returned to Cologn he found his Brother the Duke of Gloucester there lately arrived from France The King had been informed now he had been thrust out of England by the Regicides which they had done to save the Expence of his Maintenance and to Ship-wrack his Religion Besides it was supposed that Cromwell had designed his Removal for that some in his Council had moved his Assumption to the Crown as no ways obnoxious or prejudiced by reason of his Youth as is already mentioned 'T is scarce imaginable with what Constancy he defended his Religion however very young In so much that armed with Instructions from the Lord Hatton and Doctor Cousens he eluded the Assaults of Abbot Montague and the Marquess of Plessis the one employed by the Queen-Regent of France and the other by the Queen of England Neither the charming Pleasures of the French Court nor the Purple Dignities of the Church of Rome nor yet the extream Severities of the Queen his Mother who did not only refuse him his ordinary Sustenance but denied him the Solace of her Benediction were of strength to shake his Faith Which they yet would endeavour to force by shutting him up in the Jesuits Colledge if the King his Brother displeased with these Novelties had not sent the Marquess of Ormond to his Rescue and to bring him to Cologn to him which he did though not without Difficulty But nothing was impossible for this Great Man After this the King went to Franckfort famous for its Marts And in his Progress saluted the Queen Christina of Sweden at Koningsteyn Where after a Reception worthy Two such great Princes and some private Discourses the Duke of Gloucester and his Royal Sister did the same The Marquess of Ormond Earl of Norwich Lord Newburgh and others of His Majesty's Train being also admitted paid that great Princess the Respects due to her Highness The Queen continued her Journey to Insprug where after a splendid Reception from the Arch-Duke she made Public Profession of the Roman Religion The King leaving Franckfort with the universal Acclamations of the People and thundring of their Cannon went to Ments whither he had been invited by that Elector where his Reception was truly Royal. And after three Days Treat parting with the same Magnificence returned to Cologn Nor did his Majesty spend the Time idly whilst the Regicides triumphed in England He had already sent Embassies to all the Princes of Europe to desire their Assistance against his Rebels But with little success though the Cause were Common The French flourishing in Promises made a League with the Regicides The Spaniards though they seemed to grieve at the Murther of the King were yet the first that acknowledged and owned this rising Common-wealth The Grand Seignior corrupted with English Gold delivered Sir Henry Hyde the King's Embassadour at that Court against the Law of Nations into the Hands of the Parricides who Murthered him by cutting off his Head before the Exchange Swedeland was then in an unsetled Condition Portugal unable being attacked both by the Spaniard and Dutch in the Indies Poland was worried with her own Domestick Distractions Denmark was exhausted with the Treasure formerly lent to Charles I. Others indeed restified their good-wills by their Contributions as the Great Duke of Muscovy the Count of Oldenburg the Electors of Mentz and Brandenburg and some other Princes of Germany by the Earl of Rochester's negoriating at Ratisbone But what could this import to make a new and great War Whereas it scarce sufficed to defray the Charges of the Embassies The King then seeing no Hopes of his Restauration from abroad wisely sought a Remedy where the Wound was received from the Benevolence and Loyalty of his Subjects which the Eminence of his Vertues could not in Justice refuse him Neither was he any way wanting to himself but most intent upon all Occasions leaving nothing unattempted whereby he might raise his sinking Affairs He kept constant Correspondence with his Friends in England Caus'd great Disturbances to the Rebels on every side and exposing himself to the Danger did more than once incite the People to arm against the Usurpers He now kept his Court at Bruges in Flanders nearer hand having been invited by the Spaniards repenting their too early Compliments to the Regicides and supplied with 9000 l. per annum which Money was punctually repaid upon His Majesty's Restitution The Duke in the mean Time having recalled all the Kings Subjects in the French Service joyning them with those in the Spanish Low-Countries composed a considerable Body which he commanded with no less Honour than he had done in France although they were well nigh destroyed by the fatal Valour of the English Rebels at Mardike and the Battle of Dunkirk The Duke more illustrious by Misfortunes did not only for some time resist but retard the Progress of the Victors until oppressed by multitudes as is already said he was necessitated to comply with the Fate of the vanquished Cromwell dying soon after however a way seemed thereby to be opened to the Kings Restauration his Majesty received the News of it with remarkable Constancy and Calmness of Mind in no ways insulting though he saw his most Mortal Enemy extinguished in the Person of this Vsurper Cardinal Mazarin however averse to King Charles did at the same time congratulate the Queen his Mother upon the Hopes of her Sons Restauration since he was by the Death of that Tyrant delivered from his most implacable and successful Enemy The sudden Change in England followed by the Deposing of Richard and the Resurrection of the Rump and the other Innovations already mentioned which followed as they augmented the Hopes of the King at Home so they varied the Counsels of Princes abroad Which his Majesty applyed in as much as was possible to his own Use by Negotiations and Embassies But there being now a Treaty in Agitation betwixt France and Spain he would himself be present at it For if a Peace were concluded which was more than probable betwixt these great Princes it was but reasonable to suppose that they might spare some of their numerous Forces to assist an injured King their Ally by Blood and Common Interest And yet the King would rather reduce his Rebel-Subjects to Obedience by the Appearance of his Power than by the Use of his Forces In the mean time accompanied with the Duke of York his Brother and the Marquess of Ormond he hasted Incognito through France having saluted the Queen his Mother at Paris in his way to St. John De Luz where the Great Ministers of the Two Crowns were then in Treaty Don Louis de Haro upon Notice of the Kings Approach went to met and receive him Which he did alighting from his Horse and Embracing and kissing his Knees with as much Honour and Splendour as if he had been his Master the King of Spain The next Day his Majesty was visited by Cardinal Mazarin the other great Plenipotentiary who was
closely pursued by the Enemy with Hopes of strong Assistance from the Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk But these failing and indeed joyning with the Rebels contrary to their solemn Promises the Royallists were besieged in this Town no way tenable but by the rare Fortitude of the Defendants Cromwell the Welch Nor was Cromwell less successful in Wales Laughorn having been beaten at St. Fagons by Col. Horton with scarce half his Number Fifteen Hundred of his Men being killed and near Three Thousand taken Prisoners Cromwell besieged the Fugitives in Pembroke having first taken Tenby Castle and forced that of Chepstow by Col. Eure who slew the Governour in cold Blood The Rumor of the Scots Invasion greatly encreasing animated Cromwell to employ all his skill and force for the Reduction of this important Post The Garrison within was strong and the Place well fortified which he resolved however to attempt by Storm And falling on with great Courage was as bravely received and at length beaten off with great slaughter of his Men. After this not thinking it adviseable to expose his dismayed Souldiers to new hazards he resolves to gain that by famine which he could not effect by force Which being perceived by the Garrison they chose rather to surrender upon Terms than lanquish in the Toyls of a long Siege tho they saw a Prospect of a General Rising in the Kingdom and the certainty of the Scots Invasion But Cromwell knowing how precious time was offering the Souldiery and Inferior Officers very good Conditions he had this strong Place with the Three chief Leaders Laughorn Poyer and Powell delivered into his hands by these faithless Miscreants Nor was Sir John Owen more fortunate in North Wales being defeated and taken Prisoner by Colonel Mitton So that the whole Country being reduced to the Parliaments Obedience again Cromwell was at liberty to march against the Scots with all his Power The Earl of Holland defeated The Earl of Holland the Duke of Buckingham with the L. Francis his Brother the Earl of Peterborough and some others of Quality appeared near Kingston with Five Hundred Horse and some Foot but were instantly suppressed tho not without some bloody Shirmishes in one of which the Young and Generous Lord Francis refusing Quarter was barbarously slain by an unknown Hand Holland was taken in his flight at St. Neots by Col. Scroop where Dalbier sometime a Favourite of Essex's and a great Parliamentarian was killed in his Quarters But the Scots seem now to demand our Attention being advanced with a very numerous and well accoutred Army far into the Kingdom And here may be observed the Vicissitudes of the Times as well as of Affairs For the Scots whom the Parliament had formerly with great Endeavours and Charges allured to their Assistance and whom the War being done they had likewise twice dismissed with vast Rewards as Friends These same Scots the Faction being changed become Enemies and invading England again joyn Forces with the Royallists their now reconciled Friends against their sometimes dear Brethren of the Parliament Duke Hamilton upon the surrender of Pendennis Castle where he had been detained Prisoner by the King's Command being set at liberty was now General of this great Army consisting of Fifteen Thousand fighting Men to whom Langdale and Musgrave brought Three Thousand English which forces if God had not determined otherwise might have effected what they designed As soon as the King was informed that Hamilton commanded the Scots Army he too prophetically foretold the Fatal Issue of the Expedition as fancying him unfortunate or inconstant But Cromwell being come out of Wales with a victorious and disciplined Army and joyning with Lambert who had hitherto attended the Enemies Motion fell upon the main Body of the Scots within Two Miles of Preston in Lancashire and routed them by Skirmishes Cromwell defeats the Scots at Preston and beating up of Quarters without the Formality of a Battle Langdale and his English fought bravely but being neglected and no ways succoured were oppressed by the adverse Multitudes The Scots presumed perhaps upon their own Power and thinking to conquer by themselves and consequently reap the whole Advantage of the Victory as also the entire Honour of restoring the King if they had any such design abandoned them that fought so well and by this foolish precaution or presumption contributed to their own ruin Besides the Scots Forces either by Ignorance or Malice or Discord for Hamilton and Calander who was Lieutenant-General of the Army did not agree well were so untowardly marshalled that they could not all be brought to fight or assist each other by reason of the over great distance of their Wings whereby they were all defeated Bayly after sharp encounters with those who pursued him having recovered Warrington-Bridge delivered up himself and Four Thousand Foot to the Conqueror upon Quarter Major-General Midleton was intercepted with Four Hundred Horse and Hamilton himself General of the Expedition with Three Thousand Horse was taken without a Blow at Vttoxeter by the Lord Gray and Colonel Waite Very few returning by the way they came met with Monroe who followed Hamilton with a Supply of Six Thousand more but hearing of the Defeat returned with the other Fugitives back into Scotland Cromwell following in the Rear of these came to Edinburgh where joyning Forces and Councils with Argile by whom he had been invited they not only obliged the contrary Faction to lay down Arms but having summoned another Parliament condemned the late Expedition as unjust Scotland being pacified Cromwell secure on that side having also concerted with Argile concerning the Ruin of the King and Extirpation of Monarchy it self they also advised and agreed on the Form and Method of the future Regicide And so after sumptuous Treats and many high Expressions of Gratitude and Acknowledgments for his meritorious Services Cromwell returned into England All this while Colchester held out with incredible Courage and Constancy upon hopes of Relief from the Scots and not only content to defend themselves did extreamly annoy the Enemy by their frequent Sallies and Camisadoes They had consumed their Horses Dogs Cats and what else was no less abhorring to Nature but their hopes with the defeat of Hamilton being likewise spent they were forced to surrender Which they did upon no other Terms than Quarter for life to the Souldiery and Mercy to the Officers But Colchester surrendred how cruel the Mercies of these Scelerates were instantly appears for they had no sooner possest the Town but Three most Noble Persons Men of Eminent Valour and Loyalty the Lord Capell Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to whom was added Sir Bernard Gascoyn but exempted upon the accompt of being a Stranger were sentenced to be shot to death by the Court-Marshal tho the War was done Sir George and Sir Charles were immediately murthered by Souldiers appointed for the Slaughter The Stone they fell upon being sprinkled with their Blood could
not be cleansed of it but continues still a Monument of this horrid Impiety with this Inscription engraved Hic jacent Car. Lucas Geor. Lisle a Fairfaxio mactati Capell was reserved for the Scaffold who afterwards suffered with no less Constancy and Greatness of Mind than his illustrious Colleagues now did as we shall see in the Sequel of this History Nor was it on Land only that the Sword did rage the Sea also had its Scenes of Blood and Horror for a great part of the Navy detesting the Tyranny of their Old Masters deserted them and revolted to the Prince of Wales The Revolt of the Fleet. Batten one of their prime Leaders having been dismissed by them returned to his Duty and joined his Highness with some more Ships The Sea-men had exposed Rainsborough their Admiral and a Turbulent Leveller by putting him on shore who was afterwards slain in his Quarters by a Party from Pomfret and now embracing the King's Party with universal Consent seemed resolved to expiate their former Rebellion by a Return of Duty and to merit their Pardon by the Eminency of their Services Prince Charles with the Duke of York his Brother who lately escaped from St. James's in Womans Cloaths Prince Rupert the Earl of Brandford the Lords Hopton Willmot Willoughby Culpeper and others of Name and Quality sailed from Holland with this brave Fleet consisting of Twenty Ships of War and came into Yarmouth-Road with design to attempt every thing that was possible for the Relief of Colchester But finding the distance from that City too great and the Shore and Passages possessed by the numerous Enemy his Highness sailed to the Mouth of the Thames carrying Terror and Force with him to awe the City of London But his stay there was not long the Castles of Deal Walmer and Sandwich requiring his Assistance which he attempted by landing Five Hundred Men who though they fought with extream Gallantry were yet forced back with great loss to their Ships again The Castles after this Defeat were immediately surrendered By this time the Earl of Warwick lately made Admiral again had equipt another Fleet in the River and having joyned that of Portsmouth resolved to fight the Prince which he yet delays for the present not only terrified with the Revolt of others but in some doubt of the Fidelity of his own Men. The Prince perceiving this courted the Earl with magnificent Offers to the Return of his Duty But he perfidiously constant persisted in his Rebellion and in recompense of his Services shall see himself disgracefully outed of all Trust and his only Brother the Earl of Holland beheaded for his late Return to his Obedience Some were of Opinion that the Royallists omitted an opportunity of fighting the Sea men being high in Heart and seemingly very Loyal and the Enemy supposed to waver tho the Event afterwards proved the contrary In the mean time the Prince seeing his Land-Forces every where defeated and the adverse Fleet growing daily stronger returned into Holland giving the Command of the Fleet to Prince Rupert But many of the Ships out of an innate levity of their Sailors leaving the Prince returned to their old slavery under Warwick whilst the rest continuing in their Duty stuck close to their New Admiral whose Actions and Adventures shall be hereafter related Some other Fortresses besides those already mentioned declared for the King as N. B. Tinmouth-Castle seized upon by Major Lilburn Scarborough by the Return of Sir Matthew Boynton the Governour to his Allegiance and Pomfret possessed upon the same score by Major Morrice Tinmouth indeed was retaken by Assault the Governour losing his Life with the Place Boynton got Terms not unworthy the Defence he had made and Morrice and being lost bravely exposed himself to save his Garrison Who tho he broke thro the Camp which was the Conditions he had articled for yet was afterwards taken and murthered under colour of Justice in cold Blood The Visitation of Oxford But before we proceed further in these Occurrences it may not be impertinent to take a Review of some Transactions in the entrance of this Black Year 1648. seeing they seem to tend to those monstrous Catastrophes it ended in The first thing our pious Reformers undertook was visiting the Vniversity of Oxford They had long since garbell'd Cambridge to their Interest and will now as much as in them lyes extinguish this other Luminary by removing its Candlesticks and ejecting all the Members thereof that were any ways notable for Learning Loyalty Piety or Obedience to the Church or State as established by Law The Earl of Pembrook being made Chancellor together with several Delegates of the Factious Clergy and some of the Laiety as good Divines as himself were appointed for this Service Which was performed with all the Rigor of an Inquisition none being spared from the Reverend Heads of Colleges to the hopeful Striplings of Sixteen And yet the entrance of this Year had thus much extraordinary in it in that it contributed to the Deliverance of the Duke of York out of the Hands of those worst of Rebels The Duke of York escapes into Holland being conveyed away in a Virgin-disguise and carried into Holland by Col. Bamfeild who afterwards aspersed the Honour of this Service by undutiful Intelligences But to return whence we digressed the Army with Cromwell being absent and in Scotland several Petitions from the Country the Captains Masters and Sailers as also from the City of London were presented to the Men at Westminister requiring with more than ordinary earnestness a personal Treaty with the King This did so far work upon the Presbyterian Faction in the House very jealous and apprehensive of the Power of the Independants that they resolved for their own preservation to make a Peace with the King And The Treaty in the Isle of Wight in order thereunto forthwith recalled their Votes of Non-Address and sent Commissioners with Propositions not much unlike the former with Power to make Peace allowing Forty Days for the time of treating They indeed permitted his Majesty the attendance of several Lords of his Council and Bed-Chamber many of his Servants some of his Chaplains some Lawyers and others But they refused the Assistance of any but himself in treating Nor was it truly necessary for it presently appeared that as he was a Prince of prodigious Parts so he seemed more than humanly inspired who could singly manage so weighty an Affair against Fifteen Commissioners Persons prejudiced and of great Subtilty and with that success that he made Converts of some of his bitterest Enemies and however unwilling forced their very Reason But they having no liberty to recede or any way to remit of the Rigor of their Propositions His Majesty out of his affection to Peace granted many things above their Desires being content to divest himself of most of his Regalities for his time and trust those insatiable Men with the exercise thereof
the Universality of Mankind for Quae Regio in Terris nostri non plaena Doloris did lament the undeserved Fate of this Prince Nay the outragious Faction it self did blush to approve the Infamy of so flagitious an Act. The Factions disapproving the Infamy of the Regicide impute it to each other The Presbyterians to shift the Envy of it from themselves threw it upon the Independants condemning upon the Stage what they had designed in the Tyring-room But whether out of true Sentiments of Repentance or that they could act no further let them look to that being equally Regicides in their Intentions though not in the Execution The Independants said That they only put to Death a Private Man and an Enemy The King had been long since killed by the Presbyterians as being despoiled of his Prerogative whereby he excelled others of the Militia wherewith he protected his Subjests and of his Freedom of Vote whereby he made Laws They also remembred How he had been divested and robbed of his Liberty as a Commoner of the Society of his Wife as a Husband of the Conversation of his Children as a Parent of the Attendance of his Servants as a Master Yea of every Thing that might render his Life comfortable So that there was nothing left for the Independants to do but to put an end to the Calamities wherewith this Man of Sorrow had been so cruelly overwhelmed and afflicted by the Presbyterians But who ever were the Authors of this Impiety we grieve at what they did which seeing it cannot be undone we may wish that the Memory of it may perish with them who designed and perpetrated so Hellish a Mischief Nor had the Scelerates of the Faction yet satisfied their Cruelty They were inhumanly barbarous to his Dead Corps Their Inhumanities after his Death His Hair and his Blood were sold by Parcels Their Hands and Sticks were tinged with his Blood And the Block now chipt as also the Sand sprinkled with his Sacred Gore were exposed to sale Which were greedily bought but for different Ends by some as Trophies of their slain Enemy and by others as precious Reliques of their beloved Prince It is certain that Cromwell to satisfy his greedy Eyes had caused the Coffin to be opened in White-Hall and did with his Fingers search the-Wound as if he had still doubted of the effecting of his Hellish Cruelty Nor did it suffice to have raged against him living and dead they will also for as much as in them lies kill his very Fame Which they endeavoured to do by the enslaved Pen of a needy Pedagogue one Milton Salmasius indeed had writ a Defence for the King but he being a Presbyterian as the other an Independant both very good Latin if we believe the Learned Hobbs and hardly to be judged which is better and both very ill Reasoning and hardly to be judged which is worst And thus both Houses as they had often sworn with hands lift up to Heaven did make him a Great and Glorious King by changing his Fading Crown which they had interwoven with Thorns into an Immortal and Incorruptible one They made him great indeed great in Suffering in Patience His Character and great in his Martyrdom Thus fell Charles the Great and Just Monarch of sometimes Three flourishing Kingdoms A great Example if any of both Fortunes The Best of Kings The Meekest of Men. His Countenance was Comely and Majestic He was Constant Valiant Pious Eloquent of infinite Reason and Reading His Integrity was entire and no Guile found in his Mouth His publick and private Vertues were eminent He had been born for the Good of Mankind if he had not fallen amongst Monsters not Men. The best of Princes the best of Men the best Parent the best Husband the best Master Famous for Patience for Piety for Chastity for Justice and of an unshaken Fidelity towards God and Man His Greatness only rend'red him Guilty being by the Suffrages of his most bitter Enemies worthy of Empire if he had not reigned The Royal Corps being embalmed and exposed for some Days to publick View at St. James's was afterwards delivered to Mr. Herbert And Funeral one of his Servants to be translated to Windsor He had earnestly solicited to have had it deposited in Henry VII's Chappel near to the Monument of King James But they refused it lest the Place as they said might be prophaned by the Superstitious Concourse of the People He was therefore carried â—o Windsor by the Direction of the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey who had got leave â—â—om the Faction for the decent Enterrment of their â—ear Lord provided the Funeral-Charges did not â—xceed Five Hundred Pounds These Sacred Reâ—â—ques being then born by the Officers of the Garriâ—on attended on by the Four Lords were laid 〈◊〉 Henry VIII's Vault It is observable that â—â—ough the Air was serene when they set out â—efore they reacht the Chappel-Door the â—â—erse of Black Velvet which covered them was all White with Snow which seemed to fall to testify their Candor and Innocence But it troubled the Assistants that the Fanatic Governour would not permit them the Use of the Common-Prayer the Bishop of London attending there to do this Last Office to his Dearest Master So that he was interred with the Sighs and Tears of his Servants And thus Lam. C. 4. V. 20. the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said Vnder his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will-maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape CHarles the Martyr being removed by a Parricide black as its Authors as is declared in our former Commentaries the Regicides endeavour with the same Fury to supplant his Son Heir of his Diadems and Vertues in order to which they immediately after his Fathers Death The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the
BEATAM AETERNAM CLARIOR E TENEBRIS CELI SPECTO ASPERAM AT LEVEM CHRISTI TRACTO In verbo tuo Spes mea MUNDI CALCO SPLENDIDAM AT GRAVEM Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Liâ—â— 2. c. 47. p. 417 THE HISTORY OF THE Rebellions IN England Scotland and Ireland WHEREIN The most Material Passages Sieges Battles Policies and Stratagems of WAR are impartially Related on both Sides FROM The YEAR 1640. To the Beheading of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. In Three Parts By Sir ROGER MANLEY Kt. late Governour of Land-Guard-Fort Quaeque ipse Miserima vidi LONDON Printed for L. Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner and T. Newborough at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church Yard MDCXCI THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER IN regard the Reputation of Histories is generally raised on the Worth of their Authors I thought it convenient to acquaint the World That the Compiler of This was a Gentleman of known Integrity bred in the Church of England for whose Cause joined with that of the Royal Family he was a valiant and zealous Champion having been Personally engaged in the most considerable Battles which his Royal Master King Charles I. fought against his Rebellious Subjects You are not therefore here to expect the Reversion of other Mens Labors no borrow'd Fragments or Scraps of Records no patch'd or imperfect Collections but an entire uniform History with great Impartiality and for the most Part of his own certain Knowledge Yet to free him from Suspicion of any Mistake in these Memoirs it is sufficient to observe That he collected them in those Troublesome Times whose Iniquity would not admit the Publication of them which he reserv'd till there was a clear Stage for Truth to appear on And having surviv'd this Great Rebellion for many Years he has added to the History of that an Account of all the Remarkable Transactions with the Conspiracies Insurrections and Tumults that happ'ned in the Reign of King Charles II. And concludes with the Invasion and Overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth in the West I shall say no more but that this Gentleman dying soon after he had finished these Commentaries the Publication of them was entrusted with me Which I did very readily undertake since I had the Honour to know the Author so well that his very Name was a sufficient Recommendation of the Work And all honest Men that knew Sir Roger Manley were very desirous of a History from his Hand whose Pen was aâ—â—oyal and Just as his Sword Reader honour the Memory of this brave Man and think not ill of the Publisher who like a faithful Executor presents thee with this his last Legacy And if thou take my Pains in good part 't is all the Acknowledgment I expect from thee Adieu THE CONTENTS PART I. BOOK I. THE Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull p. 1. BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battle of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battle of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battle of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battle of Marston Moor. The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copedry-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battle of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place 38. BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distructions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated 84. BOOK IV. The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army Hereford is surprized and Chester surrender'd Oxford besieged and taken The other Royal Garrisons follow Massey's Forces disbanded Contests with the Scots Their barbarous Vsage of the King They sell him He is imprisoned in Holmbey-House The History of the Scots Rebellion and valorous Actions of Montross Independency triumphant The Army mutinies and seize upon the King at Holmbey They court him but deal treacherously with him He flies to the Isle of Wight 122. BOOK V. The King in the Isle of Wight His Message for Peace The Four Dethroning Bills The Votes of Non-address Cap. Burleigh attempts the King's Delivery Rolfe his Life The King appeals to the People They rise in several Parts of the Kingdom Are suppressed Pembroke taken The Scots defeated and Hamilton a Prisoner Colchester surrendered The Treaty in the Isle of Wight broken by the Army They seize upon the King Garble the Parliament The perjur'd Remains of the Commons assume the Supream Power Constitute a pretended Court of High Justice Arraign Condemn and Murther their King His End and Elogy 169. PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and
Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape 109 110. BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell Cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character 249. BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles 278. PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oate's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Stafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Fanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds 312. BOOK II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion 336. COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART I. BOOK I. The Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull THE Kingdoms of Great Britain being United under the Dominion of one Prince and the Animosities and Emulations which usually disorder Neighbour-Nations thereby removed gave a sudden Rise to a very great and formidable Power which could not be destroyed but by it self The Moderator of this vast Empire was JAMES VI. King of Scotland and First Monarch of Great Britain undoubted Heir to both as well by Right of Succession from Margaret the only Daughter of Edgar Atheling the last of the Saxon Princes as by that of Force derived to him from the Norman Conqueror This Wise and Learned Prince Charles I. succeeds to the Crown being gathered to his Fathers the loss which his Dominions suffered by it however great was abundantly repaired by the Succession of his Son CHARLES who being truly Heir to his Father's Greatness and Vertues as well as Scepters did excel all his Predecessors in the more severe Disquisition of what was Fit and Just so that our Tragedies will scarce find Credit with Posterity whilst the Ages to come mistrusting the Reports of such enormous Villainies will look upon our unheard-of Vicissitudes but as the Fancies of Poetry and the Decoration of Theatres For how is it possible to believe that the Best of Princes should meet with the Worst of Subjects on whom he had conferred more Graces than the whole Series of his Ancestors and that he who valued his Kingdoms and Life at a lower Rate than the Happiness of his People should by a Judicial Parricide be sacrificed to the ambitious Violence of a prevailing Faction in their Representative and that under the pretence of Usurpation and Tyranny But these things happened an everlasting Reproach to the Nation and not to be atoned for by any Resentment or Hecatombs of Victims King James left a flourishing Kingdom behind him but an empty Treasury and his Successor engaged in a War with Spain and what was worse the Parliament that oblig'd the Father to Arm abandoned the Son when they had exposed him Nor were the succeeding Parliaments more Obsequious or forward in supplying his Necessities how great soever either in recovering the Palatinate or rescuing the French Protestants though undertaken in Defence of the Reformed Religion 'T is true his Third Parliament voted him Five Subsidies but we must own also The Petition of Right that the Petition of Right being a Condescension even to Supererogation deserv'd their best Acknowledgements for raised with that Grant they that very Session questioned the Tribute of Tonnage and Poundage though perpetually enjoyed by his Predecessors Kings of England affirming
but fell unlamented by Reason of their Inconstancy Of the Hothams I have made some mention already And of Carew I will add this not unworthy to be noted which happened at the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford Sir Bevil Greenville a Person never to be mentioned but with Honour at the passing the Bill of Attainder said to Sir Alexander sitting then next him and both serving for Cornwall Sir pray let it not be said That any Member of our County should have a Hand in this Ominous Affair and therefore pray vote against this Bill But the other instantly replied If I were sure to be the next Man that should suffer upon the same Scaffold and with the same Axe I would give my Consent to the passing of it And wee have seen how truly and how circumstantially exact he foretold his own Fate Archbishop Laud murthered January 10. William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury followed next more truly lamented of all good Men. They had abolished the Book of Common-Prayer and the Liturgy as Preludes to his Fate and Function But not daring to hazard his Tryal by a Common-Jury for no Law could condemn him nor by the Peers as equally dubious he then was voted Guilty in the Commons House the Lords by an inauspicious Compliance sitting with them The Scots had formerly declared him an Incendiary and a publick Enemy upon which Accompt he had been thus long kept in Prison And now they demand his Life as a grateful Retribution for their Assistance which was also sacrificed to their Ambition and Fears Thus the Covenant betwixt both Nations was to be cemented with Episcopal Blood This Great Pillar of our Church as he had been eminent in his Life for Vertue was no less remarkable at his Death for his Piety He preached his own Funeral Sermon upon the Scaffold and that with a Countenance no less serene than his Mind which he was going to offer up to his Creator and far from that seeming Weakness as he then Prophesied which appeared in him when the Illustrious Strafford going that same way called to him for his Benediction Generous Spirits being no less affected for their Friends Sufferings and sometimes more than their own And thus fell this Good Man and Good Bishop by the nefarious Ambition of Pretended-Reformed Christians We must acknowledge that the Bishops fell by the Envy of the Presbyterians who stirr'd up the People against them as too seemingly imperious Not that they would have their Power abrogated for That they pretended to themselves being resolved to assert that of Archbishops in their National and that of Bishops in their Provincial Synods whilst every Individual Presbyter should exercise more than Prelatick Jurisdiction in his own Classis The publick Severity requiring more Blood the Lord Macquire and Macmahon Two Irish Noblemen Chief Contrivers in the Bloody Conspiracy in Ireland deservedly suffered the Gallows though not proportionable to their abominable Contrivance And yet these especially Macquire had been tampered with to accuse the King as an Abettor in this nefarious Rebellion which he yet generously enough disowned upon his Death Fortune as yet or rather Providence had not decided the Quarrel The War was unhappily prolonged and there appeared some Hopes of composing our Troubles by Treaty and particularly in that of Vxbridge The Treaty of Uxbridge The King as is already mentioned after his routing of Waller at Copredy-bridge and defeating of Essex at Lestithiel had sent Messages to the Parliament with offers of Peace which he now again renews from Oxford no less graciously than affectionately inviting them to comply with him in restoring these harassed Kingdoms to their former Tranquillity But it proved fruitless and all the King's Concessions how indulgent soever could effect nothing For the Demands of the Faction were so high and their Propositions so unreasonable that the King could not assent to them without ruining his Conscience as a Christian and his Majesty as a Prince For these modest Men did require The Extirpation of Hierarchy by the Abolition of Episcopacy and the Liturgy and the Introduction of Presbyters and the Directory in their stead They would divest the King of all his Power both Military and Civil And did press That the Nobles and such as had been true to their Duty should be delivered over to their Justice that is to Death to Imprisonment and Exile Which appeared so Inhumane and Tyrannical that it is abhorring to Sense and Reason whilst these nefarious Conspirators do not think that the King hath done enough in pardoning his Enemies unless he also betray his Friends By this it appeared how inclinable they were to Peace As also by their sudden breaking of the Treaty contrary to the King and his Commissioners Desires they did demonstrate that they were resolved to permit the Decision of the Cause to the Sword and to perpetuate themselves thereby in their Usurped Tyranny Shrewsbury surprized About this Time Major General Mitton surprized Shrewsbury betrayed to him being of very great Detriment to the King Scarborough and Weymouth were also taken which happening presently after the Treaty the Houses ordered a Day of publick Thanksgiving for these great Victories as being Evidences from Heaven of their Sincerity Sir Thomas Middleton had formerly beaten Colonel Marrow from the Siege of Oswestry Nor was he less fortunate at Montgomery He had surprized the Castle by Intelligence which by reason of the Consequence of its Situation being an Entry into North-Wales was again Besieged by the Lord Byron General of those Countries But Middleton with the Assistance of Brereton Meldrum and Sir William Fairfax with their conjoined Forces relieved the Place and after a sharp Fight The Fight at Montgomery routed the Cavaliers Fortune seemed at first to favour the juster Side by forcing away the Enemies Horse but changing the Rebels carried the Day The slain of the Royallists were at least Three Hundred and no fewer wounded though the Enemy scarce lost a Hundred except Fairfax and Symons And now Essex a no less Victory to the Independents as also the Earls of Denbigh Manchester and Warwick and the rest of the Chief Officers lay down their Arms resting Inglorious and only not neglected especially Essex who denied to give Peace to the Kingdom Essex discarded though invited to it by the King himself when it was in his Power And now retiring from Business he languished away the Residue of his Days in Discontent and an irksome Retreat BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the. Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The
with most of his Garrison did such Execution upon them that he pursued them to Dundalk which he also took by Assault forcing O Neal to pass the River for his Security For all this the Enemies by the general Defection of the Nation grew so numerous that they threatned Dublin and filling the Villages and Country round extreamly obstructed their Markets and Commerce by their Cavalcades There were no less than Twenty Thousand reckoned in this Province of Lemster but they wanted Skill and Military Conduct so that they waged War with Numbers not Understanding Whilst the English who were but few and had received no great Assistance out of England did not only oppose but dared to provoke them beating routing killing and destroying them in well-nigh all the Encounters they had with them for being well armed well led and well disciplin'd they easily vanquished so effeminate and so unknowing and Enemy The Cruelty of the English in Ireland But as the Brittish were more brave so they were no less cruel than the Irish revenging the Barbarousness of their Adversaries with equal Inhumanity For they destroyed many Thousands of them ruining with Fire and Sword and pillaging all they met with reducing a well planted most fertile Country into a Solitary Desart whereby they did not only destroy the Natives but created to themselves irreparable Mischief and Desolation by ruining that which they should have subsisted with Hence grew those Wants upon them which they had occasioned and were now forced to combat a stronger Enemy than they had yet encountred as Hunger want of Pay Clothes and all other Nutriments of War Which they had in vain expected from the Parliament its self now Rebellious and so far from assisting them Their Necessities that they themselves seized upon the Money designed for Ireland taking a Hundred Thousand Pounds of it at once and employing those Regiments raised for that Service under the Lord Wharton to fight their own King as they did at Edge-hill in that unnatural Rebellion Seeing this they earnestly petitioned his Majesty for their Discharge or to be transferred to any other Warfare where they might contend with any Enemy but Hunger Ormond makes a Cessation with the Irish The King being thus daily sollicited by the pressing Miseries of his Subjects and seeing no other way to relieve or deliver them commanded the Earl of Ormond to make a Cessation with the Irish for a Year which he did and to send Three Thousand of the Protestant Army into England leaving the Garrison well provided to assist him to oppose the Rebellious Scots who then invaded him This Cessation was variously censured according to the Interest or Inclination of Parties Such who disapproved it cried out against the Transportation of the Soldiery pretending It would expose the Protestants that remained and be of too much Advantage to the Rebels But others more discerning and equal were of Opinion That it is always better to save a Citizen than destroy an Enemy It was the prime Interest of a Prince to preserve himself Ireland was not so formidable but when England was quiet it might be reclaimed by fair Means or by foul There was more Danger from the Puritans who threatned Ruine to Religion and Monarchy The Parliamentarians and Scots-Irish refused to be included in this Truce being supported with Money and Supplies out of England which was denied the Royallists by reason of their unshaken Fidelity to their King which neither the Threats nor Allurements of the now English Rebels could blemish or overcome Ormond now Marquess and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland improved this Cessation with much Prudence and Industry by a continued Treaty into a Peace which being proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny Then a. Peace he followed thither with Fourteen Hundred Men where he was received by the Supreme Council with due Respect and State who also surrendred the Government which they had thus long managed into his Hands But this Calm did not last long most of the Chief Towns and Great Officers as Preston and Owen Roe O Neal with others dissenting The Archbishop of Firme the Popes Nuntio not only protested against this Peace but adding the Thunder of Excommunication renewed the War with more violence than ever Ormond ran no small Hazard of being intercepted in his Retreat to Dublin where he was given for lost and therefore received with very extraordinary Joy by the People year 1646 The War had been continued betwixt the Dissenting Brittains and the Irish ever since the Cessation with various Fortune But now thinking that a fair Opportunity did present it self by the Absence of the English Army for the Conquest of the whole Kingdom they join all their Forces together and raised with some late Successes for Owen Roe O Neal had defeated Monroe and his Scots in Vlster slain above Five Hundred of his Men taken Five Field-pieces all his Baggage and Five Thousand Arms they besiege Dublin by Land The Nuntio dissents and besieges Dublin which was also block'd up by the Parliament-Ships now equally Rebels which lay before the Haven The Lord Lieutenant unable to resist so many Enemies and destitute of all hopes of Relief Ormond unable to preserve it delivers it to the English acquainted his Majesty with the present State of Affairs who seeing it impossible to defend the Place commanded him to deliver it rather into the Hands of the Parliamentarians than the Irish An irrefragable Testimony against the black Calumnies of the English Rebels who did not cease to accuse his Majesty of Intelligence with the Irish But it will not seem very strange to Posterity that the Miscreants of the Faction should endeavour to assassinate the Fame of this glorious Sufferer when they had already usurped his Authority and that all the steps they made tended to the martyrizing of his Person 'T is true their Brethren of Ireland pretended That they were owned and authorised by his Majesty and to amuse and engage the silly Crowd shewed them a fictitious Commission with a Great Seal affixed to it belonging to a Patent of the Lord Caulefield which Sir Phelim O Neal took together with the said Lord in the Castle of Charlemont Which he afterwards confessed at his Tryal and being urged further by the Judges to declare Why he did so deceive the People He repsied That no Man could blame him to use all Means whatsoever to promote that Cause he had so far engaged in Although this Sir Phelim had been the principal and bloodiest of all the Rebels yet before Sentence he was offered his Liberty and his Estate if he would prove he had had such a Commission from the King But he generously answered He could not and That he would not further burthen his Conscience by unjust calumniating the King The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Rebels Being upon the Gallows and ready to be turned off one Peake and another came posting to the Place and crying
Marquis of Ormond Lord Lieutenant of Ireland but with too precarious and Authority for he was forced to grant every thing the Irish insisted upon and consent that Inchequin should have Munster entire to himself for the subsistance of his Army which was indeed the Ruin of the Old Irish Regiments of that Province The Peace being thus made up and these several Interests however ill cemented seeming to acquiesce in the main their Obedience to the King and Army was raised by the extraordinary Labour and Prudence of the Lord Lieutenant and being reinforced with the considerable Troops of the Lords Inchequin Clanrickard and Castel-Haven they marched towards Dublin Inchequin was by the Impatience of the English and Scots Forces declared Lieutenant General of the Army Raiseth an Army Clanrickard and Castel-Haven seem disgusted with this Preference tho both acquiesced preferring their Loyalty before the satisfaction their Merits might deservedly challenge Col. Jones Governour of Dublin advanced with his Forces as far as the Naas to obstruct the March of the Army but being unequal in Numbers retreated into the City again Ormond had omitted no Caresses to draw this brave Rebel to his Party and Duty again but in vain he obstinately persevering in an Infidelity which he had engaged in for Spite because a Lieutenant Colonel had been preferred over his Head Which may serve for a President not to prejudice deserving Men in their just pretences tho no Excuse can serve to vail those abominable Sins of Perfidy and Rebellion Ormond encamped his Army at Finglas being content at present to shut the Garrison within their Walls and keep them from foraging until the several parts of his Army were come up to him Inchequin now Lieutenant General was sent with a strong Party to reduce the neighbouring Fortresses possest by the Enemies Garrisons which he did defeating also a Batalion of Oneal's Men commanded by Farell marching to the Relief of the Nuncio He also routed the younger Coot with the Dublin-Horse and had Dundalk delivered to him by the Garrison who also entered into the Kings Pay Inchequins Successes notwithstanding the endeavour of Colonel Monk their Governour to the contrary and their promises to stick close to him Trim the Newry and Tredagh it self ran the same Fortune so that all being cleared on that side Inchequin returned triumphant and increased in numbers by so many Victories to the Camp again where it was forthwith resolved by Advice of the Peers and the Council of War to invest and press the City with all their power Dublin the Seat of the Kingdom and the War called by Ptolomy Eblana and by the Irish Balaeleigh because founded upon Piles and Hurdles is seated at the Mouth of the Liffny which would render the Haven very commodious but that it is obstructed by Heaps of Sand often thrown up by Reciprocation of the Sea This City was first fortified with Works and a Garrison by the King and after by the Parliament being now very defensible by its Numbers and Fortifications But the Lord Lieutenant relying upon his great Army consisting of at least Twenty Thousand and the Defection of the Souldiers in Dublin whereof most had formerly served under his Command and daily came over to him Ormond besiegeth Dublin resolved upon a vigorous and close besieging of the Place in Order to which leaving the Lord Dillon with a strong Party at Castel-knock he transferred his Camp to the South side of the City and that he might wholly shut up the Enemy and particularly their Horses and Cattel from grazing he commanded a Fort to be built at Baggot-rath giving the Charge of this considerable Trust to Patrick-Purcell Major General of the Army Some Regiments from England were in the mean time Landed at Dublin under the Conduct of Reynolds and Venables to the Number of Three Thousand Horse and Foot whereupon a Rumor was spread that Cromwell himself designed for Munster as not yet confirmed in their Defection from their late Masters This Report obliged Inchequin to desire the Lord Lieutenant's permission to go thither affirming all his Troops would revolt unless prevented by his speedy Repair to them which Ormond not being in a condition to refuse was forced to assent to He parted then with Eleven Hundred Horse dividing thus the Army whereas the whole did scarce suffice for the Enterprize in Hand Jones the Governour of Dublin perceiving the Progress of the Work at Baggot-rath and considering that if it were finished it would entirely shut him up from all Commerce by Sea as well as Land Aug. 22. 1648. resolved to obstruct it by a vigorous Sally which he did for the Garrison rushing out upon the Pioneers easily dispersed them and with the same Facility dispersed the Watch that guarded them and possessing the Place routed the amazed Irish and their Courage encreasing with their Success they pursued them to the Avenues of their Camp where falling upon the Guards there who seemed rather to look on than prepare for Defence they put them likewise to Flight The remaining Garrison in the Town The Siege is raised seeing the success of their Friends together with the Inhabitants flew all to their Assistance and with very little Pains obtained a very great Victory For the Army being upon the sudden surprized with a more than Panick Fear the Souldiers forgetful of their Defence threw down their Arms and ran away In this Confusion there were about Three Thousand slain amongst whom Sir William Vaughan was one who had also fought well The Prisoners were no fewer Collonel Butler the Lord Lieutenant's Brother and a Hundred Officers being of the Number The Cannon the Camp and the immense Spoils of it sell to the present sharing of the Conquerors and presently after the whole Kingdom the Forces of it being irrecoverably lost by this Blow Ormond who had spent the Night on Horseback in rounding and viewing the several Posts of the Army being but newly laid to rest was raised by the coming of the Lord Taffe General of the Ordnance but too late the Camp being distracted with Fear and its Consequence Confusion He therefore in this General Consternation having in vain opposed himself to this resistless Torrent until abandoned by them that followed him hastened to the Lord Dillon's Camp but those Irish had fled upon the Noise having scarce seen the Enemy About this Time London-Derry was likewise relieved by Owen Roe-Oneal London-Derry relieved the most bloody of the Irish Rebels who leaguing with Coot and Monk as above mentioned forced the Scots from that Siege But as if these Misfortunes had been but light ones they were followed by a grievous Plague brought to Gallowav by a Spanish Vessel which raged with that Fury that it swept away many Thousands in that City and the Neighbouring Country To heighten these Calamities Cromwell the worst of Plagues who ruined not only Persons but whole Cities and Provinces Landed at Dublin with an Army of Fifteen
we have already mentioned he began with the Siege of Waterford Which Preston who commanded there seemed resolved to defend until finding himself shut up with Approaches and Trenches and attacked with the adverse Cannon but above all seeing no hopes of Relief he surrendered this strong City upon Articles of Indemnity for the Inhabitants and Liberty for the Garrison to march away with their Colours and Arms. Carlaw and Duncannon ran the same Fate at the same Time Young Preston marching away with the Souldiers of those Fortresses All this while the Confederates continue in their unhappy Dissensions the Catholicks and Reformed teazing each other with their wild and unseasonable Controversies No due respect or obedience were paid to the Lord Lieutenant And now the Clergy endeavoured to distract the Protestants amongst themselves animated particularly against Ormond whom they labour with Calumnies to separate from Inchequin and him again by the same Arts from his Excellency The furious Heat of some of the Bishops grew to that height that impatient of the Government of the Protestants they pronounced it abrogated excommunicating all such who dared to disobey their Dictates Ormond having tried all ways to allay these fatal Differences and perswade them to unite for their Common Defence to no purpose perceiving their Obstinacy he resolved to quit them lest he might be involved in their Ruine To these Indignities they of Limerick besieged on one side by Ireton refused him Entrance on the other though he came with Forces to their Assistance under pretence That they themselves sufficed for their own Defence And yet lest the King's Affairs might suffer by their Folly and his Absence he gave the Earl of Castel-haven the Command of the Forces and by the Suffrages of all constituted the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy of the Kingdom Clanrickard having undertaken the Government more to delay the Rebels Conquest than out of any Appearance of Success in hopes it might advantage the King upon his march out of Scotland makes new Levies recruits the Veteranes provides Warlike Instruments and being powerfully assisted by the Ecclesiasticks endeavours to repair the lapsed condition of their Party Not that he thereby fancied the Recovery of the Kingdom but to give the King Time to try the Fortune of a Day with Cromwell as His Majesty had himself inculcated to him by his Letters Nor were the Forces he raised contemptible amounting to Five Thousand but by the continual Aversness of Fortune they effected nothing of moment They indeed took some small Garrisons of Ireton's he being gone to his Winter-Quarters but being assaulted by Collonel Axtel in the Isle of Milech and their Trenches forced they were broken Five Hundred at least of them being slain and drown'd The Residue attempting no further secured themselves in Connaught interposing the River S ..... and the Curluvian Mountains betwixt them and this Fortunate Enemy guarding the Passages and Avenues of that Province the only thing they were now capable of Nor could they long secure themselves there for the Spring advancing Ireton took the Field and having sent for Coot out of Vlster to meet him he Coot under Pretence of besieging Slego thereby diverted the Enemies Forces passing the Colluvian Mountains whilst the other got over the Shannon at Killalo by the Treachery or Cowardise of Collonel Fenel appointed to guard it Having joyned Forces they took Athole and separating again Ireton besieges Limerick and Coot Galloway Limerick however strong weakened with their own Dissensions did not resist so long as it might have done being well garrisoned and well victuall'd but delivered it self the Garrison marching away without their Arms leaving Four and Twenty of the Principal in it to Mercy Of these the Bishop of Firne and several others active in the first Part of the Rebellion were hanged Nor was this Victory less fatal to the Conquerour who did not long survive it being extinguished by the Plague This Monster having been bred up in the Law whereof he had some smatterings had been largely imbibed from his Youth in the Frantick Ravings of the Ecclesiasticks Which Cromwell observing as also his Ingenuity took him into his Fellowship and Family and matching him to his Daughter made him his Son-in-law He was active vigilant and stedfast nor improper for Council or Execution in War and consequently a chief Champion and Contriver in the exerable Regicide Ireton being dead the chief Command of the Army was at present devolved upon Ludlowe a Man bold and daring to whom Three more Collegues were afterwards associated In the mean time Galloway was surrendered Clanrickard having articled for Permission to depart Neither was any more warring there save against some Mountainers and Tories the Garrisons every where opening their Gates and the Souldiery yet in Arms having conditioned their Transportation passed most of them into the Spanish Service in Flanders a Militia not much more Fortunate than their own Ireland being subdued all vailed to the Conquerors General Monk after Cromwell's Departure besieges Sterling which however filled with Arms Cannon Provisions in Abundance and the Records and Monuments of their Kings was tamely surrendered to him Dundee by the Valour of Lunisdane the Governour held out but being over-powered it was taken by Assault and the whole Garrison put to the Sword The slaughter was cruel and the Town no less unmercifully pillaged by the covetous Souldiers which struck such a Terror in others that Aberdene and the rest of the Scotch Garrisons that they might not be involved in so ruinous a Fate prevented it by a timely Rendition Sir Phillip Musgrave had attempted to raise new Forces in Galloway so did also a Convention of some of the Nobility at Ellit but being surprised the Earls of Leven and Crawford Ogelby Musgrave and others were taken Prisoners The Scots made yet one Attempt more under Midleton Huntley Glencarne and other Highlanders but they also were supprest by the Valour and Vigilancy of Col. Morgan There was no Enemy more that appeared and to take all hopes of embodying from them for the future Four strong Cittadels were built in Four principal Parts of the Country viz. Leith Ayre Innerness and St. Johnstons And now Scotland being sufficiently subjugated was subjected to the Laws of England and incorporated into one Common-wealth with that Kingdom During these Traverses Sir John Greenvil had detained some Merchant Ships belonging to the Dutch at Scylly which so irritated the States that they sent Tromp with Twelve Men of War to reclaim them or require satisfaction for the Dammage He had also Instructions to treat with the Governour for the Surrendry of that Place into their Hands but the Secret was not carried so close but that these Transactions were known to the English who thereupon sent Blake with a Fleet to hinder the Alienation of so Important a Place by reason of its exceeding Commodiousness for Navigation Greenvil being thus assaulted on both sides chose rather to deliver the Isles to his Country-men than
Servants had thrown himself upon his Knees to adore this best of Masters But the King not forgetful of what he owed him took him up embraced him and kist him Other Noble Men and Persons of Quality there present were likewise admitted to the Honour of his Majesty's Hand Which done the King with his Two Royal Brothers the General and the Duke of Buckingham took Coach amongst the charming Congratulations and Shouts of a pleased People and went that Night to Canterbury The next Day Monk was install'd Knight of the Garter the Ensigns of that Honour being put upon him by the Two Royal Brothers He went hence towards London accompanied with the whole Nobility of the Nation and a numberless Multitude of the Commons flocking together to see their Restorer He viewed the Ships at Chatham by the Way and the Army drawn up upon Black-Heath On the 29th of May it being his Majesty's Birth-Day he entered London in Triumph he himself the greatest and goodliest part of it Where he was received by the Universality of the People sensible of the End of their Miseries and the smothering of a most cursed Rebellion with joy not to be expressed scarcely conceived PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oates's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Strafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Eanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds KING Charles II. being restored to the Greatness and Glories due to his Birth and Vertues was not yet Crowned when the Faction hardened in Wickedness did dare to disturb his and the Publick Quiet of the Nation The Acts of Grace and Oblivion Decreed in Favour of these worst of Rebels could not hinder them to conspire against the King by whose immense Bounty they enjoyed not only Impunity for their Crimes but Rewards in the undisturb'd Possession of their Rapines and unjust Acquisitions But no Indulgence of the Prince could acquire him the Good Will of this perverse Generation Some therefore whose Clandestine Councils were penetrated into were secured as Overton sometimes a Major-General in the Rebles Army Day Courtney and others Millenaries or Fifth Monarchy Men. Nor did the Detention of these hinder the Rest of the Party to attempt their designed Insurrection which they did with such impetuous Madness that it exceeds all Belief and may justly lay an Imputation upon the Credit of History in the Relation of it For how is it possible to imagine that a handful of Men not exceeding Fifty in Number should undertake and that in Cold Blood and by Day-light to assault so great a City as London with Confidence of Success By this unheard of Enterprise it is visible how far the outragious Liberty of the Enthusiasticks may oblige them to dare On the Sixth of January 1660. having armed themselves in their Conventicle with Weapons they had conveyed thither for the King had indulged to all Opinions a Liberty of serving God their own Way they came about Twy-light to St. Paul's Church-yard Where drawing up their small Army they placed Sentinels in all the Avenues that led to it One of these kill'd a Man that passed by for that being asked Who he was for he had answered for God and King Charles This Noise raising the Neighbouring Train'd Bands they were repell'd by the Rebels who marched thence thro Bishops-Gate and wheeling about entred again by Cripple Gate And finally forcing their Passage by affrighting the Guard at Aldersgate they declared They took up Arms for King Jesus Continuing their March thence they shot a Constable dead in Beech-Lane who would have opposed them and retreated thence into Cane-Wood Where they absconded for some time with Design to raise greater Tumults in the City which they might probably have done if they had not been prevented by a Party of Horse and Foot sent to disperse them Nor were they thus appeased For having publisht an abominable Libel against the Royal Family they returned to London with more wild Confidence than before The King was then at Portsmouth whither he had accompanied the Queen his Mother and the Princess Henrietta his Sister in their Way to France These Wretches would not omit so fair an Opportunity as seem'd to present it self by his Absence but take Arms again under the Conduct of one Venner a Wine-Cooper This Fellow by his Preaching had strangely incensed the furious Zeal of these Mad-men pronouncing to them with Confidence That no Weapon framed against them should prosper nor a Hair of their Heads perish They should look upon the Example of Gideon It was the same thing to God whether he saved by a few or a great Multitude These Discourses together with the Impunity of their first Attempt precipitated these desperate Enthusiasticks to the Disturbance of the Publick Peace and their own Destruction Their first Appearance was in Thread-Needle-street behind the Exchange where they beat back a Party sent from the Guard there But upon the Advance of more Forces they retreated to Bishops Gate street where after a smart Encounter Two of each side being slain slipping here and there away they disappear'd A while after like the Flashing of Clouds they were seen again at College-Hill from whence crossing Cheap-side they pass'd into Wood-street Here after a Cruel Fight wherein they shew'd Skill as well as Valour having ruffled some Train'd-Bands and repell'd the Horse Guards that came to assist them they were not overcome until Venner being knockt down and sorely wounded and Tuffney and Cragg Two of their fiercest as well Preachers as Combatants were slain These being killed the rest fled and being for the most part taken Eleven of them were drawn hanged and quartered some others tho convicted being repriev'd by the King's Clemency There sell of the Royallists Two and Twenty and as many of the Rebels Those who were executed expired with Execrations in their Mouths
against the King and the Government and Blasphemy against God daring to say That if they were deceived or misled God had deceived them Thus no less wickedly than foolishly charging God with their Fancies and Delusions year 1661 The King having dissolved his First Parliament which he had honoured with the Title of the Healing Parliament had summon'd another 'T is remarkable with what Industry the Presbyterians stickled in the Elections to choose Members of their own Faction Tho to no purpose for the People now freed from the Impostures of the Godly using their own Liberty in giving their Voices and not forgetful of the Tyranny of the Disciplinarians did openly reject them which mainly contributed to the Settlement of the Peace and Religion of the Kingdom So that this Parliament by their endeavours to restore the Commonwealth to its antient Splendor so far irritated those Wasps of Independency and Presbytery that they did dare to buz after a New Change The Champions of the late Anarchy were the principal in this Conspiracy But being detected before they broke out the * Barebone Moyer Salmon c. chief of them being apprehended the design vanished without doing any great harm except to the Contrivers of it year 1662 About the end of this Year the Novellists were again suspected to hatch new Designs which gained Credit so far that the City Train'd-Bands kept extraordinary Guards all the following Summer But the Plot being discovered by the Confession of one of the Actors in it was also expiated by the Execution of Philips Tongue Gibs and Stubs for High-Treason They had conceived a new Form of Government their most secret Councils being actuated by a Juncto of Six Ludlow the Regicide was designed to be their General having devoted the King the Duke and the present Government to Destruction and to surrogate a new Domination of Enthusiasticks in their Place Nor were the Fanaticks deterred with these Severities against so many Criminals The Poyson diffused and the Factions uniting closer amongst themselves contrive how to lay the Foundation of a New War Their Consciences were so exagitated with their former Guilt that their Fear of Punishment obliged them to move in Contempt of the King's Mercy as well as his Justice The executed Regicides were represented to the People as Martyrs and their last Speeches upon the Gallows were obtruded as the Oracles of expiring Saints The Pulpits thundred Curses and Terrors and the Streets crowded with Libels One amongst the rest that magnified the Example of Ehud who kill'd the King of Moab by Surprise was timely supprest as it was peeping Abroad year 1663. May 21. The unquiet Faction were still acting or contriving and now they lay the Scene further off They designed to intercept the Castle of Dublin together with the Lord Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond in the Desguise of Labourers whilst others were appointed to seize the Tower of London and White-Hall and others again to surprise the Passages of the Severne Trent and Tine by possessing themselves of Nottingham Gloucester and New-Castle All the Rable of Sectaries were engaged in this Conspiracy some of Cromwell's Old Souldiers as also the Assertors of the Long Parliament how dissenting soever amongst themselves yet agreeing like Herod and Pilate to ruin the Government and crucify the Lord 's Anointed But this as the rest of their Conspiracies vanisht in Smoke Fifteen of them confronted and convicted of this Black Treason being executed some at Leeds in York shire some at York who dyed not only in their Impenitency but with strange contempt of Death it self London the Old Forge of Rebellion had also its Pseudo-Martyrs a Printer being hanged for publishing Seditious Pasquils and others Pillory'd for the same Crimes Preludes to the designed Attempts of these bold Enthusiasticks year 1664 And yet they continue their Endeavours by false Rumors to separate the King from his Friends and by the same Arts more strictly to unite theirs amongst themselves They would begin a New Rebellion by the intercepting of Carlile In order to which some of them met at Kirby-Stevens but being fewer in Number than were expected they again dispersed themselves Three only being taken who having been also engaged in the former Conspiracy were executed as Travtors at Appelby Their Names were Waller Weatherhead and Petty fit to be inserted in the Martyrology of these Perjur'd Saints In the following Years these Domestick Evils broke out with new Violence taking rise from our Distractions occasioned by the War with the Dutch and the Plague raging amongst us to which it may be presumed the Negligence of our Inferiour Magistrates did so much contribute The Sword the Pestilence and Fire which well-nigh consumed the City as if they mockt at the publick Calamities were made use of to enrage the very Madness of the People exagitating their Consternations with fictitious Stories and Prophesies and not obscurely pointing at our Chief Magistrates and Governours as the Authors and Causes of all these Calamities This subtile and contagious Spirit of Rebellion creeping into the Minds of Men did at length infect with its Poison the very Parliament it self which will too evidently appear by the Sequel In the mean time Eight of the late Vsurper's Veteranes were hanged at Tyburn for contriving to murther the King and subvert the Common-wealth One Alexander furnished these Wretches with Money and Advice for the carrying on of their Wickedness but they deferred the executing of their Designs till the Third of December following for having erected a Scheme they fancied that would be a Fortunate Day a Planet averse to Monarchy being then predominant year 1666 The Scourges of War and Pestilence were followed by a terrible Conflagration in London Where however Thirteen Thousand Houses were consumed with the Fire the Sacrifice could not expiate their former Rebellion and their not opposing the Murther of their Sovereign which some of them had encouraged all permitted The Tumults in Scotland were carryed on with the same Licentiousness and Contempt of Authority Sir James Turner for his more severe Prosecution of the Laws against Dissenters as was pretended was barbarously used by them to the endangering of his Life For being violently taken out of his Bed at Dunfreese he was by the wild Rabble dragg'd naked into the Market-Place hardly escaping their Fury by the Perswasion of some of the more moderate amongst them Nor were they contemptible for Numbers being by the Accession of the Multitude encreased to Sixteen Hundred so that they durst march in a Body towards Edenburgh But being at Glencarne and fought by the Royallists they were broke and routed Five Hundred of them were slain upon the place and One Hundred taken whereof some of them being affixt to the Gallows for the Terror of others the rest were pardoned by the King's Clemency year 1678 But now the Factious have new Matter to work upon the Odium of conspiring being thrown upon the Papists All Things were quiet at Home Our Wars
following Nor were their Councils now less violent punishing some of their own Members by expelling them the House and persecuting several of the Judges and others faithful to the King Nor did this suffice For they not only voted but past a Bill which they called An Act to aisable the Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and all the Territories thereunto belonging But it went no further for being carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel after a second reading it was thrown out of the House After this Dec. 17. the Lord Viscount Stafford was brought to his Tryal being prosecuted by the Commons upon the Testimonies of Oates Turberville and Dugdale and condemned by the Suffrages of the Peers was beheaded Not were the Commoners thus satisfied They press the Bill of Exclusion a-new and demand Permission for the Protestants to associate themselves for security of the Protestant Religion They declare all other Remedies in sufficient and obnoxious to Dangers And that therefore they could give the King no Supply without Danger to his Person Hazard to the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted Nay they required That the Lords Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Rochester and Feversham should be removed from all Offices of Honour and Profit and from his Councils and Presence for ever And with the same Breath with unheard of as well Fury as Arrogance Vote That whosoever shall lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the. Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Custom Excise or Hearth-Money should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and should be responsible for the same And when they perceived that the King wearied with such monstrous Insolence designed to Prorogue their Session they had 〈◊〉 vote and denounce That whosoever advised the King to prorogue that Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing the Bill of Exclusion should be lookt upon as a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner of France But Mar. 24. the Parliament being however Prorogued and then Dissolved by Proclamation the King intimated his pleasure to call another which should convene in March following at Oxford as a place less Subject to Faction and Tumults Which so stung the Common Council of London and such Peers as were emancipated to the Party that they endeavoured by Petitions to divert his Majesty from thoughts of so remote a Design upon imaginary reason of Danger and Unfitness praying it might therefore sit at Westminster But to no purpose So that the Parliament met at Oxford composed for the most part of the same Delegates The major Part of the Deputies as also the Fanatick Lords depending upon their numerous Attendants and Friends which they were accompanyed with drove on futiously and neglecting the King's Admonitions who had declared That as he had resolved never to use Arbitrary Government himself so he was resolved never to suffer it in others rage with more Fierceness against the Duke and press the Bill of Exclusion with so much Violence that the King putting a stop to their career immediately dissolved them And it was time seeing they designed not only to retrench his Prerogative but also to seize his Person Upon that Accompt Rouse Hains White College and the Earl of Shaftsbury were committed to Prison Of those College and Shaftsbury were brought to their Tryals But in vain being acquitted by their Juries against the Testimonies and Evidences of irreproachable Witnesses Which was no Wonder the very Coâ—rts of Justice being enslaved to the Faction and acted by their Prescripts So that the King who himself was religious in the equal Distribution of Justice to all Men could not obtain Justice for himself But College being brought before another Tribunal less subjected to the Authority of the Faction received such Punishment as his Treason deserved He had no less offended at Oxford than at London and was try'd and executed there The Fellow was of the Lees of the Rabble a Joyner by Trade vain restless inquisitive and perpetually busie in Affairs that least concerned him But Shaftsbury's Fortune was better who eluding the Publick Justice by a Jury addicted to himself and the Faction and retorting the Danger upon his Accusers triumphed whilst they hardly escaped the Fury of the Rabble And 't was no wonder for this destructive Faction was so prevalent in the City that it had infatuated the People and the Companies of Tradesmen with a reverent Opinion of their Sanctity And spreading wider the Contagion had diffused it self into most of the Provinces of the Kingdom And now all such whose Crimes had rendered them Guilty or Indigence bold such whose Zeal made furious or Ambition lofty joyned themselves to them The same Pretences of Liberty Property and Religion and the same Methods wherewith the Reign of Charles the Martyr had been involved in Blood and Confusion were now again made use of mostly by the same Men cunning restless and implacable to seduce weak and irresolute Persons as also to disturb that Peace which we hitherto enjoyed to the Envy of all Europe By such Instruments the mildest of Governments was branded with the Name of Tyranny The Church of England is traduced and the faithfullest Ministers and Servants to the King and Crown calumniated with Male Administration In the mean Time Schism and Sedition are every where promoted Jealousies and vain Terrors are suggested proditorious Discourses and infamous Libels are scattered about and things abhorring from Christianity are dayly exercised under the genuine Veil of Protestantism Finally the old Opinions and Doctrines of the Democraticks so ruinous to Monarchy are now again countenanced and asserted with the same Fierceness and Confidence as they had been in the late Rebellion With these pickeerings of Rebellion they gradually proceeded to Action Parties are distinguished Names and Signs of Separation are distributed Unlawful Conventicles in despite of the Laws are patronised Tumultuous Banquets and factious Clubs are every where set up Clandestine and seditious Assemblies are frequented Unusual Quantities of Arms are bought up by private Men. Insolent Progresses are made through the Country to the End they might shew how numerous they were spread their Terror about as they moved discover their Party and demonstrate their readiness upon all Occasions Nor were these Caballings unknown to the King who when he saw his Clemency so highly abused by those whom he had pardoned yet greater Offences resolved to chastise them and oppose the severity of Law to their Extravagancies In the Two preceding Years Two Favourers of the Faction being Lord Mayors by Turn had promoted turbulent Fellows to the Magistracy and chief Employments in the City Of these the Two Sheriffs were chief who directed the choice of Jury's at pleasure which gave the licentious Liberty to offend For what durst they not attempt who were
Bog where having lost their Horses and Baggage the Foot dispersed into small Parties whereupon Dunbarton likewise divided the King's Forces to pursue them Argile seeing all lost returned towards Clyde and was fallen upon by two of Greenock's Servants but would not yield firing at them when they called to him He received a Wound in the Head upon which not trusting his Horse he alighted and ran into the Water The Noise brought out a Country-man who ran into the Water after him where he was almost up to the Neck He presented his Pistol to the Country-man but it missed Fire whereupon the Country-man gave him a Wound in the Head which stunn'd him so that he fell and in falling cry'd out Vnfortunate Argile Before he recovered they took him and carried him to their Commander from whence he was brought to Glascow and thence to Edinburgh entering the City with his Hands bound behind him bare-headed with the Hang-man going before him A sad tho deserved Spectacle of unfortunate Disloyalty The Rest of the Rebels being totally defeated Rumbald the Malister who fought desperately was taken and Colonel Ayloff who after he was a Prisoner ript up his own Belly with a Pen-knife but recovered to be hanged in England as the other had been in Scotland his Wounds not permitting his Transport into his own Country June 30. Argile closed the Scene of this Rebellion being beheaded which could not yet expiate for so much Blood and Confusion which he had occasioned by his Ambition and desire of Revenge Nor was Monmouth more successful in England whose Enterprizes being carried on with more Noise and Hopes may require a more particular Relation The Duke of Monmouth having hired a Ship at Amsterdam of Two and Thirty Guns with a Hundred and Fifty Men in it of several Nations and paid for it in Person was by the States General at the Solicitation of the King's Envoy with them ordered to be arrested which notwithstanding got to Sea and in it the Duke of Monmouth and not long after Two small Vessels more upon Accompt of the Rebels With this Fleet 1685. June 11. he sailed Westward and landed at Lime in Dorsetshire about Seven a Clock in the Evening He was accompanied with the Lord G. a Person daring and desparate and about Two Hundred more well appointed all appearing as Officers and each with a Carabine and Two Pistols by his side With this Equipage did this bold Rebel dare to attempt the Crown of England Having possessed himself of the Town he likewise took Possession of an Old neglected Fort in which were Seven Guns And setting up his Standard which was Blew he invited all Men to his Assistance for the Protestant Religion against the Duke of York Nor were there wanting such who abused by his Pretences came in to him his Emissaries being dispatched into the Neighbouring Towns and Villages to incite the People to an open Rebellion against his Majesty Their Numbers being in few Days encreased they sent a Party of Horse and Foot to Bridg. Port where they surprizâ—d some Gentlemen whom they inhumanly murthered as Mr. Strangewayes Coaker and others But the rest getting to their Arms escaped to a Party who maintained a Post not far off whither the Rebels still pursuing them were beaten off with the Loss of Seven of their Men and several Arms and Prisoners which they left behind them The King upon Notice of this Invasion caused Monmouth and all his Accomplices and Companions to be proclaimed Traytors and a Reward of Five Thousand Pounds to any who should bring the said Monmouth in alive or dead Monmouth on the other side dispersed a Declaration fraught with Treason and Imposture against the King under the Title of Duke of York Which upon consideration of the infamous Calumnies it contained was condemned by the Two Houses of Parliament to be publickly burnt by the Hands of the Hang man which was done accordingly The Duke of Albemarle the Day of Monmouth's landing had mustered the Militia of Devonshire whereof he was Lord-Lieutenant and keeping them in a Body he much impeded the Resort of Novellists and Fanaticks to the Enemy And yet it was not safe for him to fight them being scarce secure of his own Men. For the changing Rabble attentive upon Novelties seemed to prefer great Incertainties before their present Enjoyments The Duke of Beaufort on the other side secured Bristol with his Presence and Forces whilst the King's Troops hasten to meet from all Parts The Lord Churchil with his Dragoons came first and disturbed the Rebels with various Skirmishings and was followed by the Earl of Feversham with greater Force who also was appointed General for the Expedition The Duke of Grafton marched to the Rendezvouz with Eighteen Hundred of the Guards whereof he was Colonel And Eighteen Field-Peices with all their Accoutrements weâ—e sent to the Camp under the Convoy of some old Companies of Dunbarton's Regiment To these new Levies were suddainly made of Eight Regiments of Foot and several Troops of Horse Also the Six Regiments of Britains which were in the Service of the Vnited Provinces were recalled Three whereof being Scots were sent against Argile but he being defeated they returned into England On the other side Monmouth having left Lime marched to Taunton an old and obstinate Receptacle of Fanaticism where his numbers encreasing tho no one of Quality came in to him he usurpt the Title of King But the Reign of this Ephemerous Prince was neither propitious nor long What he could not effect under pretence of the Protestant Religion for those who are truely Protestants of the Church of England do detest nothing more than Rebellion he resolved to attempt by assuming the Title of Prince but no less impiously than foolishly For the Chief of his Party hated Monarchy since they could not all be Kings and seemed mainly to contend for a Common-wealth What Argile oppressed by his adverse Fortune did pathetically express in this Case deserves to be mentioned here His Expressions against those of Amsterdam first were That they having made a Collection among Four Hundred of them to set him out had failed in carrying on the Vndertaking But against Monmouth As one who had broke Faith both with God and Man With Man when taking him by the Hand at parting he promised to be in England as soon as he in Scotland and with God in that he had upon the Sacrament declared at Amsterdam that he would never pretend to the Crown Nor must we omit a Saying of Rumbold's at his Execution being moved when he heard that Monmouth had taken upon him to be King for it seems they were all for a Commonwealth We have said he a better than he that is called so already Monmouth left Taunton again accompanied with a Multitude of sorry Fellows scarce half armed for they had left most of their Equipage of War at Lime where the King's Ships seized upon a Pink and a Dogger with Forty