swords then your supplication it being too apparant that the Parliament love to receive none of these except it be of their owne drawing But with those if we stick close unto one another as we are resolved to doe and especially if you will joyne with us we hope by the blessing of God to redeeme ourselves out of sl●very and to doe an acceptable service to God the King and Kingdome This I assure you is the sence of this whole County which you will suddenly understand from other hands c. Sir I am Your c. FINIS