Archbishop Laud upon an Accusation of High Treason by the Commons was committed to the Tower And now Episcopacy it self was called in question and though the Lord Digby made a witty and weighty Speech in Defence of it and Archbishop Usher gave his Judgment for the Moderation and Emendation of it and the Liturgy not the Extirpation thereof yet the Wings of Episcopacy were shrewdly clipt for March 10 the Commons Voted That no Bishop should have any Vote in Parliament nor any Judicial power in the Star Chamber nor be concerned in any Temporal matters and that no Clergy-man should be a Justice of Peace Upon Monday March 26 1640. the Earl of Straffords Tryal began in Westminster-hall the King Queen and Prince being present and the Commons likewise being there as a Committee at the managing their Accusation the Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward and the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Constable the Earl of Strafford though he had but short warning yet had gotten his Defence ready against the time The Accusation was managed by Mr. Pym consisting of Twenty eight Articles to most of which the Earl made Particular Replies But the Commons were resolved to prosecute him to the utmost and had therefore procured the Parliament of Ireland to prosecute him there also as guilty of High Treason which being unexpectedly produced extorted from the Earl this passionate Expression That there was a Conspiracy against him to take away his Life At which the Commons cryed out against him That standing Impeached of High Treason he durst accuse the Parliament of two Kingdoms of Conspiracy against him But besides all these certain notes were produced against him which were taken by Sir H. Vane in a close Committee of select Counsellors whom the King had chosen to consult about his second Expedition against the Scots out of which it was alledged against the Earl That he had given the King advice to borrow an Hundred thousand pound of the City of London To levy Ship-money rigorously and that his Majesty having tryed the Affections of his People was absolved and loosed from all Rules of Government and might do what power would admit and having an Army in Ireland might imploy it for the reducing of this Kingdom which he was sure could not hold out five months And London being full of the Nobility the Commission of Array was to be set on foot and all Opposers thereof to be severely dealt with To this the Earl replyed That he conceived it lawful for a Privy Counsellor to have freedom of Voting with others and as to the matter of the English Army he thought that the single Testimony of one man Secretary Vane was not of Validity in Law much less in Life and Death and that the Depositions of Secretary Vane was doubtful as appeared by several Examinations and that there were present at the Debate but eight Privy Counsellors whereof two were not to be produced and four others declared upon their Honours that they never heard him speak those words or any like them and lastly that if he had spoken them which he yet granted not that the word This Kingdom could not imply England the debate being concerning Scotland there being not the least intention of Landing the Irish Army in England and concluded his Defence with telling the Lords that he was accused as guilty of Treason for endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws of the Land but it seemed strange to him that it should be Treason together which was not Treason in any part and lastly desired the Lords to consider how their own Priviledges and other Ministers of State would suffer by his Condemnation The Commons must now justifie their Charge by Law to which end they produced the Salvo annexed to the Stat. of 25 Ed. 3. The words were these Because all particular Treasons could not be then defined therefore what the Parliament should declare to be Treason in time to come should be punished as Treason And so this Salvo was to be the Ground work of the Bill of Attainder This being a point of Law the Earl had Council allowed him who answered on his behalf That the Statute which they cited was but a Declarative and a Penal Law awd would no way admit of such Consequential and Inferential Constructions and that this Salvo was repealed by an Act of Parliament in the Sixth of Henry the fourth And so the Court Adjourned without prefixing any time of Meeting for the Commons proceeded to dispatch their Bill of Attainder and April 19 1641 they Voted the Earl Guilty of High Treason upon the Evidence of Secretary Vane and his Notes And upon the 25th they passed the Bill and sent to the Lords for their Concurrence to whom it seemed at first so perplext a business that the Commons were forced to send Mr. Saint John the Kings Sollicitor to confer with them about it who gave them such satisfaction that thence forward they shewed greater propensity to the Earls Condemnation In the mean time the Commons petitioned the King 1. To remove all Papists from Court. 2. For disarming of them generally throughout the Kingdom 3. For disbanding the Irish Army To which the King answered 1. They all knew what Legal Trust the Crown hath in that particular therefore he shall not need to say any thing to assure them that he shall use it so as there shall be no just cause of scandal 2. As for the second he is content it shall be done by Law And for the last he had entred into Consultation about it finding many difficulties therein and doth so wish the disbanding of all Armies as he did conjure them speedily and heartily to joyn with him in disbanding those two here Scots and English The House of Commons having finished their Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford and the King fearing the Conclusion and being willing to do some good Office to him His Majesty May 1 1641 calls both Houses together and in a Speech tells them That he had been present at the hearing of that great Cause and that in his Conscience positively he could not condemn him of High Treason and yet could not clear him of misdemeanours but hoped a way might be found out to satisfie Justice and their fears without oppressing his Conscience And so he dismissed them to their great discontent which was propagated so far that May 3. near a Thousand Citizens most of them armed with Swords Cudgels and Staves came thronging down to Westminster crying out for Justice against the Earl of Strafford especially applying themselves to the Earl of Montgomery Lord Chamberlain by whose perswasions and promises their fury was partly abated However they posted upon the Gate at Westminster a List of the Names of those who would have acquitted the Earl whom they stiled Staffordians The Parliament being Informed that some endeavours were used to raise a Disgust in the English Northern Army against their Proceedings they now enter into a National
done His Character is Expressed by the King his Master in his Eikon Basilike who said He looked upon the Earl of Strafford as a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to Imploy him in the greatest Affairs of State The fall of this powerful man so startled other great Officers of State that several resigned their places About the same time some discontents arose between the Parliament and the English Army in the North but a while after both Armies were disbanded The payment of Tonnage and Poundage had been much questioned since 1628 but now the King at the request of the Commons was content to relinquish his Claim to it and afterward pasied a Bill for Pole-money and two others for putting down the Star chamber and High Commission Courts which had proceeded with too much severity having so far out grown the power of the Law that they would not be limited nor guided by it July 5. A Charge was brought into the House of Commons against Dr. Wren Bishop of Ely being accused of some Treasonable Misdemeanors in his Diocess who thereupon Voted him unworthy and unfit to hold or exercise any Office or Dignity in Church or State and desired the Lords to join with them to request the King for his Removal from his service and so he was committed to the Tower and about the same time the Writs for Ship money and all the Proceedings therein were by the Kings consent adjudged void and 5. of the Judges that gave their Opinions for it were Impeached of high misdemeanors that is Bramston Trevor Weston Davenport and Crawly and Berkly another of the Judges was accused for Treason but no further prosecution was made therein August 6. Both the English and Scotch Armies were disbanded and four-days after the King went toward Scotland and was entertained with great demonstrations of Affection by that Nation and conferred several Places of Honour and Power upon divers of them confirming likewise the Treaty between the two Nations by Act of Parliament October 23 1641. A Horrid and Notorious Rebellion broke out in Ireland which was managed with such secrecy that it was not discovered till the night before it was to have been put in Execution which was in divers places carried on with such fury that Two hundred thousand English Men Women and Children were in a short space barbarously murdered by all manner of most cruel torments that their Devlish minds could invent And this was chiefly occasioned by the Instigation of the Irish Popish Priests Monks and Fryers who every where declaimed loudly against the Protestants saying That they were Hereticks and not to be suffered any longer to live amongst them That it was no more sin to kill one of them then to kill a dog and that it was a mortal and unpardonable sin to relieve or protect any of them Yea the Priests gave the Sacrament to divers of the Irish upon Condition they should spare neither Man Woman nor Child of the Protestants saying That it did them a great deal of good to wash their hands in their blood and that they were worse than Dogs and if any of them died in the Quarrel before their bodies were cold their souls should be in Heaven without ever calling in at Purgatory by the way This bloody Rebellion happened in a time wherein the Irish had all the Priviledges and Liberty they could reasonably expect and the ancient hatred which the Irish had born to the English did now seem to be forgotten Forty Years of Peace having compacted and cemented them together both by Alliances and Marriages which were all now miserably broken and destroyed The Castle of Dublin wherein were Ten thousand Arms and all other Forts and Magazines in the Kingdom were to have been surprized and all the English Protestants that would not joyn with them were to be murdered but the seizing of the Castle was happily prevented by one Owen Conally from some discourse accidentally in a Tavern with one Hugh Mac Mahon Grandson to the Great Earl of Tyrone the night before the intended Execution Upon this Discovery Mac Mahon and Lord Mac-Guire were seized by the Lord Chief Justices of Ireland and many Principal Conspirators escaped that night out of Dublin so was Dublin saved that all Ireland might not be lost in one day But the horrid Design was past prevention as to the General for the Conspirators were in Arms at the day appointed in all the Counties round about and poor English Protestants daily arrived there robbed and spoiled of all they had giving lamentable Relations how their Houses were seized the Towns and Villages fired and in all parts all manner of cruel Outrages and Villanies committed The Lords Justices Sir William Parsons and Sir John Burlace taking those Arms which they found in Dublin and Arming whom they could to defend themselves sent Sir Henry Spotswood to the King then in Scotland with an Account of all that happened who dispatched Sir James Stuart with Instructions to the Lords of the Privy Council in Ireland and to carry all the Money his present Stores would supply He likewise moved the Parliament of Scotland as being nearest for their assistance but they excused it because Ireland was a dependant upon the Crown of England but if the State of England would use any of their men for that service they would make Propositions in order to it At the same time likewise the King sent Post to the Parliament of England and a while after Owen O Conally the First Discoverer of the Plot came to London and brought Letters to the Earl of Leicester who was chosen Deputy but not yet gone over wherein the Lords Justices desired some Reward might be given him upon which the Parliament Voted him a Gift of 500 l. and an Annuity of 200 l. a year and at a Conference of both Houses they passed several Votes for the Relief of Ireland yet little was done till the Kings return from Scotland which was about the end of November The Irish to dishearten the English from any resistance bragged That the Queen was with their Army That the King would come amongst them also and asist them That they did but maintain his Cause against the Puritans That they had the Kings Commission for what they did shewing indeed a Patent themselves had drawn but thereto was affixed an Old Broad Seal which had been taken from an Ancient Patent out of Farnham Abby by one Plunket in the presence of many of their Lords and Priests as was afterwards attested by the Confession of several That the Scots were in the Confederacy with them And to seem to confirm this last they abstained for some time from destroying the Estates or murdering any of that Nation And on the otherside to incourage the Irish they produced pretended Letters wherein they said they were informed from England That the Parliament had passed an Act all the Irish should be compelied to the Protestant worship
Leg with the Kings own hand with the Direction signed C. R. The business of the Lord Kimbolton and the five Members The suspicious designing a Guard about his Person and under hand promoting the Irish Rebellion The ordering Sir John Pennington to land the Lord Digby beyond Sea from thence to alienate the King from his Parliament and to procure Forreign Forces for his Assistance which now said they appeared more credible by reason of his removal with the Prince and the manifold Advertisements from Rome Venice Paris and other parts certifying that the Popes Nuncio had sollicited the Kings of France and Spain to lend his Majesty 4000 Men apeice in reference to some Design against Religion and the Parliament and lastly They desire him to turn away his wicked Councellors and to rely upon his Parliament which if he would do they would sacrifice their Lives Fortunes and utmost endeavours to the Supportation of his Soveraignty After the reading of the Declaration the Lords would have perswaded the King to come near the the Parliament and to grant the Militia for a time which his Majesty refused and told them in short That their Fears and Doubts and Jealousies were such as he would take time to satisfy the whole World of but that his own doubts were not Trivial occasioned by so many Scandalous Pamphlets and Seditious Sermons divers publick Tumults hitherto uninquired into and unpunished and sometime after the King published a Declaration to the People in Answer to theirs the sum of which was That he had no evil Councellors about him but leaves such to their censure where they should find them That he desired the Judgments of Heaven might be manifested upon those who had any design against the Protestant Profession That the Scottish Troubles were buried in perpetual silence by the Act of Oblivion and passed in Parliaments of both Kingdoms That they charging him with any inclining to the Irish Rebels was a high and causless injury to his Royal Reputation That he never intended to exasperate the late Army or in any wise to use them against the Parliament That Captain Leg's Petition was brought to him subscribed by the Officers of the Army desiring that the Parliament might not be hindred from reforming the Church and State to the Model of Queen Elizabeths days and was advantageous to them And to assure Sir Jacob Ashly of his Opinion therein he writ C. R. That the Lord Digby and Mr. Jermin neither were at White-hall nor had any Warrant from him after the Restraint That he had given sufficient Answer about Kimbolton and the five Members That the care of his own safety caused him to raise a Guard at White-hall and to receive the Loyal Tender which the Gentlemen of the Inns of Court did make him of their Service And that he looked upon their Forreign Advertisements by them mentioned as meerly wild and irrational The King goes further Northward whilst the Parliament Voted the Ordinance for Defence of the Kingdom not to be prejudicial to the Oath of Allegiance but to be obeyed as the Fundamental Laws and that the Kings Commands for Lieutenancy over the several Counties were illegal and void but he coming to Huntington sends them a Message March 15. That he intends to make his Residence at York and desires them to hasten their Succours for Ireland and not upon any pretence of Order or Ordinance to which he is not a Party of the Militia or any other thing to Do or Execute against the Laws which he himself was to keep and his Subjects to obey declaring his Subjects not to be obliged to obey any Act Order or Injunction to which he hath not given consent In answer to which they resolve That the absence of the King so far from his Parliament was destructive to the Relief of Ireland and therefore all those Councellors which advised him to it are to be suspected as Favourers of that bloody Rebellion as likewise those who perswaded his Majesty to question or contradict their Votes which was a high breach of Priviledge of Parliament March 16. The King at Stamford published a Proclamation for putting the Laws in Execution against Popish Recusants and from thence he goes to York and there March 24 Repeals his Grant for passing the Bill against Tonnage and Poundage of June 22 last past commanding the payment thereof for the future according to the Act of the First of King James and so this year ended It was now the year 1642 and the 18th of his Majesties Reign when a fresh Difference arose for the Earl of Northumberland Admiral of England being indisposed the King ordered Sir John Pennington Vice Admiral to take the charge of the Summer Fleet for the Narrow Seas but the Parliament earnestly desired that it might be conferred upon the Earl of Warwick but were refused by the King to their great distaste During the Assizes at York the Gentry Ministers and Freeholders of that County presented a Petition to the King to endeavour an Agreement with the Parliament who advises them to apply themselves to the Parliament for the good of all And next day he sends a Message to the Houses That he intended to raise his Guard out of the Counties near Chester Two thousand Foot and Two hundred Horse to be supplied with Arms from the Magazine at Hull upon taking the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance That if the Parliaments Undertaking for the Irish War would not suffice to defray the Charges of raising and paying them he would pawn or sell his Land or Houses desiring them withal to quicken their Levies for Munster and Connaught as the Scots already did theirs of Ulster and offers his Person against the Rebels The Parliament having for some time mistrusted the Kings going North to be intended for seizing the Magazine at Hull endeavoured to prevent it declaring their suspicion of his design to raise an Army and therefore pray That it might be removed from thence to the Tower of London as a place of more safety and easier transport for Ireland and that the Repreive for the popish priests in Newgate may be recalled and they executed And to make all sure Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons is sent down to take upon him the Government of that place who by his sudden coming thither prevented the Earl of New-castle who was designed by the King to be Governor thereof so that when the King came to Hull in Person with his Guard consisting of Lords and Gentlemen April 23. 1642 he finds the Gates shut upon him and the Bridges drawn up but from the Wall Hotham appears and upon his knees intreats his Majesty Not to command that which without the breach of his Trust he could not yeild obedience to Whereupon the King finding his entrance prevented caused Hotham instantly to be proclaimed Traytor and by Letters to the Parliament complained of that Indignity and required satisfaction but they justified him therein and sent a
time he should stand committed to the Serjeants Ward till Two Thousand Pound Bail could be procured for his appearance next Sessions And though the King took him into Protection as his Servant yet his Bail-bond remained uncancelled Divers Laws were Enacted in this Parliament as one about Observation of the Lord's day another for restraint of Tipling in Inns Alehouses c. These passed likewise in the House of Commons A Bill for Tunnage and Poundage but this miscarried in the House of Lords because the Commons had limited it to a year whereas it was formerly granted to the Kings Predecessors during their lives it being intended to reduce the Customs to the Rate at which they were settled in the Reign of Queen Mary During the fitting of the Parliament the Lord Mordant a Papist and his Wife a Protestant being both desirous of each others Conversion they put their cause upon a dispute between James Usher L. Archbishop of Amargh and one Rookwood a Jesuite who called himself Beaumont this was acted at Drayton in Northamptonshire the points disputed on were Transubstantiation Praying to Saints Images and the Visibility of the Church wherein the Learned Primate so foil'd his Adversary that the Lord Mordant was Convinced and Converted to the Protestant Religion and his Lady further confirmed therein On the Eleventh of July 1626 the Parliament by reason of the sickness Adjourned till August 1. and then met again at Oxford where the King first by himself and next by his two Secretaries the Lord Conway and Sir John Cook declared to them the necessity of setting forth a Fleet for the recovery of the Palatinate which was the Countrey of the Prince Palatine of the Rhyns who married the Kings Sister and was then unjustly detained from him by the Emperour of Germany and the King of Spain the Lord Treasurer likewise instanced the several Sums of Money which King James died indebted to the City of London This occasioned very warm Debates in the House of Commons who alledged That evil Councels guided the Kings Designs That the Treasury was misimployed That our necessties arose through Imprevidence That it would be necessary to Petition the King for a stricter hand and better Councel to manage his Affairs That though a former Parliament engaged the King in a War yet if things were managed with Contrary designs and the Treasure misimployed this Parliament was not bound to be carried blindsold in Designs not guided by sound Council That it was not usual to grant Subsidies upon Subsidies in one Parliament and no Grievances rednessed With several other Passages of the like Nature They likewise very much reflected upon the miscarriages of the Duke of Buckingham who was then a person of very considerable Trust but however they promised to consider of the Kings desires and presented him a Petition against Popish Recusants giving an Account of their damage ascribing certain Causes of their growth and offering divers Remedies thereunto unto which a satisfactory Answer if any thing would have satisfied was returned And hereupon there followed a Debate about Supplies some were for contributing presently others demurr'd as disliking the design in hand and in conclusion the Major part agreed not to give And being incensed against the Duke of Buckingham they began to think of divesting him of his Offices and to require an Account of the Publick Moneys wherewith he had been intrusted all which they intended to include in an humble Remonstrance to prevent which the King resolved to Dissolve the Parliament and accordingly the Usher of the Black Rod was sent from the House of Lords to the Commons who were then resolved into a Grand Committee and understanding the Kings pleasure they caused the Speaker to keep his Seat while they agreed upon a Message of Thanks to his Majesty for his Gracious Answer to their Petition for Religion and for his care of their Health in giving them leave to depart this dangerous time of Sickness with a dutiful Declaration of their Affection and Loyalty and of their purposing to supply him in a Parliamentary way in fit and convenient time After which they were accordingly dissolved Now the War with Spain being intended both for the recovery of the Palatinate and to prevent disturbance in our Civil Estate the Councel hereupon resolve with all speed to set forth a Fleet and to preserve strict Unity and Peace with France Denmark and the United Provinces and with the Hollanders the King had already entered into a League Offensive and Defensive against the House of Austria and likewise had promised to assist them in soliciting other Princes to enter into the same Confederation upon Condition that they should bear a Fourth part of the Charge of the Fleet and in pursuance hereof the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland were sent to the Hague and there meeting with the Ambassadors of France and Denmark they concluded a League for restoring the Liberties of Germany the two last Ambassadors having no further power from their Supteams A while after the Dissolution of the Parliament the King published a Proclamation Commanding the return of all Children of Noble-men which had been sent to be Educated in Seminaries and Popish Schools beyond Sea that none who had received Orders from Rome should presume to confer Orders or Exercise Ecclesiastical Functions in any of his Dominions and likewise that the Statute be put in Execution for the departure of Priests and Jesuites out of his Majesties Dominions By reason of the Dissolving the Parliament the Act of Subsidies was prevented and the King was necessitated to take up Money upon Loan of such Persons as were of Ability to lend and to that end he directed his Letters to the Lord Leiutenants of the several Counties To return the Names of those Men whom they thought most sufficient The places of their Habitations and what Sums each might be judged able to lend and to the persons returned Letters were Issued forth in the Kings Name to this purpose That his Majesty having observed in the Presidents and Customs of former times That all the Kings and Queens of this Realm upon extraordinary occasions have used either to resort to those Contributions which arise from the generality of Subjects or to the private helps of some well affected in particular by way of Loan in the former of which as his Majesty has no doubt in the Love and affection of his People when they shall again Assemble in Parliament so for the present he was inforced to proceed in the latter course for supply of some Portions of Treasure for divers publick Services which without manifold Inconveniences to his Majesty and his Kingdoms cannot be deferr'd and therefore this being the first time that his Majesty hath required any thing of this kind he doubts not but he shall receive such a Testimony of good affection from them among other of his Subjects and that with such alacrity and readiness as may make the same so
much the more acceptable especially since his Majesty required but the Sum which few men would deny a Friend and has a mind resolved to expose all his Earthly Fortune for Preservation of the General The Sum which His Majesty requires by these presents is which His Majesty promiseth in the Name of himself his Heirs and Successors to repay to them or their Assigns within Eighteen Months after the payment thereof to the Collector The Person whom his Majesty hath appointed is to whose hands his Majesty doth require them to send it within Twelve days after they have received this Privy Seal which together with the Collectors Acquittance shall be sufficient Warrant to the Officers of Receipt for their payment thereof at the time limited And the Collectors of the Loan were ordered to pay the Sums received into the Exchequer and to return the Names of such as went about to delay or excuse the Payment of the Sums required And now about the beginning of October the Fleet set to Sea the Lord Cecill second Son to the Earl of Exeter commanding the Land Forces and the Earl of Essex being Vice Admiral at Sea but they were surprized by so violent a Storm that the greatest part of the Navy which in all made up Fourscore Ships some being Dutch were dissipated and scattered for seven days together and an excellent Ship with an 170 Passengers in her were all cast away and lost the Design was to have furprized Cadiz in Spain to burn the Ships in the Harbour and to have taken the Spanish Plate Fleet which was daily expected from the Indies but by reason of the Plague amongst them and some other miscarriages of the Commanders the business was wholly disappointed and the Fleet returned home but four days before the Plate Fleet came Upon the Second of February was the Coronation at which the King did not pass through the City in State from the Tower as was usual but went by Water from Whitehall to Westminster for fear of the danger of a Concourse of People the Pestilence which raged the year before not being quite ceased The Bishop of Lincoln as Dean of Westminster should have performed the chief part of the Ceremony but being under displeasure Dr. Laud then Bishop of St. Davids supplied his place Divers considerable Forces had been raised both for Sea and Land for the better Discipline of whom 150 old Souldiers were sent for from the Netherlands by whose Industry they were brought into some good order against the meeting of the next Parliament which was summoned to sit Feb. 6. And being met accordingly the House of Commons chose Sir Henage Finch for their Speaker The first business they insisted upon was the rendring thanks to the King for his gracious Answer to their late Petition concerning Religion then they debated of the Publick Grievances viz. The miscarrying of the Fleet at Cadiz the evil Councellors about the King misimploying the Kings Revenue an Account of the Subsidies and three Fifteens granted in the 21 Year of King James And in the Committee of Grievances these four particulars were insisted on 1. The state of the King in the constant Revenue of the Crown and how much it had been diminished by Gifts of Lands Grants of Pensions Fruitless Embassies the Privy Purse and other ways 2. The Condition of the Subject in his Freedom about laying new impositions multiplying Monopolies Leuying of Customs without Act of Parliament and wasting the Treasure 3. The Cause of the Nations good success in former times whereby it was feared Victorious and Renowned abroad which they judged was occasioned by the Wisdom and Gravity of Counsel who ordered nothing but by publick Debate whereby there arose a readiness in the People to Assist their Soveraign in Purse and Person 4. The present Condition of the Kingdom wherein was represented the loss of its wonted Reputation through the ill success at Algier in the Palatinate in Count Manfields Expedition and at Cadiz and this was imputed to the want of such Counsels as were formerly used since for fear of not succeeding men were now afraid of venturing either there Persons or Purses There was likewise a Committe concerning Religion and the growth of Popery wherein Mr. Richard Montagues two Books before mentioned were again questioned and Articles drawn up against him charging him with several Passages for encouraging Popery and drawing his Majesties Subjects from the true Religion Established into Error and Superstition with other passages dishonourable to the late King and full of injurious and railing Language against other Persons as likewise that he endeavoured to raise Factions in the Kingdom by casting the scandalous Name of Puritan upon such of his Majesties Subjects as conformed themselves to the Doctrine of the Church of England upon which the House of Commons ordered that he should be brought to Exemplary Punishment and to have his Books burnt nor do we find that he ever made any Defence or Answer to those Articles that were brought against him It is affirmed that a while before the sitting of the Parliament Dr. Laud understanding from the D. of Buckingham that the King intended to leave Mr. Montague to a Tryal was heard to utter these words Iseem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God in his Mercy dissipate it After this the Commons questioned several persons who were of the Council of War upon the Affairs of the Palatinate concerning the management of that business complaint was likewise made in the House of the Scotch and Irish Nobility for claiming precedency of the Peers of England of which redress was promised but a while after the Lord Martrevers Eldest Son and Heir to the Earl of Arundel Married the Daughter of the late Duke of Lenox contrary to the Kings Mind who intended her for the Lord Lorn Son and Heir of the Earl of Argile whereupon the Earl of Arundel was committed to the Tower which upon the Peers Petitioned to the King alledging That no Peer sitting in the Parliament is to be imprisoned without Order from the House of Lords unless for Felony Treason or denying to give security for the Peace Upon this there arose a Dispute which lasted for the space of two Months and then the Earl was set at Liberty In which time the House of Commons were very busie in searching the Signet Office for the Original of a Letter under the Signet written to the Mayor of York for reprieving divers Jesuites Priests and other Popish Recusants This was reported by Mr. Pim Chairman to the Committee for Religion but their proceedings therein were interrupted by a Meffage from the King sent by Sr. Richard Weston Chancellor of the Exchequer demanding a supply for the English and Irish Forces This was so highly resented that Mr. Clement Cook one of the Members openly Protested That it was better to die by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home And Dr. Turner another of the House seconded him with
among them His Majesty having received it returned this short Answer thereunto That he would have them in the first place Consult about Matters of the greatest Importance and that they should have time enough for other things afterward This happened in the year 1626 and in the Second Year of his Majesties Reign about which time the Earl of Bristoll being ordered by the King to be Examined by a Committee of Lords concerning his Negotiation in Spain and having been in Prison and prohibited access to His Majesty ever since his return received a Letter from the Lord Conway wherein in order to his Relief he propounded to him from His Majesty this Choice Whether he would be quiet and not be questioned for what was past and enjoy the benefit of the late Gracious Pardon or whether he would stand upon his Justification To which he Answered That he did humbly acknowledge and accept of his Majesties Grace and Favour And at the same time he Petitioned the House of Lords for his Liberty or to come to a Tryal who apylying themselves to his Majesty he granted a Writ for the Earls coming to Parliament but with a Proviso That his Personal Attendance should be forborn whereupon the Earl sent another Petition to the Lords that he might be heard both as to his Restraint and of what he had to say against the Duke At which the King was much concerned and signified to the Lords That it was his Royal Pleasure that the Earl of Bristol might be sent for as a Delinquent to answer his Offences to the House and his scandalizing the Duke of Buckingham and his Majesty likewise by Reflection Upon this the Earl was accordingly brought to the Bar and being ready to be impeacht of High Treason by the Attorney General he besought their Lordships That as he was a Freeman and Peer of this Realm untainted and had something to say of high Consequence for his Majesties Service he might have liberty to speak Which being granted him he said I accuse that Man the Duke of Buckingham of High Treason This unexpected procedure of the Earl occasioned the Attorney General to draw up a Charge against him consisting of Eleven Articles containing Matters of divers Natures whereupon the Earl afterwards gave a large Account of the Duke of Buckinghams proceedings towards him and then preferr'd Twelve Articles against him and besides these Articles against the Duke the Earl of Bristol exhibited Eleven others against the Lord Conway the Earl likewise gave in his Answer to each particular Article of his Impeachment Now whilst these two Peers were thus contesting the House of Commons presented an Impeachment to the Lords against the Duke consisting of Twelve Articles to each of which the Duke made Replies and the last of them being a matter of general Discourse it may seem necessary to insert it with the Dukes Answer thereto That the Duke being a Sworn Servant of the the late King did cause and provide certain Plaisters and Potions for his late Majesty K. James in in his last Sickness without the Privity of his Majesties Physicians and that although those Plaisters and Potions formerly applied produced such ill Effects as many of his Sworn Phisicians did disallow as prejudicial to his Maiesties Health yet the Duke did apply them again to his Majesty whereupon great Distempers and dangerous Symptoms appeared in him which the Physitians imputed to those Administrations of the Duke whereof his late Majesty also complained which is an Offence and Misdemeanor of so high a Nature as may be called an Act of Transcendent Presumption And the said Commons by Protestation saving to themselves the liberties of exhibiting hereafter any other Accusation or Impeachment against the Duke and also of Replying unto what the Duke shall Answer unto the said Articles do pray That the said Duke may be put to Answer all and every the Premises and that such Proceeding Examinations Tryals and Judgments may be upon every of them had as is agreeable to Law and Justice To this Article the Duke of Buckingham Replyed That his late Majesty being sick of an Ague a Disease out of which the Duke recovered not long before asked the Duke what he found most Advantagious to his Health The Duke replyed a Plaister and Possit Drink administred unto him by the Earl of Warwick 's Physician whereupon the King much desired the Plaister and Possit drink to be sent for and the Duke delaying it the King commanded a Servant of the Dukes to go for it against the Dukes earnest request he humbly D Buckingham stab'd by Felton Mr Pryn Burton Bastnich in the Pillory The Tumult in Scotland upon Reading the Comon pray r craving his Majesty not to make use of it without the Advice of his own Physicians and Experiment upon others which the King said he would do and in confidence thereof the Duke left him and went to London and in the mean time he being absent the said Plaister and Posset Drink were brought and at the Dukes return his Majesty commanded the Duke to give him the Posset Drink which he did the Physicians then present not seeming to mislike it afterwards the Kings Health declining and the Duke hearing a Rumour as if his Physick had done his Majesty hurt and that he had administred Physick without Advice the Duke acquainted the King therewith who with much discontent replyed They are worse then Devils that say so About this time the King again earnestly pressed the House of Commons for a speedy Supply by their Speaker Sir Heneage Finch giving them to understand That if there did not pass the Bill of Subsidy by the end of the week following it would inforce him to take other Resolutions and if by their denial or delay any thing of ill consequence should fall out either at home or abroad he called God and Man to witness that he had done his part to prevent it by calling his People together to advise with him whose sitting if they dispatched this according to his desire he resolved to continue for the dispatch of other Affairs and after their Recess to bring them again together the next Winter Before the Commons sent an Answer they drew up a Petition to his Majesty That he would be pleased to Remove from all places of Trust and Authority all such Persons as were either Popish Recusants or according to the Direction of former Acts of State justly to be suspected to be such And herewith they likewise sent a large Scrowl of the Names of all such Noblemen and others as continued in places of high Trust in the several Counties of England The Answer to the late Articles against the Duke of Buckingham being by him delivered into the Lords House he desired their Lordships to send to the Commons for a speedy Reply whereupon the Commons required a Copy of his Answer But the Duke fearing what might be the Effect thereof humbly applyed himself to the Lords whom he intreated
was not admitted in whereupon the King with his Guard of Pensioners were resolved to force their Entrance which the Commons having notice of they suddenly went all out of the House and this was the end of this Parliament After their Dissolution the King publisheth a Declaration of the Causes thereof and then question'd Eleven of the Refractory Members at the Council Table who were all committed to divers Prisons About the same time the Marquis of Huntley Sheriff of the greatest part of Scotland neglecting the Order of the Council for seizing some Priests and Jesuites who publickly said Mass and committed other Insolences at Aberdeen with several other Lords who joyned with him and refused to appear upon Summons and had likewise given notice to the Priests and Jesuites to escape were proclaimed Rebels and Traitors to the King and Kingdom upon which they fled into England The French King having had much loss by the War with England did now therefore propose and conclude a Peace with the King consisting of several Articles A Paper was about this time dispersed abroad containing some Projects how the King might Augment his Revenues without the help of Parliaments upon which the Earls of Bedford Somerset and Clare with others where committed upon Information that they had dispersed some Copies of them but Sir David Fowls soon cleared them who deposed upon Oath that it was contrived near Sixteen years before by Sir Robert-Dudley Son to the Earl of Leicester when he was in Italy The dissolving the last Parliament procured great Animosities in the People against the Prime Ministers of State which occasioned divers Invective Libels to be dispersed abroad whereof one against Bishop Laud was found in the Dean of St. Pauls Yard to this Effect Laud look to thy self be assured thy life is sought as thou art the Fountain of Wickedness repent of thy monstrous sin before thou be taken out of the World and assure thy self Neither God nor the World can endure such a vile Councellor or Whisperer Another very bitter Libel was scattered against the Lord Treasurer Weston On the other side some considering the unsuccesfulness of this and the two former Parliaments advised never for the future to call any more Parliaments and to that end the forementioned Book of Projects was published and addrest to the King proposing some methods to prevent the Impertinency of Parliaments as he called them for time to come by the Example of Lewes 11th of France who pretended that the Commons or Third Estate did incroach too much upon the Nobility and Clergy dissolved it and never after suffered the People freely to Elect their Representatives but nominated certain Eminent Persons himself instead thereof which is called L' Assembly des Notabiles or the Assembly of Chief or Principal Men and the Methods proposed to avoid Parliaments were 1. To have a Fortress in every considerable Town 2. To cause high-ways to be made through all such Towns 3. To make none of the Inhabitants Governors of those Fortresses 4. To let none pass through those Towns without a Ticket 5. To have the Names of all Lodgers taken by Innkeepers 6. To impose a general Oath upon the Subjects not to oppose any of these Contrivances And to increase the Kings Revenue the Advice was 1. To demand the Tenth part of every Mans Estate 2. To buy all Leases upon the Crown Lands 3. To take the benefit of Salt into his own hands 4. To demand a Rate for Sealing the Weights every year 5. To lay a Taxe upon Wools. 6. Upon every Lawyers Fee 7. Upon Inns and Victualling Houses for a Licence 8. Upon all Cattle Flesh and Horses sold in the Market 9. Upon all Lands Alienated 10. To set a Rate upon all Offices in his Majesties Grant 11. To Reduce his Majesties Houshold to board wages 12. To lay a Taxe upon White Meats on fasting days 13. To lay an Imposition upon the Papists Lands 14. To Advance some Hundreds of Persons to Honours 15. To prohibit excess in Apparel which would save the Gentry more Money then what they were Taxed would amount to The Insurection of the Apprentices at Lambeth The E of Strafford beheaded on Towerhill Cheapside Cross pulled down in 1643. Upon May 29. 1630 the Queen was delivered of a Son at St. James's who was Christened Charles and Preserved by Providence to Succeed his Father in these Three Kingdoms as his Rightful Inheritance after the Miseries of a long and tedious Exile from his Native Countrey unto which he was at length happily Restored with the general Consent and Acclamations of the whole Kingdom The King of France and the Prince Elector Yalatine represented by the Duke of Lenox and the Marquis Hamilton were his Godfathers and the Queen Mother of France represented by the Dutchess of Richmond his Godmother It was observed that at his Nativity a Star was seen at Noon-day which might portend some extraordinary Passages of this Princes Life About this time Dr. Leighton was sentenced in the Star Chamber to have his Body Whipt his Fore-head Stigmatized his Ears Cropt his Nose Slit for publishing a Book called Sions Plea wherein he exhorted the late Parliament to smite the Bishops under the Fifth Rib and called the Queen the Daughter of Heth a Canaanite and Idolatress which Sentence was accordingly inflicted on him In Ireland the Papists presumed on St. Stephens day to say Mass in Dublin while the Lords Chief Justices were at Church who having notice thereof ordered the Preists Crucifixes and Vestments to be seized and Eight Popish Aldermen were likewise Imprisoned for not Assisting the Mayor but some Papists making a Tumult rescued the Priests whom the Guards again forced to deliver back Upon Information of this Riot and Insolency Fifteen Houses were by special Order from the Council seized upon for his Majesties use and the Priests and Fryers so disturbed that two of them hanged themselves Neither did the Papists agree together for there were great Contests in England between the Jesuites and Secular Priests The Earl of Essex had many years before married the Lady Howard who complaining of his Insufficiency for Marriage Duties the Cause was brought to a Tryal and it being made appear by a Jury of Midwives and the Earls own Confession That he never could and believed he never should carnally know her Thereupon Sentence of Divorce between him and his Lady was pronounced by the Bishops However the Earl was resolved to try his Fortune once more and therefore upon his return out of the Low Countreys where he had been for some time a Souldier he now Married a Daughter of Sir William Paulet of Wiltshire but a while after she objecting the same cause of complaint desired likewise to be Divorced from him which the Earl easily cousented to and it was done accordingly In the year 1631 and the 7th of his Majesties Reign Mervin Lord Audly and Earl of Castlehaven was Tryed by his Peers upon the Petition of his own
Son and Heir for Rape and Sodomy many unnatural and beastly Actions being proved against him whereupon he received Sentence to be Hanged but had the Favour to be Beheaded at Tower-hill This Earl was born of a very honourable Family and educated in the Protestant Religion but turned Papist to have the more liberty to commit wickedness in which he grew to so great aheight that he impudently declared in the presence of some Lords As others had their several Delights some in one thing some in another so his whole Delight was in damning Souls by enticing Men to such Acts as might surely effect it About this time Sir Giles Allington was Convented for Marrying his own Niece and was fined Twelve thousand Pound to the King and to give Twenty thousand Pound Bond never to cohabit or come in private with his Niece again and both of them to do Penance at St. Pauls Cross or St. Maries in Cambridge which they accordingly did The Protestants were very much discontented in Ireland that the Papists were discharged from paying the State Penalty of Twelve Pence a Sunday for not going to Church whereby their Number was wonderfully increased Whereupon the King recalled the Lords Justices who then governed that Kingdom and sent Viscount Wentworth afterward Earl of Strafford thither as Lord Deputy as judging that these distempers would be better composed under a single Government In the year 1633 and the 9th of his Majesties Reign the King made a Journey into Scotland attended with several of the Nobility and Persons of Quality and June 18 was solemnly Crowned King at Edenbourgh which Solemnity being finished the King calls a Parliament and passeth an Act for Ratification of the old Acts though some affirmed That the Confirmation of Episcopacy was intended thereby and therefore though in vain opposed it upon which some of those Persons became a while after principal Men among the Covenanters In this Scottish Parliament that Nation shewed then some signs of diaffection to the King by Reason of several Acts which then passed and the generality of the People who without doubt were influenced by the greater Malecontents would not suffer the Bishop of Dumblain Dean of the Kings Private Chappel there to perform Prayers twice a day after the English manner neither durst they receive the Communiou on their knees nor wear a Surplice upon Sundays and Holy days Not long before his Majesty went to Scotland being desirous if possible to have prevented that Trouble the King writ to a Scottish Lord who was intrusted with that Crown to bring it into England that he might be Crowned here but the Lord returned Answer That he durst not be so false to his Trust but if his Majesty would be pleased to accept thereof in Scotland he should find those his People ready to yield him the highest Honour but if he should long defer that Duty they might perbaps be inclined to make choice of another King A very strange and unusual Answer from a Subject to a Prince October 13 1633. The Queen was delivered of her Second Son who was Baptized James and designed Duke of York and about that time died George Abbot L. Archbishop of Canterbury and William Laud Bishop of London was Elected into his place In the Year 1634 the English Coasts were very much Infested by Pyrates and the Fishing Trade almost ingrossed by the Hollanders and his Majesty having occasion for Money to Regain his Absolute Dominion over the Brittish Seas the Design of Shipmoney was first set on foot and Attorney General Noy being consulted about it he out of some old Records finds an Ancient President of Raising a Tax upon the Nation by the Authority of the King alone for setting out a Navy in case of danger which was thereupon accordingly put in Execution and by this Tax the King raised by Writ above Twenty thousand pound a Month though not without great discontent both among the Clergy and Laiety The Discontents in Scotland began to increase and a Book was published charging the King with indirect proceedings in the last Parliament and a tendancy to the Romish Belief and to blow up these Scoth Sparks to a Flame Cardinal Richlieu sent over his Chaplain and another Gentleman to heighten their Discontents The Author of that Book was seized and found to be abbetted by the Lord Balmerino the Treacherous Son of a perfidious Father who was thereupon Arraigned by his Peers and Sentenced to Death but Pardoned by the King At this time Gregory Panzani a Priest was sen over by the Pope with a Commission of Oyer and Terminer to decide the difference between the Jesuites and Secular Priests and Insinuating himself into the Favour of the Lord Cottington and Secretary Windebank he endeavours to discover how far the King might be perswaded about giving Toleration to the Popish Religion as to allow them a Popish Bishop to reside here but nominated and limited by the King and that the Pope might send a Nuncio to the Queen but having made some agreement between the Jesuites and Priests Panzani returned to Rome and left the further transacting of Business to Seignior Con who staid in his room In the year 1635 A Noble Fleet was fitted out by the Supply of Shipmoney consisting of Forty Sail under the Earl of Lindsey to scour the Seas from Pyrates at which time the French and Hollanders had confederated against the Spaniard in Flanders both by Land and Sea but the English Fleet removed the Hollanders from before Dunkirk and the Common People inraged by the French insolencies at Land rose up against them and Assisted the Spaniard to expel them the Countrey One Robert Par of Shropshire a Man almost an Hundred and threescore years old was this year brought to London by the Earl of Arundel as a Rarity or Miracle where he dyed soon after though it is very probable he might have lived much longer if he had continued at home for his removal from his own Air change of Diet and the tediousness of so long a Journey may be supposed to have hastned his end December 23 1635. the Lady Elizabeth the Kings Second Daughter was born and to Congratulate the Queens happy delivery the Hollander sent an Ambassador with a present of an extraordinary value that is a Massy Piece of Ambergreece Two large and almost Transparent China Dishes a Clock of most excellent Workmanship which was made by Rodulphus Emperour of Germany and likewise several curious pieces of Painting Dr. William Juxon Bishop of London about this time was made Lord Treasurer in the place of the L. Weston Earl of Portland deceased And now great differences arose about Church matters chiefly occasioned by Arch Bishop Lauds strict and zealous Enjoyning of Ceremonies as placing the Communion Table at the East end of the Church upon an Ascent with Rails Altar fashion with many other things not formerly strictly insisted on and now vehemently opposed by those who were usually called Puritans and
acquainted them with a Declaration which he had procured of the King That he did discharge the Service Book Book of Canons and high Commission and likewise did annul and rescind all Acts for establishing them and did discharge the urging the Practice of the Five Articles of Perth and that all Persons whomsoever shall be liable to the Censure of Parliament General Assembly or any other Judicatories according to the Nature of the Offence That the Ancient Confelsion of Faith and Band annexed shall be subscribed and received as in K. James time That a General Assembly be holden at Glafcow Nov. 21. 1638 and a Parliament at Edenbourgh May 15. 1639 All former Offences to be pardoned and a General Fast appointed This Declaration being published the Marquess and Council subscribed the Covenanters Confession of Faith c. yet still some matter remained for a Protestation which was read by one Johnson wherein the People were exhorted to consider with whom they had to deal and exceptions were made against Bishops and their Voting in the Assembly After this they Elect Commissioners for the Assembly whom they moved to cite the Archbishops and Bishops to appear there as Guilty Persons which being refused they themselves present a Bill of Complaint against them to the Presbytery at Edenbourgh who accordingly warned them to appear at the next General Assembly At their Meeting the Bishops sent in a Protestation against their Assembly which the Covenanters would not vouchsafe to read but presumed to forbid Six Lords of the Privy Council to fit in their Assembly though nominated by the King His Majesty having notice of their proceedings as to the Bishops and other matters ordered their Assembly to be dissolved which was done accordingly Nov. 21. 1638 and the Covenanters immediately according to their usual method Issued out a Protestation against it and likewise declared 6 former Meetings which were opposite to their ways to be void and of none Effect and soon after they abolished Episcopacy and then prepared for a War as being sensible that the King would maintain the Rights of the Bishops and would likewise strictly call them to Account for their late Transactions About this time a Letter was sent by the Scots to the King of France to implore his Assistance Signed by several of the Nobility The King of England prepares an Army for Scotland with which in the year 1639 he marcheth in Person into the North but while he stayed at York some of the Scots Nobility tampered with the Eaglish telling them that the ruin of the Scots would enable the King to be more severe toward his English Subjects by which Intelligence and Correspondence it was evident that the English had no mind to Fight though their Army was much stronger than the Scots whereupon by the Mediation of some Persons a Treaty of Peace was begun and soon finished wherein it was agreed That His Majesty should publish a Declaration whereby all should be confirmed which his Commissioners had promised in his Name That a General Assembly and a Parliament be held at Edenbourgh in a short time And lastly That upon disbanding their Forces dissolving their Councils and restoring the King to his Forts and Castles c. the King was to recall his Fleet and Forces and make restitution of their Goods since the Breach The Kings Declaration was no sooner published but the Covenanters set forth another Protestation for adhereing to there Assembly at Glasco and their Covenant whereupon the King who intended to be present at their General Assembly not finding the Scots punctual in performing Articles and perceiving they would treat of some matters distasteful to him goes into England after which the Assembly sate at Edenbourgh and abolished Episcopacy the Liturgy High Commission and Book of Canons and then made several demands of the King of a various nature His Majesty understanding how things went and that the Scots levyed Taxes and prepared Arms he commanded by his Commissioner the Earl of Traquair that their Parliament should be Adjourned for some time but the Covenanters declared against this Command and sent a Remonstrance to the King and afterward Hamilton and Traquair likewise came to London where there were such proceedings as did the more exasperate the jarring parties against each other In this year 1639 a Spanish Fleet of near Seventy Sail and Twenty five thousand Men designed to be landed at Dunkirk for the relief of Flanders were set upon by the Dutch in the Downs and Eleven of them taken and sent into Holland three perished upon the Coast of France one near Dover and five were sunk in the Fight What the real intent of this Fleet was is yet uncertain for it seemed unlikely that Twenty five thousand Men should be sent only for a Recruit and the Admirals refusing to shew his Commission when required thereto by the King makes it seem yet mon suspicious The Scots Commissioners having delivered their Message return home to Edenbourgh Nov. 19. 1639. the same night that a great part of the Castle Walls fell down and the Anniversary of the King Birth day A while after the King sent the Lord Estrich and others to tepair the Walls who were resisted by the Covenanters as not judging the Lord Estrich to be a fit Governour for the Castle which Office was designed him by the King The King being hereat extreamly offended resolved since fair means would not prevail to force the Scots to reason and to that end considers how to make provisions for Men and Money and calling a secret Cabinet Council consisting only of Archbishop Laud the Earl of Strafford and Duke Hamilton who drove on his own particular interest it was concluded That for the Kings supply a Parliament must be called in England and another in Ireland but because the Debates of Parliament would take up some time it was resolved that the Lords should subscribe to lend the King money The Earl of Strafford subscribed Twenty thousand pound the Duke of Richmond as much but Hamilton pretended poverty preserving his money for other uses the rest of the Lords Judges Officers and other Dependants and many of the Gentry yea even several Popish Recusants contributed according to their ability The Scots on the other side fore-seeing the storm prepared for their own Defence making Treaties in Denmark Sweden Holland and Poland and the Jesuits who are never idle did likewise endeavour to foment the differences to which end Con the Popes Nuncio Sir Toby Matthews Read and Maxwell two Scots endeavoured to perswade the discontented People That the King designed to iuslave them to his will and pleasure Which practices of theirs were discovered by Andreas Habernsfield a Nobleman of Bohemia who declared That many of the Nobility of England and chief Favourites at Court were consenting to these Transactions and particularly the Earl and Countess of Arundel Secretary Windebank and Endymion Porter Con also performed the part of a Firebrand as all his Successors
his Secretary of Scotland that he expects their particular demands which he receives in three days all tending to require a Parliament to be called in England without which there could be no satisfactory redress for them they had likewise before their March into England published a Declaration called The Intentions of the Army viz. Not to lay down Arms till the Reformed Religion were setled in both Nations upon sure grounds and the Causes and Abbettors of their present Troubles that is Arch-Bishop Laud and the Earl of Strafford were brought to publick Justice in Parliament At the same time Twelve English Peers that is the Earls of Bedford Hartford Essex Warwick Mulgrave Bristol Bullingbrook Say and Seal Mandevil Howard Brook and Paget drew up a Petition which they delivered to the King for the sitting of the Parliament After which divers others were presented to the same purpose from the City of London and several other parts of the Kingdom all centring in this that nothing could relieve the Pressures of the Kingdom but a Parliament To this the King condescends in part giving hope likewise of further satisfaction ere long and 〈◊〉 the present Summons the Lords to appear at Yorâ— Sep. 24. which they did and upon the first day oâ— their meeting it was agreed That a Parliameâ—â— should be called to meet November 3 following anâ— then for the relief of the North sorely suffering under Leslies Army the Bishoprick of Durham beinâ— then taxed 360 l. and Northumberland 300 l. a day it was resolved that a Treaty should be set on Fooâ— and that Sixteen English Lords should meet with as many Scots and York was proposed for the placâ— of Treaty which the Scotch Commissioners refused as not judging it safe by reason of the presence oâ— the Earl of Strafford who hath proclaimed them Traytors in Ireland and was now chief Commander of the Kings Army and a Capital Enemy to their Nation and against whom they had matter of high Complaint therefore it was concluded to be held at Rippon where among other things it was agreed that the Scotch Army should be maintained by the English till the Treaty was ended and peace secured that there should be a safe Convoy for all Letters between the Scots and the Parliament of England The first of these Articles seemed unreasonable and dishonourable to the English Nation and the Earl of Strafford was so offended thereat that he desired leave of the King to give them Battel and was willing as he writ to Arch-Bishop Laud to undertake upon the Peril of his Head with his Army of English Grashoppers to beat those Sons of Anak home again for so much Superlour were the Scots then accounted to the English as to matter of Souldiers but October 16. the English Commanders whether through Fear Favour or out of a Political Maxim not to fight against the Scots condescended to Articles of Agreement which were afterward signed by the King himself This Treaty of Rippon was but previous to another of higher Importance at London for a general concluding and making up all differences between the King and his Subjects of Scotland during which Treaty James Earl of Montross made several Applications to the King and by Letters offered his service to him testifying his disslike of the Scotâ—ish Proceedings but these his Letters were said to have been secretly taken out of the Kings Pockets and conveyed to the Covenanters by the means of Hamilton who understanding Montross his design used all means to render him odious to the People and so unserviceable to the King And now the time approached for the sitting of the Parliament who accordingly met November 3. 1640 which was looked upon by Arch-Bishop Laud as a fatal day for Summoning of Parliaments in reference to Church matters the Parliament in King Henry the Eighths time which pulled down Abbies and Monasteries being likewise Assembled upon November 3. Whereupon he advised the King for lucks sake to put off their meeting for 2 or 3 dayes but the King not minding any such Observations did not regard it To give some Account of the temper of those times it may not be amiss to repeat the words of a Person of Honour who was then a Member of the House of Commons and hath lately published some Passages concerning that Parliament Never Parliament saith he was assembled when the People were in an higher discontent then at this time such a general Diffidence there was as they thought themselves sure of nothing the increase of Ceremonies made them fear the approach of a Religion hateful to them the laâ—â— business of Ship-money together with some Impâ—sitions without the consent of Parliament causeâ— them to apprehend the loss of Property in the Estates and they had little hope of Redress 〈◊〉 Parliaments because his then Majesty had beeâ— so unhappy as to be put upon a sudden Dissolutioâ— of all Parliaments formerly by him called Theâ— wanted not Persons ill disposed and seditious 〈◊〉 trumpet these things in the ears of the generalty whereby they incensed them so far as thereâ—â— they found means to raise a Power against theâ—â— Soveraign Mr. William Lenthal was Chosen Speaker of thâ— House of Commons and the King in a Speech tâ—â—â— them that the Scottish Troubles were the Cause oâ— their present Meeting and therefore requires theâ— to consider of the most expedient means for caâ—â—ing them out and then promises that he will heaâ—tily and clearly concurr with them for the satisfying their just Grievances After which he gaâ—â— them an Account of his want of Money for thâ— Maintaining of his Army and how dishonourablâ— it would be to the English Nation if his Armâ— should be disbanded before the Scots were put ouâ— of the Kingdom and desired them to consider oâ— the Oppression of the Northern Countreys during thâ—… Treaty It was ill resented by many that the King should call the Scots Rebels whereupon he took occasion to tell them that he must needs call them Rebels as long as they have an Army which did invade England The Commons then Voted down all Monopolies and all such Members as had any benefit by them were expelled out of the House Complainâ— was made in the House of Lords against Sir William Beecher one of the Clerks of the Council for violating their Priviledges in searching the Earl of Warwicks and the Lord Brooks Studies Cabinets and Pockets upon the dissolving the last Parliament upon which he was committed Prisoner to the Fleet though he pleaded the Command of the Secretary of State for his so doing The Earl of Strafford is Impeached of High Treason by the Commons in the House of Lords whereupon he is sequestred from the House and likewise his Friend Sir George Ratcliff is sent for out of Ireland by a Serjeant at Arms In the mean time the Bishop of Lincoln who was Prisoner in the Tower is released and likewise Mr. Pryn and Mr. Burton who are brought in great Triumph to London and
December 3. they presented their Petition against their Prosecutors And now the Papists began to fear a Cloud for Justice Howard was to deliver up a Catalogue of all Recusants within the Liberties of Westminster to prevent which he was stabbed by one Mr. John James in Westminster hall for which he was imprisoned in the Gate-house in order to a more severe punishment But Sir Francis Windebank Secretary of State fearing to be called to Account by the Parliament for reprieving Jesuits and Priests which he knew would be produced against him if not worse matters fled privately into France December 7th the Commons Voted Ship-money with the Opinion of the Judges thereupon to be Illegal and a Charge of High Treason was ordered to be drawn up against eight of them and they resolved to begin with the Lord Keeper Finch December 11th Alderman Pennington and some hundreds of Citizens presented a Petition subscribed by 15000 Hands against Church Discipline and Ceremonies and a while after the House of Commons Voted That the Clergy in a Synod or Convocation have no power to make Canons or Laws without Parliaments and that the Canons are against the Fundamental Laws of this Realm the Kings Prerogative the Property of the Subject the Right of Parliaments and tend to Faction and Sedition In pursuance hereof a Charge was ordered to be drawn up against Arch-bishop Laud as the principal framer of those Canons and other Delinquencies which Impeachment was seconded with another from the Scotch Commissioners upon which he was committed to the Black Rod and 10 weeks after Voted Guilty of High Treason and sent to the Tower The Scots likewise prefer a charge against the Earl of Strafford then in Custody requiring Justice against them both as the great Incendiaries and Disturbers of Church and State and Sir George Ratcliff the Earls Bosom Friend had Articles also drawn against him to this purpose That he had conspired with the Earl to bring Ireland under an Arbitrary Government and to subvert the Fundamental Laws and to bring an Army from Ireland to subdue the Subjects of England That he perswaded the Earl to use Regal Power and to deprive the Subjects of their Liberties and Properties That he countenanced Papists and built Monasteries to alienate the Affections of the Irish from England That he withdrew the Subjects of Scotland from their King And lastly That to preserve himself and the Earl of Strafford he laboured to subvert the Liberties and Priviledges of Parliament in Ireland The Lord Keeper Finch was the next Person designed to be censured and notwithstanding a Speech made in his own Vindication he was Voted a Traytor upon several Accounts and among the rest for soliciting perswading and threatning the Judges to deliver their Opinions for raising Ship-money and for several ill Offices done in moving the King to Dissolve the last Parliament and causing the publishing the Kings Declaration thereupon Next day he was accused before the Lords but he foresaw the Storm and went over into Holland The Parliament having now removed their Enemies and increasing in Reputation were designing a Bill for a Triennial Parliament for promoting which Petitions came from divers places one whereof was subscribed with 800 Hands directly against Episcopacy which the King took notice of and calling both Houses together tells them Of their slowness and the charge of Two Armies in the Kingdom and that he would have them avoid two Rocks the one about the Hierachy of Bishops which he was willing to Reform but not to alter The other concerning frequent Parliaments which he liked well but not to give his Power to Sheriffs and Constables About this time one Goodman a Popish Priest condemned at the Sessions in London was reprieved by the King upon which both Houses petitioned to know who were the Instruments of it and receiving an unsatisfactory Answer they Remonstrated against the Toleration of Papists and the Popes Nuncio Rosetti and this Goodman whom they desired might be left to the Justice of the Law To this the King answers That the increase of Popery and Papists in his Dominions is extreamly against his mind and that he would use all possible means for the restraining of it As for the Popes Nuncio Rosetti he had no Commission but only to preserve Correspondence between the Queen and the Pope which was allowed her by the Articles of Marriage however he had prevailed with her to remove him and is contented to remit the particular Case of Goodman to both Houses The Scots had been now quartered in England five months during which a Cessation had been concluded at Rippon but the full Pacification was reserved for London where Commissioners sate on both Parties to hear the Demands of the Scots and to make answer thereunto After which the Scots presented the great Account of their Charges which was Five hundred fourteen thousand one hundred twenty eight pounds nine Shillings besides the loss of their Nation which was Four hundred and forty thousand pounds This Reckoning startled the English Commissioners till the Scots told them They did not give in that Account as expecting a Total Reparation of their Charges and Losses but were content to bear a part of it hoping for the rest from the Justice and Kindness of England There was some opposition made to the Demands however Moneys were raised for the present from the City of London for the Supply of both the Northern Armies as the Parliament had done once before At this time a Match was propounded between the young Prince of Orange and the Lady Mary Eldest Daughter to the King which his Majesty liked well of and communicated it to the Parliament with whom it found an unanimous and general Reception in regard of the Alliance to be thereupon concluded with the States General and likewise that he was of the same Protestant Religion with England so that the Marriage was soon concluded Presently after four Members of the Commons delivered a Message to the Lords of a Popish Design of Levying an Army of Fifteen thousand in Lancashire and Eight thousand in Ireland and that the main promoters thereof were the Earls of Strafford and Worcester In February Sir Robert Berkly one of the Judges about Ship-money was accused of High Treason and committed Prisoner to the Black Rod. In this Month the King passed that Act for a Triennial Parliament and to let them know what value he put upon this great favour his Majesty told the Two Houses That hitherto they had gone on in those things which concerned themselves and now he expected they should proceed upon what concerned him The King then likewise signed the Bill of Subsidies which gave them such universal content that Sir Edward Littleton Lord Keeper was ordered To return the Humble Thanks of Both Houses to his Majesty at Whitehall Upon which there were Bonefires and Bells ringing in and about London in the same manner as formerly upon granting the Petition of Right March 1 1640
Protestation to maintain with Life Power and Estate the True Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and Popish Innovations Which was ordered to be printed and published through the Kingdom May 5. The Lords acquainted the Commons That they thought it the safest course to lay by the Bill of Attainder because it brought in the King for Judge And the next day they debated the several Articles of his Impeachment and voted the Earl guilty of High Treason upon Two of them that is the 15th For Levying of moneys in Ireland by force in a Warlike manner And the 16th For Imposing an Oath upon the Subjects of Ireland The Commons had now finished a Bill For the Continuance of the Parliament which having passed the Lords was tendred to the King to be signed together with the Bill of Attainder His Majesty answered That on Monday following he would satisfie them and on the Sunday before the King spent the whole day in consulting about the Earl of Strafford with the Judges and Bishops The Judges told him That in point of Law according to the Oath made by Sir H. Vane of the Earls advice to raise Horse to awe this Nation he was guilty of Treason In the evening the Five Bishops viz. of Armagh London Durham Lincoln and Carlisle were called in to the King to satisfie his Conscience about it who all agreed That the King might shew mercy without any scruple and that he could not condemn the Earl if he did not think him Guilty This was to matter of Fact but as to matter of Law He was to rest in the Opinion of the Judges Monday May 10. The King gives Commission to several Lords to pass Two Bills one the Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford The other For Continuing the Parliament during the pleasure of both Houses Which last Act was occasioned for satisfying the Scots who required Vast Sums of Money and for disbanding both the Armies whereby great Taxes were laid upon the People by Act of Parliament which could not possibly be levied in a short time and therefore there needed a present Supply from the City of London who as it was alledged would not part with their money least a Dissolution of the Parliament should happen before payment upon which Account the King was pressed to pass this Act. The same day the Bill was passed against the Earl of Strafford the King sent Sir Dudley Carlton Secretary of State to acquaint the Earl with what was done and the motives thereto whereat the Earl was greatly astonisht but the next day the King being troubled writes a Letter with his own hand to the House of Lords and sent it by the Prince of Wales telling them That whereas Justice had been satisfied in his Condemnation an intermixture of mercy would not now be unseasonable and therefore he desired them that if it might be done without any discontent to the People the Earl might be permitted to fulfil the Natural Course of his Life in close Imprisonment sequestred from all Publick Affairs provided he never attempted to make an Escape however he thought it a work of Charity to repreive him till Saturday But nothing could be obtained in favour of him but that the Lords said Their Intention was to be suitors to His Majesty to shew favour to his innocent Children and that whatever provision himself had made for them it might be confirmed Some Designs were said to have been laid for his Escape however May 12 1641 the Earl of Strafford was conveyed from the Tower by a Guard consisting of the Trained Bands Marshals men Sheriffs Officers and Warders of the Tower Before him went his Gentleman-Usher bare headed and he himself followed accompanied with the Archbishop of Armagh and others As he went along he passed by Arch-bishop Lauds Lodging and spying him at the Window he called to him for his Prayers and his Blessing but the Bishop at the sight of him was so surpriz'd that for some time he could not recollect himself and being reprehended by his Friends of an undecent Pusillanimity He Replyed That he doubted not but when that bitter Cup should come to his turn he should taste it with a most Christian Courage The Earl being come to the Scaffold upon Tower-hill addrest himself to the Arch-bishop of Armagh to this Effect That he was come to pay the laâ—â— Debt he owed to Sin with a good hope of rising agaiâ— to Righteousness That he dyed willingly forgave alâ— and submitted to Justice He professed himself guiltless as to the matter for which he dyed He wished aâ—â— prosperity to the King and People and acquitted him from the guilt of his death as having acted thereiâ— no otherwise then as constrained He advised his Adversaries to repent of their Violent Proceedings againâ—â— him and telling them that he thought it a strange waâ— to write in Blood the beginning of Reformation and Settlement of the Kingdom However he wished that hiâ— Blood might rest and not cry against them He declared He died in the Faith of the Church of England for whose happiness he prayed and concluded his Speech with intreating the Spectators to pray for him After which he kneeled down to Prayer and rising up again took his last leave of his Brother Sir George Wentworth and all his Friends sending his Love to his Wife and his Blessing to his Children with a most strict Injunction to His Onely Son Never to meddle with the Patrimony of the Church And theâ— giving the sign to the Executioner his head waâ— severed from his body at the first stroke This was the end of that Great and Able Minister of State who is reported when he heard the King had consented to the Bill of Attainder to have lift up his Eyes to Heaven and clapping his hand upon his heart to have cried out perhaps in immitation of Cardinal Woolseys Complaint Put not your Trust in Princes nor in the Sons of Men for in them is no Salvation And indeed it seemed very hard that he shou'd be made guilty of High Treason by a Bill framed on purpose without former President and to which His Majesties Consent was in a manner extorted and which he afterward bewailed with great remorse of Conscience though it is said the King was not so much convinced by any thing said to him but the chief Motive was a Letter from the Earl wherein he thus concluded Sir To set your Majesty's Conscience at Liberty I do most humbly beseech you for the Preventing of such mischiefs as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove praised be God I cannot say this accursed but this Unfortunate Thing forth of the way towards that blessed Agreement which God I trust shall forever establish between You and Your Subjects My consent herein shall more acquit you to God then all the world can do beside To a willing man there is no injury
King as not willing to have them too strong yet promised to take such care for their security from Violence as he would for the preservation of Himself and Children and if this general Assurrnce would not suffice to remove those Apprehensions he would command such a Guard to wait upon them as he would be responsible for to Almighty God This Answer being unsatisfactory the City joyn with them and in their Common Council drew up a Petition complaining That the Trade of the City was decayed to the utter Ruin of the Protestant Religion and the Lives and Liberties of the Subjects by the Designs of Papists Foreigners and Domesticks more particularly their fomenting the Irish Rebellion by changing the Constable of the Tower and making preparations there By the fortifying of White-hall and his Majesties late Invasion of thâ— House of Commons Whereupon they pray Thaâ— by the Parliaments Advice the Protestants in Ireland may be relieved the Tower to be put into hands of Persons of Trust a Guard appointed for the safety of thâ— Parliament and that the Five Members may not be restrained nor proceeded against but by the Priviledges of Parliament And besides this The King riding into London the Citizens in multitudes flockeâ— about his Coach beseeching him To agree with his Parliament and not to violate their Priviledges To their Petition the King returned Answer That he could not express a greater sense of Ireland that he had done That meerly to satisfie the City he had removed a worthy Person from the charge of the Tower and that the late Tumults had caused him to fortifie White-hall for the security of his own Person That his going to the House of Commons was to apprehend those five Members for Treason to which the Priviledges of Parliament could not extend and that yet he would proceed against them no otherwise than legally And now such numbers of ordinary People daily gathered about Westminster and White-hall that the King doubting of their Intentions thought fit to with-draw to Hampton Court taking with him the Queen Prince and Duke of York where he and his Retinue and Guard quickly increased by accession of divers of the Gentry But the next day the Five Members were triumphantly guarded to Westminster by a great number of Citizens and Seamen with hundreds of Boats and Barges with Guns in them shouting and hallowing as they passed by White-hall and making large Protestations at Westminster of their constant fidelity and adherence to the Parliament About this time the Parliament had notice the Lord Digby and Collonel Lunsford were raising Troops of Horse at Kingston where the County Magazine was lodged whereupon they order That the County Sheriffs Justices of Peace and the Trained Bands shall take care to secure the Countreys and their Magazine and suppress all unlawful Assemblies Lunsford was seized and sent to the Tower but Digby escaped beyond Sea The King removed to Royston at which time Sir Edward Harbert Attorney General is questioned at the Lords Bar to answer concerning the Articles against the Five Members where it had gone hard with him if the King at his earnest Supplication had not taken him off by a Letter to the Lord Keeper Littleton who succeeded L. Finch wherein the King clears the Attorney General and takes the whole business upon himself yet concludes That finding cause wholly to desist from proceeding against the Persons Accused he had commanded his Attorney General to proceed no further therein nor to produce nor discover any proof concerning the same And so this Breach between the King and Parliament seemed at present to be made up At this time the Scots having a considerable Interest in their Britttish Plantations in Ireland make Proposals for Transporting 2500 Souldiers thither which were accepted by both Houses and afterward consented to by the King after which the Scotch Commissioners interposed their Meditation for composing the differences between the King and Parliament which were now grown to too great an height for which Mr. Pym was ordered by the Commons to give them the thanks of the House January 20. The King sends a Message to the Parliament proposing the security of his own just Rights and Royal Authority and That since particular Grievances and Distractions were too many and would be too great to be presented by themselves that they would comprize and digest them into one entire body and send them to him and it should then appear how ready he would be to equal or exceed the greatest Examples of the most Iudulgent Princes in their Acts of Grace and Favour to the People After this the Commons move the Lords to joyn with them in Petitioning for the Militia and the Command of the Tower but they not complying the House of Commons singly of themselves Importune the King to put those things into the hands of the Parliament as the only available means for removal of their Fears and Jealousies But the King not willing to part with the Principal Jewels of his Crown signified to them That he thought the Militia to be lawfully subject to no command but his own and therefore would not let it out of his hands That he had preferred to the Lieutenancy of the Tower a Person of known Fortune and unquestionable Reputation and that he would prefer none but such to the command of his Forts and Castles yet would not intrust the power of conferring those Places and Dignities from himself being derived to him from his Ancestors by the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Yet the Commons would not desist but again petitioned and were again refused Soon after divers Petitions were delivered to the Parliament against the Votes of Popish Lords and Bishops in the House of Peers as one from Suffolk with 1500 and another from the Londoners with 2000 hands and a Third from the City Dames All which were Answered That the Commons had already endeavoured Relief from the Lords in their Requests and should so continue till Redress were obtained And shortly after the Lords passed the Bill For disabling all Persons in Holy Orders to have any Place or Vote in Parliament or to exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction At the same time they petition the King again for the Militia and for clearing Kimbolton and the Five Members by his Answer to both which they understood his Resolution Not to intrust the Militia out of himself nor to clear the Members but only by a General Pardon which was unsatisfactory The King now at Hampton Court thought fit to send for all his Domestick Servants of either House of Parliament and particularly the Earls of Essex and Holland but they refused to come excusing themselves with The necessity of performing their duties in Parliament and discharging the Trust reposed in them For which they were put from their Places at Court The Lord Digby about this time sent Three Letters from Middleburg in Zealand where he was fled out of England one to the Queen and two others to Secretary
Committee of the Lords and Commons to reside there for the better securing the Garrison to them and gave the Governor power to raise the Trained Bands for his defence after which the King hearing that the Parliament had raised a Guard of themselves without his consent and reflecting upon the business of Hotham he summoned the Gentry of Yorkshire to a Meeting and acquainted them That his Magazine at Hull was going to be taken from him against his will the Militia against the Law and his consent put in execution and Sir John Hothams Treason countenanced so that he was resolved to have a Guard to secure his person in which he desired their assistance that he might be able to protect them the Laws and the true Protestant Religion from violation or injury The King had hereby indifferently strengthened himself and more had come in had not those Members of Parliament who came to the King at York prevailed with some of the Free-holders to protest against it And the Parliament declare That the Subjects unless bound to it by special Service could not be commanded to attend the King at his pleasure without transgressing against the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom And that whosoever upon pretence of his Majesties Command shall take up Arms in a warlike manner shall be esteemed disturbers of the peace and to be proceeded against accordingly In the mean while Sir Thomas Gardiner who had been Recorder of London for six years being Impeached by the Parliament and in danger of hanging was glad to shift for himself and by flight escaped to the King at which time his Majesty endeavoured to have removed the Term from London to York but was much opposed therein by the Parliament who Voted it Illegal and forbid the L. Keeper to issue out Writs or Seal any Proclamation to that purpose The Parliament now proceed to put the people into a Military posture requiring all Persons in Authority to put the late Ordinance of the Militia in Execution which the King by his Proclamation forbids but for the Peoples satisfaction the Parliament publish'd a severe Declaration to the same Effect as their former Remonstrance only this was added That the King at his being in Scotland had countenanced the Irish in their Rebellious Designs and that his connivance was manifested by his tedious with-holding the Proclamation whereby they were declared Traytors till Jan. 2. being almost a Quarter of a Year after the breaking out of the Rebellion and then had appointed but forty Copies to be printed none of them to be published without his pleasure signified whereas his Proclamations against the Scots had been dispersed throughout all the Kingdom with publick Prayers and Execrations The King makes a speedy Answer hereunto not much differing from what he had said before yet tells them That as to the business of the Irish his Council in Ireland had desired them no sooner nor so many Copies by twenty as he had Signed and and sent them His Majesty had written a Letter to his Privy Council of Scotland to take away from them all suspicion of those Imputations so frequently laid to his Charge of being Popishly affected to be guilty of the bloodshed in Ireland and to bring in Forreign Forces Wherewith they seemed so satisfied that they returned a most respectful Answer and presently interposed their Mediation to heal the Breach before it grew wider humbly desiring the King to hearken to his Parliament as his greatest his best and most unparallel'd Council and discouraging him from any personal Journey into Ireland This Message was sent by the Earl of Lowden Chancellor of Scotland and after this the Scots Petition to the Kings Privy Council there Not to meddle with any verbal or real Engagement for the King against the Parliament Hereupon the English Parliament publish a Protestation wherein they vindicate their own proceedings and declare the great sense they had of the Affection of their Scotish Brethren manifested unto them in so many particulars and more especially the mentioned Petition The Earl of Bristol an Old Experienced Statesman prudently foresaw that such unhappy beginings must necessarily have a very bad Issue therefore earnestly endeavoured an Accommodation by stating the Case in the House of Lords representing the Offers of the King on the one side and the Professions of the Parliament on the other and likewise the dreadful Effects of a Civil War then likely to ensue by the Example of the woful Desolations in Germany and the expensive Troubles in Scotland and then proposes some methods for preventing these dangers as 1. That a select Committee of Parliament should truly state the matters in difference with the most probable ways of reconciling them 2. To consider particularly what may be expected either in point of supporting the King or releiving his People And lastly how the Conditions agreed upon may be secured And to shew the necessity of this course he discovers the deplorable State of Ireland the debts and necessities of the Crown the distractions which were likely to produce confusion of Religion most dangerous and destructive to a State besides the general Distraction of the Subjects who between Commands and Countermands knew not whom to obey This was admitted as good and solid Reason but Divine Justice would not so permit the Sins of the English Nation to go unpunished and the L. Bristols Speech though well received yet proved ineffectual In the mean time the Kings Guard increases at York which the House Voted a preparation for War against the Parliament a Breach of the Trust reposed in him by his People and that all such as serve him there are Traitors to the Laws of the Kingdom as the 11 Rich. 2. and the 1 Hen. 3. This was followed by another Declaration or Remonstrance of the misactions of the King and their own Priviledges which the King answers and they again reply to and May 28. the Parliament ordain That all Sheriffs Justices c. make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going to the King at York the King on the other side forbids all Persons belonging to the Trained Bands or Militia of the Kingdom to obey any Order or Ordinance of any of the Houses divers Members of both Houses withdrew themselves to the King as being unsatisfied with their proceedings whereupon the Parliament Ordered That all such as did not make their Personal Appearance by June 16 ensuing should be fined an 100 pounds toward the Irish Wars such only excepted as were imployed by the Parliament They likewise understood that the Queen had pawned the Crown Jewels in Holland for Money to be transported to the King which to prevent him of they order That whoever hath or shall pay lend send or bring any Money in Specie into this Kingdom for or upon those Jewels or accept of any Bill hereafter shall be an Enemy to the State June 2. The Parliament sent to the King Nineteen Proposition 1. That all the Kings Privy
That if he had the least Thoughts of disagreeing with the happiness of this Kingdom he would not advise with such Councellors as they were And so the upper Schools were assigned to the Lords and the Convocation House to the Commons In this Parliament besides the Prince D. of York L. Keeper Littleton Treasurer Cottington D. of Richmond and Marquess of Hartford there were 19 Earls and as many Lords and 117 Knights and Gentlemen and afterwards 5 Lords and 23 Gentlemen more came to them The first thing they fell upon was to consider of means for effecting a Peace to which end a Letter was written to the E. of Essex and subsigned by all their hands who returned no answer but sent it to the Parliament at Westminster Jan. 16. 1643. The Scots Army entred England by the way of Newcastle being 18000 Foot and 2000 Horse under Gen. Levens For assisting the Parliament in pursuance of the Solemn League and Covenant and declaring the Justness of their Cause which they profess to be Reformation of Religion Honour of the King and Peace of the Kingdoms and that the main end of their coming is to rescue the King from his pernicious Counsellors The Parliament caresse the Scots Army and impower them to assess for themselves the Twentieth part of all Malignants Estates as they called them in the North besides what other Counties were assessed for them But the E. of Newcastle is marching to give them rougher entertainment and the L. Fairfax sent his Son Sir Thomas against him Sir John Mâ—ldrum with 700 men besieged Newarks and is blockt up by Prince Rupert whereupon they parleyed and upon Articles were suffered to march away leaving their Match Bullet Powder Cannon and all other Fire-Arms behind them In the mean time Matters are preparing for Scotland by James Marquss of Montro's who had formerly sided with the Covenanters but now the King understanding he had really forsaken them gives him a Commission to be General Governor of Scotland and orders him Forces to go into the heart of that Kingdom for a diversion to the Scots In the year 1644. the Twentieth of his Majesties Reign Sir Will. Waller defeats the L. Hoptons Forces and takes Winchester and Oliver Cromwell was made Governor of Ely Beudly is surprized by Coll. Fox for the Parliament and the Garrisons of Selby and Heintough are taken by the L. Fairfax and his Son Prince Rupert raiseth the siege at Latham House The King at this time in the presence of the Peers at Oxford received the Sacrament at Christs Church at the hands of Bishop Vsher where he used these solemn Protestations My Lords I espy here many resolved Protestants who declare to the world the Resolution I do now make I have to the utmost of my power prepared my Soul to become a worthy Receiver and may I so receive comfort by the Blessed Sacrament as I do intend the establishment of the True Reformed Protestant Religion as it stood in its beauty in the happy days of Q. Elizabeth without any connivance at Popery I bless God that in the midst of these Publick Distractions I have still Liberty to communicate and may this Sacrament be my damnation if my heart do not joyn with my lips in this Protestation The Parliament at Westminster Voted it Treason for any Member or Member of either House to desert them and to go to the King and they never to be received again The King marcheth out of Oxford and iâ— followed by Essex and Waller he defeats Waller at Cropredy-Bridge and Essex is blockt up by the Kings Forces in Cornwall and July 4th the King sends several Letters to the Parliament about a Treaty of Peace Sept. 12. the Parliament at Oxford Assemble again but falling into Factions and Divisions the King in March following Dissolves them The Earl of Newcastle was besieged in York about two months to whose relief Prince Rupert advanceth Northward with a great Power of Horse and Foot upon whose approach to the City the Beseigers drew off and those within sally out upon their Rear the E. of Newcastle being thus relieved joyns with P. Rupert resolving to follow the Parliamentarians and give them battle which accordingly they did upon a Plain called Marston-Moor where about 9000 men were slain for the Royalists having near routed the Parliaments Army pursued the Chace so far that the Victory was snatcht out of their hands and the Parliament obtained an entire Victory after 3 hours Fight resolutely maintained on both sides After which York was delivered up to the Parliament and they soon became Masters of all the North and Levens the Scotch General takes Newcastle After this Battel which was the greatest both for the fierceness of it and for the number of Souldiers on both sides P. Rupert goes into Lancashire but the E. of Neweastle lately made Marquess with his two Sons and his brother Sir Charles Cavendish General King the Lord Falconbridge the Lord Widdrington the Earl of Cranworth the Bishop of London-derry Sir Edward Widdrington Coll. Carnaby Col. Basset Col. Mouson Sir William Vavasor Sir Francis Mackworth with about eighty other persons upon some discontent refused to engage any further in the Kings Cause and went over to Hamburgh New Levies are now made by the Parliament and 〈◊〉 Attempts were made by the Parliamentarians upon Dennington Castle but in vain The Queen goâ—ng from Oxford to Exeter was there delivered of a daughter June 16 1644. who was called Henrietta Maria and afterward went from thence to Pendenâ—is Castle in Cornwall where she embarqued for France and did not return again to England till His present Majesties Happy Restoration in 1660. Banbury Castle is relieved by Sir William Compton having been besieged about 11 weeks by the Parâ—iamens Forces Coll. Myn is defeated by Massy near Glocester and himself slain and about 170 Officers and Souldiers taken Prisoners Prince Rupert sending 500 Horse and Foot to fortifie Beachly in order to his going to Ashferry they are routed by Massey who soon after takes Monmouth Town Newberry seemed to be a Place destined for Martial exploits for October 27. another great Battel was fought there between the Kings party and the Parliaments under Essex Waller and Manchester wherein the Royalists were worsted and between 4 and 5000 men slain on both sides Novemb. 19. Monmouth is retaken by the Kings Forces December 23. Sir Alexander Carew was beheaded for endeavouring to deliver up the Island of Plymouth to the Kings Forces Two Principal Irish Rebels the L. Macguire and Mac-mahon had been sent from Ireland and imprisoned in the Tower from whence they made their escape but being retaken and Tryed were found guilty of High Treason and were both Drawn Hang'd and Quartered at Tyburn though Macguire pleaded his Priviledge to the Lords as a Peer of Ireland Archbishop Laud having been accused by thâ— Parliament in 1640. as the framer of the Canons 〈◊〉 Convocation and other Delinquencies and thâ— Scots joyning him and the
THE HOVSE OF LORDS THE HOVSE OF COMMONS THE WARS IN ENGLAND Scotland and Ireland OR An Impartial Account of all the Battels Sieges and other Remarkable Transactions Revolutions and Accidents which have heppened from the beginning of the Reign of King CHARLESI in 1625 to His Majesties happy Restauration 1660. Illustrated with Pictures of some Considerable matters curiously Ingraven on Copper Plates LONDON Printed for Nath. Crouch and John How at the Seven Stars in Sweetings Alley near the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1681. TO THE READER THis small Volume is intended for the use of those who cannot go to the price of a greater and yet would willingly be informed of those wonderful Transactions and Revolutions which have happened in these Three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in this last Age and within the memory of many now living And though it cannot be expected that a large Account of every particular Accident can be comprehended in this little Compendium yet I have endeavoured without the least passion or partiality briefly to comprise the most considerable Matters Now as the Things here inserted are more remarkable both for their Variety and Quality than it may be ever happened at any time heretofore in so short a space so the serious perusal and consideration thereof may be very useful and necessary for quieting the present Discontents and deplorable Distractions that are now amongst us since these were the Forerunners of those miserable Wars Ruins and Desolations which are herein related wherein all Bonds of Religion Alliance and Friendship were utterly destroyed Wherein Fathers and Children Kindred and Acquaintance became unnatural Enemies to each other so that with some little Variation we may apply what Lucan writes of the Civil Wars of Rome to England in those times Wars more than Civil on the Brittish Plains Then happened and England Distzins In her own Bowels her Victorious Swords Where Kindred Hosts Encounter all Accords Of Empire broke where arm'd to Impious War The strength of all the shaken Land from far Is met known Ensigns Ensigns do desie Fathers by Sons and Sons by Fathers die What fury Countrey-men what madness cou'd Move you to feast your Foes with English Blood And chuse such Wars as could no Triumphs yield Whilst yet proud Babylon unconquer'd held Alas what seas what lands might you have ta'ne VVith that bloods loss which your own hands have drawn Let us all therefore who pretend to the name of Christians study to be quiet and follow Peace with all men which is the most Effectual means to prevent those Confusions and Miseries which we have lately suffered and under the effects whereof we still groan and that this short Narrative may be useful to this purpose is the earnest and hearty desire of Your Countrey-man and Well-wisher RICHARD BVRTON THE WARS IN England Scotland and Ireland c. BEfore we proceed to give an Account of those Unnatural Wars Ruins and Devastations which have happened in these Kingdoms in this Last Age it may seem necessary by way of Introduction to give a Relation of several previous Transactions before these Woful Calamities befel us Upon the 27th day of March in the year 1625 King James departed this life at Theobalds in the Fifty ninth year of his Age when he had reigned Twenty two years compleat And in the Afternoon of the same day Charles Prince of Wales his only Son then living was proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland The first thing he did was performing the Ceremonies of his Fathers Funeral in which the King himself in Person followed as chief Mourner immediately after the Herse having his Train of black Velvetborn up by the Twelve Peers of the Realm at his right hand the Earl of Arundel and at his left the Earl of Pembroke He then proceeded to his Coronation and after that he consummated the Marriage with Henrietta Maria younger Daughter of the Great Henry the Fourth King of France whom he had formerly seen in his Journey through that Countrey into Spain his first Complement to her when he went to meet her at Dover was That he desired to be no longer Master of himself then he was Servant to her which indeed he made good for on the day before his deplorable death he desired his Daughter the Lady Elizabeth to assure her Mother if ever he saw her again That his Thoughts had never strayed from her and that his Affections should be the same to the last The King then called a Parliament which Assembled the Eighteenth of June follwoing to whom he represented in a short Speech The urgent necessity of raising a Subsidy since it would not agree with his Kingly honour to shrink from the War with Spain which his Father upon solid Considerations had by consent of both Houses undertaken although prevented by death from putting it in Execution That Money the sinews of War must be levied without which neither Army nor Fleet could move former Contributions being already disbursed to a penny That he should seem ridiculous to all Europe if he did not now at length proceed to Action That it was his first Enterprize the success whereof would have influence upon his following Reign That it concerned their own Reputations herein to Assist him effectually least the world should judge them to have betray'd their King That Celerity was necessary because of Winter then approaching a season prejudicial to Martial Attempts the Pestilence at that time Reigning in the City which in all probability might cause a sudden Dissolution of their Meeting All which Arguments if duly considered did evidently demonstrate That it was most Honourable Opportune and safe to use Expedition in the business As for Religion and Manner of Government he was resolved to tread in his Fathers steps hoping that his former life had ministred no just grounds for them to suspect the contrary The Parliament acknowledged these Arguments for a Subsidy to be very rational but yet would not suddenly resolve upon it till they had first presented their two Petitions concerning Beasons of Religion and Complaint of their Sufferings which points had been offered to his Father King James in the close of his last Parliament and by his death were left hitherto unanswered In both which they received competent satisfaction and likewise an account of the Arrears which were due to the Forces both by Sea and Land together with an Estimate of the future Charge and Expence of the Spanish War upon which the King obtained of the Laity freely and absolutely Two Subsidies to be paid by Protestants and four from Papists and three Subsidies from the Clergy In this Parliament Dr. Montague the Kings Chaplain was questioned for certain Tenets in his Answer to a Book called the Romish Gagger and his defence thereof Intituled Appello ad Caesarem And he being brought before the Bar of the House the Speaker declared their pleasure That they would refer his Censure till the next meeting and in the mean
these Queries 1. Whether the King had not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the D. of Buckingham was Admixal 2. Whether his going as Admiral in this last Fleet was not the cause of its ill Success and return without any considerable Action 3. Whether the Kings Treasure hath not been impaired by the Dukes Immense Liberality 4. Whether he hath not Ingrossed all Offices and prefer'd his Kindred to most places 5. Whether he hath not sold places of Judicature 6. Whether Popish Recusants have not dependance upon his Mother and Father in Law These bold Expressions so provoked the King that he immediately sent Sir Richard Weston to demand Satisfaction of the House of Commons whereupon Dr. Turner presently after made a Speech in Vindication and for explaining himself alledging That what he had said was for the good of the Kingdom and not reflecting upon any one in patticular That to accuse upon common Fame he thought to be a Parliamentary way and warranted by the Cannons of the Church the Imperial Laws and by Ancient Presidents The Duke of Suffolk in King Hen. the Sixths time having been accused upon Common Fame He added likewise That Mr. Chancellor himself had presented some persons upon particular Fame and that he knew no reason why himself might not in that place have as ample Priviledge and the further debate of the matter being referr'd till another time Dr. Turner in the mean space writ a Letter to the Speaker to excuse his absence by reason of some Indisposition and to signify his desire of putting himself wholly upon the Judgment and Censure of Parliament Sir William Waller speaking his Opinion concerning Grievances said That the True Cause of them was because as was said of Lewes the 11th of France all the Kings Council Rode upon one Horse And that therefore His Majesty was to be advised as Moses was by Jethro to make choice of Councellors to assist him that should be thus qualified 1. Noble not Upstarts and of a Nights Growth 2. Men of Courage such as would execute their own places and not commit them to undeserving Deputies 3. Fearing God not inclining to false Worship or halting between two Opinions 4. Dealing truly not given to Flattery or favouring Courtship but such as might be safely trusted by the King and Kingdom 5. Hating Covetousness not such as lived upon other Mens Means or that would take Bribes or sell places in Church or State or about the King 6. To be many in the multitude of Councellors there being safety 7. To judg of small matters as well as great the greatest being to be referr'd to the King much less any one Councellor alone to manage all business 8. Elders not young and unexperienced Men through whose rash and unadvised proceedings great Designs many times miscarry And herein he was seconded by Sr. John Eliot who represented to the House The present State of the Kingdom and the great dishonour the King and Kingdom had sustained by several miscarriages and ill management of Matters of the highest Trust he likewise mentioned Two Presidents the first in the 16 year of Hen. 3. when the Parliament denied the Subsidies demanded till the great Officers were Examined and Hugh de Burg being found guilty of Corruption was displaced Another Example was in the 10th year of Rich. 2. when Supply was required and the Commons complaining that the Earl of Suffolk then over-ruled all they returned Answer That they could not give But notwithstanding these Discourses the Commons taking the Kings Necessities into Consideration Voted Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens and that the Bill should be brought in as soon as the Grievances which were represented were redressed They likewise considered of the matter of the Duke of Buckingham and the misimploying the Revenue and ordered that the Duke should again have notice of their Intentions therein But the King observing they did not make such hast as he expected to answer his last Message summons both Houses together and by the Lord Keeper complains to them For not punishing Dr. Turner and Mr. Cook and likewise for searching his Signet Office and also justified the D. of Buckingham to have acted nothing of Publick Imployment without his Special Warrant and therefore forbid them to concern themselves any further therein as looking upon it to be Libelling his own Government lastly he blamed them for being too sparing in the matter of Supply and for ordering the Bill not to be brought in till their Grievances were heard and answered which he would not admit of This was the substance of the Lord Keepers Speech to which the King himself added He must also put them in mind that his Father moved by their Counsel and won by their Perswasions broke the Treaties and that he himself was their Instrument towards his Father and was glad to be Instrumental in any thing which might please the whole Body of the Realm nor was there any then in greater Favour than the Duke whom they now traduced but that now finding him so far intangled in a War that he could make no honourable nor safe Retreat they made necessity their Priviledge and set what rate they pleased upon their Supplies a Practise not very obliging towards Kings and whereas Mr. Cook told them That it was better for them to die by a Forreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home Indeed he thought it to be more Honourable for a King to be Invaded and almost destroyed by a Forreign Enemy than to be despised at home After this at a Conference of both Houses in the Painted Chamber the Duke of Buckingham was commanded by the King to explain some Expressions in the Kings and the Lord Chancellors Speeches which might be subject to misunderstanding which the Duke performed accordingly and then gave a large Account of his Negotiation in the Low Countreys as soon as the Duke had ended the Lord Conway discoursed of the Treaties of Denmark and France and the business of the Navy and affirmed they were not done by single Councel since King James himself commanded it The Commons in Answer to the Kings last Speech presented him with a Remonstrance to this purpose That they gratefully acknowledged His Majesties Expressions of Affection to his People and Parliament That they had taken Mr. Cooks and Dr. Turners words into Consideration and might have given a good Account thereof by this time if his Majesties Message had not interrupted them That they had the Presidents of former Parliaments for searching the Letters of his Majesty and his Secretary of State the Signet Office and other Records upon the like occasions That it was the unquestionable Priviledge of Parliaments to complain of any Person of any degree and their proceedings in relation to the Duke should not prejudice either Crown or Kingdom That they were willing to Supply his Necessities Liberally and Faithfully if Additions might be made of other things which concerned his Service and were now in Consultation
granted to Five Bishops to Execute his Office After which the Bishop Published a Narrative of the Cause and Manner of his Suspension Five of those Gentlemen who were Imprisoned about the Loan had their Habeas Corpus granted and were brought to their Tryal before Sir Nicholas Hyde Lord Chief Justice where after arguing the Case between Council on both sides the L. Chief Justice concluded That since they were Committed by the Kings Authority the Court could not Free them so that they were remanded to Prison till the Order came out for a General Release The Irish Papists in hope of some Remission of the Penal Laws offered to Furnish the King at their own Charge with a standing Army of 5000 Foot and 500 Horse and a large Contribution for securing the Narrow Seas which was opposed in England by Sir John Savil and in Ireland by the Lord Primate of Armagh and divers others as tending to preserve the Papists Interests and sinking the Protestants upon which the L. Deputy moved the Primate to endeavour to prevail with the Protestants to supply the Kings Necessities which he attempted to do in a very learned Speech though not with the expected Success In 1627 being the Third Year of his Majesties Reign the Duke of Buckingham to clear his Reputation as to the Charge of Negligence in his Admiralship with much ado compleated his Naval Forces consisting of Six Thousand Horse and Foot in Ten Ships Royal and Ninety Merchant Men with which he set Sail from Portsmouth June 27 and published a Manifesto of the Kings Affection to the Reformed Churches in France and his displeasure against the last misimploying of his Ships against the Rochellers But by several Accidents this great Design miscarried with the Death of near Two Thousand common Souldiers Thirty Prisoners of Note and Fourty four Colours taken But notwithstanding this Expedition of the Isle of Rhe miscarried yet at Sea there was somewhat better Success a great French Ship was taken upon the Coasts of Holland Laden with great Guns Arms and Ammunition of all sorts to a very considerable value Sir John Pennington likewise took Thirty Four Rich French Merchantmen homeward bound which were all safely brought to England the poor remains of the Army which came from the Isle of Rhe most of them Irish and Scots and consequently rude and boisterous were quartered in the Countrey Villages which was very troublesome to the People At this time the Exchequer was very low and several late Enterprizes having miscarried the Rochellers being also now more distressed than ever the causes of these evils were gravely represented by Sir Robert Cotton to several Lords of the Councill whereupon it was resolved on by the Council that a Parliament should be called and Writs were presently Issued out A Commission likewise passed under the Great Seal for raising Moneys through the Kingdome in Nature of an Excise and the Lord Treasurer was ordered to pay Thirty Thousand Pound to Philip Burmelack a Dutch Merchant to be returned to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier in the Low Countreys for raising a Thousand Horse which caused strange jealousies and suspicions among the People as if these German Horse were designed to inforce the payment of the Excise There was some discourse about Levying Ship money but it was declined at that time because of the Parliament approaching In the mean time a company of Jesuites were apprehended in an House at Clerkenwell which was designed for a Colledge of that Order where among other Papers a Letter was found discovering their secret Designs they had laid for imbroiling Church and State Upon the 17th of March 1627 the Parliament Assembled the Commons chusing Sin John Finch Speaker the King in a Speech tells the two Houses That the greatness of the danger was such as required a speedy Supply and that therefore they might rest assured it was the principal cause of their Meeting wherein he hoped they would shew themselves such true Patriots of the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and the just defence of their Friends and Allies now in such hazard by Popish Enemies as not to deceive his Expectations which were very great though indeed somewhat nipt by Remembrance of the Distractions of the last Meeting The Lord Keeper likewise Inforc'd the Kings Speech and earnestly pressed them to consider of some speedy way for Supplying his Majesties Necessities Before the Parliament began any debate a Letter came to them Directed To the Members of the House of Commons called A Speech without Doors discovering the Grievances and Inconveniences of the State from one who had been a Member of the former Parliament The first thing taken into Consideration by the Commons was the Grievances of the Kingdom and the first thing Insisted on was the Case of those Gentlemen for refusing the Loan and who notwithstanding their Habeas Corpus were Remanded to Prison and after a long Debate between several Members who asserted the Illegality of the Loan and also their Imprisonment for refusing it the Lord Chief Justice Hyde and several other Judges were desired to declare themselves who justified their own proceedings alledging That if they had granted them Bail upon Habeas Corpus it would have reflected upon the King as if he had unjustly Imprisoned them But in conclusion it was resolved upon the Question in the House of Commons Nemine Contradicente 1. That no man ought to be restrained by the Command of the King or Privy Council without some Cause of the Commitment 2. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus ought to be granted upon Request to every Man that is restrained though by the Command of the King the Privy Council or any other 3. That if a Freeman be imprisoned by the Command of the King the Privy Council or any other and no Cause of such Commitment expressed and the same be returned upon an Habeas Corpus granted for the said Party then he ought to be delivered or Bailed Then the Parliament proceeded to draw up a Petition against Popish Recusants consisting of these particulars 1. That all Laws and Statutes against Jesuites and Popish Priests be put in power and Execution 2. That a strict course be taken for the Apprehending and Discovering of them 3. That all Popish Recusants be prohibited from coming to Court or within Ten Miles of London 4. That no place of Trust or Authority shall be committed to Popish Recusants with several other particulars to the same purpose which Petition was presented from the Lords and Commons to the King by the Lord Keeper who gave a full and satisfactory Answer to every Article after which Five Subsidies were granted to the King which gave so great satisfaction to his Majesty that he sent them Word He would deny them nothing of their Liberties which any of his Predecessors had granted A Petition was then presented against Quartering Souldiers in the Countries to which the King promised an Answer in convenient time
whereupon the Commons fell upon the memorable Petition of Right and after several of the Members had delivered their Opinions at large concerning some Clauses in it the Lords agreed that without any Addition or Preface it should be presented to the King the Substance whereof was 1. They do pray his most Excellent Majesty That no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like Charge without common consent by Act of Parliament and that none be called to make Answer or to take such Oath or to give Attendance or be confined or otherwise be molested or disquieted concerning the same or for Refusal thereof 2. That no Freeman be taken and imprisoned or be disseised of his Freehold of Liberty or his free Customs or be outlawed or exiled but by the lawful Judgment of his Peers or by the Laws of the Land 2. That your Majesty would be pleased to remove the Souldiers and Marriners now Billeted in several Counties and that your People may not be so burdened for the time to come 4. That the late Commissions for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked and annulled and that hereafter no Commission of like Nature may Issue forth to any Person or Persons whatsoever to be Executed least by colour of them any of your Majesties Subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to Law and the Franchises of the Law All which we most humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty as their Rights and Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare That all Awards Doings or proceedings to the prejudice of your People shall not be drawn hereafter into consequence and Example After this there came a Letter from the King to the House of Lords wherein among other things His Majesty declared it to be his Royal pleasure which God willing he would ever continue and constantly maintain That neither he nor his Privy Council should or would hereafter command to Prison or otherwise restrain the Persons of any for not lending Money nor for any Cause which in his Conscience did not concern the publick good nor would he be drawn to pretend any cause wherein his judgment was not fully satisfied This Sir Thomas Wentworth afterwards Earl of Strafford said Was a Letter of Grace but that the People were not so satisfied but by a Parliamentary way That the debate would spend much time That it was not directed to the House of Commons and that the Petition it self would rectify all mistakes When the Petition of Right was presented to the King the Answer following was quickly returned The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm and that the Statutes be put in due Execution that his Subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or Oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the Preservation Whereof he holds himself in Conscience as well obliged as to that of his Prerogative This Answer being Read in the House of Commons was not judged Satisfactory and therefore upon their Humble Petition for a clear and satisfactory Answer to the Petition of Right His Majesty to shew how free and candid his Concessions were to his Subjects sent them this short but full Answer Soit Droit Lait come il est desire Let it be done according to your desire Which Answer was Received with the general joy and Satisfaction of both Houses and the Citizens made Bonefires and Rung Bells and his Majesty for further Satisfaction was pleased to receive into Favour Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop Williams and several others His Majesty likewise suffered the Commission of Loan and Excise to be cancelled in his presence so that all discontents of every side seemed to be banished In 1628 the Fourth year of his Majesties Reign the Parliament not being satisfied of their former disappointment about the Duke of Buckingham drew up another Remonstrance against him and likewise against Bishop Neal and Bishop Laud which they presented to the King with the Bill of Subsidies His Majesty telling them That he expected not such a Return for his favourable Answer to the petition of Right and as for the Grievances he would take time to consider of them An Information being likewise Exhibited against the Duke in the Star Chamber for divers Offences and Misdemeanors an Order was made in that Court that all proceedings thereupon should be taken off the File by the Kings express Will and Pleasure And because it had been reported by a Member of Parliament that the Duke should say at his Table Pish it matters not what the Parliament doth for without my leave and Authority they shall not be able to touch the Hair of a Dog The Duke made Protestation in the House of Lords That be never had those words so much as in his Thoughts But the King being resolved to hold up the Duke sent so brisk an Answer to their Remonstrances as provoked the Commons who had soon forgot his Majesties late Act of Grace to question his taking Tunnage and Poundage which being of too valuable consideration to be hazarded his Majesty obviated by Adjourning the Parliament to the 20th of October there being several Acts passed by them One About the Lords day Another To restrain the sending any to be Popishly bread beyond the Seas Another for Confirmation of the Subsidies granted by the Clergie and for the grant of Five Entire Subsidies upon the Temporality and divers more Much about this time Dr. Lamb who was in great Favour with the Duke of Buckingham and had been formerly twice Arraigned once for Necromancy and another time for a Rape was killed by the furious Multitude in Lothbury who hated him both for his own sake and the Dukes he being called the Dukes Devil and though he were guarded by four Constables and their Attendants yet the Rabble struk him down beat out one of his eyes and left him half dead on the Ground from whence he was called to the Poultrey Counter where he died according to his own Prediction the year before being pitied by few and loved of none The Earl of Denbigh having a while since sailed with Fifty Ships to the relief of Rochel was repelled with much loss so that despairing of Success he returned back to Plymouth whereupon another Expedition was resolved on with a more considerable Navy and the Duke of Buckingham was designed Admiral who going to Portsmouth in order to hastning of business one John Felton a Leiutenant stabbed him to the heart with a Knife which the Murtherer flying left sticking in his Body till the Duke himself dragg'd it out and immediately after died Felton was soon apprehended by the Servants and laden with Irons and being asked what inclined him to commit so horrid an Action He boldly answered He killed him for the cause of God and his Countrey He likewise fastned a Paper in the Crown of his
Non-conformists which caused them to be charged with Faction yet some of the Episcopal Party Asserted That the Communion Table ought to stand in the middle of the Quire according to the Primitive Example and a Book supposed to be written by Dr. Williams B. of Lincoln was Published to this purpose His Majesty considering the good Success of his former Fleet fits out another in the year 1636 under the command of the Earl of Northumberland who going Northward scowred the Seas of the Holland Busses and reduced them to desire leave of his Maiesty to Fish there which the King upon divers Considerations granted them Several Gentlemen of Quality had refused to pay the Imposition of Ship-money and among the rest Mr. Hamden of Buckinghamshire upon which his Majesty refers the whole business to his Twelve Judges in Michaelmas Term 1636 Ten of whom that is Brampton Finch Davenport Denham Jones Trever Vernon Berkly Crawly Weston gave their Judgments against Hamden and his Associates and subscribed their Names to be Inrolled in all the Courts ol Westminster Hall but Hutton and Crook refused it This year March the 17. the Kings Kings Third Daughter the Princess Ann was born In the Thirteenth year of his Majesties Reign 1637 Dr. Bastwick Mr. Pryn and Mr. Burton received a severe Censure for writing against Bishops and their Government they being all three Sentenced to pay Five Thousand Pounds Fine to the King to lose their Ears in the Pillory and to be Imprisoned which they accordingly suffered Bishop Williams of Lincoln having the great Seal taken from him in the first year of his Majesties Reign he so deeply resented it that ever after he studied Revenge and a Bill being preferr'd against him in the Star Chamber for some dishonourable Speeches of the King he endeavoured by some indirect means to clear his Innocence and was therefore this year sentenced Ten thousand Pounds Fine to the King Imprisonment in the Tower during Pleasure to be suspended ab Officiis et Beneficiis from his Bishoprick and the Profits thereof and to be referred to the High Commission Court as to what concerned them His Majesty desiring an Uniformity in Religion in England and Scotland a thing before designed by King James in pursuance thereof enjoyned the Scots the use of the English Liturgy the Surplice and other Habiliments and began first at his own Chappel and in this year 1637 Proclamation was made that the same Order should be observed in all Churches wherewith the Bishops were contented but not the Kirk nor the People who were so inraged thereat that when the Dean of Edenbourgh began to Read the Common Prayer in St. Giles Church with his Surplice on July 13. the Council Bishops Lords and Magistrates being present the Women and then the ordinary sort of men made such a disturbance and noise with Cursing Clapping their hands and so great Rudeness that nothing could be heard but their Clamours upon which the Bishop of Edenbourgh who was to preach that day stept up into the Pulpit to reprove them which increasing their Fury they assault him with such a shower of Stones Seats Stools Cudgels and whatever else was near that his life was much indangered thereby and the Arch-bishop of St. Andrews Lord Chancellor interposing was like to have been as rudely handled had not the Provost Bayliffs and others with much trouble turned these Rioters out of the Church the Dean then proceeding to read the Service Book though not without great noise from the Multitude about the Church The like disturbance happened in other places but in the Afternoon the Book was again read without much trouble after which some of the Disturbers were seized and punished but with no great Severity and the Ministers were promised Protection and Maintenance in Reading it so that all at present seemed calm and quiet till after Harvest at which time such a confluence of People came to Edenbourgh as gave just cause to the Council to fear an Insurrection to prevent which they Issued out several Proclamations That no Church matters should be resolved on but that all persons depart home unless they can shew some cause to the Council upon pain of Rebellion Yet this was so little regarded by the People that the B. of Galloway going the next day to the Council was pursued and assaulted by them even to the Council Chamber and being with difficulty got in the House was presently incompassed and his Person peremptorily demanded upon which those within required Aid of the Provost and Council of Edenbourgh but their Condition was as bad being likewise beset in their Town house by the People who would not let them go out till they had subscribed 1. To joyn in Opposition to the Service Book and in Petitioning to that purpose 2. To restore two or three of their silenced Ministers Which being related to the Council the Lord Traqnair and another went in Person to the Town House where they found the Tumult somewhat quieted by those Concessions but in coming back they were furiously assaulted in the Grass-street and the L. Traquair was trodden under foot his Hat Cloak and white Wand was taken away and himself halled to the Council House The Lords whereof weighing their own danger sent secretly to some of those Noblemen and Gentlemen who disliked the Service Book and were then assembled in the common cause against it by whom they were safely guarded through the multitude to their several Houses And now judging themselves secure they make Proclamation for breaking up all Conventions and keeping the Peace which had the contrary effect Two Petitions being presented to them One from the Common sort of Men Women and Children the other in the Name of the Noblemen Gentlemen and Ministry against the Service Book and Canons these Petitions were sent to the King who being offended therewith adjourned the Term to Sterling and by Proclamation forbid upon extreamest Penalty such Tumultuous Meetings Against which Proclamation the Earl of Hume the Lord Lindsey and divers others made Protestation and in pursuance thereof they set up Four Tables or Committees 1. Of the Nobility 2. Of the Gentry 3. Of the Barons 4. of the Ministry to prepare Matters for the General Council consisting of several Commissioners taken out of the other The next year 1638 the Scots entred inta a Solemn League and Covenant to preserve the Religion there protest resolving to maintain it and to that purpose they sent for General Lesly and other Officers from beyond Sea providing themselves likewise with Arms and Ammunition whilst D. Hamilton who was appointed to allay these heats and Distempers seemed secretly to foment them by spending a great deal of time in Declarations Proclamations Messages and Letters and afterwards makes such Propositions to the Confederates about calling a General Assembly as were very distasteful to the Covenanters and increased their Fury Whereupon Hamilton obtained of the King the Sole and Unlimited Power of Managing that Affair and then
the Popes Nuncio's that came after him did likewise and had formerly offered a Cardinals Cap to the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Popes Name In the year 1640 and the Sixteenth of the King a Parliament was called at Westminster April 13. in which the Earl of Strafford was highly honoured for his good service in Ireland in obtaining four Subsidies to maintain Ten thousand Foot and Fifteen hundred Horse And that England might follow this Example the King tells the Parliament that if they would supply him so as to suppress the Insolencies of the Scots he would acquit his claim to Shipmoney and giue satisfaction to their just Demands By which Proposals the Parliament were sensible of the Kings Necessities and therefore required satisfaction 1. For clearing the Property of the Subject 2. For establishing the True Religion 3. For Priviledges of Parliament But whilst they were debating whether the Grievances of the People or the Kings Supply should be first considered and Matters were in an hopeful posture Secretary Vane either accidentally or on purpose overthrew all at once by declaring that the King required Twelve Subsidies whereas he at that time only desired Six which so much inraged the House and made things so ill that by the Advice of the Junto the Parliament was dissolved having only sate Twenty two days however the Privy Councel likewise advised their Dissolving being assured the heats in the House of Commons were so great that they intended that very day to have voted against the War with Scotland whereby the King would have been in a worse condition than before their sitting About the same time a Convocation of Bishops sate with Commission to make such Canons as they judged for the peace of the Church and amongst other things they imposed an Oath called c. Et cetera as an Anticovenant against the Scots which because it occasioned much difference may not be unfitly inserted I A. B. Do swear that I do approve the Doctrine and Discipline or Government established in the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and that I will not endeavour by my self or any other directly or indirectly to bring in any Popish Doctrine contrary to that so established nor will I ever give my consent to alter the Government of this Church by Archbishops Deans and Arch Deacons c. Et cetera and so forth as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand nor yet ever to subject it to the Usurpations and Superstitions of the See of Rome And all these things do I plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear according to the plain and common sense or understanding of the same words without any Equivocation mental Evasion or secret Reservation whatsoever And this I do heartily willingly and truly upon the faith of a Christian So help me God in Jesus Christ This Oath was imposed upon all Ministers and gave great Offence This was the chief business of this Convocation which ended May 26 1640. Arch Bishop Laud by his earnest proceedings against Nonconformists and such as were called Puritans and by his strict enjoyning of Ceremonies especially reviving old Ceremonies which had not been lately observed procured much hatred to himself from the People particularly the Londiners who had a particular disgust against him for his severity upon Mr. Burton Pryn and Bastwick insomuch that upon May 9 1640 a Paper was fixed upon the Royal Exchange inciting the Apprentices to rise and sack his House at Lambeth the Monday after which they were the more inclined to do because it was reported that he was the chief instigator of the King to dissolve the last Parliament but the Arch Bishop had notice of their Design and provided accordingly however upon Monday at midnight about Five Hundred of them beset his House and endeovoured to enter but were repulsed and forced to depart having in some measure vented their Spleen in words and breaking his Glass-Windows The next day many of them were apprehended and imprisoned but three days after they were forcibly rescued from thence by their Companions who broke open the Prison doors for which one of the Ring-leaders was drawn hanged and quartered and his head and quarters set upon London-Bridge The King grew daily more offended against the Scots and calls a Select Juncto to consult about them where the Earl of Strafford delivered his mind in such Terms as were afterward made use of to his distruction War against them was resolved on and Money was to be procured one way or other the City of London was invited to lend but refused and pleaded poverty being distasted iâ— seems at some proceedings in the Star Chamber about their Plantation of London Derry in Ireland which was judged to be forfeited for some alledged misdemeanors and the Undertakers fined yet the Citizens were willing to offer a large Sum for the building a Magnificent Pallace for the King in St James's Park which took no effect The Gentry contributed indifferent freely so that with their Assistance the Royal Army was compleated the King himself being Generalissimo the Earl of Northumberland General and the Earl of Strafford Leiutenant General Northumberland falls sick and therefore the King takes the Command upon himself and sends away part of the Army Horse and Foot under the Lord Conway into the North. July 20th 1640. the Queen was delivered of a Son who was Châ—istened Henry afterward Created Duke of Glocester In the mean time the L. Conway had but ill Success for having drawn about 1200 Horse and 3000 Foot to secure the Passes upon the Riveâ— Tyne the Scotch Army under their General Lesly advanced thither better provided then before and August 27 Lesly desired leave of the L. Conway for his whole Army to pass to the King with their Petition which was denied whereupon about 300 Scotch Horse attempted to pass the River but were beaten back by the English Musquetiers who were placed under a Breast-work Lesly comes on with his Horse and charges Commissary General Wilmot who maintained the ground very stoutly till overborn with multitude and Canon they were put to a disorderly Retreat both Horse and Foot upon which the L. Conway hastes to the King with the unwelcome News Sir Jacob Astly Governor of Newcastle finding himself unable to deâ—end the place deserts it sinking the great Guns â—n the River whereby Newcastle and Durham came â—n a short time into the hands of the Scots And now Strafford comes up with whom the King retreats â—o York and stays there while Strafford who was â—ow sole Commander charges the whole miscarâ—iage upon Conway who as stoutly denies it The King had formerly declared the Scots to be Rebels and Traytors by Proclamation and commanded that publick Prayers should be put up against them in all Churches but at this time he is contented to treat with them and to that end he receives a Petition from them complaining of their Grievances To which he answers by
and for the first offence in refusing to forfeit all their Goods for the second their Estates and for the third their Lives And besides this they presented them with the hopes of Liberty That the English Yoke should be stricken off That they should have a King of their own Nation and that then all the Goods and Estates of the English should be divided amongst them With these Motives of Spoil and Liberty which were strengthned by the former of Religion the Rebellion increased The Rebels in Ulster commanded by Sir Phelim O Neal assisted by his Brother the Brother of the Lord Mac Guire Philip O Reley and several others had possessed most of the strong places in that Province and many other which they could not take by force nor treachery were delivered to them by the English upon Articles which they afterwards like true or rather false Papists most perfidiously broke Butchering and Massacring the poor English without pity or compassion to Age or Sex though they still spared the Scotch Plantations in Ulster because of their Numbers and likewise for fear of the Scotch Army so easily to be transported to the North parts of Ireland But now their General Sir Phelim O Neal one of the Race of the late Bloody Earl of Tyrone a pretended Protestant till some time before having got together a vast number of the Natives fell upon them and destroyed their Houses and Goods and though they did not exercise that Cruelty on their Bodies yet they stript them and drove them Naked to the Scotish Shore from thence he marched into other parts and took Dundalk incamping at Arde near Tredagh The King finding his stay to be longer than he thought left the whole business of Ireland to the Parliament who declared a speedy and vigorous Assistance and Voted Fifty thousand Pound for a present Supply By which time the Lords of the Council of Ireland had Armed as many as were able and given Commissions for raising several Regiments of whom the Earl of Ormond was made Lieutenant General and a Regiment was sent from England under Sir Simon Harcourt about which time the King returned out of Scotland and was Entertained and Feasted at London and from thence Conducted to White-Hall after which the King Treated several Chief Citizens at Hampton Court where divers of the Aldermen had the honour of Knighthood December 2. The King Summons both Houses together and tells them That he had staid in Scotland longer than he expected yet not fruitlesly for he had given full satisfaction to that Nation but cannot chuse but take notice of and wonder at the unexpected Distractions he finds at home and then commends to them the State of Ireland next he publishes a Proclamation for Obedience to the Laws in force concerning Religion and the performance of Divine Service without Innovation or Abolishing of Rites and Ceremonies January 20 His Majesty makes another Speech to them and Conjures them by all that is dear to him or them to hasten the business of Ireland After which the Commons ordered a Select Committee to draw up a Petition and Remonstrance to the King the Petition was thus Most Gracious Soveraign your Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects the Commons in this present Parliament Assembled do with joy acknowledge the Favour of God in your safe return into England where the dangers and distempers of the State have caused them to desire your Presence and Authority to your Parliament for preventing of imminent Ruin and Destruction to your Kingdoms of England and Scotland fomented by a malignant party for alteration of Religion and Government the increase of Popery by the Practice of Jesuites and other Engineers and Factors of Rome corrupting the Bishops and Privy Council they being the cause of the late Scottish War and the Irish Rebellion Now for prevention they pray That your Majesty would concur with your Parliament to deprive the Bishops of their Votes To take away Oppression in Religion Church Government and Discipline To purge your Councils of such as are promoters of these Corruptions and not alienate any Escheated Lands in Ireland by reason of the Rebellion and these being granted we will make you happy This was followed by a large Remonstrance containing all the Miscarriages and Misfortunes which they termed Pressures since the beginning of his Majesties Reign As 1. The root and ground of these dangers 2. Their Maturity and Ripeness 3. The effectual means used for their Extirpation and the progress therein made 4. Thâ— Obstructions and Oppositions interrupting 5. Thâ— best means for removing these Obstacles and foâ— accomplishing the Parliaments good Intentions for restoring this Nation to its Ancient Renown The Actors and Promoters of these Evils werâ— described to be 1. The Jesuited Papists 2. Thâ— Bishops and corrupted Clergy 3. Interesteâ— Counsellors and Courtiers The root of the miâ—chief was the Malignant Party whose Practiceâ— were branched into four particulars 1. To foment differences and discontents between thâ— King and People about Prerogative and Priviledge for their own Advantages 2. To suppress thâ— purity and power of Religion 3. To Unite and Conjoyn Papists Arminians and Libertines and out of them all to compose a Body sufficient to carry on their Designs And 4. To disaffect the King to the Parliament by Slanders and by putting him upon other ways of Supply than by Parliament and that the Intentions of these Malignants were to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government They then charge this Malignant Party more particularly as chiefly occasioning the Dissolution of three several Parliaments without Relief of Grievances The Imprisoning and Fining several of the Members raising great Sums of Money by Loan Privy Seals and Excise and blasting The Petition of Right The succesless Attempts upon France and Spain and Peace made with the Spaniard without consent of Parliament The loss of Rochel occasioned by lending part of our Fleet to the French King deserting the cause of the Palatinate charging the Kingdom with Billeting Souldiers and the Design of bringing in German Horse to inslave this Nation to Arbitrary Contributions Lastly they reflect upon Scandalous Declarations published against the Parliament upon Injustice Oppression Violence Illegal Inlargements of Forrests Coat and Conduct Money Corrupt Councils and Designs Projects Monopolies Illegal Proceedings in Courts of Judicature and Council Table charging the Bishops likewise with many Enormities particularly for contributing to raise an Army for constraining the Scots to conform to their Superstitious Ceremonies concluding with what they have done for the Reformation of these Abuses To their Petition the King returned this Answer That he knows not any Wicked or Malignant Persons whom he doth either countenance or imploy That he would concur with his People in a Parliamentary way against all Popish Designs but would not consent to deprive the Bishops of their Votes in Parliament That he judged the power of the Clergy sufficiently moderated by taking away the High Commission Court and
needing no further Abridgment That he was willing to concur with them for removal of any Innovations in Religion by a National Synod That he had no Counsellors nor Ministers of State whom he would not at any time expose to Trial and leave to the Law but cannot agree that any others should have the choice of them but himself That he concurs with them for not altering the Forfeited Lands in Ireland but thinks it not reasonable to resolve before the Event of War be seen and doubts not of their Loyal Endeavours for the support of his Royal State In Answer to the Remonstrance the King Issues out a Declaration to his Subjects the Sum of which was That he thought he had given sufficient satisfaction to his Peoples Fears and Jealonsies concerning Religion Liberty and Civil Interests by the Bills which he had passed this Parliament desiring that misunderstandings might be removed on either side and that the bleeding Condition of Ireland might perswade them to Unity for the relief of that unhappy Kingdom Not long after happened the Insolent Tumults of the London Apprentices who in a riotous manner went to White-hall and Westminster to the great disturbance of the King who thereupon commanded the Lord Mayor and Common Council to keep a double Watch and Guard for preventing mischief and Dec. 28. the King sends a Message to the Lords That he would raise Ten thousand Voluntiers for Ireland if the Commons would undertake to pay them On New-years day a Proclamation was published against the Irish declaring Those that were in Arms with all their Adherents and Abettors to be Rebels and Traytors Two days after the King upon Information that the L. Kimbolton and Five of the House of Commons viz. Mr. Hollis Sir Authur Haslerig Mr. Pym Mr Hamden and Mr. Stroud had correspondence with the Scots and countenanced the late City Tumults He thereupon ordered their Trunks Studies and Chambers to be Sealed up and their Person Seized the former of which was done but having timely notice they went aside upon which the Commons Voted the same day That if any Persons shall Attempt to Seize the Persons or Papers of any Parliament Men such Members shall require the Aid of the Constable to secure such Persons till further Order of the House and that it is lawful for any person to Assist the said Members and that the said Members may stand upon their Guard and make resistance according to the Protestation for defence of the Priviledges of Parliament Hereupon the King charges the L. Kimbolton and the 5 Members with several Articles and Acquaints both Houses That he did intend to prosecute them for High Treason and required that their Persons might be secured And the next day the King Attended with his Guard of Pensioners and some Hundreds of Gentlemen went to the House of Commons and the Guard staying without the King with the Palsgrave entred the House at whose entrance the Speaker rises out of the Chair and the King sitting down therein Views the House round and perceives the Birds he aimed at were flown for having warning they had withdrawn into London whereupon he tells them That he came to look for those 5 Members whom he had accused of High Treason and was resolved to have them where ever he found them and expected to have them sent to him as soon as they should come to the House but would not have them think that this Act of his was any Violation of Parliament This Act of the Kings was so highly resented by the House that the next day January 5 the Commons Voted it a Breach of Priviledge and Scandals were raised in the City that he intended Violence against the House of Commons and came thither with force to Murther several Members and used threatning Speeches against the Parliament with which the City was so possessed That unusual Guards and Watches were set as if some desperate Assault were to be made upon the City and the Houses Adjourned till the Tuesday following appointing a Committee in the mean time to sit at Guild-hall to consider of the most Effectual Means for their Security And then they publish a Declaration That whosoever shall Arrest any Member of Parliament by Warrant from the King only is Guilty of the Breach of Priviledges of Parliament and likewise that all those who attended the King when he came to demand the 5 Members were Guilty of a Traiterous Design against the King and Parliament That the Proclamation for Apprehending and Imprisoning the said Members was False Scandalous and Illegal and not of Validity enough to hinder them from attending the House and that the publishing of the several Articles of High Treason was a Breach of Priviledge wherefore they intreat his Majesty to discover the Names of those Informers and Evil Councellors declaring all such Persons to be publick Enemies to the State In the mean time the Londoners came thronging to Westminster with Petitions inveighing bitterly against some of the Peers but especially the Bishops whom they affronted as they went to the House upon which they were so affrighted that Twelve Bishops absent themselves from the House of Lords drawing up a Protestation against all Laws Orders Votes Resolutions and Determinations as in themselves null and of none effect which had passed or should pass during their forced Absence desiring their Protestation might be entred by the Clerk of the House of Peers Presently after which at a Conference between both Houses it was agreed That this Protestation of the Twelve Bishops did extend to the deep intrenching upon the fundamental Priviledges and Being of Parliaments and in a short time they were accused of High Treason seized and brought on their knees at the Lords Bar Ten of them were committed to the Tower and the other two in regard of their Age to the Black Rod. The King at this time thinking himself unsafe without a Guard accepted of the offer of some Gentlemen of the Inns of Court to be a Guard to him which instead of security was by subtil men made more prejudicial to the King by taking this occasion to raise the rage and jealousie of the City against him for at midnight there were crys made â—n the Streets of London That all People should rise â—o their Defence for the King with his Papists were coming to fire the City and cut their Throats in their Beds than which though nothing were more false yet it found the effects of truth and the People by such Allarms being terrified from sleep the impressions of those night fears lay long upon their Spirits in the day and filled them almost with madness of which the King complained to the Common Council of London But the House of Commons to obviate this upon suspicion of some design upon their persons petition the King for a Guard to be commanded by the Earl of Essex of whose fidelity to the King and State no question was ever made This Petition was denied by the
Nicholas and Sir Lewes Dives signifying That if the King would openly declare his mind and betake himself to some place of security that he might come freely to him he doubted not but he should do him some acceptable Service These Letters were intercepted by the Parliament and by them after perusal sent to the King with their Intreaties to him That he would perswade the Queen not to correspond with Digby or any other whom his Great Council had proclaimed Traytors There was a Report that the Parliament intended to Accuse the Queen of High-Treason as one that had so much power with the King to misadvise him this rumour the Parliament exused as a publick Scandal upon them which she seemed satisfied with yet provides against the danger and therefore prevails with the King to accompany her Daughter Mary Princess of Orange into Holland carrying with her all the Kings and her own Jewels together with those entailed upon the Crown intending with those and some other Assistance to raise a Party sufficient to maintain the King and his Regalities against the Parliament In the mean time Mr. Pym at a Conferrence complaining of the General Flocking of Papists into Ireland affirmed That since the Lieutenant had ordered a stop upon the Ports against all Irish Papists many of the Chief Commanders now in the head of the Rebels had been licensed to pass thither by his Majesties immediate Warrant The King was highly offended at this Speech which he signified to the House who in their Answer to his Message justifie Mr. Pym's words to be the sense of the House and That they had yet in safe Oustody the Lord Delvin Sir George Hamilton Colonel Butler Brother to the Lord Miniard now in Rebellion and one of the Lord Nettervils Sons To which the King replies That he thought Mr. Pym 's Speech was not so well grounded as it ought to have been and that the aforementioned persons had their Passes granted before he knew of the Parliaments Order of Restraint and therefore expected their Declaration for his Vindication from thut odious calumny of conniving or underhand favouring that abhorred Irish Rebellion But this His Majesties desire proved fruitless for they next moved the King to turn out Sir John Byron out of the Lieutenancy of the Tower and at their Nomination Sir John Conyers succeeded they then proceeded to name fit Persons for trust of the Militia in the several Counties and by Act of Parliament Disabled all Clergy-men from exercising Temporal Jurisdiction After which the King by a Message offers them To require by Proclamation all Statutes concerning Popish Recusants to be put in Execution That the seven Condemned Popish Priests shall be Banished and all Romish Priests within twenty days shall depart the Kingdom That he refers the consideration of Church Government and Liturgy wholly to the Houses and offers to go himself in Person against the Rebels in Ireland But the Commons were now busie about a Petition for Vindicating their Five Members wherein they desire the King to send them the Informers against the said Members or otherwise to desert their Prosecution would not suffice because the whole Parliament was concerned in the Charge And then they proceeded to settle the Militia for the defence of the Parliament Tower and City of London under the Command of Serjeant Major General Skippon who had formerly been an Experienced Souldier in the Low-Countries The King had deferred his Answer to their Petition for settling the Militia of the Counties according to their nomination till his return from Dover where he took leave of his Wife and Daughter and so returned to Greenwich from whence he sent to Hampton Court for his two Eldest Sons to come to him though contrary to the mind of the Parliament who would have disswaded him from it And now the Parliament thought fit to consider of the reducing of Ireland and ordered two Millilions and an half of those Acres to be Confiscate of Rebels Lands in Four Provinces shall be allotted to such Persons as will disburse Money for carrying on that War and several other Provisions were made for their Security which the King confirms Feb. 26. 1641 and in pursuance thereof a considerable Sum of Money was raised the People being generally free in their Contributions The King being now at Greenwich sends this Answer to the Petition about the Militia That he is willing to condescend to all the Proposals concerning the Militia of the Counties and the Persons mentioned but not of London and other Corporations whose Government in that particular he thought it neither Justice nor Policy to alter but would not consent to divest himself of the Power of the County Militia for an indefinite time but for some limited space This Answer did not satisfie so that the Breach growing daily wider the King declined these parts and the Parliament and removed to Theobalds taking with him the Prince and the D. of York About the beginning of March he receives a petition from the Parliament wherein they require the Militia more resolutely than before affirming Than in case of denial the imminent dangers would constrain them to dispose of it by Authority of Parliament desiring also that he would make his abode near London and the Parliament and continue the Prince at some of his Houses near the City for the better carrying on of Affairs and preventing the Peoples Jealousies and Fears All which being refused They presently Order That the Kingdom be put into a posture â—f Defence in such a way as was agreed upon by Parliament and a Committee to prepare a publick Declaration from these two Heads 1. The just Causes of the Fears and Jealousies given to the Parliament at the same time clearing themselves from any Jealousies conceived against himself 2. To consider of all matters arising from his Majesties Message and what was fit to be done And now began our Troubles and all the Miseries of a Civil War the Parliament every day entertaining or pretending to entertain new Jealousies and Suspicions of the Kings Actions which howsoever in complement they made shew of imputing only to his Evil Council yet obliquely had had too great a Reflection upon his Person They now proceed on a sudden to make great preparations both by Sea and Land and the Earl of Northumberland Admiral of England is commanded to rig the Kings Ships and fit them for Sea and likwise all Masters and Owners of Ships were perswaded to do the like The Beacons were repaired Sea-marks set up and extraordinary posting up and down with Pacquets all sad Prognosticks of the Calamities ensuing The King being now at Roysion March 9 the Earls of Pembrook and Holland bring him the Parliaments Declaration and read it to him wherein they represent to him some former miscarriages As the attempts to incense the late Nor hern Army against the Parliament The Scotish Troubles L. Jermins Treasons and Transportation by the Kings Warrant The Petition delivered to Captain
Council great Officers and Ministers of State may be put out except such as the Parliament shall approve and that an Oath be tendered them 2. That all Affairs of State be managed by the Parliament except such matters as are transferr'd by them to the Privy Council and to be concluded by the major part of the Nobility under their hands the full number not to exceed twenty five nor to be under Fifteen If any place shall fall Void in the interval of Parliament then that the major part of the Council chuse one to be confirmed at the next Session of Parliament 3. That all great Officers of the Kingdom shall be chosen with Approbation of Parliament 4. That the Government and Education of the Kings Children be by appointment of Parliament 5. That their Marriages be treated and concluded by Parliament 6. That the Laws against Papists Priests and others be executed without Toleration or Dispensation except by Parliament 7. That no Popish Lord or Peer have Vote in Parliament and their Children be educated in the Protestant Faith 8. That Church Government be reformed as the Parliament shall advise 9. That the Militia be settled as the Parliament have ordered and that the King recall all his Declarations published against their Ordinances therein 10. That all Privy Councellors and Judges take an Oath for the maintenance of The Petition of Right and other Statutes which shall be made this Parliament 11. That all Officers placed by Parliament hold their places Quam diu bene segesserint as long as they shall act justly 12. That all Members of Parliament put out during this time be restored again 13. That the Justice of Parliament pass upon all Delinquents and that they appear or abide their censure 14. That the general Pardon pass with Exceptions as the Parliament shall advise 15. That all Forts and Castles of this Kingdom be disposed of by Parliament 16. That the King discharge all his Guards and Forces now in being and not raise any other but in case of actual Rebellion 17. That the King enter into strict Alliance with all Protestant Kingdoms and States for their Assistance to recover the Rights of his Sister and her Princely Issue to those Dignities and Dominions which belong to them 18. That the Lord Kimbolton and the Five Members be cleared by Act of Parliament 19. That no Peer hereafter to be made shall sit in Parliament without their consent These propositions were rejected by the King as inconsistent with his Regality so that now Men began to dispair of any good issue for both sides make preparations for War The King sending out his Commissions of Array and the Parliament published an Order June 10. for bringing in money or plate to maintain the Horse Horse-men and Arms for the publick peace and defence of the King and both Houses of Parliament and declared the Kings Commission to be against the Law Liberty and property of the Subject and the Actors therein to be disturbers of the peace and Betrayers of the Subjects Liberty At this time the Lord keeper Littleton having delivered the Great Seal to one Eliot whom the King sent for it durst not stay behind for fear of being questioned but went to the King to York as many of the Peers did likewise whom the King summoning together as also his Privy Council he declares and protests to them That he would not Usurp any Illegal Authority over them but is ready to maintain them against all others that would And that he would defend them from all Votes and Orders of Parliament together with the true Protestant Religion the lawful Liberty of the Subject and the just Priviledges of the Three Estates of Parliament nor will he Engage them in any War but what shall be for the necessary defence of his and their rights Whereupon they all ingaged to him their Duty and Allegiance in a most Solemn-Protestation After which the King sent Letters to Sir Rich. Gurney L. Mayor and the Aldermen and Sheriffs of London forbidding them upon peril of having their Charter questioned to levy Arms or raise Money upon pretence of a Guard to the Parliament or any other Account except only the relief of Ireland or the payment of the Scotch Subjects At this time the King publisheth a General Declaration wherein he descants upon all the Parliaments Declarations for the last 7 Months but especially the last professing that hence forward he expects they should break out into disloyal Actions declaims against their making the defence of the King to be the pretence for their raising Forces protests his own constant Resolution for the preserving of Peace Religion the Laws and Subjects Liberties and expects all his Subjects to assist him against the Traiterous Attempts of such Men as would destroy his Person Honour and Estate and bring on a Civil War engaging that whosoever shall bring to him Money Ammunition Horse or Arms shall receive Eight Pound per Cent. Consideration and have good Assurance of both Principal and Interest upon his Forrest Lands Parks and Houses After this the King by Proclamation forbids all Levies of Forces and all Contributions to such Levies without his express pleasure grounding it upon several Statutes as 7 Edw. 1. 2 Edw. 3. And then minds them of their Oath of Allegiance by which they were bound to be Faithful not to the King only as King but to his Person as King Charles contrary to the Parliaments distinction betwixt his Person and his Authority his Person at York and his Authority in Parliament and concludes with justifying his Commission of Array which were now Issued out in several Counties in England and Wales to this the Parliament reply and the King again to them which was followed by several Messages to and fro all which rather exasperated than allayed the difference and now began England to be divided as Italy once was into Guelphes and Gibbellines so they into Rovallists and Presbyterians or Cavaleers and Roundheads After this the King makes a Progress from York into the Counties of Nottingham and Lincoln and Summons the Gentlemen and Freeholders to Newark he Caresses them with the most obliging expressions imaginable And July 11 1642 His Majesty sends a Message to the Parliament to Certifie them of his Intentions to reduce Hull by force if not forthwith delivered to him which if they should do he would then admit of their future Addresses and return such Propositions as might best conduce to prevent the approaching War together with this Message he sent them likewise a Copy of the Proclamation which he had publish'd against Sir J. Hotham wherein he complains of the Affront done to his Person by Sir J. and of the Parl. justifying that Action by their Votes and Orders That Hotham having fortified the Town and drown'd the Countrey had also set out a Pinnace at Sea which had intercepted his Pacquet Boat with the Queens Letters and that the E. of Warwick contrary to the Kings Command
had taken upon him the Command of the Fleet for which Reasons the King was resolv'd to punish Hotham Indeed the E. of W. had been by the Parl. commended to the King as the fittest man for Admiral the E. of N. being then sick but he was rejected by the King who conferr'd that place upon Sir John Pennington Yet afterwards the Parl. conceiving it necessary to get the Fleet into their hands they found means notwithstanding the Oppositions of Sir J. Pennington and his Adherents to make the E. of W. Admiral after which a Ship laden with Arms and Ammunition from Holland for the King being ignorant of the matter fell in among the Fleet and was by the E. of W. sent to the Parliament The Parliament now thought fit to Arm and therefore resolve that an Army shall be raised for Defence as they term it of King and Parliament and the Earl of Essex to be Capt. General and the E. of Bedford to command the Horse the E. of Holland Sir John Holland and Sir Will. Stapleton were ordered to carry a Petition to the King then at Beverly the effect whereof was To pray him to disband all his Forces to recal his Commissions of Array dismiss his Guard and return to the Parliament All which the King refused The Parliament next consider of raising Money and so declare for Loan upon the Publick Faith to promote which the endeavours of the Ministers were very serviceable whereby in a short time a very considerable quantity of Money Plate and Ammunition were brought in The King was likewise furnished with Money from the Queen upon the pawned Jewels and some Contributions from divers Lords and Gentlemen and the University of Oxford The King goes from Beverly to Leicester and there Proclaims the Earl of Stamford Traitor for removing the County Magazine from the Town to his own House at Bradgate Aug. 1. the King comes back to Yorkshire and raises a Regiment under the E. of Cumberland which he called Prince Charles his Regiment The Parliament on the other side declare the Commissioners of Array to be Traitors and disturbers of the State and Peace of the Kingdom and Lievtenants of â—everal Counties were constituted by Parliament The King likewise deals with their Commanders as â—hey did with his and Proclaimed General Essex with all his Collonels and Officers who should not â—nstantly lay down their Arms to be Rebels and Traiâ—ors and the Marquess of Hartford and his Forces â—â—re ordered to march against him The King then â—ummons in the Countrey on the North side of Trent â—nd 20 miles Southward and publisheth his Grand Declaration concerning all transactions between himself and the Parliament August 22. 1642. The King comes to Nottingham â—nd there erects his Standard to which some numbers resorted but far short of what was expected And three days after the King sends a Message to the Parliament to propose a Treaty the Messengers were â—he Earls of Southampton and Dorset Sir John Culpeper Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sir William Vdall none of which were suffered to sit in the House to deliver their Errand therefore it was sent in by the Usher of the Black Rod to which the Parliament Answered That untill His Majesty shall recall his Proclamations and Declarations of Treason against the E. of Essex and them and their Adherents And unless the Kings Standard set up in pursuance thereof be taken down they cannot by the fundamental Priviledges of Parliament give his Majesty another answer The King replyes that he never intended to declare the Parliament Traitors or set up his Standard against them but if they resolve to Treat either Party shall revoke their Declarations against all Persons as Traitors and the same day to take down his Standard To this they answer That the Differences could noâ— any ways be concluded unless he would forsake hiâ— evil Councellors and return to his Parliament And accordingly Sept. 6. they Order and Declare thaâ— the Arms which they have or shall take up for thâ— Parliament Religion Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom shall not be laid down untill the King withdraw his Protection from such persons as are or shall be Voted Delinquents and shall leave them to Justice that so their Estates may discharge the Debts and Loan Moneys of the Common-wealth The War being now begun the new raised Souldiers committed many Outrages upon the Countrey People which both King and Parliament upon Complaint endeavoured to rectifie The King himself was now Generalissimo over his own his Captain General was first the Marquess of Hartford and afterward the E. of Lindsey and the E. of Essex for the Parliamentarians The Kings Forces received the first repulse at Hull by Sir John Hotham and Sir John Meldrum and the King takes up his Quarters at Shrewsbury Portsmouth was next surrendred to the Parliament and presently after Sir John Byron takes Worcester for the King In September the two Prince Palatines Rupert and Maurice arrived in England who were presently entertained and put into Command by the King who having now got together a potent Army he made a solemn Protestation to them of his candid Intentions and sincere meaning to defend the Protestant Religion the Laws and Liberties of the Subject and Priviledges of Parliament according to the former protestation at York Sept. 9. the Earl of Essex in great State attended on by the Parliament set forth out of London toward St. Albans and from thence to Northampton where all his Forces met amounting to near fourteen thousand men having with him the Parliaments Petition which he was to present to the King the effect of which was That his Loyall Subjects the Lords and Commons in Parliament cannot without tenderness of Compassion behold the pressing Calamities of England and Ireland by the Practices of a prevailing Party with his Majesty to alter true Religion and the Ancient Government of this Kingdom introducing Superstition into the Churches and Confusion in the State Exciting encouraging and fostering the Rebellion in Ireland and as there so here begin the like Massacres by drawing on a War against the Parliament leading his Person against them as if by Conquest to establish an unlimited Power over the People seeking to bring over the Rebels of Ireland to joyn with them And all these evil Councellors are Defended and protected against the Justice of the Parliament who have for their just Defence of Religion the Kings Crown and Dignity the Laws Liberties and Power of Parliaments taken up Arms and Authorized the E. of Essex to be their Captain General against these Rebels and Traytors And pray the King to withdraw his Person and leave them to be supprest by his Power and to return to his Parliament and that they will receive him with Honour and yeild him Obedience secure his Person and establish him and his People with all the Blessings of a Glorious and Happy Reign This Petition was never delivered though Essex sent twice to the King for
safe conduct for those who were to present it for the King refused to receive any Address from those whom he accused of High Treason of whom the E. of Essex was one The King then marches from Shrewsbury toward London upon which the Parliament ordered the Forces of the Associated Counties of Essex Hartford Middlesex and London to be ready at an hours warning They likewise order that the Lands Rents and Profits of Archbishops and Bishops shall be Sequestred as likewise the Kings Fines about Wards A while after Collonel Fines and Sands were routed at Worcester by Prince Rupert while they endeavoured to take the Town from Sir John Byron who had it in possession for the King but Essex making his approach with his Army Prince Rupert and Byron quitted the Town to him then were Glocester Bristol and other places made Garrisons for the Parliament But in York-shire and Cornwall the Kings Party grew powerfull and likewise in Wales where the E. of Worcester had got together a great number of Welchmen so that the King seeing his Army increased resolved to march toward London and was gotten one dayes Journey before Essex who perceiving his Error of staying so long at Worcester hastens after him to the relief of his Masters the King disdaining to be pursued by a Subject turns back to meer him and October 23. 1642. both Parties drew into the Field between Keinton and Edghill in Warwick-shire where on both sides were slain between five and 6000. men that day but night parting them the next day both parties quit the Field the King then marches to Coventry and from thence sends a Proclamation of Pardon to the Cities of London and Westminster some Persons only excepted This Battell of Edge-hill was fought on Sunday the same day twelve Month the Irish Rebellion brake out The King then takes in Banbury the Town and Castle being surrendred without a blow and two Regiments of Foot and a Troop of Horse took Arms under him from thence the King marches to Oxford and Essex goes to London where he was received with great Honour The Parliament to recruit their Army declare That all Apprentices who will List themselves shall be free from their Masters for that time and shall afterward be received again into service By which means abundance were induced to turn Souldiers they likewise invite the Scots to come in to their assistance which the King by a Letter to the Lords of the Privy Council in Scotland endeavours to prevent but in vain At this time several of the Lords and Commons present a Petition to the King at Colebrook to desire him to appoint a place to treat in To which he answered He would expect them at his Castle of Windsor and desires them to hasten the Treaty At the same time the King hearing that Essex had drawn his Forces and Ordnance out of London toward him and that unless he gained Brainford he would be hemm'd in by the Parliaments Army who possessed most of the Towns round about him the King marches thither that night where part of Col. Hollis's Regiment that quartered there made a stout resistance till the L. Brooks's and Coll. Hamdens Regiments came in to their relief who maintained the Fight till night and then retreated out of Town which the King presently took possession of with some Prisoners Arms and Amunition 11 Colours and 15 pieces of Ordnance Essex hearing this soon came thither followed with the City Militia and Trained Bands which together made a formidable Army so that the King thought fit to march back again to Oxford This Action in a time of Treaty though not without sufficient ground was so ill resented by the Houses that they Voted to have no Accommodation Yet afterward upon consideration they again Petition him to desert his Army and return to his Parliament but with the same success as formerly At this time a Letter from one of the Kings Agents in Holland was intercepted in which he is advertis'd of considerable Forces ready to be sent over for his Service from Denmark likewise Arms are sent for ten thousand Foot and 2500 Horse with a Train of Artillery and every thing proportionable even to the Drums and Halberts In York-shire the Earl of Newcastle had a sharp rencounter at Tadcaster with the L. Fairfax and forced him to retreat The Counties of Norfolk Suffolk Essex Hartford Cambridge the Isle of Ely and the City of Norwich are authorized by Parliament to associate under the L. Gray of Wark and Winchester and Chester are gained by the Paliament Dec. 15. Collonel Goring with the Kings Standard 80 Old Commanders and store of Warlike Provision joyn with the E. of Newcastle About which time the City of London Petitioned the King and profess their grief for his distrust of their Loyalty with large Protestations of their zealous Intentions to defend him with all the Love and Duty which became good Subjects The King replies That he hath a good Opinion of many of them and could freely and willingly Pardon all except Pennington the present Maior Venn and some others and concludes with declaring his high displeasure against such as shall continue acting and assisting his Adversaries Many of them were startled with this Answer yet were revived again with what Mr. Pryn and the Parliament Committee told their Common Council of the Parliaments great Love and Affection to them and Resolution to live and dye in their Defence In the North Sir Hugh Cholmly encounters with several Partyes of the Kings Horse at Malton and Jan. 16. joyning with Sir Matthew Boynton routed a Party of 600 Horse and Foot under Col. Slingsby Sir Thomas Fairfax likewise takest Leeds with little loss on his side but 500 Royallists were made Prisoners six of them Commanders 4 Colours and much Arms and Ammunition were taken The Kings Forces next leave Wakefield and Doncaster which are presently garrisoned for the Parliament The E. of Newcastle brings his Forces to York to prepare for entertaining the Queen and Jan. 17. he proclaims the L. Fairfax and his Son Sir Thomas Traytors as the E. of Cumberland had done before which the Parliament resenting proclaimed the L. Newcastle the same The Parliament Febr. 1. make the following Prepositions to the King at Oxford which were presented by the Earls of Northumberland Salisbury Pembrook and Holland with 8. of the House of Commons To disband his Army and to return home to his Parliament To leave all Delinquents to Tryal and all Papists to be disarmed To pass an Act for Abolishing the present Church Governors and such other Bills as shall be prepared in order to a Reformation All Popish Recusants to abjure and renounce Popery All Malignant Councellors to be removed the Militia to be setled according to the Parliaments minds such Persons to be preferr'd to Great Offices and Places of Judicature as the Parliament shall name and all such Justices of Peace as have been lately turned out of Commission to be again
discovering by an intercepted Letter began to project new designs and his Son Capt. Hotham being suspected by the Parliament was imprisoned at Nottingham but made his escape and underhand Treated with the E. of Newcastle Upon which Orders were sent for seizing both Father and Son which was done accordingly together with his wife and the rest of his Children who were all sent up Prisoners to the Parliament and some Months after Sir John and his Son were brought to Tryal in Guild-hall the E. of Manchester and others being assigned their Judges and the Father is charged That he had Traiterously betrayed the Trust reposed in him by the Parliament and adhered to the Enemy as appeared by his Words by his Letters and by his Actions and that he held correspondence with the Queen the E. of Newcastle L. Digby and others of that Party and had endeavoured to betray Hull to them His Son was charged with things of the same nature upon which they were both Sentenced to be Beheaded which was accordingly Executed the Son Jan. 1. 1644. and the Father the next day after But to return July 4. 1643. P. Rupert sits down before Bristoll and though Coll. Fines had formerly hanged up some Citizens for intending to have delivered up the Town to the Prince yet nevertheless the design took effect for being at that time very ill provided for resistance which P. Rupert had notice of from his Correspondents within the Governour was constrained after 3 days Siege to surrender it to him Aug. 12. the E. of Lindsey being freed from his imprisonment wherein he was since Edge-hill fight came to the King at Oxford and soon after P. Maurice besieged Exeter flinging in Granadoes and firing part of the Suburbs upon which a fruitless Parley ensued the next day the Prince masters the Great Sconce and turns the great Guns thereon upon the City and then the Garrison agreed to yield the Officers only to part with their Swords and the private Souldiers to march out with Cudgels in their hands At this time Judge Berkley who had been imprisoned by the Parliament about Ship-money was fined Twenty thousand pound made incapable of all Offices and to continue a Prisoner during pleasure The Parliament were now busied for recruiting Sir William Waller's Army and to incline the Londoners to a more chearfull compliance Pennington the L. Maior was made Lieutenant of the Tower yet Waller was forced to stay because Essex his Army wanted likewise Reinforcement Essex musters ten thousand men at Hounslow Heath but this would not serve for so weighty an Affair as the relief of Glocester now besieged by the King and he must therefore make use of the London Trained Bands Glocester was the place which stopt the current of the Kings successes Massey was Governour thereof and had with him two Regiments of Foot and an 100 Horse which with some other Recruits made up 1500 men with forty Barels of Powder and a slender Artillery yet they within behaved themselves like men of Resolution and Allarum'd the Besiegers with frequent Sallies The King plants his Cannon against the Gates which made above 150 shot and the Granadoes did some Execution in the Town yet nothing abated the Spirits of the People Whereupon the King prepares for a General Storm and all was ready they within being in want and having but three Barrels of Powder left when news comes that Essex was on his March with a powerfull Army to raise the Siege whereupon after consultation had by the King with the General Officers it was resolved the Kings Army should draw off which was done and all their Hutts were set on fire and Sept. 5. 1643. Essex enters into Glocester and having furnished the City plentifully with provisions went after the King who at that Siege lost that opportunity of marching up to London the Parliament having then no considerable Army in the Field which he could never regain The War had hitherto continued in Ireland and the English Army had commonly success against the Rebels but the King now understanding the Parliaments contracting with the Scots for aid thought fit to strengthen himself by recalling part of his Army there hither and commissionated the E. of Ormond his Lieut. General to agree on a cessation for a year which was concluded at Singeston and Sept. 18. 1643. was proclaimed by the Lords Justices and Council at Dublin and soon after some Forces from thence landed in Wales and took Hawerden Castle near Chester for the King The E. of Essex having relieved Glocester speeds after the King and passing by Cirencester left a strong Party there where P. Maurice was expected that night but instead of him comes Essex and being mistaken for the other enters the Town without any Opposition seizes 400 men and 30 Cart loads of Provision and then marches to Newberry where the King was before and had gotten the advantage of the Ground and planted his Ordnance Early in the morning Sept. 20. 1643. Essex views the Kings Army and in Newberry Common draws up his own and falls to firing the Kings Army doing the like That part of the Army which P. Rupert charged being overlay'd were forced to fall off on the Right hand where two Great Bodies of Horse marched down the Hill and fell in furiously upon the Prince both sides acting with great valour and fury and coming to handy-strokes with their Swords The Essexians then wheeling about charged the L. Jermins Regiment whom they forced to make their escape through some Bodies of Foot this Battel caused great loss and bloodshed on either side but greater on the Kings whose other Bodies of Horse commanded by the Earls of Carnarvan and Northampton notwithstanding the great courage of their Commanders were overpowered and the Earls of Carnarvan and Sunderland Viscount Falkland and many other Officers and Gentlemen slain The London Trained Bunds and Auxiliaries did the Parliament great service in this Fight Night coming on both Armies retired and next day marched away from each other After this several Places were Garrisoned for the King by Sir William Vavasor as Tewksbury Shudley Castle and other places in Glocester-shire and soon after Waller again surpriseth Tewksbury but is afterward beaten by P. Maurice Massey and Waller take Hereford and Sir William Brereton had the Town and Castle of Eccleshall delivered upon reasonable Quarter An Ordinance is now published by the Parlirment to seize upon the Kings Revenue And Sir William Waller is made Major General of Hampshire Sussex Surrey and Kent and marching to Farnham beat a Party of the Kings Army and then took Aulton and Arundell Casile Collonel Nerton was routed by Hopton and the Paliament finding the Kings Power increase they publish That whoever shall assist the King with Horse Arms Plate or Money against them are Traytors to the Paliament and shall be so preceeded against The King summons a Parliament at Oxford Jan. 22. 1643. where in the great Hall at Christ-Church he tell them
the publick Treasury exhausted Trade decayed and thousands of People murthered and infinite of other mischiefs committed For all which High and Treasonable Offences the said Charles Stuart might long since justly have been brought to exemplary and condign punishment Whereas also the Parliament well hoping that the restraint and imprisonment of his Person after it had pleased God to deliver him into their hands would have quieted the disturbers of the Kingdom did forbear to proceed judicially against him But found by sad experience that such their remissives served only to encourage him and his Complices in the Continuance of their evil practices and in raising of new Commotions Designs and Invasions For prevention therefore of the like greater inconveniencies and to the end that no Magistrate or Officer whatsoever may hereafter presume traiterously and malitiously to imagine or contrive the inslaving or destroying of the English Nation and to expect impunity in so doing Be it Ordained and Enacted by the Commons is Parliament assembled and it is hereby Ordained and enacted by the Authority thereof That Thomas L. F. O. C. c. shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners and Judges for the Hearing Trying and Judging of the said Charles Stuart and the said Commissioners or any Twenty or more of them shall be and are hereby authorized and Constituted an High Court of Justice to meet at such convenient times and places as by the said Commissioners or the major part or twenty or more of them under their Hands and Seals shall be appointed and notified by publick Proclamation in the great Hall or Palace-yard of Westminster and adjourn from time to time and from Place to place as the said High Court or the major part thereof meeting should hold fit and to take Order for charging of him the said Charles Stuart with the Crimes above-mentioned and for the receiving his Personal Answer thereunto and for Examination of Witnesses upon Oath if need be concerning the same and thereupon or in default of such Answer to proceed to final Sentence according to Justice and the merit of the Cause and to be Executed speedily and Impartially c. Presently after this was published Proclamation was made That those who had any thing to say against the King should have a hearing given them This was proclamed first in Westminster-Hall by the Serjeant at Arms to the Commissioners Riding into the Hall with his Mace attended with six Trumpeters and other Officers who likewise rode bare into the Hall with him the Drums of the Guard beating in the mean time without in the Palace-yard And the day after Proclamation was made to the same effect in Cheapside and at the Old-Exchange And in order to this grand Tryal Hillary Term which usually begins Jan. 23. was adjourned for fourteen dayes The House of Lords refusing to concur with the Commons in their Ordinance for the Kings Tryal the Commons resolve and Vote That all Members and others appointed to Act in any Ordinance are impowered and enjoyned to Sit Act and Execute notwithstanding the House of Peers joyn not with them And now the Ministers in general and the Presbyterians likewise who had been active against the Kings Cause declare themselves both in their Pulpits and by earnest Petitions to the Parliament to be zealous abhorrers of the Kings death and every where publickly protest against this Tryal The Nobility likewise offer themselves Pledges on the Kings behalf and the People universally seem greatly troubled and astonisht Notwithstanding all which the House of Commons and the Army went desperately on and a New and Illegal Tribunal called An High Court of Justice was erected the Commissioners whereof met in the Painted Chamber to consult what course to take about the Tryal of the King Fryday Jan. 19. 1648. The King was brought with a strong Guard of Horse from Windsor to St. James's and the next day Serjeant Bradshaw President of the pretended High Court of Justice with about seventy of the Members of the said Court having Coll. Fox and sixteen Gentlemen with Partizans and a Sword born by Coll. Humphrey and a Mace by Serj. Dandy with their and other Officers of the faid Court marching before them came to the place ordered to be prepared for their sitting at the West end of the Great Hall in Westminster where the Lord President in a Crimson Velvet Chair fixed in the midst of the Court placed himself having a Desk with a Crimson Velvet Cushion before him The rest of the Members placing themselves on each side of him upon the several Seats or Benches prepared and hung with Scarlet for that purpose and the Partizans dividing themselves on each side of the Court before them The Court being thus set and silence made the great Gate of the said Hall was set open to the end That all persons without exception desirous to see or hear might come into it upon which the Hall was presently filled and Silence again ordered This done Colonel Thomlinson who had the charge of the King as a Prisoner was commanded to bring him to the Court who within a quarter of an hours space brought him attended with about twenty Officers with Partizans marching before him there being Coll. Hacker and other Gentlemen to whose care and Custody he was likewise committed marching in his Rear Being thus brought up within the face of the Court the Serjeant at Arms with his Mace receives and conducts him streight to the Bar where a Crimson Velvet Chair was set for the King After a stern looking upon the Court and the people in the Galleries on each side of him he places himself not at all moving his Hat or otherwise shewing the least respect to the Court but presently rises up again and turns about looking downwards upon the Guards placed on the left side and on the multitude of Spectators on the right side of the said great Hall After Silence made among the people the Act of Parliament for the Trying of CHARLES STVART King of England was read over by the Clerk of the Court who sate on one side of the Table covered with a rich Turkey Carpet and placed at the feet of the said Lord President upon which Table was also laid the Sword and Mace After reading the said Act the several Names of the Commissioners were called over every one who was present rising up and answering to his Call The King having again placed himself in his Chair with his face towards the Court Silence being again ordered the Lord President stood up and said President CHARLES STVART King of England The Commons of England Assembled in Parliament being deeply sensible of the Calamities that have been brought upon this Nation which is fixed upon you as the Principal Author of them have resolved to make inquisition for Blood and according to that Debt and Duty they owe to Justice to God the Kingdom and themselves and according to the Fundamental Power that rests in themselves They have
resolved to bring you to Tryal and Judgment and for that purpose have constituted this High Court of Justice before which you are brought This said Mr. Cook Solicitor General for the Common-wealth standing within a Bar on the right hand of the King offered to speak but the King having a Staff in his hand held it up and laid it upon the said Mr. Cooks shoulder two or three times bidding him hold Nevertheless the Lord President ordering him to go on he said Cook My Lord I am commanded to charge Charles Stuart King of England in the name of the Commons of England with Treason and high Misdemeanours I desire the said Charge may be read The said Charge being delivered to the Clerk of the Court the Lord President ordered it should be read but the King bid him hold Nevertheless being commanded by the Lord President to read it the Clerk begun The Charge of the Commons of England against CHARLES STUART King of England of High Treason and other High Crimes exhibited to the High Court of Justice THat the said Charles Stuart being admitted King of England and therein trusted with a Limited Power to govern by and according to the Laws of the Land and not otherwise And by his Trust Oath and Office being obliged to use the power committed to him for the good and benefit of the people and for the preservation of their Rights and Liberties Yet nevertheless out of a wicked design to erect and uphold in himself an unlimited and Tyrannical Power to rule according to his Will and to overthrow the Rights and Liberties of the People Yea to take away and make void the Foundations thereof and of all redress and remedy of misgovernment which by the fundamental Constitutions of this Kingdom were reserved on the Peoples behalf in the Right and Power of frequent and successive Parliaments or National meetings in Councel He the said Charles Stuart for accomplishment of such his Designs and for the protecting of himself and his Adherents in His and their wicked practices to the same end hath traiterously and maliciously levied War against the present Parliament and the people therein represented Particularly upon or about the thirtieth day of June in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and two at Beverly in the Count of York And upon or about the thirtieth day of July in the year aforesaid in the County of the City of York and upon or about the twenty fourth day of August in the same year at the County of the Town of Nottingham when and where he set up his Standard of War and upon or about the twenty third day of October in the same year at Edge-Hill and Keinton-field in the County of Warwick And upon or about the thirtieth day of Nov. in the same year at Brainford in the County of Middlesex And upon or about the thirtieth day of Aug. in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and three at Cavesham-bridge neer Reding in the County of Berks And upon or about the thirtieth day of October in the year last mentioned at or near the City of Glocester And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the year last mentioned at Newberry in the County of Berks and upon or about the one and thirtieth day of July in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and four at Cropredy-bridge in the County of Oxon And upon or about the thirtieth day of September in the last year mentioned at Bodmin and other places near adjacent in the County of Cornwall And upon or about the thirtieth day of November in the last year mentioned at Newberry aforesaid And upon or about the Eighth of June in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and five at the Town of Leicester and also upon the fourteenth day of the same month in the same year at Naseby-field in the County of Northampton At which several times and places or most of them and at many other places in this Land at several other times within the years aforementioned And in the year of our Lord One thousand six hundred forty and six He the said Ch. Stuart hath caused and procured many thousands of the Free-people of the Nation to be slain and by Divisions parties and insurrections within this Land by Invasions from Foreign parts endeavoured and procured by him and by many other evil wayes and means He the said Charles Stuart hath not onely maintained and carried on the said War both by Land and Sea during the years before mentioned but also hath renewed or caused to be renewed the said War against the Parliament and good people of this Nation in this present year One thousand six hundred forty and eight in the Counties of Kent Essex Surrey Sussex Middlesex and many other Counties and places in England and Wales and also by Sea and particularly He the said Charles Stuart hath for that purpose given Commission to his Son the Prince and others whereby besides multitudes of other persons many such as were by the Parliament intrusted and imployed for the safety of the Nation being by Him or His Agents Corrupted to the betraying of Their Trust and revolting from the Parliament have had entertainment and Commission for the continuing and the renewing of War and Hostility against the said Parliament and people as aforesaid By which cruel and unnatural Wars by Him the said Charles Stuart levyed continued and renewed as aforesaid much Innocent Blood of the Free-People of this Nation hath been spilt many Familie have been undone the publick Treasury wasted and exhausted Trade obstructed and miserably decayed vast expence and damage to the Nation incurred and many parts of the Land spoyled some of them even to desolation And for further prosecution of his said evil Designs He the said Charles Stuart doth still continue his Commissions to the said Prince and other Rebels and Revolters both English and Forreigners and to the Earl of Ormond and to the Irish Rebels and Revolters associated with him from whom further Invasions upon this Land are threatned upon the procurement and on the behalf of the said Charles Stuart All which wicked Designs Wars and evil practices of him the said Charles Stuart have been and are carried on for the advancing and upholding of the personal Interest of Will and Power and pretended Prerogative to Himself and his Family against the publick Interest Common Right Liberty Justice and Peace of the people of this Nation by and for whom he was entrusted as aforesaid By all which it appeareth that he the said Charles Stuart hath been and is the Occasioner Author and Contriver of the said Unnatural Cruel and Bloody Wars and therein guilty of all the Treasons Murthers Rapines Burnings Spoils Desolations Damage and Mischief to this Nation acted or committed in the said Wars or occasioned thereby And the said John Cook by protestation saving on the behalf of the people
of England the liberty of exhibiting at any time hereafter any other Charge against the said Charles Stuart and also of replying to the Answers which the said Ch. Stuart shall make to the Premises or any of them or any other Charge that shall be so Exhibited doth for the said Treasons and Crimes on the behalf of the said people of England Impeach the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traitor Murtherer and a publick and implacable Enemy to the Common-wealth of England And pray that the said CHARLES STVART King of England may be put to answer All and Every the Premises That such Proceedings Examinations Trials Sentence and Judgment may be thereupon had as shall be agreeable to Justice IT is observed that the time the Charge was reading the King sate down in his Chair looking sometimes on the Court sometimes up to the Galleries and having risen again and turned about to behold the Guards and Spectators sate down looking very sternly with a countenance not at all moved till these words viz. Charles Stuart to be a Tyrant and Traitor c. were read at which he laughed as he sate in the face of the Court. Charge being read the Lord President replyed President Sir you have now heard your Charge read containing such matters as appear in it you find That in the close of it it is prayed to the Court in the behalf of the Commons of England that you answer to your Charge The Court expects your Answer King I would know by what Power I am called hither I was not long ago in the Isle of Wight how I came there is a longer story than I think is fit at this time for me to speak of but there I entred into a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament with as much publick Faith as 't is possible to be had of any people in the world I treated there with a number of Honourable Lords and Gentlemen and treated honestly and uprightly I cannot say but they did very nobly with me we were upon a conclusion of the Treaty Now I would know by what Authority I mean lawful there are many unlawful Authorities in the world Thieves and Robbers by the high wayes but I would know by what Authority I was brought from thence and carried from place to place and I know not what and when I know by what lawful Authority I shall answer Remember I am your King and what sins you bring upon your heads and the Judgment of God upon this Land think well upon it I say think well upon it before you go further from one sinto a greater therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I shall not be unwilling to answer in the mean time I shall not betray my Trust I have a Trust committed to me by God by old and lawful Descent I will not betray it to answer to a new unlawful Authority therefore resolve me that and you shall hear more of me President If you had been pleased to have observed what was hinted to you by the Court at your first coming hither you would have known by what Authority which Authority requires you in the name of the people of England of which you are Elected King to answer them King No Sir I deny that President If you acknowledge not the Authority of the Court they must proceed King I do tell them so England was never an Elective Kingdom but an Hereditary Kingdom for neer these thousand years therefore let me know by what Authority I am called hither I do stand more for the Liberty of my people than any here that come to be my pretended Judges and therefore let me know by what lawful Authority I am seated here and I will answer it otherwise I will not answer it President Sir how really you have managed your Trust is known your way of answer is to interrogate the Court which beseems not you in this condition You have been told of it twice or thrice King Here is a Gentleman Lieut. Col. Cobbet ask him if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force I do not come here as submitting to the Court I will stand as much for the Priviledge of the House of Commons rightly understood as any man here whatsoever I see no House of Lords here that may constitute a Parliament and the King too should have been Is this the bringing of the King to his Parliament Is this the bringing an end to the Treaty in the publick Faith of the world Let me see a legal Authority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or warranted by the Constitutions of the Kingdom and I will answer President Sir You have propounded a Question and have been answered seeing you will not answer the Court will consider how to proceed in the mean time those that brought you hither are to take charge of you back again The Court desires to know whether this be all the Answer you will give or no King Sir I desire that you would give me and all the world satisfaction in this let me tell you it is not a slight thing you are about I am sworn to keep the Peace by that duty I owe to God and my Country and I will do it to the last breath of my body and therefore you shall do well to satifie first God and then the Country by what Authority you do it if you do it by a usurped Authority that will not last long There is a God in Heaven that will call you and all that give you power to account Satisfie me in that and I will answer otherwise I betray my trust and the Liberties of the People and therefore think of that and then I shall be willing For I do avow that it is as great a sin to withstand lawful Authority as it is to submit to a Tyrannical or any other wayes unlawful Authority and therefore satisfie God and me and all the World in that and you shall receive my Answer I am not afraid of the Bill President The Court expects you should give them a final Answer their purpose is to adjourn till Monday next if you do not satisfie your self though we do tell you our Authority we are satisfied with our Authority and it is upon Gods Authority and the Kingdoms and that peace you speak of will be kept in the doing of Justice and that 's our present work King Let me tell you if you will shew me what lawful Authority you have I shall be satisfied But that you have hitherto said satisfies no reasonable man President That 's in your apprehension we think it reasonable that are your Judges King 'T is not my apprehension nor yours neither that ought to decide it President The Court hath heard you and you are to be disposed of as they have commanded Two things were remarkable in this dayes proceedings 1. It is observed That as the Charge was reading against the King the silver head
the Court. Sir it will be taken notice of that you stand in contempt of the Court and your contempt will be recorded accordingly King I do not know how a King can be a Delinquent not by any Law that ever I heard of all men Delinquents or what you will let me tell you they may put in Demurrers against any proceedings as Legal and I do demand that and demand to be heard with my Reasons if you deny that you deny Reason President Sir you have offered something to the Court I shall speak something unto you the sence of the Court Sir neither you nor any man are permitted to dispute that point you are concluded you may not demur the Jurisdiction of the Court if you do I must let you know that they over-rule your Demurrer they sit here by the Authority of the Commons of England and all your Predecessors and you are responsible to them King I deny that shew me one President President Sir you ought not to interrupt while the Court is speaking to you this point is not to be debated by you neither will the Court permit you to do it if you offer it by way of Demurrer to the Jurisdiction of the Court they have considered of their Jurisdiction they do affirm their own Jurisdiction King I say Sir by your favour that the Commons of England was never a Court of Judicature I would know how they came to be so President Sir you are not to be permitted to go on in that Speech and these Discourses Then the Clerk of the Court read as followeth Charles Stuart King of England You have been accused on the behalf of the People of England of High Treason and other high Crimes the Court have determined that you ought to answer the same King I will answer the same as soon as I know by what Authority you do this President If this be all that you will say then Gentlemen you that brought the Prisoner hither take charge of him back again King I do require that I may give in my Reasons why I do not Answer and give me time for that President Sir 'T is not for Prisoners to require King Prisoners Sir I am not an ordinary Prisoner President The Court hath considered of their Jurisdiction and they have already affirmed their Jurisdiction if you will not answer we shall give order to record your default King You never heard my Reasons yet President Sir your Reasons are not to be heard against the highest Jurisdiction King Shew me that Jurisdiction where Reason is not to be heard President Sir We shew it you here the Commons of England and the next time you are brought you will know more of the pleasure of the Court and it may be their final determination King Shew me wherever the House of Commons was a Court of Judicature of that kind President Serjeant take away the Prisoner King Well Sir remember that the King is not suffered to give his Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of all his Subjects President Sir You are not to have liberty to use this language how great a friend you have been to the Laws and Liberties of the people let all England and the World judge King Sir under favour it was the Liberty Freedom and Laws of the Subject that ever I took defended my self with Arms I never took up Arms against the People but for my people and the Laws President The command of the Court must be obeyed no Answer will be given to the Charge King Well Sir Then the Lord President ordered the default to be recorded and the Contempt of the Court and that no answer would be given to the Charge And so was guarded forth to Sir Robert Cotton's house Then the Court adjourned to the Painted Chamber on Tuesday at twelve a clock and from thence they intended to adjourn to Westminster-Hall at which time all persons concerned were to give their attendance Resolutions of the Court at their meeting in the Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 22. 1648. This day the King being withdrawn from the Bar of the High Court of Justice the Commissioners of the said High Court of Justice sate private in the Painted Chamber and considered of the Kings carriage upon the Saturday before and of all that had then passed and fully approved of what the Lord President had done and said in the managing of the business of that day as agreeing to their sence And perceiving what the King aimed at viz. to bring in question if he could the Jurisdiction of the Court and the Authority thereof whereby they sate and considering that in the interim he had not acknowledged them in any sort to be a Court or his Judges and through their sides intended to wound if he might be permitted the Supream Authority of the Commons of England in their Representatives the Commons assembled in Parliament after advice with their Councell learned in both Laws and mature deliberation had of the matter Resolved That the King should not be suffered to argue the Courts Jurisdiction of that which constituted them a Court of which debate they had not proper Conusance nor could they being a derivative Judge of that Supream Court which made them Judges from which there was no Appeal and did therefore order and direct viz. Ordered That in case the King shall again offer to dispute the Authority of the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court have taken into consideration his demands of the last day and that he ought to rest satisfied with this Answer That the Commons of England assembled in Parliament have constituted this Court whose power may not nor should be permitted to be disputed by him That in case the King shall refuse to answer or acknowledge the Court the Lord President do let him know that the Court will take it as a Contumacy and that it shall be so Recorded That in case he shall offer or answer with a saving notwithstanding of his pretended Prerogatives above the jurisdiction of the Court That the Lord President do in the Name of the Court refuse his protest and require his positive Answer whether he will own the Court or not That in case the King shall demand a Copy of the Charge that he shall then declare his intention to Answer and that declaring his intention a Copy be granted unto him That in case the King shall still persist in his contempt the Lord President do give command to the Clerk to demand of the King in the name of the Court in these words following viz. Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the People of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you The Court requires you to give a positive Answer to confess or deny the Charge having determined that you ought to Answer the same At the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall Tuesday Jan. 23. 1648. O yes made
Silence commanded The Court called Seventy three Persons present The King comes in with his Guard looks with an austere countenance upon the Court and sits down The second O Yes made and silence commanded Mr. Cook Solicitor General May it please your Lordship my Lord President This is now the third time that by the great grace and favour of this High Court the Prisoner hath been brought to the Bar before any Issue joyned in the Cause My Lord I did at the first Court exhibit a Charge against him containing the highest Treason that ever was wrought upon the Theatre of England that a King of England trusted to keep the Law That had taken an Oath so to do That had Tribute paid him for that end should be guilty of a wicked design to subvert and destroy our Lawes and introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government in the defiance of the Parliament and their Authority set up his Standard for War against his Parliament and People and I did humbly pray in the behalf of the People of England that he might speedily be required to make an answer to the Charge But my Lord instead of making any Answer he did then dispute the Authority of this High Court your Lordship was pleased to give him a further day to consider and to put in his Answer which day being yesterday I did humbly move that he might be required to give a direct and positive answer either by denying or confession of it but my Lord he was then pleased for to demurre to the Jurisdiction of the Court which the Court did then overrule and command him to give a direct and positive Answer My Lord besides this great delay of Justice I shall now humbly move your Lordship for speedy Judgment against him My Lord I might presse your Lordship upon the whole That according to the known Rules of the Law of the Land That if a Prisoner shall stand as contumacious in contempt and shall not put in an issuable plea Guilty or not Guilty of the Charge given against him whereby he may come to a fair Tryal That as by an implicite confession it may be taken pro confesso as it hath been done to those who have deserved more favour than the Prisoner at the Bar has done but besides my Lord I shall humbly presse your Lordship upon the whole Fact the House of Commons the Supream Authority and Jurisdiction of the Kingdom they have declared That it is notorious That the matter of the Charge is true as it is in truth my Lord as clearas Chrystal and as the Sun that shines at noon-day which if your Lordship and the Court be not satisfied in I have notwithstanding on the people of Englands behalf several witnesses to produce And therefore I do humbly pray and yet I must confess it is not so much I as the innocent blood that hath been shed the cry whereof is very great for justice and judgment and therefore I do humbly pray that speedy Judgement be pronounced against the Prisoner at the Bar. President Sir you have heard what is moved by the Councel on the behalf of the Kingdom against you Sir you may well remember and if you do not the Court cannot forget what dilatory dealings the Court hath found at your hands you were pleased to propound some Questions you have had your Resolutions upon them You were told over and over again That the Court did affirm their own jurisdiction That it was not for you nor any other man to dispute the Jurisdiction of the Supreme and highest Authority of England from which there is no Appeal and touching which there must be no dispute yet you did persist in such carriage as you gave no manner of obedience nor did you acknowledge any Authority in them nor the High Court that constituted this Court of Justice Sir I must let you know from the Court That they are very sensible of these delays of yours and that they ought not being thus Authorized by the supreme Court of England to be thus trifled withall and that they might in justice if they pleased and according to the Rules of Justice take advantage of these delayes and proceed to pronounce judgment against you yet nevertheless they are pleased to give direction and on their behalfs I do require you that you make a positive Answer unto this Charge that is against you Sir in plain terms for Justice knows no respect of persons you are to give your positive and final Answer in plain English whether you be guilty or not guilty of these Treasons laid to your Charge The King after a little pause said When I was here yesterday I did desire to speak for the Liberties of the People of England I was interrupted I desire to know yet whether I may speak freely or not President Sir you have had the Resolution of the Court upon the like Question the last day and you were told That having such a Charge of so high a Nature against you your Work was that you ought to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the Court and to Answer to your Charge Sir if you Answer to your Charge which the Court gives you leave now to do though they might have taken the advantage of your Contempt yet if you be able to Answer to your Charge when you have once Answered you shall be heard at large make the best Defence you can But Sir I must let you know from the Court as their commands that you are not to be permitted to issue out into any other discourses till such time as you have given a positive Answer concerning the Matter that is Charged upon you King For the Charge I value it not a Rush it is the Liberty of the people of England that I stand for for me to acknowledge a new Court that I never heard of before I that am your King that should be an example to all the people of England for to uphold Justice to maintain the old Laws indeed I do not know how to do it you spoke very well the first day that I came here on Saturday of the Obligations that I had laid upon me by God to the maintenance of the Libertyes of my People The same Obligation you speak of I do acknowledge to God that I owe to Him and to my people to defend as much as in me lies the ancient Laws of the Kingdom therefore until that I may know that this is not against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by your favour I can put in no particular Answer If you will give me time I will then shew you my Reasons why I cannot do it and this Here being interrupted he said By your favour you ought not to interrupt me how I came here I know not there 's no Law for it to make your King your Prisoner I was lately in a Treaty upon the publick Faith of the Kingdom that was the known the two Houses of Parliament that was the
Representative of the Kingdom and when that I had almost made an end of the Treaty then I was hurried away and brought hither and therefore Here the President interrupted him and said Sir you must know the pleasure of the Court. King By your favour Sir President Nay Sir by your favour you may not be permitted to fall into these discourses you appear as a Delinquent you have not acknowledged the Authority of the Court the Court craves it not of you and once more they command you to give your positive Answer Clerk Do your Duty King Duty Sir The Clerk reads Charles Stuart King of England you are accused in the behalf of the Commons of England of divers high Crimes and Treasons which Charge hath been read unto you the Court now requires you to give your positive and final Answer by way of confession or denyal of the Charge King Sir I say again to you so that I might give satisfaction to the people of England of the clearness of my proceedings not by way of Answer not in this way but to satisfie them that I have done nothing against that Trust that hath been committed to me I would do it but to acknowledge a new Court against their Priviledges to alter the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Sir you must excuse me President Sir this is the third time that you have publickly disowned the Court and put an affront upon it how far you have preserved the Priviledges of the people your Actions have spoke it but truly Sir mens intentions ought to be known by their Actions you have written your meaning in bloody Characters throughout the whole Kingdom but Sir you understand the pleasure of the Court Clerk Record the default and Gentlemen you that took charge of the Prisoner take him back again King I will onely say this one word to you If it were only my own particular I would not say any more nor interrupt you President Sir you have heard the pleasure of the Court and you are notwithstanding you will not understand it to find that you are before a Court of Justice Then the King went forth with his Guard and Proclamation was made That all persons who had then appeared and had further to do at the Court might depart into the Painted Chamber to which place the Court did forthwith adjourn and intended to meet in Westminster-Hall by Ten of the clock the next morning Cryer God bless the Kingdom of England His Majesty intended to have delivered in writing his Reasons against the Pretended Jurisdicton of the High Court of Justice upon Monday Jan. 22. but was not permitted Saturday the 27 of January 1648. O Yes made Silence commanded The Court called Serjeant Bradshaw Lord President in his Scarlet Robe suitable to the work of this day with sixtie eight other Members of the Court called As the King came into the Court in his usual posture with his Hat on a Cry made in the Hall by some of the Souldiers for Justice Justice and Execution King I shall desire a word to be heard a little and I hope I shall give no occasion of interruption President You may answer in your time hear the Court first King If it please you Sir I desire to be heard and I shall not give any occasion of interruption and it is only in a word a sudden judgment President You shall be heard in due time but You are to hear the Court first King Sir I desire it it will be in order to what I believe the Court will say and therefore Sir a hastie Judgment is not so soon recalled President Sir you shall be heard before the Judgment be given and in the mean time you may forbear King Well Sir shall I be heard before the judgment be given President Gentlemen it is well known to all or most of you here present That the Prisoner at the Bar hath been several times convented and brought before the Court to make answer to a Charge of Treason and other high Crimes exhibited against him in the Name of the People of England to which Charge being required to Answer Here an honourable Lady interrupted the Court saying Not half the People but she was soon silenced he hath been so far from obeying the Commands of the Court by submitting to their Justice as he began to take upon him to offer reasoning and debate unto the Authoritie of the Court and of the highest Court that constituted them to try and judge him but being over-ruled in that and required to make his Answer he was still pleased to continue contumacious and to refuse to submit or Answer Hereupon the Court that they may not be wanting to themselves to the trust reposed in them nor that any mans wilfulness prevent Justice they have thought fit to take the matter into their consideration They have considered of the Contumacy and of that confession which in Law doth arise upon that contumacy They have likewise considered of the notoriety of the Fact charged upon the Prisoner and upon the whole matter they are resolved and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced against this Prisoner but in respect he doth desire to be heard before the Sentence be read and pronounced the Court hath resolved that they will hear him yet Sir thus much I must tell you before-hand which you have been minded of at other Courts that if that you have to say be to offer any Debate concerning jurisdiction you are not to be heard in it you have offered it formerly and you have indeed struck at the root that is the power and Supreme Authority of the Commons of England which this Court will not admit a debate of and which indeed is an irrational thing in them to do being a Court that acts upon Authority denived from them that they should presume to judge upon their Superiority from whom there is no Appeal But Sir if you have any thing to say in defence of your self concerning the matters charged the Court hath given me command to let you know they will hear you King Since that I see that you will not hear any thing of debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material for the peace of the Kingdom and for the Liberty of the Subject I shall wave it I shall speak nothing to it but only I must tell you That this many a day all things have been taken away from me but that that I call more dear to me than my life which is My Conscience and my Honour and if I had respect to my life more than the Peace of the Kingdom the Liberty of the Subject certainly I should have made a particular defence for my self for by that at least-wise I might have delayed an ugly Sentence which I believe will pass upon me Therefore certainly Sir as a man that hath some understanding some knowledge of the world if that my true zeal to my Countrey had not overborn the care
Kingdom of England c. Here the Clerk read the Charge Which Charge being read unto him as aforesaid He the said Charles Stuart was required to give his Answer but he refused so to do and so exprest the several passages at his Tryal in refusing to answer For all which Treasons and Crimes this Court doth adjudge That the said Charles Stuart as a Tyrant Traytor Murtherer and a publique Enemy shall be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body After the Sentence read the Lord President said This Sentence now read and published it is the Act Sentence Judgment and Resolution of the whole Court Here the Court stood up and assenting to what the President said King Will you hear me a word Sir President Sir you are not to be heard after the Sentence King No Sir President No Sir by your favour Sir Guard withdraw your Prisoner King I may speak after the sentence By your favour Sir I may speak after the sentence ever By your favour hold the sentence Sir I say Sir I do I am not suffered for to speak expect what Justice other people will have O Yes All manner of persons that have any thing else to do are to depart at this time and to give their attendance in the Painted Chamber to which place this Court doth forthwith adjourn it self Then the Court rose and the King went with his Guard to Sir Robert Cottons and from thence to White-Hall The Names of those Persons that were present at the Sentencing of the KING to Death John Bradshaw President John Lisle William Say Oliver Cromwel Henry Ireton Sir Hardresse Waller Valentine Walton Thomas Harrison Edward Whaley Thomas Pride Isaac Ewers Lord Gray of Groby Sir John Danvers Knight Sir Thomas Maleverer Bar. Sir John Bourchier Knight William Heveningham Alderman Pennington William Purefoy Henry Martin John Barkstead John Blakiston Gilbert Millington Sir William Constable Bar. Edmond Ludlow John Hutchinson Sir Mich Livesay Bar. Robert Tichborn Owen Roe Robert Lilburn Adrian Scroop Richard Deane John Okey John Hewson William Goffe Cornelius Holland John Carew John Jones Miles Corbet Francis Allin Peregrine Pelham John Moore John Aldred Henry Smith Humphrey Edwards Gregory Clement Thomas Woogan Sir Gregory Norton Knight Edmond Harvy John Venn Thomas Scot Tho. Andrews Alderman William Cawly Anthony Stapley John Downes Thomas Horton Thomas Hammond Nicholas Love Vincent Potter Augustine Garland John Dixwel George Fleetwood Symon Meyne James Temple Peter Temple Daniel Blagrave Thomas Waite Ordered that Sir Hardress Waller Coll. Harrison Com. General Ireton Coll. Dean and Coll. Okey are appointed a Committee to consider of the Time and Place for the Execution of the King according to his Sentence given by the high Court of Justice Painted Chamber Lunae Jan. 29. 1648. Upon report made from the Committee for considering of the Time and Place of the Executing of the Judgement against the King that the said Committee have resolved that the open Street before White-hall is a fit place And that the said Committee conceive it fit that the King be there Executed the morrow the King having already notice thereof The Court approved thereof and ordered a Warrant to be drawn for that purpose which Warrant was accordingly drawn and agreed unto and ordered to be ingrossed which was done and Signed and Sealed accordingly as followeth At the High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging of Charles Stuart King of England January 29 1648. WHereas Charles Stuart King of England is and standeth Convicted Attainted and Condemned of high Treason and other high Crimes and Sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body of which Sentence Execution yet remains to be done These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence Executed in the open street before White-Hall upon the morrow being the 30th day of this instant month of January between the hours of Ten in the morning and Five in the afternoon of the same day with full effect And for so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant And these are to require all Officers and Souldiers and other the good people of this Nation of England to be assisting unto you in this service Given under our Hands and Seals To Coll. Francis Hacker Coll. Huncks and Lieuten Coll. Phray and to every of them Sealed and subscribed by J. Bradshaw O Cromwell Hen. Ireton Har. Waller Jo. Lisle Val. Walton Tho. Gray Ed. Whaley Mich. Livesey Jo. Okey Jo. Danvers Tho. Maleverer Wil. Goffe Tho. Pride Tho. Harrison Jo. Hewson Ri. Dean Robert Tichborn Ow. Roe Jo. Barkstead G. Fleetwood Gil. Milington Tho. Horton W. Say W. Constable Miles Corbet Jo. Ven Hen. Martin c. Painted Chamber Jan. 30. 1648. The Commissioners met and ordered That Mr. Marshall Mr. Nye Mr. Caryll Mr. Salway and Mr. Dell be desired to attend the King to administer to him those Spiritual helps as should be suitable to his present condition and Lieutenant Collonel Goffe is desired forthwith to repair unto them for that purpose Who did so but after informed the Court That the King being acquainted therewith refused to confer with them expressing that he would not be troubled with them Ordered That the Scaffold upon which the King is to be executed be covered with Black The Warrant for executing the King being accordingly delivered to those parties to whom the same was directed Execution was done upon him according to the tenour of the Warrant about two of the Clock in the Afternoon of the said 30. of January After Sentence The King being hurried from their Bar as he passed down the stairs the common Souldiers laying aside all Reverence to Soveraignty scoffed at him casting the smoak of their stinking Tobacco in his face no Smell more offensive to him and flinging their foul pipes at his feet But one more insolent than the rest defiled his venerable Face with his spittle for his Majesty was observed with much patience to wipe it off with his Handkerchief and as he passed hearing them cry out Justice Justice Poor soul said he for a piece if money they would doe so for their Commanders That Night being Saturday January 27. the King lodged at White-Hall that evening a Member of the Army acquainted the Committee with the desires of the King that seeing they had passed Sentence of Death upon him and the time of his Execution might be nigh that he might see his Children and receive the Sacrament and that Dr. Juxon Bishop of London might be admitted to pray with him in his private Chamber both which were granted The next day being Sunday January 28. the King was attended by his Guard to Saint James's where the Bishop of London preached privately before him his Text was in Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of all men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel Monday Jan. 29. His Children
put my hands out this way stretching them out them After that having said two or three words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up Immediately stooping down laid his Neck upon the Block and then the Executioner again putting his hair under his Cap the King said thinking he had been going to strike Stay for the sign Executioner Yes I will and it please your Majesty And after a very little pause the King stretching forth his hands the Executioner at one blow severed his head from his body The head being off the Executioner held it up and shewed it to the people which done it was with the Body put in a Coffin covered with black Velvet for that purpose and conveyed into his Lodgings there And from thence it was carried to his house at Saint James's where his body was embalmed and put in a Coffin of Lead laid there a fortninght to be seen by the people and on the Wednesday sevennight after his Corps embalmed and coffined in Lead was delivered chiefly to the care of four of his Servants viz. Mr. Herbert Captain Anthony Mildmay his Sewers Captain Preston and John Joyner former Cook to his Majesty they attended with others cloathed in Mourning Suits and Cloaks accompanied the Herse that night to Windsor and placed it in that which was formerly the Kings Bed-chamber next day it was removed into the Deans Hall which Room was hanged with black and made dark Lights burning round the Herse in which it remained till Three in the Afternoon about which time came the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hertford the Marquess of Dorchester the Earl of Lyndsey having obtained an order from the Parliament for the decent Interment of the King their Royal Master provided the expence thereof exceeded not five hundred pounds At their coming into the Castle they shewed their Order of Parliament to Collonel Wichcot Governour of the Castle desiring the Interment might be in St. Georges Chappel and by the Form in the Common-Prayer Book of the Church of England this request was by the Governour denyed saying It was improbable that the Parliament would permit the use of what they had so solemnly abolished and therein destroy their own Act. To which the Lords replyed There is a difference betwixt destroying their own Act and dispensing with it and that no Power so binds its own hands as to disable it self in some cases All could not prevail the Governour persisting in the Negative the Lords betook themselves to the search of a convenient place for the Burial of the Corps the which after some pains taking therein they discover a Vault in the middle of the Quire wherein as is probably conjectured lyeth the body of King Henry the Eighth and his beloved Wife the Lady Jane Seamor both in Coffins of Lead in this Vault there being Room for one more they resolve to inter the body of the King the which was accordingly brought to the place born by the Officers of the Garrison the four Corners of the Velvet Pall born up by the aforesaid four Lords the pious Bishop of London following next and other Persons of Quality the Body was committed to the earth with sighs and tears especially of the Reverend Bishop to be denyed to do the last Duty and Service to his Dear and Royal Master the Velvet Pall being cast into the Vault was laid over the Body upon the Coffin was these words set KING CHARLES 1648. After the Regicides had committed this Horrid and nefarious Act the prevailing Power consisting of a patcht number of the House of Commons and the chief Officers of the Army combined together and seeing how successfully and unopposed they had effected this so unparalel'd a Deed to which they knew the generality of the Nation were utterly averse and as far as they durst shew'd their absolute dislike They in the next place fall upon the alteration of the Government thinking to make sure work by subverting the Ancient Monarchy of this Realm and instead thereof introducing that which they called a Free State or Common-wealth For constituting of which the first thing they did was to Vote and publish by Proclamation That whereas several pretences might be made to the Crown c. to the apparent hazard of the publick Peace no Person whatsoever should presume to proclaim or any way promote Charles Stuart Son of the said Charles late King of England or any other person to be King or chief Magistrate c. by colour of Inheritance or any other claim whatsoever without the free Consent of the People in Parliament first signified by a particular Act for that purpose any Law or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding and whosoever should contrary to this Order proclaim c. shall be adjudged a Traytor and suffer accordingly This proceeding was founded upon a Maxim which they had taken up and agreed on among themselves namely That all Power and Authority is Originally in the People But well knowing that their Councils had soon been confounded and themselves interrupted in the course they had begun if they had incorporated again with those of their Members which had been forcibly kept out by the Army they Resolve and decree 1. That all those Members who had assented to the Vote of Decemb. 5. concerning the Kings Concessions for that was the occasion of their seclusion should never be readmitted and that those that Voted in the Negative should presently enter their said dissent or before they were to be admitted And together with the fortune of Monarchy was involved that of the House of Peers who having sent to desire a Conference about setling the Government in regard the Judges Commissions were determined by the Kings Death instead of an Answer to their Message the Junto of the Commons upon debate Voted the Lords House to be useless and dangerous and therefore to be laid aside as in like manner they declared the Kingly Office to be unnecessary and Burthensom and therefore fit to be abolished only they allowed the Lords the Priviledge of being capable to be chosen Burgesses into the House of Commons But the Lords were so highly incensed thereat that there was suddenly published a Declaration in the name of all the Peers and Barons of the Realm wherein they protest against the Proceedings of the Commons And a while after some of the Kings friends in despite of all Votes Acts and Orders to the contrary promoted a Proclamation in the name of all the Nobility Gentry and Commonalty of the Kingdom for proclaiming Charles our present Soveraign to be King of England But little could unarmed Declarations prevail against the reigning Power of an Armed faction who now assumed new Ensigns of Soveraignty cancelling the Old and caused all Writs Commissions and Instruments of publick Concernment to be issued out under a new Stile and Test that is of The Keepers of the Liberties of England by Authority of Parliament They ordered the old Great Seal to be
those that could take him It is supposed there were about three thousand slain at Worcester and seven hundred taken Prisoners and not long after the E. of Derby who was one of them was Beheaded at Bolton in Lancashire His Majesty through many dangers and difficulties arrived at last safely at Paris in France And a while after Oliver Cromwell April 20. 1653. Dissolved the long Parliament which had sate Twelve years six months and seventeen days In this year and the next there were five bloody Engagements at Sea against the Dutch in most of which the English were Victorious Oliver Cromwell called another Junto this year which was termed the Little Parliament who sate some short time and then delivered back their Power to him from whom they had received it And December 16. 1653. Cromwell was Sworn Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland c. And so the Government was now again in a single Person and in April after the Protector concluded a Peace with the Dutch whose aid and assistance the King had strongly sollicited against him His Majesty after this sought a Reconciliation between France and Spain and hoping thereby to further his own Interest he left France and departed for Germany accompanied with his Cousin Prince Rupert about which time Cromwell had discovered a Plot in England against his Authority and Collonel Gerrard and Mr. Vowell suffered for the same at Tower-Hill Scotland began likewise to stir again the Earl of Glencarn Monro and Middleton having gotten some Forces together intended to have prosecuted the Kings Cause but they were routed by General Monk and Collonel Morgan According to the Treaty with France Cromwell sent over some Forces to aid the French in his Wars against Flanders and the English were to have Dunkirk in consideration thereof which upon taking of it was accordingly delivered In the same year 1656. Cromwell by a Parliament garbled to his mind was installed L. Protector in Westminster-Hall and a while after another Plot was discovered Sir Henry Slingsby Dr. Hewet Mr. Aston and Mr. Stacy suffered Death upon the same Account the two first being beheaded and the other Drawn Hanged and Quartered being charged to be concerned therein Upon Sept. 3. 1658. O. Cromwell departed this life in Whitehall and lay in State in Somer set-house till Nov. 23. following when he was buried with great Pomp in Westminster Abby After whom his Son Richard Succeeded but was soon thrust out of his Protectorship by Fleetwood and Lambert who with the rest of the Army called the Long Parliament again after which several Gentlemen in Cheshire under the conduct of Sir George Booth rose for defence of their Priviledges but were defeated by Lambert who soon after turned out this remnant of the Long Parliament again and erected a Government which they called the Committee of Safety All which Revolutions still advanced the Kings Cause Lambert now Marches North as far as New-Gastle to fight against General Monk but his men were unwilling to engage and in the mean time the remainder of the Long Parliament had again gotten together and dissolved the Committee of Safety and then invited General Monk to march with his Army to London which he did accordingly and was received with Joy and soon after he procured the Dissolution of that Long Parliament and he calling another upon April 25. 1660. who being sate unanimously Voted the restoration of his Majesty to his Kingdoms and accordingly upon May 29. following the King accompanied with the Dukes of York and Glocester and attended with several Lords and Gentlemen arrived at Dover where he was met by divers Noble Personages and among the rest General Monk who was dignified with the George and Garter In October following several of the Regicides of the late King were Tryed in the Old Baily and ten of them Executed at Charing-Cross that is Thomas Harrison John Carew Adrian Scroop John Jones Gregory Clement Thomas Scot John Cook Hugh Peters Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtell Mary Princess of Orange coming over to Visit the King her Brother fell sick of the Small Pox and dyed and in January after one Vennor a Wine-cooper and some others in whom he had infused Enthusiastick Principles put themselves in Arms and came into the City but being opposed they killed 22 of his Majesties Subjects and about as many of them were slain and the rest were taken and dispersed eleven of whom and Vennor their leader were executed in several places in the City In the beginning of the next year Prince Henry D. of Glocester dyed and upon April 23. following being St. George's day His Majesty K. Charles the 2. was Crowned at Westminster with great splendor and Solemnity having the day before made a Magnificent Passage from the Tower through the City of London where four curious Pageants were erected to Whitehall And here we shall conclude this abstract of so many various affairs wishing all happiness to his Majesty and the preservation of the Protestant Religion forever FINIS
to allow him the benefit of a free and general Pardon granted by King James in Parliament in the 21st Year of his Reign and likewise that of the Coronation Presently after the Commons drew up another Declaration of Grievances against the Duke whom they resolved utterly to overthrow though contrary to the Inclination of the King who being thereat incensed dissolved the Parliament the very next day June 15. 1626. and committed the Earl of Bristol to the Tower Publishing a Proclamation for burning all Copies of the said Declaration After which the King Published a Declaration shewing the Grounds and Reasons of his Dissolving this and the former Parliament Then several ways were Resolved on for advancing the Kings Revenue and special care was taken by the Councel for the levying of Customs and Imposts upon all Merchandizes Imported and Exported as being intended to have been settled by the Two last Parliaments but prevented by their sudden Dissolution The Forfeitures of Papists likewise which had been misimployed were now taken into a more strict Account Privy Seals also were issued out and Benevolence proposed and at length a Commission for a General Loan was resolved upon as the most convenient Method since the present state of Affairs admitted not of the way of a Parliament and private Instructions were given to the Commissioners how to manage the business which upon their Faith and Allegiance they were commanded to keep Secret and not to disclose to any About this time some Souldiers returned from Cadiz and were Quattered in the Countreys and Money was raised for them which made this Loan the more unwelcome and Sir Randolph Crew for not appearing vigorous in promoting the Loan was displaced from being L. Chief Justice and Sir Nich. Hyde advanced in his place the Bishop of Lincoln was likewise informed against in the Star Chamber by Sir John Lamb and Dr. Sybthorp for speaking against the Loan and seeming to favour the Puritans and Nonconformists Not long before which Bishop Laud hearing that the Bishop of Lincoln endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the D. of Buckingham Dreamed That the Bishop came to him with Iron Chains but returned free from them that he leaped upon a Horse departed and he could not overtake him which was afterwards interpreted concerning the Bishop of Lincolns taking Arms for the Parliament in Wales and his being at liberty when Bishop Laud was imprisoned in the Tower There were several Occasions at this time which required considerable Supplies of Money for besides that of the Palatinate there was great probability of a War with France upon this Occasion the French King Lewis the 13. had borrowed of his Brother in Law the King of England a Man of War called the Vauntguard and six other Merchants Ships in pursuance of a Design against Italy but with this express Condition that they should not be imployed against the Protestants at Rochel there having been an Agreement lately made between them and their King by the Mediation of the English Ambassadors But Mounsieur Soulize who was for the Protestants taking the Advantage of the French Armies going into Italy suddenly broke that Agreement for getting some small Ships together he Surprized the Isle of Rhe and some Ships in the Harbour at which the French King being offended turns his whole Design from Italy to Rochel and with the Seven English Ships under Admiral Pennington Twenty Dutch Ships and the French Navy he furiously falls upon Soulize forceth him from his Fastness and chaseth him to the Isle of Oleron The King of England was much concerned at this Action of the French King as a breach of his Royal Word and demanded Satisfaction which the French King deferring to give the King Seized a Rich French Ship and the French King Arrested the Goods of the English Merchants in France to the value of Three Hundred Thousand Pounds but at length all was Reconciled and Restored on both sides Thus all seemed quiet at present till the Insolent deportment of the Queens Priests and Confessor made another Rupture who Imposed upon her to go bare-foot to Spin to wait upon her Servants at their Dinners nay to walk on Foot on a Rainy Morning from Somerset-House to St. Jameses and from thence as far as Tybourn Gallows to offer up her Prayers for the Souls of some Jesuits whom they stiled Martyrs who were formerly Executed there her Confessor himself Riding by her in a Coach These and several other Arrogancies being justly charged upon the Queens French Domestick Servants they were paid off discharged and sent home Upon which the French Arrested the Ships of the English Wine Merchants at Blay Castle which was so ill Resented by his Majesty of Great Britain that he resolved upon a Breach with France But about the same time the English Fleet under the L. Willoughby which were sent to the Aid of the Rochellers were so scattered by a Storm that they could scarce get into safe Harbour The Assessment of the Loan was generally opposed whereupon the People of the lower Rank were ordered to appear in the Military Yard near St. Martins in the Fields before the Lieutenant of the Tower to be Listed for Souldiers it being thought fit that those who refused to assist with their Purses in Common Defence should be forced to serve in their Persons others of better Quality were bound to appear at the Council Table several of whom were committed Prisoners to the Fleet Marshalsea Gatehouse and other Prisons and among them Sir John Eliot who Petitioned his Majesty and repeated many Presidents That all manner of Aids and Taxes informer Kings Reigns were never levied but by the general Consent of the Nobility and Commons Assembled in Parliament However he was committed Prisoner to the Gatehouse and upon the same Account Sir Peter Hayman was commanded to Serve his Majesty in the Palatinate which after he had settled his Estate he did acordingly Doctor Sybthorp and Dr. Maynwaring two Eminent Preachers at Court about this time preached up the Necessity and Duty of the Loan one of them Asserting That the Prince hath Power to Direct his Councel and make Laws and that Subjects if they cannot Exhibit Active Obedience in Case the thing commanded should be against the Law of God or Nature or more Impossible yet nevertheless they ought to yield Passive Obedience and in all other Cases they were bound to Active Obedience The other Affirmed That the Kings Royal Command in Imposing of Loans and Taxes though without common consent in Parliament did Oblige the Subjects Conscience upon Pain of Eternal Damnation Which Positions being entertained by the Court with Applause the Sermon of Dr. Sybthorp call'd Apostolick Obedience was Licensed and Approved of by Dr. Laud B. of London and an express Command was sent from the King to Archbishop Abbot to License it which he refused whereupon having been under some disfavour before this Increased it and he was suspended from his Archiepiscopal See and a Commission was