Kingdom also into severall factions each labouring to advance their own though to the Ruine and Destruction of the publick Peace Onely to take off somewhat of the imputation he made so much use of his power and interesse with the King as to prefer three of his servants unto Titles of Honour Anno 1621. viz. Sir Robert Cary Chamberlain of his Houshold to the Title of Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard second Son to the Earl of Suffolk and Master of his Horse to the Honour of Viscount Andover and Lord Howard of Charlton and Sir John Vaughan Controller of his Houshold to the Honour of Lord Vaughan of Molingar in the Realm of Ireland 1618. On the eighteenth day of November Anno 1618. There appeared a great blazing Star the fore-runner of many woful events in these parts of Christendom But the first sad effect thereof which we found in England was the death of Queen Anne which hapned on Tuesday the second of March next following A losse which the Prince bare with great equanimity or evennesse of Spirit neither banishing all shews of grief with a Stoical Apathie nor spending his time in too much womanish lamentation At the Funerall of this great Queen he was principall Mourner and it became him so to be she having always been to him a tender and indulgent Mother expressing more affection to him then to all the rest of her Children 1619. Not long after the death of the Queen King James fell very sick at Newmarket and having a desire to come to London advanced on his way as far as Royston where he was fain to stay till his sickness was over which at last became so dangerous that his death was feared At what time Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester attending on him bewailed with great Affliction the sad condition which the Church was like to fall into if God should take away his life the Prince being in the hands of the Scots which made up the greatest part of his Houshold and not well principled by those which had the tutelage of him either as to the Government or Liturgie of the Church of England The King acknowledgeing this sad truth and condemning his own negligence in it made a solemn vow that if God would be pleased to restore him to his health he would take the Prince into his own immediate care instruct him in the Controversies of Religion and set him on so right a bottome that there should be no fear of his disaffection either unto the Hierarchy or the rites and Ceremonies of the Church which he did accordingly And he did it so effectually that at such time as the Prince made his journey into Spain and that some principal persons in all the Places and Offices belonging to him were to follow after Dr. Maw and Dr. Wren two of his Chaplains being appointed for that service came to King James to know his pleasure and commands The King advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be onely on the defensive part if they should be challenged And when it was answered that there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where there could be no Moderator the King replied that Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile on the other the King proceeded and told them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premisses 1619. On Friday the twenty fourth of March Anno 1619. The Prince with the Marquesse of Hamilton Marquesse of Buckingham divers Earls and others performed great Justing at White-Hall in honour of the day being the day of King James his happy coming to the Crown of England 1620 And on the Sunday after being Mid-lent Sunday he attended his Father to S. Pauls Crosse conducted in a most solemn manner from Temple Bar to that Church by the Lord Major and Aldermen and at the entrance into the Church received by the Dean and Chapter in their rich Copes and other Ecclesiasticall Habits and by them conducted into the Quire where having heard the Divine service for that day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbots they went to a prepared place where they heard the Sermon at the Crosse preacht by Dr. King then Lord Bishop of London and from thence unto the Bishops Palace where they were entertained with a Banquet Infinite was the concourse of People at both those Solemnities and all of them returned with great joy and comfort to see him so bravely accomplisht in the one so devoutly reverent in the other 1622. On Tuesday the eighteenth of February Anno 1622. Accompanied with the Duke of Buckingham M. Erdimion Porter and M. Francis Cottington he took ship at Dover arrived at Bulloign in France and from thence rode Post to the Court of Spain The occasion this Frederick Prince Elector Palatine had inconsiderately taken on himself the Crown of Bohemia An. 1619. and for so doing was by the Emperor deprived of his Ancient Patrimony the Electorall dignity together with the upper Palatinate being conferred on the Duke of Bavaria and the lower on the K. of Spain who possest himself of all of it except the towns of Heidelberg Frankendale and Manheim well manned and Garrisoned by the English For the preserving of which places and the recovery of the whole when all means else had proved ineffectuall it was held most expedient to negotiate a Marriage betwixt Prince Charles and the Daughter of Spain Which being first managed by the Leiger Embassadors in both Courts was afterwards prosecuted with more particular instructions by John Lord Digby well verst and studied in that Court whom the King sent as his Embassador extraordinary to conclude the match But Digby being fed with delaies from one time to another it was resolved by King James without making any of his Councel acquainted with it that the Prince himself should go in Person that he might either speed the Businesse or break off the Treaty According to this Resolution he began his journey no otherwise accompanied or attended then with those three persons above mentioned all of them passing in disguise to avoid discovery Being come to Paris they adventured to see the Court where at a Mask he had a view of that most excellent Princesse whom he after married But no sooner had he left the City then the French King had Advertisement of his being there who thereupon dispatcht away severall Posts to stay him in his journey and bring him back but the Prince had past beyond Bayonne the last Town in France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid entred the Lord Embassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents onely News of his safe Arrivall there being brought to the King there was
Natives of that Countrey sent thither purposely in a new and unprecedent way to lie as Spies upon his Counsels and as controllers to his actions Some Messages there were betwixt him and the Houses of Parliament concerning the attoning of these differences whilst he was at York But the XIX Propositions sent thither to him did declare sufficiently that there was no peace to be expected on his part unlesse he had made himself a cypher a thing of no signification in the Arithmetick of State And now the War begins to open The Parliament had their Guards already and the Affront which Hotham had put upon his Majesty at Hull prompted the Gentlemen of York-shire to tender themselves for a Guard to his Person This presently voted by both Houses to be a leavying of War against the Parliament for whose defence not onely the Train-bands of London must be in readinesse and the good people of the countrey required to put themselves into a posture of armes but Regiments of Horse and Foot are listed a Generall appointed great summes of Money raised and all this under pretence of taking the King out of the hands of his evil Counsellours The noise of these preparations hastens the King from Yorke to Notingham where he sets up his Standard inviting all his good Subjects to repair unto him for defence of their King the Lawes and Religion of their Countrey He increased his Forces as he marched which could not come unto the reputation of an Army till he came into Shropshire where great bodies of the loyall and stout-hearted Welch resorted to him Strengthened with these and furnisht sufficiently with Field Pieces Armes and Ammunition which the Queen had sent to him out of Holland he resolves upon his march towards London but on Sunday the twenty third of October was encountred in the way at a place called Edge-Hill by the Parliament Forces The Fight very terrible for the time no fewer then five thousand men slain upon the place the Prologue to a greater slaughter if the dark night had not put an end unto that dispute Each part pretended to the victory but it went clearly on the Kings side who though he lost his Generall yet he kept the Field and possessed himself of the dead bodies and not so onely but he made his way open unto London and â—n his way forced Banbury Castle in the very sight as it were of the Earl of Essex who with his flying Army made all the haste he could towards the City that â—e might be there before the King to â—ecure the Parliament More certain â—gns there could not be of an absolute â—ictory In the Battel of Taro between the Conâ—derates of Italy and Charles the eight â—f France it hapned so that the Confederates kept the Field possest themselves of the Camp Baggage and Artillery which the French in their breaking through had left behind them Hereupon a dispute was raised to whom the Honour of that day did of right belong which all knowing and impartiall men gave unto the French For though they lost the Field their Camp Artillery and Baggage yet they obtained what they fought for which was the opening of their way to France and which the Confederates did intend to deprive them of Which resolution in that case may be a ruling case to this the Kiâ—g having not only kept the Field posseâ—â— himself of the dead bodies pillaged the carâ—iages of the enemy but forciâ—â—y opâ—â—eâ— his way towards London which the enemy endeavoured to hinder and finally entred triumphantly into Oxford with no fewer then aâ— hundred and twenty Colours taken in the Figâ—â— Having assured himself of Oxford foâ— his Winter Quarters he resolved on hiâ— Advance towards London but had made so many halts in the way that Essex was got thither before him who had disposed of his Forces at Kingston Brentford Acton and some other places there abouts not onely to stop his march but to fall upon him in the Rear as occasion served Yet he goes forward notwithstanding as far as Brentford out of which he beats two of their best Regiments takes five hundred Prisoners sinks their Ordnance with an intent to march forwards on the morrow after being Sunday and the thirteenth of November But understanding that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of Kingston and joyning with the London Auxiliaries lay in the way before him at a place called Turnham-Green neer Cheswick it was thought safer to retreat towards Oxford while the way was open then to venture his Army to the fortune of a second Battel which if it were lost â—t would be utterly impossible for him â—o raise another At Oxford he receives Propositions of peace from the Houses of Parliament but such as rather did beseem a conquering then a losing side But being resolved to treat upon them howsoever he found the Commissioners so straitned in time and so tied to such particular instructions as the Houses had given them that nothing could be yielded to which might conduce to the composing of the present Distempers At the opening of the Spring the Queen came to him who had landed at a place in York-shire called Burlington-Bay in the end of February and now brought with her unto Oxford some supplies of men with a considerable stock of Powder Arms and Ammunition 1643. The next Summer makes him master of the North and West some few places onely being excepted The Earl of New-castle with his Northern Army had cleared all parts beyond Trent but the Town of Hull of the enemies Forces And with his own Army under the command of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice two of the younger Sons of his Sister Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia he reduced the Cities of Bristol and Exeter the Port Town of Waymouth and all the Towns of any importance in the Western parts except Pool Lime and Plimouth So that he was in a manner the absolute Commander of the Counties of Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwall And though the Towns of Plimouth Lime and Pool still held out against him yet were they so bridled by his neighbouring Garrisons that they were not able to create him any great Disturbance The noise of these successes was so loud at London that most of the leading men in both Houses of Parliament prepared for quitting of the Kingdome and had undoubtedly so done if the King had followed his good fortunes and advanced towards London But unhappily diverting upon Glocester he lay so long there without doing any thing to the purpose that the Earl of Essex came time enough to raise the Siege and relieve the Town though he made not hast enough to recover London without blowes For besides some skirmishes on the by which fell out to his losse the King with the whole body of his Army overtook him at Newberry where after a sharp fight with the losse of the Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Viscount Falkland on his Majesties side
thundred out their Anathemaes not onely against such as should dare to levie it but those also who should willingly pay it The news of which riotous proceeding being brought immediately to the King he sent his Band of Pensioners accompanied by his ordinary Guard to force open the doors and going himself to the House of Peers he dissolved the Parliament not having continued in that Session above forty dayes At the end of the former Session he had admitted Sir John Savill of Yorkshire a busie man in the House of Commons but otherwise a politique and prudent person to be one of his Privy Council created him Lord Savill of Ponfract and made him Comptroller of his Houshold in the place of Sir John Suckling deceased And a little before the beginning of the following Session he took into his Council Sir Thomas wentworth of Wentworth Woodhouse in the same County whom be created Viscount Wentworth and made Lord President of the North and within two years after Lord Deputy of Ireland also A man he was of prodigious Parts which he made use of at the first in favour of the Popular Faction But being gained unto the King by Sir Ri. Weston then Chancellour of the Exchequer afterwards Lord Treasurer and Earl of Portland he became the most devout friend of the Church the greatest Zelot for advancing Monarchichall Interesse and the ablest Minister of State which our Histories have afforded to us On the judgement of these two his Majesty did much rely in Civil matters as he did on the advice of Doctor Neile then Bishop of Durham and Doctor Laud then Bishop of Bath and Wells in matters which concerned the Church These last he had called unto his Council in the beginning of April 1627. and finding them to be of as great abilities to advise as sincere affections to his person he advanced the first to the See of Winchester and afterwards to the Archbishoprick of York Anno 1631. the second to the See of London and from thence to Canterbury Anno 1633. 1629. But whilest it was such hot weather at home it grew cold abroad the breach betwixt him and France being closed up at the same time by the prudent and seasonable intervention of the State of Venice And not long after he concluded a Peace also with the King of Spain all things being left on both sides in the same condition in which they were before the war but that the Spaniard did ingage that he would make use of all his Interest with the Emperour for restoring the Prince Elector Paâ—â—â—ine to his lost Estate And now the King having thrown away his Crutches which had as often deceived him as he trusted to them he began to stand on his own legs and in short time became more considerable in the eyes of the world then any of his Predecessors The Spaniard sent hither yearly in English Bottoms no lesse then six hundred thousand Crowns in Bullion for the use of his Army in the Netherlands redounding very much to the Kings benefit in the coinage and no lesse to the profit of the Merchants also most of the money being returned into Flanders in Leather Cloth Lead Tinne and other the manufactures and Native Commodities of this Kingdome The Dutch and Easterlings looke upon London as the safest Bank not onely to lodge but increase their Treasure so that in short time the greatest part of the Trade of Christendom was driven up the Thames 1630. To make him yet more estimable in the sight of his People God blest him with a Son the presumptive Heir of his Dominions on the twenty ninth of May Anno 1630. and seconded that blessing with the birth of a Daughter on the fourth of November in the next year after as afterwards with a plentifull issue of both Sexes 1633. Nor did he meet with any check in his Prosperity till the year 1633. at what time the Coles of Faction and Sedition which seemed for some years to have been raked up in the ashes of contentment kindled the next combustible matter and brake forth again to the inflaming of both Kingdoms Scotland burneth first and takes fire on this occasion In the minority of King James the Lands of all Cathedrall Churches and Religious Houses which had been setled on the Crown by Act of Parliament were shared amongst the Lords and great men of that Kingdome by the connivence of the Earl of Murray and some other of the Regents to make them sure unto the side And they being thus possessed of the said Lands with the Regalities and Tithes belonging to those Ecclesiasticall Corporations Lorded it with pride and insolence enough iâ— their severall Territories holding the Clergy to small stipends and the poor Paisant under a miserable vassalage and subjection to them King Charles ingaged in War at his first coming to the Crown and having little aid from thence for the maintenance of it by the advice of his Council of that Kingdome was put upon a course of resuming those Lands Tithes and Regalities into his own hands to which the present Occupants could pretend no other Title then the unjust usurpation of their Ancestors This he endeavoured first by an Act of Revocation but that course not being like to speed he followed it in the way of a legal processe which drew on the Commission for surrendering of Superiorities and Tithes to be retaken from the King on such conditions as might bring some profit to the Crowne some Augmentation to the Clergy and far more ease and benefit to the common people But these proud Scots chuse rather to expose their Countrey to the danger of a publick Ruine then to part with any of that power it might be called a Tyranny rather which they had exercised on their Vassals as they commonly called them and thereupon conspired together to oppose the King in any thing that should be offered in the following Parliament which had relation to the Church or to Church-affaires But because Religion and the care thereof is commonly the best bait to catch the vulgar they must find out some other means to divert the King from the prosecuting of that Commission then the consideration of their own personall and private interesse and they found means to do it on another occasion which was briefly this King James from his first coming to this Crown had a design to bring the Kirk of Scotland to an uniformity with the Church of England both in government and forms of worship And he proceeded so far as to settle Episcopacy amongst them naming thirteen new Bishops for so many Episcopal Sees as had been anciently in that Church three of which received Consecration from the Bishops of England and conferred it on the rest of their Brethren at their coming home Which Bishops he armed also with the power of an High Commission the better to keep down the insolent and domineering Spirit of the Presbyterians In order to the other he procured an Act to be passed
following And it was intimated so long before-hand for these two reasons First that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland might in the mean time hold a Parliament in that Kingdome which he did and managed so much to the Kings advantage that an Army of 8000 Horse and Foot was speedily raised and money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay and furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries Secondly that by the Reputation of a following Parliament he might be the better enabled to borrow money for the carrying on of the war in case the Parliament should fail him as it after did For being come together at the time appointed instead of Acting any thing in order to his Majesties service they were at the point of passing a Vote for blasting his war against the Scots To prevent which his Majesty was forced to dissolve them on the fifth of May the Convocation still continuing who granted him a Benevolence of foure shillings in the pound for all their Ecclesiasticall promotions to be paid six years together then next ensuing The Members of the dissolved Parliament inflamed the people in all parts of the Kingdome with such discontentments which actually brake out in Southwark into open sedition not pacified without much danger and the executing of the principal Leader In the middle of which Distempers his Majesty was blest with a third Son born on the eight of July Christned by the name of Henry and by his Majesties command called Duke of Glocester 1640. To welcome this young Prince into the world the Scots put themselves into Armes again and backt by a strong faction here thought that they could not do enough by standing on their defence at home unlesse they entred England also as they did accordingly But they took not his Majesty unprovided who had raised another gallant Army under the command of the Earl of Northumberland as chief Generall and the Earl of Strafford as the chief Commander under him himself with all speed posting towards the North as soon as the News of this invasion had been brought unto him But scarce was he well setled in the head of his Army but he was followed by a Petition from some Lords of England conformable in the main points of it to a Declaration of the Scots which they called the Intention of their Army So that the Cloud which gathered behind him in the South threatned more danger to him then the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Sailing thus between Scylla and Charybdis it concerned him to steer as even a course as he could and thereupon he summoned the great Councel of his Peers to attend him at York that doing nothing in this great businesse without their advice he might give himself the better hopes of their assistance as his occasions should require By their advice Commissioners are appointed to treat with the Scots to understand their Grievances the reasonablenesse or unreasonablenesse of their Demands and finally to make up the breach by such an Accommodation as might conduce to the peace and happinesse of both Kingdomes and his Majesties honour In the mean time he calls a Parliament to begin at Westminster the third day of November then next following which if it had been held at York as lying nearest to the danger and Scene of action might not have proved so fatall and destructive to him as it after did In the beginning of this Parliament he cast himself on the love and loyalty of his English Subjects in which he found himself deceived of his expectation For the first thing they did was to deprive him of the Counsels of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Archbishop of Canterbury and thereby to terrifie all others from adhering to him in the times of his greatest need These they impeacht of High Treason removed them from the House of Peers and committed them to the Tower of London where the Archbishop staid four years before any particular charge or any prosecution upon that charge was brought against him But with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland they made quicker work inviting the People of all the three Kingdomes to bring them in such matter as they had or could devise against him and having made all things ready for a publick Tryal they brought him to the Bar before the Peers sitting in VVestminster-Hall on the sixth of April then next following but he so rationally pleaded in his own behalf and so fully satisfyed all objections which were made against him that the Commons were fain to desist from the Course which they had begun and to proceed against him in a Bill of Attainder For the better passing whereof the Commons framed a Protestation on the third of May in many things not unlike the Scotish Covenant before mentioned by which they bound themselves among other things to maintain and defend the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject to endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by Force Practice Plots Counsels and Conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary amongst which they reckon the Earl of Strafford to be one and finally to stand unto one another and to every other person whatsoever in any thing he shall do in pursuance of the said Protestation Which Protestation being first taken by themselves was the next day taken also by the House of Peers and not long after obtruded on all the rest of the Kingdom But not finding this sufficient to effect their purpose they first forced the Lords by Tumults and afterwards the King by their importunities to passe that unhappy Bill of Attainder which having obtained they brought him to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill on the thirteenth of May where with as much Christian confidence and magnanimity as could be exprest by flesh and blood he delivered up his neck to the Executioner In order to this great work which they knew the Scots much laboured for and had declared so much in a Pamphlet called The intentions of their Army at their first coming into England the leading men in the house of Commons held a strict correspondency with the Scots Commissioners then residing in London and voted no lesse then three hundred thousand pounds by the name of a brotherly Assistance to be given to the Scots in generall under colour of repairing such damages as they had sustained in the time of this breach but in plain truth to bind them fast unto themselves And having made sure work with them they deprived the King by little and little of almost all the ancient and undoubted prerogatives which of right belonged unto his Crown The power of calling Parliaments in case of his neglect or refusall is put into the hands of Sheriffs and Constables his right to Tonnage and Poundage must be disclaimed by Act of Parliament the Bill of the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford and that for the continuance of this Parliament during
he had the worst of the day and had much ado to save his Canon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Reere were fain to make their way over a great part of his Foot to preserve themselves Being returned to Oxford with Successe and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on the twenty second day of January then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holdernes and Duke of Cumberland and creates James his second Son born the Thirteenth day of October Anno 1633 Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might sit and vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsome motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them a Morgrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen then they were willing to allow of 1644. And now the Summer coming on and the time fit for Action he dismisses them to their severall dwellings and betakes himself unto the Field The frequent traverses whereof the interchangeable taking and losing of Towns by the chance of war are too many in number to be comprised in this short Abstract It must suffice if I take notice of those onely which are most considerable His Majesty prevaling in the North and West 'T was thought fit by the ruling party in the Houses of Parliament to crave aid of the Scots whom they drew in the second time by the temptations of entring into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that sharing amongst them all the Lands of the Bishops and sacrificing to their malice the Archbishop of Canterbury as formerly they had done the Earl of Strafford But besides these plausible allurements the Commissioners of that Kingdome were to have so great a stroke in the Government of this that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present war no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without their consent Upon these baits they entred England with a puissant Army consisting of one and twenty thousand men well armed and fitted for the service and having made themselves Masters of Barwick Alnwick and all other places of importance on the other side of the Tweed they laid Siege to York where they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the associated Counties and the remaining York-shire forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax The news whereof being brought to Oxford Prince Rupert is dispatcht with as much of the Kings forces as could well be spared with a Commission to â—aise more out of the Counties of Cheâ—ter Salop Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster So that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand Men relieved the Town with all things necessary and might have gone away unfought with but that such Counsell was too cold for so hot a stomach Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the enemy at a place called Marston-Moor where the left Wing of his Horâ—e gave such a fierce Charge on the right Wing of the enemy consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Reere that they fell foul on that part of their own Foot which was made up of the Lord Fairfax his Regiments and a reserve of the Scots which they brake wholly and trod most of them under their Horses feet But the Princes Horse following the execution too far and none advancing to make good the place which they had left the enemy had the opportunity to rally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners of good note and making themselves masters of his Canon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field he marched off ingloriously squandred away the greatest part of his Army and retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day then other York yielded upon composition on the sixteenth of July being a just fortnight after the fight the Marquesse of Newcastle and some principall Gentlemen past over the Seas and the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots on the nineteenth of October following In the mean time the Queen being with child began to draw neer the time of her Delivery And it was generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim on Oxford as the Seat Royall of the King the Residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy In which respect it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter as a place more remote from danger and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served On the sixteenth of April she began her journey the King bearing her company as far as Abingdon where they took leave of one another neither of them having any the least presage that the parting Kisse which they then took was to be their last Convoi'd with a sufficient strength of Horse for her security on the way she was received there with as much magnificence as that City was able to expresse and on the sixteenth day of June was safely delivered of a Daughter whom she Christened by the name of Henrietta Assoon as she had well passed over the weaknesses and infirmities incident to Child-bed she committed the young Princesse to the Lady Dalkeith a Daughter of Sir Edward Villiers one of the half Brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and wife unto the Lord Dalkeith the eldest Son of the Earl of Morton Which having done according to some instructions which she had received from the King she took shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July and passed into France there to negotiate for some supplies of money Armes and Ammunition for the advance of his Majesties service and to continue howsoever in the Court of the King her Brother till she might return again in Honour and safety And to say truth her Removall from Oxford was not onely seasonable but exceeding necessary at that time the Earl of Essex and Sir William Wâ—ller with their severall Forces not long after her departure drawing neer to Oxford on whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly towards Wales Upon the News whereof it was thought fit by the two Generalls to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Sir William Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march toward the West for the regaining of those Countries And now
the North it was thought fit they should be gratified with that blood which they so greedily thirsted after And thereupon the Archbishop being voted guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons was condemned to die in such a slender House of Lords that onely seven viz. the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook the Lords North Gray and Brewes were present at the passing of the sentence of his condemnation Which being past he was brought unto the Scaffold on Tower-hill on the tenth of January where he ended his life with such a modest confidence and so much piety that his greatest enemies then present who came to behold the Execution with hearts full of joy returned back with eyes as full of tears Last of all comes another Treaty sollicited by the King consented to by the Houses with no small difficulty and that upon condition to have the Treaty held at Uxbâ—idge a Town about fifteen miles from London and more then twice as much from Oxford According unto which appointment the Commissioners met on the thirtieth of January accompanied with some Divines for debating the point of Church Government when it came in question But this Treaty proved as unsuccessefull as that at Oxford had done before the Commissioners for the Houses offering no expedient for an Accommodation nor hearkening unto such as were tendred to them in the name of the King So that there being no hope of bringing the Warre unto an end this way both parties were resolved to proceed in the other The King having wintered his Army at Oxford and the Towns adjoyning it was thought fit to send the Prince into the West to perfect the Association which had been begun in the end of the last summer and in those Countries to advance such further forces as might not onely serve for the defence of themselves but give some reasonable increase to His Mâ—jesties Army In the beginning of April he set forwards towards Bristol accompanied with the Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hide as his principall Counsellours and some of the chief Gentry of the West who were of most authority in their severall Countreys But before he had made himself Master of any considerable strength news câ—me of the unfortunate successe of the Baâ—tel of Nasby which much retarded his proceedings and hearing afterwards that Sir Thomas Fairfax with his victorious Army was marching towards him he quitted Somerset-shire and drew more Westward into the middle of Devonshire Bristol being taken and his Majesties affairs growing worse and worse both there and elsewhere he sent a Message unto Fairfax desiring a safe conduct for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpeper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights deliberation he receives an answer the eight of November to this effect That if he would disband his Army and apply himself unto the Parliament the Generall himself in person would conduct him thither No hopes of doing good this way and lesse the other Exeter being besieged and Barnstable taken by the enemies forces he leaves his Army to the Lord Hopton and withdraws into the Dukedome of Cornwall But finding that Countrey unable to protect him long he passeth into the Isle of Scilly and from thence unto the Queen his Mother whom he found at Paris not doubting but to receive such entertainment in that Court as might be justly looked for by the eldest Son of a Daughter of France Which passages I have laid together in this place that I might follow his Majesties affairs elsewhere with the less interruption The Prince being gone for Bristoll as before is said his Majesty resolved on the approch of Summer to relieve such of his Northern Garrisons as had been left untaken the year before and from thence to bestow a visit on the associated Counties But being on his march and having stormed the Town of Leicester in his way he returned again so far as Daventry upon the news that Sir Thomas Fairfax newly made Generall in the place of Essex was sate down before Oxford Concerning which we are to know that not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents of which the Presbyterians at the first carryed all before them The Independents growing up by little and little and being better studied in the arts of dissimulation easily undermined the others and outed their Lord-Generall and all that commanded under him of their severall places under colour of an Ordinance for Self-denyall That done they conferred that command on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man of more Precipitation then Prudence not so fit for Counsell as Execution and better to charge on an Enemy then command an Army With him they joyned Collonel Oliver Cromwel whom they dispensed with in the point of self-denyall by the name of Lieutenant General but so that he disposed of all things as Commander in chief and left Fairfax to his old trade of Execution to which he had been accustomed The like alteration happened also in the Kings Army Collonel Sir Patrick Ruthen a man of approved valour and Fidelity being by his Majesty made Earl of Forth in Scotland was on the death of the Earl of Lindsey made the Lord Lieutenant of his Armies and the next year made Earl of Brentfort for the good service he had done in that place Having both fortunately and faithfully discharged that office for two years and more he was outed of his place by a Court-contrivement made in the favour of Prince Rupert who a little before Christmas last was declared Generallissimo of his Majesties Forces which he most ambitiously aspired unto and at last obtained notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston-Moor his squandring away so brave an army and his apparent want of Age Experience and Moderation for so great a trust By these new Generals the fortune of the War and the whole estate of the Kingdome which lay then at stake came to be decided For Fairfax hearing that the King was come back as far as Daventry which was the matter he desired made directly towards him with an intent to give him battel and at a place neer Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies met on Saturday the 14. of June The King had the better at the first but Prince Rupert having routed one wing of the enemies Horse followed the chace so unadvisedly that he left the foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Canon and amongst other things of his Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which were after publisht with little honour to them that did it For whereas the Athenians on the like successe had intercepted a packet of Letters from Philp King of Macedon their most bitter enemy unto severall friends all the rest of those Letters
being broke open before the Common Council of Athens one of which was subscribed to the Queen Olympias was returned untoucht the whole Senate thinking it a shamefull and dishonest act to discover and betray the Conjugall secrets betwixt man and wife A modesty in which those of Athens stand as much commended by Helladius Bisantinus an ancient Writer as the chief leading men of the Houses of Parliament are like to stand condemned for the want of it in succeeding Histories But we return unto the King who having saved himself by flight gathered together some part of his scattered Forces but never was able to make head against the conquerors losing one place after another till his whole strength was almost reduced to Oxford and some few Garrisons adjoyning I shall take notice onely of some of the principal viz. Chester Conway Hereford Bristol and Exeter on which so great a part of his affairs did most especially depend Chester first comes within the danger a City of great importance in those parts of the Kingdom To the relief of this place then besieged by Sir William Brereton Collonel Jones and others of that party and at that time brought to some distresse he made all the convenient speed he could but was pursued upon the way and charged in front by the besiegers betwixt whom this small Army was routed at a place called Bauton-Heath and the Lord Bernard Stuart newly created Earl of Lichfield killed upon the place the last of three brethren that had lost their lives in their Princes quarrell On this discomfiture the King draws towards the North-East and commands the Lord Digby with the Remainder of his Horse to march for Scotland and there to joyn with the Marquesse of Montrosse who with small strengths had acted Miracles in that Kingdome But at a Village in Yorkshire called Sherbourn a fatall name but pointing to another place where he surprized 700 of the Parliaments Foot he he was set upon by Collonel Cotly his Forces made drunk with the good fortune of the day very easily mastered and he himself compelled to fly into Ireland never returning since that time to his Native Country But notwithstanding the Kings misfortune before mentioned which happened on the twenty ninth of September the Lord Byron who had the command of the Garrison in Chester held it out gallantly till the first of February and then perceiving that there was no hopes of any Succour came to an honourable composition and gave up the Town the greatest part of the Countrey falling into the same condition with their mother City Before we leave the North-west parts we must look upon the fortune of the Town and Castle of Conway a place of principall Command on that narrow Channell which runneth between the County of Carnarvon and the Isle of Anglesey Before this Town being then besieged by Collonel Mitton came Doctor John Williams formerly Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England and at that time Arch-bishop of York Who to ingratiate himself with the Houses of Parliament and to save the charges of compounding for Delinquency came with some forces to the aid of the Besiegers some say in Armour and encamped there till the place was taken to the Amazement of the world and the eternall infamy and Reproch of his Person Bristol comes next a place conveniently seated for the Trade of Spain the River capable of great Ships and the port well guarded At the taking of this City by the Kings Forces to such strengths as before it had there was added a Fort Royall as they called it then conceived impregnable into this City Prince Rupert who had spent there too much of the year before had put himself at the present and was besieged not long after by Sir Thomas Fairfax who came before it on the twenty fourth of August and had it surrendred to him without any memorable resistance together with the old Castle and Royall Fort on the thirteenth of September The quick surrendry of which place being so well fortified and furnisht with victuall Arms and Ammunition and the weak defences which were made to preserve the same created some suspicion of disloyalty in Prince Rupert towards the King his Uncle There had before passed some Letters betwixt the King and him touching the Kings coming to a speedy agreement with his Houses of Parliament in which the King was prest so far that he seemed to be displeased at it And now this news coming on the neck of those Letters startled him into such a distrust of his Nephews Loyalty that he dispatcht a messenger with all speed to the Lords at Oxford to displace Collonell William Legg one of the Confidents of Prince Rupert who had succeeded Sir Henry Gage in the Government of that City and to put into his place Sir Thomas Glenham a Gentleman of known extraction and more known fidelity Nor were the Lords of the Council lesse amazed at the news then his Majesty was who thereupon when Prince Rupert and his Brother Maurice returned to Oxford commanded them to be disarmed and would not suffer them to walk the streets with their Swords by their sides as they had done formerly though afterwards by the Kings great goodnesse they were restored to all apparences of favour though not to any speciall places of Command or Trust Hereford followes the same fortune which having in vain been besieged by the Scots from the 13 of July to the first of September was suddenly surprized by Collonel Birch and Collonel Morgan this last then Governour of Glocster on the eighteenth of December Exceter holds out longest and was last attempted such blocks as lay in the way between Fairfax his Army and that City being first in the course of war to be removed Which took up so much time that it was the twenty fifth day of January before Fairefax could come neer enough to give it a Summons and being summon'd it held out till the thirteenth of April and then was yielded upon as honourable Conditions as any other whatsoever all other Garrisons in the West being first surrendred the Princes forces worsted at Torrington not long after disbanded upon Composition and he himself retired into France for his personall safety All these mischances thus hapning on the neck of one another all the Kings hopes and expectation rested upon the coming of Sir Jacob Astley created Lord Astley of Reading two years since Who having kept together some Remainders of the Kings Forces since the Fight neer Chester and increasing them with the Accession of some fresh supplies marched towards the King and was to have been met upon the way by Sir John Campsfield with the Oxford Horse But either through the want of intelligence or the necessity of fate or some occasionall delayes it was so long before Campsfield was upon his march that the newes came of the Lord Astleys being vanquish'd at a place called Donnington neer Stow on the Wold on the 21 of March In which fight