being broke open before the Common Council of Athens one of which was subscribed to the Queen Olympias was returned untoucht the whole Senate thinking it a shamefull and dishonest act to discover and betray the Conjugall secrets betwixt man and wife A modesty in which those of Athens stand as much commended by Helladius Bisantinus an ancient Writer as the chief leading men of the Houses of Parliament are like to stand condemned for the want of it in succeeding Histories But we return unto the King who having saved himself by flight gathered together some part of his scattered Forces but never was able to make head against the conquerors losing one place after another till his whole strength was almost reduced to Oxford and some few Garrisons adjoyning I shall take notice onely of some of the principal viz. Chester Conway Hereford Bristol and Exeter on which so great a part of his affairs did most especially depend Chester first comes within the danger a City of great importance in those parts of the Kingdom To the relief of this place then besieged by Sir William Brereton Collonel Jones and others of that party and at that time brought to some distresse he made all the convenient speed he could but was pursued upon the way and charged in front by the besiegers betwixt whom this small Army was routed at a place called Bauton-Heath and the Lord Bernard Stuart newly created Earl of Lichfield killed upon the place the last of three brethren that had lost their lives in their Princes quarrell On this discomfiture the King draws towards the North-East and commands the Lord Digby with the Remainder of his Horse to march for Scotland and there to joyn with the Marquesse of Montrosse who with small strengths had acted Miracles in that Kingdome But at a Village in Yorkshire called Sherbourn a fatall name but pointing to another place where he surprized 700 of the Parliaments Foot he he was set upon by Collonel Cotly his Forces made drunk with the good fortune of the day very easily mastered and he himself compelled to fly into Ireland never returning since that time to his Native Country But notwithstanding the Kings misfortune before mentioned which happened on the twenty ninth of September the Lord Byron who had the command of the Garrison in Chester held it out gallantly till the first of February and then perceiving that there was no hopes of any Succour came to an honourable composition and gave up the Town the greatest part of the Countrey falling into the same condition with their mother City Before we leave the North-west parts we must look upon the fortune of the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall Command on that narrow Channell which runneth between the County of Carnarvon and the Isle of Anglesey Before this Town being then besieged by Collonel Mitton came Doctor John Williams formerly Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England and at that time Arch-bishop of York Who to ingratiate himself with the Houses of Parliament and to save the charges of compounding for Delinquency came with some forces to the aid of the Besiegers some say in Armour and encamped there till the place was taken to the Amazement of the world and the eternall infamy and Reproch of his Person Bristol comes next a place conveniently seated for the Trade of Spain the River capable of great Ships and the port well guarded At the taking of this City by the Kings Forces to such strengths as before it had there was added a Fort Royall as they called it then conceived impregnable into this City Prince Rupert who had spent there too much of the year before had put himself at the present and was besieged not long after by Sir Thomas Fairfax who came before it on the twenty fourth of August and had it surrendred to him without any memorable resistance together with the old Castle and Royall Fort on the thirteenth of September The quick surrendry of which place being so well fortified and furnisht with victuall Arms and Ammunition and the weak defences which were made to preserve the same created some suspicion of disloyalty in Prince Rupert towards the King his Uncle There had before passed some Letters betwixt the King and him touching the Kings coming to a speedy agreement with his Houses of Parliament in which the King was prest so far that he seemed to be displeased at it And now this news coming on the neck of those Letters startled him into such a distrust of his Nephews Loyalty that he dispatcht a messenger with all speed to the Lords at Oxford to displace Collonell William Legg one of the Confidents of Prince Rupert who had succeeded Sir Henry Gage in the Government of that City and to put into his place Sir Thomas Glenham a Gentleman of known extraction and more known fidelity Nor were the Lords of the Council lesse amazed at the news then his Majesty was who thereupon when Prince Rupert and his Brother Maurice returned to Oxford commanded them to be disarmed and would not suffer them to walk the streets with their Swords by their sides as they had done formerly though afterwards by the Kings great goodnesse they were restored to all apparences of favour though not to any speciall places of Command or Trust Hereford followes the same fortune which having in vain been besieged by the Scots from the 13 of July to the first of September was suddenly surprized by Collonel Birch and Collonel Morgan this last then Governour of Glocster on the eighteenth of December Exceter holds out longest and was last attempted such blocks as lay in the way between Fairfax his Army and that City being first in the course of war to be removed Which took up so much time that it was the twenty fifth day of January before Fairefax could come neer enough to give it a Summons and being summon'd it held out till the thirteenth of April and then was yielded upon as honourable Conditions as any other whatsoever all other Garrisons in the West being first surrendred the Princes forces worsted at Torrington not long after disbanded upon Composition and he himself retired into France for his personall safety All these mischances thus hapning on the neck of one another all the Kings hopes and expectation rested upon the coming of Sir Jacob Astley created Lord Astley of Reading two years since Who having kept together some Remainders of the Kings Forces since the Fight neer Chester and increasing them with the Accession of some fresh supplies marched towards the King and was to have been met upon the way by Sir John Campsfield with the Oxford Horse But either through the want of intelligence or the necessity of fate or some occasionall delayes it was so long before Campsfield was upon his march that the newes came of the Lord Astleys being vanquish'd at a place called Donnington neer Stow on the Wold on the 21 of March In which fight
Kingdom also into severall factions each labouring to advance their own though to the Ruine and Destruction of the publick Peace Onely to take off somewhat of the imputation he made so much use of his power and interesse with the King as to prefer three of his servants unto Titles of Honour Anno 1621. viz. Sir Robert Cary Chamberlain of his Houshold to the Title of Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard second Son to the Earl of Suffolk and Master of his Horse to the Honour of Viscount Andover and Lord Howard of Charlton and Sir John Vaughan Controller of his Houshold to the Honour of Lord Vaughan of Molingar in the Realm of Ireland 1618. On the eighteenth day of November Anno 1618. There appeared a great blazing Star the fore-runner of many woful events in these parts of Christendom But the first sad effect thereof which we found in England was the death of Queen Anne which hapned on Tuesday the second of March next following A losse which the Prince bare with great equanimity or evennesse of Spirit neither banishing all shews of grief with a Stoical Apathie nor spending his time in too much womanish lamentation At the Funerall of this great Queen he was principall Mourner and it became him so to be she having always been to him a tender and indulgent Mother expressing more affection to him then to all the rest of her Children 1619. Not long after the death of the Queen King James fell very sick at Newmarket and having a desire to come to London advanced on his way as far as Royston where he was fain to stay till his sickness was over which at last became so dangerous that his death was feared At what time Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester attending on him bewailed with great Affliction the sad condition which the Church was like to fall into if God should take away his life the Prince being in the hands of the Scots which made up the greatest part of his Houshold and not well principled by those which had the tutelage of him either as to the Government or Liturgie of the Church of England The King acknowledgeing this sad truth and condemning his own negligence in it made a solemn vow that if God would be pleased to restore him to his health he would take the Prince into his own immediate care instruct him in the Controversies of Religion and set him on so right a bottome that there should be no fear of his disaffection either unto the Hierarchy or the rites and Ceremonies of the Church which he did accordingly And he did it so effectually that at such time as the Prince made his journey into Spain and that some principal persons in all the Places and Offices belonging to him were to follow after Dr. Maw and Dr. Wren two of his Chaplains being appointed for that service came to King James to know his pleasure and commands The King advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be onely on the defensive part if they should be challenged And when it was answered that there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where there could be no Moderator the King replied that Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile on the other the King proceeded and told them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premisses 1619. On Friday the twenty fourth of March Anno 1619. The Prince with the Marquesse of Hamilton Marquesse of Buckingham divers Earls and others performed great Justing at White-Hall in honour of the day being the day of King James his happy coming to the Crown of England 1620 And on the Sunday after being Mid-lent Sunday he attended his Father to S. Pauls Crosse conducted in a most solemn manner from Temple Bar to that Church by the Lord Major and Aldermen and at the entrance into the Church received by the Dean and Chapter in their rich Copes and other Ecclesiasticall Habits and by them conducted into the Quire where having heard the Divine service for that day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbots they went to a prepared place where they heard the Sermon at the Crosse preacht by Dr. King then Lord Bishop of London and from thence unto the Bishops Palace where they were entertained with a Banquet Infinite was the concourse of People at both those Solemnities and all of them returned with great joy and comfort to see him so bravely accomplisht in the one so devoutly reverent in the other 1622. On Tuesday the eighteenth of February Anno 1622. Accompanied with the Duke of Buckingham M. Erdimion Porter and M. Francis Cottington he took ship at Dover arrived at Bulloign in France and from thence rode Post to the Court of Spain The occasion this Frederick Prince Elector Palatine had inconsiderately taken on himself the Crown of Bohemia An. 1619. and for so doing was by the Emperor deprived of his Ancient Patrimony the Electorall dignity together with the upper Palatinate being conferred on the Duke of Bavaria and the lower on the K. of Spain who possest himself of all of it except the towns of Heidelberg Frankendale and Manheim well manned and Garrisoned by the English For the preserving of which places and the recovery of the whole when all means else had proved ineffectuall it was held most expedient to negotiate a Marriage betwixt Prince Charles and the Daughter of Spain Which being first managed by the Leiger Embassadors in both Courts was afterwards prosecuted with more particular instructions by John Lord Digby well verst and studied in that Court whom the King sent as his Embassador extraordinary to conclude the match But Digby being fed with delaies from one time to another it was resolved by King James without making any of his Councel acquainted with it that the Prince himself should go in Person that he might either speed the Businesse or break off the Treaty According to this Resolution he began his journey no otherwise accompanied or attended then with those three persons above mentioned all of them passing in disguise to avoid discovery Being come to Paris they adventured to see the Court where at a Mask he had a view of that most excellent Princesse whom he after married But no sooner had he left the City then the French King had Advertisement of his being there who thereupon dispatcht away severall Posts to stay him in his journey and bring him back but the Prince had past beyond Bayonne the last Town in France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid entred the Lord Embassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents onely News of his safe Arrivall there being brought to the King there was
thundred out their Anathemaes not onely against such as should dare to levie it but those also who should willingly pay it The news of which riotous proceeding being brought immediately to the King he sent his Band of Pensioners accompanied by his ordinary Guard to force open the doors and going himself to the House of Peers he dissolved the Parliament not having continued in that Session above forty dayes At the end of the former Session he had admitted Sir John Savill of Yorkshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politique and prudent person to be one of his Privy Council created him Lord Savill of Ponfract and made him Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Sir John Suckling deceased And a little before the beginning of the following Session he took into his Council Sir Thomas wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse in the same County whom be created Viscount Wentworth and made Lord President of the North and within two years after Lord Deputy of Ireland also A man he was of prodigious Parts which he made use of at the first in favour of the Popular Faction But being gained unto the King by Sir Ri. Weston then Chancellour of the Exchequer afterwards Lord Treasurer and Earl of Portland he became the most devout friend of the Church the greatest Zelot for advancing Monarchichall Interesse and the ablest Minister of State which our Histories have afforded to us On the judgement of these two his Majesty did much rely in Civil matters as he did on the advice of Doctor Neile then Bishop of Durham and Doctor Laud then Bishop of Bath and Wells in matters which concerned the Church These last he had called unto his Council in the beginning of April 1627. and finding them to be of as great abilities to advise as sincere affections to his person he advanced the first to the See of Winchester and afterwards to the Archbishoprick of York Anno 1631. the second to the See of London and from thence to Canterbury Anno 1633. 1629. But whilest it was such hot weather at home it grew cold abroad the breach betwixt him and France being closed up at the same time by the prudent and seasonable intervention of the State of Venice And not long after he concluded a Peace also with the King of Spain all things being left on both sides in the same condition in which they were before the war but that the Spaniard did ingage that he would make use of all his Interest with the Emperour for restoring the Prince Elector Paâ—â—â—ine to his lost Estate And now the King having thrown away his Crutches which had as often deceived him as he trusted to them he began to stand on his own legs and in short time became more considerable in the eyes of the world then any of his Predecessors The Spaniard sent hither yearly in English Bottoms no lesse then six hundred thousand Crowns in Bullion for the use of his Army in the Netherlands redounding very much to the Kings benefit in the coinage and no lesse to the profit of the Merchants also most of the money being returned into Flanders in Leather Cloth Lead Tinne and other the manufactures and Native Commodities of this Kingdome The Dutch and Easterlings looke upon London as the safest Bank not onely to lodge but increase their Treasure so that in short time the greatest part of the Trade of Christendom was driven up the Thames 1630. To make him yet more estimable in the sight of his People God blest him with a Son the presumptive Heir of his Dominions on the twenty ninth of May Anno 1630. and seconded that blessing with the birth of a Daughter on the fourth of November in the next year after as afterwards with a plentifull issue of both Sexes 1633. Nor did he meet with any check in his Prosperity till the year 1633. at what time the Coles of Faction and Sedition which seemed for some years to have been raked up in the ashes of contentment kindled the next combustible matter and brake forth again to the inflaming of both Kingdoms Scotland burneth first and takes fire on this occasion In the minority of King James the Lands of all Cathedrall Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdome by the connivence of the Earl of Murray and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto the side And they being thus possessed of the said Lands with the Regalities and Tithes belonging to those Ecclesiasticall Corporations Lorded it with pride and insolence enough iâ— their severall Territories holding the Clergy to small stipends and the poor Paisant under a miserable vassalage and subjection to them King Charles ingaged in War at his first coming to the Crown and having little aid from thence for the maintenance of it by the advice of his Council of that Kingdome was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tithes and Regalities into his own hands to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title then the unjust usurpation of their Ancestors This he endeavoured first by an Act of Revocation but that course not being like to speed he followed it in the way of a legal processe which drew on the Commission for surrendering of Superiorities and Tithes to be retaken from the King on such conditions as might bring some profit to the Crowne some Augmentation to the Clergy and far more ease and benefit to the common people But these proud Scots chuse rather to expose their Countrey to the danger of a publick Ruine then to part with any of that power it might be called a Tyranny rather which they had exercised on their Vassals as they commonly called them and thereupon conspired together to oppose the King in any thing that should be offered in the following Parliament which had relation to the Church or to Church-affaires But because Religion and the care thereof is commonly the best bait to catch the vulgar they must find out some other means to divert the King from the prosecuting of that Commission then the consideration of their own personall and private interesse and they found means to do it on another occasion which was briefly this King James from his first coming to this Crown had a design to bring the Kirk of Scotland to an uniformity with the Church of England both in government and forms of worship And he proceeded so far as to settle Episcopacy amongst them naming thirteen new Bishops for so many Episcopal Sees as had been anciently in that Church three of which received Consecration from the Bishops of England and conferred it on the rest of their Brethren at their coming home Which Bishops he armed also with the power of an High Commission the better to keep down the insolent and domineering Spirit of the Presbyterians In order to the other he procured an Act to be passed
the North it was thought fit they should be gratified with that blood which they so greedily thirsted after And thereupon the Archbishop being voted guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons was condemned to die in such a slender House of Lords that onely seven viz. the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook the Lords North Gray and Brewes were present at the passing of the sentence of his condemnation Which being past he was brought unto the Scaffold on Tower-hill on the tenth of January where he ended his life with such a modest confidence and so much piety that his greatest enemies then present who came to behold the Execution with hearts full of joy returned back with eyes as full of tears Last of all comes another Treaty sollicited by the King consented to by the Houses with no small difficulty and that upon condition to have the Treaty held at Uxbâ—idge a Town about fifteen miles from London and more then twice as much from Oxford According unto which appointment the Commissioners met on the thirtieth of January accompanied with some Divines for debating the point of Church Government when it came in question But this Treaty proved as unsuccessefull as that at Oxford had done before the Commissioners for the Houses offering no expedient for an Accommodation nor hearkening unto such as were tendred to them in the name of the King So that there being no hope of bringing the Warre unto an end this way both parties were resolved to proceed in the other The King having wintered his Army at Oxford and the Towns adjoyning it was thought fit to send the Prince into the West to perfect the Association which had been begun in the end of the last summer and in those Countries to advance such further forces as might not onely serve for the defence of themselves but give some reasonable increase to His Mâ—jesties Army In the beginning of April he set forwards towards Bristol accompanied with the Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hide as his principall Counsellours and some of the chief Gentry of the West who were of most authority in their severall Countreys But before he had made himself Master of any considerable strength news câ—me of the unfortunate successe of the Baâ—tel of Nasby which much retarded his proceedings and hearing afterwards that Sir Thomas Fairfax with his victorious Army was marching towards him he quitted Somerset-shire and drew more Westward into the middle of Devonshire Bristol being taken and his Majesties affairs growing worse and worse both there and elsewhere he sent a Message unto Fairfax desiring a safe conduct for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpeper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights deliberation he receives an answer the eight of November to this effect That if he would disband his Army and apply himself unto the Parliament the Generall himself in person would conduct him thither No hopes of doing good this way and lesse the other Exeter being besieged and Barnstable taken by the enemies forces he leaves his Army to the Lord Hopton and withdraws into the Dukedome of Cornwall But finding that Countrey unable to protect him long he passeth into the Isle of Scilly and from thence unto the Queen his Mother whom he found at Paris not doubting but to receive such entertainment in that Court as might be justly looked for by the eldest Son of a Daughter of France Which passages I have laid together in this place that I might follow his Majesties affairs elsewhere with the less interruption The Prince being gone for Bristoll as before is said his Majesty resolved on the approch of Summer to relieve such of his Northern Garrisons as had been left untaken the year before and from thence to bestow a visit on the associated Counties But being on his march and having stormed the Town of Leicester in his way he returned again so far as Daventry upon the news that Sir Thomas Fairfax newly made Generall in the place of Essex was sate down before Oxford Concerning which we are to know that not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents of which the Presbyterians at the first carryed all before them The Independents growing up by little and little and being better studied in the arts of dissimulation easily undermined the others and outed their Lord-Generall and all that commanded under him of their severall places under colour of an Ordinance for Self-denyall That done they conferred that command on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man of more Precipitation then Prudence not so fit for Counsell as Execution and better to charge on an Enemy then command an Army With him they joyned Collonel Oliver Cromwel whom they dispensed with in the point of self-denyall by the name of Lieutenant General but so that he disposed of all things as Commander in chief and left Fairfax to his old trade of Execution to which he had been accustomed The like alteration happened also in the Kings Army Collonel Sir Patrick Ruthen a man of approved valour and Fidelity being by his Majesty made Earl of Forth in Scotland was on the death of the Earl of Lindsey made the Lord Lieutenant of his Armies and the next year made Earl of Brentfort for the good service he had done in that place Having both fortunately and faithfully discharged that office for two years and more he was outed of his place by a Court-contrivement made in the favour of Prince Rupert who a little before Christmas last was declared Generallissimo of his Majesties Forces which he most ambitiously aspired unto and at last obtained notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston-Moor his squandring away so brave an army and his apparent want of Age Experience and Moderation for so great a trust By these new Generals the fortune of the War and the whole estate of the Kingdome which lay then at stake came to be decided For Fairfax hearing that the King was come back as far as Daventry which was the matter he desired made directly towards him with an intent to give him battel and at a place neer Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies met on Saturday the 14. of June The King had the better at the first but Prince Rupert having routed one wing of the enemies Horse followed the chace so unadvisedly that he left the foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Canon and amongst other things of his Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which were after publisht with little honour to them that did it For whereas the Athenians on the like successe had intercepted a packet of Letters from Philp King of Macedon their most bitter enemy unto severall friends all the rest of those Letters