they could to raise Horse and Foot to form an Army equal to their Usurpation which was not difficult for them to do for they being Masters of London whose Multitudes desirous of Novelty were easily amassed for any enterprise especially when the entring into this Warfare might make the Servant freer than his Master for such was the Licence was indulged to those Youths that would serve the Cause 20000 were sooner gathered than the King could get 500. The City also could afford them more Ordnance than the King could promise to Himself common Muskets and to pay their Souldiers besides the vast summs that were gathered for Ireland which though they by their own Act had decreed should not be used for any other enterprise yet now dispence with their Faith and imploy it to make England as miserable as that Island and the Contributions of the deluded souls for this War they seised also upon the Revenues of the King Queen Prince and Bishops and plunder the Houses of those Lords and Gentlemen whom they suspected to be Favourers of the King's Cause And in contemplation of these advantages they promised their credulous party an undoubted Victory and to lead Majesty Captive in Triumph through London within a Month by the Conduct of the Earl of Essex whom they appointed General Thus did they drive that Just and Gracious Prince to seek His Safety by necessary Arms since nothing worse could befall Him after a stout though unhappy Resistance than He was to hope for in a tame Submission to their Violence Therefore though He perfectly abhorred those Sins which are the Consequences of War yet He wanted not Courage to attempt at Victory notwithstanding it seemed almost impossible against so well-appointed an Enemy Therefore with an incredible diligence moving from place to place from York to Nottingham from thence to Shrewsbury and the Confines of Wales by discovering those Abilities with which His Soul was richly fraught unto His deluded Subjects He appeared not only worthy of their Reverence but of their Lives and Fortunes for His Defence and in all places incouraging the Good with His Commendations exciting the Fearful by His Example dissembling the Imperfections of His Friends but alwayes praising their Vertues He so prevailed upon those who were not men of many Times nor by a former Guilt debauch'd to Inhumanity that He had quickly contracted an Army greater than His Enemies expected and which was every day increased by those Lords and Gentlemen who refused to be polluted any longer with the practices of the Faction by sitting among them and being Persons of large Fortunes had raised their Friends and Tenants to succour that Majesty that now laboured under an Eclipse Most men being moved with Pity and Shame to see their Prince whose former Reign had made them wanton in Plenty to be driven from His own Palaces and concluded under a want of Bread to be necessitated to implore their aid for the preservation of His and their Rights So that notwithstanding all the Impostures of the Faction and the Corruptions of the Age there were many great Examples of Loyalty and Vertue Many Noble Persons did almost impoverish themselves to supply the King with Men and Money Some Private men made their way through numerous dangers to joyn with and fight under His Colours Many great Ladies and Vertuous Matrons parted with the Ornaments of their Sex to relieve His wants and some bravely defended their Houses in His Cause when their Lords were otherwhere seeking Honour in His Service Both the Universities freely devoted their Plate to succour their Prince the Supreme Patron and Incourager of all Learning and the Queen pawned Her Jewels to provide necessaries for the Safety of Her Husband Which Duty of Hers though it deserved the Honour of all Ages was branded by the Demagogues with the imputation of Treason This sudden and unexpected growth of the Strength of the King after so many years of Slanders and such industrious Plots to make Him odious and Contemptible raised the admiration of all men and the fears of that credulous Party who had given up their Faith to the Faction when they represented the King guilty of so much Folly and Vice and some corrupted Citizens had represented Him as a Prodigie of both in a Scene at Guild-Hall in London an Art used by Jesuites to impress more deeply a Calumny that they could not imagine any person of Prudence or Conscience would appear in His Service and they expected every day when deserted by all as a Monster He should in Chains deliver Himself up to the Commands of the Parliament Some attributed this strange increase in power to the natural Affection of the English to their Lawfull Sovereign from whom though the Arts and Impulses of Seditious Demagogues may a while estrange and divorce their minds yet their Genius will irresistibly at last force them to their first Love and therefore they urged the saying of that Observing States-man that if the Crown of England were placed but on an Hedge-stake he would be on that side where the Crown was Others referred it to the full evidence of the wickedness of His Adversaries for their Counsels were now discovered and their Ends manifest not to maintain the Common Liberty which was equally hatefull to them as Tyranny when it was not in their hands but to acquire a Grandeur and Power that might secure and administer to their Lusts and it was now every where published what Mr. Hambden Answered to one who inquired What they did expect from the King he replyed That He should commit Himself and all that is His to our Care Others ascribed it to the fears of ruine to those numerous Families and Myriads of people which the change of Government designed by the Parliament must necessarily effect But this though it argued that Cause exceeding bad by which so great a part of a Community is utterly destroyed without any absolute necessity for preserving the whole yet made but an inconsiderable Addition to the King whose greatest Power was built upon Persons of the Noblest Extract and the fairest Estates in England of which they could not easily suspect to be devested without an absolute overthrow of all the Laws of Right and Wrong which nevertheless was to be feared by their invasions on the King's most undoubted Rights For when Majesty it self is assaulted there can be no security for private Fortunes and those that decline upon design from the paths of Equity will never rest till they come to the Extremity of Injustice as these afterwards did Besides those that imputed the speedy amassing of these Forces to the Equity of the King's Cause His most Powerful Eloquence Indefatigable Industry and most Obliging Converse there were another sort that suspending their Judgements till all the Scenes of War were passed resolved all into the Providence of God Who though He were pleased to single Him out of all the Kings of the Earth as the sittest Champion to wrestle
and in this they were so earnest that they would not willingly withdraw whilest it was debated and then they had leave to depart with this Answer That the House of Commons had already endeavoured Relief from the Lords in their Requests and shall so continue till Redress be obtained Such Petitions as these were likewise from the several Classes of the inferiour Tradesmen about London as Porters Water-men and the like and that nothing of testifying an universal Importunity might be left unattempted Women were perswaded to present Petitions to the same effect While the Faction thus boasted in the success of their Arts Good men grieved to see these daily Infamies of the supreme Council of the Nation all whose Secrets were published to the lowest and weakest part of the People and they who clamoured it as a breach of their Priviledge that the King took notice of their Debates now made them the Subjects of Discourse in every Shop and all the corners of the Street where the good and bad were equally censured and the Honour and Life of every Senator exposed to the Verdict of the Rabble No Magistrate did dare to do his Office and all things tended to a manifest Confusion So that many sober Persons did leave the Kingdom as unsase where Factions were more powerful than the Laws And Just Persons chose rather to hear than to see the Miseries and Reproaches of their Country On the other side to make the King more plyable they tempt Him by danger in His most beloved Part the Queen concerning whom they caused a Rumour that they did intend to impeach Her of High Treason This Rumour made the deeper Impression because they had raised most prodigious Slanders which are the first Marks for destruction of Princes on Her and when they had removed all other Counsellors from the King She was famed to be the Rock upon which all hopes of Peace and Safety were split That She commanded no less His Counsels than Affections and that His Weakness was so great as not to consent to or enterprize any thing which She did not first approve That She had perverted Him to Her Religion and formed designs of overthrowing the Protestant Profession These and many other of a portentuous falshood were scattered among the Vulgar who are alwayes most prone to believe the Worst of Great Persons and the uncontrolled Licence of reporting such Calumnies is conceived the first Dawning of Liberty But the Parliament taking notice of the Report sent some of their House to purge themselves from it as an unjust Scandal cast upon them To which the Queen mildly answers That there was a general Report thereof but She never saw any Articles in writing and having no certain Author for either She gave little credit thereto nor will She believe they would lay any Aspersion upon Her who hath been very unapt to misconstrue the actions of any One person and much more the Proceedings of Parliament and shall at all times wish an Happy Vnderstanding between the King and His People But the King knowing how usual it was for the Faction by Tumults and other Practices to transport the Parliament from their Just Intentions in other things and that they might do so in this resolved to send Her into Holland under colour of accompanying their Eldest Daughter newly married to the Prince of Orange but in truth to secure Her so that by the fears of Her danger who was so dear unto Him He might not be forced to any thing contrary to His Honour and Conscience and that Her Affections and Relation to Him might not betray Her Life to the Malice of His Enemies With Her He also sent all the Jewels of the Crown that they might not be the spoils of the Faction but the means of the support of Her Dignity in foreign parts if His Necessities afterwards should not permit Him to provide for Her otherwise Which yet She did not so employ but reserved them for a supply of Ammunition and Arms when His Adversaries had forced Him to a necessary Defence It was said that the Faction knew of this conveyance and might have prevented it but that they thought it for their greater advantage that this Treasure should be so managed that the King in confidence of that assistance might take up Arms to which they were resolved at last to drive Him For they thought their Cause would be better in War than Peace because their present Deliberations were in the sense of the Law actual Rebellions and a longer time would discover those Impostures by which they had deluded the People who would soon leave them as many now did begin to repent of their Madness to the Vengeance which was due to their practices unless they were more firmly united by a communion of guilt in an open assaulting their Lawfull Prince The King hastens the security of the Queen and accompanies Her as far as Dover there to take his farewell of Her a business almost as irksome as death to be separated from a Wife of so great Affections and eminent Endowments and that which made it the more bitter was that the same cause which forced Her Separation from Him set Her at a greater distance from His Religion the only thing wherein their Souls were not united even the Barbarity of His Enemies who professed it yet were so irreconcileable to Vertue that they hated Her for Her Example of Love and Loyalty to Him While He was committing Her to the mercy of the Winds and Waves that She might escape the Cruelty of more unquiet and faithless men they prosecute Him with their distasteful Addresses and at Canterbury present Him with a Bill for taking away Bishops Votes in Parliament Which having been cast out of the House of Peers several times before ought not by the Course and Order of Parliament to have been admitted again the same Session But the Faction had now used their accustomed Engine a Tumult and it was then passed by the Lords and brought hither together with some obscure Threats that if it were not signed the Queen should not be suffered to depart By such impious Violences did they make way for that which they call'd Reformation This His Majesty signs though after it made a part of His penitential Confessions to God in hopes that that Bill being once consented to the Fury of the Faction which with so great Violence pursued an absolute Destruction of the Ecclesiastical Government would be abated as having advanced so far in their design to weaken the King's Power in that House by the loss of so many Voices which would have been alwayes on that side where Equity and Conscience did most appear But He soon found the Demagogues had not so much Ingenuity as to be compounded with and they made this but a step to the overthrow of that which He designed to preserve When His Majesty was come back as far as Greenwich He met with many informations how averse the Faction was
and their first contest was with Winds and Tempests which destroying some seattered all the Ships When they met a more dangerous storm fell among the Soldiers and Seamen where small Pay caused less Discipline and a contempt of their General the Lord Wimbleton rendred the attempt upon Cades vain and fruitless This was followed by a Contagion to which some conceive discontented minds make the bodies of men more obnoxious in the Navy which forced it home more empty of Men and less of Reputation The Infection decreasing at London the King performed the Solemnities of His Coronation February 2. with some alterations from those of His Predecessors for in the Civil He omitted the usual Parade of Riding from the Tower through the City to White-Hall to save the Expences that Pomp required for more noble undertakings In the Spiritual there was restored a Clause in the Prayers which had been pretermitted since Henry VI. and was this Let Him obtain favour for this People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the waters Zacharias in the Temple give Him Peter 's Key of Discipline Paul 's Doctrine Which though more agreeing to the Principles of Protestantism which acknowledgeth the Power of Princes in their Churches and was therefore omitted in the times of Popery yet was quarrelled at by the Factious party who take advantages of Calumny and Sedition from good as well as bad circumstances and condemned as a new invention of Bishop Laud and made use of to defame both the King and him After this He began a Second Parliament February 2. wherein the Commons voted Him Four Subsidies but the Demagogues intended them as the price of the Duke of Buckingham's blood whom Mr. Cooke and Dr. Turner with so much bitterness inveighed against as passing the modesty of their former dissimulation they taxed the King's Government Sir Dudley Digges Sir John Elliot and others carried up Articles against him to the Lord's House in which to make the Faction more sport the Duke and the Earl of Bristol did mutually impeach each other By these contrasts the Parliament were so highly heated that the Faction thought it fit time to put a Remonstrance in the forge which according to their manner was to be a publick Invective against the Government But the King having notice of it dissolves the Parliament June 18. Anno 1626. and the Bill for the Subsidies never passed This misunderstanding at home produced another War abroad For the King of France taking advantage of these our Domestick embroilments begins a War upon us and seiseth upon the English Merchant Ships in the River of Bourdeaux His pretence was because the King had sent back all the French Servants of the Queen whose insolencies had been intolerable But the world saw the vanity of this pretext in the Example of Lewis himself who had in the like manner dimitted the Spanish attendants of his own Queen and that truly the unhappy Counsels in Parliament had exposed this Just Prince to foreign injuries Which He magnanimously endeavoured to revenge and to recover the goods of His abused Subjects and therefore sent the Fleet designed for Justice upon Spain to seek it first in France But the want of Money made the Preparations slow and therefore the Navy putting out late in the year was by Storms forced to desist the enterprize So that what was the effect only of the malice of His Enemies was imputed by some to a secret Decree of Heaven which obstructed His just undertakings for Glory Anno 1627. The next year the King quickned by the Petitions of the Rochellers who now sued for His Protection as well as by the Justice of His own Cause more early prosecuted His Counsels and sent the Duke of Buckingham to attach the Isle of Rhee which though alarmed to a greater strength by the last year's vain attempt yet had now submitted to the English Valour had not the Duke managed that War more with the Gayeties of a Courtier than the Arts of a Souldier And when it was wisdom to forsake those attempts which former neglects had made impossible being too greedy of Honour and to avoid the imputation on of fear in a safe retreat he loaded his overthrow with a new Ignominy and an heavier loss of men the common fate of those Who seek for glory in the parcels lose it in the gross Which was contrary to the temper of his Master who was so tender of humane blood that therefore He raised no Wars but found them and thought it an opprobrious bargain to purchase the fruitless Laurels or the empty name of Honour with the lives of men but where the Publick Safety required the hazard and loss of some particulars This Expedition being so unhappy and the Miseries of Rochel making them importunate for the King's Assistance His Compassionate Soul was desirous to remove their Dangers but was restrained by that necessitous condition the Faction had concluded Him under To free Himself from which that He might deliver the oppressed He doth pawn His own Lands for 120000 pounds to the City and borrows 30000 pounds more of the East-India Company but this was yet too narrow a Foundation to support the charges of the Fleet and no way so natural to get adequate supplies as by a Parliament which He therefore summons to meet March 17 intending to use all Methods of Complacency to unite the Subjects Affections to Himself Which in the beginning proved successful for the modesty of the Subjects strove with the Piety of the King and both Interests contended to oblige that they might be obliged The Parliament granted the King Anno 1628. five Subsidies and He freely granted their Petition of Right the greatest Condescension that ever any King made wherein He seemed to submit the Royal Scepter to the Popular Fasces and to have given Satisfaction even to Supererogation These auspicious beginnings though full of Joy both to Prince and People were matter of envy to the Faction and therefore to form new Discontents and Jealousies the Demagogues perswaded the Houses that the King 's Grant of their Petition extended beyond their own Hopes and the Limits themselves had set and what He had expresly mentioned and cautioned even to the taking away His Right to Tonnage and Poundage Besides this they were again hammering a Remonstrance to reproach Him and His Ministers of male-administration Which Ingratitude He being not able to endure on June 26. adjourns the Parliament till Octob. 20. and afterward by Proclamation till Jan. 20. following In the interim the King hastens to send succours to Rochel and though the General the Duke of Buckingham was at Portsmouth Assassinated by Felton armed as he professed with the publick hatred yet the Preparations were not slackned the King by His personal industry doing more to the necessary furnishing of the Fleet in ten or twelve dayes than the Duke had done in so many months before But in the mean while Rochel was barricadoed to an impossibility of Relief
Therefore the Earl of Lindsey who commanded the Forces after some gallant yet fruitless attempts returned to England and the Rochellers to the Obedience of the French King As Providence had removed the great Object of the Popular hate and as was pretended the chief obstruction of the Subjects Love to their King the Duke of Buckingham so the King himself labours to remove all other occasions of quarrel before the next Session He restores Archbishop Abbot who for his remisness in the Discipline of the Church had been suspended from his Office and was therefore the Darling of the Commons because in disgrace with the King so contrary are the affections of a corrupted State to those of their Governours to the administration of it again Dr. Potter the great Calvinist was made Bishop of Carlisle Mr. Mountague's Book of Appello Caesarem was called in Proclamations were issued out against Papists Sir Thomas Wentworth an active Leader of the Commons was towards the beginning of this Session as Sir John Savil had been at the end of the last called up into the Lord's House being made Viscount Wentworth and Lord President of the North. But the Honours of these Persons whose parts the King who well understood men thought worthy of his Favour and Employment seeming the rewards of Sedition and the spoils of destructive Counsels the Demagogues were more eager in the pursuit of that which these had attained unto by the like Arts. And therefore despising all the King 's obliging practices in the next Sessions they assumed a power of reforming Church and State called the Customers into question for Levying Tonnage and Poundage made now their Invectives as they formerly did against the Duke against the Lord Treasurer Weston so that it appeared that not the persons of men but the King's trust of them was the object of their Envy and His Favour though never so Vertuous marked them out for Ruine And upon these points they raised the heat to such a degree that fearing they should be dissolved ere they had time to vent their passions they began a Violence upon their own Body an example which lasted longer than their Cause and at last produced the overthrow of all their Priviledges They lockt the Doors of the House kept the Key thereof in one of their own Pockets held the Speaker by strong hand in the Chair till they had thundred out their Votes like dreadfull Anathemaes against those that should Levy and which was more ranting against such as should willingly pay the Tonnage and Poundage This Force the King went with His Guard of Pensioners to remove which they hearing adjourned the House and the King in the House of Lords declaring the Injustice of those Vipers who destroyed their own Liberties dissolved the Parliament While the winds of Sedition raged thus furiously at home more gentle gales came from abroad The French King's designs upon other places required Peace from us and therefore the Signiorie of Venice by her Ambassadors was moved to procure an Accord betwixt Charles and Lewis which the King accepted And not long after Anno 1629. the Spaniard pressed with equal necessities desired Amity which was also granted The King being thus freed from His domestick Embroilments and foreign Enmities soon made the World see His Skill in the Arts of Empire and rendred Himself abroad more considerable than any of His Predecessors And He was more glorious in the eyes of the good and more satisfied in His own breast by confirming Peace with Prudence than if He had finished Wars with destroying Arms. So that His Sceptre was the Caduceus to arbitrate the differences of the Potentates of Europe His Subjects likewise tasted the sweetness of a Reign which Heaven did indulge with all its favours but only that of valuing their Happiness While other Nations weltred in blood His people enjoyed a profound Peace and that Plenty which the freedom of Commerce brings along with it The Dutch and Easterlings used London as the surest Bank to preserve and increase their Trading The Spanish Bullion was here Coined which advantaged the King's Mint and encreased the Wealth of the Merchants who returned most of that Money in our native Commodities While He dispensed these Blessings to the People Heaven was liberal to Him in giving Him a Son to inherit His Dominions May 29. Anno 1630. which was so great matter of rejoycing to the People of uncorrupted minds that Heaven seemed also concerned in the Exultation kindling another Fire more than Ordinary making a Star to be seen the same day at noon From which most men presaged that that Prince should be of high Undertakings and of no common glory among Kings which hath since been confirmed by the miraculous preservation of Him and Heaven seemed to conduct Him to the Throne For this great blessing the King gave publick Thanks to the Author of it Almighty God at St. Paul's Church and God was pleased in a return to those thanks with a numerous Issue afterwards to increase this Happiness For neither Armies nor Navies are such sure props of Empire as Children are Time Fortune private Lusts or Errors may take off or change Friends but those that Nature hath united must have the same Interest especially in Royal Families in whose Prosperities strangers may have a part but their Adversities will be sure to crush their nearest Allies Prospering thus in Peace at home a small time assisted His frugality to get such a Treasure and gave Him leasure to form such Counsels as might curb the Insolence of His Enemies abroad He confederated with other Princes to give a check to the Austrian Greatness assisting by His Treasure Arms and Counsel the King of Sweden to deliver the oppressed German States from the Imperial Oppressions And when Gustavus's fortune made him insolent and he would impose unequal Conditions upon the Paltsgrave the King's Brother in Law He necessitated him notwithstanding his Victories to more easie Articles The next year was notorious for two Trials one of the Lord Audley Earl of Castlehaven who being accused by all the abused parts of his Family of a prodigious wickedness and unnatural uncleanness was by the King submitted to a tryal by his Peers and by them being found Guilty was Condemned and his Nobility could be no patronage for his Crimes but in the King's eyes they appeared more horrid because they polluted that Order and was afterwards executed The other was of a tryal of Combate at a Marshal's Court betwixt Donnold Lord Rey a Scotish High-lander and David Ramsey a Scotish Courtier The first accused the last to have solicited him to a Confederacy with the Marquess Hamilton who was then Commander of some Forces in assistance of the King of Sweden in which Ramsey said all Scotland was ingaged but three and that their friends had gotten provision of Arms and Powder out of England that the Court was extremely corrupted and that the matters of Church and State were so out of
Earls of Roxbrough and Traquaire pretended to protect who indured some affronts that their Patience might provoke a greater rage in the Multitude which a vigorous punishment had easily extinguish'd For they that are fierce in a croud being singled through their particular fears become obedient And that rabble that talks high against the determinations of their Prince when danger from the Laws is within their ken distrust their companions and return to subjection But it soon appeared that this was not the bare effort of a mutinous Multitude but a long-formed Conspiracy and to this Multitude whose present terrour was great yet would have been contemptible in a short space there appeared Parties to head them of several Orders Who presently digested their Partisans into several Tables and concocted this Mutiny into a formal Rebellion To prosecute which they mutually obliged themselves and the whole Nation in a Covenant to extirpate Episcopacy and whatsoever they pleased to brand with the odious names of Heresie and Superstition and to defend each other against all Persons not excepting the King To reduce this people to more peaceful Practices the King sends Marquess Hamilton one who being caressed by His Majesties Favour had risen to such a degree of wealth and greatness that now he dreamed of nothing less than Empire to bring his power to perfection at least to be Monarch of Scotland to which he had some pretensions by his birth as His Commissioner Who with a species of Loyalty dissembled that pleasure which he took in the opposition of the Covenanters whose first motions were secretly directed by his counsels and those of his dependents Traquaire and Roxbrough for all his Allies were of that party contrary to the custom of that Country where all the Members of a Family espouse the part of their Head though in the utmost danger and his Mother rid armed with Pistols at her Saddle-bow for defence of the Covenant By his actings there new seeds of Discontents and War were daily sown and his oppositions so faint that he rather encreased than allayed their fury By several returns to His Majesty for new Instructions he gave time to the Rebels to consolidate their Conspiracy to call home their Exiles of Poverty that were in foreign Armies and provide Arms for open Force By his false representations of the state of things he induced the King to temporize with the too-potent Corruption of that Nation an artifice King JAMES had sometimes practised and by granting their desires to make them sensible of the evils which would flow from their own counsels Therefore the King gave Order for revoking the Liturgy the High-Commission the Book of Canons and the Five Articles of Perth But the Covenanters were more insolent by these Concessions because they had gotten that by unlawful courses and unjust force which Modesty and Submission had never obtained and imputing these Grants to the King's Weakness not his Goodness they proceeded to bolder Attempts Indicted an Assembly without Him in which they abolished Episcopacy excommunicated the Bishops and all that adhered to them Afterwards they seised upon the King's Revenue surprised His Forts and Castles and at last put themselves into Arms. Provoked with these Injuries the King amasses a gallant Army in which was a very great appearance of Lords and Gentlemen and with these marches and incamps within two miles of Berwick within sight of the Enemy But their present Condition being such as could endure neither War nor Peace they endeavoured to dissipate that Army which they could not overthrow by a pretence to a Pacification For which they petition'd the King who yielded unto it out of His innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood So an Accord was made June 17. Anno 1639. and the King disbands His Army expecting the Scots should do the like according to the Articles of Agreement But they being delivered from Fear would not be restrained by Shame from breaking their Faith For no sooner had the King disbanded but they protested against the Pacification printed many false Copies of it that might represent it dishonourable to the King retained their Officers in pay changed the old Form of holding Parliaments invaded the Prerogatives of the Crown and solicited the French King for an aid of men and money This perfidious abuse of His Majesty's Clemency made those that judge of Counsels by the Issue to censure the King's Facility Some wondred how He could imagine there would be any Moderation in so corrupt a Generation of men and that they who had broken the Peace out of a desire of War should now lay aside their Arms out of a love to Quiet That there would be always the same causes to the Scots of disturbing England and opposing Government their unquiet nature and Covetousness therefore unless some strong impression made them either unable or unwilling to distract our quiet the King was to look for a speedy return of their Injuries Others attributed the Accord to the King's sense that some eminent Officers in His own Camp were polluted with Counsels not different from the Covenanters and that Hamilton His Admiral had betrayed the seasons of fighting by riding quietly in the Forth of Edinburgh and had secret Conference with His Mother the great Nurse of the Covenant on Ship-board But most referred it to the King 's innate tenderness of His Subjects Blood and to His Prudence not to defile His Glory with the overthrow which seemed probable of a contemptible Enemy where the gains of the Victory could not balance the hazards of attempting it Anno 1640. While men thus discourse of the Scots Perfidiousness the King prepares for another Army and in order thereto calls a Parliament in Ireland and another in England for assistances against the Rebels in Scotland The Irish granted Money to raise and pay 8000 men in Arms and furnish them with Ammunition Yet this Example with the King's account of the Injuries done to Him and this Nation by the Scots and his promise of for ever acquitting them of Ship-money if now they would freely assist Him prevailed nothing upon the English Parliament whom the Faction drew aside to other Counsels And when the King sent Sir Henry Vane to re-mind them of His desires and to demand Twelve Subsidies yet to accept of Six he industriously as was collected from His own and His Sons following practices insisted upon the Twelve without insinuation of the lesser quantity His Majesty would be contented with which gave such an opportunity and matter for seditious Harangues that the House was so exasperated as that they were about to Remonstrate against the War with Scotland To prevent this ominous effect of the falseness of His Servant the King was forced to dissolve the Parliament May 5. yet continued the Convocation which granted Him 4 s. in the pound for all their Ecclesiastical Promotions But the Laiety that in the House had not time to declame against His Majesties Proceedings did it without doors for being
Eloquence that he whom the mercenary Tongues of their Lawyers had rendred as a Monster of men could not be found guilty of Treason either in the particulars or the whole So that his Enemies were filled with madness that their Charge of Crimes appeared no other than a Libel of Slanders and the dis-interessed Hearers were besides the pleasure they received to find so great Endowments polluted with no hainous Crimes sensible of the unhappiness of those who are Ministers of State among a Factious people where their prosperous Counsels are not rewarded and unsuccessful though prudent are severely accused when they err every one condemns them and their wise Advices few praise for those that are benefited envy and such as are disappointed hate those that gave them And such seemed the Fate of this Excellent Counsellour whom nothing else but his great Parts his Master's Love and Trust had exposed to this Danger The Faction being obstructed this way by the Earl's Innocency and Abilities from taking away his Life move the House to proceed by a Bill of Attainder to the making a Law after the Fact whereby they Vote him guilty of High Treason yet add a Caution that it should not be drawn into a Precedent seeking to secure themselves from a return of that Injustice upon themselves which they acted on him intending to prosecute what they falsly charged him with the Alteration of Government Which yet passed not without a long debate and contention for many that had none but honest hopes disdained to administer to the Interest of the Faction in the blood of so much Innocent Gallantry and those that were prudent saw how such an Example opened the avenues to ruine of the best Persons when once exposed to publick hatred Therefore they earnestly disswaded such a proceed And fifty nine of the most eminent openly dissented when it came to the Vote whose Names were afterwards posted and marked for the fury of the Rabble that for the future they might not oppose the designs of the Factious unless they desired to be torn in pieces In two dayes the Lower House past the Bill so swift were the Demagogues to shed blood but the Lords House was a little more deliberative the King having amongst them declared His sense of the Earl's Innocency of whose slow Resolves the Faction being impatient there came a seditious rabble of about 5 or 6000 of the dregs of the people armed with Staves and Cudgels and other Instruments of Outrage instigated by the more unquiet Members both of the House of Commons and the City to the Parliament doors clamouring Justice Justice and the next day to raise their Fury there was a report spred among them of some endeavours to prepare an Escape for the Lieutenant of Ireland therefore with more fierceness they raised their clamours some objecting Treason to him others their Decay of Trade and each one either as he was instructed for some of the House of Commons would be among them to direct their Fury and to give some order to their Tumult that it might appear more terrible or the sense of his own necessities and lusts led him urged his different motives for Justice and at last heated by their own motion and noise they guard the doors of the House of Peers offer insolencies to the Lords especially the Bishops as they went in and threaten them if their Votes disagree from their clamours And when they had thus made an assault on the Liberty of the Parliament which yet was pretended to be so Sacred they afterward set upon the neighbouring Abby-Church where forcing open the doors they brake down the Organs spoiled all the Vestments and Ornaments of the Worship from thence they fly to Court and disturb the Peace of it with their undecent and barbarous clamours and at last were raised to that impudency as to upbraid the King who from a Scaffold perswaded them as they passed by to a modest care of their own private affairs with an unfitness to reign When some Justices of the Peace according to the Law endeavoured to suppress those Tumults by imprisoning the most forward and bold Leaders they themselves were imprisoned by the Command of the Commons upon pretext of an injury offered to the Liberties of the Subject of which one was as they then dictated That every one might safely petition the Parliament yet when the Kentish men came to Petition for something contrary to the Gust of the Faction they caused the City Gates to be shut upon them and when other Counties were meditating Addresses for Peace by threatnings they deterred them from such honest undertakings And when some prudent Persons minded the Demagogues how dishonourable it was for the Parliament not to suppress such Mutinies they replyed that their friends ought rather to be thanked and caressed By these and other Arts having wholly overthrown the freedom of that Council and many with-drawing themselves from such Outrages when scarce the third part of the Peers were present the Faction of that House likewise passed the Bill the Dissenters being out-voted only by seven Voices Yet all this could not prevail upon the King though the Tumults were still high without and within He was daily solicited by the Lords of His Palace who now looked upon the Earl as the Herd doth on an hurt Deer and they hoped his Blood would be the Lustration of the Court to leave the Earl as a Sacrifice to the Vulgar Rage Nor did the King any ways yield till the Judges who were now obsequious to the pleasures of the Parliament declared He might do it by Law and the Earl by his own Letters devoted himself as a Victim for the publick Peace and His Majesties Safety and then overcome with Importunities on all hands and being abused by bad dealing of the Judges as Himself complained to the Bishops whom He consulted in that Case and the Bishop of London who was one of them answered That if the King in Conscience found him not guilty He ought not to pass the Bill but for matter of Law what was Treason he referred Him to the Judges who according to their Oath ought to carry themselves indifferently betwixt Him and His Subjects The other four Bishops that were then consulted Durham Lincoln Carlisle and the Arch-Bishop of Armagh were not so free as the Bishop of London was and therefore the King observed a special blessing of God upon him He at last with much reluctancy signed a Commission to some Lords to pass that Bill of Attainder and another for Continuation of the Parliament during the pleasure of the Two Houses The passing of these two Bills as some thought wounded the King's Greatness more than any thing He ever did The first because it cut off a most exquisite Instrument of Empire and a most faithful Servant and none did more make use of this to pollute His Honour than those who had even forced Him to it like those malignant and damned Spirits who upbraid
Arts of the Irish Rebels who to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged that the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them with Auxiliary Forces That they did but maintain His Cause against the Puritans That they had the Kings Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent that themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old broad Seal that had been taken from an obsolete Patent out of Farnham Abby by one Plunckett in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of many That the Scots were in confederacy with them to beget a faith of which they abstained from the lives and fortunes of those of that Nation among them On the other side to encourage the Natives of their own party they produce fictitious Letters wherein they were informed from England that the Parliament had passed an Act that all the Irish should be compelled to the Protestant Worship that for the first offence they should forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives Besides they present them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be shaken off that they would have a King of their own Nation and that the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided among the Natives And with these hopes of Spoil and Liberty the Irish were driven to such a Fury that they committed so many horrid and barbarous acts as scarce ever any Age or People were guilty of In the mean while nothing was done for the relief of the poor English there but only some Votes passed against the Rebels till the King returned to London which was about the end of November where He with the Queen and the Prince were magnificently feasted by the Citizens and the Chief of them afterwards by Him at Hampton-Court For he never neglected any honest Arts to gain His Peoples love to which they were naturally prone enough had not His Enemies methods and impulses depraved their Genius But this much troubled the Faction who envied that Reverence to Majesty in others which was not in themselves and they endeavoured to make these loves short and unhappy for they discountenanced the prime advancers of this Honour to the King and were more eager to render Him odious For having gotten a Guard about them they likewise insinuated into the people dangerous apprehensions as the cause of that Guard and every day grew more nice and jealous of their Priviledges and Power The King's advices to more tenderness of His Prerogative or His Advertisements of the scandalous Speeches that were uttered in their House they interpret as encroachments upon their Grandeur and upbraided the King for them in their Petitions to Him But their greatest effort upon Majesty was the Remonstrance after which they took all occasions to magnifie the apprehensions of those Fears which they had falsly pretended to in it This the Faction had before formed and now brought into the House of Commons where it found a strong opposition by those wise men that were tender of the publick Peace and Common Good though those who preferred their Private to the General Interest and every one that was short-sighted and improvident for the future were so fierce for it that the Debates were continued all night till ten a clock the next morning so that many of the more aged and persons of best fortunes not accustomed to such watchings were wearied out and many others not daring to provoke the Faction in this their grand Design left the House so that at last they carried it yet but by eleven Votes Which they presented with a Petition to take away the Votes of Bishops in the House of Lords and the Ceremonies in the Church and to remove those Persons from His Trust which they could not confide in yet named none but only accused all under the name of a Malignant Popish Party Which they had no sooner delivered than they caused it to be published in Print To which the King answers in another publick Declaration but so much to the discontent of the Demagogues to find their Methods of Ruine so fully discovered as they were in His Majesties Answer that they had recourse to their former sovereign Remedy which sober men accounted a crime and an indignity to Government the Tumults of the Rabble Who in great numbers and much confusion came up to Westminster some crying out against Bishops others belching their fury against the Liturgy and a third party roaring that the Power of the Militia should be taken out of the King's hands To their Clamours they added rude Affronts to those Lords whom their Leaders had taught them to hate and especially to the Bishops at their going in or coming out of the House and afterwards drawing up to White-Hall they appeared so insolent as it was evident they wanted only some to begin for there were enough to prosecute an Assault upon the King in His own Palace The Bishops thus rudely excluded from their Right and Liberty of coming to the Parliament Twelve of them afterwards protest against the Proceedings of it during their so violent Exclusion Which Protestation the Commons presently accused of High Treason and caused their Commitment to the Tower where they continued them till the Bill against their Votes in the Lords House was past that they might not produce their Reasons for their Rights and against the Injustice offered unto them and then afterwards released them The King also saw it necessary to take a Guard of such Gentlemen as offered their Service for His Safety and to prevent the prophaning of Majesty by the rude fury of the People who used to make their Addresses acceptable at Westminster by offering in their passage some base Affronts at White-Hall But when the terrour of this Guard had reduced them to some less degree of Impudency they then instructed by their Heads laboured to make it more unsafe to the King by seeking to raise the Rage and Jealousie of the whole City against Him For at midnight there were cries out in the Street that all People should arise to their defence for the King with His Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their throats in their beds Than which though nothing was more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Alarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those nightly fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with Madness The King therefore not alwaies to incourage these Violences with Patience but at last by a course of Justice to take off those whom He had found to be the Authors of these destructive Counsels the grand Movers of these Seditious practices and which was more the Inviters of a Foreign Force the Scotch Army into this Nation commands His Atturney General to accuse Five Members of the House of Commous and one of the Lords upon Articles of
High Treason to be tried according to the Laws of the Land and He also sends some other Officers to seal up their Trunks and Cabinets in their several Lodgings and to secure their Persons This being related to the House of Commons wherein the Faction was now grown more powerful and with whom did joyn many men of Integrity in this Occurrence being too careful of the Priviledges of their House which yet secure none of the Members against Justice for Murder Felony or Treason they were so far from admitting the King's Charge against them that they accused the King of breach of Priviledge and Vote all those guilty of Enmity to the Common-wealth that shall obey the King in any of His Commands concerning them This Obstruction of Justice so far moved the King together with the Advice of some of His Council that were also of the House of Commons as also an hope of rooting up the Faction this way that none through the hope of Concealment should be incouraged to conspire the publick Ruine that He Himself with about an hundred Lords and Gentlemen and their followers went to the House of Commons Where commanding His Attendants to move no further than the Stairs to offer no violence nor return any uncivil language to any although provoked Himself with the Paltzgrave only enters the House and demands that the Incendiaries might be delivered into His hands with whom He promises to deal no otherwise than according to the Law But they whom he sought being before informed as it is reported of the King 's coming by the secret Intelligence of Marquess Hamilton and a Court Lady who having lost the Confluence of Servants with her Beauty sought now to prevent a solitude by politick ministeries had forsook the place and withdrawn themselves into the Sanctuary of the City Wherefore the King having renewed His Charge without injury to any immediately departs But the Faction would not let Him so rest but prosecuted this attempt of His with all the Clamours that they possibly could raise spread the sparks of Dissention far and wide make the common people mad with Fears and Distractions stir up some in several Counties to bring Petitions for the impeached Members and their Violated Priviledges and at last prepare an armed Rabble disposed into Order to bring the accused Demagogues to the House from their Coverts in London This coming to the knowledge of the King although many Gallant and faithful Persons proffered their Service by mingling with the Rout or by being as Spectators to curb any Insolencies that should be attempted on Him yet was He resolved to withdraw Himself with the Queen and their Children to Windsor that He might permit their Fury to languish when it had no opposition and to give time for their jealousies and rumours to wax old and perish For the first Indignation of a mutinous Multitude is most fierce and a small delay breaks their consent and Majesty would have a greater Reverence if any at a distance The King's Wisdom was perceived by His Enemies and therefore to counterwork it and not to let the people sleep without fear lest they should come to be sober and return to the love of Obedience strange reports were every day brought of dangers from the King That troops of Papists were gathered about Kingston upon the Thames where the County Magazine was lodged under the Command of the Lord George Digby who was then famed to be a Papist though at that time he was an elegant Assertor of the Protestant Faith and Col. Lunsford who was characterised to be of so monstrous an appetite that he would eat Children And parties were sent to take them both which found no such dreadful Preparations At other times when the People on the Lord's dayes were at Divine Worship they were distracted from it by Alarms that the Papists who and from whence none could tell were up in Arms and were just then about to fire their Houses and mix their Blood with their Prayers That there were Forces kept in Grotts and Caves under ground that should in the night break out into the midst of the City and cut all their throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet had not a few believers in London That there were designs by Gunpowder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the water in their beds Thus were the people taught to hate their Prince and by bloody news from every Quarter they were instructed to that Cruelty which they vainly feared and to adore those by whose Counsels they were delivered from so unexpected Dangers By all this the Faction gained the repute of Modesty inferiour to their supposed Trust when they demanded nothing else but the Command of the Tower and the Militia of all the Counties in England together with the Forts and Castles of the same For all which they moved the House of Commons of petition who desiring the Conjuncture of the Lords in the same were wholly refused by them Therefore stemmed by the Faction they petition alone Which unlimited Power the King absolutely refused to grant unto them who He foresaw would use that as they had all His other Concessions to the ruine of the Author of their Power Yet was pleased to consent after He had demonstrated the prejudice they required to the English Nation that they might send over an Army of 10000 Scots into Ireland and deliver unto them the strong Town and Port of Carick fergus one of the Chief Keys of that Kingdom which was done to oblige the Scots to them in their future designs And also He was pleased to wave the Prosecution of the Impeached Members and was willing to grant a Free and General Pardon for all His Subjects as the Parliament should think convenient But all this could not content them who had immoderate desires and they were more discontented that they could not usurp the King 's Rights than if they had lost their own Priviledges therefore to bring the Lords to a concurrence with them the hitherto prosperous Art of Tumultuous Petitions was again practised and great Numbers from several Counties were moved to come as Earthquakes to shake the Fundamental Constitutions of their House and to require that neither the Bishops nor the Popish Lords should continue in their Ancient Right to Vote among the Peers By this means they should weaken the King in the Voices of that House and whosoever they could not confide in they could fright him from Voting against them by exposing him as Popish to the Popular Fury For this was the mothod of using the Petitions The most common Answer was with Thanks and that the House of Commons were just now in consideration thereof The Petitioners were taught to reply that They doubted not of the care of the Commons House but all their distrust was in the House of Lords where the Popish Lords and Bishops had the greatest Power and there it stuck whose names they desired to know
cause to boast of a Victory The King being returned to Oxford the Parliament wearied with the Complaints of the oppressed Nation who now grew impatient under the Distractions take into Consideration His Majesty's two Messages for Peace and send Propositions for it in the name of the two Parliaments of England and Scotland united by Solemn League and Covenant Which though they seemed the desires of minds that intended nothing less than the common Tranquillity yet the King neglects them not but hoping that in a Treaty Commissioners might argue them into Reason offers it which with much difficulty the Houses are drawn to accept but yet would have it at Vxbridge a place but about fifteen miles distant from London and above twice that distance from Oxford And accordingly Commissioners from both Parties met on Jan. 30. While the King was providing for the Treaty and forming Instructions for His Ministers the Faction found the Parliament other work by new designs and to habituate the People to an abhorrency of Peace fed them with blood The two Hotham's first were to be the Sport of the Multitude and that the Father might have more than a single death he was drawn back in his journey to the Scaffold Decemb. 31. that his Son might be executed before him as he was Jan. 1. when after he had expressed his fury to those Masters whom they had served to their ruines his Head was chopt off And on Jan. 2. the Father is brought to the place that was defiled with his Son's blood and had his own added to it These were not much lamented by any for the memory that they first kindled the Flame of the Nation kept every eye dry The People thus fed with courser blood a cleaner Sacrifice was afterwards presented William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England He had indured Imprisonment four years and passed through a Tryal of many months in which he had acquitted himself with such a confidence as became the Innocency and Constancy of a Christian Bishop and Confessor but yet must fall to please the Scots and those merciless men who imputed God's anger in the difficulties of Success against their Prince to the continuance of this Prelate's Life therefore he was Voted Guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons and was condemned in the House of Peers though they have no power over the life of the meanest Subject without the concurrence of the King when there were but Seven Lords present Some Writers who since have been convinced of their mis-information have named amongst those Seven Lords the Lord Bruce Earl of Elgin but his Lordship upon the first notice of this report did to several Persons of Quality and Honour he conversed with and since hath affirmed to me that he was not then present and that his heart could never consent to the shedding of the blood of that Excellent Prelate and all those not consenting to the Murder to be drawn hanged and quartered And this was the first Example of murdering Men by Votes of killing by an Order of Parliament when there is no Law It was moved they say by some that he might be shipp'd over to New-England to die by the Contempt and Malice of those People But this seemed too great an Honour because it would make his end as his life was much like that of the Primitive Bishops who for their Piety were banished to Barbarous Coasts or condemned to the Mines Or else it would be like an Athenian Ostracism and confess him too great and good to live among us Therefore this motion was rejected yet the Lords upon his Petition to the distaste of some Commons changed the manner of that vile Execution to that more generous of being beheaded To the Scaffold he was brought Jan. 10. after he had endured some affronts in his Antichamber in the Tower by some Sons of Schism and Sedition who unseasonably that morning he was preparing himself to appear before the great Bishop of our Souls would have him give some satisfaction to the Godly for so they called themselves for his Persecutions which he called Discipline To whom he Answered That he was now shortly to give account of all his Actions at an higher and more equal Tribunal and desired he might not be disturbed in his Preparations for it When he came to the Scene of his death he appeared with that chearfulness and serenity in his face as a good Conscience doth beautifie the owners with and it was so conspicuous that his Enemies who were ashamed to see his Innocency pourtraied in his Countenance did report he had drunk some Spirits to force his nature from a paleness He preached his own Funeral Sermon on that Text Hebr. 12.2 and concluding his life with Prayer submitted himself to the stroke of the Ax. He was a Person of so great Abilities which are the Designations of Nature to Dignity and Command that they raised him from low beginnings to the highest Office the Protestant Profession acknowledges in the Church And he was equal to it His Learning appear'd eminent in his Book against Fisher and his Piety illustrious in his Diary although published by One that was thirsty of his blood and polluted with many malicious Comments and false Surmises to make him odious He was of so Publick a Spirit that both the Church and State have lasting Monuments of the Vertuous use of his Princes favour at his Admittance into which he dedicated all the future Emoluments of it to the Glory of God and the Good of Men by a Projection of many noble Works most of which he accomplished and had finished the rest had not the Fate of the Nation checked the current of his Designs and cut off the Course of his Life He was not contented by himself only to serve his Generation for so he might have appeared more greedy of Fame than desirous of the Universal Benefit but he endeavoured to render all others as heroick if they aimed at a Capacity for his Friendship for I have heard it from his Enemies no geat man was admitted to a confidence and respect with him unless he made his Address by some Act that was for the Common Good or for the Ornament and Glory of the Protestant Faith Learned men had not a better Friend nor Learning it self a greater Advancer he searched all the Libraries of Asia and from several parts of the World purchased all the Ornaments and Helps of Literature he could that the English Church might have if possible by his Care as many Advantages for Knowledge as almost all Europe did contribute to the Grandeur of that of Rome The outward Splendour of the Clergy was not more his Care than their Honour by a grave and pious Conversation he would put them into a power of doing more good but was severe against their Vices and Vanities He scorned a private Treasure and his Kindred were rather relieved than raised to any greatness by him In his
of all the People This Answer He delivered sealed to their Messengers who desired that they might hear it read and that they might be dealt with as Commissioners not as bare Carriers a greater trust than which their Masters had not committed unto them and promise upon their Honour that it should not be any prejudice to Him But His Majesty had no sooner read it than they finding it not to the Gust of those that sent them notwithstanding the Faith they had given cause their Just Sovereign to be kept close Prisoner force away His Chaplains Dr. Sheldon now Lord Bishop of London and Dr. Hammond both which He highly valued for their Integrity Wisdom Piety and Learning and His other Servants even those whom the Parliament had placed formerly about Him and in whom His Goodness had wrought both an Affection and Admiration of Him and permit none about Him but such as they hoped would be a Watch upon Him and whose barbarous Souls might trample on His Fortune Besides they set strict Guards at His Doors and Windows lest any Letters might come to Him or be sent from Him The like reception His Letter found with the Parliament For Cromwell and His Officers were resolved to go on with their Design and having so long used the Adjutators as served to frighten the King into the Toils they had set they soon quiet them which was not difficult being a Company of hot-headed fellows that could only talk not form a Counsel or a Party to endure a Storm by executing some of their most pertinacious Leaders and being free of that care applyed their practices wholly to the Destruction of His Majesty To this purpose they mould the Four Votes for No Addresses to the King but before they bring them into Publick they send into their several Counties about forty or fifty of the principal Members who they thought would oppose them to raise Money for the Souldiers Nevertheless the first of those Votes was contested against so strongly that the Debates lasted from ten of the Clock in the Morning till seven in the Evening and though they thus wearied the more Honest Party yet could it not pass till the Conspirators had engaged that no worse thing should be done to the King The remaining Votes were dispatched in half an hours time when those of the more sober Principles were gone forth to refresh themselves and the Conspirators still kept their Seats The House of Peers were not so hasty in them as the Commons had been and their Debates vexed the Conspirators with Delayes till those who were sent by the Army to thank the Lower House for their Consent to these Desires of the Souldiers did also threaten the Upper for their long Deliberations some new Terrors were also added for they quartered two of their Regiments at White-Hall under colour of guarding the Parliament but in truth to work upon the Lords which had its effect for many that had the most Honourable thoughts in this business forsook the Parliament and then three or four which often was the fullest Number about those times in that Honse joyn with the Commons in their Votes for no Addresses This prodigious Persidiousness in Parliament and Army both which had so frequently declared and ingaged themselves by Oaths and Promises to preserve the King in His Just Rights fill'd all men with amazement and indignation to see how little they valued their Faith who pretended so high to Religion therefore each of them were put to satisfie the Common Fame Cromwell to some would have cover'd this Impiety with another that as He was praying for a blessing from God on his undertakings to restore the King to his pristine Majesty his tongue cleaved to the roof of his mouth that he could not speak one word more which he took as a return of Prayer and that God had rejected Him from being King To others he did impudently assert That it was lawfull to circumvent a wicked man with deceit and frauds The Conspirators in the Parliament strove to honest their Proceedings by a Declaration and assign in it for Causes of their Perjuries all the Calumnies that had been raised against the King by His most professed Enemies or from those uncertain Rumours which themselves had invented adding and repeating others which had even in the Parliament House been condemned as Forgeries yet now were used as necessary Veils for a more execrable Falshood Which infamous Libel they cause to be sent to all the Parishes of the Kingdom to be divulged supposing that none did dare to refute their black and most malicious Slanders or that none could publickly do it because they set strict Watches upon all the Printing-Presses They likewise Commanded the Curates to read it in their several Churches and commend it to the People And that these might the more readily observe their Orders they at the same time strictly enjoyn the payment of Tithes and Vote that the Dean and Chapiter's Lands which they had designed for profane Uses and never intended they should be for the Emolument of Church-men should be set apart for Augmentations for their Preachers pretending a fervent zeal for the propagation of the Gospel when they did most dishonour it By their Agents and the Anabaptists with other Hereticks and Schismaticks they solicite the unacquainted Rabble to sign to Gratulatory Addresses to approve what they had already done and petition for a speedy progress in the Ruine of His Majesty But all these their cursed Projects failed for several Answers to their Defamations were published One writ by the King Himself another by * A full Answer Sir Edward Hyde and a third by * The Regal Apology Dr. Bates all which proved the Monstrous Falshoods of their Paper and that the Faction were guilty of what they imputed to the King and this with such evidence that none of their most mercenary Writers or the most foul-mouthed Conspirators did dare or hope with Success to reply unto The Curates coldly if at all observed their Orders and there came so few Petitions and those signed by such contemptible and lewd Persons as they rather loaded the Faction with more hatred than gave them any credit While generally in every place none of the People could contain their fury against these Impostors but publickly cursed them and their Infamous Adherents For their Miserie 's made them sensible of the want of that Prince whose gentle and just Rule had brought them to such an inebriating Prosperity that they had forgot the Minister of their Happiness But now they found Government when it was out of His hand like Moses's Rod cast on the ground transformed to a Serpent and that those who pretended to free them from Tyranny had deluded them into the most insufferable Slavery wherein they were either totally despoiled of all things that render our Being comfortable or they were not secure in the use of them Religion the Ornament of the present and the Pledge of
being set the Charge against Him was read with all those reproachful terms of Tyrant Traitor and Murtherer after which He was impleaded in the name of the People of England This false Slander of the People of England was heard with Impatience and Detestation of all and stoutly attested against by the Lady Fairfax Wife of the Lord Fairfax who by this act shewed her self worthy of her Extract from the Noble Family of the Veres for from an adjoyning Scaffold where she stood she cryed out with a loud voice but not without danger that It was a Lie not the Tenth part of the People were guilty of such a Crime but all was done by the Machinations of that Traitor Cromwell But the King after the Charge was read with a countenance full of Majesty and Gravity demands by what Authority they proceeded with Him thus contrary to the Publick Faith and what Law they had to try Him that was an absolute Sovereign Bradshaw replying that of the Parliament His Majesty shewed the detestable Falshood in pretending to what they had not and if they had it yet it could not justifie these Practices To which reply when they could not answer they force Him back to the place of His Captivity The Magnanimity of the King in this dayes contest with these inhumane Butchers did much satisfie the People and they were glad while they thought not of His Danger that He wanted not either Speech or Courage against so powerfull Enemies that He had spoken nothing unworthy of Himself and had preserved the Fame of His Vertues even in so great Adversities For He seemed to triumph over their Fortune whose Arms He was now subject to The Parricides sought to break His Spirit by making His appearances frequent before such contemptible Judges and often exposing Him to the contempt of the armed Rabble therefore four dayes they torture Him with the Impudence and Reproaches of their Infamous Sollicitor and President But He still refused to own their Authority which they could not prove lawful and so excellently demonstrated their abominable Impiety that He made Col. Downes one of their Court to boggle at and disturb their Proceedings They therefore at last proceeded to take away that Life which was not to be separated from Conscience and Honour and pronounced their Sentence of Death upon their Lawful and Just Sovereign Jan. 27. not suffering Him to speak after the Decree of their Villany but hurrying Him back to the place of His Restraint At His departure He was exposed to all the Insolencies and Indignities that a phanatick and base Rabble instigated by Peters and other Instructors of Villany could invent and commit And He suffer'd many things so conformable to Christ His King as did alleviate the sense of them in Him and also instruct Him to a correspondent Patience and Charity When the barbarous Souldiers cryed out at His departure Justice Justice Execution Execution as those deceived Jews did once to their KING Crucifie Him Crucifie Him this Prince in imitation of that most Holy King pitied their blind fury and said Poor Souls for a piece of Money they would do as much for their Commanders As He passed along some in defiance spit upon His Garments and one or two as it was reported by an Officer of theirs who was one of their Court and praised it as an evidence of His Souldiers Gallantry while others were stupified with their prodigious baseness polluted His Majestick Countenance with their unclean spittle the Good King reflecting on His great Exemplar and Master wiped it off saying My Saviour suffer'd far more than this for me Into his very face they blowed their stinking Tobacco which they knew was very distastefull to Him and in the way where He was to go just at His feet they flung down pieces of their nasty pipes And as they had devested themselves of all humanity so were they impatient and furious if any one shewed Reverence or Pity to Him as He passed For no honest Spirit could be so forgetful of humane frailty as not to be troubled at such a sight to see a Great and Just King the rightful Lord of three flourishing Kingdoms now forced from His Throne and led captive through the streets Such as pull'd off their Hats or bowed to Him they beat with their Fists and Weapons and knock'd down one dead but for crying out God be mercifull unto Him When they had brought Him to His Chamber even there they suffered Him not to rest but thrusting in and smoaking their filthy Tobacco they permitted Him no privacy to Prayer and Meditation Thus through variety of Tortures did the King pass this day and by His Patience wearied His Tormentors nothing unworthy His former greatness of Fortune and Mind by all these Affronts was extorted from Him though Indignities and Injuries are unusual to Princes and these were such as might have forced passion from the best-tempered meekness had it not been strengthned with assistance from Heaven In the Evening the Conspirators were acquainted by a Member of the Army of the King's desire that seeing His death was nigh it might be permitted Him to see His Children and to receive the Sacrament and that Doctor Juxon then Lord Bishop of London now Arch-Bishop of Canterbury might be admitted to pray with Him in His private Chamber The first they did not scruple at the Children in their power being but two the Lady Elizabeth and the Duke of Glocester and they very young The second they did not readily grant Some would have had Peters to undertake that employment for which the Bishop was sent for But he declined it with some Scoffs as knowing that the King hated the Offices of such an unhallowed Buffoon So that at last they permitted the Bishops access to the King to whom his eminent Integrity had made him dear For with so wonderful a prudence and uprightness he had managed the envious Office of the Treasury that that accusing age especially of Church-men found not matter for any impeachment nor ground for the least reproach The next day being Sunday the King was removed to St. James's where the Bishop of London read Divine Service and preached before Him in private on these words In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel While the King and the Bishop at this time and also at other times were performing the Divine Service the rude Souldiers often rushed in and disturbed their Offices with vulgar and base Scoffs vain and frivolous Questions The Commanders likewise and other impertinent Anabaptists did interrupt His Meditations who came to tempt and try Him and provoke Him to some unnecessary disputations But He maintained His own Cause with so irrefragable Arguments that He put some to silence the petulancy of others He neglected and with a modest contempt dissembled their Scoffs and Reproaches In the narrow space of this one day and under so continued Affronts and Disturbances
the King whose whole Soul was totally composed to Religion applyed Himself as much as was possible to the Reading Holy Scriptures to Prayer Confession of Sins Supplications for the forgiveness of His Enemies the receiving the Eucharist holy Conferences and all the Offices of Piety so under the utmost Malice and Hatred of men He laboured for the Mercy of God and to fit Himself for His last victory over Death While the King thus spent this day the Ministers in the several Churches in London and in those parts of the Kingdom where His danger was known were very earnest in their Prayers to God for His Deliverance and Spiritual Assistance Some of them in their Sermons declared the horrour of that sin that was about to be committed detested the Impiety of the Parricides and denounced the heavy Judgements which such a sinfull Nation polluted with their Prince's blood were to expect The Congregations were dissolved into Tears Some bewailed the sad Condition of the King as the effect of the Sins of the Nation Others cursed their damnable Credulity of the Slanders of that Just Man and the promises of Liberty by their Impostors And another sort wept because their Fears did prognosticate those Miseries which the Issue of His blood would let in upon them And every one found matter of grief fear and indignation in the loss of so Excellent a Prince All countenances were full of sadness and astonishment there was no Tumults nor any Quiet every one listning and hearkning either as impatient to know the greatness of their Misery or greedy to receive some hopes of Comfort in their Sovereign's Safety otherwise there was a stilness like that which too strong Passions effect and might be thought a Stupidity rather than a Calmness The next day being Jan. 29. the King was permitted the sight of His Children His conference and words with them was taken in writing and communicated to the World by the Lady Elizabeth His Daughter a Lady of most eminent Endowments who though born in the supremest Fortune yet lived in continual Tears the passages of her Life being spent in beholding the Ruines of her Family and the Murther of her dear Father whom she not long survived but died in that Confinement to which they had cheated His Majesty in Carisbrook Castle in the Isle of Wight While these things were done in publick the Conspirators meet in private in a Committee to appoint every one their part in this Tragedy determine what Gestures they were to affect what Words they were to use as also for the manner place and time of the Murther In which Consultations both now and before the Sentence each one according to the bloodiness of his temperament or servilely to flatter Cromwell by their Cruelty to Him that did obstruct his Ambition did propose several wayes either of contempt or hatred in killing their sentenced yet anointed Sovereign Some would have His Head and Quarters fastned upon Poles as it is usual with Traitors that the marks of their Cruelty might out-last His Death Others would have Him hanged as they punished Thieves and Murtherers Others gave their Vote that He should suffer in His Royal Habiliments with His Crown and in His Robes that it might be a Triumph of the Peoples power over Kings At last they think it sufficient that He should lose His Head by the stroak of an Axe on a Scaffold near White-Hall Gates before the Banqueting-House that so from thence where He used to sit on His Throne and shew the Splendour of Majesty He might pass to His Grave there parting with the Ensigns of Royalty and laying them down as Spoils where He had before used them as the Ornaments of Empire Thus did they endeavour to make their Malice Ingenious and provided Triumphs for their revenge And because they suspected or were informed that as the King had not owned their Authority so He would not submit to their Execution nor willingly stoop to the Block they caused to be fastned in it some Iron Staples and Rings that by them with Cords they might draw Him down if He would not comply But His prudent Meekness prevented this Inhumanity and He died disowning their Authority though He could not escape their Power In the midst of these Preparations they cause some Souldiers to offer to His Majesty certain Articles and Conditions to which if He would subscribe they promise Life and the continuance of a precarious Empire either out of a Terrour and Fear of the consequents of their Impieties for the confidence of contriving great Crimes is often turned into a sollicitude when they come to be acted or out of Design to ruine His Conscience and Honour together with His mortal Life if He should consent But when one or two of them had been read to Him He refused to hear any more saying I will suffer a thousand deaths ere I will so prostitute my Honour or betray the Liberties of my People Thus mindful of Justice He would not deface the Splendor of His former Vertues with a too impotent desire of Life At last that Fatal Day Jan. 30. approached and that morning a little before His Death the Conspirators ordered some of their Ministers viz. Marshal Nye Caryl Salway and Dell to pray with Him as they said in order to His passage out of this Life but when these sent to let Him know the end of their coming He returned answer that He was busie they sent a second time and He replyed that He was at His Devotions they importunately sent a third time and my Lord of London then desiring to know what answer he should give to satisfie them His Majesty then as unconcerned in their Ministery said My Lord you may give them what answer you please but I am resolved that they who have so often and so causelesly prayed against Me shall not in this My Agony pray with Me they may pray for Me if they please Therefore the King arming Himself with His own Devotions in the Offices of the Church of England in them found an unexpected Comfort for the Gospel for that Day being the History of the Passion of our Saviour did by that Example strengthen the King to follow Jesus and to take up His Cross and His Majesty was thankful for that Pattern Being thus confirmed by the Blood for He took the Sacrament that Morning and sufferings of His LORD whose Vicegerent He was together with His own Innocency against the Terrors of Death He was brought from St. James's through the Park to White-Hall walking very fast and with as chearful a Countenance as if He were going to Hunting a Recreation He was much pleased with often advising His slow Guards to move faster adding I now go before you to strive for an Heavenly Crown with less sollicitude than I formerly have led My Souldiers for an Earthly Diadem And being come to the end of the Park He with much Alacrity went up the Stairs leading to the long Gallery in
them to be not only deceivers but also deceived For that Just Prince hath of His own Seed to sit upon His Throne And Posterity shall wonder at the Vanity as well as the Falseness of those men that they should think to destroy the Memory of that Prince whose true and lasting Glory consisted not in any thing wherein it was possible for Successors to shew the Power of their Malice but in a solid Vertue which flourisheth by Age and whose Fame gathers strength from multitude of Years when Statues and Monuments are obnoxious to the flames of a Violent Envy and the Ruines of Time Besides this they take care to suppress all those more Lively figures of Him and most lasting Statues His Writings and therefore force from My Lord of London whom they kept prisoner all those Papers His Majesty had delivered to him and make a most narrow search of his Cloathes and Cabinets lest any of those Monuments of Piety and Wisdom should escape to the Benefit of Mankind Yet by the gracious Goodness of the Almighty God to their eternal infamy and for a perpetual Record of the King 's great Vertues there escaped their Search and was published to the World The Book of His Meditations and Soliloquies In the Composition of which a Sober Reader cannot tell which to admire most either His incredible Prudence His ardent Piety or His Majestick and truly Royal Style Those parts of it which consisted of Addresses to God corresponded so nearly in the Occasions and were so full of the Piety and Elegancy of David's Psalms that they seemed to be dictated by the same Spirit His very Assassinates confessed the goodness of the Book though they were ashamed He whom they had murthered should be the Author For Bradshaw in his Examination of Royston who Printed it asked him How he could think so bad a man for such would that Monster have this Excellent Prince thought to be could write so good a Book Therefore they laboured by all wayes and means to suppress it as the greatest witness against them to Posterity and which would make them odious in all Generations For the Blood of the Holy Wise and Eloquent leaves eternal stains of Infamy upon those that spill'd it because no man reads their Works but they curse those cruel hands which cut the veins and stopp'd the streams of so much Goodness and we esteem them barbarous and inhumane Monsters who did not Reverence the Persons of those whose Writings we admire But their fury became ridiculous while they thought by their present power to corrupt His Memory and take off the admiration of the following Ages for the more they hindred the Publication the more earnestly it was sought after yet they endeavoured it another way and therefore hired certain mercenary Souls to despoil the King of the Credit of being the Author of it Especially one base Scribe naturally fitted to compose Satyres and invent Reproaches who made himself notorious by some licentious and infamous Pamphlets and so approved himself as fit for their service This man they encouraged by translating him from a needy Pedagogue to the Office of a Secretary to write that Scandalous Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Invective against the King's Meditations and to answer the learned Salmasius his Defence of Charles the First But all was in vain for those that were able to judge of Styles found it must be the same Pen which wrought these Meditations and drew those Letters which the Faction had published for His. Others that were not able to satisfie themselves by such a Censure were assured of it by the Relations of Colonel Hammond that was His Keeper who did attest to several Persous that he saw them in the King's hand heard Him read them and did see Him to correct them in his presence The Arch-Bishop of Armagh did also affirm to those he conversed with that he was employed by a Command from the King to get some of them out of the hands of the Faction for they were taken in His Cabinet at Naseby And Royston that Printed them did testifie to those that enquired of him that the King had sent to him the Michaelmas before His death to provide a Press for some Papers He should send to Him which were these together with a design for a Picture before the Book which at first was Three Crowns indented on a Wreath of Thorns but afterwards the King recalled that and sent that other which is now before His Book Thus these several Testimonies did secure the faith of the World against the Slanderers and made their endeavours as contemptible as themselves were hatefull While the Parricides were seeking for fresh Occasions to express their Malice the whole Kingdom was composed to Mourning and Lamentation for never any King not only of the English but of whatsoever Throne had His death lamented with greater Sorrows nor left the World with a higher regret of the People When the news of His Death was divulged Women with Child for grief cast forth the untimely Fruit of their Womb like Her that fell in Travel when the Glory was departed from Israel Others both Men and Women fell into Convulsions and swounding Fits and contracted so deep a Melancholy as attended them to the Grave Some unmindful of themselves as though they could not or would not live when their beloved Prince was slaughtered it is reported suddenly fell down dead The Pulpits were likewise bedewed with unsuborned Tears and some of those to whom the living King was for Episcopacie's sake less acceptable yet now bewailed the loss of Him when dead Children who usually seem unconcerned in publick Calamities were also affected with the news and became so prodigal of their Tears that for some time they refused comfort even some of those who sat as Judges could not forbear to mingle some Tears with His Blood when it was split Many composed Elegies and serious Poems to preserve the memory of His Vertues to express their own Griefs and to instruct the Mournings of others and their Passions made them above their usual Strain more elegant Many who writ the Acts of His time did vindicate His Honour and divulged the base Arts of His Enemies even while their Power was dreadful Men of all Sorts Degrees and Sects there being none among which He had not some Admirers then freely and without Envy recounted His several Vertues which now appeared as great as Mortality refined by Industry was capable of For though Prosperity makes the Severest tryals of Vertues yet Adversity renders them most Orient As the night best acquaints us with the Splendor of the Stars That which first challenged their Wonder was the Composure and Inclination of His Soul to Religion His Majesties Religion which He used not as an Artifice of Empire but as the Ornament and Comfort of a private breast for He never affected a Magnifick Piety nor a Pompous Vertue but laboured to approve Himself in secret to that God
Shirts But said He I scorned to give them that pleasure as to tell them I wanted Thus all the strokes of Fortune upon His Magnanimous Soul were but like the breaking of Waves upon a Rock of Diamonds which cannot shake but only wash it to a greater Brightness But though He knew not how to submit to the Power of Men His Patience yet He would tremble under the Frowns of God His great Spirit made Him not unquiet or furious under the Corrections of the Almighty But with a wonderful Patience a Vertue not usual with Kings to whom the bounds of Equity seem a restraint and therefore are more restless in Injuries He did submit to the Will of His eternal Sovereign He never murmured nor repined at that Providence which had given Him plenty of tears to drink But His Meditations still breath the Justice of God and the Holiness of all His wayes with Him He would take Occasions from displeasing Occurrences to thank God that had sitted Him for the Condition he had brought Him unto For when He marched after His Carriage in pursuit of Essex into the West one of them broke in a very narrow Lane which made Him stop till an intolerable Shower of Rain came pouring upon Him from which that He might seek for a Shelter in the Neighbouring Village His Courtiers offered to hew Him out a way through the Hedge with their Swords but He refused and when they wondred at it He lifting up His hat and Eyes to worship the Fountain of All Grace said As God hath given me Afflictions to exercise My Patience so He hath given me Patience to bear My Afflictions The Indignity He received from Hotham provoked no Curse from Him nor could the Injuries from Scotch and English move Him to any thing more than Prayers for God's sanctifying them to Him He wanted not Temptations to Passion from His own Party for in a Letter to the Queen He tells Her that She could not but Pity Him in His Condition as to them yet He so managed their several Humours and so cherished their Expectations with Patience and Meekness that they quietly waited for a return of His Fortune When He was in His Captivity at Carisbrook under the strictest Restraint those that attended Him never almost observed Him but chearfull and pleasant in His Discourses and sometimes breaking out into pleasing Reparties and Jests When in the Treaty at Newport where He had occasions of Passion daily administred by the Perverseness to Peace of the Party He was to deal with one of the Commissioners was importunate with Him for more Concessions and minded Him of His saying That if there were another Treaty it should not lie in the power of the Devil's Malice to hinder Peace the King answered It would be so when there was a Treaty but as for this it could not be thought a Treaty but He was like the man in the Play that cryed out he had been in a Fray and when they asked him what Fray he replyed there was a Fray and no Fray for there were but three blows given and he took them all So this is a Treaty and not a Treaty for there be many Concessions but I have made them all Another time when He met one of the Presbyterian Ministers near His Chamber enquiring for Captain Titus who then waited on Him and had been faithful to Him in that Service the King told him He wondred he would have any more to do either with Titus or Timothy since he fared so ill in medling with them in his Disputes about Episcopacy the day before These shewed how free His Soul was and uncontrolled in the greatest and most displeasing perplexities He would never take any indirect courses to avoid the Cross nay He scrupled at such expedients as some deemed most conducing to His great end For at the Treaty in the Isle of Wight there being offered to Him an expedient to secure His Conscience and satisfie the Commissioners in the Propositions about the Church and it being urged by a great and faithful Counsellour that He must grant what possibly He could to preserve His own Life for the good of the Church for it was said her safety depended on His with a present and pious indignation He replyed Tell not Me what I should do for saving of My Life but what I may do with a safe Conscience God forbid that the Life or Safety of the Church should depend upon My Life or upon the Life of any mortal man and I thank God I have a Son whom I have reason to believe will love the Church as well as I do Another time a little after the Treaty was ended Dr. Morley shewing to Him a billet he had received by the Lady Wheeler the King's Laundress who often conveyed much Intelligence from an Officer of the Army that the King's Death was resolved on His Majesty answered I have done what I can to save My Life without losing of my Soul I can do I will do no more God's will be done In the Pomp of His Murther wherein He was made a Spectacle to the World Angels and Men no Tryals were ever greater nor ever were any better born the Parricides found it was easie to take away His Life but impossible His Honour and Patience His Passions being then so low and quiet that the natural Insirmity of His Speech did not in the least measure appear which uses to be most evident in the smallest discomposure of the Spirit After the Regicides had passed their Decree for His Assassination and caused Him to be persecuted with all the Indignities of the fanatick Souldiers there fell from Him nothing like Passion or Indignation but that He gave the Authors of those Impieties the title that was due to them for when my Lord of London came to Him which was not till eight a Clock on Saturday Night He told him My Lord that you came no sooner I believe was not your fault but now you are come because these Rogues pursue My Blood you and I must consult how I may best part with it Yet even this was spoken without any Fury or Violence for though all about Him was tumultuous with Horror Destruction and Contempt His Soul seemed unconcerned enjoyed a Calm Serenity and was full of its own Majesty This Vertue made Him forget He was a Prince born to Command and only consider that He was a Christian whose Calling obliges to Suffer He had found out a way to Glory by Humility For the supreme Power to which nothing can be added His Humility hath no better way to encrease than when secured of its own Greatness it humbleth it self And the Dignity of Princes is in nothing farther from Envy and Danger than in Humility He despised the converse of none though poor if honest He shewed to Sir Philip Warwick who had much of His Trust and Affections in the Isle of Wight a poor ragged Old Man and told him he was