Isle of Wight for a certain Letter was left on the Table whereby the King was advertised the there were some that laid wait for his life whereupon being frighted he privily fled from Hampton Court leaving a Letter behinde him written with his own hand to the Commissioners to be by them communicated to both Houses of Parliament in which Letter after he had discoursed somewhat about Captivity and the sweetness of Liberty he ended in these following words Now as I cannot deny but that my personal security is the urgent cause of this my retirement so I take God to witness that the publick Peace is no less before mine eyes And I can sinde no better way to express this my profession I know not what a wiser man may do then by desiring and urging that all chief interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction as for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to consent ought in my judgement to enjoy the liberty of their consciences and have an act of Oblivion or Indempnity which should extend to the rest of all my Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindered from using such lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let me be heard with freedom honour and safety and I shall instantly break through this cloud of retirement and shew my self ready to be Pater Patriae Charles Rex The King had not been long in the Isle of Wight but he sends a Letter of great length to the Parliament in which he delivered his sense and opinion concerning the abolition of Episcopacy he disputed out of the dictates of his conscience much and gave touches also of other matters of all which he hoped that he should satisfie the Parliament with his reasons if he might personally treat with them therefore he earnestly desired to be admitted with honour freedom and safety to treat personally at London the Commissioners of Scotland with great vehemence also pressed that this desire of the King might be granted But the Parliament pretending tumults and innovations that might arise by the Kings coming to London which as they said was then full of Malignants sent down four Propositions to him to Sign which being done he should be admitted to a personal Treaty The four were these 1. That a Bill be passed into an act by his Majesty for settling of the Militia of the Kingdom 2. That a Bil be passed for his Majesties calling in of all Declarations Oaths and Proclamations against the Parliament and those who have adhered to them 3. For passing an Act that those Lords who were made after the great Seal was carried to Oxford may be made uncapable of sitting in the House of Peers ever after 4. That power may be given to the two Houses of Parliament to adjorn as the two Houses of Parliament should think fit The Commissioners of Scotland would seem in no wise to give their consent that these four Bills should be sent to the King before he treated at London therefore in a very long Declaration they protested against it the King likewise denyed to Sign them when they were sent unto him Upon which denyal a Declaration and Votes passed both Houses of Parliament in this manner The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament after many addresses to his Majesty for the preventing and ending this unnatural War raised by him against the Parliament and Kingdom having lately sent four Bills to his Majesty which did contain onely matter of safety and security to the Parliament and Kingdom referring the composure of other differences to a personal Treaty with his Majesty and having received an absolute negative do hold themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavours speedily to settle the present Government in such a way as may bring the greatest security to this Kingdom in the enjoyment of the Laws and Liberties thereof and in order thereunto and that the Houses may receive no delay nor interruptions in so great and necessary a work they have taken their resolutions and passed these Votes following viz. Resolved c. by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that no application or address to be made to the King by any person whatsoever without leave of both Houses Resolved c. by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the person or persons that shall make breach of this order shall incur the penalty of High Treason Resolved c. That the Lords and Commons do declare that they will receive no more any message from the King and do enjoyn that no person whatsoever do presume to receive or bring any message from the King to both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any other person To these Votes of Parliament the Army declared their consent and approbation and that they would live and dye in defence of the House of Commons but the people though before they were enraged against the King now seeing their errours resolved to plead his Cause Petitions upon Petitions are presented for a personal Treaty with the King for the disbanding of the Army and for the removal of all other grievances Langhorn Powel and Poyer three eminent Commanders who had done many and great services for the Parliament now declare themselves for the King and with an Army of 8000. men fortifie Pembroke and Chepstow Castles Sir Thomas Glemham in the North seizes upon Carlisle and Sir Marmaduke Langdale upon Barwick and fortified it the strong Castle also of Pomfret was then taken by the Royalists and the Governour stain Against these Sir Thomas Fairfax was marching Northwards but far greater dangers detained him in the South for the Kentish men not far from Gravesend were gotten together into an Army with whom were above twenty Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Countrey and amongst them divers Commanders formerly of the Kings Armies upon the approach of the Parliaments Army some two thousand of them march to Maidstone which they resolved to make good against the Army Fairfax after the dispute of some passages breaks up to them and assaults the Town with a great deal of boldness they on the other side defend themselves with unspeakable courage at last the Kentish men are overcome 200. being slain and about 1400. taken prisoners But the Earl of Norwich with about 3500. with much ado kept together and got over the River Thames into Essex whereupon Sir Charles Lucas raises what strength he could possible in that County to whom joyned the Lord Capel the Lord Loughborough Sir George Lisle Sir Bernard Gascoigne Sir William Compton with many more Gentlemen and Souldiers and having first taken the Committee-men at Chelmesford they marched to Colchester a Town of great Antiquity but the people heretofore accounted no great friends to Monarchy nor the Town of that strength to withstand so enraged
of Northumberland which lieth betwixt Tweed Cumberland and Stanemore doing homage to the Kings of England for the same By this Peace was Edgar Atheling and those other male-contented Lords restored to the Kings favour for William although a Martial Prince sought to establish his Crown rather by Peace then by the Sword which made him the more apt to forget former injuries And no doubt but this his too much lenity was one principle cause of his continual troubles for Edwin and Morcar the two stout Earls mentioned before combining with Fretherick Abbot of St. Albanes fell into a new conspiracy setting up Edgar Atheling once again their Generall William storming at these disloyal attempts with a mighty power hastneth against them who desperately bent to maintain what they had begun resolved to make the Sword their Judge but King William loath to lose that with shame which he had gotten by the effusion of so much blood prevailed so far with them that an Assembly was appointed to meet at Berkhamsted where he solemnly sware upon the Holy Evangelists and the Reliques of St. Albane the Martyr inviolably to observe the Ancient Laws of this Land especially those compiled by King Edward the Confessor which so wrought him into their good opinions that they all forthwith laid down their weapons But the storme being past the danger was soon forgotten and these mountains promises proved but molehill performances for notwithstanding his oath he dealt more roughly with the English now then before thrusting some into Exile and depriving others of their Lands which he bestowed upon his Normans whose Charters were of a far other tenour forme and brevity then those tedious and perplexed Conveyances since in use as may appear by this one taken out of on old Chronicle in the Library at Richmont I William King the third year of my reign Give to thee Norman Hunter to me that are both leef and dear The hop and the hopton and all the bounds up and down Vnder the Earth to Hell above the earth to Heaven From me and mine to thee and to thine As good and as fair as ever they mine were To witness that this is sooth I bite the white wax with my tooth Before Jug Maud and Marjery and my youngest sonne Henry For a Bow and a broad Arrow when I come to hunt upon Yarrow Nor need we wonder the King was so liberal to the Hunter since he himself loved hunting so well that to maintain his game he depopulated above 30. miles in Hampshire where had been saith Carton twenty six Towns and eighty Religious Houses so that where before God was Worshipped now wilde Beasts grazed a sin which God punished in his posterity his two sons William and Richard and his grandchilde Richard son to Duke Robert coming there to untimely ends which place was then and is to this day called by the name of the New Forrest The more to inrich his Coffers he laid great Subsidies upon the Land causing a strict Survey to be taken of the whole Kingdom exacting six shillings for every hide of Land to the so great impoverishing of the English Nation that they grievously groaned under their miserable estate nor would he permit any English man to bear any office of credit or countenance The English to ingratiate themselves with the Conquerour being forced to leave off their former customs and habits conforming themselves to the fashions of the Normans so that England was now wholly become French excepting Kent which retained their former Customs a long time after Towards the conclusion of his reign dissentions betwixt Philip King of France and him drew him once more over into Normandy where falling sick and keeping his bed more then he used to do the French King hearing that his disease was in his belly scoffingly said Our Cousin William is laid now in Childe-bed Oh! what a number of Candles must I offer at his going to Church surely I think a hundred thousand will not suffice This French frump being told to King William he made this answer Well our Cousin of France I trust shall be at no such cost but after this my Child-birth at my going to Church I will finde him one thousand Candles and light them my self And accordingly towards August following he enters France with a mighty Army spoiling all the West parts thereof before him And lastly set the City Meux on fire wherein he consumed the fair Church of our Lady in the Walls whereof were enclosed two Anchorites who might but would not escape holding it a breach of their Religious Vow to forsake their Cell though in never such extremity and so became their own murtherers The King busied in these attempts cheered his men to feed the fire and came himself so near the flames that with the heat of his harness he got a sickness which was encreased by the leap of his horse that burst the inward rim of his belly that returning to Roan he shortly after ended his life He was buried at Caen in Normandy in the Abby Church of Saint Stephen the first Christian Martyr to the Monks whereof he bequeathed two Mannors in Dorcetshire one Mannor in Devonshire another in Essex much Lands in Barkshire some in Norfolk a Mansion house in Woodstreet of London with many Advowsions of Churches as also his Crown and Regal Ornaments thereto belonging which his son Henry afterwards redeemed with the Mannor of Brideton in Dorcetshire his Tomb was afterwards opened by the Bishop of Bayeux in Anno. 1542. wherein was found a gilt Plate of Brass and this Epitaph engraven thereon Qui rexit rigidos Northmanos atque Britanos Audacter vicit fortiter obtinuit Et Caenomenses virtute coercuit enses Imperiique sui legibus applicuit Rex magnus parva jacet hac Gulielmus in urna Sufficit magno parva domus domino Ter septem gradibus se volverat atque duobus Virginis in gremio Phoebus hic obiit In English He that the sturdy Normans rul'd and over English raign'd And stoutly won and strongly kept what he so had obtain'd And did the swords of those of Mains by force bring under awe And made them under his command live subject to his law This great King William lieth here entomb'd in little Grave So great a Lord so small a house sufficeth him to have When Phoebus in the Virgins lap his circled course apply'd And twenty three degrees had past even at that time he dyed The Life of THOMAS BECKET Archbishop of Canterbury THomas Becket was the Son of one Gilbert Becket a Person of good Alliance and Riches who in his youth travelling to Jerusalem as he returned was taken prisoner by a Saracen Admiral with whom he remained a year and a half during which time the onely Daughter of the Admiral was so taken with his carriage and qualities that he having by flight obtained his liberty she wounded with his love abandoned her Fathers House and Countrey and followed him secretly into
that some conclude his death was for necessity and rather for the satisfaction of rancourous apprehensions then for any guiltiness in the cause The lower House perceiving by the Lieutenants insinuating and witty defences a great encrease of his friends in the Lords House they resolved of no more hearing of him in publique but to draw up a Bill of Attainder and present the same to the Lords whereby first the matter of Fact should be declared to have been sufficiently proved and then in the matter of Law that he had incurred the censure of Treason for intending to subvert the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdom And they were confident the Lords would ratifie and approve of this Bill of theirs and give judgement accordingly But the Lords fearing such Proceedings as a beaten path troden out to the ruine of their own lives and estates told the House of Commons that they themselves as competent Judges would by themselves onely give sentence in the Cause nor was there course suitable to the practise and State of the Kingdom the safety of the Nobility or to Equity or common Justice It was replied by them of the Lower House that they were resolved to go on with their Bill and if the same should be rejected by the Lords they feared a rupture and division might follow to the utter ruine and desolation of the whole Kingdom That no content would be given to the Subject unless the man who had so much intruded upon their right and discontented the people might be punished as a Traytour and dealt withal according to his demerits But the Lords were resolute in their first determinations and resolved to give him a fair hearing in the matter of Law whereupon his Councel were called to the Bar Master Lane the Princes Attorney Master Gardiner Recorder of London Master Loe and Master Lightfoot who spake both much and to the purpose Yet would this nothing satisfie the House of Commons no though the King in person in a set Speech declared unto them That there never was such a project nor had the Lord Strafford ever offered such advice for the transporting of an Irish Army into England neither had advised him to establish an Arbitrary Government that he would never in heart nor hand concur with them to punish him as a Traytour and desir'd therefore that they would think of some other way how the business might be composed Nor should it ever be less dear to him though with the loss of his dearest blood to protect the innocent then to punish the guilty But this made the House of Commons a great deal the more pressing fearing by the Kings peremptory answer that there was some plot underhand But the House of Commons were not so much inflamed by the Kings Speech as the common people who to the number of five or six thousand having Weapons and Battoons in their hands came to VVestminster and at the entering at every Coach cryed out for speedy justice and execution with a wonderful and strange noise After this they drew up the names of those either in the House of Commons or the House of Lords whom they imagined to favour the Lieutenant and gave them the Title of Straffordians with this close That all those and all other enemies to the Common-wealth should perish with him and did post up the names of fifty five at the Corner of Sir William Brunkards house in the old Pallace-yard in Westminster writing underneath This and more shall be done to the Enemies of Justice afore-written The House of Commons in the mean time were not idle but brought forth a Protestation or band of Association as they termed it much like the Covenant taken not long before in Scotland which without further process or delay was subscribed by the whole House except the Lord Digby and an Uncle or Friend of his Not long after the Bill against the Lord Stafford past the Lords there were forty five present of which nineteen voyced for him and twenty six against him the greatest part of his friends absented themselves upon pretence whether true or suppositious that they feared the multitude otherwise his suffrages had more then counterpoised the voters for his death Nothing wanted now but the Kings assent to this Bill which the same afternoon was desired of him the King desired respite for two dayes consulting in the mean time with some Bishops and Judges what to do in this case who as the sequel shows advised him thereunto so that we may herein admire at the wonderful Providence of God to suffer not onely the King and the Country but the Church too to be involved in his blood who had stood so stiffly in the Churches maintenance But nothing gained his Majesties assent thereunto so much as a Letter from the Lieutenant himself wherein he desired his Majesty that for the preventing of such mischiefs as might happen by his refusal to pass the Bill intimating his consent therein as this following Letter of his testifies May it please your sacred Majesty It hath been my greatest grief in all these troubles to be taken as a person which should endeavour to represent and set things amiss between your Majesty and your people and to give Counsels tending to the disquiet of the three Kingdoms Most true it is that this mine own private condition considered it hath been a great madness since through your gracious favour I was so provided as not to expect in any kinde to mend my fortune or please my minde more then by resting where your bounteous hands had placed me Nay it is most mightily mistaken for unto your Majesty it is well known my poor and humble advises concluded still in this That your Majesty and your people could never be happy till there were a right understanding betwixt you and them no other means to effect and settle this happiness but by the Councel and assent of the Parliament or to prevent the growing evils upon this State but by intirely putting your self in the last resort upon the loyalty and good affections of your English Subjects Yet such is my misfortune this truth findeth little credit the contrary seemeth generally to be believed and my self reputed as something of separation between you and your people under a heavier censure then which I am perswaded no Gentleman can suffer Now I understand the mindes of men are more incensed against me notwithstanding your Majesty hath declared that in your Princely opinion I am not guilty of treason nor are you satisfied in your conscience to pass the Bill This bringeth me into a very great strait there is before me the ruine of my Children and Family hitherto untouched in all the branches of it with any foul crimes Here is before me the many ills which may befal your sacred Person and the whole Kingdom should your self and Parliament part less satisfied one with the other then is necessary for the preservation both of King and people Here are before me
undertake his cause and use his best endeavours The King applauding his magnanimous resolution giving him thanks encouraged him to fit himself chearfully for so great a work and the better to carry on the design the King sent the Earl of Antrim into Ireland who engaged himself to be with Montross in Argile a part of Scotland bordering upon Ireland with ten thousand men by the first of April 1644. this promise being past to him in December 1643. for a sTock of men to set up withal the King wrote to the Marquess of New Castle to furnish him with aid and sent Sir John Cockeram his Ambassadour with a Commission and Instruction for forreign Aids and Arms. This being done he sets forward in his journey from Oxford towards Scotland having in his company about two hundred Horse most of them Noblemen and Gentlemen who had formerly been Commanders in Forreign Countreys Being come to Durham he sends the Kings Instructions to the Marquess of Newcastle and the next day they met and conferred but Newcastles wants were so great that he could spare him at present onely an hundred Horse and two Brasse Field Peeces but sent his Orders to his Officers and Commanders in Cumberland and Westmerland to afford him all the assistance they could who accordingly met him near to Carlile with eight hundred Foot and three Troops of Horse With these small Forces he enters Scotland but having come to the River Anan upon occasion of a Mutiny among the English most of them fly their Colours and run back to England Notwithstanding he with his own men came to Dumfrise and took the Town into protection upon surrender where he stayed a while that he might be ready to entertain Antrim and his Irish but the time appointed being past and no news stirring of them the Covenanters gathering themselves together on every side to secure himself from being surprized he returns to Carlile And not loving to lie idle joyns with the Kings Forces in Northumberland takes the Town and Castle of Morpet as also an hundred Foot at the mouth of the River of Tine and afterwards victuals New Castle then intending to joyn his Forces with Prince Rupert who was coming to raise the Siege at York he made all the haste he could but met him not till he was upon his retreat the day after that unfortunate Battle All things thus failing him he returns to Carlile and sends the Lord Ogleby and Sir William Rolluck disguised into Scotland to discover the state of the Countrey who returning back brought him word that all things were in a desperate condition and therefore counselled him to bend his course some other way But Montross thinking it unworthiness in him to despair of so good a cause resolves upon a strange adventure for delivering those few Gentlemen that had been constant unto him to the Lord Ogleby to be conducted to the King he with Sir William Rolluck and one Sibbald being disguized entred Scotland Montross passing as Sibbalds man Thus making all the haste they could they came at last to the house of his Couzen Patrick Graham of Innisbrake not far from the River of Tay in the Sherifdom of Perth not long had he been there but he receives news of eleven hundred of Irish sent over by Antrim who were then upon the Mountains who being made to understand of his being there they came marching unto him and submitted to his command The next day the men of Athol to the number of eight hundred put themselves in Arms and joyned with Montross so that now having gotten this handful of men he desires to be in action impatient therefore of further delay he marches from thence with a resolution to set upon his enemies and having marched as far as Bucknith five hundred more under the command of the Lord Kilpont Son to the Earl of Taith joyned with him by whom he understood that the Covenanters were thick in Arms at a Rendezvouz at Perth whereupon with all the haste he could he speedeth thither these were commanded by the Lord Elcho who upon Montrosses approach provided to fight they were in number six thousand Foot and seven hundred Horse so that contemning the paucity of their enemies they grew to a foolish confidence of Victory but Montross so well ordered his Army that their confidence failed them for joyning Battel they were overthrown two thousand being slain and more taken prisoners The City of Perth upon this overthrow submitted her self to the Conquerour to whom he did not the least harm where having staid three dayes many of his Athol men returning home he marches with the rest of his Forces to Aberdeen but the Town having a strong Garrison therein refused to submit and he thinking it no wisdom to hazard the honour he had gotten by his late Victory upon the doubtful success of a Siege turns away towards Esk whither came to him the Lord Ogleby with his two Sons Sir Thomas and Sir David who with admirable constancy continued with him to the very end of the War And now receiving intelligence that an Army of the Covenanters under the command of the Lord Burleigh lay at Aberdeen with long marches he hies thither sets upon them and after a long fight puts them to the rout with the loss of almost all their Foot who flying for refuge unto the City Montrosses men came in thronging amongst them through the Gates and Posterns and laid them on heaps all over the Streets This Battel was fought September the 12. 1644. After this defeat Montross calling his Souldiers back to their Colours entred the City and allowed them two dayes rest In the mean time news was brought that Argile was hard by with far greater Forces then those they had dealt with last whereupon he removes to Kintor a Village ten miles off from Aberdeen expecting some of the Gordons would have joyned with him but none appearing he resolved to withdraw his Forces into the Mountains and Fastnesses for though he had fought twice indeed very prosperously it could not be expected that seeing he was so beset on all sides with great and numerous Armies he should be able to hold out alwayes without relief whereupon hiding his Ordnance in a Bog he marches to an old Castle called Rothmurk intending to pass over the River of Spey but on the other side were the number of five thousand up in Arms to hinder his passage wherefore to save his Army from being oppressed with the enemies Horse he turned into Badenoth a Rocky and Mountainous Countrey here he fell very dangerously sick but recovering again he sends Mac-donel who commanded the Irish with a Party into the Highlands to invite them to take up Arms with him and if they would not be invited to force them he himself passes into the North of Scotland and having staid a while for recruit at Strathbogy he removed to Faivy Castle and possest it Secure now as he thought from Argile his confidence had well near
his first principles of self-denying he having before waved many advantages of the times to make certain his Protectorship which was to grasp all at once The Articles of the Government to which he signed are as followeth 1. That his Excellency be chief Protector of the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland 2. That he will call to his assistance Councellours not under the number of thirteen nor above twenty one 3. That he shall not act without the advice of his Councel 4. That there shall be every three years a Parliament called freely chosen to begin in September next viz. four hundred and the number for every County proportionable 5. That no Parliament shall adjourn till they have sat above five moneths 6. When ever any Bill is passed in Parliament the Lord Protector shall have twenty dayes to advise with his Councel if he sign it not in twenty dayes it shall pass without unless contrary to these Articles 7. That no Parliament be dissolved by the Protector but end every three years and the Protector to issue out Warrants 8. All the Crown Revenues left to go to the maintenance of the Lord Protector 9. To make Peace or War as he pleaseth with the advice of his Councel in the intervall of Parliaments but not to raise money without the Parliament unless in extraordinary causes 10. Whatsoever goes out in the name of the Keepers of the Liberties of England to go out in the name of the Lord Protector 11. That it is treason to speak against the present Government 12. That all forfeited and confiscated Estates go to the maintenance of the Lord Protector 13. That all Acts of Parliament made and Estates sold stand good and be enjoyed 14. That the Lord Protector have power to confer titles of Honour and to dispose of the great places of trust 15. That in the intervall of Parliaments the Lord protector with his Councel do order the Affairs of the Nation 16. That all Articles of War be kept 17. That the known Laws of the Common-wealth be continued 18. That a standing Army be maintained of ten thousand Horse and twenty thousand Foot 19. That Christian Religion be maintained such as is contained in the Word of God 20. That all persons shall have Liberty of Conscience provided that they disturb not the Civil Government except the Popish and Prelatical party 21. That no Papist or Delinquent in Arms since the year 1649. elect or be elected a Parliament Man under penalty of forfeiture of one years revenue and the Moiety of his personal Estate 22. That the Lord Protector have power to pardon all offenders except Murther 23. That Writs be issued out in July next for summoning the Parliament either by the Protector or in course 24. That when the Protector dyes the Council then sitting shall summon all the members of the Council the Major part to elect one to be Protector before they stir out of the Council Chamber and the person so chosen not to be under the age of twenty one years nor of the family of the Stuarts These Articles sworn to he was proclaimed Lord Protector in the Palace-yard at Westminster and by the Lord Major and Aldermen in their Scarlet Gowns at the Royal Exchange who to ingratiate themselves with their new Governour bestowed on him a costly feast at Grocers Hall it is an usual observation that persons that make their wayes with their Swords that their shows to take the people generally are more stately then those of successive Princes what he admitted of as with his own permission was nothing to those dutiful solemnities that pursued his memory without dispute he had studied the art and ordinance of self-denying insomuch that the Parliament perceiving that he did but complement his Generalship which he might with fafety and most right have accepted they pressed him the less as he seemed to push away that with his little finger that they were certain he was ready to grasp with both his hands this was not so miraculous in him according to that of Ovid. Os homini sublime dedit caelumque videre Jussit erectos ad sydera tollere vultus The greatest admiration that hath surprised me hath bin what in the compass of a year I have observed the tides and streams of petitions out of most Counties that at the first rise or promise of greatness have pursued every alteration as party-coloured as Josephs Coat and as variable as the Rainbow it is not to be depictured how Janus-faced they have been on all occasions with how many religious expressions and wishes they have made their addresses and masqued their self-interests if it were possible in so short an interim of time at once adoring so many rising Suns I shall reflect no otherwise on such confused transactions then in the citation of a Verse which the Reader may understand as he pleases Pope Innocent the chief of all the rout Answer'd his name but how if In were out Since I have so strangely digressed it will not be amiss to take notice of a book lately come forth intituled History and Policy reviewed concerning the political transactions of the Protector publisht in a strange name written in the stile of the holy Court in which the Author undertakes a prodigious enterprise to compare Cromwel to Moses his pen is too palpably fraught with flattery yet not without unparalleld subtilty he having like the little Indian Gentleman in the short jacket pickt the verminout of Nic. Machiavels head for his use throwing of one side principals honester then this own Machiavel never so disguising himself with the vizard of Religion that he appears to be an arranter devil then the Florentine certain I am that I never read a book that more pleased or dispeased me But to proceed at his first instalment Heavens bless us immediately follows a plot miraculously discovered eleven of the grand conspirators being apprehended were committed to the Tower where having remained a while they were again set at liberty This web was not well spun his spies and informers which he entertained at a vast expence put on their spectacles that they might see better against the next occasion In the interim the Scots under the Earls of Glencarne and Kenmore raised another Army of 4000. Horse and Foot but were soon dissipated by the vigilancy of Collonel Morgan who after a short but smart fight killed one hundred and fifty of them and defeated all the rest Suspicions are necessary allarms as they at least suffer persons not to be overtaken with too much security of their affairs Another great plot was now again discovered the chief conspirators were said to be Mr. Thomas and John Gerrard Brothers John Jones an Apothecary and Thomas Tender Somerset Fox and Master Peter Vowel who were all condemned but two onely suffered viz. Mr. Vowel who was hanged Also about the same time the Portugal Ambassadors Brother was brought to his tryal for the pistolling of one Mr. Greenwood
ENGLANDS WORTHIES The Liues of the Most Eminent Persons from CONSTANTINE the Great to OLIUER CROMWELL Late Protector Printed for N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1660. 1 C 2 K A 3 St D 4 K I 5 E d C 6 W th C 7 T B 8 R t 1 9 E t 3 10 B P 11 Sir J H 12 I C 13 H t 5 14 D B 15 E d W 16 R 3d 17 E d S 18 T W 19 T M 20 T C 21 Sr P S 22 E d L 23 W B 24 Sr F D 25 F W 26 N B 27 R E d E 28 R C 29 Sr T O 30 Sr W R 31 W C 32 T S 33 Sir F B 34 B p A 35 I D 36 D B 37 Sr H W 38 E o S 39 B p L 40 E d E 41 Sir C L 42 K C 43 L d C 44 ma M 45 B p V 46 47 O C England's WORTHIES Select LIVES of the most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to the death of Oliver Cromwel late Protector Polib Historici est ne quid falsi audeat dicere ne quid veri non audeat By WILLIAM WINSTANLEY Gent. N B London Printed for Nath. Brooke at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1660. To the Right Honourable Somerset Lord Herbert of Ragland Son and Heir of Edward Marquess of Worcester Earl of Glamorgan c. To the Right Honourable William Seimor Lord Beuchampe Grand-childe and Heir to the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hertford To the Right Honourable Charles Dormer Lord Dormer of Wing Son and Heir to the Right Honourable the Earl of Canarvan My Lords I Have chosen to present you with this Volume not onely as it is worthy of the Ages past but also of your Lordships present view the Affinity of your Blood and Greatness challenging from me no less then these prostrate respects as I could desire no firmer nor safer an Anchorage then in so proper a Dedication no despairing that my Pen hath produc'd something worthy of your entertainments as I have set before your eyes forty seven Select Lives of our English Heroes the greatest Princes the most Reverend Cleargy-men eminent States-men and valiant Souldiers all deceast As to History it self a Modern Writer expresses 't is the study of the Holy Scripture that becomes a Gentleman of the Ecclesiastical History a Christian and of the Brittish History an English man all which Qualifications in some measure meeting in your Honours as well as in this Work it self gives me some assurance that these my weak endeavours would not be unwelcome to you My Lords he that hath the Spirit and Blood of his Ancestours in his veins cannot be so much turned into a Statue as to stand still and admire the different Fortunes this mans greatness and of that mans lowness so as not onely to reflect on the tributary brooks of the former Matches of the Nobility but also to look back to matter of fact what our Predecessours have been as well as what we our selves at the present are least falling short of the imitation of their immortal actions we so strangely degenerate as not to understand what we our selves ought to be The clear Fountain flowing from the true Nobility of late being so disturbed it is the office of an honest and true Historian if not his duty to have so much of the Herald as to Register the Descents Issues worthy Acts Atchievements Mannagements of our of late so little imitated Ancestors of these several alterations in Nobility one observes there are three principle Actors on the Theater of great Families the Beginner Advancer and Ruiner in all these our uncivil troublesome times we have heard more of the latter then of the other two one experiencst though unfortunate good amongst the many mischiefs which a Civil War occasions is that in the ransacking of Studies accidentally though determined otherwise the Togati and the Armati meet several Manuscripts which otherwise would have remained useful only to private persons have been by Divine Providence miraculously preserved contrary to the intentions of the Agents whose Barbarismes had snuft out the candle to the present Age and deprived posterity of those Illustrations from which they might know that truth which otherwise they should never have been acquainted with as they endeavoured that the most remarkable Affairs of these times should have otherwise been hid under a bushel To your Honor my Lord Herbert I make this particular Address though this Dedication is joynt as in respect of your happy Assinities as you are Father-in-law to one of these youthful Branches of Honour in respect of your advantages of some years so your grandeur and experience renders you a History of your self and in respect of their tender ages another to them My Lord I know to your Honour it is no less then a Prodigy that our English Gentlemen should be more exact and refin'd in knowing the Religion Laws Governments Strengths Scites Customs and Fashions of Forreign Countreys then of their own wherein themselves are Natives which caused a deserving Historian as it were to sigh out this expression What pitty is it for a proper Gentleman to have such a crick in his neck that he cannot look so much as over his shoulder to know his own History much less so far behinde him as to reflect on actions long since performed I have presumed to intimate thus much to your Honor as you are another Burleigh or Raleigh to give better advice to your youthful Kinsmen My Lords I have chosen you as out of the Caesars to affix your names to this Epitome of Lives that as Julius was his own History and Commentary so your Honours though yet but in the abstract of time might pass it to posterity to which purpose I have chosen your united protections Since I have been writing this History there hath been no less then three alterations Regal Protectorship and now a Commonwealth I first undertook this enterprize in the time of Monarchy continued it in the short space of Protectorship and finished it in the immediate initiation of the Commonwealth in all which progressions if the Liberty of the Subjects modest prospects are shut up or not allow'd if in these days that Lots little one of truth by these present times posterity must be deprived of wise and honest men will be seriously sensible of such obstructions the maliciousness of such Machiavillians puts me in mind of what elegant Mr. Fuller cites what Naturalists observe of the Toad who before she can be surprized by death sucks up the supposed precious stone in her head which till then was but a jelly thus some men are so cowardly that they had rather have History buried with them then that the least part of civil truth should be writ whilest they live as if they deserved no Chronicle or were only to be suffered in Libellous Pamphlets which wise men scorn to cast their eyes on I confess we live in times of Jealousies nevertheless
might enjoy her as his Wife for these and other notorious offences being boldly reprehended by Dunstan he banished him the Realm at whose departure the devil is said to rejoyce and to laugh aloud at the West end of the Church to whom Dunstan as it were by way of Prophecy said Well thou adversary do not so greatly rejoyce at the matter for thou doest not now so much rejoyce at my departure but by Gods grace thou shalt be as sorrowful for my return All the time of King Edwy's reign which was but short for Tyrants seldome are long lived he remained at the Monastery of Gaunt in Flanders where he received much friendship from the Governour of that Countrey but Edwy dying his brother Edgar succeeded in the Kingdome who unraveling the web his brother had weaved recalled Dunstan out of banishment making him first Bishop of Worcester after of London and last of all bestowed the Archbishoprick of Canterbury upon him This Edgar had Dunstan in high estimation by whose advice the English being given to excessive quaffing he put down many Ale-houses and would suffer but one to be in a Town and the more to deterr them from this swinish vice he ordained certain cups with pins or nails and made a law that whosoever drunk past that mark at one draught should undergo a certain penalty No doubt this was an act acceptable unto God and great need hath these times of another Edgar or Dunstan to deterr people from this beastly sin and to put down the multiplicity of Alehouses which now abound in every corner of which one of our modern Poets as followeth The way to Churches is o'regrown with grass But to the Alehouse fair and plain to pass And what is it think you doth cause it so But more to th' Alehouse then to Church do go Then what may we expect of this same evil Some may to God but most will to the devil Edgar dying great troubles ensued about the election of one of his sons to succeed him most of the Nobles combining for young Ethelred Dunstan and the Monks standing as stiffly for Prince Edward at last a Council being assembled to argue the matter the Archbishop came in with his Banner and Cross and not staying for further debating presented Prince Edward for their lawful King and the assembly consisting most of Clergy-men drew the approbation of the rest and so he was Crowned King at Kingstone by Archbishop Dunstan the year of our Lord 975. These troubles thus quieted about the Crown far greater arose concerning the Church for Alferus Duke of Mercia favouring married Priests would suffer no Monks to live in his Province on the other side Edelwyn Duke of East-Anglia and Brightnoth Earl of Essex favouring the Monks expulsed the married Priests out of their jurisdictions These sparks at last increast to such a flame that it was deemed nought but the blood of one side would quench the same but upon better advice they laid arms aside and referred the matter to be debated in a Council at Winchester where the Monks cause as being worsted had undoubtedly had the foyl had they not referred the matter to be decided by the Rood where the Council sate to this Oracle Saint Dunstan desired them to pray and to give diligent ear to what it should speak for the juggling Monks had placed a Man behinde a Wall who through a trunck delivered these words to the beguiled Priests God forbid it should be so God forbid it should be so you judged well once but ye may not change well again But this deceit of the Monks being discerned by the Priests another assembly was held at Cleve in Wiltshire where whilst they were arguing with bitter invectives against each other the joysts of the loft wherein they sat suddenly brake and down fell the floar with the people thereon many were mained and some slain onely Archbishop Dunstan remained unhurt for the posts whereon his chair was set as it were by miracle remained untouched By this fall of the Floar fell the cause of the Priests and Dunstan deemed a demy God To this wooden miracle of his popish writers add another of the same nature namely how a huge beam of a house being sunk out of the frame and like to ruinate the whole building with onely making the sign of the Cross thereon with his fingers he made it return to his former place All the time of King Edwards reign was Dunstan had in high esteem but he being too good a Prince to live in so bad an age was bereft of his life by the cruelty of his step-mother that her own son might succeed in the kingdome Dunstan disallowing this act of the Queens refused to Crown her son King at length against his will he was compelled to solemnize his rights at Kingston on Thames the 14. of Aprill 979. This Ethelred favoured not greatly the Monks and therefore he was as little respected of them in their writings who report him to be sloathful person neither forward in action nor fortunate in proceedings at the time of his Baptism he is said to defile the Fount with his ordure whereupon Dunstan being troubled in his minde By the Lord saith he and his blessed Mother this childe shall prove to be a slothful person But the greatest matter laid to his charge was his making War upon the Bishop of Rochester whose peace being it would not be procured without the payment of a hundred pound in Gold Dunstan sent him word that since he made more account of Gold then of God more of money then of Saint Andrew Patron of the Church of Rochester and more of covetousness then of him being the Archbishop the mischiefs which the Lord had threatned should shortly come to pass but the same should not chance whilst he was alive he is likewise said to have foreseen the invasions of the Danes and to have foretold the miseries that soon after fell upon the English Nation as that they should not be free from Blood and the Sword till there came a people of an unknown tongue that should bring them to thraldome which predictions of his soon after his death came to passe as appears in the following Life of King Edmund this Clergy-man now waxing old the thread of his life being spun out to the last he was forced to yield to that from which none are exempted to the tyranny of death having tasted liberally in his time of the favours of Fortune which notwithstanding could not keep him from dying so true is that of the ancient Poet. Each living Corps must yield at last to death And every life must lose his vital breath The soul of man that onely lives on high And is an image of eternity He dyed on a Saturday the 25. of May the Year of our Lord 989. Happy in this that he lived not to see the miseries of his Countrey which happened presently after his death The Life of EDMUND IRONSIDE THe learned
gave himself over to all licentiousness whilst Warwick had made his faction not onely mighty but monstrous being compacted of several natures for into conspiracy of this great enterprize he had drawn off the Cleargy and the Laity and most of them of affections most opposite The Archbishop of York was the principal mover because he mov'd upon the soul and made treason an act of Religion the easie multitude who build their faith upon the man not the Doctrine thinking it meritorious to rebell in regard his function seem'd to give authority to the action With him a greed the Marquess Mountague and many eminent persons of King Edwards Court whom either desire of War having never lived but in the troubled Sea of discord or want of expected recompence rendered discontented All the partakers in the calamity of the house of Lancaster most passionately at first overture embraced this motion amongst whom was Henry Holland Duke of Exeter who after his ruine with the fall of Henry the Sixth was reduced to such extremity that ragged and bare-footed he begg'd for his meat in the Low-Countries But the wonder of the world then was at the powerful sorcery of those perswasions which bewitcht the Duke of Clarence the Kings Brother to this conspiracy to whom the Earl of Warwick to tye him the faster to his side gave him in marriage the Lady Isabel his daughter and coheire to the rich Earldom of Warwick for consummation whereof they sailed over to Calice of which Town the Earl of Warwick was Captain and in which the young Lady then remained with her Mother Soon was the Ceremony past and soon did the Earl invite his Son-in-law from the softness of the Nuptial Dalliance as who had contrived this marriage for business not for pleasure and design'd the first issue of their embraces to be a monster and the most unnatural one War between Brothers Warwick having thus politickly order'd things that he left little or nothing to fortune with his Son-in-law returns to England where against his return the Archbishop of York with some other of his friends had raised a potent Army to oppose whom on Edwards side assembles a mighty power under the conduct of the Earls of Pembroke and Devonshire but they falling out at Banbury upon a trivial occasion made way for the enemy to conquer them both This overthrow was seconded with a great loss at Grafton in Northamptonshire wherein the Earl Rivers and the Lord Widdevil Father and Brother to the Queen were taken and barbarously beheaded Edward nettled with these losses raises what power he could and marches against Warwick whose pretence being that of all Rebells The good of the Kingdom yet to avoid effusion of blood seemingly is very desirous of peace but when with several overtures he had lulled the King in security in the dead of the night he sets upon his Army kills the watch and surpriseth his person buried in a careless sleep Warwick having thus gotten the prey into his hand he so long desired sends him prisoner to Middleham Castle in Yorkshire there to be kept by his Brother the Archbishop of that Sea but King Edward being of another temper then his predecessour Henry not enduring Captivity soon found a way for his own liberty for having gotten licence to hunt in the adjoyning Park he so contrived with Sir William Stanley and Sir Thomas Burgh that with a selected number they came to his rescue and took him away from his weak guard the Lord Hastings joyning to them with some forces he had raised about Lancaster they march directly to London where they were entertained with great expressions of joy The Earl of Warwick who upon the taking of the King had disbanded his Army hearing of his escape was almost distracted with a thousand several imaginations but soon by letters to the Lords of his faction he reassembles his forces and marches against the King but thorow the solicitation of some persons inclinable to peace an enterveiw was agreed on in Westminster Hall and oaths for safety being past on both sides accordingly they met but such intemperance of Language past at their meeting as rather aggravated then allayed their anger so that now they resolved the Sword alone should decide the controversie The Earl of Warwick leaving his Army under the command of Sir Robert Wells whilst he himself went to raise more men King Edward neglecting not the opportunity whilest they were thus disjoyned gives them battel and overthrows them with the loss of ten thousand of their men Sir Robert Wells was taken prisoner and soon after beheaded This overthrow struck Warwick to the heart so that having not sufficient force to withstand the King he with the Duke of Clarence sail over into France with which King as also with Queen Margret who then remained in the French Court they entred into a combination for the deposing of King Edward and setting up again King Henry And that there might not be left any tract of former discontent or path to future jealousie a marriage was concluded and celebrated between Prince Edward the Queens Son and the Lady Anne younger daughter to the Earl and for want of issue of these two the Crown to come to Clarence and his posterity Matters thus concluded and the French King supplying them with money they return into England to whom flocked almost all the Lords the Commonalty also desirous of innovation adhered unto them so that King Edward seeing himself in a manner wholly abandoned was forced to quit the Land and sail into Holland And now notwithstanding his former hostility with him Warwick restores King Henry to all his former dignity and honour a Parliament is called wherein nothing is denyed which the prevailing party thought fit to be authorized King Edward condemned for a Tyranous Usurper and all his adherents attainted of high treason the Crown is entailed upon King Henry and his Heires Males for default of which to George Duke of Clarence and his Heires for ever The Earls of Oxford and Pembroke and many others restored to their estates and titles the Duke of Clarence put in possession of the Dutchy of York and lastly the Government of the King and Kingdom committed to the Duke of Clarence and Earl of Warwick so that King Henry possest no more then the name of King and seem'd not to be set at liberty but to have changed his keeper King Edward in the mean time having hired four great Holland Ships and fourteen Easterling men of War transports his Army over into England which consisted of two thousand Dutch men and such English as accompanied him in his flight or had escaped over after him at Ravenspur in Yorkshire he landed from thence he marched to York but finding in every place where he came the people generally devoted to the House of Lancaster he fashioned his behaviour to a new art and solemnly took his oath that his intentions was not for the recovering of the Crown but
that horrid Garb of yellow Ruffs and Cuffs and in which Garb she was after hanged she having acquaintance with one James Franklin a man skilled for their purpose agreed with him to provide that which should not kill presently but cause one to languish away by degrees a little and a little Sir Jervas Velvis Lieutenant of the Tower being drawn into the conspiracy admits of one Weston Mrs. Turners man who under pretence of waiting upon Sir Thomas was to act that horrid tragedy The Plot thus contrived Franklin buyes certain poysons viz. Rosater White Arsenick Mercury Sublimate Cantharides red Mercury with three or four more deadly ingredients which he delivered to Weston with instructions how to use them Weston an apt scloller in the Devils school tempers them in his broath and meat increasing or diminishing their strength according as he saw him affected besides these poysoned tarts and jellies are sent him by the Viscount At last his salt his sauce his meat his drink and whatsoever he eats is mingled with poyson till his hair fell from his head and he was strangely forced to part with the excrements of his nails so that had he not been a very strong man he could have never stood it out so long Besides these villanies was added this affliction that none of his friends were permitted to see him or so much as to speak with him but at a window so that all things considered we may conclude him as to his outward condition truly miserable In the mean time the Viscount flourishes the marriage is consumated betwixt him and the Countess and more honours conferred on him being created Earl of Somerset Sir Thomas Overbury hearing of this marriage makes great lamentation foreseeing thereby his own death yet having some weak hopes of the Earl he sends this letter to him to minde him of his former promise Right noble and worthy Sir your former accustomed favours and absolute promise concerning my present deliverance hath caused me at this time to sollicite your Lordship and to put you in remembrance of the same not doubting that your Honour is at all forgetful of me but onely by reason of my imprisonment being possest of divers diseases would for my bodies health and safety taste the felicity of the open Air in which cause if your Lordship please to commiserate my present necessities and procure me my speedy deliverance I shall not onely stand so much the more obliged to you but also acknowledge you to be the preserver of my life The Earl having received the Letter returns him answer that presently he could not accomplish his desires but willed him not to doubt for shortly he should have a deliverance which indeed proved true thought not as Overbury intended for the conspirators now hearing some inkling of Sir Thomas's releasement resolve upon his quick dispatch to this end Weston agrees with an Apothecary for twenty pound to administer an empoysoned glister unto him Sir Thomas perswaded that it would be much for his health takes it by the infusion whereof he falls into a languishing disease with a griping in his guts the next day after which extremity of pain he died and because there was some blisters and ugly botches on his body the conspirators gave it out that he died of the French Pox. This past currant and the mischief lay concealed a long time but God who will never suffer such mischiefs to pass unpunished revealed the same Somersets conscience begins now to accuse him that former love that he bore to him till the eyes of his Lady had enchanted him returned his wonted mirth forsakes him he is cast down he takes not that felicity in company he was wont but still something troubles him And hearing of the peoples mutterings concerning Overburies death finding the King in a good humour he makes his address to this effect That whereas it had pleased his Majesty to commit many things unto his charge and some of them proving something too weighty for him to undergo it was so that ignorantly he had run himself into a Premunire whereby he had forfeited to him both his lands goods and liberty unless it pleased him of his wonted favour to grant him pardon for that and many other offences that he had ignorantly committed The King still bearing a good affection towards him bids him draw his pardon and he would sign it Which accordingly he did but it comming to the Lord Chancellours hands he refused to let it pass the Seal and acquainted the King with the danger that might accrew thereby And now suspicion growing higher of Sir Thomas Overburies death Weston is examined by the Lord Cook who at the first stiffly denied the same but being perswaded by the Bishop of London he tells all How Mistress Turner and the Countess came acquainted what relation she had to Witches Sorcerers and Conjurers that Northampton Somerset Franklin the Monsons and Yelvis had all their hands in it whereupon they were all apprehended some sent to the Tower others to New-gate Having thus confessed being convicted according to course of Law he was hanged at Tyburn after him Mistress Turner after her Franklin then Sir Jervas Yelvis upon their severall Arraignments of the fact were found guilty and executed some of them died very penitent and sorrowful for what they had done against such an incomparable person The Earl and his Countess were both condemned but through the Kings gracious pardon had their lives saved but were never admitted to the favour of the Court. This Ingenuous Knight whose death was so generally lamented was the other Sidney of this Nation One of our Modern Writers observes that he was too honest which with the Machiavelians is interpreted to be too open breasted as they retain this principle that one that waits on great persons ought to keep a secret till his breath stinks Whereas without question he did enlarge himself too much also in his discourse to others which besides his down-right Integrity to the Viscount being as sharp Wits are too much addicted to an unfortunate way of jeering and jeasting must of necessity prove fatal to him the revenge of a woman being alwayes in pursuit His Poem of a Wife is to the life his Characters to this day not outwitted by any To give a taste of the respects those times tendred him I have affixed these following Verses To the Memory of the generally bewailed Gentleman Sir THOMAS OVERBURY BVt that w' are bound in Christian piety To wish Gods will be done and destiny In all that haps to men or good or ill Suffer'd or sent by that implored will Methinks t' observe how Vertue draws faint breath Subject to slanders hate and violent death Wise men kept low others advanc'd to State Right checkt by wrong and ill men fortunate These mov'd Effects from an unmoved Cause Might shake the firmest faith Heavens fixed laws Might casual seem and each irregular sense Spurn at just Order blame Gods Providence But what
humanity and charitable inclinations will afford me your devout prayers For my Saviours sweet mercy good people pray for me even for my eternal Saviours sake into whose bosom I render my woful and afflicted soul sweet Jesu my redeemer the redeemer even of me a woful and dejected sinner receive into thy arms my Spirit At the time appointed he marched to the Scaffold more like a General in the head of an Army to breath victory then like a condemned man to undergo the sentence of death The Lieutenant of the Tower desired him to take Coach for fear the people should rush in upon him and tear him in pieces No said he Master Lieutenant I dare look death in the face and I hope the people too have you a care that I do not escape and I care not how I dye whether by the hand of the Executioner or the madness and fury of the People if that may give them better content it is all one to me Having mounted the Scaffold and seeing his Brother Sir George Wentworth weeping Brother said he What do you see in me that deserves these tears doth my fear betray my guiltiness or my too much boldness any Atheism think now that you do accompany me to my marriage bed Nor did I ever throw off my cloathes with such freedom and content as in this my preparation to my Grave that stock pointing to the Block appointed for his Execution must be my Pillow here must I rest and rest from all my labours no thoughts of envy no dreams of treason jealousies of foes cares for the King the State or my self shall interrupt this nap therefore Brother with me pitty mine enemies who beside their intention have made me blessed rejoyce in my innocency rejoyce in my happiness Kneeling down upon the Scaffold he made this Protestation I hope Gentlemen you do think that neither fear of loss or love of reputation will cause me to belie God and my Conscience for now I am in the door going out and my next step must be from time to eternity either of peace or pain To clear my self to you all I do solemnly protest before God I am not guilty so far as I can understand of that great crime laid now to my charge nor have had the least inclination or intention to damnifie or prejudice the King the State the Laws or Religion of this Kingdom but with my best endeavours to serve all and support all concluding with these words as God might be merciful to his soul Addressing himself to my Lord Primate of Ireland he said It is my very great comfort that I have your Lordship by me this day in regard I have been known to you these many years and I do thank God and your Lordship for it that you are here I should be very glad to obtain so much silence as to be heard a few words but I doubt I shall not the noise is so great My Lords I am come hither by the good will and pleasure of Almighty God to pay that last debt I owe to sin which is death and by the blessing of that God to rise again through the merits of Jesus Christ to righteousness and life eternal Here he was much interrupted My Lords I am come hither to submit to that judgement which hath passed against me I do it with a very quiet and contented minde I thank God I do freely forgive all the world a forgiveness that is not spoken from the teeth outwards as they say but from the very heart I speak it in the presence of Almighty God before whom I stand that there is not a displeasing thought arising in me towards any man living I thank God I can say it and truly too my conscience bearing me witness that in all my employment since I had the honour to serve his Majesty I never had any thing in the purpose of my heart but what tended to the joynt and individual prosperity of the King and People although it hath been my ill fortune to be misconstrued I am not the first that hath suffered in this kinde it is the common portion of us all while we are in this life to erre righteous judgement we must wait for in another place for here we are very subject to be misjudged one of another There is one thing that I desire to free my self of and I am very confident speaking it now with so much chearfulness that I shall obtain your Christian Charity in the belief of it I was so far from being against Parliaments that I did alwayes think the Parliaments of England were the most happy Constitutions that any Kingdom or Nation lived under and the best means under God to make the King and People happy For my death I here acquit all the world and beseech the God of heaven heartily to forgive them that contrived it though in the intentions and purposes of my heart I am not guilty of what I die for And my Lord Primate it is a great comfort for me that his Majesty conceives me not meriting so severe and heavy a punishment as is the utmost execution of this sentence I do infinitely rejoyce in this mercy of his and I beseech God return it into his own bosome that he may finde mercy when he stands in need of it I wish this Kingdom all the prosperity and happiness in the world I did it living and now dying it is my wish I do most humbly recommend this to every one that hears me and desire they would lay their hands upon their hearts and consider seriously whether the beginning of the happinesse and Reformation of a Kingdom should be written in Letters of blood consider this when you are at your homes and let me be never so unhappy as that the least drop of my blood should rise up in judgement against any one of you but I fear you are in a wrong way My Lords I have but one word more and with that I shall end I profess that I dye a true and obedient son to the Church of England wherein I was born and in which I was bred peace and prosperity be ever to it It hath been objected if it were an objection worth the answering that I have been inclined to Popery but I say truly from my heart that from the time that I was one and twenty years of age to this present going now upon forty nine I never had in my heart to doubt of this Religion of the Church of England nor ever had any man the boldness to suggest any such thing to me to the best of my remembrance and so being reconciled by the merits of Jesus Christ my Saviour into whose bosom I hope I shall shortly be gathered to those eternal happinesses which shall never have end I desire heartily the forgivenesse of every man for any rash or unadvised words or any thing done amiss and so my Lords and Gentlemen farewel Farewel all the things of this world
Lord amongst others being one that gave his fatal Vote for the passing that Bill In those great differences betwixt the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing very much to his aid both in purse and person and at such time as the King was secured in the Isle of Wight some hopes being given of his restauration to his former dignity by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also of Langhorns Powels and Poyers declaring themselves for his Majesty together with the rising of the Countries in several places to the same unhappy purpose he with a selected number of his friends associates and servants joyned himself with the Lord Goring Sir Charles Lucas and others who with a great Party were up in Arms in Essex and having valiantly defended Colchester for the space of three moneths against a potent enemy sated with success were at length as I have already discoursed in the Life of Sir Charles Lucas for want of provision forced to yield both it and themselves the superior Officers to mercy the common Souldiers with the loss of their flying Garments the Townsmen to pay the mulct of fourteen thousand pounds which was above a thousand pounds a moneth for the time that they held out the Siege And for the Articles of agreement which the Cavaliers had made with General Fairfax they could not but imagine that they had ascertained their lives yet notwithstanding upon their surrender as hath been mentioned Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot to death which to all discerning men must needs seem strange and unusual though the General in his Letter to the Parliament calls it Military Execution upon which the House debated and sent to the General to explain his Letter of the 29. of September His head Quarters were then at Saint Albanes from whence they had this answer That the General doth not take upon him to conclude but waving the business leaves them to the Civil Power and so in effect to Tryal for life The Lord Capel and divers others were committed to the Tower where whilest he remained he endeavoured an escape and had effected it had he not been betrayed by a second Banister a Water-man whom the Noble Lord intrusted himself with who ignominiously for the lucre of a little money discovered him not long after this his misfortune this honourable Lord together with the Earl of Holland Duke Hamilton the Earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen was brought to a Tryal before a High Court of Justice in Westminster Hall where for the brevity to omit the particulars after a formal Tryal they were all condemned the Earl of Norwich and the undaunted Welchman Sir John Owen whom they made march on Foot to his Tryal were reprieved It hath been reported that the Earl of Norwich who was ever pleasantly conceited was sent to by a dear friend of his the day after his Reprieve to know what he conceived as concerning the danger of his condition who returned this answer That he thought in all haste to have put off his Doublet but now he had leisure to unhook his Breeches But to return to our enterprise to furnish this Landskip rather then History of this honourable person concerning his deportment before and after the time of his condemnation when he was to encounter and look grim death in the face by way of introduction to a larger discovery of his Christian fortitude I shall set down the Copy of a Letter written by a reverend Doctor who knew the passages thereof as may be clearly perceived by the tenour of it SIR I hope this paper will finde you upon recovery you have my daily and hearty prayers for it not so much for your own sake for I doubt not but it would be much better for you in regard of your self to be dissolved and to be with Christ but in the behalf of the Church your Friends and poor Family to which notwithstanding be assured God will be merciful howsoever he disposeth of you either for this life or for a better But if you live as I pray and hope you will you shall do very well to write the Life and Death of that noble Lord and blessed Martyr who professed at his death That he dyed for the fifth Commandment and to dye in the defence and for the Testimony of any Divine truth is truly and properly to be a Martyr That which I can contribute towards this work is to communicate some few observations I made of him and from him before and after his condemnation I was several times with him and alwayes found him in a very chearful and well composed temper of minde proceeding from true Christiun grounds and not from a Roman resolution onely as his enemies are pleased to speak of him he told me often it was the good God he served and the good Cause he had served for that made him not to fear heath adding he had never had the temptation of so much as a thought to check him for his engagement in this quarrel for he took it for his Crown and Glory and wished he had a greater ability and better fortune to engage in it After his condemnation and the afternoon before his suffering we were a great while in private together when bewailing with that sense which became a true and not despairing penitent the sins of his life past the greatest he could remember was his voting my Lord of Straffords death which though as he said he did without any malice at all yet he confessed it to be a very great sin and that he had done it out of a base fear they were his own words of a prevailing party adding that he had very often and very heartily repented of it and was confident of Gods pardon for it Then he told me he had a great desire to receive the Blessed Sacrament so he called it before he dyed the next morning asking what Divine of the Kings party I would recommend to him I replyed that though many were more worthy yet none would be more willing to do that service then my self which he accepting very kindly told me he durst not desire it for fear it might be some danger to me After this and some conference in order to his preparation both for his viaticum and his voyage the Sacrament and his death he desired me to pray with him which after I had performed and promised to be with him by seven the next morning I left him for that time to his own devotions The next day I was there at the time assigned and after some short conference in order to the present occasion he desired me to hear him pray which he did for half an hour in an excellent method very apt expressions and most strong hearty and passionate affections First confessing and bewailing his sins with strong cries and tears then humbly and most earnestly desiring Gods mercy through the merits of Christ onely
safety of the King and Kingdom and gave him so full satisfaction in all things that as being at last overcome he seemed to give him his hand and promised that not onely all his men but he himself would come in person in the head of them and be with him with all possible speed And for the better mannaging of the War they agreed that Huntley wafting over the Spey should make his way on the right hand by the Sea Coast of Murrey and Montross was to go round about on the left hand thorow Strath-Spey and so to besiege Innernes a strong Garrison of the Covenanters on both sides In the mean time a convention of the Estates was held at Saint Andrews wherein were condemned and executed Colonel Nathanel Gordon Sir Robert Spotswood Andrew Gutherey Son to the Bishop of Murray and William Murray Brother to the Earl of Tullibardin The crimes objected against them was no less then High Treason the facts they were guilty of Loyalty to the King for the same cause was beheaded not long before Sir William Rollock Alexander Ogleby of an ancient and honourable Family and Sir Philip Nesbit The death of his Friends troubled Montross exceedingly yet abhorring their cruelty by inflicting the like on those Prisoners he had of theirs he resolved to revenge their deaths in a more nobler way and with his Army marched to besiege Innerness the most considerable Garrison of all the North and the Haven there most commodious for entertaining Forreign Forces Now had Huntley with his Army come up to have blocked up that side of the Town he undertook to do the Garrison for want of provision had been forced to yield but he trifling away his time in Murray a good way off Innerness without either honour or profit gave Major General Middleton time to raise six hundred Horse and eight hundred Foot to raise the Siege and notwithstanding Huntley had notice thereof by Montross yet could he receive no answer from him but what relisht of scornfulness nay so far off were they from affording him assistance that Montross having sent three Troops of Horse to lie at the Fords of the Spey to observe the motion of the enemy and if they came to send him often and certain intelligence Lewes Gordon Huntleys Son who then commanded the Castle of Rothes invited the Captains to a banquet in his Castle perswading them to leave off their needless guards and that the enemy lay very far off where with dainty chear and store of wine he detained them so long till Middleton with a great Army of Horse and Foot had got over the Spey and set footing in Murrey so that had not Montross had notice of their approach another way he had had a sharper bout now then he had at Selkirk but Montross knowing them too strong for him in Horse avoyding the plain he retreated with his men beyond the Ness and notwithstanding their often falling upon his rear yet he so well managed his retreat that with little loss he advanced unto the Bank of the Spey safe from his enemies Horse And now he resolved without further delay to make his progress over all the North Countrey and Highlands with a considerable party to list Souldiers to encourage the well disposed to reduce those that were refractory by the severity of the Laws and condigne punishment and to deal with them as men use to do with sick children make them to take Physick whether they will or no but whilest he was busie about his design there came a Herald unto him from the King who by I know not what misfortune had cast himself upon the Scotch Covenanters at Newcastle whereby he was required forthwith to lay down his Arms and disband and to depart into France and there to wait his Majesties further pleasure he being astonished with this unexpected message bitterly bewailed the sad condition of the King that had forced him to cast himself upon the mercy of his deadly enemies yet not to be guilty of that crime and especially lest the Covenanters should put his actions upon the Kings account and use him the worse for them seeing they had him in their power he according to the Kings command disbanded his Army Now it was articled betwixt the King and the Covenanters that Montross should depart Scotland within a moneth and that they should finde him Shiping with provision and all things necessary when he went but they seeking to circumvent him sent him no Ship for his transportation until the last day allowed for his stay the Ship it self ill victualled and worse rig'd so that when Montross shewed himself ready to depart the Master of the Ship told him that he must have some dayes allowed him to pitch and righ is Ship before he durst adventure himself to the winde and waves moreover there lay great English Ships and Men of War every day in sight about the mouth of the River of Esk by which he was to pass attending there in favour of the Covenanters for their much desired booty that by no means he might escape their hands But Montross smelling out their designs had sent some before hand to search diligently the Havens in the North who by good fortune in the Haven of Stanhyve found a small bark of Bargen in Norway the master whereof was soon agreed with thither Montross sent several of his friends whom he knew could not be safe for never so little a while in that Countrey and they on the third of September 1646. having a good winde put forth to Sea for Norway and the same evening Montross himself accompanied onely with one James Wood a worthy Preacher by a small Cock-boat got into a Bark which lay at Anchor without the Haven of Montross and being clad in a course suit the Lord and Patron passed for his Chaplains servant Montross having thus cleared himself out of his enemies hands went into France where by the general consent of the Princes of the Blood and the rest of the Nobility he was design'd Captain General of all the strangers in that Kingdom a place of great honour and trust but Cardinal Mazarine thwarting his designs being a professed foe to Scots in that Kingdom he took his journey into Holland where the Prince then was in pursuit of his former intentitions But Duke Hamilton a name fatal to the House of the Stewards who formerly was his irreconcilable enemy was now his competitor so that Montross seeing no good there to be done travel'd up into Germany and so to Austria where by the Emperour he was curteously entertained and amongst many other honours conferred on him he freely proffered him the command of ten thousand men for a standing Army against the Swede but peace being concluded betwixt these two Potentates intending a journey for Scotland being honourably dismissed he addresses himself to the Dukes of Brandeburgh and Holsteyn and having gathered together about six or seven hundred men fearing he should have an express
place in less then four hours time he destroyed them all to their inestimable detriment not sixty of his own men being lost But to return into England June the 20. 1657. the Protector with great pomp and magnificence was installed at Westminster the Parliament then sitting to which purpose at the upper end of Westminster Hall a rich Cloath of State was set up and under it a Chair of State placed upon an ascent of two degrees covered with Carpets and before it a Table with a Chair appointed for the Speaker of the Parliament and on each side of the Hall upon the said structure were Seats raised one above another and decently covered for the Members of Parliament and below them Seats on one side for the Judges of the Land and on the other side for the Aldermen of the City of London About two of the Clock in the afternoon the Protector met the Parliament in the Painted Chamber and passed such Bills as were presented to him after which they went in order to the place appointed in Westminster Hall the Protector standing under the Cloath of Estate the Lord Widdrington Speaker of the Parliament addrest himself to him in this Speech May it please your Highness You are now upon a great Theatre in a large Chore of people you have the Parliament of England Scotland and Ireland before you on your right hand my Lords the Judges and on your left hand the Lord Major Aldermen and Sheriffs of London the most noble and populous City of England The Parliament with the interposition of your sufferage makes Laws and the Judges and Governours of London are the great dispensers of those Laws to the people The occasion of this great convention and intercourse is to give an investiture to your Highness in that eminent place of Lord Protector a name you had before but it is now settled by the full and unanimous consent of the people of these three Nations assembled in Parliament you have no new name but a new date added to the old name the 16. of December is now changed to the 26. of June I am commanded by the Parliament to make oblation to your Highness of four things in order to this Inauguration The first is a Robe of Purple an Embleme of Magistracy and imports righteousness and justice when you have put on the vestment I may say and I hope without offence that you are a Gown man This Robe is of a mixt colour to shew the mixture of justice and mercy which are then most excellent when they are well tempered together Justice without Mercy is wormwood and bitterness and Mercy without Justice is of a too soft a temper for government for a Magistrate must have two hands Plectentem Amplectentem The next thing is a Bible a Book that contains the holy Scripture in which you have the honor and happiness to be well versed This is the Book of life consisting of two Testaments the old and new In the first we have Christum velatum Christ in Types Shadows and Figers in the latter we have Christum revelatum Christ revealed This Book carries in it the grounds of the true Christian Protestant Religion it s a Book of Books it contains in it both precepts and examples for good government Alexander so highly valued the Books of his Master Aristotle and other great Princes other books that they have laid them every night under their Pillows These are all but Legends and Romances to this one Book a Book to be had alwayes in remembrance I finde it said in a part of this Book which I shall desire to read and it is this Deut. 17. And it shall be when he sitteth upon the Throne of his Kingdom that he shall write a copy of this Law in a Book out of that wich is before the Priests and the Levites And it shall be with him and he shall read therein all the dayes of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord God and to keep all the words of his Law and those Statutes to do them That his heart be not lifted up above his Brethren and that he turn not aside from the Commandment to the right hand or to the left to the end he may prolong his dayes in his Kingdom he and his Children in the midst of Israel The next thing that I am to offer to your Higness is a Scepter not unlike a staff for you are to be a staff to the weak and poor it 's of ancient use in this kinde it 's said in Scripture in reference to Judah the Royal Tribe That the Scepter shall not depart from Judah It was of like use in other kingdoms and governments Homer the Prince of the Greek Poets calls Kings and Princes Scepter-bearers The last thing is a Sword not a Military but a Civil Sword a Sword rather for defence then offence not to defend your self onely but others also the Sword is an Embleme of Justice The noble Lord Talbot in Henry the Sixths time wrote upon his Sword Ego sum Talboti propter occidendum inimicos meos This Gallant Lord was a better Souldier then a Critick If I might presume to fix a Motto upon this Sword it should be this Ego sum Domini Protectoris ad protegendum populum meum I say this Sword is an Embleme of Justice and is to be used as King Solomon used his for the discovery of truth in the points of Justice I may say of this Sword as King David said of Goliah's Sword There is none like this Justice is the proper vertue of the Imperial Throne and by Justice the Thrones of Kings and Princes are established Justice is a Royal vertue which as one saith of it doth employ the other three Cardinal Vertues in her service 1. Wisdom to discern the nocent from the innocent 2. Fortitude to prosecute and execute 3. Temperance so to carry Justice that passion be no ingredient and that it be without confusion or precipitation You have given ample testimony in all these particulars so that this Sword in your hand will be a right Sword of Justice attended with Wisdom Fortitude and Temperance When you have all these together what a comely and glorious sight is it to behold A Lord Protector in a purple Robe with a Scepter in his hand a Sword of Justice girt about him and his eyes fixt upon the Bible Long may you prosperously enjoy them all to your own comfort and the comfort of the people of these three Nations The Speech being ended Master Speaker came from his Chair took the Robe and therewith vested the Protector being assisted therein by the Earl of Warwick the Lord Whitlock and others Which done the Bible was delivered him after that the Sword girt about him and last of all he had the Scepter delivered him These things being performed Master Speaker returned unto his Chair and admimistred him his Oath in haec verba I do in the presence and by the
of the holy Catholique Church that I abhor all Sects Schisms Sedition and Tyranny in Religion Affirmatively so that as I hold communion with so I love and honour all Christians in the world that love the same Lord Jesus in sincerity and call on his name agreeing with those truths that are absolutely necessary and clearly demonstrated in the Word of God both in the Old and New Testaments though in Charity dissenting from some others that are not necessary And I as I am thus a Christian I hope for salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus his blood I rely on his merits I trust to for the salvation of my own soul Though to this Faith good works are necessary not meritorious in us but onely made meritorious by Christ his death by his all sufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteouss they become meritorious but in us they are no other then as defiled rags And truly as I am a Member of the Church so I told you I was a Member of this Community and so pleaded for the Liberties and Priviledges thereof I must now answer something I am aspersed withal in the world They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable design and that I had a great interest in the knowledge and practice thereof and that for the saving my life I would have discovered and betrayed I cannot tell what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very well known as to make one imagine I should intermeddle in such an action and go so contrary to the practice of my profession and I hope there are none so uncharitable towards me as to believe I had a knowledge of that design Here I must come to particulars for a Plot of having a design upon the City of London for the firing of it I so much tremble at the thought of the thing that should have been done as they say for the carrying on of such a design if my heart deceive me not had I known it I so much abhor the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it nor ever had I correspondency or meetings with such persons as would have carried on such a design It is said likewise I entertained the Earl the Marquess of Ormond to my remembrance I never saw the face of that honourable person in my life It is said One Lords day I did preach at Saint Gregory's and the next Lords day I was at Brussels or Bruges and kist the Kings hand and brought I cannot tell what orders and instructions from him this I shall say For these three years last past together I have not been sixty miles from this City of London and I think it is somewhat further to either of those places then threescore miles It is said that I kept correspondence with one Barrow and Bishop they are persons I have heard of their names but never saw their faces and to my knowledge I do not know they know me nor do I know them at all but onely as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highness was pleased to tell me I was like a flaming Torch in the midst of a sheaf of Corn he meaning I being a publick Preacher was able to set the City on fire by sedition and combustions and promoting designs Here truly I do say and have it from many of those that are Judges of the High Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a meddler at all in these Affairs And truly I must needs say therefore that it was a very uncharitable act in them who ever they were that brought such accusations against me and irritated his Highness against me I will not say it was malice it might be zeal but it was rash zeal which caused me to be sentenced to this place the God of mercy pardon and forgive them all and truly as I am a Member of the Church and as a Member of the Community whereon behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my dayes are shortned by this unexpected doom and shall be brought untimely to the grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this Land and cannot but bless them all in the Name of God and beseech God to bless them in all their wayes and his blessing be upon them Let us pray O most glorious Lord God thou whose dwelling is so far above the highest Heavens that thou humblest thy self but to look upon the things that are in heaven and that are in earth and thou doest whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven in earth in the sea and in all deep places in thy hands are the hearts of all men and thou turnest them which way soever thou wilt O Lord look in mercy and compassion we beseech thee on this great and innumerous people of this Land look upon them O Lord with an eye of pitty not with an eye of fury and indignation O look not upon all those great and grievous sins that have provoked thee most justly to wrath and displeasure against us Gracious God who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry when thou with rebuke doest correct man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a Moth fretting a Garment O Lord thy indignation and wrath lyes heavy upon us and thou hast vexed us with thy scourges thou hast made us a reproach and a by-word amongst our Neighbours and the very heathen laugh us to scorn O that thou wouldest turn us again O Lord God of Hosts that thou wouldest shew us the light of thy countenance that we may behold it that thou wouldest humble us for all those sins and grievous transgressions that are amongst us for those Atheisms for those infidelities horrid blasphemies and prophaneness for those sacriledges for those Heresies for those Schisms Errors and all those blindnesses of heart pride vain glory and hypocrisie for that envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness that hath set us one against another that we are so dashed one against another even to destroy each other Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah O Lord we are like those Moabites and Ammonies c. This thou hast done to us O Lord because we have rebelled against thee O how greatly and grievously have we sinned against thee yet for all this thou hast not requited us according to our ill deservings for thou mightest have brought us to desolation and destruction fire might have come down from heaven and destroyed us our forreign enemies and the enemies of thee and thy Christ our Saviour might have swallowed us up