Titus Britannicus AN ESSAY OF HISTORY ROYAL IN THE Life Reign OF HIS Late SACRED MAJESTY CHARLES II. Of Ever Blessed and Immortal Memory By AVRELIAN COOK Gent. Ut ameris Amabilis esto Ovid. Majora Veris Monstra vix capiunt Fidem Senec. LONDON Printed for James Partridg Stationer to His Royal Highness George Hereditary Prince of Denmark at the Post-Office by Charing-Cross 1685. To the most NOBLE HONOURABLE REVEREND WILLIAM Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury FRANCIS Lord Guilford C. S. LAWRENCE Earl of Rochester P. GEORGE Marquess of Halifax C. P. S. JAMES Duke of Ormond S. R. D. CHRISTOPHER Duke of Albemarle HENRY Duke of New-Castle HENRY Duke of Beaufort CHARLES Marquess of Winchester ROBERT Earl of Lindsey S. A. C. HENRY Earl of Arlington C. R. D. AUBERY Earl of Oxford THEOPHILUS Earl of Huntington JOHN Earl of Bridgwater HENRY Earl of Peterborough PHILIP Earl of Chesterfield Robert Earl of Sunderland HENRY Earl of Clarendon JOHN Earl of Bath WILLIAM Earl of Craven ROBERT Earl of Ailesbury JOHN Earl of Radnor DANIEL Earl of Nottingham HENRY Earl of Middleton THOMAS Vicount Falconberg HENRY Lord Bishop of London GEORGE Lord Dartmouth SIDNEY Lord Godolphin Sir JOHN ERNLY Sir THOMAS CHICHELEY Sir GEORGE JEFFERIES and Sir LEOLINE JENKINS The Lords of His late Majesties Privy-Council My LORDS IT was a Custom much us'd by the Ancient Writers among the Greeks and Romans to Dedicate their Books to their most particular Friends and sometimes to Intitle and call them by their Friends Names In our Age wherein we either do or shou'd imitate Antiquity in all commendable things This laudable Custom is either wholly laid aside or practis'd by so few that they almost escape Observance If indeed this Method of Dedicating Books was chang'd into a better I should have no reason to complain but rather to applaud the happy Genius of our Times for outshining the brightest days of Antiquity But most assuredly we can find no causes for such Triumphs The Dedications now made in England and France which two Countries in this Age we may Parallel with the foremention'd Greece and Italy upon the Score of Excellence in Wit with respect to the rest of Europe Our Dedications I say are so full of nauseous and fulsom Flatteries and Most of 'em so generally made up of about a dozen long Words variously turn'd and dispers'd that for my part I wonder how any Man can proceed any further in a Book of such small hopes but must needs lay it down and chuse rather to go to Bounding-Stones with Augustus Nay this crying Sin of the Nation is come to that pass that even our Poets who were made and fram'd on purpose in such a Make as only to lash Vice with the severest Satyr are yet most abominably guilty of this crime When an excellent Comedy has appear'd on the Stage for some time and perhaps done the Work of an Hundred Homilies in visiting and reclaiming Mankind from their evil ways it comes forth in Print and all is spoil'd again by a wicked Dedication in the beginning which propagatâ—â— Atheism so that no man can believe the Poet is honest and speaks his mind in the Play while he talks so lewdly and contradictorily in the Dedication It was not so in Ben. Johnson's days What I have said of Epistles Dedicatory in general may partly seem to hook my self into the crowd of these numerous Transgressors while I inscribe this Book to your Great Names But several Things I have to alledg for my self First tho this Piece be not presented to any private Friend of its Author in Emulation of the Ancients yet as far as possibly I have followed their Sacred Rules and Canons in a Work of this publick Nature For it is the Life of one of the Greatest and Wisest Princes that â—ver Sway'd the English or any other Scepter And to whom cou'd I better devote His Life than to His Greatest and Wisest Friends for such He always call'd His best Servants Ye are concern'd MY LORDS in every Page of this Book and can witness what is here related to be true No part of His Life but wherein some of you have had a share In His Education His Exile His Sufferings His Victories His Triumphs And while I write his Life in some measure I write Yours For such is the fate of Celsitude and honour that Great Men in some sense do frequently Dye before Sixty three And to be sure when a Prince falls he does not fall alone but several Others have their Lives interchangeably writ with his Besides MY LORDS being unable to find any Object nearer to him than Your selves except his Majesty whom God long preserve and the Family Royal I lay under an indispensable necessity of imploring your Lordships Patronage For such is my Veneration to the Blood of my Prince that by no means can I be perswaded to think the ensuing Papers fit for his most Sacred and Princely Eye or worthy a Royal Protection and I am resolv'd to be as Innocent as I can and not offend One Prince after having committed Treason against the Fame of another However MY LORDS tho this be not a Piece fit for a Kings Cabinet yet I hope this Image of our late Sovereigns Life will not be refus'd by Your Lordships since we love the Pictures of those Persons we admire let 'em be never so unfinisht let them be drawn by what hand soever The other Thing which I propos'd to my self in this Address was the avoiding Flattery tho it may seem a very unnecessary Caution since he that looks up to such a Thick-set Conglobation and as it were Galaxy of heavenly Virtues must easily infer that they are too high for Flattery and too bright to have any lustre added to them With all the Tragical forces of Eloquence I might here expatiate on the Topicks of Grand Descent of Titles and honours of Policy and Government of Arms and Learning of the Tent and the Closet But it is not my design to manage these common Subjects And I beg leave of your Lordships to say That in the front of a Book consecrated to the fame of CHARLES the II d I think I shou'd do an Injury to him if I endeavour'd professedly to write any other Panegyrick but his tho at the same time I must needs include Your Lordships Praises And herein I have determin'd to take a View of the King himself and not of his Deeds that Province I leave to his history and to set his personal Virtues and not additional Actions before your Eyes for a bad man may do a praise-worthy thing but a good man himself can only be praised Many Kings themselves do either hear or read their own Commendations and take care to see their own Glory setled before they dye But such kind of Annals usually is as mortal as their Subject and as soon turns to Ashes No His late Majesties Praise shall not be Mercenary The World after his Death shall
Judicial proceedings And then he return'd to White-Hall where he chose the Lords of his Privy Council amongst whom were several of the long Parliament that had given sufficient Testimony of their sincere repentance and their resolution to be Loyal for the future and he appointed Judges for the Benches and Courts of Judicature Several Addresses were likewise made to him from the Nobility and Gentry of all the Countreys in England wherein they congratulated his Restitution to his Crown and Kingdom assuring him of their exceeding Joy and willingness to maintain his Royal Person and Authority Divers persons that had been eminent for their service and affection to him were about that time also dignified with the honour of Knighthood And several men guilty of his Fathers murder having made their escape beyond-Sea a Proclamation was Issued forth wherein all those persons who had â—ate gave Judgment or any way assisted in that horrid and detestable fact were commanded to surrender themselves within fourteen days to the Speaker or Speakers of Parliament to the Lord Mayor of London or the Sheriff of that County wherein they then resided forbidding all persons to conceal or harbour them under misprision of Treason whereupon divers submitted themselves and were secur'd in the Tower The Commons in drawing up the Act of Oblivion order'd that some others besides those who had actually sate in Judgment upon the late King should be excepted out of it viz. Broughton Phelps Cook Dâ—nby and Hugh Peters which so affrighted others who had a hand in that execrable murder that Col. John Hutchinson a Member of that Parliament and Coll. Frâ— Lussels presented their Petition to them wherein they confest their guilt and declar'd the artifices which were us'd to draw them in by which submission they obtain'd pardon upon some small forfeitures only But Peters being shortly after taken in Southwark was clapt up into the Tower And the Parliament not looking upon themselves nor the people of England free from the guilt nor safe from the punishment which in those unhappy times they had contracted unless they laid hold of the Kings offer of Grace in his Declaration from Breda did therefore resolv'd in a full house that they did in the name of themselves and of all the Commons of England lay hold on the gracious pardon mention'd in that Declaration with reference to the exclusion of such as should be excepted in an Act of Pardon and they order'd a Declaration that their Resolution should be drawn up which was done accordingly and presented to the King by Denzell afterward Lord Hollis some of the most eminent in Office under the late Usurpers having in the mean while to make sure of that Grace gotten their particular pardons exemplified under the great Seal of England To prevent which trouble the King was more than ordinary pressing for the speedy passing the Act of Oblivion taking care to express his grateful sentiments of the Loyalty and services of several Illustrious personages that were principally instrumental in accomplishing his Restauration by dignifying them with Places and Titles of honour And to shew how highly the Generals Loyalty had advanc'd him in his good Opinion he was dignifi'd by him with the Titles of Duke of Albemarle Earl of Torrington and Baron of Potheridge Beauchamp Teyes had his Temples deserv'dly incircl'd with a Ducal Coronet by the hand of his Majesty being thereby invested with the right of Peerage in all the three Kingdoms whose equal Felicity and Honour he had preferr'd before his own and therefore now most deservingly shar'd with them therein by his Investure in those Dignities which were compleated on the 13th of the following July by his taking his place in the House of Lords being attended by the Commons and introduc'd by the Duke of Buckingham Montague was made Earl of Sandwich Ormond Earl of Brecknock and Lord Steward of the Kings Houshold the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Chamberlain Manchester L. Chamberlain of the Kings Houshold Southhampton Lord High Treasurer Greenvile Earl of Bath and Groom of the Stole Sir Frederick Cornwallis Treasurer of the Kings Houshold by an old grant and Sir John Berkley Controller Divers rich Presents were now made to him from the several Cities and Burroughs of the Kingdom in Gold and Plate and the resignation of several Feefarm Rents which had been purchas'd from the Usurpers the City of London among the rest with a Complement of their good Stewardship rendred their grant of new Perk in Surrey and all the Rents accruing at Michaelmas Day were now secured from the late Purchasers of Crown and Church Laws to the utter disappointing of their unjust and covetous expectations from such base and unwarrantable Penny-worths A Peace was now made Proclaim'd between us and Spain and a Splendid Embassy dispatcht from Denmark to congratulate his happy Restauratian The Court of Soissons who had Married Cardinal Mazarines Neece being sent from the French King on the same Errand entring London with all the sumptuous and extraordinary Magnificence imaginable and there was no Prince nor State in Europe but what sent an Embassador thither to congratulate him upon that happy and wonderful occasion And the Parliament having after many debates and disputes alterations and insertions at last finish'd the long desir'd Act of Oblivion which was extraordinary comprehensive and indulgent even to the regret of many injur'd Loyalists who found no better Argument to perswade their acquiescing therein than their unchangeable Loyalty to the King whose special Act that was There were no more excepted out of it but only the Regicides and Murderers of the late King only Lambert Vane and twenty more were thereby reserv'd to such forfeitures as should be afterward declar'd by Parliament the principal whereof was Hazelrick St. John Lenthal the Speaker Philip Nye Burton of Tarmouth and some Sequestrators Officers and Major Generals of the Army among whom was Desbrough Pine Butler Ireton c. They likewise past an Act for the perpetual Anniversary Thanksgiving on the 29 of May which was the day both of his Birth and Restauration and therefore deserv'd a perpetual memorial and to be made by a Parliamentary Canonization the most auspicious in the English Kallender to both which he gave his Royal assent and shortly after at their adjournment to another for disbanding the Army and paying off the Navy which although they once threatned us with a perpetuating our slavery yet were now forc'd by the happy conjunction of his Fortune with his Wisdom and Goodness after many models to submit to its last desolation And the Commons having after the passing of their Bills acquainted him that they had nothing more to ask or offer at that time but that if his Majesties occasions would permit they might adjourn and go into their own Countries where they should endeavour to make his subjects sensible of their extraordinary happiness in having such a King to Rule and Govern them He consented to it telling
Exchecquer and Judges of the Law according to their several Dignities Trumpets Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Knights of the Bath the Knights Marshal the Treasurer of the Chamber the Master of the Jewel House the Knights of the Privy Councel the Comptrollor and the Treasurer of the Kings-Household two Trumpets and Serjeants Trumpets two Pursivants at Arms Barons Eldest Sons Earls Youngest Sons Viscounts Eldest Sons Marquesses Youngest Sons Earls Eldest Sons two Pursivants at Armes Viscounts and Dukes Eldest Sons Marquesses Eldest Sons two Heralds Earls Earl Marshal and Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold Dukes Eldest Sons Serjeants at Armes on both sides the Nobility Clarencieux and Norroy Lord Treasurer Lord Chancellor Lord High-Steward the Duke of Ormond and two persons representing the Dukeâ— of Normandy and Aquitain Gentleman Usher Garter Lord Mayor His Royal Highness the Duke of York alone the Lord High Constable of England which was the Earl of Northumberland the Lord Great Chamberlain of England which was then the Earl Lindsey and the Sword carryed by the Duke of Richmond Equeries and Footmen followed next and about the King himself Gentlemen and Pensioners without them Master of the Horse which was the Duke of Albemarle leading a Spare Horse the Vice-Chamberlain to the King the Captain of the Pensioners the Captain of the Guard the Guard the Kings Life Guard Commanded by the Lord Gerrard the Generals Life Guard by Sir Phillip Howard a Troop of Voluntiers Troop and a Company of Foot by Sir John Robinson The way from the Tower to Aldgate was guarded by the Hamblets from thence to Temple-Bar by the Train-Bands on the one side and by the Livery on the other with the Banners of each Company the Windows were all along laid with Carpets and the best Tapistry Bands of Musick in several places and the Conduits running with Wine In St. Pauls Church-Yard stood the Blewcoat-Boyes of Christ-Church Hospital one whereof in the Name of the rest declared their joy for his Majesties wonderful Preservation and Restauration Humbly beseeching his Gracious Favour and Indulgence according to the example of His Royal Ancestors and his Father of Blessed Memory With which Speech he was well pleased and testified his being so by his rewarding the Boy that spoke it In the Strand and through Westminster the wayes were likewise gravelled and railed and guarded on both sides with the Trained-Bands of that City and the Kings two Regiments of Foot under the Command of Albemarl and Collonel Russel and the Houses adorned with Carpets and Tapestry like those in London When he came through Temple-Bar the Head Bayliffe and High-Constable in Scarlet met and received him with loud Musick and alighting off their Horses and kneeling down the Head Bayliff on behalf of the Dean and Chapter City and Liberty signified their Joyful Reception of His Royal Person into that Liberty Declaring how much their happiness exceeded any other part of the Nations in that their Soveraign Lord and King was come among them and humbly desiring His Majesty to continue his Grace and Favour to them whereby they might still be enabled to do His Majesty service Infinite and Innumerable were the Shouts and Acclamations from all parts as he past along to the no less Joy than amazement of the Spectators And the Pomp of this Solemnity was so great that it is vain to attempt the describing it it being not only unutterable but almost Inconceivable and many outlandish Persons who beheld it admired how it was possible for the English after such horrible confusions to appear in so rich and stately a manner It is incredible to think what costly Robes were worn that day it being scarcely discernable what their Cloaks were made of for the Gold and Silver Laces and Imbroidery that was laid on them besides the inestimable treasures of Diamonds Pearles and other Jewels and the Rich Liveries of their Pages and Footmen some suits whereof were so very rich that they amounted to near 1500 l. In this order he arrived at White-Hall where having retired himself to supper and so to Rest he came the next day which being St. Georges day was to consummate the Coronation from his privy Staires to the Old Pallace where in a Room behind the House of Lords called the Prince's Lodgings he stayed till the Lords and the rest of his Train had Robed and Ranked themselves in Westminster-Hall and so soon as they were ready descended the Stairs that went down into the Hall and placed himself in a Throne in the upper end thereof Then came the Dean and Prebends of Westminster in their Rich Copes each of them having a part of the Regalia and delivered them to the Lord High Constable who delivered them to the Lord Great Chamberlain and being by him set on a Table the King immediately distributed them St. Edwards Staff to the Earl of Sandwich the Spurrs to Pembrâ—ke the Sword called Curtana to Oxford the pointed Sword carryed on the Right Hand of it to Shrewsbury that carryed on the left to Derby and the Sword of State to Manchester the Scepter with the Dove to Albemarle the Orb with the Cross to Buckingham St. Edwards Crown to Ormond and the Pattina and Challice to the Bishops of London and Exeter And having thus bestowed the Regalia he set forward on foot much after the same order which was observed the day before upon blew Cloath spread on the ground from the Hall to his Chair in the Abby supported by the Bishops of Bath and Durham and having his Trayn carried up by the Lords Mandevill Cavendish Ossery and Piercy assisted by the Lord Viscount Mansfield Master of the Robes All the Peers with their Coronets in their hands went up along with him till he was placed in the Chair of State Then the Bishop of London on behalf of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury told the People he did there present them King Charles the Second the Rightful Inheritor of the Crown of this Realm and demanded of all those that came thither that day to do their Homage Service and Bounden Duty whether they were willing to do the same Whereupon all the Peers in their Parliament Robes and People gave a shout testifying their willingness Then the King rising from his Chair turned himself to the four sides of the Throne and speaking to the People who again with loud Acclamations signified their consent all in one voice After which the Choire sung an Anthem in the interim whereof he went supported by the Bishops of Bath and Durham attended by the Dean of Westminster to the steps before the Communion Table where upon Carpets and Cushions he offered a Pall and a piece of Gold and then removing to the right hand kneelled down during a short Collect then the Sermon began being Preacht by the Bishop of Worcester which ended the Bishop of London on behalf of the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury ask't Him If He would be pleased to take the Oath that was wont to be taken
ibid. 1670 Designs to unite England and Scotland 345 Prince of Tuscany in England ibid The Dutchess of Orleans at Dover 346 Sir Thomas Allen before Argeir 347 Sir Edward Spragg destroys three Men of War 348 1671 Bloud steals the Crown 349 The King takes a Sea-Progress 351 A stop upon the Exchequer 352 Sir George Downing committed to the Tower 353 A Declaration of Indulgence 354 Sir Robert Holms falls on the Dutch Smyrna Fleet ibid 1672 The King declares War against the Dutch 355 He views the English and French Fleet joyning ibid His Royal Highness's name terrible to the Dutch 356 The States remove to Amsterdam 357 The King Invites their Subjects into England ibid The Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Arlington Embassadors 358 Nimeguen taken ibid 1673 the Dutch beaten 359 The King grants Peace to the Dutch 360 1677 Grows Jealous of the French Kings greatness 362 The Lady Mary marri'd to the Prince of Orange ibid The Kings Speech to the Parliament 363 France threatned with a War 365 The King endeavours a general Peace 366 But provides for the worst 367 His Speech to the Parliament ibid 1678 The Siege of Mons raised 359 A peace concluded at Nimeguen ibid A hugeous strange Plot of Black Bills and Spanish pilgrims discover'd by Titus Oates 371 The Lords Bellasis Powis Peters and Arundel sent to the Tower 3â—2 Godfrey found murthered 373 The King prevents the Parliament 375 His refusal to part with the Militia 376 Some try'd for the Plot ibid Some of the Parliament accuse each other 377 Sir Joseph Williamson released by the King 378 The Long Parliament dissolv'd ibid The Kings Letter to the Duke 379 The Duke goes into Flanders 380 The Kings Speech to the new Parliament ibid 1679 They begin with the Earl of Danby 384 Who surrenders him self ibid The Lords in the Tower Impeacht in Parliament 385 The King dissolves his Privy-Council and constitutes a new one ibid. Shaftsbury President 387 The Lords Answer to their Impeachments ibid. 1680 The Kings proposal to the Parliament 388 Their Address to the King 389 The Bill of Exclusion brought in ibid The two Houses differ about Danby's pardon and the Tryal of the Lords 390 The King Porogues them 392 The Bishop of St. Andrews most barbarous Muther forerunner of a Scotch Rebellion ibid. Whence the name of Whigs 393 The Parliament dissolv'd and a new one call'd 394 Sir G. Wakeman and others acquitted ibid. The King taken Sick at Windsor 395 Monmouth in disgrace 397 A Declaration about him 398 He is banished 402 Dangerfields discovery ibid The Duke of York goes into Scotl. 403 Sawcy Petitions for the Parliaments fitting 404 Forbidden by Proclamation ibid. Kings Speech to the Parliament 405 The Duke returns out of Scotland 406 Sir Lionel Jenkins made Secretary 407 Addresses of Abhorrence ibid. The Lord Shandios Embassador to Constantinople 408 A prodigious storm of Hail ibid The Parliament sits 409 Fall foul upon Sir Robt. Can and others ibid. Revive the Attempt of the Exclusion Bill which is bravely thrown out by the Lords 411 The Tryal of the Lord Stafford 412 The Blazing-star 413 The King presseth the Parliament for supplys ibid. The Address ibid. His Answer 414 Their Proceedings thereupon 415 They are Prorogu'd 416 Their lewdly extravagant Votes ibid. Petitions about the Oxford Parliament 417 The Country treats their Members 418 1681 The King goes to Oxford 419 His Speech to the Parliament there ibid. Wi. Williams Speaker 421 Fitz-Harris his story 422 25 26 27 28. The Oxford-Parliament dissolv'd 423 A Declaration touching it 424 Doct. Pluncket 427 The Lord Howard committed to the Tower 428 The Oxford-Plot 429 The Protestant Joyner ibid. His Royal Highness High Commissioner in the Parliament of Scotland 430 An Act past there about the Succession ibid. The King Favours the French Protestants 431 Shaftsbury sav'd by an Ignoramus 432 Esquire Thinn murther'd 433 1682 The Royal Passenger's miraculous deliverance 435 Sir John More Lord Mayor of London 436 A Riot in the City about Sheriffs 437 Prince Rupert dies 442 The Earl of Nottingham dies ibid Two remarkable and unusual Embassadors ibid. 1683 Bantham lost 444 An unpresidentable action ibid A Quo Warranto brought against the City Charter 447 A Petition in reference to it 447 The Kings gracious Condescention ibid Shaftsbury's Plot discover'd 449 The King to have been kill'd at the Rye 451 Sav'd by an accidental Fire ibid. Keeling the first discoverer 452 The Plotters taken ibid. Lord Gray Escapes 453 The Lord Russel and Coll. Sidney Beheaded and others executed at Tyburn ibid. Holloway and Armstrong executed 454 A Declaration of Thanksgiving ibid. The difference between the two Plots 455 The Lady Ann Married to Prince George ibid. Judgment enter'd against the Charter 456 Prichard Mayor by Commission ibid. The Factious Aldermen displac'd 457 Monmouth submits himself 458 The great Frost 459 The Kings Charity 460 Vienna besieged ibid Lord Landsdown ' Valour at its 〈…〉 46â— Tâ—ngâ—er demolish'â— ibid. Earl of Danby relievâ—d ibid. The rest of the Lords out of the Toweâ— 462 684. Commissioners for Ecclesiastical affairs ibid. A Scandalum Magnatum against Oates 463 His Royal Highnesses Patience 464 A Statue-peice of the King in the Royal Exchange ibâ—d A Muster on Putney Heath 466 Several tryed 467 The Sodom Doctor Indicted 468 Danvers his Libel 469 〈…〉 Scroop How receiv'd to favour 470 The King 〈…〉 Fit 471 The manner of his lingring Death 472 The Solemnity of his â—uneral 475 His Person 481 His Justice 483 His peaceable Inclination 486 His care of the Crown Prerogatives 488 His Prudence and Conduct 491 His great Piety and Devotion â—94 His Travels 499 His Learning â—01 His Recreations 504 His Conjugal Affectionâ— 506 Epigraphe 509 A Prayer for the King 511 An Essay of HISTORY ROYAL In the LIFE and REIGN OF HIS Late Sacred MAJESTY CHARLES the Second The Introduction HIstory in all Ages hath not undeservedly been accounted the great Light and Mistress of Humane Life as it both pleasurably instructs and most efficaciously persuades all Ranks and Degrees of men to their several respective and proper Offices For in laying the Foundation of a Good Mind Examples have a peculiar force to move men to Virtue and a much Greater than any bare Precepts whatsoever since they have this excellence in them that they prove what they recommend possible to be done and a Precept without an Example adjoyn'd to it looks like a good Law never put into Execution When men read of an Excellent Virtue they still carry away some Tincture from it whether they will or no as if they had been in Conversation with it's Possessor And when they read of any deformity and vice they have a natural aversion for it and will take care to avoid in themselves what looks so ugly in others Nor does History tend only to form men's manners in order to an happy Life but it also exalts and enlarges their minds while they
the Island joyned them to those which he had brought with him out of France the news whereof arriving at Westminster a Letter is dispatcht from the Parliament and delivered him by Colonel Russel Governour of Guernzey wherein they humbly desired that for his Fathers his own and for his three more than miserable Kingdoms sake he would come among his Fathers Subjects offering thereupon to afford all that lay in their power to give or himself could expect to receive But not daring to trust them he waved their Complement and proceeded to manage his affairs by Sea and Land to that advantage if they had had their desired success as might have enabled the King in the approaching treaty to stand upon such terms as conduced most to his Honour both as a Man a Christian and a King In order whereunto he came attended by the Duke of York Prince Rupert the Lords Hopton Wilmot Wilâ—oughby Branford and Ruthen and Sir Henry Palmer with twenty Sail of Ships towards Yarmouth and landed there with 2000 Men where the divided multitude entertained him according to their various Inclinations some with an Hosanna and others with a Crucifie And as himself had taken care of his affairs at Sea so he sent commissions to several Persons of Honour and Trust whom he commanded to take care of them by Land viz. Ormond Inchequeen and Montgomery in Ireland the Committee of State and their Officers in Scotland the Lords Goring and Capel in Essex and Kent Glenham and Langdale in the North Hales Lucas Langhorn Poyer Owen Buckingham and the Earls of Holland and Peterborough in those places where each of them resided and Letters of correspondence past mutually between him and the Scots his Father and the City in some whereof which were intercepted the City the Lords and some of the Commons declared themselves ready to contribute all possible asistance for the composing of those unhappy differences For whose encouragement he was graciously pleased to declare himself rather the asserter of his Peoples Priviledges than his own Rights as though he fought against his Subjects not to make himself but them happy against their wills for in a Declaration which he then publisht he Solemnly protested 1. For the Establishment of Religion according to his Fathers agreement in the 26th of the preceding December 2. The performance of the said agreement and pursuance of the concessions on the Kings part 3. The restoring of the King to a Personal Treaty 4. The just Priviledges of Parliament 5. An Act of Oblivion 6. The liberty of the Subject abolishing excise contribution forfeit quarter c. 7. Disbanding the Armies and setling of Peace 8. The Defence of the narrow Seas the securing of â—rade and the support of the Navy and Seamen was all he designed in his present undertakings Which Gracious Declaration he seconded with a Letter to the Lords wherein he required 1 That a Personal Treaty might be had in such place and manner as might consist with the Kings Honour Safety and Freedom that so it might not be blemished with any Face of restraint 2. That Scotland might be included 3. That in the mean time there might be a cessation of Arms and an orderly moderate subsistance mutually agreed on for the Forces on both sides to the Souldiers content and the Subjects ease But such was their stubborn peevishness that all his concessions were slighted and his endeavours came to nothing Wherefore seeing he could do nothing by fair means he applyed himself to Force and made several Honourable but unsuccessful attempts to reduce his Rebellious Subjects to the obedience of their Soveraign Poyer and Langhorn reduce South Wales raise a Thousand Men keep Pembroke Tenby and Chepstow beat Fleming and Horton but soon after received a total rout at St. Fogins Tenby and Pembroke being surrendred and Langhorn and Poyer forced to submit to Mercy in whose behalf he wrote to St. Thomas Fairfax from the Downs where he then lay with his Fleet that they might have the usage and terms of Souldiers of War as those had who were taken by him To which Letter the General answered with all due respects to his Highness that it was not in his power to Act further the Parliament having ordered their Tryals he dar'd not interpose their Justice but only pray for Mercy and Peace subscribing himself his Highness's Humble Servant Sir John Owen likewise reduced North Wales to as little purpose Nor had his affairs much better success in Surrey Essex Kent And the City who having first petitioned and then fought for their own Peace the Kings Honour Safety and Liberty and the Kingdoms Establishment were able to accomplish nothing to purpose The Kentish Men Rendezvouzed at Black-heath under Sir Edw. Hales who commanded them as General Sir Geo. Lisley and others offering a Parly to Sir Tho. Fairfax to which he returned this Answer c. SIRS I received a Message from you for a Pass for some Gentlemen to come and and Treat according to an Order of Parliament but know of no such Order of theirs or Authority of yours to appoint Commissioners for such a purpose finding you them in Arms against the Parliament I cannot admit of a Treaty but if ye shall forthwith lay down your Arms and return home I doubt not of the Parliaments mercy to such as have been deluded into this Rebellion and their Exemplary Justice to the Chief Actors therein Of which Answer having satisfied the Prince they did by directions from him make this Reply 1. That an universal and perpetual Dictate of Nature even self-preservation not to invade others Rights but to secure their own had drawn them together 2. 'T was an undoubted Power over them ordained of God they did then obey and so did neither Tumult nor Rebel 3. That Providence which had given them that opportunity they dare not neglect nor could they lay down their Arms without the forfeiture of their Reason and their Honour and that as for the uncertain mercy which he offered to the deluded many whom he thought knew not why they were come together the certain Justice he had threatned their Leaders withal he might assure himself there was but one Soul in that great Body which was therefore resolved to stand or fall together as one Man being not tempted with any hope except that of returning to their ancient Rights Priviledges Governments and Settlements and altogether uncapable of any fear save only that of relapsing into their former slavery And that the fair managing of their business was a sufficient demonstration of their Inclinations to Peace entreating him therefore rather to make the Country his Friend than his Enemy The General being inexorable and and they resolved both Armies met at a barricadoed Bridge between the Heartâ— and Graves-end where both sides strenuously disputed the Passage till the Country-men retired back into their main Body being over-powered by multitudes rather than overcome by valour whereupon notwithstanding
of Parliament they renewed the Vote of Non-Addresses declare the Treaty at the Isle of Wight dishonourable and dangerous and therefore protest against it and then proceeded to disarm the City and Country that so there might not be a Sword drawn for the good and Peace of the Kingdom Which obstacles being thus removed the Army encouraged the Juncto with a Remonstrance wherein they proposed that the People should agree finally to take away the Government by King Lords and Commons whereby they made good those Charges which had formerly been made against the Parliament and their Army and from which they had endeavoured by so many Oaths and Protestations to clear themselves And that they should in the name of the People proceed against all Malefactors from the highest to the lowest wherein they impudently included and chiefly aimed at the King himself who was in order thereunto closely imprisoned and deprived by them of the comfort of his Loyal Attendants and of the Honour of that State and Ceremony that was due to him But these were but essays toward and beginnings of Sorrows to that Pious though unfortunate King First It was moved in the House on the first of the following January that he might be tryed as a Traytor Which horrible as well as senseless Vote was past into an ordinance and sent to the House of Lords Upon which the Earl of Manchester to his Eternal Honour did declare that in regard the King was the chief of the three States in Parliament he could not possibly be a Traytor to the rest since Treason always goes upward and the lowest only are capable of being Traytors to the highest Which Speech the Earl of Northumberland seconded by declaring his opinion that suppose it was without question that the King was first in the War yet they had neither Law Custom or President to make that War Treason in his Majesty and the Lord Say affirmed that he knew not who should to say to Kings Ye are unrighteous or to Princes Ye are ungodly And Kings added Pembroke they say can do no wrong much less can they be guilty of Treason whereupon the Ordinance was immediately thrown out of that Honourable House But the Juncto mad upon their ungodly and destructive project resolved notwithstanding that the Persons impowered therein to try the King should proceed accordingly altho the Lords consented not Which unexpected News being brought the Prince by Seymour together with the Ordinance for his Fathers Tryal he was thereby surprized with so much Passion and Amazement to see their Oaths of Allegiance Covenants Protestations and Treaties for Peace conclude in Paricide and Murder that he knew not how to contain himself until he began to consider with himself that Passion must not be suffered to disturb reason in such an exigency of affairs wherein its consultations were to be imployed in the weighty business of saving a Father a King and three Kingdoms and that it became him therefore to give himself rather to discreet Advice and Council than to sullen grief It being more Princely and Heroick to prevent the mischief than either to be angry at it or revenge it when it was done And in order thereunto he solicits Spain France Holland and the Scots to interpose themselves in his Fathers behalf who accordingly by their respective Embassadors and Messengers did mediate for his Life offering themselves together with the English Peers to become Pledges for him But the Barbarous Juncto were inexorable their guilt having made them so desperate that they thought themselves no otherwise safe from former mischiefs committed by them but by perpetuating a far greater and unparallel'd wickedness those Monsters of Men hurrying his Majesty from the Isle of Wight to bring him to his Tryal as tho they had designed to explain to the wandring World the meaning of that Riddle which was contained in their pretence of defending him whilst they fought against him Being unjustly condemned by the pretended high Court of Justice set up by the Juncto for his Tryal to lose his sacred Head he did upon the near approach of his death take care with good Hezekiah to set his House in order giving charge concerning the same to the Dutch Embassador with whom he was as private as the rudeness of the Souldiers would permit him For the most part of the Saturday in the Afternoon ordering him to carry his Blessing to his Son and deliver him such Instructions as equally declare the greatness of our loss in him and our happiness in his Successor whose actions were always steered according to them wherein he breathed more like an Angel than a Man or at least as one then already entred upon the confines of Eternity and within view of Immortality and Perfection as you may perceive by the Instructions themselves which are as follow Son if these Papers with some others wherein I have set down the private reflections of my Conscience and my most impartial thoughts touching the chief passages that have been most remarkable or disputed in my late Troubles come to your hands to whom they are chiefly designed they may be so far useful to you as to state your Judgment aright in what hath passed whereof a pious use is the best that can be made and they may give you some Directions how to remedy the present and prevent future Distempers This advantage of Wisdom you have above other Princes that you have begun and now spent some years of discretion in the the experience of Trouble and the exercise of Patience wherein Piety and all other Virtues both Moral and Political are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter than in warmth and serenity of times or amidst those delights which usually attend Princes Courts in time of Peace and Plenty which are prone either to root up all Plants of true Virtue and Honour or to be contented only with some Leaves or withering Formalities of them without any real Fruit such as tend to the publick good for which Princes shall always remember they are born and by Providence designed The Evidence of which different Education the Holy Writ affords us in the contemplation of David and Rehoboam the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other softened by the unparallell'd Prosperity of Solomon's Court and so corrupted both for Peace Honour and Kingdom by those Flatteries which are as inseparable from prosperous Princes as Flies are from Fruit whom adversity like cold Weather driveth away I had rather you should be Charles Le bon than Le grand good than great I hope God hath designed you to be both having so early put you upon that exercise of his Gifts and Graces bestowed upon you which may best weed out all vicious Inclinations and dispose you to those princely Endowments and Employments which will most gain the love and intend the welfare of those over whom God shall place you With God the King of Kings I would
Rights which none but such Monsters as themselves would unjustly detain from so great and so good a Prince Wherefore being deeply sensible of their danger they prepare for War but whether it should be Offensive or Defensive was yet a question among them But at last considering that if there must be a War it had ever been a Maxim among the greatest Politicians that it was most prudent to make the Enemies Country the Seat of it They resolved upon an Offensive War hoping that Scotland would quickly be weary of maintaining two Armies since it had so much ado to keep one And that since they were informed their Levies went on flowly they thought that their Forces which were already on Foot might easily go and surprize them before they lookt for them or were half ready to entertain them In order whereunto Cromwel being called out of Ireland was in great state made Captain General of all their Forces raised or to be raised in England Scotland and Ireland The Lord Fairfax who had in him some sparks of Loyalty waving at once that Employment and his own Commission not as some imagine to avoid the hazard of that Expedition for he was one that never turned his back upon danger but because he was unwilling any longer to be subservient to those base and vile Designs which he now began to abhor Whilst these preparations were making in England the King removed from the Hague to Diep in Normandy and from thence to Scheveling from whence after a dangerous Storm and narrow escape of some English Vessels which lay in wait for him he arrived safe at the Spey in the North of Scotland which the Parliament being informed of they sent some Lords to receive and attend him from thence to Edinburgh where he is received by the Parliament and Committee of Estates and Kirk with infinite expressions of Fidelity and Affection the common people like so many Echoes to their Superiors and the whole City sounding nothing but Vive le Roy. But Cromwel being advanced with his Army into Scotland and having been successful in some smaller Encounters and given them a total overthrow at Dunbar they found themselves in a sad and perplexed condition having not only the Enemy raging in the bowels of that Kingdom but being extreamly divided also amongst themselves wherefore they now thought it high time to unite among themselves In order whereunto a general meeting was appointed at St. Johnstons which should consist of King Lords and Commons and the Assembly of the Ministers in which Assembly several Lords formerly in favour with the Kirk were admitted to Commands in the Army and a Liberty to sit in Parliament as Hamilton Lauderdale and others And Major General Massey formerly Governour of Glocester for the Parliament but afterward reconciled to the King was admitted to a Command in the Army And as the perfection of all the Kings Coronation was there resolved upon so that now their wounds began to heal and their breaches to be made up again and it was generally hoped that these Clouds of Division being blown over a serene Sky would immediately follow and the Sun of Prosperity shine on their future proceedings The Parliament of Scotland in pursuance of those resolutions at St. Johnstons having dissolved themselves in order to the Kings Coronation it was performed on the first of January at Schone in as Solemn and Splendid manner as the exigency of the time could bear his Majesty with a great Train of his Nobles and others went first to the Kirk where a Sermon was Preacht by a Scotch Minister whose name was Duglass upon those words then they brought out the Kings Son and put upon him the Crown and gave him the Testimony and made him King and Jehojadah and his Son Anointed him saying God save the King 2 Chron. 23 11. Joined to these words and Jehojadah made a Covenant between all the People and between the King that they should be the Lords People v. 16. Which Sermon being ended he was conducted from his Chair of State which was placed in the Kirk to that erected for his Coronation by the Lord High Constable and the Earl Marshal where being placed he was Proclaimed King by Herald King at Arms and then clad with a Robe of State by the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Steward After which sitting he consented to the National Covenant the Solemn League Covenant Directory and the Catechisms and promised upon his Royal word to perform them so far as he understood them to be agreeable to the Word of God in his own Family in his Kingdom of Scotland and in all his other Dominions as soon as it should please God to restore him thereunto Which being done the Coronation Oath was next read which was Enacted in the first Parliament of King James and is as follows That His Majesty shall maintain that Religion Discipline and Worship that is most agreeable to the Word of God to the best Patrons of Reformation and is against all Heresy Schism Idolatry Superstition and Prophaneness that he should govern the Kingdom by Law and Equity and that he should maintain the just Rights of the Crown and Priviledges of the People After the reading of which Oath he declared with an audible Voice that he did promise in the name of the great God who Lives for ever that he would to the uttermost of his Power endeavour to do the things contained in that Oath Which done Herald King at Arms went to the four corners of the Stage and demanded of the People four times whether they were willing that Charles the Second Son and Heir of Charles the First should be King over them to which the People answered Long live King Charles God Save the King Then the Marquess of Argile Presented him with the Royal Scepter the Earl of Eglington put on the Spurs the Lord High Constable set the Crown upon his Head and the Earl Marshal having unsheathed the Sword put it into his hand to defend the Faith withal which having held a while he delivered it to the Earl of Glencarn to be carried before him Then the Nobility Gentry and Commons of the Kingdom did as in the presence of the Great God that Lives for ever swear Allegiance Fealty and Obedience to him as to their Liege and Soveraign Lord and the whole Ceremony was concluded by an Exhortation of the Minister to his Majesty to the Nobility to the Clergy and to the Commons the sum and substance whereof was in reference to the Covenant which they then lookt upon as the Center from which every Line both of Soveraignty and the Subjects Duty was to be drawn in their respective Circumstances And for a power to perform what he then exhorted them to the assistance of God is invoked by prayer who being Alpha and Omega they made him the first with whom they began and the last with whom they finished So soon as the Crown was set upon his Head he made a
as it was thenceforward called where he could not so much as sit at ease And now supposing himself possest of a hopeful security he desired William to shave him and cut the hair of his head as short on the top of his crown as the Cizers would do it only leaving some about the ears according to the Country mode Carless who stood by told him William was but a mean Barber to which he replied he was no competent Judg of that in regard he was never shaved before He bad William burn the hair which was the only Command he was disobedient to during his whole attendance upon the King for he reserved a good part of it and kept it as a civil Relick with some whereof he afterwards pleasured several persons of Quality Humphry Penderil being on the Saturday following at Shefnil whither he went to pay some Taxes to one Captain Broadeway at whose House he met with a certain Colonel of the Rebels who was then newly come from Worcester in pursuit of the King and being informed that he had been at White-Ladies and that Humphry was a near Neighbour to the place and had some Relations lived in the House he examined him strictly laying before him the penalty of concealing him which was death without mercy and the reward promised for the discovering of him which was 1000 l. certain pay But so fixt was his Loyalty that neither fear of Punishment nor hope of Reward was able to tempt him to a breach of that trust which the King had placed in him and his Relations but he pleaded ignorance and so was dismiss'd And at night acquainted the King with the whole passage at the relating whereof and considering the price set upon his head he look'd somewhat dismay'd as having trusted his Life in the hands of such poor men who might peradventure for such a Sum as that be perverted from their fidelity which Humphry perceiving was extreamly grieved with his rashness in acquainting the King so unadvisedly therewith But Carless assuring him that altho' it was 100000 l. yet he would engage his Soul for their honesty and Humphry backing it with several solemn Protestations he was pretty well satisfied That night Richard's Wife whom he was pleased to call his Dame Joan provided some Chickens for his Supper a Dainty he had not lately been acquainted with and a little Bed put into the secret place for him to lye on some of the Brothers being by turns continually upon duty watching the several Avenues of the House and the Road-way thereby to prevent the danger of a surprise After Supper the Colonel ask'd him What Meat he would please to have provided for the Morrow being Sunday He told him That he could wish they had some Mutton if it might be had which was somewhat difficult in regard it was thought dangerous for William to go to any Market to buy it since his Neighbours all knew he used not to buy any such Meat for his own Diet and so it might have begot a suspicion in them of his having strangers in his House But the Colonel willing to satisfie his Sovereign's desire early on Sunday-Morning repair'd to Mr. William Stanton's Sheep-Coat who renâ—ed some of Boscobel-Ground and having chosen out one of the best Sheep struck him with his Dagger and ordered William to carry him home His Dormitory being none of the best nor his Bed the easiest he got up pretty early on Sunday-Morning and having near the secret place where he lay the conveniency of a Gallery to walk in he was observed to spend some time in his Devotions and after his coming down into the Parlour his Nose fell a bleeding which put them all into a great fright till they were pacified by his telling them it often did so As soon as the Mutton was well cold William cut it up and bringing a Legg of it into the Parlour the King call'd for a Knife and a Trencher and having cut some of it into â—ollops and prick'd them with a Knive's point call'd for a Frying Pan and very artificially cook'd them himself of which when they were ready he eat very heartily the Colonel in the mean time officiating as the Under-Cook which he look'd upon as a great Honour too making the Fire and turning the Collops in the Pan Which Passage being after their safe arrival in France call'd to mind and merrily reflected upon he proposed it as a Problemetical Question Whether Himself or the Colonel were the Master-Cook at Boscobel And the supremacy was judg'd of right to belong to him The other Brothers were in the mean time applied in their several stations either scouting abroad to learn Intelligence or upon some other necessary Service But it so pleased God that although the Soldiers had some Intelligence of his Majesty's having been at White-ladies and knew that he was gone thence yet they never search'd the House nor that of Boscobel He spent some part of that Lord's day in reading in a pleasant Arbour he met withal in Boscobel-Garden planted upon a Mount wherein there was a stone Table and Seats about it which he very much commended for its retiredness And having understood by John Penderil that the Lord Wilmot was at Mr. Whitgrave's House he sent him thither to let him know he was well and would come himself to Mosely that night But when John came to Mosely he was removed from thence to Bently at which he was very much troubled but however acquainted Whitgrave and Mr. Huddleston who was then there that the King was returned to Boscobel and with the ill accommodation he had there whereupon they both resolved to go with him to Bently where the Lord Wilmot appointed to meet them and the King in a little Grove of Trees not far from Whitgrave's House about Twelve or One of the Clock that Night and ordered John to return again to Boscobel and acquaint the King therewith who having not yet recovered his late foot Journey to Madeley was not able without a Horse to Travel to Mosely wherefore it was concluded that he should ride upon Humphry's Mill-horse he being the Miller of White-ladies Mill which was taken up from grass and not accoutred with rich Trappings or such gaudy Furniture as would have becom'd so great a King but with a sorry old Saddle and a worse Bridle When he was ready to mount Carless being so well known in that Country that his attendance would in all probability have proved rather a disservice than any advantage to him he humbly took his leave of him heartily praying for his constant preservation with which excuse he was so well pâ—eas'd that he afterward gave him by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of England by the Name of William Carlos which in Spanish signifies Charles an honourable Coat of Arms bearing an Oak proper in a Field Or a Fess-Gules charged with Three Regal Crowns of the Second and for his Crest a Civice Crown with a Sword and Scepter
of Kelkhampton in Cornwell a living of about three hundred pound per Annum which he had freely bestowed on him without any other design therein than only to oblige him to serve his King and Country whenever he had occasion to employ him in any thing that might tend to both their Good having even then an eye to the General in Scotland to whom he was Brother which contrivance the King very well approved of and left the whole management of the business to his secresie and discretion Whereupon he sent for Monk out of Cornwelâ— and having first obliged him to secresie accquainted him with the Kings Commission to treat with his Brother the General and his design of sending him into Scotland to manage that treaty on the Kings behalf and gave him a Commission according to the Kings directions to offer his Brother in case he would undertake that commendable and glorious work of restoring the King to his Crown and Dignity leave to set down his own conditions and assure him that the King had promised upon his Royal word to perform them Monk being fraught with hopes and instructions willingly undertook the happy Embassy embarquing himself immediately for Scotland and having a prosperous gale arrived in a few days at Leith and from thence to Dulkeith where his Brother the General resided And that he might remove all suspition of the design of his coming from those about the General he pretended that the intent of his voyage was only to fetch away his Daughter Mary who at that time lived there in the Generals Family in order to the bestowing her in marriage to her advantage hoping that his Brother would make some conâ—iderable addition to her Fortune But the General being at his first arrival engaged in business could not entertain him himself and therefore sent him under the conduct of an highland Foot-Boy to his Chaplains Chamber which was Dr. Price who received him with that Courtesie that became him in regard of his relation to his Master and so soon as he had made him sit down began to enquire what news he had brought from England about Sir George Booth and the rest of those loyal Gentlemen that were engaged with him to whom Monk made such replies as were suitable to his several questions and then having been assured before he left England of the Dr's faithfulness and loyalty he adventured to acquaint him with the design of his coming thither at that time and desired his directions how he might to be with the greatest advantage to the Kings affairs break that business and open his message from Sir John to the General who thereupon told him that his Brother would expect to be satisfied of his Secresie as well as of his Fidelity before he would engage himself in such a hazardous affair as that was since it was necessary that a business of that importance should sleep in as few Breasts as possible and he might put himself the General and his whole negotiation into a very great hazard should he rely too much upon the Characters given him in England of the secret loyalty of any persons amongst them advising him therefore to make no more such rude and unadvised communications of his Embassy and to acquaint his Brother with his having related it to him assuring â—him for his encouragement that he verily believed that his Brother would willingly embrace any fair overture for the redeeming of his Country from the slavery of the Army His Wife who had always a great love and veneration for the King having prepared him to appear in his behalf when the first opportunity should offer it self and the Soldiers who troubled not their heads much about Religion and abbetting of parties but only fought for their pay having a general love and esteem for him as looking upon him to be a good Soldier and a discreet Commander under whom they might safely engage he might at any time make himself a good party amongst them when he should judge it fit and safe to apppear Mr. Monk having in the Evening an oppportunity to keep private with his Brother acquainted him with the end of his coming and the encouragement proposed by Sir John if he would undertake the work assuring him that he had seen the Kings Commission directed to Sir John for the impowring of him to make those offers wherein he promised upon the word of a King to perform them Which upon mature deliberation he highly approved of and the more because he understood that the Presbyterians and the Lord Fairfax would be engaged with him with whom he ever after maintained a private correspondence and therefore from that time took up a resolution to endeavour his Masters Restauration relying upon the Faith and Integrity of Sir John Greenvile and confiding in the Kings Word as much as if he had actually received a Commission from him for he soon after told his Chaplain that he was resolved to Commission the whole Scatch Nation against the English Parliament and Army rather than suffer himself to be taken or displaced by them although he had at time no other authority to do it by then that airy commission conveyed unto him by word of mouth from Sir John Greenvile who had it in writing from the King And the happy success of that resolution was a great demonstration of the Kings extraordinary prudence and discretion in pitching upon Monk as the fittest person to bring about that blessed and glorious revolution and the wisdom of Sir John Greenvile in employing his Brother rather than any other Person to manage that great and weighty Intreague And being informed that there was a supplication presented to the Rump by Lambert in the name of the Army under his command for the bringing those to punishment who had been actually engaged in or offered any assistance to Booth's Conspiracy and for appointing a General over all their Forces in the three Kingdoms which inquisition had it been made and a sequestration past upon it accrding to their expectation would have yielded them more Wealth then all the former sales of Crown and Church Lands He began to conclude with himself that he should have a fairer opportunity to put his resolutions in practice then he could have reasonably expected for he easily foresaw what was the design and intent of that supplication and was so well pleased with it that he pleasantly told his Chaplain that he perceived he should shortly have a better Game to play than he lookt for when he first engaged himself in the design and that he knew Lambert to be of such a restless and aspiring temper that he would not long suffer the Rump to sit in quiet at Westminster And therefore that he might the better make preparations for his future designs he immediately dispatcht away his Brother to London in character of an Envoy to assure the Rump of his faithfulness and fidelity to them and that he was resolved to stand firm to their Interest
arriving there early that afternoon went to Chattam to see the Soveraign and other Ships of the Royal Navy and returned again in the evening to his Lodgings where he was welcomed by an Address from Gib his Regiment deliver'd to him by the Collonel himself which was graciously accepted and the next Morning being the 29th of May which was his Birth-day he set forward from Rochester the Militia forces of Kent lining the wayes and the Maidens strowing herbs and Flowers and adorning the houses through all the streets he pass'd And being come to Dartford the Officers of the Regiments of Horse presented him with an humble Address wherein they declared their readiness to Sacrifice their Lives in defence of his person Government the Army being drawn up at Black-Heath he there took a view of them and us'd many gracious expressions towards them which were answered by them with loud and joyful Acclamations and the several Regiments being placed in order he advanced toward London and came about one of the Clock to St. Georges Fields where the Lord Mayor and Aldermen who waited there in a Tent to receive him delivered him their Sword which he re-delivered and Knighted Sir Thomas Allen who was then Mayor After a short repast he proceeded into London through Southwark and so from the Bridge to Temple Barr the Streets being Railed on one side with standings for the Liveries and on the other with the Trained bands through which he passed in a splendid and Triumphant manner to White-hall A Troop of about 300 Gentlemen in Doublets of Cloth of Silver led by Major General Brown marcht first brandishing their Swords in token of Triumph being follow'd by another of the like number in Velvet Coats with their Foot-men and Lacquies in Purple Liveries then marcht the Troop led by Coll. Robinson in Buff-Coats with Cloth of Silver sleeves and green Scarves followed by another in blew Liveryes and Silver Lace their Colours being Red fringed with Silver Then marcht a Troop with six Trumpets and seven Foot-men before them in Sea-green and Silver their Colours being pinck fringed with Silver followed by another Troop whose Liveries were gray and blew under the Earl of Northampton having 30 Foot-men Trumpets four their Colours being Sky with Silver fringed Then marcht a Troop in Gray Liveries of about an hundred and five led by the Lord Goring having six Trumpets and Colours of Sky and Silver followed by another of about Seventy After these marcht a Troop of about three hundred Noble-men and Gentry led by Cleveland followed by another of about one hundred with black Colours and after them marcht a Troop of about three hundred Horse led by the Lord Mordant These being all past two Trumpets with his Majesties Arms advanced with the Sheriffs Men being about Seventy-two in number in red Cloaks and Silver-Lace and carrying half Pikes Then followed the Gentlemen that rode out of the several Companies of London with their respective Streamers in Velvet Coats and Gold Chains every Company haing its Footmen with different Liveries being about six hundred After them came a Kettle Drum and five Trumpets followed by twelve Ministers then his Majesties Life-Guard advanced being led by Sir Gilbert Gerrard and Major Rascarrock who were followed by the City Marshal with eight Foot-men and the City Waits and Officers in order and they by the two Sheriffs and all the Aldermen of London in their Scarlet Gowns and Rich Trappings attended with great numbers of Footmen in Red Coats laced with Silver and Cloth of Gold Then followed the Maces and Heralds in their Rich Coats the Lord Mayor bare carrying the Sword and the General and the Duke of Buckingham bare also after whom as the chiefest Ray of Lustre to all this Splendid Triumph rode the King himself between his two Royal Brothers having observed that order all along from the very first overture of his return After them marcht a Troop bare with white Colours then the Generals Life-Guard and another Troop of Gentry and last of all marcht five Regiments of the Army Horse with Back Breast and Head-Pieces which diversified the shew with delight terror This was the manner of his passing through London for it is impossible for the most florid and Ingenious Pen to express those loud Musical and Ravishing Notes of Acclamations and Vive-le-Roy's which then filled the Mouths and charmed the Ears of all his transported Subjects Being in this manner brought to White-hall and the Lord Mayor and Citizens having taken their leave of him he went to the Banqueting House where both Houses of Parliament waited his Arrival and received him with those demonstrations of joy and expressions of Reverence humility that became them The Speakers of each House in elegant Speeches acquainting him with the felicity and happiness they conceived in that happy revolution and the pleasure they took to behold his return in safety and thereby putting an end to that Tyranny and Slavery which his Kingdoms had so long endured He thankt them for their expressions of love and Loyalty and told them that he was so disorder'd by his Journey and with the noise still sounding in his ears which he nevertheless confest to be pleasing to him in regard it exprest the affections of his People that he was thereby unfit to make them such a Reply as he desired adding that the greatest Satisfaction he took in that change was the finding his heart fully set to endeavour by all means the Restoring the Nation to its freedom and happiness which he hop'd by the advice of his Parliament to effect assuring them that next to the honour of God from whom principally he deriv'd his restoration to his Crown he would study the well-fare of his people and not only approve himself a true Defender of the Faith but also a just Assertor of the Laws and Liberties of his Subjects And having taken leave of them he retir'd to Supper and soon after to his rest where it was time for him to find a sweet and sedate repose free from the confus'd noise and clamours of War wherewith he had been for twenty years together strangely toss'd upon the boistrous Waves of fickle and unconstant Fortune On the Friday following he went by Water in the Brigandine which brought him on board the Charles from Holland to the house of Lords the Yeomen of the guard making a lane for him to pass through and the Heraulds at Arms in their Rich Coats the Maces and the Lord General bare-headed going before him As soon as he was seated he commanded the Commons to attend him and having in a short but elegant speech prest them to hasten the Act of oblivion he sign'd several Bills which they had made ready against that time for the Royal assent the First whereof was an Act for the confirmation of that Parliament a second for a Tax of seventy thousand pound per mensem for 3 Months and a third for the continuance of Process and
under the Command of the Earl of Suffolk a smart Skirmish pass'd between them and continued till Ten at Night when it was renewed again by the return of the beaten Companies from the Fort but the English Horse not being able to come up there was not that execution done upon them which otherwise might have been However the Dutch lik'd not that hot Service well enough to abide their coming but as soon as their Boats were afloat embarqued with all haste and returned to their Ships and sailing for the Humber they engaged a Squadron of the English which they found there but being worsted shewed themselves before Portsmouth and made some slight Attempts in Devonshire and Cornwall And after de Ruyter their Admiral had been civily treated in the West by the Earl of Bath and Sir Jonathan Trelawney and received advice that the Peace was concluded they sailed back for Holland This Peace was concluded at Breda upon the twenty first of June in the Year 1667. when the Articles were signed by the several Plenipotentiaries and upon the fourteenth of the following August the Ratifications thereof interchanged the Mediators first bringing the Ratifications and other Instrustruments of the Dutch French and Danes into the English Embassadors Lodgings and received theirs in exchange which done the English Embassadors went into the apartments of the Dutch and their Allies where they made and received the Complements usual in such cases and the Peace was thereupon immediately Proclaimed before the Doors of the several Plenipotentiaries and on the twenty fourth of that Month at the Exchange which was then kept at Gresham Colledge and other places in London But the Foundation of the Royal Exchange in Cornhil being about that time appointed to be laid the King was pleased to shew his readiness to countenance that Work by being present at and assisting in the solemnity thereof with his own Royal hands as his Brother the Duke of York did shortly after who laid the first stone of the second Pillar which Edifice was in a short time finished and is now the most curious Fabrick of that kind in the whole World About this time that wise and useful States-man and Privy-Counsellor Edward Hide Earl of Clarendon and Lord High-Chancellor of England who had always behaved himself with abundance of Loyalty and Faithfulness to his Master as well before as after his Restauration falling into disgrace with the Parliament was forced to abscond and leaving that Office which he had so long managed with advantage to the King and honour to himself retired into France where he lived in a voluntary Exile 'till he died A sort of idle and licentious Persons getting together in the Holy-days at Easter and pretending former custom took the liberty to pull down some Houses of bad repute about the Suburbs of London under the notion of Apprentices yet others being found guilty of it four of them were apprehended Tryed Condemned and Executed and two of their Heads set upon the Bridge for a terror to others Having dispatch'd the Earl of Carlile as his Embassador Extraordinary to the Court of Sweden with which King he always maintained a friendly correspondence he directed a Letter for the Earl when he was at Copenhagen on his way to Sweden to be by him delivered to the King of Denmark in answer to an obliging Letter he had a little before received from him which Letter of the King 's was so acceptable to the Dane that upon the Earl's request he immediately dispatch'd orders to all his Ports and Towns of commerce especially those in Norway for restoring the English to the same Freedom and Priviledges in Trading thither as they had before the War And the Earl upon his arrival in Sweden presented that King with the George worn by the Knights of the Garter and after his having been entertained in that Court with all imaginable respect upon his Masters account and dismiss'd with particular marks of the King of Sweden's favour and testimonies of the acceptableness of his Embassie he was upon his return home solemnly Installed in that Order at Windsor While the King was diverting himself this Summer with the Duke and others of his Nobles in the new Forrest in Hampshire he received the doleful tidings of his Mothers death at Columbe the thirty first of August she being nobly buried in the December following at St. Dennis And to close the publick affairs of this Year the restorer of the Crown to the King and happiness to the Kingdom George Duke of Albemarle and Lord General of all the Kings Land Forces exchanged his temporary Coronet for an Eternal Crown and the King as a mark of Gratitude to the Father sent his Garter to his Son and Successor the present Duke of Albemarle whom he continued in many of his Honours and Preferments promising withall that himself would take care of his Fathers Funeral which he accordingly did and after he had publickly lain in State at Somerset-House for some time caused his Funeral to be solemnized with that Pomp and Splendor that it is verily believed no Subject was ever honoured with the like In the following Spring the King having a great desire to unite Scotland and England into one Kingdom endeavoured to have it accomplish'd by procuring an Act of Parliament in order thereunto and nominating Commissioners for each Kingdom to meet and treat about it But they not being able to agree it was wholly laid aside and came to nothing The King's Wisdom and Conduct being famed throughout all parts of the World like a second Solomon drew to his Court several Foreign Princes to see and admire him And about this time the Prince of Tuscany came upon the same Errand and was by him treated both at London and Windsor with great Respect and Splendour and by several of his Nobles in his Progress through England the chief Cities whereof he was desirous to take a view of after which he departed for Holland and so returned into his own Countrey where not long after besides his splendid Entertainment of the Earl of Northumberland in acknowledgment of the King's Kindness and Affection express'd to him when in England he built and gave to the King two very stout Galleys for a guard of the Coast about Tangier which were of great importance to his Service in those parts But altho' the King was well pleased with this Princes visit yet he shortly after received a more welcome one from his Sister the Dutchess of Orleans who came to Dover to pay him her last Visit and was there entertained by him with as much Affection and Bounty as the time of her stay which was but short would permit Nor was her stay in this World much longer for soon after her return she died suddenly to his unexpressible grief The King being now at peace at home employed his Naval Forces against the Algerines a People that never keep Peace longer than till they can have an opportunity to break
proper to give You under My Hand that I expect this compliance from You and desire it may be assoon as conveniently You can You may easily believe with what trouble I write this to You there being nothing I am more sensible of than the constant kindness You have ever had for Me I hope you are as just to Me to be assured that no absence nor any thing else can ever change me from being truly and kindly Yours and their advantage Telling them moreover that since his Neighbours were making Naval Preparations he thought it necessary still to maintain a Fleet at Sea and that it highly concerned them to provide a constant establishment for the Navy And concluding his Speech with his earnest desires to have that Parliament prove a Healing one assuring them that it was his constant resolution to defend with his Life the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and that he expected in so doing to be by them defended from the Calumny as well as danger of those worst of Men who endeavoured to render both Him and his Government odious to his People Advising them likewise by his Chancellor the Earl of Nottingham not to suffer their Zeal to out-run their Discretion lest by being too far transported with the fears of Popery they over-did their business and by neglecting the opportunities of making sober and lasting Provisions against it render themselves the unhappy occasion of making their own Counsels abortive The Commons as soon as they were returned to their House made choice of Mr. Seymour for their Speaker whom they lookt upon as the fittest Person for that employment in regard he had officiated therein in the former Parliament but the King refusing to admit him they chose Serjeant Gregory And to convince the World that they were Leavened with the same Principles and resolved to thwart the King's Designs for setling the Nations as much as the former had done begun where they ended ordering a Committee to inquire into the manner how Danby had sued out his Pardon which was granted him by the King to secure the Earl for whom he had a particular affection having always found him faithful to his Interest from all fear of Punishment for any pretended Crimes supposing as well he might that they would not dispute his Power of Pardoning since it was by the Law invested on him as one of the chiefest Jewels of his Crown But finding upon search that the Pardon was not entred after its passing at the Secretaries Office in any other Office 'till it came to the Lord Chancellor and so dispatcht in a private manner They Resolve upon an Address to the King to represent to his Majesty the illegality and the dangerous consequence of granting Pardons to any Persons who lay under an Impeachment of the Commons and desired the Lords that he might be sequestred from their House and put into safe Custody who accordingly ordered the Usher of the Black Rod to take him which he had done had he not absented himself Whereupon a Bill was ordered to be brought in to Command his surrendring himself by a certain day or in default thereof to stand attainted And the Lords having in the mean while pass'd a Bill for Banishing and disabling of him and sent it down to the Commons for their concurrence it was rejected as a Censure too favourable and a Vote pass'd for an Address to the King that he would not permit him to reside in any of his Pallaces of White-Hall Somerset-House or St. James's and another Address to be made for a Proclamation to apprehend him and forbid all the King's Subjects to harbour or conceal him In the mean while the Bill of Attainder was highly canvassed at several conferences between the two Houses 'till at length the Earl saved them the labour of passing a Bill for his Attainder by surrendring himself to the Usher of the Black-Rod The Lords in the Tower were at their first Imprisonment found Guilty upon special â—â—dictments by the Grand Jury of Middlesex before special Commissioners sitting at Westminster But that way of proceeding being for some Reasons waved they were severally impeacht by the Commons and their Impeachment carried up to the Peers by Five Members of the House of Commons to which they gave in their Answers in person all but Bellafis who being ill of the Gout sent his in writing The King to content the Faction if possible on the 2d of April declared his pleasure to dissolve his Privy Council with which they had shewed themselves displeased and constitute a new one which for the time to come should consist of Thirty persons Fifteen whereof were to be certain viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London the Lord Chancellor one of the Chief Justices the Admiral the Master of the Ordinance the Treasurer the Chancellor of the Exchequer the Privy Seal the Master of the Horse the Lord Steward the Lord Chamberlain of the Houshold the Groom of the Stool and the Two Secretaries And the rest to be Elective at his pleasure Ten out of the Nobility and Five Commoners besides such Princes of the Blood as should be at Court A Lord President and a Secretary of Scotland And according to that new Model as many of them as were in Court met the next morning in the Council-Chamber and were sworn Privy Councellors The King going the same day to the Parliament acquainted the Two Houses with what he had done and assured them he was resolved in all weighty and important Affairs next to his great Council in Parliament to be advised by that Privy Council And it being his custom as it had been his Fathers before him to take off some hot Spirits whose Parts and Abilities he judged might be improved to his own and the Publicks advantage by promoting them to some Place or Office of Trust or otherwise winning them to his Friendship unless they were such whose Natures corrupted by their designs had rendred obstinate and implacable as the Earl of Shaftsbury afterward appeared to be he for the most part chose the other Fifteen which were to compleat his Council out of their number and made Shaftsbury Lord President of it The Parliament resolving to hasten the Trial of the Lords Danby and Bellaasis appeared in person at the Bar of the Lords House where the former put in his Plea and the other his Answer And the next day Stafford Arundel and Powis appeared there likewise and having retracted their former Pleas which appeared insufficient to the Commons they put in their further Answers And the King commanding the Commons to attend him in the House of Lords renewed the Assurances he had formerly given them of his being ready to assent to any Laws they should provide for the security of the Protestant Religion so that the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line were not thereby defeated And that he was willing a provision should be made to distinguish a Popish from a
thing which would tend to his or the Kingdoms benefit on the 10th of July dissolved it by Proclamation and declared his Resolution to call a new one which should sit on the 17th of the following October In the mean while Sir George Wakeman with Marshall Rumley and Corker three Benedictine Monks were tryed before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs for High Treason relating to the Plot But the Evidence of Oates and Bedlow beginning now to be less credited than formerly and the ferment of peoples fury being somewhat abated the Jury brought them in Not Guilty and Wakeman was thereupon discharged from his Imprisonment as the other Three had likewise been had they not in their Defence upon their Trials acknowledged themselves to be Priests Wakeman's being thus acquitted startled the Mobille who expected all that were accused of that Plot should have been condemned of course without respect to the Truth or Falshood of the Accusation And the Faction endeavoured to improve their dissatisfaction into Rage and Sedition by several scurrilous Libels wherein they accuse Scroggs of perverting Justice and taking a Bribe of several thousand Guinneas from the Spanish Embassador to save Wakeman's Life from which Aspersions he sufficiently cleared himself in a Speech which he made in the Kings-Bench-Court on the first day of the ensuing Michaelmas-Term During this interval of Parliament the King was violently taken ill of an Ague at Windsor insomuch that his Life was thought to be in some danger Whereupon the Duke as well to demonstrate his Affection to his Brother as to prevent the danger which as things then stood might peradventure have happen'd to him in case the King should have died in his absence came Post from Flanders to Windsor But Heaven designing to lengthen out his Life till he had reduced the great Affairs of the Nation to a better Settlement and could leave his Succession more safe and secure it pleased God that he recovered his Health soon after to the great Joy of all the whole Nation And the City to express the pleasure they took therein sent the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen with a Train of thirty Coaches and about a hundred Horse to Congratulate him upon his Recovery and when he returned soon after to White-Hall many Bonefires were made throughout the whole City attended with great Acclamations of Joy and Expressions of Loyalty Whilst he lay Sick at Windsor the Duke of Monmouth who had been by the Kings favour raised to as high a Station as a Subject was well capable of being then Lord General of all His Majesties Land Forces Master of the Horse and Captain of the Kings Life-Guards not content with the Honours already heaped upon him but aspiring as was thought altho without all Reason in regard of his Illegitimacy to the Crown it self endeavoured to prevail with some great Men at Court to take part with his Interest which being made known to the King by the Earl of Oxford who having for his eminent Loyalty a considerable party of Horse under his Command commonly called the Lord of Oxfords Troop was importuned by Sir Thomas Armstrong as was reported either in direct terms or so as his meaning might easily be understood to declare himself for Monmouth in case the King should dye He conceived a just Indignation against him for that bold and audacious Attempt and discovered his incensed Majesty by taking away his Commission of Lord General and soon after of his remaining places of Captain of the Life-Guard Master of the Horse Governor of Hull c. And to prevent Peoples being deluded by his Chimeâ—ical Fictions publisht a Declaration wherein having first taken notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith men of seditious and restless Spirits spread abroad a most false and scandalous Report of a Marriage or Contract of Marriage at least between Mrs. Walters who was that Dukes Mother and him designing thereby to fill the minds of his loving Subjects with doubts and fears and divide them if possible into Parties by bringing into question the clear and undoubted Right of his true and lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown he did to obviate the fatal consequences so dangerous and malicious a report might have in future times upon the Peace of his Kingdoms assure them That having found a former Rumor that there was a writing yet extant and lately produced before several Persons whereby that Marriage or Contracâ— at least would appear was not only revived again but improved also witâ— new Additions by insinuating thaâ— several Lords and others were yet living who were pretended to bâ—â— present at the Marriage hâ— had notwithstanding he knew fuâ—â— well it was impossible there should bâ— any truth in this Report since noâ—â— thing in the World could be morâ— false and groundless than the pretencâ— of such a Marriage or Contract bâ—â—tween him and the said Mrs. Walterâ— alias Barlow called before him anâ— caused to be Interogated in Council such Lords and other Persons as the common rumour surmised to have been present at the pretended Marriage or to know something of it or of the said writing And that tho it then appeared to all his Council upon their hearing the said Persons severally Interrogated and their denial to have been ever present at any such Marriage or to know any thing of it or of any such writing that the raising and spreading that Report which was so inconsistent with it self was the effect of deep malice in some few and of loose and idle discourse in others yet he thought it requisite for the satisfying all in general to publish a Declaration he had made in the January was Twelvemonth written with his own Hand in the following words There being a false and malicious Report industriously spread abroad by some who are neither Friends to me or the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been either Contracted or Married to his Mother and tho I am confident that this idle Story cannot have any effect in this Age yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this nature to declare as I do here Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I never was Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to my Wife Queen Katharine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof he had set his Hand at White-Hall the 6th of January 1678-79 In the Presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Secretaries Coventry and Williamson And assured them that to strengthen that Declaration he had in the March following made a more publick and solemn Declaration to the same purpose in his Privy Council written likewise with his own Hand and had caused a true Transcript thereof to be entred into the Council Book which for the better Confirmation he Signed with his own hand and caused the Lords
Petition wherein the King is charged with obstructing the Justice of the Nation by proroguing the last Parliament Whether these were sufficient grounds of seizing their Liberties were argued Pro Con first by the Solicitor General and the Recorder of the City and then by the Attorney General and Mr. Pollixfen And Judg Jones the Lord Chief Justice being then sick having summ'd up all the proceedings in a very significant and solid Speech gave Judgment upon it and declared it to be the unanimous Opinion of that Court That the Liberties and Franchises of the City of London should be seized into the King's hands But Judgment was not entred up in regard the King had expresly commanded that should not be done till his pleasure was further known The City now finding the King was in earnest and that their Charter was condemned by Law began to think of humbling themselves at his feet and sue for Mercy And therefore at a Common-Council call'd for that purpose a Petition was ordered to be drawn up and presented to him at Windsor where he then was in which they acknowledg their hearty and unfeigned sorrow for the misgovernment of that City which had occasioned the Quo Warranto to be brought against them and Judgment to be past thereupon And thankfully acknowledged his great Favour in not requiring Judgment to be immediately entred thereon in which distressed condition they humbly cast themselves at his Royal Feet imploring his Princely Compassion and Grace begging his pardon for all Offences with most solemn promises and assurances of constant Loyalty and Obedience to him and his Successors and of a Regular Administration of his Government in that City for the future humbly begging his Commands and Directions therein This Petition was carried and presented by the Mayor and several Loyal Aldermen and Citizens Upon the Receipt whereof the Lord Keeper by the King's Command declared That for the sakes of so many of the present Magistrates and other Eminent Citizens who were of undoubted Loyalty and Affection to his Service he would show the City all the Favour they could reasonably desire if they would submit to such Regulations as he thought necessary forthe assuring the Loyalty and preserving the Peace of that City viz. That no person should be admitted to be Mayor Sheriff Recorder Common Serjeant Town-Clerk or Coroner of London or Steward of Southwark before they were approved by him under his Sign Manual And that after he had Twice disapproved the Mayor whom they should present to him he might if he pleased nominate one himself and so also for the Sheriff the Election being nevertheless to be still continued according to the ancient Customs and Usages of the City with some small Restrictions only then specified which gracious Offer was accepted by a Common-Council assembled on the 20th of June where the Question being propounded it was carried in the Affirmative by the Majority of Eighteen Voices And now came to light one of the basest and vilest pieces of Treachery that was ever hatcht in the World which seemed to point out and explain whereto the Bill of Exclusion and the Treacherous Association tended For those Factious and Designing Wretches having failed of accomplishing their Designs by those specious pretences resolved to attempt that by force which they now found they could not effect by Fraud and therefore entred into a Damnable Plot and Conspiracy to Murder the King and His Brother and alter the Government To effect which they had at several Treasonable Consultations resolved to Levy men and make an Insurrection For the management whereof they made choice of a Council of Six that were to direct and order the chief matters relating thereunto viz. the Duke of Monmouth the Earl of Essex the Lord Howard the Lord Russel Mr. Hambden and Collonel Sidney Besides which there was another Council of more Inferior persons whose business was to consult chiefly about the Assassination of the King and the Duke The King and the Duke being both at Newmarket they resolved to prevent their ever coming to London again by cutting them both off in their return To which end West by the appointment of the rest had provided several Musquets and other Arms which were to have been sent down to a House call'd the Rye inhabited by one Rumball about three Miles beyond Hodsden which was lookt upon as the most convenient place for that monstrous and hellish design in regard therewas by the house a narrow passage through which the King usually came when he went to and from Newmarket so that it would have been hard for him to have escaped But Heaven having preserved him from the many former Attempts of Men of the like Principles and disdaining that Hell should frustrate its designed blessings to these Nations as well in the remainder of his Reign as in his next Successors by cutting off its Principal Favourite resolved to render former Mercies the more compleat and full by adding a new one to their Number no less apparent and visible than his Preservation in the Oak had been And therefore a Fire which hapned there and consumed the greatest part of the Town forced him to return sooner than they expected and before they were ready for him whereby they were disappointed of their Barbarous Purpose and not a little confounded at the Strangeness of the Thing which altho it appeared at first sight to be purely accidental yet afterward was generally lookt upon to fall out by the special designation of Divine Providence But notwithstanding this remarkable disappointment and the consternation which at first seized them upon the news of it they still went on with their Plot and consulted about some other Time and Place for their Assassination But before they could bring their distracted Counsels to any conclusion Providence spoiled their Plot For one of the Conspirators whose Name was Keeling being convinced of the Wickedness of the design through the care of Heaven to prevent it by the remarkable Fire at Newmarket was so terrified that he could not rest till he had made a discovery of it Whereupon West a Councellor of the Temple was apprehended and a Proclamation issued out for the declaring Rumsey Rumball Nelthrop Wade Goodenough Wallcot Thompson Burton and Hone Traytors offering 100 reward to any that should discover them and another against Monmouth Grey Armstrong and Ferguson Rumsey the Lord Russel Essex Collonel Sidney Mr. Hambden the Lord Howard Walcot Rouse Hone and some others were taken but the rest made their escape beyond the Seas The Lord Grey indeed was taken but being after Examination by the King and Council committed to the Tower he found means to make his escape out of the Coach just as he came almost at the Tower Gate having made Deering the Messenger who had him in Charge so drunk as it was reported that he fell fast asleep and left him wholly unguarded The Lord Russel and Collonel Sidney were beheaded and Walcot Rouse and Hone
City and Suburbs for the Relief of many Thousand miserable Wretches who would otherwise have perished and to encourage others to so needful a charity by his own example ordered several great Sums of Money to be issued out of his Treasury for that Purpose On the 23d of January being the first day of Hillary Term the Lawyers went over the Ice to Westminster and back again as familiarly as on the Land some on Foot and others in Coaches and there was for above a fortnight together a Fair or Mart kept between the Temple and that part of Southwark which is opposite to it This Year Vienna the Imperial City of Germany was closely besieged and greatly distressed by the Turks who brought it to the very last extremity but were then beaten off and forced to raise their siege by the Blessing of God upon the Valour of the King of Poland and the Duke of Lorrain in which Action the Lord Landsdown Eldest Son to the Earl of Bath behaved himself with so much Valour that he was afterward as a Reward of his Courage created a Count of the Sacred Empire And Tangier having cost the King abundance of Treasure to defend it against the Moors and make the Mole there he now resolved in regard the charges were so very great and the Expectation of Advantage very uncertain to relinquish it and therefore ordered the Lord Dartmouth to repair thither wih about 20 sail of Ships and demolish the Town Castle and Mole choak up the Haven to render it useless to any who might otherwise have thought the Town worth rebuilding and bring off the Inhabitants which was done accordingly About the middle of February 1684. was the Earl of Danby after a long and tedious Imprisonment admitted to Bail by the Eminent and Loyal Sir George Jeffrys who succeeded Sir Edward Sanders in the Lord Chief Justiceship of England all the Judges of the Kings-Bench having first given their several opinions about it and delivered their Reasons why he ought to be bailed and the other four Lords one of them viz. Peters being dead sometime before having just before his Death in a Letter to the King denied upon his Salvation his being any way Guilty of what he stood accused of being within the like Reasons were admitted to the like advantage and so was the Earl of Tyrone who had been almost as long a Prisoner in the Gate-house as they had been in the Tower The King having about the Year 81 appointed under him certain Deputies or Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Offices viz. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London the Lord Radnor Hallifax Hide and Mr. Seymor to whom he delegated his Power to dispose of all such Ecclesiastical Preferments as were within his immediate Patronage was pleased this Year to revoke their Commission and take those preferments again into his own immediate disposal as likewise a commission formerly granted to several Persons to execute the Office of Lord High Admiral of Eugland which was now again fully enjoyed and exercised by his Royal Highness Acts of Hostility being this Spring-fiercely pursued between the French and Spaniards by Sea and Land he commanded by Proclamation that being at Amity with both those Nations the Peace should be kept inviolably by them whilst they were in any Roads Creeks and Ports of his Dominions and that his Commanders and Officers should oppose themselves against those who should presume to assault any of the Ships of his Allies in any of his Roads or Places under his Protection Oates the Salamanca Doctor and Plot-Master-General not content with having falsly charged his Royal Highness the Kings only Brother and Heir with divers base and improbable Stories as tho he had plotted with the Papists against the King his Brother suffered his Spleen to boil to such an exorbitant degree that he saucily and impudently abused him with base and scurrilous Language calling him Traytor declaring That he hoped to see him hang'd with divers horrid devilish and abominable Expressions The Dukes patience not being easily provoked bore long with him but finding that forbearance did but render him more bold and increase his malignity at last he brought his Action of Scandalnm Magnatum against him upon which he was arrested at the Amsterdam Coffee-house on the back-side of the Royal Exchange and carried to Woodstreet Compter and from thence removed by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench and having let Judgment go in the next Term by default a Writ of Enquiry was issued out and executed before the Lord Chief Justice in the Kings-Bench Court when the Jury upon hearing the Evidence to shew their detestation of such an unheard of impudence gave 100000 Damages The Hambrough Company out of Gratitude for some great Favour received from the King did this Spring erect a most elaborate and curious Statue of him in Gray Marble in the very middle or Center of the Royal Exchange cut by Mr. Grinlin Gibbons the most Famous Statuary that England ever produc'd and equal if not superior to the best at this Time in Europe in the Garb and Habit of a Roman Caesar It was placed upon a curious Pedestal made of the same Marble upon which was the following Inscription Carolo II Caesari Britanico Patriae Patri Regnum optimo Clementissimo Augustissimo Generis Humani Deliciis Vtriusque fortunae Victori Pacis Europae Arbitro Maris Domino Vindici Societas Meâ—catorum Adventur Angliae Quae per CCCC jam prope Annos Regia Benignitate floret Fidei Intemerata Gratitudinis Aeternaâ— Hoc Testimonium Venerabunda posuit Anno sal Humanae MDCLXXXIV The Council sitting on the 28th of May at Hampton Court as it used frequently to do when he was at Windsor as the most convenient place for his coming to it he told them that he thought it fit and did intend his Brother should be present at the Meetings of the Council who accordingly took his Seat that Day and ever after during his Brothers Life And in October following the King made a Review or Muster of his Land-Forces upon Putney Heath where there was a most gallant Military Appearance the Horse consisting of the Three Troops of Guards the Granadeers the Earl of Oxford's Regiment of Horse and the Lord Churchels Regiment of Dragoons and the Foot of two Battalians formed and the Regiment of Guards with their Granadeers one from the Coldstream Regiment of Guards and Granadeers one from the Earl of Dumbartons Regiment and another from the Admiral Regiment with their Granadeers the whole Number of Horse and Foot between 4000 and 5000 being all exactly trained and well cloath'd most of the Horse march'd in the morning in Gallant Order through the Streets of London and so over the Bridg to Putney This Michaelmas Terms several Factious Persons were convicted of speaking scandalous and seditious Words against the Government for which one Best commonly call'd the Protestant Hop-Merchant was fined 1000 l. and ordered to stand in the Pillory
he for an Universal grief possest the minds of all men and like a Cloud suddenly spread it self over the whole Nation upon the arrival of that doleful Tidings He died in the Fifty fourth Year of his Age after he had reigned Thirty six Years and some few days leaving his Kingdom which he found almost ruin'd with a bloody and unnatural War in a state of Tranquility and Peace Which as it magnifies the happiness of his Subjects by comparing their present felicity with their past Troubles so it lays the highest obligation imaginable upon them for ever to entertain the sacred Memory of his Name with the greatest Love and Veneration His redâ—cing a People plnnged and almost â—wallowed up in confusion into a quiet not to be expected and scarcely to be hoped for and asswaging by his incomparable Prudence a Faction blown up into atempestuous flame more violent and deaf than either the Winds or the Seas rendred him the most Glorious and Admired Prince and his Subjects the most happy People in Christendom and therefore in what Words or rather with what Deeds can they ever expect to express a Gratitude any way equal to his merits Statues of Marble and tryumphal Arches may indeed be an acknowledgment of our Veneration but these are Trifles too mean to discharge our debt and therefore all true Englishmen shall raise him a more lasting Monument by entombing him in their Hearts and expressing their love to their Dead Sovereign by their unfeigned Loyalty to their Living One our present Gracious King and Governour James the Second who immediately upon his Death succeeded to his Throne For Nature is not more careful to prevent a Dissolution of being than the Constitution of England to prevent an Inter-Regnum of Government so that the same minute which seems to threaten the involving our Isle in Darkness and Confusion by the setting of one really revives our dying-hopes and dispels our sable Clouds by the rising of another Sun for whom I shall pray as the Israelites did for King Solomon That God by whom alone Kings reign and have their Governments Crown'd with Peace and Felicity may pour upon him the Blessings of Heaven in as great a measure as upon his Royal Predecessor and make his Throne greater than the Throne of our late Sovereign Lord King Charles and grant him long to Live and Reign over us in Peace and Tranquility His Funeral was privately Solemniz'd on the 14th of February with as much Decency and Splendor as the greatness of the Sorrow for his Death would permit His Corps being convey'd sometime before to the Painted Chamber in the Palace at Westminster was carried from thence to the Abby-Church under a Velvet Canopy born by Gentlemen of the Privy-Chamber the Pall being supported by six Earls The proceedings begun with the Servants of the Nobility Their Royal Highnesses the King and Queen the Queen Dowager and His own after whom followd the Barons Bishops and others of the Nobility according to their respective Degrees together with the great Officers and the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury His Royal Highness the Prince of Denmark was chief Mourner supported by the Dukes of Somerset and Beaufort in the Collors of the Order as were all the rest of the Knights of the Garter then present and his Train born by the Lord Cornbury The Assistants to the chief Mourner were sixteen Earls The Crown and Cushion was carry'd by one of the Kings of Arms The rest of the Heraulds and their Officers Attending and Directing the Ceremony which was clos'd with His Majesties Band of Gentelmen-Pensioners and the Yeomen of the Guard As soon as they entred the Church the Dean and Prebends of Westminster with the whole Quire met the Body and went before it to Henry the Sevenths Chappel where it was interr'd in a Vault under the East end of the South Isle THUS have I endeavour'd to present the World with a Brief draught of the Life of this most Excellent King from the Time of his Birtâ— to the never-enough lamented and most deplorable Murder of his Royal Father and of his Reign from that Time until the hour of His Death And having now traced him through all the stupendious Labyrinths and wonderful Revolutions of His Life to his exchanging a Crown of Gold for one of Glory I shall close my History with his Character A Character which were I able therein to represent him to the Life and give him his Just and deserved Praise would not be parallel'd in Ancient and remain a Wonder to all succeeding Generations But his Perfections were so sublime and rare that my Representatious of him will no more bear Proportion to his real worth than the twinkling Figure of the Sun shining in the Water wherein he views himself as in a Looking-Glass is adequate to the Greatness of that real body of Fire and Light whereby he claims the Regency of Heaven This Monarch as to his Person was of a tall and goodly Stature and so exactly form'd that the most curious and penetrating Eye after the exactest Scrutiny could not discern the least Error in his Shape his Countenance very Majestical His Person and the Visage of his Face rather Grave than Severe being very much softned whenever he spake His Complection somewhat dark but much enlighten'd by the brightness of his Eyes that were quick and sparkling His Hair which before he wore a Peruke in great plenty was of a shining black not frizled but naturally Curling into large Rings and very Ornamental But as the Jewel is more valuable than the Casket that contains it so the perfections of his Mind did much exceed those of his Body if we can allow the same Man any Preheminence over himself in respect whereof he seemed to be a perfect Miracle of Art and Nature having in the Mysteries of Both a most capacious and profound Knowledg or one of the best sort of Wonders both in respect of his Virtues and his Fortune a Wonder to Wise men who admired his vast Parts a Wonder to His Enemies who admir'd at His Preservation from their Snares a Wonder to his Friends that admired at the Adversity of his Fortune and the Patience wherewith he endur'd it a Wonder to the World which admired the strangeness of His Restoration and were astonish'd to see him notwithstanding there was at that Time an Army on Foot to keep him out which had been flush'd with so many Victories and as it were by Prescription was able to beat the World or at least had Courage and Confidence enough to attempt it return without spilling one drop of Blood or having an Hand held up against him to oppose his Entrance He had been himself a Sufferer and had thereby learnt to Govern his Subjects with Moderation He had been in Misery and that taught him to be Merciful He had been unjustly dealt with and that made him the more careful to see right done to all men His Justice and measure his
have lived long enough Others Now they ought rather to live longer Traitors themselves drink the King's Health heartily They admire him more that he wou'd not than that ever he should be in a possibility to revenge himself and that he shou'd remember Injuries only to forgive them Let him ascend and there was a due Majesty restor'd to the Throne Authority to the Laws Reverence to inferior Magistrates and the sacred Order of Bishops to Religion like a Treasure found from a Ship-wrack after many Years rouling in a tempestuous Sea Thus terminating all publick differences and confusions by Peace he adorn'd Peace it self with good Arts which receiv'd both their Countrey with him and their Protection under him by his opening the Temple of Janus and that of the Muses at the same time For himself had as great a Knowledg in Letters as any Prince in Christendom and he most acurately understood Navigation Astronomy and most parts of the Mathematicks An huge delight he took in conversing freely with the most knowing Men in those pleasant and useful Studies And he endeavour'd to promote them as much as possible in others by publick Endowments and Liberal Rewards Besides this severer sort of Notices he had a great insight into all those softer Arts which become a private Gentleman And in his Reign we may say That Wit did first reign here and appear'd upon the Stage as on a Throne It was scarcely more encourag'd and environ'd with greater Pomp and Splendor at Rome under the peaceable Reign of Augustus after that long Civil War wherein the Sword would permit nothing else to be sharp besides it self Tho he had as much Good-Nature as wou'd perhaps have serv'd an Hundred other Men a Word peculiar to our English Tongue and a Thing peculiar to this Prince as the Great Chancellor remark'd yet he was observed to take an extream delight in that Part of Poesy which is not very famous for Good Nature I mean Satyr Doubtless this sort of Writing is the best and most beneficial of all others which the Poets follow for it not only tells Mankind of but it chastises them for their Faults And I wonder that the Ancients when they bestowed so many several kinds of Poetry to the Favour and Influence of so many Muses they could not find in their hearts to allow one Goddess to Satyr But whatever unkindness it finds in Heaven I am sure in our Age it has found Protection upon earth witness the great good Offices the French King hath done it in the Person of Boileau For that Prince is not like Alexander of a Spanish stamp and Complexion so wholly transported with the Giddiness of Romantick Stories as that he cannot dream of conquering the World without having Homer for his Bed-fellow but what he reads is good sense and honest Nature without any vain and extravagant additions And this he does in imitation of his Late Majesty who was the oldest and by consequence the most exemplary Prince in the Christian World tho under far worse Circumstances For the latter was much better capacitated through his extensive Knowledg in Nature and the Intricacies of Matter and Motion as well as in all Polite Learning and I think I shou'd do no man an Injury if I say he understood Butler the best in England How Good and Gracious a Master he was You MY LORDS can best declare Ye knew him the most searching Judg of Men that held in his hands both rewards and punishments In the last indeed he was very sparing and the offending Courtier was usually excus'd before hand very seldom to be excus'd The Punishment he thought was sufficient in the very Vexation of the Delinquent Warily and by Degrees his Rewards were distributed that there might still be a further Prospect in view by way of Encouragement For nothing conduces more to following Honours than the former well administred And never at one leap was any supreme place conferred unless for some Transcendent and as I may call it supernatural piâ—ce of Loyalty Our Noblesse he both preserved and augmented lest the condition of such should be worse as deserved to have a Noble Posterity than of such as had Noble Ancestors Not a Soldier was there that had received Wounds in his Service but he counted and rewarded them in an ample manner And thorough all succeeding Ages He will be a Benefactor as well as an example to Soldiers at Chelsea where as long as we shall have a Country to Defend or an Enemy to Combate His Name will be evermore remembred for what is bestow'd upon Posterity ought to be Immortal You likewise MY LORDS can give the best Attestation to his Offices of Privacy and his great Virtues of Humility and Condescention which yet had a kind of Majestick Royalty with them Ye remember him when he was in Exile and as a private man how he resembled a King and how whilest a restored Monarch and in his most illustrious days he seem'd to be a private Citizen That in his greatest Prosperity he had not the least Haughtiness nor Elation of Mind but being secure of his own greatness was not afraid of degrading himself into the likeness of a Subject Ye know how much time he bestow'd on the cares of Empire how much on the Duties of Devotion Philosophy and Vertue how short his Sleeps and the unbendings of his mind were A smart walk a mouthful of fresh Air and a little ingenious raillery Such a Prince must needs be no less lov'd than admir'd The Affection and Reverence of his Subjects wou'd stand him instead of terror His own Virtue wou'd serve him for a Guard and his Sword rather for Ornament than Defence But what Charms can withstand the Ingratitude and Malice of accursed and diabolick Rebels Against his Sacred Life we had a Salamanca-Plot wherein the Sufferers seem'd to be more choqu'd at the Injustice of the Evidence than at the severity of the Sentence They seem'd to bear all magnanimously and with the bravery of Innocence And with good reason might they do so since they had for a Co-partner in Dishonour which to her was worse than Death the most Pious and Virtuous Princess that England ever deserv'd to see We had likewise a most hellish Fanatick Conspiracy the Discovery of which discover'd ALL. Then Heaven began to look kindly down upon us and withdraw its Plagues especially that great Egyptian Darkness wherewith we had been blinded And the Froggs and Vermine which were got into the Royal Bed-Chambers found it high time to recede Then the Delatores began to fear as much as they were fear'd before And the Laws were now more dreaded than perjur'd Schismaticks Then Sham-Magistrates put off their consulary Honours and public Spoils And the King of England became first LORD OF LONDON Which City while he restrain'd its Liberties he rendred more free But here MY LORDS we come to a full point and here ye must take your leave of him For when he had
run thorough all the violences of a tumultuary Life when he had escap'd all these dangers of impious and unreasonable men when he now had establish'd His Throne in Safety Peace and Righteousness and as we may properly say just now began to enjoy himself and you him behold He is taken away from you Who can forbear complaining of the uncertain Estate and frail Condition of human kind when neither the most inestimable riches and un-perishing Graces of the mind nor the most enlarged Extremities of Glory and Greatness spreading on the one hand towards the War-like Thunder or on the other towards the Peaceful Scepter nor even the hearty and united Prayers of a Virtuous People cou'd impart Efficacy enough to make one Person immortal or should be able to hinder the disunion of one Soul from a Body That he who had his youthful Years try'd by the Austerity of a gloomy Fate and had avoided so many Parliamentary tricks laid â—or His Life and being the true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did almost Suffer Martyrdom with his Father Who in that Fatal day of Worcester differed only from the common Soldiers in courage and Eminence rejoicing as oft as the Bullets graz'd upon His Helmet or Buckler Who in his Flight thence like another Aeâ—eas envelop'd in a Cloud by his Mother pass'd through all the amazing Maeanders of Providence vvhile Posterity shall come â—o see and shevv their Children the Cottage vvhere he râ—bb'd off his Martial Dust and the sacred Tree vvherein he lay hid That he vvho at his Restoration â—as stil'd the English Titus The â—elight of Mankind and the onâ—â— Restorative to a Nation so long opprest by Civil War who afterwards reach'd the utmost Degrees of Fame by staining the English Seas so often with his Victories and encreasing the Armory in the Tower That he who was the Supreme Arbiter of Life and Death and Europe's Moderator who when moved the World was mov'd and when quiet it was still And who if he had lived an hundred Years the People would never have been tired with his Government should dye like one of us But let this be our Consolation that when ordinary men dye they dye but when a Good Prince expires it is not his Death but his immediate Apotheosis he presently flies to the Kingdom of Heaven and there reigneth for evermore as also here by his example exchanging a Temporal for an Eternal Crown of Glory Lest therefore we should seem to repine at his happiness let us no longer think two Eyes too few to pay the Tribute of our Tears and bedew his Ashes withal Let not every Subject weep as if it were at his Fathers Funeral not only something of his own Accord but more out of Instinct and the command of Nature Let not this one Spectacle be as hideous and doleful as that of Xerxes numerous Army Let not the Maps of the whole Earth in proportion to the dimensions of his Fame be hung in Black Let not that colour be the Livery of Mens Souls as well as their Bodies any longer And let not the very Graces and Joy it self weep any more Neither let the expressions of our sorrow be as abundant as our sorrovv it self in regard he himself took the greatest care imaginable in his Life-time that we should not lament his Death and that he should not be miss't but has left us not only a Successor but in a manner the Partner and Companion of his Throne and which is above all his Dearest Friend so that we have not lost but only chang'd a Gracious Soyereign in whom we find so many God-like Perfections that we shall never be tempted to adore the Former now since his translation and pay Religious Worship to him instead of Allegiance And now MY LORDS what remains But That as nothing could have repair'd our ineffable Loss of CHARLES the II d but the Succession of JAMES the II d we prostrate our selves at the feet of Almighty God by whom Kings Reign imploring him that it may be many Years before we have the same occasion for Grief putting up our Vows for the Kings Health and the Eternity of this Empire that he would grant him a long and a prosperous Reign over us that never his Breast may be sensible of any sigh unless it be at Devotion nor his Face know any Wrinkle or Contraction unless like Thunder to strike Traitors and Exclusioners Dead That his days may be upon Earth as the days of Heaven That as he hath been the Great Argument of Providence by escaping so many Perils in War Perils by Sea and Perils by his own Country-men so he may still remain the Great Mathusalem of Providence and that we may see that CHARLES is not yet dead still live to demonstrate that Heaven is infinite in its Mercies and does embrace both him and it self in Eternal Circulations that without any new Disloyal and discriminating times he may at length arise to that Pitch of Power and continue in that heigth of Safety Success and Glory till Treason shall be lookt upon as deplorable Madness not for that it is Wicked but Desperate And lastly That by an uninterrupted series of Tranquillity his Happy Subjects may think him so happy that if the Option was given to any One of them he would chuse it as a better Condition to be King JAMES his Subject than to be Monarch of Anothers more large and Wealthy Territories I am MY LORDS Your Lordships Most Humble Most Obedient Most Devoted Servant AUR. COOK March 19. 1684-85 Being conscious to my self Reader of having too many Faults of my own to answer for in managing so great and glorious a Theme I am mightily unwilling to be responsible for those of the Printer's occasioned by my Absence and the horrid Negligence of the Corrector And therefore having taken notice of the most material I desire thee to correct them PAge 5. r. it 's p. 6. r. moderator p. 8. l. 22 r. cou'd ib. l. 30. r. the King was prevail'd c. p. 10. l. 4. r. the King ib. l. 17. dele they ib. l. 23. r. But this p. 11. r. Governour p. 18. dele the l. 14. r. 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King-craft THE Publishers Advertisement TO THE READER THere is no question but many at the first sight of the Title page will Wonder that so Sacred a Name shou'd be there and that the Life of so Great a Prince should be pretended to be written in so little time History they will say is a Work of Time it self as well as that part of it call'd Biography which Treats of the Lives of Eminent and Great Men and of Illustrious Heroes informing us in the Nature of Things and of Duties and Teaching us the great Arts of Life and Death which are no such easie and trivial matters as to be thrown over the left Shoulder And what shall we say to the Confidence of this Author who now in less than two Months space has huddled up the Life of the greatest Monarch of the British Line which perhaps is more difficult to be wriâ—â—â— than that of any of his Predecessorâ— and would claim a Century or at lest as many Years as it was acted in to be absolutely and thoroughly digested by the most reaching Genius and most consummated Wit Wherefore to satisfie thee Reader and thy Objection I will tell and assure thee That the Author is partly I do say more acquainted with the great difficulty as well as use of History in general and that for his own Part This which thou hast here he hath been long about these many years and that it is no Mushroom business springing up from a foggy Brain in one Night and as likely to perish by another It is a thoughtful Piece no illegitimate Brat no Sham-extract Verbatim out of other Books which thou hast perhaps read and paid for already For I should be very loath if I knew such a thing to so be unconscionable to impose upon thee But now perhaps from my Answer to the former Objection thou wilt be ready to raise another and look upon my Author as no kind Wisher to his Prince to go and write his Life before his Demiss which resembles a kind of an Expectation of his Death rather than the putting up any hearty Prayers for the Continuance of his Life as every good Subject ought to do In return to this I am still of the Affirmitive side and will again assure thee That he is a very Loyal and Worthy Gentlemen and that thou wilt believe me as soon as thou hast read his Book And besides to consider the thing in it self 't is so far from being an Act that looks any ways Disloyal to write a Princes Life before his Decease that on the other hand it is extreamly Loyal and Meritorious As we see now in France where an Annual Pension is setled upon the Great Satyrist to write the Life of his Master the French King Indeed this I will add in my Authors behalf that I have heard him say he never desir'd to live to finish his Book but Addressed Heaven to the contrary hoping it might prove a Picture and Draught of the Kings Life only to the middle But since Heaven has thought fit to take our Gracious Prince to it self I prevailed with him to revise the whole Work and make an addition to such years as was wanting Which being compleated I here present to the Publick View For you may ghess Reader that when we Book sellers have got any thing of this Nature it is as severe a piece of Mortification and Self-denial to keep it private as it is for our Gallants to keep their Chambers the same Day they have got a new Suit Adieu A Table of the most Remarkable matters couch't in this Royal Story Anno à Virginis partu 1630 KIng Charles the Second born at St. James's A Prodigious Star then appearing at Mid-day page 5 Baptiz'd by Dr. Laud Bishop of London 7 Committed in his Infancy to the Countess of Dorsets care then to the Government of the Earl of New-Castle and the Tutorage of Dr. Duppa Ibid. 1638 First called Prince of Wales by Order not creation 7. Accompanies his Royal Father in Progresses Ibid. Takes his Seat in Parliament Ibid. Carries a reprieving Message from the King to the Parliament about the Earl of Strafford 8 1640 Goes with his Father into the North. 10 At York is made Captain of a choice Guard of Loyal Nobles and Gentlemen 11 1642 Gives the first proof of his Bravery at Edghill-fight 12 Committed at Oxford to the care of the Marquess of Hartford Chancellor of that University 13 1644. Endeavours to Heal the Differences 'twixt his Father and the Factious Diet. 15 A Match propos'd between him and the Infanta of Portugal Ibid. 1646. Sails to the Scilly Islands 19 His Answer to the Parliaments swimming Invitation Ibid. Their barbarous Ordinance that follow'd thereupon 20 The manner how he employed his time in those Islands 21 His first Visit to France ibid. Desires leave to go into the French Army but declines it upon his Fathers Prohibition 22 Made Generalissimo by his Father 23 The Scots tender of him ibid. His Answer to a Letter of theirs 25 1648. He appears with some Forces in Jersy-Isle ibid. Grants Martial Commissions to several Persons of Honour 26 Sets forth a Declaration 27 The Kentish men rise in his behalf 30 But are worsted by Fairfax 32 He Seizes some Merchants Ships and attempts the Relief of Deal-Castle ibid. Colchester taken by Famine and Fairfax 35 He retires into Holland ibid. His Letter to the King his Father 36 The Treaty at the Isle of Wight ibid. Cromwel and the Armies proceedings with the Parliament to bring the King to a Tryal 37 An Ordinance past by the Commons for his Tryal but oppos'd by the Lords 39 The Juncto resolves to Try him without the Lords consent 40 The Princes behaviour and pious Acting thereupon 41 The King accursedly Sentenc'd to be Beheaded 42 His Sacred Memoirs and Papers of Advice to his Son 43 King Charles the first most sacrilegiously Assassinated 57 Prince Charles succeeds him 59 The Juncto declare it High-Treason to Proclaim him 60 Vote down the House of Lords ibid. Appoint Judges and Justices 62 The People open their Eyes detest them 63 King Charles the II. Proclam'd in England 64 Receives at the Hague the news of the Royal Martyrdom 65 His Comportment thereupon 66 Sends Embassadors to several Princes 67 1649. Proclaim'd in Scotland by Penitent Rebels 68 Passes through Flanders where he is highly Caress'd and Regal'd into France 72 The Scots invite him over 74
Montross his deplorable Fate ibid. The Kings Letter to the Scots 75 His shrewd Treaty with their Commissioners 76 The English Juncto sit uneasie alarm'd with the Scots Proceedings ibid. Cromwel call'd out of Ireland and made General 81 The King Lands at the Spey in Scotland 82 1650. Cromwel Marches Northwards ibid. The Scots at difference before among themselves thereupon Unite 83 The King most Solemnly Crown'd at Schone 84 Raises an Army himself Personal Valour 162 The Kings promotes a Peace between France and Spain 165 Goes Incognito to the place of Treaty 166 The Duke of York offer'd the Constableship of Castile 169 1659. The King gives forth new Commissions 171 Sir George Booth Rises 172 Is unfortunately defeated 174 And taken Prisoner 175 The King at St. Malloes 176 An Overture to try Monk 177 Monks Brother sent into Scotland to him 178 Monk undertakes the Kings Restauration 182 Sends his Brother to the Parliament 184 A Prophetick Speech 185 Monk prepares for England 187 Whence Dr. Clergies comes to him 189 Lambert sends Morgan into Scotland 192 A Convention at Edenborough ibid. Monks Commissioners sign an Agreement 193 The Rump sits again 194 Invite Monk to London but distrust him 195 The People address to him 196 He desires the Parliament to remove their Guards 197 Was to have been sent to the Tower 198 But goes to the Parliament ibid. Made one of the Council of State 199 Pulls down the City-Gates 201 Sends a Letter to the Rump 202 Marches into the City 203 The Rump dissemble their Indignation 204 Employ their Adjutators 205 A Conference about the secluded Members 206 Who are readmitted 207 Monk made General ibid. They discharge Booth ibid. Dissolve themselves and call a free Parliment 208 Appoint a Council of State ibid. 1660. Greenvile introduc'd to the General by Morris 210 Delivers him a Letter from the King 211 The General commends his Secrecy 212 Desires him to acquaint the King with his Resolution to Restore him 213 Which was accordingly done at Brussels 214 Monk leaves his Reward to the Kings pleasure 215 The King gives Greenvile a Warrant for an Earldom 216 Signs a Commission for Monks being General 217 Removes privately to Breda ibid. Lambert escapes from the Tower but is retaken by Ingolsby 218 The free Parliament meets 219 Greenvile delivers the Kings Letter to the General 220 And his Letters and Declaration to the two Houses 221 The Reverence exprest by the Commons at reading them with Resolves thereupon 222 The Kings Letter delivered to General Mountague and the Joy it occasioned in the Fleet. 224 The Parliament Invites the King 〈◊〉 225 The Commissioners arrive at Breda ibid. The King Proclaim'd 226 The King prepares for his Return 228 Treated and presented by the Dutch ibid. The Sâ—ates Speech to him â—â—at parting 229 He leaves Holland with a glorious Fleet. 232 And Arrives at Dover 234 The General meets him there ibid. He goes to Canterbury 235 To Chattham 230 Is presented with an Address ibid. Views the Army ibid. Comes to London 237 Rides in Triumph through London ibid. Is received by the Parliament 240 He thanks them for their Loyalty ibid. He goes to the Parliament house 241 Chooses his Privy-Council 242 The Act of Oblivion 243 The General madâ— Duke of Albemarle c. 245 Several others advanc'd ibid Resignation of Purchases 246 Embassadors congratulate his Restauration ibid. The Oblivion-Act comprehensive 247 29th of May Annisary ibid. The Army Disbanded ibid. The Kings Speech at the Adjournment 248 Duke of Glocester dies 349 The Kings care to settle the Church ibid. Regicides brought to Tryalâ— 251 The Queen Mother comes into England 252 Argile sent back to Scotland 253 Princess of Orange dies 254 The healing Parliament dissolv'd ibid. Cromwels Carkass upon the Gallows 255 The Fifth-Monarchy mens Adventure 256 Preparations for the Kings Coronation 260 1661. Four Triumphal Arches erected by the City 261 The Order of his Cavalcade through the City 268 The manner of his Crowning 273 The Thunder that day the Censures thereon 279 He calls a fresh Parliament 280 The Presbyterians stickle in Elections 282 He Rides in State to the Parliament which he acquaints with his design of Marrying the Infanta of Portugal 283 A Convocation of the Clergy 284 The Act of Oblivion confirmed by that Parliament 285 The Act for Regulating Corporations ibid. Pryn censur'd by the Parliament 286 The Bishops restored to their Peerage ibid. The Lord Munson and others censured 287 Parliament adjourn'd by the King ibid. The Duke of York Captain of the Artillery Company 288 Barbone and others secured 289 The Kings Piety to the memory of his Friends 290 The Quarrel between the French and Spanish Embassadors 291 Harry Martyn no humble Servant to Proclamations ibid. The Duke of Ormond made Deputy of Ireland ibid. Episcopacy restored in Scotland 293 1662. A Fleet sent for the Queen and a Garrison to Tangier ibid. The Agreeableness of the King and Queens Fortunes 294 Her arrival at Portsmouth ibid. Queen of Bohemia dies 295 The King married at Portsmouth 296 The African Potentates allarmed 297 Tangier made a free Port. 298 The dreadful St. Bartholomew 299 Several Cities and Towns dismantl'd ibid. Dunkirk return'd to the French 300 Philips and others excuted for Plotting 301 An Embassy out of Russia ibid. 1663. The Kings Progress into the West 303 Oates and others executed 304 1664. The Parliament for War with the Dutch ibid. The King fits out two Fleets 306 His Personal care and industry 307 The Plague begins in London ibid. Prince Rupert at the Spithead 310 The Dutch afraid to put to Sea ibid. An Embargo on Dutch Ships 311 The Act for a Royal Aid 312 War Proclaimed against Holland 313 1665. A General Fast enjoyned 314 His Royal Highness Lord High Admiral ibid The Dutch allarm'd 315 Are Beaten 316 The Sickness increasing in London 317 The King and Parliament at Oxford 318 The Duke of Albemarl left in London 320 A Fast kept on every Wednesday ibid. The English Fleet upon the Coast of Holland 321 The Earl of Sandwich Attacques the Dutch in Berghen ibid. France takes part with Holland 322 A Plot discover'd ibid. 1666. Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle Admirals 324 They fight the Dutch 325 London in Ashes 327 The Kings great compassion in that distress 330 Various Opinions about that Fire ibid. The Kings Prudence and Care in its Rebuilding 331 The first Invention of Ensuring houses from Fire 332 An Act of Parliament for the Rebuilding of London ibid His Pious care for Rebuilding the Churches 335 Sir Jonas More the first Rebuilder 336 A Prodigious Storm 337 A Commotion in Scotland ibid. War with Denmark 338 A Treaty at Breda 339 The Dutch spend a Summer in needless Preparations ibid. They come to Chattham 340 Peace concluded with Holland 341 1667. The Earl of Clarendon in disgrace 342 1669 Earl of Carlisle Embassador to Sweden 343 Queenmother dies 344 The Duke of Albemarle
rebuke the unsavoury Speeches that tortured his chaster Ears and condemn those Oaths and Curses which were too common among the vainer Scholars during which time he was visited with the Measels the danger whereof only serv'd to teach us how to prize him the more for that hazard But the War between his Father and the Parliament still growing more fierce he once more left the University and took the Field laying aside his Books that he might handle his Arms and endeavoured to signalize his Valour by appearing in the Head of some Forces in the North which were conducted by the Earls of Cumberland and New-castle wherein he was so successful at first that Victory seemed to wait on his Banner Shortly after he marcht Westward where by order from the Court he was attended by such a Noble Retinue as was most suitable to the Grandeur of a Prince of Wales about which time he cast off his Ich Dien and assum'd his State setting up his Royal Court and making choice of such Officers as were most pleasing to him about which although his Father took some exception yet he protested that he greatly admired the discretion of his choice in general having so brave and well ordered a Family that it was second to none but his Uncle Henrys and King-ship was first exercised within the narrow compass of an Houshold saith Selden which increasing to Cities Kings were content to Reign therein until those Cities swelling into Nations they enlarged the bounds of their Soveraign Rule The King of Portugal about this time hoping to make an advantage of the Kings necessity offered several fair Proposals suitable to his present exigencies and troubles which were ushered in by the offer of a Match between his Daughter and the Prince but for some reasons of State his Father thought not fit to accept the offer but yet returned such an answer as held him in suspence being not willing either to gratifie or displease him The Prince in the mean while was busily employing himself in endeavouring to make up a much happier Match between his Father and the Parliament by some overtures of Peace which he made to Sir Thom. Fairfax the Chief Commander of the Parliament-Forces but was disappointed therein for Fairfax gave him to unstand that those Proposals were fitter to be made to the Parliament than to him who was only their Servant Wherefore he seeing that Fairfax would do nothing himself towards a Peace being resolved to try all possible means for the setling this distracted Kingdom desired leave for the Lord Hopton and Culpeper to attend the King and mediaate with him for a treaty with the Parliament to which Fairfax answered that he would desire the Prince to disband his Army and promised that he would thereupon conduct him with Honour to the Parliament to which request he commanded the Lord Capel to make the following Answer viz. Sir His Highness did not believe that his overture in engaging himself in the Mediation of a Blessed Peace for this miserable Kingdom would have brought him an Inhibition to quit his duty to his Father by dividing his Interest from that of his Majesties or hereby he should render himself unworthy and uncapable of the fruit of that Peace which he laboured to obtain and that of his former propositions might be consented to he hoped God would so bless his sincere intentions and designs as to make him a Blessed Instrument to preserve this Kingdom from desolation but if that were rejected he should give the World no cause to believe that he would forfeit that Honour which only could preserve him in a capacity of doing that service and should with patience attend Gods pleasure until his endeavours might be applyed with the preservation of his Innocency During his abode in the Camp he shew'd himself to be of such an Heroick Temperature that he enjoyed an equal Calm and Peace in the midst of all the Confusions of War and enjoyed his Learned Thoughts as quietly in the Tumults of a Camp as in the Retirements of a School In the exercising of his Arms he did not wholly leave his Books nor forget his Studies especially of the Mathematicks which besides their general usefulness as Refiners of the Mind were more than ordinarily necessary to him to assist him in carrying on the several Stratagems of War in Fortification Sieges Battels c. wherein he was but little below his incomparable Father in these things the exactest Prince in Christendom But not being able to accomplish that Reconciliation between his Father and the Parliament which he designed he returned again to Oxford where he was more successful in another undertaking of the like nature viz. the reconciling his two Cousins Rupert Maurice to his Father accounting it too hard to entertain inward Broils when outward Calamities were so heavy and pressing and that those who had Adversaries enough already ought not to become each others Enemies nor did he only use his Interest with his Father to be reconciled to the two Princes but even to his open and profest Enemies also notwithstanding the failure of his late undertakings as appears by his Letters to the Speaker of the House of Commons of Decemb. 15 26 29. and that of Jan. 25 17 24. and several others But while he was speaking for Peace some whose malice and interest had made implacable guilt rendred desperate were preparing for the Battel whilst this Prince of Peace was negotiating for Peace and in order thereunto prepared to raise the Train'd Bands of his Dukedom of Cornwal by incouragement of his Royal presence Fairfax and Cromwel fall with incredible fury upon his Army commanded by the Lord Hopton at Torrington and vanquisht it Which news being brought to him at Launceston he removed from thence to Pendennis where continually receiving some unhappy news and unwelcome Messages pursuing each oâ—her so fast as the Waves do in a Storm and coming as thick as the Messengers of Jobs calamity was advised to consult his own safety and since he could not by all his suasions procure a pacification either by Art or Arguments dint of Sword or strength of Reason preserve himself the Kingdoms growing hope for happier days wherein he might with more fortunate success apply his soveraign Balm to heal the bleeding Breaches of the three dying Nations Whereupon he went from thence attended by the Lords Goring and Culpepper and Sir Edw. Hide to the Isle of Scilly which still remained in the King's hands where he was no sooner arrived but he received a solemn Invitation from the Parliament in a seeming tender dutiful way to come to them and remain in such places as they should think convenient and entertain such Attendants Counsellors only as should be appointed by them Upon receiving of which Invitation he advised with those about him what was best to be done in that case and they returned the following Answer viz. That it became not him to do any thing
be made which was delivered to the keeping of three Commissioners viz Keeble Whitlock and Lisly and considered of new Oaths to be adminstred to the Judges who thereupon met and upon debate six of them were contented to continue in their Employments provided the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom were not altered For whose satisfaction the Juncto by their Declaration of the Ninth of February did assure them that they were fully resolved to maintain and would uphold preserve and keep the Fundamental Laws of this Nation for and concerning the preservation of the Laws Properties and Liberties of the People with all things incident thereunto They proceeded likewise to appoint such Persons as they thought would be most firm to their Interest to exercise the Offices of Justices of the Peace throughout the Nation and constituted a Council of State consisting of about forty in number whereof five might be Lords And finally to secure all whereas they had before onely repealed they now abolish and make void the Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy But notwithstanding all their endeavours to render themselves secure and firm in their Government yet the People began now to be generally discontented And those who had formerly affected them growing sensible of the Inconveniencies that were like to ensue upon the cutting off of their Prince beginning to abhor their practices there was a general Plot carried on against them in all the Counties of England Which obliged them to send Forces into most parts to awe them and thereby the better to keep them in order Notwithstanding which Contrivances of theirs to bar up the way to that Imperial Throne which they had impudently invaded and parted into shares amongst themselves there were some who had Courage and Loyalty enough left them to assert the King's Right and their own Duty in a Printed Proclamation thrown about the Streets And to convince the Juncto at Westminster that all men would not be wheedled to run a gadding after their Calves at Bethel but that there were some still left who would tread in the old Path and beaten Tract of Government in the succession of Charles the Second to the Crown of England which Proclamation was as follows We the Noblemen Judges Knights Lawyers Gentlemen Ministers Free-holders Merchants Citizens c. and other Freemen of England do according to our Allegiance and Covenant by these presents heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim the Illustrious Charles Prince of Wales next Heir of the Blood Royal to his Father King Charles whose late wicked and traiterous Murder we do from our Souls abominate and all Parties and Consenters thereunto to be by hereditary Birthright and lawful Succession Rightful and undoubted King of Great Brittain France and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging And that we will faithfully constantly and sincerely in our several places and callings defend and maintain His Royal Person Crown and Dignity with our Estates Lives and last drop of our Blood against all Opposers thereof whom we do hereby declare to be Traitors and Enemies to His Majesty and His Kingdoms In testimony whereof we have ordered and caused to be published and proclaimed throughout all Countrys and Corporations of this Realm the first day of February and the first year of His Majesties Reign God save King Charles the Second Which Proclamation although without any Solemnity or indeed open Appearance met with the same chearful Reception and inward Loyal Resolutions as if Vent had been given to a publick manifestation of Duty and Joy by His Majesties present ascending the Throne For it revived the hearts of his mourning and disconsolate Subjects to see the sure and certain Succession thereof asserted and continued in the same most beloved and darling Name the Eldest Branch and descended of their martyr'd Soveraign in whose Ruins the Regicides thought to have rak'd up and buried all Claims and Just Titles to the Imperial Diadem of these Kingdoms The said Out-cries and lamentable Groans sent forth by all Loyal Subjects at the Loss of their Head together with the Martyrs Instructions and his George which were according to his Fathers desire sent him by the Dutch Embassador found him at the Hague in Holland where he then kept his Court and was first saluted King and the horrour thereof so seized his great Soul with wonder and astonishment that it had certainly sunk under the weight of it had not the Religious Consideration that he ought not to sorrow as one without hope buoyed up his Spirit and Reason forbid him to cast away himself with grief who was then become the only hope of three Kingdoms Generous Rage prompting Princes to Revenge rather than Despair which was not to be accomplisht by weeping Eyes but by wise Counsels and valiant Performances Wherefore he bravely cheered up and reassumed his wonted Courage Comfort State and Majesty And for the better managing of his Affairs went soon after to Paris to solicit that Court to embrace his Interest and afford him some Assistance for the recovery of his Right and the redressing his Subjects miseries by discountenancing the English Rebels and furnishing him with that competency of Money Men Arms and Ammunition which might enable him not to Invade his Country but to encourage his own Subjects to rescue themselves from a forced Slavery But the French King being under Age and Cardinal Mazarine who then governed the great Affairs of that Kingdom being no Friend to this banisht and distressed King but holding a correspondence with his rebellious Subjects he was able to procure no Assistance from thence Whereupon he next applied himself to Spain whither he sent the Lord Cottington as his Embassador who upon his arrival there was confronted by a Competitor viz. Ascham who called himself an Embassador from the then New Majesties of England until he was dispatcht by some Switz After which Cottington was dismist with this Answer That were it any thing in the King of Spain's own Dominion which his Master of Great Brittain had desired it should have been no sooner requested than granted But being a Forreign Quarrel he could not interest himself therein in regard it was not reasonable he should busie himself in other mens matters who had so many Irons in the fire himself But in the mean time the Emperor the Princes of Germany the Kings of Denmark and Sweden being acquainted with the present circumstance of his Affairs by his several Embassadors sent to each of them they highly resented his deplorable condition and resolved his speedy assistance and supply And Holland upon his Account and the Interest of his Sister the Princess of Orange did upon terms agreed on between the late King and their Embassador two days before his death resolve not to vail to this younger Sisters State as they had been wont to do to the Kings of England but by the Forlorn of some private acts of Hostility begin that difference which soon after brake out into an open War Nor
was he altogether void of Assistance from England being underhand supplied with some Moneys by his Loyal Friends from thence But Scotland was more entirely at his Devotion who having shewed their sad Resentment of his Fathers Death by observing a Publick Fast on that occasion on the 19th of February and chearfully promoted his Succession by the Estates of Parliament there assembled a Proclamation was issued out for the solemn proclaiming and declaring him to be their lawful King and Governour which was as follows His late Majesty being contrary to the consent and protestation of this Kingdom removed by violent Death we the Estates of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland do unanimously in Recognition of his Just Rights proclaim his Eldest Son Prince Charles by the Providence of God and undoubted Succession King of Great Britain France and Ireland whom we are bound by the National and Solemn League and Covenant to obey maintain and defend with our Lives and Goods against all his Enemies But before he be admitted to the exercise of his Royal Power he shall give satisfaction to these Kingdoms touching the Security of Religion the Vnity oâ— the two Kingdoms and the Good and Peace of this Kingdom according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant God save the King Which Proclamation was for the better assuring the truth of their designed Allegiance to the Crown made in a most solemn manner at Edinburgh Cross which was hung with Tapestry all the parliament-Parliament-Lords attending there in their Robes and the Chancellor himself reading the said Proclamation and reciting the Murder of his late Majesty to the King at Arms the night being concluded with all usual demonstrations of Joy and Gladness Which being over they sent an Expostulatory Letter to those at Westminster to give them an Account of their proceedings and require their concurrence therewith In answer whereunto they received Letters stuft with flattery and protestations of Amity and Friendship if they would desist from acting any farther therein and acquiesce and concur with their proceedings in England But they knowing that their Countrys Honour had been lost by the same Traiterous proffers refused to hearken to their overtures protesting in their messages directed to Lenthal the Speaker that they would not enter into any Treaty with them nor own them unless they were a free Parliament consisting of both houses without any force upon or seclusion of their members Wherefore having hereby made the English Parliament implacably their Enemies they endeavor to assure his Majesty to be their Friend ordring Joseph Douglas to repair forthwith to him at the Hague and acquaint him with what they had done and were preparing to do And presently after sent several Commissioners to treat with him about his repairing to them and entring upon the exercise of his Kingly Office Whereupon their Commissioners at London having sent a peremptory Paper to the Juncto withdrew themselves privately from London intending to pass by Sea for Scotland but were intercepted at Graves-end and by a Guard conveyed thither by Land an Envoy going likewise with them to the Scottish Parliament to know if they would justifie the aforesaid Paper who beginning now to be more than ever enraged against the Rump dismist him without any Answer but prepared themselves for defence intending to levy 17000 Foot and 6000 Horse against the return of their Commissioners who landing about the middle of the Summer though they did not bring with them a confirmation of the Agreement yet gave certain hopes of it by a Treaty presently to be commenced the King offering to perform whatsoever his Father had promised for the settlement of Presbytery Upon which Encouragement the Lord Liberton was presently dispatcht to wait upon the King who was then preparing for his return from the Hague through Flanders into France which he did on June 15 in company with his Sister and her Husband the Prince of Orange in their Coach and came early to Rotterdam where he was received by the Bâ—rghers in their Arms and saluted in his passing the Gates with the Artillery Ringing of Bells and all other signs of Joy and Honour and Noblely treated by them From whence he went to Dort where he was received in the same manner and then to Breda and then to Antwerp where by order of the Arch-Duke of Austria he was met and entertained with all possible state and splendor being presented likewise with a rich Chariot with eight Horses suitable thereunto and particularly welcomed by his former Tutor the Marquess of Newcastle who had then fixt his Residence there out of respect to the great Civility which he received from that People who had made him Excise-free and given him several other Immunities and Priviledges And from thence conducted to Brussels where he was as royally entertained with as much grandeur as if he had been the King of Spain himself And the King did afterward acknowledge that Entertainment for the most sumptuous and magnificent and to have in it the most pleasing variety of any that he ever met withal during the whole time of his Exile Which Amplitudes were observed throughout his whole passage For at his departure thence the Duke of Lorrayn gave him the like Entertainment and conducted him on his way toward France where in Compaign the French King accompanied with the most and choicest of his Nobility did receive and welcom him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour that became such a Prince and afterward conveyed him in State to St. Germains where the Queen his Mother then resided So that although he was banisht from his Throne yet he wanted not a Kingdom all men whereever he came being so taken with his Virtues that they seemed willing to become his Subjects Nor was his Court much inferiour in numbers and splendor to those of other Princes who were in the actual possession of their Crowns Toward the maintenance whereof his Aunt the Dutchess of Savoy assigned him fifty thousand Crowns per Annum several others contributing likewise thereunto according to their abilities He was very much solicited about this time by the Scottish Commissioners to repair to that Kingdom but finding that the Conditions upon which they were willing to admit him were such as he could not in honour accept of especially the parting with Montross he resolved to steer another course and therefore grants a Commission to Montross to Levy what Forces he could beyond the Sea and with them go and joyn the Lord Seworth Major Straughan and others who had got to Head for the King without the Kirk in the North of Scotland But they being routed before he came by Lisley and himself not long after his Arrival defeated by a Party of the Kirks Forces and taken Prisoner most ignominiously hanged at Edinburgh he was as it were forced by the necessity of his Affairs to comply with their demands which was so much the easier done in regard that about that time
short but pithy Speech to the People telling them that he did esteem the Affections of his good People more than the Crowns of many Kingdoms and should be ready by God's Assistance to bestow his Life for their defence wishing to live no longer than he saw Religion and that Kingdom to flourish in all Happiness with many other expressions of like Love and Affection toward them The Ceremonies of the Coronation being ended and a plentiful Entertainment prepared he sate down at one Table and the Lords at another many Caresses and Testimonies of Joy reciprocally passing between them And Dinner being ended they all returned to St. Johnstons in the same Order and Pomp as they came from thence to Schoneâ— Bonfires Ringing of Bells and the loud Acclamations of the People were sufficient demonstrations of the Publick Joy which the Scots were filled withall and the great expectations they had of Happiness and Felicity under the Influence of his mild and easie Government Having now obtained the actual possession of one of his Kingdoms and being reconciled to that Parliament he was not in the least daunted by the late Miscarriages but as if he had been encouraged by his former Unhappiness and raised in mind like Anteus by his Fall he proceeded to the raising of such an Army as might then have been rather wisht for by the Affectionate than expected by the Reasonable And indeed such was the Confluence of Faithful Subjects that continually resorted to him and were resolved to carry on and if possible maintain an endangered and an endangering Cause against the most successful and hitherto prevailing Interest that he was in a little time Master of a greater Army in the Field than either his own hope or his Enemies guilty fear could suspect Wherefore he bravely appears himself in the management of his own Affairs as Generalissimo of that Army which consisted of two and twenty thousand fighting Men. Nor was his care less employed about his Garrisons than it was about those Forces he had in the Field knowing that it was prudence to provide for a Retreat though he expected a Conquest and not neglect the providing a Refuge in the worst of Dangers whilst according to Reason he need to think of nothing but Safety in the best of Victories Wherefore to hasten the work for every minute of delay was then fatal and cherish the dejected Vulgar who were now somewhat discouraged by lying under the burden of a double Army with the honour and pleasure of his gracious presence He took a progress to view the most considerable of them and see them well fortified and furnisht with all necessary Provisions encouraging the Engineers by his Bounty and directing and guiding them by his Skill But those vast Preparations were too formidable to his Enemies for them to suffer 'em to go on without an Attempt at least to hinder and defeat them Wherefore before the Levies were well compleated Cromwel makes hard toward him thinking each minute tedious that past without some Action But the King prudently declined joyning Battel with him until he might if possible draw him who had a greedy desire of Fighting into some disadvantage which he was in a probability of doing soon after For Cromwel having commanded two Regiments to pass over into a narrrow Island hoping thereby to intercept his passage he sent against them five or six Regiments under the Command of Major General Brown who had certainly cut them all in pieces had not Cromwel hastened thither with a supply in the very last minute of opportunity whereby he rescued his own Forces and beat back Brown although not without a considerable loss on both sides And being flusht with those successful beginnings pursued his Advantage and transporting his Army over Fife marcht immediately unto St. Johnstons which he took almost upon the first Summons Whereupon the King who was not able to beat them back thought it high time to look about him And since Cromwel that successful Rebel had now gained all on the other side Fife took the Earl of Eglington Prisoner possest himself of St. Johnstons and grew every day more powerful he resolved with all imaginable speed to advance into England expecting that the Justice and Equity of his Cause together with the long Tyranny exercised over them by the Juncto would incite his English Subjects to return to their Allegiance and joyn with him against theirs as well as his Enemies And knowing by experience that the Scots always exprest their Valour better in other Countries than at home in their own whereupon Cromwel re-crosses Frith and sends Lambert with a select Party of Horse and Dragoons to fall upon the King's Reer himself following presently after with the Body of his Army The King entred England by the way of Carlisle the Royal Army marching through the Country with that Civility and exact Obedience to Military Discipline that as some affirm the Country was not damaged six-pence by them But whether it were that their former Villanies had left such a deep impression in the hearts of the People or that they were now dull'd and besotted with Slavery and with Issachar's Ass were content to couch under their Burdens or that they were over-awed by an Armed Power which is the most probable few or none came in to his Assistance save only the Lord Howard's Son of Escrick with one Troop of Horse notwithstanding his earnest Invitation The Juncto at Westminster hearing of the King's March were exceedingly terrified therewith and presently raised all the Countries against him and declared it High Treason for any to assist him either with Men or Money But the Earl of Darby who was always Loyal both to him and his Father not fearing their Bug-Bear Threatning brought him a supply of Two hundred and fifty Foot and Sixty Horse out of the Isle of Man He met with no opposition till he came at Warrington in Lancashire where some considerable Forces of the Parliament were ready to cut down that Bridge and dispute his Passage But the Scots falling on them before they were aware prevented the breaking down of the Bridge and by their Valour forced their way over the Planks and put the Adversary to such a confused Retreat that had it been pursued as himself would have had it but was opposed by Lesly it might have proved the Conquest of all England and that unhappy and miserable War might thereby have been ended much sooner than it was From thence he marched toward Worcester in such excellent Order and with so little Damage to the Country that it lookt more like a Progress with his Nobles than a March with an Army which was a great demonstration of the powerful Influence of his goodness and care which could so easily frame Rudeness it self to so smooth and even a temper and form an unruly Camp into a well managed and orderly Court In his way to Worcester he summoned Shrewsbury by a Letter directed to Collonel Mackworth
no sooner got out on one side but the Enemy prest in on the other to look for him and had certainly pursued and overtaken him had they not been stop'd by the Royal spoil which was left behind to the same purpose that Hippodame left behind her the Golden Apples to tempt the Pursuer to stay the gathering them up and thereby save herself And the Valour of some that still kept the Royal Fort to reduce whom Cromwell commanded out some Cheshire Forces who most of them perished in the attempt that County having never before lost so many lives in such an unworthy Service but having at last made himself Master of it the Defendants were all put to the Sword whereupon the remainder of the Soldiery craved Quarter and had it reaâ—ily granted them the Rebels being as weary of killing as the Royalists were of being killed From this unfortunate Battel not above 300 Horse and scarce any of the Infantry escaped who were most of them either slain or taken near 100 Prisoners of Quality of which the chief were Duke Hamilton the Earls of Shrewsbury Darby Cleveland Laâ—derdale Rothes Carnwath Killy and many more the number of the Prisoners in the whole being said to be 10000 together with whom was taken the King's Standard Coach and Horses Collar of SS's and Star-Cloth Major General Massey who escaped the Battel not knowing where to shelter himself being grievously wounded was forced to surrender himself a Prisoner likewise to the Countess of Stamford being secured by the Lord Grey of Groby her Son by whom he was after the recovery of his Wounds sent up to London from whence not long after he made his escape The news of this Victory extreamly rejoyced the Juncto but the joy for their Victory was some what allayed by the King's escape Before he was got as far as Barbone's Bridg which was not above half a Mile from Worcester he made several stands facing about and desiring the Duke of Buckingham the Lord Wilmot and other of his Commanders that they might rally with those few Forces that were yet left him and once more try the fortune of War But being come to the Bridg a serious Consultation was held about it when perceiving many of the Troopers throwing off their Arms and shifting for themselves their opinion was that the day was so irrecoverably lost that his only business now was to endeavour the saving of himself from those ravenous Wolves and Regicides whereupon he resolved by the advice of his Council to March back again for Scotland and in order thereunto the Duke of Buckingham demanded of the Lord Talbot who was of that Country if he could not Conduct them in their way Northward who thereupon answered that he had in his Troop one Walker formerly a Scout-Master in those Parts that knew the way very well who being accordingly called to be their Guide he performed that duty well enough for some Miles but coming to Kinven Heath not far from Kiderminster he was at a loss and knew not which way to go Whereupon the King made a stand and consulted with the Lords whither he might with most safety March to take some hours rest being almost quite worn out and spent The Earl of Darby told him that in his flight from Wiggan to Worcester he had met with a perfect honest Man and a great conveniency of concealment at Boscobel House whereupon he resolved to repair thither and Mr. Charles Gifford who very well knew the way was appointed to conduct him thither When they came near Stunbrigde it was debated by them whether they should march through the Town or not and being concluded in the affirmative they resolved that those about the King's Person should speak nothing but French thereby the better to prevent the Discovery of his being there Lesley having with the Scotch Horse in the close of the Evening taken a more direct way Northward by New-Port he was now left attended only by Buckingham Darby Lauderdale Talbot Wilmot and a few other Gentlemen being in all not above sixty Horse At a House about a Mile beyond Stunbridge he refresh'd himself a little with some small Beer and a crust of Bread the House affording no better Provision and as he rode forward he discoursed with Colonel Roscarrock about the conveniency of Boscobel House and the means of security which he and the Earl of Darby had found there Gifford humbly proposing to carry him first to White-Ladies a House about half a Mile beyond Boscobel belonging to one Fitz-Herbert where he might repose himself a while and then take such farther resolution as he and his Council should think fit which was accordingly resolved on And being come thither and knocking at the Door George Penderill the youngest Brother of five who were all severally instrumental in Conducting and Preserving his Majesty hearing some body knock at the Gate so early opened the Window and seeing there Mr. Gifford and Francis Yates who was his Brother-in-law he ask'd his Brother what news he brought from Worcester he replied the King was defeated and the Enemy in pursuit of him and therefore bid him make haste and let them in But before he could get down the King with most of the Lords had entred the House and got into the Hall whither the King's Horse was likewise brought And having that night rode from Worcester thither which was about twenty six Miles he was extream hungry and very much tired with his long and hasty March whereupon Gifford presently sent for Richard Penderill who lived near hand at Hobbal-Grange and William Penderill from Boscobel Richard came first who was immediately sent back to bring a sute of his Cloaths for the King and by that time he came with them William was come likewise and both carried in to the King by the Earl of Darby who told William that was the King pointing to him and that he must have a care of him and preserve him as he had done him Gifford laying the same charge on his Brother which was exactly obeyed by both The King was advised whil'st the two Brothers were sent for to rub his Hands and Face with the Soot of the Chimney the better to disguise him and some persons likewise disorderly cut off his locks of hair and having taken off his blue Ribbond Buff-Coat and other Princely Ornaments and distributed what Gold he had in his Pockets amongst his Servants put on a course Canvas Shirt which was borrowed of one Martyn which done he was to take upon him the Name and Employment of a Woodman and having after the Company was dismiss'd a Bill brought him he and Richard went out into the Wood William went home and Humphry and George went out to scout the better to discover if any of the Parliament Forces approach'd that way And it was not above an hour that the King had been in the Wood before a Troop of the Enemies Horse came to White-ladies inquiring for the King But being
cross Saltier-wise with this Motto Subditus fidelis Regis Regni salus Having parted with the Colonel he rode toward Mosely being led thither through By-ways altho' it was Midnight by the five Brothers who attended at a convenient distance each of them having a Pike-staff or a Bill on their shoulders and some of them Pistols in their Pockets resolving if they should have been questioned or encountred by five or six Troopers only to have shewed their Valour in defending him as well as their Fidelity in concealing of him He had not rid far before he began to complain of the Horse being never used to ride such kind of Beasts as that was That it was the heaviest dull Jade that he ever rode on whereupon the owner replied somewhat beyond the usual notion of a Miller My Liege can you blame the Horse for going heavily when he had no less than the weight of thrâ—e Kingdoms on his back When they were come to Penford-Mill which was within two Miles of Whitgrave's House his Guides desired him to alight and walk the rest of the way the foot-path being more secure and much nearer which he consented too and Humphry and George being to return with the Horse the rest waited on him to his Journey 's end but having forgot upon parting to take his leave of those that went back he hastily turned and called them to him again and said My Troubles make me forget my self I thank you all And so having given them his Hand to kiss he proceeded on his Journey Wilmot according to his appointment came to the meeting-place at his hour and was received by Whitgrave and conveyed to his old Chamber but was extreamly troubled when he found the King was not there at his prefixed time which made him suspect the worst and fear that some misfortune had befallen him wherefore he desired Whitgrave to repair again to the place of meeting where they had left Huddleston to attend the King 's coming who appearing there about two hours after his appointed time was expired they conducted him to the House where that disconsolate Lord had long expected him with great solicitude so soon as he saw him enter he kneeled down and embraced his Knees and in requital the King kiss'd him on the Cheek and demanded somewhat earnestly of him what was become of Buckingham Cleveland and others to which he answered that he could give him no account but hoped in general that they were safe Then the Lord addressing himself to Whitgrave and Huddleston said Tho' I have hitherto concealed the Name of my Friend yet now I adventure to tell you That it is my Master your Master and the Master of us all Whereupon the King gave them his Hand to kiss and told them that he had received such an account from Wilmot of their Fidelity that he should never forget it desiring to see the secret place where he was to be concealed which having viewed he liked it very well And then returning into Wilmot's Chamber he sate down on the Beds side and his Nose bleeding he pluck'd out of his Pocket a Handkerchief course and dirty being suitable to the rest of his Apparel which was a Leather Doublet a pair of green Breeches and a Jump-Coat as the Country call'd it of the same green a pair of his own Stockings with the tops cut off because they were embroidered a pair of old Shooes cut and slash'd to give ease to his Feet an old gray greasie Hat without a lining and a noggen Shirt of the coursest Linnen his Face and Hands likewise being answerable thereunto made of a rusty complexion by the help of the Walnut-leaves Huddleston observing the courseness of his Shirt was very troublesom to him and hindred his rest desired know if he would change it which he being willing to do he furnish'd him with a flaxen one and pulling off his Shooes and Stockings carefully dried his Feet where he found that some-body had innocently put white Paper next his Feet which with going on foot from the place where he alight to the house was so roul'd between his Stockings and his Skin that it served rather to increase than asswage their former soreness Whitgrave had by this time brought up some Bisket and a Bottle of Sack whereof the King having eat of the one and drank of the other and finding himself a little refresh'd said merrily I am now ready for another march and if it should please God once more to place me in the head of but Eight or Ten Thousand Men of one mind and resolved to fight I should not doubt my being able to drive those Rogues out of my Kingdoms It being now toward break of day he was desirous to take a little sleep in order whereunto a Pallate was carried into one of the secret places where he lay down and compos'd himself to rest but slept not so well as his Host wish'd he might in regard the place was close and inconvenient after he had lain some time in his hole he got up and was pleas'd to take notice of and very familiarly salute Mrs. Whitgrave Mother to him who was the owner of the house and having his place of retreat still ready he diverted himself now and then in a Closet over the Porch from whence he could see those who pass'd by on the Road. Not thinking it convenient to continue long there he dispatch'd John Penderil to Col. Lane at Bently with directions for him to send or bring the Lord Wilmot's Horses that night about Twelve or One of the Clock to a Field near adjoining to Whitgrave's House in order to his putting in execution a Resolution he had taken up of going Westward under the protection of Mrs. Jane Lane's Pass which she had procured for her self and her man to Bristol it being most probable that the Rebels would pursue him only Northward and not at all suspect his going into the West In the Afternoon on Munday Whitgrave having notice that some Soldiers were in the neighbourhood intending to apprehend him upon information that he had been at Worcester-Fight he first secured the King who was then lain down upon Huddleston's Bed into his place of retreat and then leaving open all the Chamber-doors he went boldly down to the Soldiers assuring them that he had not been from home in a Fortnight before with which Asseveration and the Testimony of his Neighbours the Soldiers were so well satisfied that they departed without going up the stairs at all The old Gentlewoman being told that Afternoon by a Country-man who came to her house that he heard the King had upon his retreat beaten his Enemies at Warrington Bridge and that there were three Kings come in to his assistance As soon as he was gon she went up and related the story to his Majesty for his divertisement who smiling answered surely they were the three Kings of Cullen come down from Heaven for he could not imagine what other Kings they
should be at which time looking out at the Closet Window he saw two Soldiers passing by on the Road telling Huddleston that he knew one of them to be a Highlander and of his own Regiment who little imagined his King and Colonel to be so near and thereupon entred into some discourse with him about the particulars of the Battel at Worcester who told him that his Counsels had been sooner discovered to the Rebels than executed by his Loyal Subjects On Wednesday about one in the morning Lane himself brought the Horses to conduct him to Wilmot who went the day before to Lanes House at Bently At his departure from Whitgrave's he acknowledged his gratuity by returning them many thanks giving them directions to repair to a Merchant in London who should have order to furnish them with Mony and means to convey them beyond the Sea if their entertaining of him should happen to be discovered promising moreover that if ever God should restore him to his Crown he would not be unmindful of their civilities And so being furnish'd with a Cloak and Boots he went to a corner of the Orchard where Lane attended him and went with him to Bently where according to his intention he took the opportunity of her Pass and rode before her to Bristol the Lord Lord Wilmot attending him at a distance The King being somewhat indisposed in body complained to Mistris Lane that his Cloak wearied him whereupon she desired her Father who likewise rode with them to carry it for him but she had not rode far before she met her Brother-in-law who demanded if her Father must carry her man's Cloak she replied to wipe off all suspicion that it was so big that it often endangered the throwing her down or otherwise she would not have been so uncivil And no sooner was they rid of this danger but they met with one far greater for being to pass through a Town where a Troop of Horse was drawn up as if on purpose to oppose their passage he began to fear the worst but the Captain was very civil and taking them for honest Travellers as indeed they were commanded his Troop to open to the Right and Left and give them free and quiet passage To intermix so many Tragical stories with a little mirth I cannot pass by an accident which happened to him at Leigh which although surrounded with so many misfortunes made him laugh at the conceit of it For being left there in the Kitchin under the notion of a Serving-man the Maid entred into discourse with him inquiring where he was born what trade he was how long he had lived with Mistris Lane and several such Question suitable to a Kitchin Maids curiosity to which he replied he was born at Brumingham and was a Nâ—ylors Son But the Jack being down she desired him to wind it up which task he willingly undertook but being unskilful therein went the wrong way about it and was like to have spoiled the Jack whereupon the Maid highly incensed it being usual with Cooks to be of cholerick dispositions vented her passion in Billingsgate terms asking him Where he was bred and telling him he was the most ignorant fellow she ever saw in her life that could not tell how to wind up a Jack with other such kind of Language as came uppermost which being uttered with much vehemence made him notwithstanding his present condition walk out of the Room smiling This Gentleman having great resort to his House he feared it might occasion a discovery of his Person he seigned himself sick of an Ague and under that pretence kept his Chamber all day and came down only at nights and that his Disease might appear real he desired of the Butler a Glass of Wine who courteously invited him into the Cellar and there forced him to drink two or three Healths one to his Majesty and another to his Mother But at length by something he observed in him notwithstanding his Disguise he suspected him to be the King and thereupon falling on his knees begged his Pardon and assured him he would be faithful to him in whatsoever he should command him of which he took little or no notice but having drunk off his Wine went away Whereupon the Butler's suspicion increasing he went up and inquired of M. Lassel who though angry at the Butler's inquisitiveness yet he demanded the reason of it and the Butler whispering him in the ear told him he believed it was the King upon which unexpected accident he sent for him up and acquainted him with the Butlers suspicion who though he was displeased with his not having acquainted him first with it yet putting confidence in him denied it not and afterward found him very instrumental in his conveyance through the Country Being desirous to free himself from all dangers of discovery he was desirous to hasten his putting out to Sea but though there lay a little Bark there deemed very fit for that purpose yet the Master would for no reward be prevailed upon to transport a single Person whereupon unwilling to tempt Providence too far he resolved to go farther West to a Noble Gentlemans House whom he knew to be a trusty friend being accompanied thither by Mr. Lassell and Mrs. Lane where he was concealed for about a week and at last preparation was made for his passage But coming to the place where it was provided he chanced to dine with a Colonel of the Parliament Army whereupon fearing that his embarking singly might raise some suspicion in him he rather chose to lose the benefit of his passage than after so many Storms and Tempests to split upon a Rock within sight of Harbour and therefore returned to the place from whence he came from whence after about three weeks longer concealment he was conveyed through by-ways to a Gentlemans House in Sussex where having continued some few days and the heat of the search after him being now pretty well over he was at last furnish'd with a small Vessel which took him in at Sharrem a little Creek in that County and Landed him near Havre-de-grace in Normandy When the Skipper saw him he was a little daunted for he presently knew him having seen him divers times before but having somewhat collected himself he said since he had undertaken so good a work he was resolved to venture hanging rather than not perform it to which the King replied he need not put himself upon that hazard for if he pleased he should go along with him where he should not want as long as he was able to provide for him Hamilton Darby Lauderdale Gifford and the rest having thus disposed of the King in a way of security march'd from White-Ladies Northward by the way of Newport in hope to overtake or meet General Lesley with the main Body of the Scotch Horse but assoon as they were got into the Road the Lord Leviston who commanded his Majesties Life-Guard overtook them being pursued by a Party of
Rebels whereupon the Lords with their followers faced about and repelled them But when they were got a little beyond Newport some of Lilburn's Regiment meeting them in the Front and other Rebels from Worcester pursuing them in the Rear themselves and Horses being very much beaten out and tired Darby Lauderdale Gifford and some others were taken and carried Prisoners first to Whit-Church and then to an Inn in Banbury from whence Gifford found means to escape But Darby was conveyed to Westchester and there tryed by a pretended Court Marshal held by a Commission from Cromwel grounded on an execrable Rump Act which traiterously pretended to prohibit all correspondence with Charles Stuart under penalty of High-Treason loss of Life and Estate by which he was condemned to lose his Life notwithstanding his just Plea that he had Quarter granted him by Captain Edge who took him Prisoner and was shortly after Executed at Bolton in Lancashire in a most Barbarous and unhuman manner Lauderdale and others were conveyed first to the Tower and afterward to Windsor Castle where they continued divers years But whilst the Rebels were plundering those Noble Persons whom they had taken Prisoners the Duke with Leviston Blague Darcey May and others forsook the Road and betaking themselves to a by-way got into Cessardine Woods not far from Newport where they received some refreshment at a little obscure House and afterward by two honest Labourers whom they met withal in an adjoyning Wood and to whom they communicated the misery and distress which the fortune of War had reduced them to were directed to places of safety The Duke in imitation of his Royal Master quitting his Horse and delivering his George which was given him by the Queen Mother to Mr. May who having preserved it in several eminent dangers restored it to him again in Holland and changing habit with one of the Workmen he was in that disguise conveyed to the House of one Mr. Haley at Bistrop in Nottinghamshire Leviston and the rest all quitted their Horses likewise and severally shifted for themselves The King being safely Landed in Normandy he went forthwith to Diepe where he provided himself with such necessaries as might serve him until he came to his Mother in the French Court who so soon as they heard of his safe arrival sent several Persons of Quality to meet him with great Pomp as became his Person who received him with much gladness and very much rejoyced at his safety conveying him to Paris in the Duke of Orleans his own Coach where he found such a welcom as his Person and Worth deserved and as great as that Court could express for the safety of their best Allie and by his Mother and the two Dukes with as great a joy as became them upon the receiving of him whom they once thought had been lost and perished These Complements being once over he pursued his interest in Holland by the mediation of his Sister the Princess of Orange and his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia indeavouring to prevail with them according to their former promises to undertake a War against the English Parliament which they accordingly did but being not able to cope with the Valour of the English nor prevail against that success which seemed to be entailed to the Rump in all their undertakings they were unsuccessful therein and it contributed very little toward the promoting of his designs The King being once again excluded out of all his Dominions they quickly after reduced Corn-Castle in the Isle of Guernsey the Isle of Man and all other places both in England Scotland and Ireland which stood out for him Which was no sooner done but there happened a strange alteration in the Scene of affairs in England for Cromwel whose ambition was now ripe knowing that he could not expect a fairer opportunity to Usurp that supreme Power which he had so long been aspiring too in regard every one began now to grow weary of the base actions of the Rump whose dilatory proceedings and apparent intentions of perpetuating themselves rendred them hateful to all Mankind he entred into their House attended by some of his principal Officers where having delivered divers reasons why he thought that Parliament ought to be Dissolved and a period put to its sitting He commanded them notwithstanding they were his Masters and from whom he derived his Commission immediately to depart which was done accordingly for how unwilling soever they were to obey yet it was now out of their Power to dispute his Authority so that those who had murthered one King and refused to restore a second were turned out of door and deprived of all Authority and Power by their own Servant Whereat the whole Nation rejoyced and scarce a Man grieved for their Dissolution but themselves every one believing that though the Nation might not peradventure be bettered by that change yet it was almost impossible it should be worse but however Cromwel fearing that some might be discontented with his Proceedings Published a large and specious Declaration shewing his Reasons for his Dissolving of them But his design being only to make himself great he did not intend to give relief by taking away the tyranny but by changing of it only and therefore instead of that Juncto which he pulled down set up another of his own arbitrary election who knowing before-hand what they had to do after having sate a while resigned up their power to him who resolving to make the best of that resignation pretended that the whole Supream Power and Authority of the three Kingdoms both Civil and Military was thereby in course devolved upon him and thereupon calling a Councel of Officers to consult about setling the Government they resolved after several debates to have a Common-wealth in a single person and that person should be Oliver Cromwel by the name and style of Lord Protector c. He at first seemingly refused the Dignity altho' it was the only thing he aimed at but being press'd by the Officers of the Army he consented to accept of it and was install'd with great pomp in the Chancery-Court at Westminster-hall and shortly after concluded a Peace with the Dutch He was afterward importuned by his Parliament to exchange his Title of Lord Protector for that of King which he refused and chose rather to continue the old The King when he came into France found that Court very much embroil'd on the account of some mis-understandings between the Prince of Conde and other Princes of the Blood and the Cardinal Mazarine which he undertook to compose urging his own danger to the King and advising him to beware how he provok'd his Subjects and urging the King's power to the Princes of the Blood whereby he unhappily drew upon himself the jealousies of both parties being suspected by the Cardinal to be for the Princes and by them to take part with him against their interest which they were the more induced to believe because he withdrew the
Lorrain Forces from their Service and imployed them to reduce Ireland knowing that the winning that was the most probable way for the obtaining of England and promising in recompence to make that Duke Duke of Ireland but they thought he only aimed at their disappointment upon the account of which misinterpretations of his peaceable design in his endeavours to reconcile them he was forced to retire for some time to St. Germans his Mother being scarce able to stay at the Louvre for the unreasonable and causless clamours of the mistaken multitude but when their heat and fury was over he returned thither again where he staid for some time longer in great esteem with that Court until the subtle Cardinal began under-hand to make a Peace with Cromwel and when he could not by all the means he used prevent its taking effect he retired toward Germany knowing that the issue of it would be a fair complementing of him out of their Dominions and banishing of him out of his very exile Upon his arrival in Germany he is entertained by the Elector of Cologn and during his stay in that Court he had an interview with the Queen of Sweden whom as the Report went he was to have married had he not disliked her light and Frenchified Deportment In the interview he thank'd her for all those civilities which she had for his sake shewed to any of his Friends and particularly to Montross to which she replied their own and his worth deserved no less There was present at this interview the King 's two Brothers the Dukes of York and Glocester the latter whereof was sent for by him from Paris upon information that his Mother had a design to put him into the Jesuits Colledge and breed him up in the Popish Religion to which he was always an irreconcileable Enemy and therefore would not permit his Brother to be brought up in it And so pregnant an instance of his intire love to and resolution to defend the Protestant Religion profess'd in the Church of England was his proceedings in this Affair even in those days when there was so little hopes to see it ever restored again that I think it worthy of a perpetual remembrance and therefore shall here insert the chief circumstances relating to it Having designed to take the Duke of Glocester with him into Germany he was prevail'd upon by the Queen to leave him with her at Paris promising that she would not permit any force to be put upon him for the prevailing with him to change his Religion but that he should be attended by those Protestant Servants which himself had placed about him and have free liberty to resort to the Publick Service of the Church of England at the King's Chappel which was then at Sir Richard Brown's house whom he left as his Resident in Paris But not long after his departure the Duke under pretence of weaning him from the company of some young French Gallants who being in the same Academy were grown into a more familiar conversation with him than was thought convenient was removed to Abbot Mountague's house at his Abby near Pontoise and after he had been there a few days Mr. Lovel who was his Tutor going to Paris for one day only upon business designedly contrived as was suspected by the Abbot during his absence he was vehemently press'd by the Abbot with all the strongest Motives Spiritual or Temporal that he thought might prevail upon him to turn Roman Catholick and having no Protestant near him at that time to advise withal but Mr. Griffin of his Bed-Chamber a Gentleman about his own age both of them not being able to make much more than Thirty he doubted not but to prevail But notwithstanding the greenness of his years such was his zeal for his Religion that after having made ingenious Replies to all the Abbots Arguments he told him that he very much admired how he durst make that attempt upon him knowing that the Queen had engaged her word to the King that no change of his Religion should be endeavoured And telling him that for his own part he was resolved not to incurr the King's displeasure by neglecting to observe his Royal Command whereby he expresly forbid him to listen to any Arguments which should be used with him for the change of his Religion And that as to the specious Pretences of making him a Cardinal or procuring of him to be advanced to the English Throne he did with indignation and contempt deride and reject them complaining withal of his being disingeniously dealt with by his being thus assaulted in the absence of his Tutor whom the King had placed over him and who he believed could easily refute the strongest of his Arguments Which upon his return he did so fully that it was thought convenient to remove the Duke back again to Paris where he was permitted to resort to the King's Chappel and enjoy the free exercise of his Religion for the present though it was not long that he did so for after some little time the Queen own'd the attempt done on him to be with her own approbation declaring that she could not but endeavour notwithstanding her Promise to the King that he should not be forced to have her Son shewed the right way to Heaven and to have that way proposed to him which she thought most requisite for the guiding him thereunto And that she might notwithstanding that repulse prevail upon him by degrees his Protestant Tutor was put from him and himself hurried out of Paris in great hast thereby to deprive him of the assistance of any Protestant and conveyed to Mr. Croft's house but under the care of Abbot Mountague none of his Servants but Griffin being permitted to attend him The News whereof did deeply affect all the Loyal Protestant Exiles then in Paris but especially the Lord Hatton who understanding how violently that young Prince was persecuted for his Religion he consulted with that famous Confessor for the Church of England Dr. Cousins then Dean of Peterborough and Chaplain to his Majesty and since the King's Restauration Bishop of Durham who thereupon drew up what Arguments and Instructions he thought convenient to fortifie the Duke in that violent assault And knowing how strictly he was guarded from the access of any Protestant he being by his Lady related to the Abbot went to give him a visit but his design was soon guessed at and tho' he obtain'd for that time access to the Duke yet he was so carefully watch'd that it was not without much difficulty that he unperceived conveyed to him the Instructions that he had prepared for him and was forced for the future to vary his stratagems to procure farther Advices to be from time to time delivered to him And so narrowly was the Duke eyed by the Popish Spies set over him and the Priests who were uncessantly torturing of him with their pressures to change his Religion that he had no opportunity to peruse any of
defence the French Marquess finding himself over-match'd by their Reasons in great passion return'd without the success suspected at the Palace-Royal where the French Queen stayed very late till he came back whose Report when both Queen 's heard they were then so fully satisfied in the Duke's firmness to his Religion that after that time no considerable attempt was made on him altho' he continued for near two Months there being nobly entertained all that time by the Lord Hatton until through his and the Marquess of Ormond's interest Necessaries were provided for his going into Germany to the King From the interview of the Queen of Sweden which was held at a small Village near Frankford at the same time when the Fair was there he returned with great satisfaction to Cologn where he was welcomed with all imaginable demonstrations of Joy by the Magistrates and the whole City where he had not staid long before the Duke of York came to him being complemented away from France upon the conclusion of the Treaty with Cromwel notwithstanding his incomparable worth discovered in the Court and in the Camp where he behaved himself so well that the Duke of Longueville was willing to have match'd his Daughter to him altho' he was in exile and the Marshal Turein commended him in the time of his sickness to the French King as the fittest person to be Commander in chief of all his Forces And so desirable was his company â—â—ong all Princes that Don Lewis de 〈◊〉 and Don John of Austria mighâ—y importun'd him to come over to â—â—em in Flanders which invitation he â—â—cepted of and he repaired thither 〈◊〉 to promote his own cause and 〈◊〉 King of Spains affairs in order â—â—reunto he commanded all his â—â—glish Scotch and Irish Subjects in those â—â—rts to be listed for his Service which â—â—ounted to about three or four thouâ—â—â—d besides the two Regiments of 〈◊〉 and Glocester and maintained a â—â—â—nstant correspondence with his â—â—iends in England which Cromwel susâ—â—cted but had no certain knowledge â—â—ereof having now no Mannings in the â—â—ngs Court to betray his Majesties seâ—â—ets wherefore he contrived a Plot â—o which by his Emissaries he ensnaâ—â—d the reverend Dr. Huet Sir Henry 〈◊〉 and others and had them tryed â—â—fore a High Court of Justice and â—â—ndemned and executed for that preâ—â—ded Conspiracy But though he â—as represented to the City by Cromwel 〈◊〉 be twenty thousand strong when he â—as acquainting them with the pretenâ—â—nded Plot against him yet he was not able to attempt any thing upon 〈◊〉 own account in regard his Forces weâ—â— but inconsiderable for number 〈◊〉 therefore he joyned them with tâ—â— Spaniards and at one attempt to 〈◊〉 the Siege of Dunkirk were defeate and almost all slain being deserted 〈◊〉 the Spaniards who were not able to eâ—dure the hot charge that Cromwels Sâ—â—diers gave them notwithstanding 〈◊〉 endeavours of the undaunted York 〈◊〉 rally them who did Wondâ—â— with his own Regiment putting 〈◊〉 whole French and English Army oâ— to a disorder and twice to a stand 〈◊〉 his own Guard only and some 〈◊〉 remnant of his overthrown Forces 〈◊〉 which defeat the Kings whole desiâ—â— being disappointed he betook himâ—â— from his Arms to his Prayers and aâ—pealed from Earth to Heaven Hoâ—ever he still remained in Flanders 〈◊〉 kept his Court in Bruges about 〈◊〉 Leagues from Brussels About this 〈◊〉 Cromwel being resolved to continue 〈◊〉 Protectorship in his own Family 〈◊〉 the matter so that his Parliamâ—â—â— should earnestly Petition solemnly â—â—vise him to name his Successor 〈◊〉 was the thing he chiefly desired notwithstanding all his former Oaths and Protestations against suffering the Nation to be rul'd by any single Person which when the King heard he said to a Person of quality who was then by him that Cromwell had certainly lay'd the best Foundation that a short and troublesom reign could possibly admit of at once to deprive him of his just and rightful Dominions and to settle his own Posterity in his unjust and usurpt Authority And when he receiv'd the news of his death he shew'd an admirable calmness and serenity of Spirit Reason Religion and Discretion having such a powerful command over his passions that though it seem'd in all probability to be a considerable step toward his Restauration in regard his most implacable as well as successful Enemy was now gone yet he did not discover any extraordinary symptoms of Joy But as that great alteration in England did change all the publick Councels of Europe in general so did it likewise somewhat alter his for he now set up new negotiations in most of the forraign Courts that so he might not be wanting to himself whilst there were the most hopeful designs that had ever yet been on foot in England for the promoting his Journeys The new Protector being look't upon as one weary of that power which was then desolv'd upon him in regard he knew himself to have as little ability to manage it as he had right to enjoy it and was suppos'd not to have that implacable aversation to the Royal Family which his Father had always discover'd However it was not long before the Army thrust him from his Throne and set up the Rump again which his Father had pull'd down after which there were so many alterations and new forms of Government that it is almost impossible to give the World a particular account of them every Week almost producing some new Model or other and there springing up some new Heads of that Hydra-Common-Wealth The King was not in the mean time idle but laid out all his Interest and Policy for the promoting his designs and the procuring such supplies as might encourage those Loyal Subjects that incessantly endeavour'd by his Restauration to restore their Native Countrey from the Paws of those Lions into which it was fallen and themselves to the Glorious Liberty of being â—â—bject to so great and good a Prince 〈◊〉 although Holland offered fairly 〈◊〉 some Princes with the Emperor of â—â—rmany began now to pity forlorn â—â—d exiled Majesty especially dwelling 〈◊〉 a Prince of that worth as he was acâ—â—unted to be by all those who had 〈◊〉 happiness to know him yet the â—â—eatest hope and expectation from any 〈◊〉 those Forraign Affairs was the peace â—â—at was then mediating by the Pope beâ—â—een the two Kingdoms of France and â—â—ain managed by the two great Faâ—â—urites of each Kingdom the Cardiâ—â—l Mazarine and the Count de Olivarez â—â—on the Borders of St. Jean de Luz â—hich if it succeed must in all probaâ—â—lity prove advantageous to his affairs 〈◊〉 regard both Crowns could not upon â—â—e conclusion of peace between them â—estow their Forces upon any service â—â—at would render more to their honour â—â—an that of endeavouring his Restauâ—â—tion although he rather desired to â—mploy their Interest than their Arms 〈◊〉 intended to let England know what â—â—ey might do for him rather then to â—ake them feel the effects of any
John Owen and Sir Thomas Midleton who declared their just sence of the grievances of that Commonwealth whereof they were Members and their resolution to have the Laws Liberties and Properties of the People establisht by a free Parliament which was all that was intended at that time by those commissioned by his Majesty in regard designs were to be discover'd gradually and by peice meals only as occasion and opportunity should require Notwithstanding the Rump had prevented most of those designed insurrections yet that of Sir George Booth who was one of their secluded Members appeared very formidable wherefore they resolve with all imaginable Speed to suppress it and in order thereunto having first proclaimed Sir Thomas Booth Sir Thomas Middleton Coll. Warren and Major General Egerton and all the rest of their Adherents Traytors to the Commonwealth they commanded Lambert to march with three Regiments of Horse the like number of Foot and some Dragoons to reduce him and his Forces to their obedience ordering some militia Forces and some Regiments out of Ireland under Zaachy and Axtell to joyn with him for his assistance therein Coll. Desbrough being likewise sent by them with the same command and some Forces into the West to redeem Midleton and a Proclamation issued out against Mordant the Earl of Lichfield Major General Brown and William Compton Sir Thomas Levinthorp and Mr. Fensher the three last wherof surrendring themselves within the time prefixt therein the two first fled and the major General waiting another opportunity absconded himself at Stationers Hall where he was preserved by the faithful Secrecy of Captain Barrough And the Earl of Samford who was likewise engaged in that business was taken at his own house in Arms and carryed Prisoner to Lester which was at that time the condition of many other Loyal Gentlemen the Earle of Oxford being committed Prisoner to the Serjeant at Arms the Lords Faulkland and Dellaneer to the Tower whither not long after was brought the Lords Faulconbridge Bellasis Chesterfield Castleton and Howard Lambert in his march toward the confines of Chester made no very great haste being desirous to make a lasting war of it whereby he hoped to settle himself the better in the affections of the Soldiers and thereby tread the step that Cromwel had done before him however such methods were taken by his Masters that very few accessions of Strength came in to Sir George more then what were at first numbred who nevertheless bravely resolved to abide the fortune of battel and justifie the equity of their cause by the dint of Sword In order thereunto they drew up near Nantwich whether Lambert was advancing in the adjoyning meadows having the Rivers before them and the Bridges strongly guarded but Lamberts Horse and Foot resolutely faling on together at the Bridge the post was soon gained and the fight as quickly over the chief defence being made by Memorgan a loyal and valiant Gentleman who with some Horse of his Troop who presently died of his wounds There were in the flight about 3 hundred killed and five hundred taken prisoners among whom was most of the Gentlemen and Officers Lambert having obtained this victory presently advanced with his Army to Cheshire where Collonel Croxton still held out the Castle and had it presently delivered from whence he advanced to Liverpool which was yielded likewise by Coll Ireland and so was Chink and Harding Castles whereby that whole design perished and came to nothing Sir George himself had made his escape out of the Field and got away accompanied with four of his Servants only in disguise but being discovered at his Inn in Newport-pannel was taken and secured One Gibbons who immediately posted away to give the Rump an account of it was highly rewarded for that acceptable news and so were two or three others who were sent before from Lambert with the particulars of the Cheshire defeat when he was brought up to London Fleetwood was ordered to meet him with a guard at High-gate secure him to the Tower where he was the next day examined by Vane and Hazâ—erick as to his design and accomplices bâ—t such was his reservedness and resolution that notwithstanding their suspicion that the restoring of the King was at the bottom of it in regard Monk was said to be privately engaged with him in the same design Ormond being reported to have been seen about that time at his House at Dalkeith that they could get nothing out of him When this design was about to be put in execution the King withdrew himself privately from Brussels and lay privately upon the coast of Brittany about St. Malloes to take shipping for England upon the first good event of those loyal undertakings of his faithful Friends and Subjects Kent or Essex being designed for the place of his landing one Turene the French General having engaged to wait upon him if he would command it but the news of this unhappy defeat reaching his Royal Ears which had been too long accustomed to such unfortunate and unsuccesful stories he returned again to Brussels resolving for the present to give over the prosecuting of his Right by the sword and attend the good effects of the Treaty between France and Spain But being informed that affairs in England were as unsetled as before and that the Rump and the Army wholly applied themselves to undermine and subvert each other he would not wholly desist from attempting to carry on his interest there by the help and assistance of his Friends And therefore wisely considering that Monk who was then General in Scotland had formerly been in his Fathers Service wherein he was taken Prisoner and was thought to embrace the Parliament interest only because his Ransom was neglected and that during the whole time of his serving under them and the Protector he had not discovered any particular Spleen or Malice to his Person but had in all things carried himself as a Soldier of Fortune only who fought for his pay he conceived there might be some probable hopes of gaining him to his side if a dexterous application was made to him in regard he had not that guilt which others had contracted either by murdering of his Father or the malignity they had discovered against himself to render him jealous and suspicious of him And therefore resolving as near as possible to make use of the most peaceable and bloodless means to recover his lost Dominions he ordered Sir John Greenvile who was one of those Commissioners that resided at London for his service to find out some way to treat secretly with him But before Sir John would proceed therein he thought it convenient to inform him by whom and in what manner he had designed to do it which he did in a Letter written in Cyphers and directed to Sir Edward Hide at Brussels with whom only he was by the Kings order to correspond wherein he proposed the sending of Mr. Nicholas Monk who was Minister of his own Parrish
where-ever he met with him Upon the Report whereof by Morrice he was infinitely pleased and therefore ordered Morrice to give him notice that he would meet him at his Chamber sometime in the Evening of the next day Greenvile according to appointment repaired to Morrice's Chamber whither the General upon intimation of his being there came likewise soon after To whom after some Complements Greenvile declared that he looked upon himself as infinitely obliged to his Excellency for giving him that opportunity of discharging himself of a Trust of great importance in relation to the King the General and the whole Kingdom which had been long deposited in his hands by his Soveraign adding that he thought himself more happy in having that good occasion of performing his duty in obeying the Commands and promoting the Interest of his Soveraign than in any occurrence of his whole Life presenting him at the same time with a Letter directed to him from the King and producing another sent to himseâ—f together with a Commission which he had received from the King to treat with him about the business of his Restauration Whereupon the General suddenly stepped back and holding the Paper in his hand with a kind of a forced frown hastily demanded of him how he durst mention a thing of that nature to him without considering the danger he thereby run himself upon Greenvile replied He had long since considered that matter and duly weighed the danger which attended an attempt of that nature but the hazard though great was not sufficient to deter him from the performance of his duty And that he was the more encouraged to adventure by the Message which he was pleased to send him by his Brother before he left Scotland Upon the mention thereof without making any reply he presently approached towards him with a more pleasing aspect and embracing him in his Arms said Dear Couzen I return you my hearty thanks for the Prudence Fidelity Care and Constancy wherewith you have managed this great Affair and your resolute Secrecy therein For could I have informed my self that you had ever revealed it to any person living since you first acquainted my Brother therewith I would never have consented to treat with you about it which now I shall most willingly do and with you rather than any other in regard you are so nearly related to me and I have received so many obligations both from you and your Family And then having read the King's Letter and the Commission he added that he hoped the King would forgive what was past according to the Contents of his gracious Letter assuring him that his heart was ever faithful to him although he had never been in a condition to serve him until then desiring Sir John that he would in his name assure His Majesty that he was now not only ready to obey his Commands but to sacrifice his Life and Fortune in his Service calling Morrice who stood without as Door-keeper to bear witness of that his solemn Protestation Sir John desired him to send some Confident of his own to the King to treat and advise with him what was fit to be done for the better carrying on their Design to which he â—asily consented but told him that that Confident must be himself for he would not as yet adventure to send any Letters to the King for fear of the worst And that without them the King had no reason to give any Credit to a Messenger sent from him but might very well believe one whom himself had employed wherefore at the next Conference he received Instructions with a Charge not to commit them to Writing till he came to the King at Brussels and there to communicate them to none but himself Greenvile managed this Negotiation with such Secrecy and his Journey to Brussels was so speedy and fortunate that few knew of it before his arrival there and those who did nay that went in companâ— with him thither had not so much as the leaâ—â— suspicion what Errand it was he went on The King having intimation of his Arrival went privately to his Lodgings to whom Greenvile related the Instructions he had received from Monk which were readily believed although he brought nothing under the General 's hand The News whereof was very acceptable and highly welcom to the King whose joy upon that account was so much the greater because the General required no Conditions of Restraint to his Royal Power and had left the Reward of his Service wholly to his goodness as appeared by what himself declared to Greenvile upon the receipt of a Letter sent him by some of his Friends in England to acquaint him with the great Service they had done His Majesty in prevailing with Monk notwithstanding his being so absolute a Common-wealths-man they knowing nothing of his being pre-engaged by the King not to oppose his Return upon his Fathers Concessions in the Isle of Wight which Terms though hard and consented to by his Father only in consideration of his necessity yet they beâ—ought His Majesty not to think hard of them now lest his refusal might exclude him longer from the Crown Little do they think in England said the King that the General and I are upon so good Terms and the truth is I could hardly believe it my self until your Arrival with the happy News The General 's resolution to restore me to my Crown and Kingdom without Conditions beyond our expectations here or the belief of all our Friends in England except your self who was employed in it The King having been informed by Greenvile that Monk had declared he would not tie him to any Terms of Reward affirming that he took more content in doing His Majesty and his Country Service than in the expectation of greatness pressed Greenvile to know what he should do for himself But he according to the General 's Example nobly refused all Proposals of Reward for that Service in which he had been so eminently successful till he should have the happiness to see him at his Palace of Whitehall But the King resolving nor to send him back without a mark of his Royal Favour secretly put into his Pocket a Warrant under his Hand and Seal for an English Earldom and the assurance of three thousand pounds per Annum to be settled upon him and his Heirs for ever to support that Honour with a promise moreover to pay those Debts which either he or his Father had contracted by engaging themselves in the Royal Cause The King upon his receiving this Message from Monk consulted with Sir Edward Hide whom he had then nominated for the Lord Chancellor the Marquess of Ormond Secretary Nichols and some others of his Confidents Greenvile likewise being present what return he should make thereunto In which Privy Council there was a Commission drawn up and signed by the King for the constituting Monk Captain General of all his Land-Forces in the three Kingdoms and Publick Diâ—patches framed and signed
according to those Directions Greenvile had brought from him But the King not thinking that place convenient for the Treaty removed with great speed and privacy to Breda a Town belonging to his Sister the Princess of Orange being complemented at his departure from Flanders by the Spanish Governour and honourably conveyed on his way way as far as Antwerp from whence his Publick Dispatches into England were dated Greenvile upon his return besides the Generals Commission to be Captain General of all the Forces then raised or to be raised brought him the King's Seals and Signet by which he was empowered to make a Secretary of State which Honour he conferred upon Morrice who was after the King's return Knighted and confirmed therein in consideration of the Service he had done in introducing Greenvile to the General 's presence And besides those Publick Letters which he was to reserve to be communicated in due time he brought a Private one directed to the General himself written with the King 's own Hand to which he returned an Answer by Mr. Bernard Greenvile in regard his Brother could not then be spared the Parliament being just ready to fit when he was to present to both the Houses the King's Letters and Declaration which Answer was very welcom to the King for that it brought him an assurance under the General 's own Hand of his Resolution to adhere to him against all opposition whatsoever About this time Lambert made his escape from the Tower and endeavoured to make Parties and draw Forces together to oppose his Loyal and Generous Designs which he being informed of acquainted the Council of State therewith and managed the business with so great Prudence that timely â—care was taken to suppress him and that Attempt which in it self threatned the contrary was made by his Wisdom to advance the King's Interest and hasten his happy Restauration For Coll. Ingoldsby being sent against him and his Forces which â—e had got together forsaking him upon the Collonels approach he betook himself to flight but being upon plowed Land his Horse failed him and notwithstanding he had by his valour in many former Battels obtained the name of Stout he presently yielded himself without drawing his Sword or making any other Defence than only crying out twice Pray my Lord let me escape for what good will my Life or perpetual Imprisonment do you The time being now come for the meeting of a new Parliament both Houses repaired to St. Margarets Church where Dr. Reynolds preached before them and after Sermon they repaired to their Houses The Lords making choice of the Earl of Manchester for their Speaker And the Commons of Sir Harbottle Grimstone And having settled their Committees and thereby prepared for their entrance upon business adjourned for some few days in the interim whereof Greenvile conâ—â—lted with the General at what time and in what manner he should deliver his Messages from the King to the several parties to whom they were directed That which was superscribed to the General himself to be communicated by him to the Army and Council of State he thought fit to have delivered to him at the Door of the Council Chamber In order whereunto Greenvile repaired thither when the Council were sitting and told Coll. Birch who was one of the Members that he desired to speak with the General who upon Birch's Intimation came to the Door and in the view of his Guards who attended there received the Letters from Greenvile without shewing any other respect either to his Person or his Business than only demanding of him if he would stay for an Answer and telling him otherwise his Guards should secure him And having commanded them to look to him went in to the Council and communicated to them the Letters whereupon Birch being examined whether he knew any thing of the matter protesting he was altogether ignorant both of the Gentleman and his Business Greenvile was sent for iâ— and examined by the President from whence those Letters came whose they were and how he came by them for they had not yet proceeded to open and read them he answered that â—he King His Master gave them to him with his own Hand at Breda Having â—hereby informed themselves whence â—he Letters came they deferred the openâ—ng of them until the Parliament sate â—gain and would have committed Greenâ—ile had not the General told them that 〈◊〉 knew him very well and would anâ—wer for his appearance before the Parâ—â—ament which were no sooner sate 〈◊〉 he delivered his Letters with incloâ—â—d Declarations to both Houses whereâ—â— the King expressed abundance of â—mpassion and tenderness to the Naâ—â—on which had been so long harassed 〈◊〉 a bloody and unnatural War and proâ—ised a free and general Pardon to all 〈◊〉 should in forty days after the pubâ—â—ation thereof lay hold upon that Grace â—less such whom the Parliament should â—ink fit to be excepted from the benefit â—â—ereof And that he would preserve 〈◊〉 to the uttermost of his power 〈◊〉 from all manner of Injuries in their â—â—es and Estates and grant Liberty for â—â—der Consciences for such as dissented 〈◊〉 the Established Religion provided â—â—ey did not disturb the Peace of the Nation That as to Sales and Purchases 〈◊〉 would refer himself in all matters to thâ— Determinations of Parliament and coâ—sent to any Act or Acts for the satisfyinâ— the Arrears of the Army and Navy which should thenceforward be receiveâ— into his Service upon as good Pay anâ— Conditions as they then enjoyed Thâ— like Letters and Declarations being 〈◊〉 sent by the King and delivered to Genâ—â—ral Monâ—ague to be by him communiâ—â—ted to the Fleet and to the Lord Mayâ— and Common Council of London The King's Letters and Declaratiâ—â— were received by the Parliament 〈◊〉 such an extraordinary Joy and Venâ—â—tion that I want words wherewith 〈◊〉 express it for as if some strange 〈◊〉 had suddenly seized upon their minâ— every man at the Speaker's naming 〈◊〉 King rose up and uncovering himâ—â—â—â— desired they might be immediately 〈◊〉 which was no sooner done but in anâ—â—tasie of joy they suddenly drew the â—â—â—tain and exposed the beautiful and â—â—rious Scene to the open view of â—â—â—longing Spectators wherein every 〈◊〉 might plainly behold the happy Issuâ— all those various Transactions which 〈◊〉 till then been Riddles too mysterious for vulgar understandings to unfold or once imagine to what they tended or where they would terminate By the House of Lords resolving that they did own and declare that according to the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of England the Government was and ought to be by Kings and that a Committee of eight Lords should forthwith joyn with a Committee of the Commons to consider of an Answer to the King's Letter and Declaration And by the House of Commons resolving likewise to appoint a Committee to prepare an Answer to the King's Letter and therein express their great and joyful sense of his gracious offers and to return him their humble
and hearty thanks for the same and to assure him of their Loyalty and Duty And that they would give him a speedy Answer to his gracious Proposals Resolving moreover that the sum of 50000 l. should be presented him from that House and 10000 l. to each of his Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Glocester Which Resolves were no sooner reported in London then the Citizens were extreamly transported with Joy The harmony of Bells and the flaming Piles which enlighted every Street surrounded with incredible Shouts and Acclamations being sufficient demonstrations of the infinite Pleasure and Satisfaction which every one took in that no less strange than happy Revolution And the several Countries taking Allarm from London contended which should outvy the other in expressions of Loyalty and Joy And General Mountague having communicated to the Fleet the Letters he received from the King and the Duke of York together with those directed to the Parliament they unanimously declared their Resolution to adhere to him and to live and die in his defence humbly desiring the Generals to present the same to the King whereupon Mountague himself immediately fired a Gun crying God bless His Majesty and the whole Fleet. Thereupon presently appeared in its pride and glory with Pendants loose Guns roaring Caps flying and Vive le Roys loudly ecchoing from one Ships Company to another which were answered by the great Guns from Dale and Sandwich Castles nor was this Joy confined to England but spread it self into Scotland and Ireland also And now the Parliament longing for the King's presence amongst them as the Israelites did for the return of King David drew up a Letter in answer to that which they had receiv'd from him superscribing it to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty wherein they requested his speedy return to the exercise of his Kingly Office appointing Commissioners to go over to Holland and attend him during his stay there and in his Voyage for England There being six appointed for the House of Lords and twelve for the House of Commons to which upon the Request of the Lord Mayor and Common-Council of London was added twenty on the behalf of that City who having receiv'd their Instructions set sail for Holland with several Frigots appointed by the Parliament to attend them the whole Fleet being likewise committed to the King's pleasure the General whereof had Orders from the Parliament to obey such Orders and Directions as he should receive from His Majesty The Commissioners upon their arrival at Breda delivered their respective Messages with all imaginable reverence and veneration according to the Instructions they had received from their Principals beseeching His Majesty in the name of his Parliament and People to return to his Inheritance and re-assume his Crown and Scepter assuring him that he should be infinitely welcome to them without any Tearms which Invitation was gladly accepted and the Commissioners were received by him with a Grace and Port like himself and entertain'd with extraordinary Magnificence and Bounty The Parliament in the mean time proceeded to the Proclaiming of him which was perform'd with all that Joy Splendor and Magnificence that their Loyalty could inspire the Lord General attended by all the Peers the most Eminent of the Commons the Lord Mayor and Aldermen with the Trained Bands of London assisting at the Ceremony The Proclamation being as followeth viz. Although it can no way be doubted but that his Majesties Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the Death of his Most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation yet since Proclamations in such cases have been always used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect and since the Armed violence and other Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived us of any opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now Assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common-Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and Unanimously acknowledge and Proclaim that immediately upon the Decease of our late Soveraign King Charles the First the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by Inherent Birth-right and Lawful undoubted Succession Descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty King Charles the Second as being Lineally Justly and Lawfully next Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God he is of England Scotland and Ireland the Most Potent Mighty and Undoubted King and thereunto we Most Humbly and Faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever At the reading whereof the whole City rang with the Sound of God Save and God Bless King Charles the Second the Shouts and Acclamations of the crowding multitudes being so extraordinary that although all the Bells throughout the City and Suburbs were then Ringing their Noise was not to be heard The King having now by his extraordinary Wisdom and Conduct thus happily contriv'd his return to his Crown and Kingdom without the spilling of his Subjects Blood and having brought his Affairs to their desired Issue prepared to leave Holland and after so long and tedious an Exile returned to his Harass'd and almost ruined Realms being upon his departure Splendidly Treated by the Dutch for a Fortnight together with all the Pomp and Magnificence imaginable and presented with the Richest Bed and Furniture together with Tapestry for Hangings Embossed with Gold and Silver and adorned with Pictures that could be procured and Highly Complemented by all the Forreign Ministers then Resident there For these Noble Entertainments which together with the Present of the Dutch about one hundred Thousand Pounds he gave the States General and those of Holland his Hearty Thanks in their Publick Assemblies whither he went on Foot and having taken his leave of them and commended to them the interest of his Sister and his Nephew the Prince of Orange they delivered their sence of the present circumstance of Affairs and declared the greatness of that joy they conceived for his Miraculous Restauration in the following Speech If one may judge of the content which we have to see your Majesty depart from our Province by the satisfaction we had to possess you we shall have no great trouble to make it known to you your Majesty might have observed in the countenance of all our People the Joy they had in their Hearts to see a Prince cherished of God a Prince wholly miraculous and a Prince that is probable to make a part of their quietness and felicity your Majesty shall see presently all the Streets filled all the ways covered and all the Hills loaden with People which will
by his Predecessors Whereupon rising out of the Chair He was led by His two Supporters to the Communion Table where he made a solemn Oath to observe those things he had before promised and then returning to his Chair again kneeled at the Footstool while the Hymn of the Holy Ghost was Singing Then he arose from his Devotion and disrobed himself of his upper Garment and his under Garment being so contrived that the Places to be Anointed might be opened by undoing certain Loops The Arch Bishop proceeded to that Ceremony after which the Coife was put on his head and the Dalmatica the Super-Tunica of Cloath of Gold and the Tissue Buskins and Sandals of the same And the Spurrs being put on by the Peer that carried them the Arch-Bishop took the Kings Sword and laid it on the Communion Table which after Prayer was restored to him again and girt on him by the Lord Great Chamberlain then the Armil and the Mantle or Open Pall was put on after which the Arch-Bishop taking the Crown into his hands laid it on the Communion Table and having prayed took it up again and set it on the Kings head whereupon all the Peers put on their Coronets and Caps and the Choire Sung an Anthem Then the Arch-Bishop took the Kings Ring and having prayed put it on the fourth finger of the Kings hand after which the King took off his Sword and offered it up which the Lord Great Chamberlain having redeemed drew it out and carried it naked before him Then the Arch-Bishop delivered the Scepter with the Cross into his Right and the Rod with the Dove into his Left hand and the King kneeling blessed him after which the King ascended His Throne Royal attended by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal where after Te Deum Sang all the Peers did their Homage Kissing his leâ—t Cheek and afterward standing all round about him they every one in their order toucht the Crown upon his head promising their readiness to support it to the utmost of their Power and then proceeding to the Communion the King having received and offered returned to his Throne till Communion was ended after which he went into St. Edwards Chappel and taking his Crown from his head delivered it to the Bishop of London who having laid it upon the Communion Table the King withdrew into a Traverse where the Lord Great Chamberlain disrobed him of St. Edwards Robes delivering them to the Dean of Westminster and arrayed him with those prepared for that day and then being conducted to the Communion Table in St. Edwards Chappel the Crown Imperial provided for him to wear was set up â—n his head After which taking the Scepter and the Rod and his Train being set in order before him he went up to the Throne and so through the Choire and Body of the Church out at the West door to the Pallace at Westminster the Peers according to their Rank going before him with their Coronets on and in the great Hall at the upper end whereof was a Table and Chair of State raised upon an ascent for the King and below Tables for the Nobility the Lord Mayor and Citizens the Officers at Arms c. they were entertained with a Noble and Magnificent dinner after which he returned in his Barge to White-Hall It is very observable that althoâ— it had rained for about a month before yet it pleased God that not one drop fell upon this Splendid Triumph which appeared in its full Lustre and Grandeur but was no sooner over and the King and his Traine sat down to Dinner but it fell a Thundering Lightning and Raining with the greatest Force Vehemency and Noise that was ever known at that season of the Year the Thunder and Lightning seeming as it were to imitate the Fire and Noise of the Cannon which then plaid from the Tower it being observed that they exactly kept time with that loud Musick so that they were easily distinguishable from each other the Thunder and lightning still intermitting between each firing of the Canons as if they had waited to receive and answer the Reciprocated and ecchoed Boation and Clashes of the Guns which was taken by the most Judicious and discerning part of Mankind for a very auspicious and promising Omen notwithstanding the mad Remnant of the Rebellion would have had it paralled to Sauls Inauguration without reflecting upon the Season or the Different case between the Ancient Kingly Right and Descent in Christendom and that new Title and Government in Jewry which in regard of the peculiar presence of God amongst them before was a kind of casting him off and declaring they would not have him to Reign over them There was not only in London but through the whole Kingdom great rejoycing for the Kings Coronation which was manifested by Feasting and other Publick shews as Trayning the several Bands of the Countryes with the additional Voluntary Gentry in a new and gallant Cavalry And so there was in Scotland and Ireland in each whereof there was likewise the same kind of Tryumphs in resemblance of this Magnificence And having with as much Brevity as possible glided through this Sphere of Glory in which the Ancient honour of the Government and Kingdom was refixt and given the World the full and compleat View of that wonderful Revolution which will undoubtedly be the amazement of all succeeding Ages each Luminary being thereby placed and shining in their proper Orbs and degrees the Soveraign Nobility Clergy Gentry and Commonalty having by that blessed change recovered their former and distinct Lustre and from being the scorn and derisâ—on were once again become the Envy of the World I shall proceed to shew by what Rules and Methods he managed the Government throughout his whole Raign and therein shall begin First with his Calling a Parliament with whom he desired to meet and consult for the more effectual healing the Breaches uniting the Differences and redintegrating the mutual Affections and Endearments which the unnaturalness and perverse malignity and divisions of the late times had abrupted and hitherto discontinued When he dissolved that Parliament or Convention which was sitting when he came in He promised the calling of a new one and accordingly Issued out His Writs soon after for their sitting down the Eighth of May a little before which several Musters had been made in England of the Militia and a General Train in Hide-Park of all the Forces about London both Horse and Foot Fifteen Regiments whereof he there took a view of The chief Stickling in the Election of Members for this Parliament was between the Episcopal and Presbyterian Parties the Latter whereof notwithstanding their Numbers found themselves greatly mistaken in the suffrages of the Kingdom when under no Awe nor distempered with a Frenzy and a misguided Zeal For altho several Letters were dispatcht by the chief Ministers of that Perswasion to their Correspondents wherein they exhorted them to do their utmost in procuring such persons
Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle which was performed with abundance of splendor at Colchester the place which they had bravely defended for him and where they were at its Reduction basely shot to death all the Gentry of those Parts together with the Townesmen in Armes and Mourning attending their Hearses As he had done a little before for the Earl of Montross in Scotland Count Coningsmark who was sent hither from the Young King and Queen of Sweden being upon his departure another more splendid Embassy was sent from thence at whose Reception near the Tower a Fray or Conflict happened between the French and Spanish Ambassadors upon a Quarrel for Precedency whose Coach should follow next after that wherein the Swedish Ambassador rode Both Parties came prepared for the Encounter but the French were basely worsted and seven or eight of them slain which was like to have proved the ground of a new War between those Crowns the French King sending a Messenger to Madrid to demand satisfaction But at the entreaty of the new married Queen and the Spanish King consenting that the French Ambassador should for the time to come have the Precedency upon such occasions the difference was composed Now also several Prisoners in the Tower Regicides and others were by reason of the unwearied Practices of their Parties abroad sent to several remote Castles and Islands for securing the Peace The adjournment being expired the Parliament met again on the 20th of November when the Lords Spiritual the Bishops by vertue of the Act of Repeal made in the former Session took their places again in Parliament which the King was very much pleased to behold and in his Speech to both Houses did Congratulate with them for their enjoyment of their former priviledges as a Felicity he had much desired to see accomplisht in that goodly restored and re-establisht Fabrick of the Government and the Regicides that came in upon Proclamation and were upon that account respited after Sentence to the Pleasure of the Parliament being brought to the Bar of the House of Lords and demanded what they had to say Why Judgment should not pass upon them according to Sentence pleaded the Proclamation Harry Martyn adding that he never obeyed any Proclamation before and therefore hoped he should not be then hanged for taking the Kings word whereupon they were remanded back again to the Tower till further Order Ireland having been hitherto governed by three Lords Justices The Duke of Ormond having been a faithful Servant and constant Attender upon the King in all his Troubles was now nominated Deputy of that Kingdom and Episcopacy after it had been so long banished out of Scotland and so many Miseries and Confusions had befallen that Kingdom through the Fury and Zeal of the Kirke was reduced with all gladness and sufficient testimonies of a welcome reception the four Bishops that had been a little before Consecrated at Lambeth restored whereof Dr. James Sharpe Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews and Metropolitan of Scotland was one who Consecrated others in that Kingdom the whole Order being defunct by the long Usurpation of the Presbyterian Discipline A Fleet was at this time sent to fetch home the Queen from Portugal and carry Forces to Garrison Tangier which being part of the Queens Dowry was delivered by them to Sir Richard Stayner who with Five Hundred Men had taken possession of it in his Masters behalf and was to maintain it till the Earl of Peterborough who was nominated for Governour should arrive and the King supposing her to be by this time at Sea on her way for England acquainted the Parliament therewith and desired that as a Complement to her they would cause the Streets and High-wayes of London to be fitted and cleansed against Her Reception This Royal Bride seems to have been fitted and predisposed by Heaven for his Princely Embraces for besides being designed for him by her Father in the beginning of the late Troubles her Family had suffered a long Eclipse by the interposition of the Spanish Monarchy for the space of near one hundred Years and had now newly recovered its Splendor by her Fathers assuming the Crown which was almost as miraculous a Revolution and as strange a turn of Providence as that of our Captivity by his recovery of his Dominions On the 14th of May She arrived safe at Portsmouth in the Charles which had brought the King over to England after a tedious and dangerous Voyage the joy whereof served to alleviate the grief and wipe away the Tears occasioned by the death of his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia who died a little before having lived to survive all the Misfortunes of her Family which almost from the very time of Her Marriage in the Year One Thousand Six Hundred and Twelve had fallen very thick upon it Her death was followed with a most violent and Tempestuous Wind whereby divers Persons were killed and much damage done as well in Forraign parts as in these Kingdoms as if Heaven had designed thereby to intimate to the World that those Troubles and Calamities suffered by that Princess and the Royal Family and by which most parts of Europe had been tempested were now all blown over and was like her to rest in a perpetual Repose Several Bills which were ready for His Royal Assent detained him at White-Hall somewhat longer then he was willing had their weight and tendency been of less importance but in regard their being past into Acts would set the Nation right where it was before the Troubles began by providing remedies against those mischiefs which had then unhinged the Kingdoms happiness such as the Forbidding armed or tumultuary Petitions and ordering that not above Twelve shall resort together at any time to deliver Petitions to the King whereby they provided so far as Humane Wisdom could foresee against the like dangers by insensible degrees brought upon the Nation in the late Confusions But having once signed those Acts and thereby furnisht his Subjects with so many good and wholsome Laws as no Age of our fore-Fathers could ever boast of he posted away to Portsmouth having sent the Bishop of London thither before Him who was to consummate the Sacred Rights of Marriage which was performed in private and the Queen Conducted soon after by Him to Hampton-Court and from thence to London in great Pomp and Splendour The Parliament of Ireland having about that time for the better defraying his necessary Charge given him a subsidy of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand Pounds to be raised in two Years The Affrican Potentates alarumed by the Arrival of the English and terrified by the Fame of those Warlike and Martial Atchievements began to fear that if they suffered them quietly to possess Tangier they should thereby give them incouragement to incroach farther upon them which consideration drew thither Gayland a War-like Prince but then a Rebel against the Emperour of Fez and Morocco having usurpt part of his Dominions who continued there
be the better able to entertain War when they had made provisions for it And he being sensible of their drift therein thought it not convenient for him to be altogether idle and therefore resolved so to order his Affairs as to be in as good a readiness as they whensoever the War should commence To which end he required the City to lend him One Hundred Thousand Pound referring them to the Lord Treasurer for Terms of Repayment which Request was receiv'd with such a dutiful compliance by the Common-Council that it was presently granted thereby acquitting themselves at once both in point of Loyalty and Prudence by serving the KINGS present Necessity and providing for their own future Safety This Money he imploy'd in fitting out two considerable Fleets and intending to employ Sir John Lawson who then blockt up Argier and some of the Ships under his Command therein he commanded his Return for England Captain Allen being ordered to succeed him there who brought these Pirates into such distress that shortly after they were forc'd to accept of Peace upon terms advantageous enough for England The Dutch Embassadour propounding such conditions as were not to be accepted he sent back Sir George Downing thither with full Instructions how to behave himself towards them who had upon his Arrival several Conferences with the States about Satisfaction for Damages received but could not prevail with them to return a positive Answer to any thing he propounded nor come to any terms of Agreement which they were the more willing to delay in regard they expected the speedy Arrival of a vast Treasure in several great Fleets of Merchants Ships But this being not unknown to him and he being a Prince that well enough understood how strong the Nerve of War Money was resolved to way-lay those vast Masses of Wealth as they past homeward through his own Channel especially being informed by secret Intelligence that they were resolved in contempt of his Power to send their Guiney Preparations by Sea and that Opdam should convey them through the Channel To which end and purpose that he might be before-hand with them in their preparations he endeavoured with all imaginable speed and diligence to make his Navy ready not sparing to oversee and order things with indefatigable paines and industry in his own Royal Person which was abundantly answered by the success For such was the Alacrity of his Subjects when they saw him continually Travelling from place to place to forward the work and see all things effectually and speedily performed encouraging them by his Presence that the City at the very first mention of it by the Earl of Manchester Chamberlain of His Household supplyed him with a second Loan of One Hundred Thousand Pounds By which means while the Dutch flattered themselves with suppositions of his want of Men and Money and his being broken with the Calamities of the Raging Pestilence which hapned about this time and was the severest that ever was known in England they were only forced to look on and with Envy behold his Vigorous preparations and see the Sea covered with such a Magnificent Navy as the Ocean had scarcely ever supported in any former Age. However having duely considered the dangers of the Northern passage they seemingly laid aside all thoughts of going about by Scotland and continued firm to their former Resolution of forcing their passage though the Channel In order whereunto having Re-victualled Opdams Fleet they commanded him to hasten to Sea with the first Wind and conduct the Guiney-Succors through the Channel having ordered some other Ships from the Vlie and Texel to Joyn with him and sent a Galliot before to give notice to their Director General in Guinea of their Proceedings therein Which Resolution taken and carryed on with so much Vigour most men Imagin'd to have been extorted from them by the exigency of their present condition for they had scattered many base contempts upon the King and Subjects of England Nor was the Issue of that Bravado other than what their Fears presented For about the middle of October Prince Rupert appeared at the Spitt-Head with sixteen Saile of Ships who was not long after joyned by the Duke then Lord High Admiral of England and the Earl of Sandwich so that it was a matter of the greatest difficulty and hazard for them to unlock the narrow Seas And great dispute there was amongst them whether Opdam who lay with his Fleet in the Gore should adventure out or no but the Wind continuing cross put an end to that dispute and furnisht them with a plausible excuse for their not appearing at Sea upon so great disadvantages as they would in all probability have met withall However Prince Rupert kept the Sea with the English Fleet to attend their Motion and was rewarded by all or most of their Bourdeaux Fleet falling into his hands which with other Prizes taken that Year by the English amounted to about One Hundred Thirty Five There having been as yet no Publick Declaration of War on either side the King still continued to Treat for Peace with His Arms in His Hand and ordered Sir George Downing to press in the heat of all that preparation and action for satisfaction of Damages And finding that they were not like to be brought to such terms as he expected and knowing that it would mightily advance his Credit and strike Terror into his Enemies to be alway before hand with them he caused an Embargo to be laid upon their Ships with so much Secrecy that His Embassadour there had notice of it at least eight dayes before the States that so he might give secret Intelligence to the English and hasten their departure by which means when their Embargo came it found only two small inconsiderable Vessels and an Oyster Boat to seize And the King acquainting the Parliament which met in November how unkindly he had been Treated by the Dutch and what preparations he had thereupon made for War and telling them he had out of his own Credit set forth a Navy which he was sure would not decline meeting with all the Power of the Dutch for the Finishing where of he had borrowed so liberally out of his own stores and of the City of London that to discharge the one and replenish the other would require little less then Eight Hundred Thousand Pounds They to demonstrate their Love and Affection to their Soveraign and how hearty they were in their Resolutions to support His Honour and their Countries Rights against Forreign Encroachments gave him more then thrice that Summ in an Act Entituled An Act for granting a Royal Aide of Twenty four Thousand Threescore and Seventeen Thousand and Five Hundred Pounds And finding that the Dutch did but trifle with him in hopes of gaining time he resolved to forbear them no longer and therefore in the February following denounc'd War against them by a Publick Declaration prohibiting all Manufactures coming from thence and granting Letters of
Reprizal to divers of his injured Subjects And to increase his Fleet a Peace being now made both with Gayland and the Algerines he commanded his Ships in those parts to return home and with most indefatigable diligence Journeying himself from Port to Port to hasten his preparations and encourage the Seamen by his presence he got his Fleet ready to take the Sea by the 25th of March which did not a little terrifie the Hollander who had been the Week before put into a very great disorder and consternation upon the appearance only of a small part of the English Navy under the Earl of Sandwich That his preparations for War might meet with their desired success the blessing of God who is the Lord of Navies as well as of Hosts was implored by a general Fast enjoyned by Proclamation and observed with Reverence suitable to the Solemnity of the occasion which was answered with the happy Omens of future Victory from the fair success of smaller enterprises three of their Men of War being shortly after taken His Royal Highness the Duke of York who as Lord High Admiral of England commanded that Fleet growing impatient of the Hollanders stay resolved to give them a visit upon their own Coast and One Hundred and Fourteen Saile of Ships made for the Texel within five Leagues of which place he came to an Anchor where he took a full view of their Fleet some of the smallest of his Ships running within two Leagues of the Shore and some few dayes after he shewed himself before the Mouth of their Harbour which gave them so great an Allarum that they presently erected Beacons all along the Coasts to give notice if he should make any attempt to Land He stayd somewhat longer then he intended in hope to provoke them to come out and engage but not suceeding therein he commanded seven of his Ships to saile in quest of a Fleet of Merchant-men who were then coming home from Bourdeaux and had certainly fallen into their hands had not a great fogg which arose about that time prevented it however ten of them were taken and as many more at several times afterward However the Dutch finding their Embassadors in Swedeland and Denmark able to effect little meeting with Ceremonious entertainments but no Assistance resolved to shew their own strength and their Navy appeared upon the Ocean in all its Glory and Splendor divided into seven Squadrons being in all about One Hundred and Three Men of War Eleven Fire-Ships and seven Yatches About which time the English suffered some loss for their Hamburgh Fleet desiring a Convoy of the Duke when he lay before the Texel he sent them some Ships for their Conduct and Security with a Caution that if they were not ready to Saile within ten dayes they should not after that time adventure to Sea but the ten dayes being over before they could get ready and the Ketch ordered by him to give them notice of his removal from the Texel missing them they adventured to Sea contrary to his Instructions and Orders and so fell into the Enemies hands But that loss was abundantly compensated by the Victory which soon after ensued wherein the Dutch lost eighteen of their best Ships which were taken by the English besides ten more which were sunk and burnt Which ill success caused many disorders and complaints among the Common People in Holland for the appeasing whereof and the revenging themselves upon their Officers that were accus'd of Cowardise or ill management in that Engagement they questioned several of them for their Lives and caused three of their Captains to be Executed at the Helder two to have their Swords broken over their heads and the Vice-Admiral Cortinaer to stand upon a Scaffold with a Halter about his neck But the Joy of this Victory was somewhat allayed by the Sickness which now began to grow very hot in London and its Subburbs insomuch that the Queen Mother to avoid its Fury returned to France being attended to the Kentish Coast by the King who having taken his leave of her went on board the Royal Charles where he Knighted several Captaines that behaved themselves Valiantly against the Dutch and afterward visited most of the Flagg Ships giving all necessary directions for the repairing and refitting out the Fleet and so returned by Water to Greenwich from thence to Hampton Court and afterward to Salisbury But the Plague increasing in London so that it was dangerous returning thither he repaired to Oxford which proved so happy a Receptacle for him that notwithstanding the vast concourse of People which resorted to his Court the approaching Parliament and the Term which was likewise kept there the place Continued in health and was not in the least visited with that Distemper that then raged in London and some other parts of the Kingdom At this place was made that Law which is commonly known by the name of the Five-Mile Act forbidding all such Dissenting Ministers as would not take the Oath and make the Declaration and Abhorrency therein provided to live within five Miles of any Corporation thereby the better to prevent the spreading of their Infection and encreaâ—ing the number of their Proselites The Oath and Declaration being as follows viz. J. A. B. Do Declare That it is not Lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King And that I do abhor that Traiterous position of taking Arms by his Authority against His Person by His Commission Or those that are Commissioned by Him in persuance of such Commission And I do swear that I will not at any time endeavour any alteration of Goaernment either in Church or State But tho during the time of that Visitation he remov'd His Court to Oxford yet for the security of that City and that he might not be thought wholly to withdraw his beams from her disconsolate Walls He left there the Duke of Albemarle who in all the heat of the Distemper continued at White-Hall with a Courage equal to his Dignity And knowing that as the Affliction came from the hand of Heaven so none but the Almighty was able to mittigate or remove it He commanded by Proclamation a general Fast to be observ'd throughout the whole Kingdom for the confessing and bewailing those sins that had brought that heavy Judgment upon the City and by Prayers and Supplications implore the Divine Goodness for the removal thereof commanding his Bishops to direct and Publish such forms of Prayer as were most suitable not only for the Service of that Particular day but likewise of all the succeeding Wednesdays so long as the Contagion should last having commanded that day in every week to be observed as a Fast for the removal of that desolating distemper according to the Apostle's Rule praying alwayes and with all manner of Prayer The English Fleet having now repaired their Dammages and several of the Dutch Prizes being fitted for Service put to Sea again and stood over for the
Holland-Coast the alarum whereof brought back Bankert who had been about three Weeks at Sea with some of their Ships and caused them to make de Ruyter after his long expected arrival from the West Admiral of their Fleet. But the Bishop of Munster's Drums who then likewise threatned them with a War sounding in their Ears almost as terribly as the English Cannon made them order a flying Army to the Frontiers tho' with little satisfaction to the fearful Inhabitants who daily fled to the fortified Towns for their security In the mean while the English Fleet in three Squadrons sailed towards Norway and the Earl of Sandwich having notice that fifty Hollanders had sheltred themselves in Berghen sent a Squadron of twenty two Men of War under the Command of Tyddeman to attack and fire them in the Harbour which Enterprise had proved very fatal had not the Wind befriended them and the Dane permitted them to plant their Guns on shore against the resolute English however they received very great dammages and had many of their best Ships in that Harbour dissabled And the Earl himself meeting with a Convoy of theirs who had several Merchants and some East-India men in his Company attacked them with so much resolution that notwithstanding the storminess of the Weather did much favour them yet he took Eight of their Men of War two of their best East-India Ships and twenty Sail of their Merchants and some few days after the Fleet encountering with eighteen Sail of the Enemy took the greatest part of them with above one thousand Prisoners However the French King supposing the Ballance of Affairs not yet even enough and affecting a Sovereignty in the Mediterranean-Sea not only continued his friendship to them but in their behalf declared War likewise against England upon pretence of succouring them according to the Conditions of the Treaty in 1662 which Declaration the King who altho he was as great a lover of Peace as any Prince in the World yet being provoked would not be behind hand with his Enemies soon returned with the like denunciation of War against him protesting that he was resolved to prosecute that War against France with his utmost force by Land and Sea And it was admirable to behold the cheerfulness and alacrity wherewith the Maritine Countreys offered him their Service upon their first receiving his Orders to put themselves into a posture of defence but being unwilling to continue them under the trouble and charge of a needless Duty he dismiss'd them for the present and only ordered them to be ready if there was occasion The Pestilence being now pretty well abated he returned again to London where he was joyfully received and welcomed by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen about which time eight persons formerly Officers or Soldiers in the Rebellion were Indicted at the Old-Bayly for conspiring the Death of the King and the Alteration of the Government having in his absence from the City plotted the surprisal of the Tower killing the General Robinson and Brown and then according to their old levelling humour to have declared for an equal division of Lands The better to effect which Design of theirs the City was to have been fired the Portcullices to have been let down to keep out all assistance and the Horse-guards to have been surprised in their Quarters the Tower having been viewed by them and its surprisal ordered by Boats over the Moat and so to scale the Wall One Alexander was the chief Conspirator having distributed several Sums of Money amongst them and he told them for their encouragement of several great ones that sat continually in London and issued out all necessary Orders which Counsel he said received their Directions from another in Holland who sat with the States The third of September being found by a Scheme erected for that purpose a lucky Day a Planet then ruling whose direful effects portended the downfal of Monarchy was pitch'd upon for the Attempt They were found guilty of High Treason and executed at Tyburn Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle being made joynt Generals at Sea for that Summer's Expedition divided the Fleet the Prince commanding the blew Squadron wherewith he sailed toward France upon intimation that the French were hasting to joyn the Dutch Fleet and the Duke the other two who meeting the Hollanders on Friday about 4 or 5 Leagues from the North Foreland couragiously attacked them notwithstanding he had not above half their number bravely maintaining the Fight two days and part of the third when he had been hardly put to it had not the Prince hearing the Guns tacked about and made towards him Upon his approach de Ruyter sent out 30 stout Ships to intercept him and prevent his joyning the Duke but avoiding them he hastened forward and sent Albemarle word that if he liked the design he would keep the wind of them and engage the 30 Ships de Ruyter had sent against him but the Duke not liking his purpose advised him rather to joyn the Fleet which he did and the approaching night soon after put an end to their farther proceedings And the next morning so soon as it grew light they perceived the Dutch to be fled and gotten almost out of sight St. Georges Chanel having proved too dangerous and stormy for them but making all the sail they could they pursued them and the Prince with his fresh Squadron falling in with them with an undaunted courage and bravery pass'd five several times through the whole Body of their Fleet so that not able longer to endure it with all the sail they could make they began to run and sheltred themselves in their shallows But both Fleets having repaired their dammages got out to Sea again and meeting soon after begun a second Engagement no less bloody than the former both sides fighting with all the Courage and Valour that could be expected from the most inveterate and enraged Enemies de Ruyter resolving to revenge his lost disgrace and recover if possible his lost honour and the Prince to maintain his former by obtaining a second Victory They began to fight about Nine in the Morning pouring Broad-sides upon each other with such fury that the roaring Canon seemed to outvy the Thunder and the Smoak clouded the Sun and rendred the Air more dark and dismal than was black Munday There might have been seen the Heads of some the Arms Leggs and Thighs of others shot off some divided in the middle with Chain-shot breathing out their last in anguish and pain or burning in Fired Ships whilst others exposed to the mercy of the Liquid Element implored pity from their very Enemies whom they intreated to save their Lives although with the loss of their Liberties But in the midst of all those deplorable miseries the survivers fought with as much resolution and fury as ever their Courage and Valour being rather heightned than daunted thereby For which Victories a solemn thanks giving was observed throughout the
it and they having taken some of our Merchants Ships Sir Thomas Allen was sent to revenge the Injury who coming before the Town they desired a Treaty offering to make restitution of what Money they had taken from an English Ship bound for the East-Indies but not agreeing to some other Demands he resolved to beat them into a complyance and having seized a Barque loaden with Corn and a Brigantine which rowed in the Harbour in view of the Town departed to Tripoly the Bassa of which place sent him an assurance of his readiness and resolution to preserve a Peace and continue a good Correspondence with his Master And the Hampshire Portsmouth Jersey and Centurion Frigots under the Command of Captain Beach not long after meeting with Seven of the Algerines notwithstanding the least of them had Thirty eight Guns and were all full of Men forced them to run their Ships on shore which were all burned two by themselves and the rest by the English in which Action most of their Men were lost and Two hundred and fifty Christian Captives redeemed But Sir Thomas Allen after having made many Attempts upon those Pyrates whose Cowardize still shun the Fight returned home and left Sir Edward Spragg to Command in his room who meeting with Nine of their Men of War and three Merchantmen near Bugia they retired upon his appearance under the shelter of the Castle and put themselves into the best posture of defence but Spragg in the mean time attacked them with so much Valour and Success that he set most of them on fire and those which escaped the flame fell into his hands and were made Prizes of And to compleat the Victory Captain Beach brought him another Ship which he had newly taken of Forty Guns and Three hundred and fifty men So that Spragg believing that this Loss might dispose the Algerines to accept of Terms of Peace made a speedy return to his station before that Port whereupon constrained by necessity they concluded a Peace as honourable and advantagious as any we ever had with those Rovers About this time a strange and odd kind of Action happened which for its unusualness was the matter of much wonder and discourse For one Thomas Bloud commonly called Captain Bloud being discontented upon pretence of an Estate detained from him in Ireland and having a little before with five persons in his company armed and mounted seized the Duke of Ormond as he was going home between St. James's and Clarendon-house forcing him out of his Coach and attempting to have carried him away had he not been rescued by others coming in to his assistance a Fact which rendred him not more bold in the undertaking than the Duke memorable in forgiving But not being able to carry off the Duke he next adventured to attempt the Crown In order whereunto he coming to the Keeper of the Jewel-house and desiring to see the Crown and Jewels which being shewed him he gratified the Keeper more liberally than it was usual for others to do in such cases telling him that he had some Friends who were very desirous to see them and that he would bring them the next Morning Accordingly he came with three others with him and the old Gentleman being prepared by Bloud 's liberality gave them a ready admittance into the Jewel-house but their design being to take and not to see they gagg'd and secured the Keeper and then putting the Crown and Ball into two Baggs which they brought with them for that purpose fairly walked away and had certainly carried them off having pass'd most of the Centinels with them had not the Keeper's Son-in-law accidentally came by and seeing the condition his Father lay in run out hastily and cryed to the Guards to stop them Whereupon fear making them to mend their pace they became the means of their own discovery and being thereupon suspected and commanded to stand they fired a Pistol at the Centinel but others coming in to his assistance two of them were seized and carried to White-Hall and after examination sent Prisoners to the Tower where they had committed that bold Attempt The King now finding himself at leisure resolved to look after the condition of his Western Sea-port Towns and spend the Summer in a kind of Sea-Progress For going first to Portsmouth he went in his Yacht to the Isle of Wight and took a view of most of the considerable Ports in that Island from whence he returned to Hurst-Castle and from thence to Corfe-Castle and having viewed and taken order for the furnishing those places with all necessary Provisions returned again to Portsmouth and from thence attended with five Frigots sailed to Dartmouth Plymouth and other places in those parts knowing that according to the ancient Proverb the Master's eye quickens the Servant's diligence Notwithstanding the many Losses sustained by the Dutch in their former War with England and the difficulty they met withal in attaining a Peace yet they took no care to preserve it but by new Affronts laid a foundation for a second War and therefore the King having long concealed his just Displeasure against them resolved now to let them know his ill Resentments of their unworthy Dealings towards him Pursuant to which he declared in the following Spring That seeing his Neighbours were making great Preparations both by Sea and Land He thought himself obliged to appear in such a posture as might best secure his own Government and his Peoples peace to make such Preparations as should be answerable to the preservation of both which could not be done without fitting out a considerable Fleet against the approaching Spring In order whereunto Money being at that time wanting he was forced to put a stop to the payment of any Money then brought in or to be brought into the Exchequer for the space of one whole Year declaring that nothing could have moved him thereunto but the looking upon his Government as unsafe under the threatening Preparations of the States General and other neighbouring Princes without appearing in the same posture And that therefore seeing the necessity was inevitable some extraordinary course must be taken until Money could be otherwise procured However before he would enter into War with them he endeavoured to bring them to terms of Peace by the threatning of it and therefore ordered Sir George Downing who was his Embassador to the States to be very urgent with them on the Affair of the Flagg which notwithstanding it had ever been accounted a Ceremony due to the Kings of England as an acknowledgment of their Sovereignty in the narrow Seas had been for some time denied by them But having by several Instances and Memorials pressed for an Answer to his Demands and finding nothing but delays and several personal affronts to him he returned without Orders for England and was for so doing after a private Examination by some Lords of the Council and Report thereof made to the King Committed to the Tower for not
was altogether uncertain and knowing that by his late Preparations and Alliances he had provoked a mighty and a warlike King he thought it convenient to provide for his own security if the worst should happen by keeping up his Army and continuing his Fleet at Sea especially since that was the most probable means to make the French King account it his interest to hasten the Peace and procure to himself the more advantagious Terms therein telling his Parliament which met soon after That although they would peradventure account the Peace he was endeavouring to procure as ill a bargain as War because it cost them Money yet if they seriously considered that Flanders might have perhaps been lost by that time he believed they would give much greater Sums than all the Charge he he had been at amounted to rather than the single Town of Ostend should be in the French King's hands and Forty or Fifty of his Ships of War in so good a Haven over against the Rivers mouth adding That he could not but be very well pleased to understand the Reputation he had gained abroad by having in so short a time rais'd so great an Army and fitted out so brave a Fleet and hoped that they were so too since it so much redounded to the Honour of the English Nation desiring them therefore if they had any respect to their own Welfare and the Peace of Europe or were willing he should pass any part of his Life in quiet and all the rest in confidence and quietness with them and other future Parliaments to take care for the maintaining Peace and Union at home and the setling the same Revenue he had the Christmass before some of it being then fallen off upon him for Life and add 300000 l. per Annum thereunto to enable him to maintain the Navy and Ord'nance and keep his Word with the Prince of Orange in the payment of 40000 l. as his Nieces Portion the first Payment whereof was then become due and demanded by that Prince But the French King notwithstanding the Cessation of Arms endeavouring to enlarge his Conquests and possess himself of several considerable Towns he resolved to prevent him and therefore commanded the Duke of Monmouth who was at that time General of all his Land Forces and the Earl of Ossery to joyn the Prince of Orange and attempt the beating of him from the Siege of Mons which was then very much straitned by him and would in all probability have been lost within a few days The French who lay encamp'd between two Woods the right Wing posted at St. Dennis and their left at Mamoy St. Pierre with such advantage that besides the Woods there was only a Precipice led to them which made them almost inaccessable thought themselves secure but the Cannon playing briskly upon St. Dennis and the valiant English commanded by the Earl of Ossery falâ—ing on with their accustomed Courage and Fury soon forced the Abbey and compell'd the French posted there to fly in great disorder to their main body many of them being slain in the dispute which was very hot And the Duke of Luxenburgh who was Commander there as the French King's General notwithstanding he had upon their first approach on a presumption that he lay encamp'd in a place which was impregnable laught at and derided the vain Attempt as he imagined of forcing his Camp finding he had now to do with the resolute English and not the timerous Spaniards or wary Germans dislodg'd in great confusion leaving his slain and many wounded Men behind and the Tents standing as they were to the Plunder of his victorious Enemies whereby the relieving of Mons a work thought little less then impossible was easily performed and the French King disappointed of his hopes And had that succeess been followed and improv'd the French King would in all probability have been reduced to great extremities and have been glad to have accepted of Peace upon any Conditions he could have gotten but the Peace which he had upon the march of the English hastily concluded a few days before at Nemeguen put a stop to all farther hostilities Things being brought to this happy conclusion abroad new Stirs and Commotions begin to appear at home For one Titus Oates who had receiv'd Education Orders in the Church of England and was afterward seemingly or God knows how reconcil'd to the Church of Rome going first into Flanders and then into Spain ingratiated himself with the Jesuits and Priests in those parts with a design as he afterward pretended to discover what they were plotting against England returning about this time inform'd the King of a Plot carried on by the Jesuits and others of the Roman Catholick Religion against his Person and Life the Protestant Religion and the Government of the Kingdom And that his Information might appear the more plausible and be the more readily believed he named divers Persons of Quality engaged in the Design and what Instruments had been provided for his Assassination affirming that when he was once taken off the remaining part of the Work was to have been carried on by Arms Foreign Assistance and such other Expedients as they should have judged necessary for the success of their Enterprise Whether there was any truth at all in this Relation or how much there was or whether the King at all believed it is none of my business to determine since I design as an Historian only to relate matter of Fact but certain it is that many Troubles and Combustions were occasioned thereby and several great and threatning Mischiefs have since fallen so thick upon these Kingdoms that one hath ever trod upon the heels of another Upon this Information the Privy-Councel sate twice a day to consider and examin that Plot and Sir George Wakeman one of the Queen's Physicians Mr. Coleman the Dutchess of York's Secretary Mr. Langhorn of the Temple and several others were committed close Prisoners and the Lords Bellassis Powis Peters Arundel of Warder Castlemain and Stafford were secured in the Tower And the Parliament sitting soon after the King told them in his Speech That he had been informed of a Design against his Person carried on by the Papists whereof he should forbear to give his opinion lest he should seem to say too much or too little but would leave the matter wholly to the decision of the Law without prejudging the persons accused But the strict inquiry into that Matter having discovered many unwarrantable Practices of theirs he thought he had reason to look to ' em Altho' this Plot in all the parts of it was a complication of Mysteries yet the greatest mystery of all seems to be the business of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey who being a Justice of the Peace for Middlesex and a severe enemy to the Papists as was generally supposed took the Depositions of Oates and Tongue and was soon after found dead in a Ditch not far from Hampsted with his Sword run through
him appearing to the Coroners Inquest to have been first strangled before he was brought thither which was sworn by Bedloe who came in upon the King's offer in his Proclamation of 500 l. to any that would discover the manner of his death and Prance who was apprehended by him as he was attending in the Lobby of the Lords House to be done by the Papists The examination of this Plot and the Murder of Godfrey which they look'd upon as a sufficient confirmation of its truth and reality employed the Commons so assiduously that they sat whole days to consult about it without stirring from Morning till it was late at Night the product whereof was a Fast enjoined by Proclamation throughout the Nation the Minutes of that House forbid to be divulged a Resolution entred by them in their Journal That it was their Opinion upon the Evidence that had already appeared to that House there had been and was an execrable and hellish Design contrived and carried on by the Papists for assassinating the King subverting the Government and destroying the Protestant Religion a Proclamation which banish'd all the reputed Papists ten Miles from London and Westminster except Housholders who were obliged likewise to take the Oaths or suffer the Penalties inflicted by Law upon the refusers of them and another for the turning all Roman Catholicks out of the Horse and Foot-Guards wherein 20 l. was promised to those who should discover any Officer or Soldier who had formerly taken the Oaths and Test and had since turned Papist But the Commons not yet satisfied it was moved in that House That an Address should be made to the King to remove the Duke of York from his Presence and Councels but he being informed of their intention resolved to prevent them and endeavour to take them off from their unseasonable heat by assuring them of his stedfast Resolution to defend them in their just Rights and Priviledges and comply with any reasonable offer they should make for the security of the Protestant Religion in order whereunto he went the next day in his Robes to the House of Peers and having commanded the Commons to attend him in a Speech to both Houses he gave them his hearty thanks for their extraordinary care for the preservation of his Life in that time of danger telling them that he was as ready to joyn with them in all ways and means that might conduce to the establishment and security of the Protestant Religion as their own hearts could wish and that not only during his Life but in future Ages even to the end of the World and therefore was come thither at that time to assure them that whatsoever reasonable Bills they should at any time present to him to be pass'd into Laws for the rendring them safe in the Reign of his Successor so as they tended not to impeach the Right of Succession nor the Descent of the Crown in the true Line and so also as they did not restrain and limit the just Rights and Power of the Throne should find from him a ready concurrence And to demonstrate his reality therein when he had about the latter end of that Month a Bill presented to him for the dissabling all Popish Members to sit in either House of Parliament he gave his Royal Assent thereunto tho' at the same time he refused another which was for raising a third part of the Militia to be in constant Arms for a time telling them that that were to put the Militia out of his own power which thing he would not do no not for one hour but promised if they would assist him with Money for that purpose to raise such a part of the Militia as should secure the Peace of the Government and his own Person And now several of those accused by Oates and others for the Witnesses were by this time increased were brought to Tryal before Sir William Scroggs then Lord Chief Justice of the Kings bench And those that gave evidence against them being very positive in their Depositions Coleman Ireland Pickering Groves Whitebread Fenwick Langhorn and divers more were at several times condemned and executed and so was William Staley a Goldsmith's Son in Covent-Garden for speaking dangerous words against the King's Life and three more whose Names were Green Berry and Hill upon the evidence of Bedloe and Prance for the Murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey Prance affirming he was murdred in Somerset-house and that himself assisted in the murdring of him They every one died denying what they were charged withal and asserting their innocency with all the Solemn Protestations imaginable which was credited or disbelieved according to peoples various inclinations And now some Members of Parliament began to accuse each other Mr. Mountague who had been a little before Embassador to the French King carried up five Articles against the Treasurer Danby and Sir John Ernly another of the Commons accused Mountague of holding a correspondency with the Popes Nuncio at Paris but for his good service in accusing Danby that was overlook'd and a resolution taken to proceed with severity against the Treasurer This Parliament which first began on the 8th of May in the year 1661. and had now been continued by several Prorogations and Adjournments for 17 Years 8 Months and 17 Days began to grow so presumptuous that upon an Information that Sir Joseph Williamson then Secretary of State had counter-signed several Commissions for Officers who were Roman Recusants with a Non obstante to the Oaths and Test they took the boldness to commit him prisoner to the Tower whereupon the King commanding them the next day to attend him in the Banquetting-house briskly told them That tho' they had committed his Servant without acquainting him yet he would deal more freely with them in acquainting them with his intentions to release his Secretary which he immediately ordered to be done and finding there was but little good to be expected from their proceedings he prorogued them on the 30th of Decemb. and on the 24th of the following January dissolved them by Proclamation and called a new one to sit on the 6th of the next March issuing out Writs for the speedy chusing of them From the Counsels and Debates of this new Parliament which met at the time appointed the King expected more felicity than he had met with from those of the former and therefore to prevent all occasions of disgust and hinder them from falling with the like heat upon his Brother desired the Duke to retire for some time beyond the Seas for the Reasons exprest in the following Letter The King's Letter to His Royal Highness I Have already given You My resolves at large why I think it fit You should absent Your self for some time beyond the Seas As I am truly sorry for the occasion so may You be sure I shall never desire it longer than it will be absolutely necessary for Your Good and My Service In the mean time I think it
Protestant Successor and limit the Authority of the former if any such should be by providing that all Church-preferments should be conferred on Pious and Learned Protestants That the Parliament which should happen to be in being at his own Death or if none the last that sate should thereupon assemble without any new Summons or Election That during the Reign of any Popish Successor no Privy Councellor or Judg of the Common Law or Chancery should be put in or displaced but by consent of Parliament That none should be Justices of Peace but Protestants and that the Lord Lieutenants and Deputy Lieutenants of Counties and Officers in the Navy should not be put in nor removed but by the Authority of Parliament Telling them he conceived it hard to invent any other Restraint to be put on a Popish Successor Yet if any thing did occur to their Wisdom whereby their Religion and Liberties might be better secured he was ready to consent to it Whereupon the Commons after they had several times adjourned the consideration of this Speech on the 11th of May resolved That they would stand by His Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes And that if he should come by any violent Death which they prayed God to avert they would revenge it to the utmost upon the Papists According to which Vote an Address was drawn up and presented by them to the King with this Variation in the form of words We shall be ready to revenge upon the Papists any violence offered by them to your Sacred Majesty which words were neither exprest nor intimated in their Vote altho absolutely necessary and essential to the Justice of their designed Revenge And without taking the least notice of the Resolution exprest in his Speech Not to suffer any alteration in the Descent to the Throne brought in a Bill to disable his Royal Highness to inherit the Imperial Crown of England which being put to the Vote was carried in the Affirmative by One and Twenty Voices but being prorogued soon after it proceeded no further In the mean while the Two Houses were very earnest in debating the methods whereby they should bring the Lords in the Tower to their Trials And Danby being demanded at the Bar of the Lords House Whether he would rely on and abide by the Plea of his Pardon returned for answer That having been advised by his Council his Pardon was good in Law he would insist upon his Plea and requested his Council might be heard And the Lords acquainting the Commons with his desire instead of granting it they in the Names of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in Parliament and all the Commons of England demanded Judgment against him upon the Impeachment affirming his Pardon to be illegal and void However the Lords appointed him a day to argue his Plea and ordered the Five Lords to be tried the Week after and an Address to be made to the King for the appointing a Lord Steward for their Trials But the Commons not satisfied with their proceedings desired a Committee of both Houses might consider of the most proper methods of proceeding upon Impeachments according to the usage of Parliament but the Lords refused it as contrary to the known Rules and Orders of their House which ever was and ought to be tender in matters relating to their Judicature Whereupon the Commons resolved That no Commoner should presume to maintain the Validity of the Pardon pleaded by Danby without the leave of that House And that the persons so doing should be accounted Betrayers of the Liberties of the Commons of England Upon which the Lords to take away all occasion of disgust between the Two Houses receded from their former resolution and appointed a Committee to treat with them but a difference arising in that joynt Committee about the Bishops Right to be present at Trials in capital cases the Lords affirming they might stay till the Court proceeded to the Vote of Guilty or Not Guilty and the Commons denying it the Bishops endeavour'd to find out a Medium which might satisfie both and therefore desired leave of the Lords to withdraw themselves from the Trials with liberty of entring their usual protestations But this not satisfying the Commons they resolved not to proceed to the Trial of the Five Lords before Judgment given on Danby's Pardon and to insist upon the Bishops having no Right of Voting in capital Offences which made the King who saw that these heats took up their whole time and prevented their entring upon such Debates as more nearly concerned them and would have conduced more toward the setling of the Nation thought it best to prorogue them in hopes that in their next meeting their Debates might be more happy and unanimous About this time the Faction ran higher in Scotland and boiled into an open Râ—bellion which took its first beginning from the barbarous Murder of Dr. Sharp Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of that Kindom on the 3d of May 1679. by a company of inveâ—â—â—ate Covenanters as he was travelling from Edenborough to his own Residence who had born him an immorâ—al hatred because having formerly been one of their Party he had revolted as they termed his honest Reformation But appeared more visible toward the latter end of that Month in the Western parts of Scotland when a party of Rebels well mounted and armed coming to Rugland proclaimed the Covenant burnt the following Acts of Parliament viz. Those which concerned the King's Supremacy the Eâ—â—â—blishment of Episcopacy the appointing the Anniversary of the 29th of May and the Recissory Act by which all the Mock-Laws made in the late Anarchy were repealed And publisht an insolent Declaration full of Treason and stuft with the very Spirit and Quintescence of Rebellion inviting others to joyn with them which the Covenanters commonly there called WHIGS from whence the Name was afterward brought into England and applied to all the Dissenting Party accepted of and flockt so fast to them that their Army increased daily to such a considerable number that they became formidable Whereupon the King hastned away the Duke of Monmouth as his Generalissimo to suppress them which with the Assistance of the Loyal Gentry and Herritors of that Nation he easily performed in one Battel at Bothwell-Bridg For having forced his passage over the Bridg and seized the only piece of Cannon they had they fled toward Hamilton-Park And altho they afterward rallied again and Faced about upon the advantage of a rising ground yet so soon as the Cannon began to play on them they all fled in disorder and confusion Robert Hamilton who was their chief Commander being one of the first There were many of the Rebels kill'd in the place and several hundreds taken Prisoners whereof some few were Executed The King who was willing to try all means to please and satisfie his people fearing the Animosities of that Parliament were too great to admit of a Reconciliation and would prevent their doing any
it on certain factious persons unknown to them which they desire Mr. Withins Steward of that Court to represent in their Names to the King which he accordingly did and received the Honour of Knighthood as a Reward of his Loyalty After which several such like addresses were directed from many of the Counties and that from Norfolk had a farther acknowledgment of their humble thanks to the King for calling home the Duke And the Lord Shandois having been elected by the Turky Company to go Embassador to Constantinople and desiring the Kings approbation the King 〈◊〉 him that having been concerned in promoting petitions which were â—â—rogatory to his Prerogative and tended to sedition he could not think him fit for his Favour whereupon he humbly acknowledged his fault to the King in Council protesting â—â—at he had been misled and drawn into it by being perswaded it was for his Mâ—jesties Service but being now better informed he abhorred and disowned all such Practices and humbly begging his Pardon he as freely obtained it Upon the 18th of May so great a Storm of Hail fell in London and the adjacent parts that the like had not been seen in many Years before the Stones being of an extraordinary bigness and very hard till they had lain a while many of them being as large as Pullets Eggs. One which I saw measured was somewhat more than Nine Inches about several Rooks in the Temple Garden being beaten down and killed with them and the Glass of many Sky-lights battered and broken to pieces And now the Parliament which had been several times this Summer prorogued met on the 21st of October according to â—he King's Declaration to them at their meeting in April to whom he declared in a Speech to both Houses That he had during that long prorogation made Alliances with Holland and Spain and desired money of them for the relieving Tangier the defence whereof had very much exhausted his Treasure and advising them not to meddle with the Succession of the Crown but proceed to the discovery of the Plot and the Trial of the Lords The Commons having chosen Mr. Williams a Barrester of Grays Inn and Recorder of Chester for their Speaker to convince the World that the King had not without Reason deferred their sitting so long and that neither he nor the Nation would have been losers if they had not sate then fell to purging their house expelling Sir Robert Can a Burgess for Bristol for having said there was no other Plot but a Presbyterian one and Sir Francis Withins for having declared himself an Abhorrer of the late tumultuous Petitions for the Parliaments sitting The former was committed by them to the Tower and both ordered to receive their Censure on their knees from the Speaker Several other Members were likewise declared guilty of the same Offence with Sir Francis Withins And not content with punishing their own Members they take notice of others who were without their Walls amongst whom Sir George Jeffries Recorder of London one of the King's Serjeants at Law and Chief Justice of Chester became the Object of their displeasure and was Voted a Betrayer of the Subjects Rights and an Address was made to the King to remove him from all publick Affairs and Impeachments Voted and drawn up against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir William Scrogs Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench Sir Thomas Jones one of the puisny Judges of that Court and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer for several pretended misdemeanors that of Sir Francis North being the advising and drawing up of the Proclamation against Petitions But not contenting themselves to deal with Subjects they proceeded next to a matter of a far greater concern For on the 11th of November notwithstanding the King's desire at their opening That they would not meddle with the Succession a Bill past in the House of Commons intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Territories thereunto belonging which notwithstanding all the opposition made against it by the unbiassed and Judicious Loyalists who tho their Reasons were strongest yet their number were fewest was carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel attended by almost all the Commons who gave a Hum at the delivery of it The Lords having ordered it upon their departure to be read put it to the Vote whether it should be read a second time which being carried in the Affirmative by Two Voices only after the second reading it was debated till Eleven a Clock at night the King being present all the while and then thrown out of the House by a Majority of about Thirty Voices in which number were all the Bishops then present to shew how careful the Prelacy is to promote Monarchy Soon after the Parliament proceeded to the Trial of William Lord Viscount Stafford which began in Westminster-Hall on Tuesday the 30th of November and the Impeachment and Evidence upon the same were managed by a Committee of the Commons and the Witnesses against him were Oates Turberville and Dugdale The Lord Chancellor Finch was created Lord High Steward for the solemnity of his Trial which lasted a whole week and being found Guilty by the Majority of Four and Twenty Voices he received Sentence on the 17th of December and on the 29th of that Month was beheaded on Tower-Hill protesting his Innocency with his last breath as all those had done who died for the Plot before him Some were so bold as to question the King's power to dispence with the Rigor of the Sentence and the unhappy Lord Russel was said to be one of them During these publick Transactions a large and prodigious flame of Light appeared in the West The Star from which the Blaze proceeded was but small and when first discovered seemed to be not much above the Horizon but every night after appeared somewhat higher in the beginning of the night and consequently set later its lustre and magnitude decreasing by degrees Whether this finger of the Almighty so visibly seen in the Heavens portended good or bad Events to the World in general or England in particular is a matter too mysterious for me to unfold and therefore shall I leave it till made more plain by the Effects which will be the best Commentatary thereon The King finding the Commons taken up with other business without taking the least care of providing him Money for the supplying his pressing wants and the relieving Tangier then besieged by the Emperor of Morocco recommended the matter more seriously to them in his Speech on the 15th of December But all the Answer he could obtain from them was an Address complaining of several pretended Grievances and refusing all supplies of Money for the Relief of Tangier or any other use unless he would pass a Bill for the Exclusion of the Duke and to enable all Protestants to associate
themselves for the security of the Protestant Religion which Address he answered by a message to the Commons wherein he let them know That he had received their Address with all the disposition they could wish to comply with their reasonable desires but upon perusal of it he was sorry to see their thoughts so fixt on the Bill of Exclusion as to determine all other Remedies for the suppressing of it to be ineffectual telling them That he was confirmed in his Opinion against the Bill by the Judgment of the Lords in their rejecting it advising them to consider of all other means for preservation of the Protestant Religion to which they should have no Reason to doubt his concurrence and urging them again to make some speedy provision for the preservation of Tangier Upon the consideration of which Speech they were so far from complying with his reasonable desires that they Resolved as the Opinion of the House That there was no security for the Protestant Religion the King's Life or the well Constituted and Established Government of this Kingdom without the Bill of Exclusion and that to rely upon any other Remedy were insufficient and dangerous That till such a Bill was past they could give the King no supply without danger to his Person hazard to the Protestant Religion and unfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted And that all persons who advised him in that Message to insist upon an Opinion against the Exclusion-Bill had given him pernicious Counsel and were promoters of Popery and Enemies both to him and the Kingdom naming Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Feversham and Laurence Hide Esq against whom they Voted an Address to the King to remove them from all Offices of honour and profit and from his Councils and presence forever Voting moreover 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 But their presumption running so high the King resolved by a Prorogation to give them time to cool themselves which he did on the Monday following being the 10th of July when he past Two Bills one about Irish Cattel and the other for burying in Woollen the latter whereof proved very advantageous to the Nation by the advance of Wool which is accounted the most staple Commodity of this Kingdom The Commons by some means or other were informed of the King's design of proroguing them and therefore so soon as they were set that morning the very first thing they did was to thunder out their Threatning Votes 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 to France And in a Common-Council assembled bout Two or Three days after in London a Petition was ordered to be drawn up and presented to the King wherein they set forth That the Parliaâ—â—â—t having convicted One of the Poâ—ish Lords and being about to convict the other Four and having impeacht the Chief Justice and being about to impeach other Judges and all in order to the preservation of his Life c. they were much surprised to see it prorogued in the height of their business and that their only hope was its being done with a design to bring such Affairs about again as were necessary to the setling the Nation Praying that they might therefore sit at the day appointed and so continue till they had effected the great Affairs before them But before the 20th of January arrived to which they had been prorogued the King declared them dissolved by Proclamation and intimated his pleasure to call another to sit on the 24th of March at Oxford After which a Petition was delivered him by Essex and some others of the popular Lords for the altering his Resolution for the Parliaments sitting at Oxford upon pretence That neither himself nor they could be in safety there but would be daily exposed to the Swords of the Papists and their Adherents whereby their Liberty of Speech would be destroyed and the Validity of their Acts and Proceedings left disputable Urging likewise the straitness of the place which they affirmed was altogether unfit for the entertaining such a concourse of persons as now followed every Parliament And that the Witnesses which were to give Evidence upon the Commons Impeachment were unable to bear the charges of that Journey and unwilling to trust themselves under the protection of a Parliament which was it self under the power of Guards and Soldiers praying it might therefore sit at Westminster The Parliament which met at Oxford was for the most part made up oâ— Old Members which were chosen again for the same places for which they had served before And contrary to the ancient custom of their Treating thâ— Country the Country now in many places Treated them or at least every man bore his own charges Abouâ— Eight days before their sitting the King having appointed certain Companies of Foot and several Troops of Horse to keep Guard in the Mews during his absence removed to Oxford where he was received and presented by the Mayor and Body of that City at the East-Gate and from thence attended with great Acclamations and all other demonstrations of Joy and was the next day waited on and complemented by the body of the University who presented him with a large Oxford-Bible and the Queen with the Cuts belonging to the History and Antiquity of the Vniversity both richly bound Most of the Members as well Commons as Lords went thither attended with a numerous Train of Friends At the opening of the Sessions the King told them That the unwarrantable proceedings of the last House of Commons was the only Reason why he had dissolved them And that â—s he would never use Arbitrary Government himself so he was Resolved never to suffer it in others That whosoever should calmly consider the proceedings in the last Parliament might perhaps wonder at his patience so long rather than that he grew weary at last That it was as much his interest and care as theirs to preserve the Liberty of the Subject since the Crown could not be safe when that was in danger And that neither Liberty nor Property could long subsist when the just Prerogatives of the Crown were invaded or the Honour of the Government brought low and into disreputation Assuring them That he had called them so soon to shew that the Irregularities of Parliaments should never make him out of love with them And that he thought the just care they ought to have of Religion should not be so managed and improved into unnecessary Fears as to be made a pretence for changing the Foundation of the Government and therefore hoped
the Example of the former ill success which had attended such kind of Heats would dispose them to a better Temper and prevent their laying so much weight upon any One Expedient as to refuse all others as ineffectual and to no purpose advising them to remember that without the Safety and Dignity of the Monarchy neither Religion nor Property could be preserved which was the Reason why he had not nor could not depart from what he had formerly so often declared touching the Succession But to remove all reasonable Fears which might arise from the possibility of a Popish Successor's coming to the Crown if means could be found out that in such a case the Administration of the Government might remain in Protestant hands he should be ready to hearken to any such Expedient whereby Religion might be preserved and Monarchy not destroyed wishing them to provide for both because they supported each other And that they would make the known Establisht Laws of the Land the Rules and Measures of all their Votes assuring them that he wonld ever make them the Rules of his Actions After the Speech the Commons repaired to their House and chose for â—heir Speaker Williams who had â—een Speaker of the last Westminster-Parliament And being informed upon the 26th That the Lords had refused to proceed upon the Impeachment of Edward Fitz-Harris who having been seized upon the Information of Everard one of the Evidences about the Poâ—â—sh Plot and Sir William Waller for having framed an Impudent and Damnable Libel against the King and Government had in hopes of saving his Life by that means confest himself Guilty of what he was charged with and had the confidence to say he was imployed by the King pretending moreover to make several considerable Discoveries about the Popish Plot and accusing the Earl of Danby of having a hand in the Murder of Godfrey whereupon he was impeacht by the Commons of High Treason upon a pretence that there were matters of too high a Nature in his Trial to be managed in an Inferior Court and had directed that he should be proceeded against at the Common Law They with the usual Heaâ— wherewith the Affairs of that Housâ— had been for some time managed Voâ—ted that Refusal of the Lords to be â— Denial of Justice a Violation of thâ— Constitution of Parliaments an Obâ—struction to the Discovery of thâ— Plot and of great danger to His Maâ—jesties Person and the Protestant Reliâ—gion And that for any Inferior Court to proceed against him or any other person impeacht by Parliament was an high Breach of the priviledges of Parliaments And notwithstanding the many mischiefs that had always followed upon and were the Natural Consequences of such Attempts on Monday following a Bill was brought likewise into that Parliament against the Duke's Succession And having been read once was ordered a second reading Whereupon the King perceiving it would be impossible for them to do any thing that might tend to the Honour and Settlement of the Nation whilst the Two Houses were so divided with Heats and Animosities and the Commons time wholly taken up in debating a matter that no way concerned them resolved to interpose his power for deciding the quarrel and convince them That he would no longer endure to be trifled with and affronted And therefore having sent for the Commons to the House of Lords he told them That to prevent the ill Effects he foresaw would follow upon the Heats between them and the Lords he had ordered the Chancellor to dissolve them which was done immediately and the King returned the same night to Windsor and the next morning to White-Hall And knowing how industrious some ill minded persons would be to improve that Dissolution for the misrepresenting his Actions to prevent his Subjects being deluded by their fair pretences and bold tho false Affirmations he publisht a Declaration wherein he acquainted them with the Reasons which induced him to dissolve both that and the last Westminster-Parliament and assured them That he was not however out of love with Parliaments notwithstanding the unwarrantable proceedings of the Two former but would frequently advise with them as his great Council in hopes ere long to find his people in a better Temper As the dissolution of this Parliament was accounted by the more Intelligent a very wise and politick Act from whence he might expect many good effects so the consequence answered the Expectation for now all the Weekly Intelligences and the factiouâ— and scurrilous Libels which the Presâ— had vomited out in great Numbers whilst they expected impunity from the Parliament were supprest and easily busht into silence by an Order of Council Sir Francis Pemberton succeeding Scroggs in the Chief Justiceship great Expectation there was to see what would be done in the case of Fitz-Harris but all the Judges of England having met about it in the Exchequer-Chamber they resolved that they might notwithstanding the Impeachment and the Commons Vote proceed to try him And the next day a Bill was preferred and found by the Grand-Jury of Middlesex and thereupon he was on the last day of the Term arraigned at the Bar of the Kings-Bench But being Three several Times bid to hold up his hand he refused insisting upon his impeachment in Parliament and his right to be tried before them but being at last prevailed upon to hold up his hand and hear his Indictment read which was for High Treason exprest in a certain Writing call'd The True English Man full of most horrid Expressions against the King as if he had been a Conspirator in the Plot against himself and thereupon exciting the Nation to rise against him as one man he put in a dilatory Plea against the Jurisdiction of the Court alledging that having been impeached by the Commons in Parliament he could not be tried there but the Plea being not under Councils Hand was refused However he had Time given him to consider whether he would stand by such a Plea in regard it might prove fatal to him in case it should be over-ruled and Winnington Williams Pollixfen and Wallop were assigned him for Council according to his desire to argue the said point of Judicature the next Wednesday if he resolved to persist in his Plea which he resolving to do on Wednesday was brought again to the Bar attended with his Council when the Attorney-General entred a Demurrer to his Plea and Saturday Morning was appointed for his Council to maintain his Plea by Argument if they could and the Court having then heard what could be said on both sides declared that they meddled not at all with the Priviledg of the House of Commons or the Jurisdiction of the Lords in Parliament but only with the Form of the Plea and after the debate was over the Chief Justice declared they would take a convenient time to consider before they would give their Judgment On the Wednesday following being brought again to the Bar the Court declared they had
considered the Plea and consulted with other Judges about it and were of opinion it was insufficient and was therefore overruled and the Prisoner ordered to plead over Whereupon he pleaded Not guilty and had till the first Thursday in the next Term allowed him for his Tryal In the mean while many Loyal Addresses flowed from all parts of the Nation full of Congratulations and Thanks to the King for his late Declaration And in Trinity-Term Dr. Oliver Plunket was Try'd for High-Treason the Evidence against him being all profest Papists affirmed he was made Primate of Ireland by the Pope at the French Kings Recommendation and that he having thereupon engaged to do that King all the Service he could had actually levied amongst his Popish Clergy great Sums of Money to introduce the French Dominion and extirpate the Protestants out of that Kingdom upon which evidence he was found Guilty and was together with Fitz-harris who received his Tryal the next day executed at Tyburn on the first of the following July protesting his innocency and praying for the King Queen and Duke Presently after the Tryal of Fitz-Harris his Wife and Maid accused the Lord Howard of Escrick of contriving the Treasonable Libel for which he was convicted who was thereupon committed to the Tower And in a Paper delivered at his Execution to Dr. Haukins Minister of the Tower for his Wife he confirmed that accusation denying what he had formerly confest about Danby and the Plot affirming he was drawn into that confession only through hopes of saving his Life thereby But a Bill of Indictment against Howard being delivered on the last day of the Term to the Grand-Jury of Edmunton Hundred sworn to by Fitz-harris's Wife and Maid and by some others that Jury pretending to be unsatisfied with the Evidence would have indorsed it with an Ignoramus had not one of the Clerks of the Crown who attended them withdrawn it from them for which notwithstanding they were told by the Court the Kings Attorney might stop such proceedings as he saw occasion they preferred a Bill of Indictment against the Clerk to the Jury of Oswelston Hundred there attending for that pretended Misdemeanor The Reason why some Persons went so well attended to the Oxford Parliament began now to appear for about this time there was discovery made of a design of seizing the Kings Person whilst he was there and several factious People were thereupon committed to the Tower viz. Rouse Haynes White Colledg and the Earl of Shaftsbury whose Papers were likewise seiz'd At the Sessions which began soon after he and Howard moved to be bailed but the Judges told them it lay not in their power to bail out of the Tower At this Sessions and Indictment of High Treason was preferred to the Grand-Jury of London against one of those lately committed to the Tower whose Name was Colledg But in regard he was a busie factious Fellow and ever loved to meddle most with that he least understood and pass his ignorant censures upon the great Affairs of State He was the more commonly known by the Name of the Protestant Joyner But notwithstanding the Evidence against him was full and clear they returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill whereupon part of the Treasonable Words and Matters for which he was there Indicted being transacted at Oxford whilst the Parliament sate there the Cause was removed to that Assizes where he was before the Lord Chief Justice North tryed upon the same Evidence and condemned and executed In a Parliament held at this time in Scotland the Duke of York presided as the Kings High Commissioner and an Act was past which asserted the Right of Succession to the Imperial Crown of Scotland asserting it to be by inherent right and that the nature of the Monarchy was such that by the fundamental and unalterable Law of the Realm it transmitted and devolved by Lineal Succession according to proximity of Blood and that no difference in Religion no Law nor Act of Parliament could alter or divert the Right of Succession of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heirs and declaring it High Treason either by Writing Speaking or any other way to endeavour the least Alteration therein The French Protestants being greatly opprest and persecuted by that King flockt into England in great multitudes and were received by the King of England with abundance of Kindness and affection ordering that his Officers and Magistrates should give them the same Countenance and Favour with his own Subjects assuring them he would take them into his Royal Protection and grant 'em his Letters of Dennization and promising to procure in the next Parliament an Act for their Naturalization A special Commission of Oyer and Terminer being granted by him for the Tryal of Shaftsbury and others at the Old Bayly the Bill of High Treason preferred against Shaftsbury notwithstanding the Evidence swore very full to the Treason was returned by the Grand-Jury the Foreman whereof was Sir Samuel Barnardiston Ignoramus as a former Jury had done that of Colledg Whereupon the people whose Idol he was gave a great Shout and assaulted those who were Witnesses against him with that violence that the Sheriffs to prevent mischief were forced to guard them as far as the Savoy homeward Bonfires were that Night made by the Rabble almost in every Street at one whereof Capt. Griffith was knockt down and wounded in the Head for endeavouring to put it out And a rout of people marching down Warwick-lane one whereof had his Sword drawn sometimes cryed No York no Popish Successor and then bawl'd out a Monmouth a Shaftsbury a Buckingham till they were stopt by the Watch at Ludgate But tho the factious Rabble were thus overjoyed at the acquittal of their Idol yet the sober and Loyal part of the Nation had other sentiments about it and declared their Indignation in several Loyal Addresses against the most Execrable and Traiterous designed Association which was discovered in Shaftsburys Closet amongst his other papers which threatned not the King alone but Monarchy it self In February 1682 there hapned a strange and Barbarous Murder which for the boldness of the Attempt and the baseness of the manner wherein it was perpetrated is scarcely to be parellel'd in any History For Thomas Thin of Long-Leat Esq a Gentleman of an Estate of about 10000 l. per annum having privately married Elizabeth Daughter and sole Heir of Jocelin Earl of Northumberland and Relict to Henry Earl of Ogle Son and Heir apparent to the Duke of Newcastle And some of her Friends who were not so well satisfied with the Match as her Grand-mother was by whose means it was said to be made up having perswaded her before ever her New Husband had bedded her to withdraw her self secretly into Holland the Town was thereupon alarumed with the approach of a mighty Suit in Law concerning the Validity of the Match the best Civilians being engaged on the one side or the other And Count
joyn with him therein went on by themselves and poll'd for Four Heads with a Salvo Jure to their former Election The next day the Mayor having caused his Books to be cast up and finding the Majority of Voices to be for Box he declared North and him to be Sheriffs But Box refusing to serve and paying in his Fine according to Custom the Mayor call'd another Common-Hall on the 19th of September and proposed Peter Rich Esq to be chosen in his stead who having the Majority of Voices and being declared Sheriff the Mayor dissolved the Court and returned home But the Two Sheâ—iffs notwithstanding the Mayor's dissolution continued this Assembly as they had done the former and demanding of their own Party the rest being departed with the Mayor whether they would abide by their former Choice for Papillion and Duboise proceeded likewise to a Poll and having cast up their Books declared them to be Sheriffs Elect. Whereupon the Mayor acquainting the King with their Proceedings he commanded them to attend him in Council where they were severely checkt and not dismist without giving sufficient Bail to answer to an Information which should be exhibited against them for their unwarrantable proceedings But notwithstanding this ill success they were not so discouraged as to desist from the like practices for the future For on Michaelmas-day when the Citizens met for the Election of a Mayor they mustered up their utmost strength and appeared with as much Violence against Sir William Pritchard the next in course as they had done against North and Box setting up Gold and Cornish against them altho Cornish had been Sheriff but the very year before However Pritchard carried it by the Majority of Voices In this year died the Illustrious Prince Rupert in the 63d year of his Age The Constableship of Windsor-Castle which had been enjoyed by him for many years being after his Death conferred by the King on the Earl of Arundel And on the 18th of December died Henâ—eage Earl of Nottingham and Lord High Chancellor of England who had enjoyed that place ever since it was taken from Shaftsbury in the year 73. and was succeeded by Sir Francis North Lord Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas This year was very remarkable also for the Arrival of Two Extraordinary and Famous Embassages from Two Princes never known to have sent any into England before one from the Emperor of Fez and Morocco who in his Letter exprest much Kindness and a great Veneration to the King His Name was Hamet Benhamet Benhaddu Otter a man of a Majestick Presence and great Wisdom His business was about setling a Peace in relation to Tangier and his Person and Conversation was so pleasant and taking that he was received and caressed with more Honour and Respect both by the King and his Nobles than any Embassador I ever knew at Court And so he was by both Universities which he visited seeming to have an equal Esteem and Valuation for our Nation Nor was there ever any Embassador before him so much admired by the common people great multitudes always attending before his House which was near Katherine-street in the Strand to gaze upon and wonder at the strange Garb worn by him and his Attendants one whereof was an English Renegado formerly a Barber somewhere about Temple bar but being afterward a Soldier in Tangier he ran away from that Garison to the Moors and was by them highly advanced for his perfidious directing them in their Wars against that Town The other Embassage was from the King of Bantham in the East-Indies whose business was about the East-India Trade who would have been as much admired as the former if he had come another time but all mens Eyes were so generally fixt upon the Morocco that they were less minded than otherwise they would have been They brought the King several rich presents of Diamonds and other things of great value But not long after their return we received ill news when we least expected it For the Dutch having under pretence of assisting the Rebel Prince who was commonly called The Young King of Bantham against his Father the Old King seized upon that Town turn'd out the English whom they found there and seized on their Factory to the great damage of the English Nation On the 24th of April hapned one of the most famous and extraordinary Exploits that was ever known in London For one Broome Clerk of Skinners-Hall and Coroner of Landon having a Latitat out of the Kings-Bench in an Action upon the Case at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise agaiâ—st the Lord Mayor Sheriff North and several Loyal Aldermen Upon acquainting them therewith they all submitted to his Arrest and went with him as Prisoners to Skinners-Hall where they remained till about midnight Eight Companies of the Trained Bands being raised by order of the Lieutenancy upon that altogether new and unusual attempt to prevent Tumults But one Fletcher a Serjeant of the Poultrey-Compter having an Action of Debt upon a Bond of 400. l. agaiust Broome who had the Week before promised to give Bail to it but neglecting it and seeing him act so imperiously against the Chief Magistrate of the City took him into custody and carried him forthwith to the Compter The Mayor and his Fellow-prisoners seeing Broome carried away by a Serjeant demanded if there were any in the house who had Orders to detain them which being answered in the Negative they all peaceably departed to their several homes In the next Month was tried at Guild-Hall before the Lord Chief Justice Saunders Pemberton having been removed to the Common-Pleas upon North's receiving the Seal the great Riot committed the year before at the Election of Sheriffs Fourteen being found Guilty thereof and Fined And the better part of the City both for Number and Quality Resolved at a Common-Council held on the 22d of that Month That notwithstanding the Action in which the Mayor was Arrested at the Suit of Papillion and Duboise was said to be prosecuted at the Instance of the Citizens of London yet they to deliver themselves and the said Citizens from that false imputation did declare they were no way privy or consenting to that Action and therefore did disown and disapprove the same But the City having in the Judgment of Lawyers forfeited their Charter by several illegal proceedings the King thought the best way to prevent such kind of Tumults which might be of ill consequence to the Nation in general for the future would be the taking that Forfeiture that so by having the Charter delivered up into his hands they might by a more absolute dependance upon his Goodness be obliged to a stricter performance of their Allegiance and take the greater care to preserve the publick peace and quiet Whereupon he ordered a Writ of Quo Warranto to go out against their Charter which was grounded chiefly on their illegal exacting of Tolls in their Markets and their having framed and printed a scandalous
executed at Tyburn for this Plot. The Earl of Essex prevented the Hand of Justice by cutting his own Throat Mr. Hambden against whom there was but one Evidence was only indicted and found guilty of a high Trespass and Misdemeanor and condemned in a Fine of 40000 l. to the King to find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during Life and to stand committed till that was paid and done The Lord Brandon Major Wildman Mr. Charlton Mr. Trenchard and some others for want of sufficient Evidence were first admitted to bail and afterward discharged Mr. Wade and Sir Thomas Armstrong being both taken beyond the Seas the first at Mevis and the other in Holland were brought into England and condemned and executed upon an Outlawry The King to shew his Sense of the Divine Goodness for his wonderful and Gracious Preservation from that horrid Plot and Conspiracy publisht a Declaration for a solemn Day of Thanksgiving to Almighty God to be celebrated throughout the Kingdom on Sunday the 9th of Septemb. commanding that Declaration which contained a short Narration of the Treasonable Conspiracy and the Persons concerned therein some whereof were not mentioned in either of the Proclamations to be read on Sunday the 2d of September as well as on the Day of Thanksgiving which was observed with great Seriousness and Devotion throughout the whole Kingdom every one looking upon himself to have a particular Interest in the Benefit of that Preservation It is observable that there was this remarkable difference between the two Plots all those who died for the first protested their Innocency with their last breath denying that they had any knowledg of a Plot or Conspiracy carried on against the King or the Government and all those who died for the Second did acknowledg something tho they denied the greater part of what they were accused of About this time the Lady Ann Second Daughter to his Royal Highness the Duke of York was married to Prince George Brother to the King of Denmark the Ceremony being performed by the Bishop of London in the Presence of the King Queen Duke and Dutchess with most of the Great Persons about the Court and that Night was observed with great Joy and Splendor and the next 〈◊〉 Bells proclaimed the publick Joy which every one took for her being so happily bestowed upon a Protestant and Religious Prince who was afterward installed Knight of the Garter at Windsor The Day for the Election of Sheriffs for London and Middlesex which of course used to be the 24th of June was this Year adjourned to the 5th of September when the Livery-Men assembled at Guild-Hall without the least Hesitation confirmed the Mayors choice of Peter Daniel and chose to serve with him Francis Dashwood Electing likewise Mr. Deputy Aleworth into the Office of Chamberlain in the Room of Sir Thomas Player who being one of the Rioters in the last Years Proceedings was then removed and performing all the other Elections of Bridg-master Ale conner c. with the ancient Gravity and Moderation and a Choice of Mayor on Michaelmas-day was likewise adjourned for six Days But in the mean time the King being highly displeased with the Cities delays in signing the particulars formerly accepted of and promised by the Common-Council in Relation to the Charter caused his Attorney to enter up Judgment against it and thereupon gave his commission to Sir William Pritâ—hard to execute the Office of Lord Mayor of that City during pleasure granting the like Commissions also to the two New Sheriffs Daniel and Dashwood who were thereupon sworn with the usual Oaths and Mr. Jenner of the Inner Temple knighted at the same time by the Name of Sir Thomas Jenner the Kings Recorder of London On Sunday the 7th of October the Mayor and Sheriffs appeared at Guild-hall Chappel as formerly in their Gowns and Chains but the Aldermen only in their ordinary habits being by vertue of that new Commission only made Justices of the Peace eight of the Factious ones being left out and their Number supplied by as many Worthy and Loyal Gentlemen viz. Sir Benjamin Newland Sir Benjamin Bathurst Sir John Buckworth Sheriff Dashwood Charles Duncomb Jacob Lucy Peter Palavazine and Benjamin Thoroughgood But on the 13th of that Month the King sent them a new Commission wherein he impowered them to act as Aldermen in their several Wards and accordingly divers of them attended the Mayor the next day to Chappel after their usual manner in Gowns and Chains and the next Week assembled a Court of Aldermen as formerly And upon the 29th of October which is the Annual Day for swearing the Lord Mayor of London the King having appointed Sir Henry Tulse to execute that Office by Commission during his pleasure he was after the usual manner attended to Westminster by the Companies performing the accustomed Ceremonies in Westminster-Hall and making the usual Cavalcade through London but without any Pageants The Duke of Monmouth being accused as one of the Conspirators in the late Plot absconded and lay concealed for some time so as he could not be found by all the search that was made for him But having privately made his Application to the King in an humble and submissive Letter wherein he intirely resigned himself to his Majesties Disposal the Duke thereupon went down to Secretary Jenkins his Office to whom he had voluntarily surrendred himself and upon shewing himself very sensible of his Crime in suffering himself to be drawn into a Conspiracy against the King and Government and making a full Declaration of it and a particular Submission to his Royal Highness for his misbehaviour toward him he did upon the request and Mediation of the Duke obtain his Pardon and the Attorny-General was ordered to stop all further Proceedings against him But refusing afterwards to make the promised Discovery or to sign what he had confest he fell again into the Kings High Displeasure and was thereupon banisht the Court and expelled the Royal Presence About the middle of December this Year began a very extraordinary Frost which lasted till the 5th of February during which time the Thames was frozen over with solid and contiguous Ice with thousands of People walking thereon and whole streets of Booths built quite a cross and shops of almost all manner of Trades on each side as in the high streets of London and Coaches running almost as thick as in Fleetstreet The extremity of the Weather was such that great numbers of poor and indigent People who at other times could but just live were now in regard they could not follow their imployment brought into great necessities and many of them must have starved if the charity of others had not relieved 'em whereupon the King who always loved to take all opportunities to express his charity and affection to his Subjects especially those that were poor and indigent among them granted his Letters Mandatory to the Bishop of London to make a Collection in all Parishes in the
thrice and find security for his Good Behaviour during Life And one Butler of Northamptonshire for Presenting and Reading to the Knights of the Shire at the last Election for that County a seditious Paper of Address was fined 500 Marks and order'd to find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during Life And Dalby and Nicholson two Retainers to the Salamanca Doctor were ordered to stand in the Pillory for several false and scandalous Speeches utter'd by them But the most remarkable of all was the Business of one Roswell a Conventicle-Preacher about Redriff who was this Term tryed and convicted of High Treason in certain treasonable words spoken bâ— him in his Preachment on the 14th of September But some question arising about the Form of his Indictment which was argued by Council on both sides the Court took time to consider of their Judgment till the next Term before which time Roswel obtained the Kings Gracious Pardon who ever loved to endear his Subjects by Acts of Kindness rather than to terrifie them by Examples of Justice In this Term also was Oates indicted for Perjury in relation to Irelands being in London at the time sworn to by him at Irelands Tryal and being brought up to the Kings Bench-Bar to hear his Indictment read and pleading Not guilty his Tryal was appointed the next Term and at the Sessions which followed soon after at the Old-baily he was again Indicted upon a second Indictment for Perjury and upon pleading Not Guilty that was also appointed to be Tryed the next Term at the Kings Bench Court The Roads being now exrteamly infested with Robbers the King order'd for the ease and safety of his Subjects that all his Officers of Justice and others should with their utmost diligence endeavour the apprehending of High-way men and other Robbers promising That those who should apprehend any of them should have a reward of Ten Pounds for every Offender taken by them and delivered into Custody A little before Christmas when the minds of men in regard they were then to celebrate the Commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of the Prince of Peace shou'd have been wholly taken up with thoughts of Peace the restless and implacable Spirits of the factious and designing crew that were not yet so deprest as to be deprived of all hopes of reviving their Game were notwithstanding otherwise employ'd for about this time they dispers'd in a secret and clandestine manner a most wicked false and treasonable Libel relating to the Death of the late Earl of Essex Wherein they would have born the World in hand that he did not murder himself Strict enquiry was made after the Author and several of the Books seiz'd but the Author could not be discovered only Henry Danvers commonly called Collonel Danvers an Anabaptist by Profession and a Principal Officer in the late Rebellious Army was found to be the Author of a certain Sheet which was an abstract of that Libel wherein the very Qâ—intescence and Venom of it was crowded into a smaller Compass and a Warrant thereupon was sent out for his Apprehension but being an old cunning Fox he fled upon the discovery whereupon the King gave Publick Notice in the Gazette That whosoever should apprehend him and cause him to be deliver'd into safe Custody that he might be proceeded against according to Law for those dangerous and treasonable Practices should have a reward of 100l to be immediately paid by the Lords of the Treasury In the beginning of this Hillary Term Sir Scroop How one of the Knights of the Shire for the County of Nottingham in the late Parliaments appearing in the Kings Bench to answer to an Information exhibited against him for Words spoken against the King and his Brother pleaded Guilty confessing his Offence and with much sorrow cast himself upon the Kings and the Dukes Mercy whereupon being the next day introduc'd to them he was after his humble submission to them and promises of future Loyalty and Obedience receiv'd to Grace and being deeply affected with that unmerited favour acknowledg'd that he did in point of Gratitude for the Kings Goodness therein owe him his Life and Estate and would for the future dedicate Both to the service of him and the Royal Family But Englands Glorious Sun of Happiness and Tranquility which had shined bright and resplendent for near Five and Twenty Years together must now suffer a fatal Eclipse and be for some few days wrapt up in Black and Mournful Clouds and have it's Glory totally tho not finally obscur'd by the Lamented and much Deplored Death of this happy and wonderful Monarch for upon Monday the second of February he was suddenly taken with an Apoplectick Fit which was so violent that in all probability he would never have reviv'd again had not Doctor King who being one of his Physicians was then present having been that morning with some others of the Kings Physicians to look upon a sore Heel which he had for some time immediately let him blood by which and other proper means afterward used he seemed to be in so fair a way of recovery that the Lords of the Council thought fit for the preventing of false Reports to publish on Thursdâ—y That some Hours after the Kings being first taken an amendment appeared which wlth the Blessing of God improved by the Application of proper and seasonable Remedies was then so far advanc'd that the Physicians conceiv'd him to be in a condition of safety and that he would in a few days be freed from his Distemper The People in divers Places of the Country where it had been positively reported he was dead receiv'd this news of his Recovery with incredible joy exprest by the Ringing of Bells and Bonfires but in few days all was dampt again by the certain and unwelcome news of his Death For when neither the endeavours of men nor the invocations of Heaven could prevail he expired on Friday the Sixth of February having lain all that time in abundance of pain and misery which he endur'd with incredible Patience often lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven and breathing forth the fervent desires oâ— his Holy and Pious Soul in several Short but sweet and Pathetick Ejaculations Kings in respect of their Office are stiled Gods in the Sacred Writ and are like him immortal and therefore can never die but their Persons being made of the same mouldring Principles with the meanest of their Subjects they must die like men and when the time appointed for their dissolution is come it is impossible either for men or Angels Physick or Physicians to detain them longer here for they may with as much ease dissolve the Covenant of the Night and Day keep the Sea from flowing and the Sun from shining as preserve Kings from being hurried as well as the rest of mankind to the place appointed for all Living As no King was ever better beloved by his Subjects whilst living so none ever died more lamented than
which he would do so fast that his Courtiers were sometimes forced to run that so they might keep pace with him It being his constant Custom every morning when he was in Town to Walk an hour or more in St. James's Park and he designed to have done so that very morning he fell into his Fit He took great pleasure likewise in Swimming which he could do incomparably well to the Pleasure and Admiration of those that beheld him And indeed all his Recreations as well as those publick and private Actions which had a more direct tendency to the great concerns of his Life as a King gave delight and satisfaction to those who communicated in the sight of them And his very Diversions were so serious and pleasing that every part of his time was thought to be well spent and to deserve Commendation Never was Prince more loving and affectionate to his Queen than he for he ever resented Affronts offered to her His Love and Affection to his Queen as ill as if they had been offered to himself And was as tender of her Honour as of his own He was observed by the Courtiers to be more Rich and Splendid upon her Birth-day than upon his own and to keep it with greater Joy and Solemnity The vast Treasure of Learning and Knowledg which he had acquired by his long Study and Experience was richly set off and adorned by a curious smooth and charming Eloquence whereby he could readily express his Sentiments of things in so good a Language as that with a pleasing kind of Magick it enchanted the listning Ears of those that heard him as sufficiently appeared by his Letters Declarations and Speeches And to conclude all He was every way fitted and made for Government as well as born to be a King and was possessed of all those excellent Qualifications which were we to have had a liberty of choice would certainly have constrained us to have pitched upon him for our Sovereign For the valour of Edward the 3d The Conduct of Henry the 5th the Wisdom of the Seventh Henry the Majesty of his Great Son the Learning of James the 1st and the Justice and Piety of the Royal Martyr and I had almost said the Mercy of God himself all met and were conspicuous in him FINIS EPIGRAPHE Aevitati S. Numinis Majest CAROLI II. Inclyti Magnae Britanniae Genii ac Regis Divi CAROLI Martyris F. Qui Ex Prosapia Deorum oriundus Et ad Anglicani Nominis Aeternitatem Natus Patriae fuit Parens Pius Paciferus semper Augustus In Exilio frendente Rebelli Barbarie Magnanimus Sub Reducis Fortunae auspiciis Albionum Fundator Imperii Literarum Mecaenas Factionis Stator Defensorque Fidius Tam Virtute Fortis quam Pietate Clemens Supra omnes retro Principes Prope XXV Annorum Spatio Amplificatam toto Orbe dedit Remp. Factis Consiliisque Paucis Nihil non inlustre fuit nisi Immortalis Obiit igitur ut Immortalis esset Sexto die Mensis Februarii Anno Regni sui Tricesimo-Septimo Ineunte Annoqque Sospitatoris Nostri 1684. Triumphate tamen etiam Pullati Brittones Neque dum Terram defuncto Principi vovetis Levem Sub onere doloris vestri ingemiscite Vivit enim CAROLUS in Superstite JACOBO Et ut Diu vivat strenuè Precaminor Adesto FAMA Multum tibi Negoti video dari Contemplare JACOBUM II. Reg. Opt. Max. Mavortem Britanicum Et cogita Novam Fatorum Seriem O Referant Divi quoniam non possum Ipsi A Prayer for the KING 's Most Excellent Majesty taken out of the Liber Regalis GOd the unspeakeable Author of the World Creator of Men Governor of Empires and Establisher of all Kingdoms who out of â—he Loins of our Father Abraham didst chuse a King that became the Saviour of all Kings and Nations of the Earth Bless we beseech thee thy Faithful Servant and our Dread Sovereign Lord King JAMES with the Richest Blesssings of thy Grace Establish him in the Throne of His Kingdom by thy Mighty Aid and Proteâ—ion Visit him as thou didst visit Moses in the Bush Joshua in the Battel Gideon in the Field and Samuel in the Temple Leâ— the Dew of thine abundant Mercies fall upon his Head and give him the Blessing of David and Solomon Be unto him an Helmet of Salvation against the Face of His Enemies and a strong Tower of Defence in the Time of Adversity Let his Reign be prosperous and His Days many Let Peace Love and Holiness let Iustice and Truth and all Christian Vertues flourish in His Time Let His People Serve Him with Honour and Obedience and let Him so duly serve thee here on Earth that He may hereafter everlastingly Reign with thee in Heaven through Jesus Christ our Lord AMEN THE END