Necessities he would not only consent to remedy all their just Grievances but remit his Right to Ship-money for ever though adjudged to him by all the Justices of the Kingdom Nor did he thus obtain his desires the Parliament opposing them not only declaring that Tribute to be illegal but were also dissolved if they had not been prevented by their Dissolution upon the point of voting against the War they so much abominated There were many good Men who were much troubled at this unexpected Dismission of the Parliament fancying that the Heats and Differences betwixt the King and his People might have been dispelled by the Continuance of the Assembly which seemed now on the other side highly exaggerated The enraged Commonalty exclaimed mightily against the Authors of this Counsel Some attributed it to Marquiss Hamilton the ambitious Son of a Mother wholly devoted to the Covenanters Others to the Earl of Strafford But the greatest Crowd would have it to be the Archbishop of Canterbury and to be revenged on him about five Hundred of the Apprentices and Rabble furiously assault his Palace at Lambeth though without Success But the true Authors were the subtle Contrivers of the following Rebellion For Sir Henry Vane one of the principal of them then his Majesty's Principal Secretary being ordered by his Master to move for a Supply of Twelve Subsidies with Power to descend to Eight he when the House by an Offer of Five nay Six were mentioned to advance towards a Complyance peremptorily told them that less than Twelve would not do whereby he not only irritated the Seditious but the more modest part of the Assembly which seemed to be his Design by the Effect The factious were not displeased with the King's Necessities The King's Necessities which they themselves did from time to time contribute to since there were no Subsidies to be obtained but upon Conditions ruinous to Monarchy it self or by exposing his best Friends and Ministers to their Rage and Slaughter And thus they constrained the King though unwilling to unusual ways of supplying his wants that they might thereby expose him to the Contempt and Odium of an irritated People But the King raised Moneys by other means his Council the faithful Nobility and Gentry His Friends contribute to his Supply the Judges but more eminently the Clergy who contributed a fifth of their Revenues whence it was called the Bishops War largely supplying him The Earl of Strafford subscribed 20000 pounds which the Duke of Lenox also did as likewise others proportionably except Hamilton who pretended Poverty though the Author of his Memorials against the current of the English Writers delivers that he also subscribed 20000 pounds Being thus furnished the King raises another Army and marches against the Scots but slowly not supposing them so forward who had already passed the River Tweed near Berwick The Earl of Northumberland was General and Strafford Lieutenant-General of the King's Army but they being both absent the Lord Conway General of the Horse commanded lying with 3000 Foot and 1200 Horse to keep the Passage of the Tine at Newburne Lesley the Rebels General desired permission to pass with his Army with a Petition to the King but being denied he attempted the Passage with Three Hundred Horse which were repulsed Hereupon he plies his great Guns with such Success that the English Lesley forces his Passage at Newburne being for the most part Raw and Unexperienced throwing down their Arms ran away Commissary-General Wilmot made stout Resistance with the Horse till over-power'd by Numbers he was forced likewise to retreat The Scots possessed themselves of New-Castle the same Day being abandoned by Sir Jacob Ashly who sunk his Great Ordnance in the River for haste whilst the whole Army retreated in much disorder towards York Two Days after they took Durham with the same Facility and putting the Northern Counties under Contribution forced them to supply their Needy Troops with Provisions and Moneys in abundance The King Summons the Peers to York Makes a Truce with the Scots The King streightned with these Pressures summoned the Peers to meet him at York by whose Counsel or rather Faction a Treaty was commenced and a Cessation of Arms concluded upon very dishonourable Conditions The Four Northern Counties being allowed the Rebels for their Winter Quarters and 850 Pounds per diem during the Truce for their Maintenance Nor could it be otherwise hoped for since Eleven of those Sixteen Lords which the King had appointed to treat with the Scots were either Principal Leaders or Assertors of the Rebellion in the following War It will not be from the purpose to mention what further happened in this Convention The Scots seemed to wonder that they appearing in Arms upon the Invitation of the English Lords none of them unmindful of the Favour had made any mention of it affirming they had not come without the invitation of their Letters The English Lords surprized with this Reproach assured them That they had made them no Invitation at all The Scots being highly moved with this denial produced an Instrument subscribed with most of their Hands which strangely surprised them until upon a strict scrutiny they found it to be an Invention of the Lord Savil's who had really sent them the said Invitation counterfeiting the subsigned Hands which being now discovered by his own Confession it was thought fit seeing the Cheat had succeeded so well not to publish it Strafford alone did dare to advise against this sordid Compliance with the Enemy urging That the Scots were to be forced back with Steel not Gold He further advised the King to grant them no Conditions unworthy himself or the English Nation Let him but give him leave and he would upon peril of his Head oblige them to return to their Country and Duty to their Prince again This vigorous Advice did so far irritate the Scots that they prosecuted the Author of it to Death On the other side Hamilton suspected to favour his Countrymen perswaded a Peace to which the rest of the Peers did also assent upon a supposition that a Parliament and an Agreement were the securest Remedies against the impending Evil. The Cessation being thus concluded the main of it was referred to the Arbitration of a Parliament Nov. 3. 1640. The Rebel-Parliament meets which the King had already summoned to meet at Westminster And this is that fatal Convention which by the Predominancy of the Puritans in it consummated their Impiety and Disobedience by ruining the most Apostolick Church under Heaven and Murthering the best Prince that ever swayed the English Scepter The King might have expected better treating from this Meeting seeing he did not call it to use his own Words more by others Advice and the Necessity of His Affairs than by his own Choice and Inclination who always thought the right way of Parliaments most safe for his Crown as best pleasing to His Subjects and People In the
admirable Speech which he made in the House upon passing that Fatal Bill The incensed Multitude flew to that height of Violence that amongst other Insolences they did dare to assault the Spanish Ambassador's House upon Pretence of his shelt'ring of Papists and certainly he had run great hazard of being forced if he had not been timely rescued from their Fury by the then Lord Mayor insomuch that he did not doubt to question whether they were a Civilized People or not seeing they so barbarously violated the Law of Nations The Lord's House enforced by the Tumults did also after much Reluctancy assent to the Bill of Attainder not considering that their Authority would sink with the King 's seeing it was not probable that these Men would spoil the Crown to adorn the Nobles But the King himself satisfied of the Innocence of the Prisoner resisted longer slighting the Uproars of the Populace who by Instigation of the Factions perpetually cryed out for Justice Neither did he much value the Opinion of the Judges their Compliance being occasioned by their Fears against whom he also complained That instead of easing him of his Doubts they amused him by their ambiguous Answers The Bishops also who were to satisfie his Scruples in point of Conscience seemed to refer him to the Judges save only that Doctor Juxton the then Bishop of London had told him That he should do nothing against the Dictates of his Conscience upon any Consideration in the World Which he afterwards remembred to the great Honour of that Excellent Prelate Nor did he comply with the Fears of his Friends and Family until overcome not perswaded by the Earl's own Importunity and Letters who desired it out of Hopes his Death might satisfie these Blood-thirsty Men and atone betwixt the King and his People murthered and He then however unwillingly subscribed though by a Candour not to be imitated he did all his Life after as also at his Death blame this too easie Assent even in himself In the mean time he would make one Attempt more in order to which he wrote a Letter to the Lords all with his own Hand which he also sent by his own Son the Prince wherein he desired That seeing he had assented to the Justice of the Parliament his Clemency might also take Place which some affirm was promised before he Signed the Bill but that was but to extort it by any means for now they tell him by a Deputation of Twelve of their House That it could not be done without the extream Peril of the Royal Family lamented by the King He will however solemnize his Obsequies with Tears for when the Archbishop of Armagh gave him an Account of the Exit of this Illustrious Innocent adding That he had never seen so white a Soul restored to its Creator he could not forbear weeping And thus fell this Great Person being then also Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Second to none for Wisdom Loyalty and Greatness of Mind and who as the King affirmed in his Divine Soliloquies was a Gentleman whose great Abilities might make a Prince rather afraid than ashamed to employ him in the greatest Affairs of State He fell as is said by a Decree à post facto but shall rise again by a Posthume Law upon the Restauration of King Charles the Second he being then by a more Righteous Parliament restored also to the Glories of his Honour and Innocence Nor was it by this Act only that the King contributed to his own Ruine by removing so Excellent a Servant and so firm a Pillar of the State but he also gave his Consent to that of Continuance of this Parliament The Act of Continuance during the Pleasure of both Houses depriving himself by this Fatal Indulgence of one of the Principal Flowers of his Crown which was the Disposal of the Meeting Proroguing and Dissolving of these Conventions at his Pleasure For this signal and unusual Concession of his was abused to that height by these most Ungrateful of Men that they took occasion hence not only to ruine their Benefactor but wholly to subvert the Government which they also effected The Archbishop of Canterbury had been already Impeached and was now close Prisoner in the Tower And seeing he was the Chief Pillar of the Church of England as appears in his Admirable Book against Fisher the Jesuit and he having converted Two and Twenty from the Romish to the Protestant Religion as he asserted in the House of Lords when he was accused there of Popery he was also to be removed For since the Ecclesiastical and Civil Governments were to be extirpated it was thought proper that the Principal Asserters of both should be sacrificed to the Ambition of the English and Scottish Novelists Neither did the Fates of these Great Men suffice to dispel the pretended Fears and Jealousies of the Commons for being elated not satisfied with these unexpected Concessions they only encreased their Appetites and seeing now they were feared and that by the Madness of the People whom they had bewitch'd with an Opinion of their Sanctity there was a way laid open to greater Matters they did not blush to attempt the King 's Royal Person and Family Who though he had granted more to the Petitions of the Parliament than ever any Subjects had demanded he would yet have yielded to more for the Good of his People provided it did not intrench upon his Honour and Conscience But these Concessions did not suffice them who would have all though they did not yet declare so far In the mean time they looked upon what the King had so generously bestowed upon them but as Dues interpreting them to have proceeded from his Necessities not Inclinations so that nothing he could either say or do could gain the Favour of this Ungrateful Faction The King's Concessions After the Death of Strafford his Majesty had denied them nothing that they had not been ashamed to ask The Star-Chamber the Archbishop's Court as also that of the Northern Borders were taken away Other Courts as those of the Stannary and of Ludlow c. were circumscribed in narrower Bounds Monopolies were entirely condemned Ship-Money and those other Maritime Revenues that never Prince had as yet parted with were suppressed To all this a Triennial Parliament lest any should dare to offend for the future and the Continuance of this during the Pleasure of the Two Houses as is already said was unhappily assented unto And further to witness the Candour of his Intentions he admitted several of the most popular of the Faction of his Privy-Council the Lord Say being made Master of the Wards Essex Lord Chamberlain Holland Groom of the Stole Leicester Lieutenant of Ireland and St. John Sollicitor General But what Retribution did they make the King for all these Graces and Indulgences of Favour They gave him no Money nor any Thing else save the empty Promises and Dreams of a Glorious Principality The Scots having
for haste by the Bell-Rope and taking Horse ran away with his Troop for which Crime he had been cashier'd had it not been for the powerful Mediation of his Friends I mention this of this so famous Chieftain in the following Wars to shew how the Temperature of Body and Mind may by Use and Ambition be entirely altered The King takes Banbury-Castle c. The King continued his March having the Town and Castle of Banbury surrendred to him in his Way the Two Regiments of Foot and Troop of Horse which Garrisoned there putting themselves under his Majesty's Protection and Pay Broughton the Lord Say's House was also delivered and now the King with many Prisoners and Captive-Colonels entred triumphantly into Oxford Enters triumphantly into Oxford But he did not stay long there for Prince Rupert with a great Body of Horse swiftly moving up and down the Country infested all the Ways and Avenues to London on that Side and the King following with the rest of the Army assaulted and forced Brentford Hollis and Hamden's Regiments with part of the Lord Brookes's routed at Brentford breaking Two of the Enemies best Regiments there taking Eleven Colours and Thirteen Pieces of Ordnance which were sunk by reason of their Encumbrance in the adjoining River Many were slain and drowned and Five Hundred were made Prisoners but the King gave these their Liberty upon their Engagement never to bear Arms again against his Majesty But the Parliament loth to lose so many brave Men ordered Stephen Marshall a fierce Presbyterian Minister to absolve them from the Religion of their Oaths which he did with a more than Pontifical Authority The Consternation this blow occasioned filled the City with Terror They shut their Shops immediately upon the News and mustering their Trained-Bands and Auxiliaries joining with such Forces of their Army as were nearest Essex drew them all up in Battalia upon Turnham-Green Essex at Turnham-Green Three Thousand who lay at Kingston were also sent for for which their General was after blamed for abandoning so considerable a Post which might have distressed the King if made good For his Majesty having Intelligence of the numerous Strength of the Rebels and indeed wanting Bullets for a Skirmish lest he might be surrounded by them retreating over Kingston-Bridge abandoned as is said broke it down after him and having garrisoned Redding in his Way returned triumphantly to Oxford Whilst these Things were a-doing the City and the Two Houses apprehending the King's Advance had sent for Essex to whom they had given Five Thousand Pound as an Acknowledgment for his great Services at Edge-hill to hasten to their Succour But the King being gone the Citizens returned to their Labours and the Essexians to recruit their shatter'd Regiments with new Levies The King being come to Oxford The King returns to Oxford and Fortifies it and finding it a Place very commodious to make his head Quarters of it being in the Heart of the Kingdom and not far from London commanded it to be Fortified which the Rebels had seasonably omitted to do and surrounded with a deep Moat and Bulworks according to the Modern Practice which was done with all imaginable Diligence and Haste In the mean Time the War was carried on in other Provinces of the Kingdom with no less Courage and Vigour Not only the Towns and Counties but most of the best Families divided in their Opinions many engaging according to their Interest but most according as they affected the Parties But the various Battels Fights Velitations Sieges and the like as they deserve no Triumphs happening in a Civil War so they merit a better Description than is yet extant for they were for the most part eminent for Courage famous for Conduct and by so much the more severe in their Actings by how much the Parties were the more excited with the Opinion of doing well I do not therefore design to relate the whole War as being above my Force I will leave that Province to the Writers of Histories and content my self to describe the Chief Actions of it and those Things I my self for the most part saw but with designed Brevity Whilst the Armies were in their Winter-Quarters they were not so idle but that many Horse-Skirmishes Excursions Velitations Beating-up of Quarters and the like Feats of War were daily practised and that with various Success The King's Affairs had hitherto succeeded well considering his Circumstances although he never received any Advantage without Sorrow seeing it was gained from his Subjects And hence it was that as often as his Arms were Successful his Thoughts were intent upon Peace pressing and inviting the obdurate Faction to it by reiterated Letters and Messages though to no purpose for those Puritans relying upon the Assistance of their Brethren the Scots were wholly averse from it They had indeed formerly sent Propositions to the King at York but more severe than any Denunciation of War Several fruitless Attempts for Peace The Chief were That the Chief Officers of State should be of their naming and the Militia by Sea and Land at their disposing That the King should disband his Forces abandon his Friends and not dispose of his Children but by their Consent His Majesty did not refuse an Answer to these Demands although they seemed rather Impositions of Slavery than Peace which he sent by the Marquis of Hartford and the Earl of Southampton Two Eminent Noble-men with Command to deliver it in the House of Lords But being refused Admission they returned without having effected any thing Neither were the Mediation of the French and Dutch though offered by both how sincerely I know not accepted by the Houses who answered That they could not suffer that any Foreign Prince or State especially the French should interpose in their Affairs And to shew how little they valued the Monsieur his Coach was stopped and searched for Letters as he was passing to Oxford his Complaint of that Insolence being slurred over with a faint Excuse The Parliament would admit of the Scots their Brethren in Iniquity whom the King did justly reject as equally Rebels They had indeed formerly after the Battel of Edge-hill upon the King 's Advance with his victorious Army towards London apprehending his Approach sent Two Lords and Three Commoners to stay him under Pretence of treating which when they could not they seemed in Revenge upon his Majesty's Retreat to resolve to treat no more though afterwards upon the Instance of some of the more moderate amongst them they again sent Twelve Delegates to Oxford with Demands rather than Propositions the Chief whereof were Jan. 30. 1642. That his Majesty should Disband his Army Return to the Parliament Abolish Episcopacy Abandon the Militia to their Disposal c. The King on the other Side demanded His Revenues his Magazines his Cities Navies Fortresses c. and that whatever they had done contrary to Law should be Abrogated But nothing was concluded
in Order Essex marches to the Relief of Glocester Essex mustered his Army the Members of both Houses being present upon Hounsley-Heath which did not exceed Ten Thousand Men too weak for the Expedition they were designed but being much reinforced by the City-Auxiliaries and Trained-Bands marched that Night to Colebroke and so forward Glocester seated upon the Banks of Severne was with the Addition of some Works and the River esteemed strong Colonel Massey an active and vigilant Commander was Governour strengthened with Two Regiments of Foot and Two Troops of Horse who however vigorously attacked did no less vigorously oppose Force to Force Sallies to Assaults and Countermines to the Mines from without But in truth neither understood the Methods of besieging or defending as yet that Part of War being but in its Infancy amongst us But we must allow the Defensive to have carried it here seeing they held it out until the Arrival of their Succours The King being advertized of the Enemies Advance sent Prince Rupert with all the Horse to retard their March which he did by continual Excursions Velitations and forcing of Posts and Quarters At Stow in the Wowld the Prince drawing all his Horse in one continued Line upon the Side of the Hill made a very great Appearance On the contrary the Rebels march up the Ascent in Battalia Lieutenant Colonel Bayly with the City-Regiments were in the Left-Wing and Colonel Harvey with his Regiment of Horse and Two of Foot being some-what advanced in the Right the Prince sent a strong Party with orders to endeavour to get betwixt them and Home which being perceived Three Regiments more were presently sent to his Assistance the which with the Thunder of their Cannon obliged the Royallists after some skirmishing to retire to their Body which being composed only of Horse did also give way to this great Army which advanced upon them The King preferring the Blessings of Peace before the Triumphs of Victory sent a Trumpeter with Propositions to Essex who answered crudely enough That he had Orders to relieve Glocester not to treat which he also did the King rising from the Siege at his Approach and passing the River with a Resolution to fight the Rebels upon their return And this seemed another Omission The Siege of Glocester raised for if the King had fought them before they reached the Town he had probably either beaten them or impeded their Progress both or either of which would infallibly have obliged them to surrender Essex having relieved the Town his next Care was to preserve his Army especially the Londoners the Chief Strength of it which he in a great Manner did by his Surprizal of Cirencester where he found Store of Provisions which he much wanted The Royallists obstructing the Enemy in their Return upon every Occasion fell into their Rear upon Auburne Chase with all their Horse forcing it up to their Main Body They charged them a second Time with the same Success but having no Foot by the Advance of their Enemies and the Night they retreated with little loss save that of de Vieuville a French Marquiss The Rebels lost many as well slain as taken The next Morning the King's Army being drawn up near Newbury having the River on their Right-Hand expected the Rebels there The Battel of Newbury There was a little Hill Five Hundred Paces from the Town which the Cavaliers had possessed and fortified with Guns Essex perceiving it and having no other way to pass he himself with his own Regiment and C. Barclay and Holborne's Brigades attacks it bravely being as bravely received by the Royallists Stapleton with his own Regiment and that of the General 's Guards charging the Earl of Carnarven was repulsed but the Earl pursuing too far was kill'd by a Shot in the Head of his own Men a Person no less remarkable for his Fortitude and Fidelity to the King than for the Nobleness of his Extraction Prince Rupert valiantly charging the Right-Wing of the Rebels who were rallied again did again disorder them driving them to the Entry of the Lane by which they were come But the Cavaliers were forced to make as much hast back having been saluted with a Volley of Shot from the adverse Foot posted there and not without loss The King 's Right and the Enemies Left-Wing being hindred by Hedges and Inclosures fought only by small Parties and light Skirmishes Nor had the Foot though they fought stoutly any signal Advantages of each other the Earl of Brentford on the King's side and Major General Skippon on the Rebels behaving themselves with equal Courage and Vigilancy The Royallists had taken some Field-pieces which they were forced to quit again with loss The approaching Evening put an end to this bloody Contest and the King's Army rallied and drew up again as at first in the Field where they had fought with design to renew the Combat in the Morning which yet they did not being content to send Major General Harvey who had lately deserted them with a strong Party of Horse and Foot to fall in their Rear They had also stood in Arms all Night not retreating before the Morning at which time they were close followed and charged their Rear-guard commanded by Stapleton being forced up to their Foot with considerable Loss There were slain on the King's Side many eminent Persons as the Earls of Carnarven and Sunderland the Wise Lord Faukland and Colonel Morgan with others The Rebels also lost many but of no great Quality being most Plebeians And this was the End of the famous Expedition of Glocester wherein Essex and his Party had gained much Honour if they had not fought against their King Nor did the Royallists behave themselves less Valiantly though more Commendably as having the Better Cause The Rebel Parliament invite the Scots to their Aid The Men at Westminster being heightned with this Appearance of Success which carried more Noise with it by reason of the Loss on the King's Side of so many Noblemen whereas they had but few to expose they yet prudently considering the Equality of the Balance not over-confident in their own Strength invited the Presbyterian Scots to their Assistance and to oblige them the more strictly to their Party being not to be gained by the ordinary Stipend of Mercenaries they mutually oblige themselves by a Solemn League and Covenant contrary to all Laws Humane and Divine to extirpate Episcopacy and the Liturgy and to obtrude in their Places the Scottish Ecclesiastical Discipline built upon the Basis of Rebellion and Tumult Moreover Archbishop Laud retained hitherto in the nauseousness of a Prison was now as Strafford had been formerly to be immolated a Sacrifice to the Malice of these Hirelings and the Revenues of the Church to be divided amongst these Sacrilegious Confederates as will shortly appear This best of Princes might have expected better Things from the Scots as being his Countrymen as well as Subjects Nay he had heaped
Fidelity to the King according to the Laws and their Zeal to the Established Religion according to their Conscience together with their Wives and Children The barbarous Vsage of the Loyal Clergy Ejected Plundred Spoiled and barbarously Consumed in Prison in Exile and with Hunger To relate all the Inhumanities committed against the Loyal Orthodox Clergy their Usurpations upon the Revenues of the Church and their Dilapidations and Ruines of the Houses of God in the Land would require a vast Volume and might deservedly employ a very good Pen which I purposely omit as wanting Ability and Leasure for so Great a Work The Scots being entred into England the Marquess of Newcastle for he had been made such for his Eminent Services marched with his Army to oppose the Progress of this new Enemy He had kept them at Bay for some time by frequent Encounters and Velitations till the taking of Selbie by Fairfax and Lincoln by the Earl of Manchester Both which especially the Latter being very numerous moved after him So that Newcastle unable to fight them all at once and lest he might be inclosed by their Three Armies retreated to York where he was surrounded and besieged by their United Forces The King being very sollicitous for the Safety of so good a Man and so good an Army sent Prince Rupert with great Forces to their Relief The Prince had some Time before relieved Newark having slain a Thousand of Sir John Meldrum's Men who besieged it and reduced the Rest to a Necessity though Six Thousand strong of parting with their Arms and Baggage High with these Successes he marches toward the North and taking Stopford and Leverpoole in his Way relieved the Illustrious Countess of Derby in Laâ—hame House where she had been long Besieged Bolton daring to defend it self was at the second Assault forced Eight Hundred of the Garrison most Townsmen being slain For relying upon their Numbers and Works they had not only abused the Prince by scurrilous Language but hang'd One of his Captains whom they had taken which occasioned this not undeserved Severity After this continuing his March he came without any Opposition to York where he joined with Newcastle the Enemy having raised the Siege upon his Approach with a Resolution to engage them The Besieged upon the Rebels drawing off did some considerable Execution upon their Rear but being secure had no mind to try the Hazard of the War any farther They had been wearied with a long Siege of Nine Weeks and supposing that their Deliverers were also tired with their long March thought it better to leave the Enemy to their own Dissentions for their Generals did not well agree about the Command in Chief than to occasion their Uniting by so hazardous an Adventure But the Prince fatally resolved and not thinking he had done enough in relieving the City if he did not also beat the Scots the only Obstacle to the King's Victories marched after the Rebels and found them drawn up in a Corn-field on the South side of Marston-Moor Four Miles from York The Enemies Three Armies contracted in One was commanded by the Three Generals The Battel of Marston-Moor July 2. The Two Fairfaxes Father and Son had the Right-Wing Manchester the Left and Leven the Main Body consisting all of Scots and each Division had his Auxiliaries and Reserves The Prince observing the Adversaries Order ranged also his Army in Battalia and reserving to himself the Left-Wing gave Newcastle the Right entrusting the Command of the Main Battel to Goring Lucas and Porter And as no Field since these Unhappy Wars did produce so Great Armies so none had been fought with greater Valour Rupert charg'd the Fairfaxes with so much Resolution that he broke them and the Scots their Reserves but pursued them to his own Ruine too far Our Main Battel did also repel the Scots But Affairs went otherwise in the Right the Mancesterians having routed the Royallists and not following them too far fell upon the Prince's and Goring's disordered Troops hindring them to Rally and quite dispersed them It is affirmed That the Three Rebel-Generals quitted the Field leaving to Cromwell Manchester's Lieutenant General the Honour of the Day for he keeping his great Reserve of Horse in a firm Body followed the Cavaliers so close that he hindred them to Rally and Embody again The Fight lasted from Seven till Ten at Night with great Courage and Slaughter on both Sides though the Victory fell to the Rebels as also the Cannon and Spoil of the Field There were Two of Newcastle's Regiments called his Lambs being old Souldiers who fell not unrevenged For the rest being fled they casting themselves into a Ring did alone resist Cromwell's Assaults nor could they however abandoned by their Friends and surrounded by their Enemies be broke until being shot at like Fowl at a Distance and overwholmed with showers of Bullets not then perishing without Slaughter of their Enemies scarce any of these miserable Bravo's escaping tho' worthy of a better Fortune The slain were computed at Eight Thousand the Slaughter made by Cromwell being compensated in that made by the Prince upon the Fairfaxians and especially the Scots being most animated against them His Highness being returned from his Pursuit too late rallying what he could of his dispersed Troops returned with his Remains into Lancashire whilst the Marquess retreating to York left that also and with his Two Sons and very many of his Principal Officers leaving England to its Dissentions and Tumults sailed for Hamburgh York surrendred July 23. The Royallists being thus dispersed York is again Besieged by the Three victorious Armies but wanting Powder wherewith they had furnished their Camp before the Fight the City was delivered up by Sir Thomas Glenham the Governour upon Honourable Terms most of the Northern Counties following her Fortune But the King was more successful in other Places especially where he commanded in Person Waller having lost his Army at the Devizes had raised another in London the Citizens that they might contribute to this Holy War defrauding their barking Stomachs of one Meal by the Week His first Exploit was the Recovery of Arundel-Castle sometime before taken by Hopton Being joined with Balfore and Hazelrig at Winchester not unmindful of his Defeat at the Devizes he did now in some Sort bravely revenge it upon Hopton himself at Branden-Heath near Alsford Branden-Heath Fight Mar. 29. the Lord John Stuart being mortally wounded in the Fight The Foot stood bravely to it at push of Pike till the Royallists being outnumb'red were forced to give Way The Earl of Forth having sent the Cannon away before to Winchester and that he might likewise save the Horse wheeled about with them to Basing and so to Oxford There fell of the Royallists in this Combat near Five Hundred besides the above-mentioned Lord as also Sir John Smith and the Colonels Sandys Scot and Manning The Rebels acknowleged scarce One Hundred of theirs slain besides
were they without hopes seeing the Cavaliers were so remote and dispersed But the King sollicitous for Oxford as also for Pomfret Castle which had been long besieged designed to relieve both and being nearest the City sent a strong Party of Horse with a great Number of Sheep and Cattel to its Relief and encamped with the rest of his Army upon Borrow-hill The Convoy having succour'd Oxford the Expedition of Pomfret by Langdale's Perswasion was resolved upon There were they who advised that the King should march Westward and join with Goring who had a very great Army and then with united Forces go directly for London supposed an easie purchase as being more than sufficiently distracted with Factions and the Terror of their Approach Whilst they were thus consulting News was brought that Fairfax having quitted Oxford was with his Army at Gilsburg but Five Miles off and that he had sent Ireton with a good Body of Horse to observe the Royallists who that Night falling upon the Rear of the Army quarter'd at Naesby did not only disturb it but carrying Terror with him forced the King out of his Quarters and to make haste to Harborow where the Van of his Army was lodged Upon this the King immediately called a Council of War where neglecting the Opinion of those who disswaded an Engagement and prudently advised a Conjunction with Goring they resolved to fight and because Fairfax followed them so close to turn upon him and offer him Battel The Battel of Naesby 1645 Jun. 14. And now the fatal Day the Eighteenth of the Kalends of July did appear by so much the more dismal because it ushered in under the Veil of Liberty the most insupportable of Tyrannies All Men's Eyes and Attentions were taken up with the Expectation of the Event of this decisive Day and Vows had been sent up to Heaven at Oxford and London for the Success of it since the Fate of the Kingdom seemed to depend upon it Monarchy and despised Majesty were to be vindicated on one Side together with Religion whilst the other contended for Anarchy and Vsurpation and a Liberty of doing Evil. It was told the King but falsly that the Rebels were retreating designing to shelter themselves in the associated Counties Whereupon Orders were suddenly given to march and least they might get away some of the heaviest Cannon were left behind that they might not retard their haste in preventing the escape of these pretended Fugitives But they found the Enemy drawn up upon the Advantages they had chosen in a plow'd Field near Naesby and ready to fight Though the Sight was surprising being unexpected yet the Royallists embattelling likewise their Army advanced towards then Both sides were full of Courage and desirous of doing well proposing nothing less than to overcome The Cavaliers Word was God and Queen Mary the other Side God with us The King took to himself the Care of his Main Battel The Princes Rupert and Maurice commanded the Right Wing of the Horse and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the Left The Earl of Lindsey and the Lord Ashley led the Battalions of Foot towards the Right and the Lord Bard and Sir George Lisle those to the Left In the Rear of the Foot stood Col. Howard's Regiment of Horse as a Reserve the Whole being closed up with the King's Guards and Prince Rupert's Regiment of Foot Nor was the Enemies Order or Numbers disproportionable Sir Thomas Fairfax himself with Skippon his Major General commanded the Foot Cromwell now Lieutenant General of the Horse and Col. Rossâ—ter newly arrived led the Right Wing and Commissary General Ireton the Left the Reserves being conducted by the Colonels Raynsborough Hammond and Pride With these Forces and a more than Civil Rage the Armies encountred both equally animated and of equal Desires and Hopes the Contest being for an Empire Rupert charged with his accustomed Valour and routed the Three outmost Squadrons of Ireton's Wing but suffering himself to be hurried away with the too great desire of overcoming pursued them to the very Town Ireton seeing the Prince past falls with the Remainder of his Horse upon the King 's next Brigade of Foot where being ill received he was hurt with a Pike in the Thigh and a Halbard in his Face and his Horse being kill'd under him he was taken Prisoner though presently released by the Victory of his Party But Affairs went otherwise in the other Wing for Col. Whaley after a rude Encounter on both Sides forced Langdale with Two of his Squadrons upon Prince Rupert's Men in the Rear where whilst he was rallying again he was quite dispersed by Cromwell who followed The Main Battel on both sides rushing upon each other with great and equal Fury fought with all the Incitements of Hope and Desire Pede pes densusque viro vir mutually exposing their Arms their Persons their Wounds They slay and are slain force and are forced But the Victory in all Probability had been the King's the contrary Divisions being forced up to their Reserves if Cromwell had not with his Troops fierce with success joining their Main Battel and charging the Royallists destitute for want of their Horse broke and routed them And yet there was one brave Battalion of Foot as that at Marston-Moor though charged often on all Sides by Cromwell which could not yet be pierced till Fairfax charging them with his Horse and Guards in Front and Rear at once at length defeated them worthy of better Fortune who maintained the Ground they stood on alive and covered it as if they still would keep Possession of it when dead The Princes were scarce returned from the Pursuit having lost much time in their vain Attempt upon the Carriages which were guarded with Fire-Locks and at length come though too late when they were forced with the King who had performed all the Parts of a Great Captain and now abandoned by his Fortune not his Vertue to leave the Field and an Entire Victory to the Rebels Fairfax did not think it safe to follow the Royallists without his Foot lest he might expose the Advantage he had got to new Dangers He therefore staid till they were come up being not above a quarter of a Mile behind and then opening his Horse to the Right and Left received them up betwixt the Interval and so marched as at the Beginning in Battle-Army against the Enemy The King notwithstanding he had lost all his Foot and his Cannon would have charged the Rebels Horse with his own which he had embodied before their Foot were come up but being over-perswaded by the desponding Courages of them about him and the Infantry approaching the Greatness of that Resolve vanished and he was obliged to secure himself by a timely Retreat towards Leicester whilst Langdale hastened with his towards Newark The Rebels Loss in those slain and wounded were esteemed near a Thousand amongst whom Ireton and Skippon were signalized by their Hurts the Marks of their Disloyalty There
relate what things were performed by the Royallists in Scotland and briefly to insert them in our Commentaries Which will be the less difficult seeing they are for the most part extracted out of the History of Montross writ in fine Latin by the most Reverend Bishop of Edenburg Doctor Wishart The Scots the cause of all our Evils deserve to be treated with a more severe style The History of Montross but that we find also even in this Nation several Persons of Honour and known Vertue who signaliz'd themselves by the Eminency of their Loyalty and Endeavours for the King's Preservation Amongst these Montross deservedly challenged the first rank who performed such stupendious feats of Arms with such slender means having neither Soldiers nor Pay to begin with that we may equally wonder that he undertook as that he effected them He had formerly been of the Covenanters Party in Scotland and was the first that led his Men over Tweed in the first Scotch Invasion But when he perceived that his Countrymen design'd not only the King's Ruine but that of Monarchy too he resolved to quit them He also wrote to the King to testifie his Obedience But his Letters were stole out of His Majesty's Pockets by some of his Bed-chamber and Copies of them conveyed to the Confederates as also notice of the King's Letters to Montross which were intercepted stitched up in a Saddle as had been notified This being perceived he resolved in Person to wait upon the King at Oxford Which he did and discovered to His Majesty the Counsels and Designs of the Confederates but in vain the Faction of the Hamiltons being too prevalent at Court which continued until the Scots did actually enter England The King then perceiving himself abused sent Hamilton Prisoner to Pendennis-Castle and at the same time sent Montross into Scotland as chief Governour of the same The King indeed had ordered the Marquess of Newcastle to furnish him with some Forces for the Expedition And Prince Rupert after the fatal Battel of Marston-Moor had promised him a Body of Horse but all came to nothing insomuch that he entred Scotland with only two Companions himself disguis'd in the habit and garb of a Groom and by swift Journeys came to the Banks of the River Tai where he lay close for some days in the house of Patrick Grimes his Kinsman a Person of great worth and Loyalty Here he understood how all the King's Friends had been suppressed by the tyranny of the Rebels The Marquess of Huntley had indeed raised a considerable Army but he quitted those Arms he had rashly taken up upon the first noise of the Enemies Trumpets saving himself by Flight Montross troubled with the misfortune of the Gurdons began to cast about how and by what means he might draw this brave and Loyal People to his Party that they might again try the fortune of War under another General In the mean time there was a rumour spread amongst the Shepherds who watched their Flocks in the Mountains though very uncertain of several Irish who being wafted over Some Irish Land in Scotland kept themselves in the Northern Highlands Montross fancied this possible and that they were of those Auxiliaries which the Earl of Antrim had promised a few Months before Which he also found to be true as well by Alexander Macdonnel's Letters who commanded them as by others from several of his Friends in the Mountains Having received these by accident he answered them as if he had been at Carlisle encouraging them highly with assurances that they should neither want Assistance nor a General Ordering them at the same time to descend with all speed into Athol Which they did with Joy upon the immediate Receipt of these Commands sooner than could imaginably be expected Montross who was scarce twenty Miles off with his Cousin Patrick habited like a Mountaineer and on foot surprizingly met them which also happened very opportunely they being in great danger of being destroyed For the Marquess of Argile followed them close with a great Army whilst the Low-landers attended them in the Plains where if they descended they could not escape being trod to pieces under their Horses Feet The Ships which had brought them over to take away all hopes of a Retreat were burnt by Argile Nor would the Atholians or others who favoured the King run any hazard with them they being strangers had no known Authority nor could produce any Person of ancient Nobility which the High-landers chiefly reverence to head them To this their number was small not exceeding eleven Hundred whereas ten Thousand were promised Montross heads them the Atholians come in to him with 800 Men. But Montross his Presence who was received by them as if dropt from Heaven seemed to compensate all these defects and in two days the Atholians to the number of eight Hundred and armed presented themselves with great Alacrity to Montross Being thus accompanied he the same day marched through the Fields of Athol towards Ierna with design to open a passage for his Friends and Supplies if any such should be stirr'd up with the fame of his undertaking before it should be shut up by the Enemy surprized perhaps with the novelty of the thing before they could rejoin their divided Forces Having passed the Tai the greatest River in Scotland he was strengthened by the accession of five hundred Men as also the Lord Kilpont and Sir Jo. Drummond with 500 Men. under the Command of the Lord Kilpont and Sir John Drummond They as well as others had been summoned by the Confederates to oppose the Irish as common Enemies but as soon as they heard that Montross did command they both without any hesitation for both tho' privately favoured the King's Cause joined Forces with him Heightened with these supplies he beat the Enemy consisting of six thousand Foot and seven hundred horse commanded by the Lord of Elchon and the Earl of Tullibardin at Tippermoor Montross had no Horse at all He therefore to prevent by reason of the inequality of their numbers being surrounded extended his Front as much as possible so that his Files being but three deep the first Rank was commanded to kneel The Battel of Tippermoor the second to stoop and the third where the properest Men were to shoot standing and all to fire at once and then to fall in with the Butt-ends of their Muskets and their drawn Swords All which was valiantly performed but they wanting Powder and not being well Armed they fought with such Weapons as chance furnished them with throwing Stones with such activity and animosity at the Enemy that they forced them first to give Ground then to run away The slain were reckoned at two Thousand and more taken Perth was surrender'd to Montross the same day where having rested three more he was informed that Argile was marching towards him with a strong Army He therefore re-passing the Tai encamped at Cupr in Angus lying then
as well-nigh always in the open Field Passing thence by Taodan he marched to Esk where he met with the old Earls of Arley with his Sons and a brave train of Friends and Attendants Here he had intelligence that the Lord Burgley was at Aberdene of Aberdene with design to draw the Northern Parts by Money or Force to join with him Which Montross understanding having passed the River Dee he found the Enemy drawn up in Battel Array near the City Burgley had two thousand Foot and five hundred Horse which he placed in the Wings and having chosen his Ground and planted his Cannon at the head of his Army expected the onset Montross had but fifteen hundred Foot for the Lord of Kilpont's Men were gone home to convoy the Body of their Lord who had been murther'd by one of his own Servants and very many of the Atholians were also returned loaden with Plunder after the Victory of Perth and not yet come up to the Army He also placed his Horse which were but four and forty in the Wings Adding some of his Foot to them who for their Agility and Strength were equal to Horses enjoyning them to have a care lest the Enemies Troops surrounded them Which they also valiantly performed for the Charge being given the Enemy was defeated slaughtered routed The Horse escaped for the most part but the Foot having no place to retreat to but the City fled thither But being closely pursued by the Conquerours entring Pell-mell with them the Streets were strowed with their slain Bodies Two days being allowed the Soldiers to refresh in Montross was informed that Argile was advancing with far greater Forces than formerly being also accompanied with the Earl of Lothan with Fifteen Hundred Horse He therefore left Aberdeen and marched to Kintor from whence he determined to lead his Forces to the Mountains and Places of most difficult access In order to this he buried his Cannon in the Earth and disburthened himself of his heaviest Baggage But the Enemy pressing on all sides he marched to Badenoth that he might be out of the danger of their Cavalry those Quarters being scarce passable for Horse The Enemy having left pursuing him he was surprized by a fit of Sickness which extreamly harassed him for some days but being recovered he marched again into Angus hoping either to force Argile tired with tedious Marches into Winter Quarters or to leave him far behind him Having traversed Angus and passed over the Grampian Mountain he came to Strath-bogy to invite the Gordons with his Presence to a Conjunction of Arms with him But in vain being opposed by the Marquess of Huntley who though he did not hate the King envied the glories of Montross too much to contribute to their greatness He went thence to the Castle of Favia which he took but being sharply attacked there by Argile and Lothan had much to do to resist their Power which he yet did by his own Vertue and the rare Valour of his Men. Many days being thus spent at Favia Argile got nothing with so great an Army but Infamy from his Friends and Contempt from his Enemy Montross baffles Argile who flies to Perth Sometime after Montross understanding Argile to be at Deucalidon without his Horse resolved to attempt him which coming to his knowledge Montross being as yet sixteen Miles off he commanded his Men to shift for themselves whilst he secured himself by his flight to Perth Montross being of opinion that an Enemy could be no where so advantageously assaulted as in his own Country flew with incredible speed and industry into Argile where having forced the Marquess to save himself again in a Boat he destroyed and filled the Province with Blood Slaughter Rapine and Fire Nor were the other Neighbouring Countries as Lorn and the rest that acknowledged the Dominion of Argile better used The Royallists having quitted these Quarters they at length met with Argile at Innerlock but charged him with such Fury that they broke their Ranks and pursuing with a great shout defeated them with a great slaughter killing above Fifteen Hundred upon the place Whilst Argile himself placed in a Boat and put off from Shore saw the ruine of his Men at a distance and without any share of the danger After this the Citizens of Elgin surrender'd their Town of their own accord at which time the Lord Gourdon The noble Lord Gourdon joins with Montross and eldest Son to the Marquess of Huntley a Person above all Commendation for the eminency of his Vertues left his Uncle Argile and came over to the King's Party with a very choice Squadron of Friends and Dependants Montross heightened with this accession forced Hurrey Commander of the Rebels Horse refusing to fight upon his Invitation to a Retreat and offered Bayly sent for purposely out of England to whom Hurrey was also joined by a Trumpeter the liberty of Battel But he replied That when he was disposed to Engage it should be by his own not anothers choice The Royallists marched forward to Deucalidon and designing to pass the Tai were upon the point of being ruined by a very mischievous accident which they could not forsee Lodowick Gordon who had born Arms at Aberdeen on the Rebels side had by the mediation of his Noble Brother his Brother Lodowick deserts the army which greatly distresses Montross been reconciled to the King's Party But now whether upon real or pretended Letters from his Father having privately seduced most of the Gordons to a defection carried them away exposing thereby his Brother and Montross to very imminent danger And truly it may be a question whether of these excellent Persons most hated this Perfidy Montross highly troubled with this defection thought how to secure the rest and immediately sent the weakest of them away with all his Baggage with Command to meet him at Brechin This done he with an Hundred and Fifty Horse which was all he had and Six Hundred nimble Footmen marched with incredible Speed to Taodun which he assaulted took and plundered He himself stood upon a Hill which overlook'd the Town when sudden news was brought him that Bayly and Hurrey were with Three Thousand Foot Montross's noble retreat from Taodun and Eight Hundred Horse within a Mile of the Place By that time he had got his Men out of the City which was not done without extream difficulty being scarce to be withdrawn from their Plundering the Enemy was come up within Musket-shot of him His Retreat was admirable wherein he shewed himself no less a worthy Commander than he had done in his former Victories Some advised the General to reserve himself for better times and secure himself by flight with his Horse and others under these desperate Circumstances were of opinion they should not perish unrevenged But he complying with neither instantly sent Four Hundred Foot before and commanding the other Two Hundred to follow he himself closed the Rear with his Horse
the Universality of Mankind for Quae Regio in Terris nostri non plaena Doloris did lament the undeserved Fate of this Prince Nay the outragious Faction it self did blush to approve the Infamy of so flagitious an Act. The Factions disapproving the Infamy of the Regicide impute it to each other The Presbyterians to shift the Envy of it from themselves threw it upon the Independants condemning upon the Stage what they had designed in the Tyring-room But whether out of true Sentiments of Repentance or that they could act no further let them look to that being equally Regicides in their Intentions though not in the Execution The Independants said That they only put to Death a Private Man and an Enemy The King had been long since killed by the Presbyterians as being despoiled of his Prerogative whereby he excelled others of the Militia wherewith he protected his Subjests and of his Freedom of Vote whereby he made Laws They also remembred How he had been divested and robbed of his Liberty as a Commoner of the Society of his Wife as a Husband of the Conversation of his Children as a Parent of the Attendance of his Servants as a Master Yea of every Thing that might render his Life comfortable So that there was nothing left for the Independants to do but to put an end to the Calamities wherewith this Man of Sorrow had been so cruelly overwhelmed and afflicted by the Presbyterians But who ever were the Authors of this Impiety we grieve at what they did which seeing it cannot be undone we may wish that the Memory of it may perish with them who designed and perpetrated so Hellish a Mischief Nor had the Scelerates of the Faction yet satisfied their Cruelty They were inhumanly barbarous to his Dead Corps Their Inhumanities after his Death His Hair and his Blood were sold by Parcels Their Hands and Sticks were tinged with his Blood And the Block now chipt as also the Sand sprinkled with his Sacred Gore were exposed to sale Which were greedily bought but for different Ends by some as Trophies of their slain Enemy and by others as precious Reliques of their beloved Prince It is certain that Cromwell to satisfy his greedy Eyes had caused the Coffin to be opened in White-Hall and did with his Fingers search the-Wound as if he had still doubted of the effecting of his Hellish Cruelty Nor did it suffice to have raged against him living and dead they will also for as much as in them lies kill his very Fame Which they endeavoured to do by the enslaved Pen of a needy Pedagogue one Milton Salmasius indeed had writ a Defence for the King but he being a Presbyterian as the other an Independant both very good Latin if we believe the Learned Hobbs and hardly to be judged which is better and both very ill Reasoning and hardly to be judged which is worst And thus both Houses as they had often sworn with hands lift up to Heaven did make him a Great and Glorious King by changing his Fading Crown which they had interwoven with Thorns into an Immortal and Incorruptible one They made him great indeed great in Suffering in Patience His Character and great in his Martyrdom Thus fell Charles the Great and Just Monarch of sometimes Three flourishing Kingdoms A great Example if any of both Fortunes The Best of Kings The Meekest of Men. His Countenance was Comely and Majestic He was Constant Valiant Pious Eloquent of infinite Reason and Reading His Integrity was entire and no Guile found in his Mouth His publick and private Vertues were eminent He had been born for the Good of Mankind if he had not fallen amongst Monsters not Men. The best of Princes the best of Men the best Parent the best Husband the best Master Famous for Patience for Piety for Chastity for Justice and of an unshaken Fidelity towards God and Man His Greatness only rend'red him Guilty being by the Suffrages of his most bitter Enemies worthy of Empire if he had not reigned The Royal Corps being embalmed and exposed for some Days to publick View at St. James's was afterwards delivered to Mr. Herbert And Funeral one of his Servants to be translated to Windsor He had earnestly solicited to have had it deposited in Henry VII's Chappel near to the Monument of King James But they refused it lest the Place as they said might be prophaned by the Superstitious Concourse of the People He was therefore carried â—o Windsor by the Direction of the Duke of Lenox the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey who had got leave â—â—om the Faction for the decent Enterrment of their â—ear Lord provided the Funeral-Charges did not â—xceed Five Hundred Pounds These Sacred Reâ—â—ques being then born by the Officers of the Garriâ—on attended on by the Four Lords were laid 〈◊〉 Henry VIII's Vault It is observable that â—â—ough the Air was serene when they set out â—efore they reacht the Chappel-Door the â—â—erse of Black Velvet which covered them was all White with Snow which seemed to fall to testify their Candor and Innocence But it troubled the Assistants that the Fanatic Governour would not permit them the Use of the Common-Prayer the Bishop of London attending there to do this Last Office to his Dearest Master So that he was interred with the Sighs and Tears of his Servants And thus Lam. C. 4. V. 20. the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord was taken in their Pits of whom we said Vnder his Shadow we shall live among the Heathen COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will-maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape CHarles the Martyr being removed by a Parricide black as its Authors as is declared in our former Commentaries the Regicides endeavour with the same Fury to supplant his Son Heir of his Diadems and Vertues in order to which they immediately after his Fathers Death The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the
returned to Cologn he found his Brother the Duke of Gloucester there lately arrived from France The King had been informed now he had been thrust out of England by the Regicides which they had done to save the Expence of his Maintenance and to Ship-wrack his Religion Besides it was supposed that Cromwell had designed his Removal for that some in his Council had moved his Assumption to the Crown as no ways obnoxious or prejudiced by reason of his Youth as is already mentioned 'T is scarce imaginable with what Constancy he defended his Religion however very young In so much that armed with Instructions from the Lord Hatton and Doctor Cousens he eluded the Assaults of Abbot Montague and the Marquess of Plessis the one employed by the Queen-Regent of France and the other by the Queen of England Neither the charming Pleasures of the French Court nor the Purple Dignities of the Church of Rome nor yet the extream Severities of the Queen his Mother who did not only refuse him his ordinary Sustenance but denied him the Solace of her Benediction were of strength to shake his Faith Which they yet would endeavour to force by shutting him up in the Jesuits Colledge if the King his Brother displeased with these Novelties had not sent the Marquess of Ormond to his Rescue and to bring him to Cologn to him which he did though not without Difficulty But nothing was impossible for this Great Man After this the King went to Franckfort famous for its Marts And in his Progress saluted the Queen Christina of Sweden at Koningsteyn Where after a Reception worthy Two such great Princes and some private Discourses the Duke of Gloucester and his Royal Sister did the same The Marquess of Ormond Earl of Norwich Lord Newburgh and others of His Majesty's Train being also admitted paid that great Princess the Respects due to her Highness The Queen continued her Journey to Insprug where after a splendid Reception from the Arch-Duke she made Public Profession of the Roman Religion The King leaving Franckfort with the universal Acclamations of the People and thundring of their Cannon went to Ments whither he had been invited by that Elector where his Reception was truly Royal. And after three Days Treat parting with the same Magnificence returned to Cologn Nor did his Majesty spend the Time idly whilst the Regicides triumphed in England He had already sent Embassies to all the Princes of Europe to desire their Assistance against his Rebels But with little success though the Cause were Common The French flourishing in Promises made a League with the Regicides The Spaniards though they seemed to grieve at the Murther of the King were yet the first that acknowledged and owned this rising Common-wealth The Grand Seignior corrupted with English Gold delivered Sir Henry Hyde the King's Embassadour at that Court against the Law of Nations into the Hands of the Parricides who Murthered him by cutting off his Head before the Exchange Swedeland was then in an unsetled Condition Portugal unable being attacked both by the Spaniard and Dutch in the Indies Poland was worried with her own Domestick Distractions Denmark was exhausted with the Treasure formerly lent to Charles I. Others indeed restified their good-wills by their Contributions as the Great Duke of Muscovy the Count of Oldenburg the Electors of Mentz and Brandenburg and some other Princes of Germany by the Earl of Rochester's negoriating at Ratisbone But what could this import to make a new and great War Whereas it scarce sufficed to defray the Charges of the Embassies The King then seeing no Hopes of his Restauration from abroad wisely sought a Remedy where the Wound was received from the Benevolence and Loyalty of his Subjects which the Eminence of his Vertues could not in Justice refuse him Neither was he any way wanting to himself but most intent upon all Occasions leaving nothing unattempted whereby he might raise his sinking Affairs He kept constant Correspondence with his Friends in England Caus'd great Disturbances to the Rebels on every side and exposing himself to the Danger did more than once incite the People to arm against the Usurpers He now kept his Court at Bruges in Flanders nearer hand having been invited by the Spaniards repenting their too early Compliments to the Regicides and supplied with 9000 l. per annum which Money was punctually repaid upon His Majesty's Restitution The Duke in the mean Time having recalled all the Kings Subjects in the French Service joyning them with those in the Spanish Low-Countries composed a considerable Body which he commanded with no less Honour than he had done in France although they were well nigh destroyed by the fatal Valour of the English Rebels at Mardike and the Battle of Dunkirk The Duke more illustrious by Misfortunes did not only for some time resist but retard the Progress of the Victors until oppressed by multitudes as is already said he was necessitated to comply with the Fate of the vanquished Cromwell dying soon after however a way seemed thereby to be opened to the Kings Restauration his Majesty received the News of it with remarkable Constancy and Calmness of Mind in no ways insulting though he saw his most Mortal Enemy extinguished in the Person of this Vsurper Cardinal Mazarin however averse to King Charles did at the same time congratulate the Queen his Mother upon the Hopes of her Sons Restauration since he was by the Death of that Tyrant delivered from his most implacable and successful Enemy The sudden Change in England followed by the Deposing of Richard and the Resurrection of the Rump and the other Innovations already mentioned which followed as they augmented the Hopes of the King at Home so they varied the Counsels of Princes abroad Which his Majesty applyed in as much as was possible to his own Use by Negotiations and Embassies But there being now a Treaty in Agitation betwixt France and Spain he would himself be present at it For if a Peace were concluded which was more than probable betwixt these great Princes it was but reasonable to suppose that they might spare some of their numerous Forces to assist an injured King their Ally by Blood and Common Interest And yet the King would rather reduce his Rebel-Subjects to Obedience by the Appearance of his Power than by the Use of his Forces In the mean time accompanied with the Duke of York his Brother and the Marquess of Ormond he hasted Incognito through France having saluted the Queen his Mother at Paris in his way to St. John De Luz where the Great Ministers of the Two Crowns were then in Treaty Don Louis de Haro upon Notice of the Kings Approach went to met and receive him Which he did alighting from his Horse and Embracing and kissing his Knees with as much Honour and Splendour as if he had been his Master the King of Spain The next Day his Majesty was visited by Cardinal Mazarin the other great Plenipotentiary who was
horrid a Design discountenanced the Credit of the Relator until verified by demonstrative Arguments which gave Opportunity to the Conspirators to withdraw themselves Yet some of them were taken as Howard Essex Russel Rumsey Sidney Walcot Hone Rowse and the Lord G. but he escaped out of the hands of the Messenger The Lord Russel and Collonel Sydney were both beheaded Walcot Rowse and Hone were executed at Tyburn and others in other places suffered the punishments due to such execrable Treasons The Earl of Essex the unfortunate Son of a good Father by his own hands prevented the Kings Clemency who could not shew the utmost of his Severity against a Son of my Lord Capels Of those who fled some obtained the Kings Pardon by their ingenious Confessions as Barber Blaney Bourn How Howard Rumsey c. Nor is it unworthy of Notice that scarce any of those who were executed did dye without confessing enough to demonstrate their Crime though not their Repentance Amongst the Fugitives the most considerable were Armstrong Ayloff Burton the Two Goodenoughs Brothers Gray Holloway Norton Nizbet Row the Two Rombalds Brothers Smyth Wade Tyley and Ferguson the Shame of his Coat and Calling a Canting Teacher and more cruelly wicked than all those he had endeavoured to mislead Sir Thomas Armstrong and Holloway being intercepted the First at Leyden in Holland the other at Mevis one of our Western Plantations and brought into England were both executed according to the Merit of their Crimes The Parricide designed thus in England against His Majesty and the Duke being discovered and prevented the Conspiracy in Scotland fell also as depending on it James Stuart Monroe Melvin Cockran Bayley Castares Spence Alex. Gordon Nezbet c. were the Chief of the Party acting in all Things by Agreement with Argile This perverse Son of a wicked Father had Demanded 30000 l. of the English to buy Arms engaging himself to make a powerful Diversion in his own Country Which he also effected as we shall see hereafter having procured Supplies by other means The Duke of Monmouth youthfully rash inconstant ambitious and hurried on with the Pretense of vindicating Liberty and Religion agitated now with the Guilt of his Crimes had also withdrawn himself But being proscribed and finding but little safety in a Retreat though it his best course to implore that Clemency which he had so cruelly offended Which he did by his Letters seemingly full of Ingenuity wherein he acknowledges his Crimes of Unfaithfulness against the King and of Ingratitude to the Duke bewailing what he had done and humbly supplicating Pardon for what was past With Imprecations of Vengeance upon himself if he offended any more or violated the Promises he then made of his future Fidelity The King the mildest of Princes moved with his Submissions answered him under his own Hand in these Terms That if the Duke of Monmouth would render himself capable of his Mercy it was necessary he should surrender himself into the Hands of Secretary Jenkins and should tell His Majesty all that he knew submitting himself as to the rest entirely to his Pleasure This peremptory Declaration of the King's Will extorted other Letters from Monmouth wherein he patheticalâ—y aggravates his Sorrow and Tortures of Mind for his failings against his Majesty Confessing that being fatally circumvented by the Enchantments of others he was drawn into their Design and precipitated into those Evils the Consequences whereof he had not suspected He declares that his Crimes appeared to him with so terrible an Aspect that he would rather dye than be tormented with their stings he therefore implores the King's Grace and Pardon which he did not desire but by the Mediation of his Royal Highness He further professes That he saith this seriously and sincerely not only submitting himself for this Time to the King's Pleasure but for his whole Life Concluding That he should be the unhappiest of Men until he were raised with a grateful and mild Answer The King after this 1683. Nov. 25. not questioning the sincerity of Monmouth's Conversion admitted him to his presence Where throwing himself at his Majesty's Feet he plainly and fully acknowledged himself conscious of all the Conspiracy except the Parricide discovering many things to the King which they had hitherto been ignorant of Monmouth being by the Intervention of the Duke restored to his Majesty's Favour as formerly obtained also the Favour not to be produced as a Witness against any Body which Grace had been formerly refused to the Duke of Orleance in France and that undoubtedly was the reason that his old Associates and Friends impudently gave out that he had discovered nothing of the Conspiracy but contrarily had vindicated the Innocency of those that had so injuriously suffered The King moved with so great Arrogance and perceiving that Monmouth did continue his Society with those who seduced his unwary Youth after some Admonitions he commanded him to publish in Writing what he had declared to himself and to the Duke his Brother Nor did he refuse it writing to the King in these Terms That he was informed that it had been reported of him as if he had designed to extenuate the late Conspiracy and traduce the Testimonies against them that suffered His Majesty and the Duke knew how ingeniously he confessed all Things and that he was not conscious of the least Evil against his Majesty's Life It grieved him however that he had so greatly countenanced the said Conspiracy He would publish this for his Vindication beseeching his Majesty not to look back but that he would please to forget those Injuries which he had forgiven It should be his Care for the future to sin no more or suffer himself to be misled from his Duty Yea he would spend his whole Life to deserve that Pardon which he had granted to his most Dutiful Monmouth But these Flourishes were no less fickle than short-liv'd For the unhappy Youth being bewitcht by the Artifices of wicked Men and his own Ambition broke that Faith which he had so solemnly promised to preserve inviolable For being foolishly perswaded That the Declaration he had so lately made was a Diminution to his Honour and might rise up in Judgment against him hereafter he redemanded it from his Majesty Who tender of his Good endeavoured to divert him from so preposterous an Attempt but being more obstinately pressed he in great Anger restored it him banishing him at the same time from his Court and Presence The King did not long survive this for being intercepted by a violent Apoplectic Fit he changed his Terrestrial Crowns for one of Glory being so universally lamented by the Good and leaving so great a Desire of him behind him that our Loss was in a Manner inconsolable He was succeeded by James Duke of York who was immediately proclaimed King But he was scarce setled in his Throne when the Hydra of Rebellion lift up her Head again out of the Lake of Schism and Faction BOOK
BEATAM AETERNAM CLARIOR E TENEBRIS CELI SPECTO ASPERAM AT LEVEM CHRISTI TRACTO In verbo tuo Spes mea MUNDI CALCO SPLENDIDAM AT GRAVEM Alij diutius Imperium tenuerunt nemo tam fortiter reliquit Tacit. Histor Liâ—â— 2. c. 47. p. 417 THE HISTORY OF THE Rebellions IN England Scotland and Ireland WHEREIN The most Material Passages Sieges Battles Policies and Stratagems of WAR are impartially Related on both Sides FROM The YEAR 1640. To the Beheading of the Duke of Monmouth in 1685. In Three Parts By Sir ROGER MANLEY Kt. late Governour of Land-Guard-Fort Quaeque ipse Miserima vidi LONDON Printed for L. Meredith at the Angel in Amen-Corner and T. Newborough at the Golden Ball in St. Paul's Church Yard MDCXCI THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER IN regard the Reputation of Histories is generally raised on the Worth of their Authors I thought it convenient to acquaint the World That the Compiler of This was a Gentleman of known Integrity bred in the Church of England for whose Cause joined with that of the Royal Family he was a valiant and zealous Champion having been Personally engaged in the most considerable Battles which his Royal Master King Charles I. fought against his Rebellious Subjects You are not therefore here to expect the Reversion of other Mens Labors no borrow'd Fragments or Scraps of Records no patch'd or imperfect Collections but an entire uniform History with great Impartiality and for the most Part of his own certain Knowledge Yet to free him from Suspicion of any Mistake in these Memoirs it is sufficient to observe That he collected them in those Troublesome Times whose Iniquity would not admit the Publication of them which he reserv'd till there was a clear Stage for Truth to appear on And having surviv'd this Great Rebellion for many Years he has added to the History of that an Account of all the Remarkable Transactions with the Conspiracies Insurrections and Tumults that happ'ned in the Reign of King Charles II. And concludes with the Invasion and Overthrow of the Duke of Monmouth in the West I shall say no more but that this Gentleman dying soon after he had finished these Commentaries the Publication of them was entrusted with me Which I did very readily undertake since I had the Honour to know the Author so well that his very Name was a sufficient Recommendation of the Work And all honest Men that knew Sir Roger Manley were very desirous of a History from his Hand whose Pen was aâ—â—oyal and Just as his Sword Reader honour the Memory of this brave Man and think not ill of the Publisher who like a faithful Executor presents thee with this his last Legacy And if thou take my Pains in good part 't is all the Acknowledgment I expect from thee Adieu THE CONTENTS PART I. BOOK I. THE Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull p. 1. BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battle of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battle of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battle of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battle of Marston Moor. The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copedry-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battle of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place 38. BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distructions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated 84. BOOK IV. The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army Hereford is surprized and Chester surrender'd Oxford besieged and taken The other Royal Garrisons follow Massey's Forces disbanded Contests with the Scots Their barbarous Vsage of the King They sell him He is imprisoned in Holmbey-House The History of the Scots Rebellion and valorous Actions of Montross Independency triumphant The Army mutinies and seize upon the King at Holmbey They court him but deal treacherously with him He flies to the Isle of Wight 122. BOOK V. The King in the Isle of Wight His Message for Peace The Four Dethroning Bills The Votes of Non-address Cap. Burleigh attempts the King's Delivery Rolfe his Life The King appeals to the People They rise in several Parts of the Kingdom Are suppressed Pembroke taken The Scots defeated and Hamilton a Prisoner Colchester surrendered The Treaty in the Isle of Wight broken by the Army They seize upon the King Garble the Parliament The perjur'd Remains of the Commons assume the Supream Power Constitute a pretended Court of High Justice Arraign Condemn and Murther their King His End and Elogy 169. PART II. BOOK I. The Regicides prohibit the proclaiming of the Prince of Wales They abolish the House of Lords and the Government by Kings Choose a Councel of State Displace and Fine the Lord Mayor for refusing to publish the Act for abolishing of Monarchy Declare they will maintain the Fundamental Laws Erect a High Court of Justice Hamilton Holland and
Capell condemned by it and murthered Several Acts of State The Scots proclaim Charles II. Some Actions of the Levellers The King leaves Holland and goes by Brussels into France The Duke of Gloucester banished Continuance of the History of Ireland The King at Jersey Prince Rupert Sails from Kinsale to Portugal Loseth his Brother Prince Maurice by a Hurrycane The King at Breda Treats and Concludes with the Scots Montrosse's unfortunate End Fairfax routed and Cromwell General His Actions in Scotland The Scots barbarous Vsage of the King They are defeated at Dunbar The King crowned at Schone He enters England The Battle of Worcester The King 's miraculous Escape 109 110. BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell Cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character 249. BOOK III. Richard succeeds his Father in the Protectorate He is deposed by the Army The Rump restored Lambert defeats Sir George Booth Montague returns with the Fleet out of Denmark Lambert turns out the Rump Monk dissents and declares for the Rump Lambert marches against him Being deluded by Treaties he is deserted by his Army The Committee of Safety routed and the Rump yet again restored Monk marches to London Readmits the Secluded Members The Parliament dissolv'd by its own Act. An Abstract of the King's Actions and Motions abroad He is proclaimed by the Parliament Returns into England His glorious Reception The End of our Troubles 278. PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oate's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Stafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Fanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds 312. BOOK II. The Rebellion breaks out in Scotland under Argile in England under Monmouth Both are vanquished taken and executed The Final Ruin and End of the Rebellion 336. COMMENTARIES ON THE REBELLION OF England Scotland and Ireland PART I. BOOK I. The Vnion of the Kingdoms of Great Britain The State of Affairs in England The Scots Tumults and their Causes They Rebel and Arm. The King Marches against them but concludes a Peace They break it and enter England with an Army The Little Parliament call'd and dissolved The Treaty at Rippon referred to the Parliament which met in November 1640. The Preludes to their ensuing Rebellion Strafford Impeach'd and Beheaded The Fatal Act of Continuance The Scots dismissed The King follows them into Scotland The Irish Rebellion breaks out The King upon his Return is pompously received by the Londoners The King enters the House of Commons The Bishops accused of High Treason The King forced by Tumults retreats Northward Contests about the Militia His Majesty is repulsed at Hull THE Kingdoms of Great Britain being United under the Dominion of one Prince and the Animosities and Emulations which usually disorder Neighbour-Nations thereby removed gave a sudden Rise to a very great and formidable Power which could not be destroyed but by it self The Moderator of this vast Empire was JAMES VI. King of Scotland and First Monarch of Great Britain undoubted Heir to both as well by Right of Succession from Margaret the only Daughter of Edgar Atheling the last of the Saxon Princes as by that of Force derived to him from the Norman Conqueror This Wise and Learned Prince Charles I. succeeds to the Crown being gathered to his Fathers the loss which his Dominions suffered by it however great was abundantly repaired by the Succession of his Son CHARLES who being truly Heir to his Father's Greatness and Vertues as well as Scepters did excel all his Predecessors in the more severe Disquisition of what was Fit and Just so that our Tragedies will scarce find Credit with Posterity whilst the Ages to come mistrusting the Reports of such enormous Villainies will look upon our unheard-of Vicissitudes but as the Fancies of Poetry and the Decoration of Theatres For how is it possible to believe that the Best of Princes should meet with the Worst of Subjects on whom he had conferred more Graces than the whole Series of his Ancestors and that he who valued his Kingdoms and Life at a lower Rate than the Happiness of his People should by a Judicial Parricide be sacrificed to the ambitious Violence of a prevailing Faction in their Representative and that under the pretence of Usurpation and Tyranny But these things happened an everlasting Reproach to the Nation and not to be atoned for by any Resentment or Hecatombs of Victims King James left a flourishing Kingdom behind him but an empty Treasury and his Successor engaged in a War with Spain and what was worse the Parliament that oblig'd the Father to Arm abandoned the Son when they had exposed him Nor were the succeeding Parliaments more Obsequious or forward in supplying his Necessities how great soever either in recovering the Palatinate or rescuing the French Protestants though undertaken in Defence of the Reformed Religion 'T is true his Third Parliament voted him Five Subsidies but we must own also The Petition of Right that the Petition of Right being a Condescension even to Supererogation deserv'd their best Acknowledgements for raised with that Grant they that very Session questioned the Tribute of Tonnage and Poundage though perpetually enjoyed by his Predecessors Kings of England affirming
mean time the King tells them in the House of Lords the Commons present What had intervened in the War and what else He judged necessary to be done and presses them to supply Means whereby the Rebels might speedily be driven Home again whereunto He also would contribute His Endeavours assuring them further That that being done they should find him most ready to remove all their Grievances But they did not in any kind comply with the King's Desires but seeming displeased with his calling the Scots Rebels resolved not to send them Home with whom they had long since conspired before they had acquired every thing that they judged necessary for the Support of their designed Usurpation With this assurance the Commons purge their House of such as they thought might oppose their Designs and to shew themselves good Patriots entertained such Petitions Preludes to the ensuing Rebellion as they themselves had for the most part framed inveighing against Grievances from several Parts of the Kingdom and omitting entirely what they were assembled for imputed all the Misfortunes and Errors of the Government obliquely to the King through the Sides of his Counsellors and Servants And yet they will seemingly flatter him under pretence of inspecting his Revenue which they pretended much to desire promising not only to augment and settle it but to make his Majesty one of the Richest Princes in Christendom In the mean time to try his Patience and their own Power with the People they ordered Pryn Burton and Bastwick to be released out of Prison Who in defiance of Justice and the King's Authority made a pompous Entry into London attended with many Thousands of pretended Zealots And now they encourage and receive Petitions against the Hierarchy of the Church resolving indeed to change both the Government thereof and also of the State by drawing the Supreme Power by little and little into their own Hands Daring in order to it not only to slight but to question the Lawfulness of the Royal Authority it self But the King's Friends and such who were addicted to Monarchy were to be removed out of both Houses which they endeavour by Threats by Tumults and by affixing their Names upon Posts and in time effected For several of the Nobles and many of the Lower House since they could not Vote with Liberty absented thence altogether whilst they who stay'd being either enslaved to the Faction or unequal to them in Numbers durst say nothing The Lord Keeper and Secretary Windebank with divers others withdrew themselves into Holland and France The Bishops were Imprisoned and Ejected against Magna Charta and the immemorial Custom of past Ages which allowed them a Legislative Power before Parliaments were Instituted The Judges also who had Voted Ship-Money to be Legal were themselves voted Guilty of Treason whilst the weight of their Indignation fell upon the Earl of Strafford who by the Instigation of the Scots was to be taken away The Earl was then in the North having been advertised by his Friends in the House as also by his own Reason of the Danger and therefore advised not to appear in Parliament as knowing the Hatred and Envy both That and the Scots bare against him Who if he kept himself out of their Sight and Reach might perhaps be forgot or at least being less prosecuted make a secure retreat into Ireland which was at his Devotion or beyond Sea till better Times But he relying upon his own Innocence and unwilling to seem Guilty by a Retreat and the King being unwilling to Part with a Person whose Counsel he should want in his most abstruse Affairs came up to London Yet so armed that he had himself designed to Impeach some of his Chief Enemies being sufficiently provided with Matter for an Accusation But they were too nimble for him The Tryal of the E. of Strafford for he had scarce taken his Seat in the House of Lords but he was accused by the Commons of High-Treason And yet there were some Motions made in order to his Preservation in Case the King would consent to advance some of the Grandees of the Faction to the great Offices of the Crown But That being delayed or denied did so incense the Disappointed that joining with the Scots they became more implacable against him The Articles against this Great Man were Twenty-eight in Number whereof the chief were That he had Subverted the Fundamental Laws of the Land Introduced a Despotick Power into the Kingdom and endeavoured to destroy the Ancient Privileges of Parliament To these Sir Henry Vane's Memorials were produced wherein the Opinions of Strafford and some others given in Private to the King were set down which as they added Weight to the Accusation so they added Infamy and Infidelity to the Secretary which he could not clear himself of by pretending his Son had stollen his Notes out of his Closet But nothing of these were lawfully proved although they had invited Witnesses and Accusers out of Ireland too prone of their own accord to destroy this Great Man that he being removed they might attempt that Rebellion which they had long designed For refuting the Arguments produced against him the Faction began to conceive that if they did not destroy him they should hazard their own Reputation especially seeing the King had declared in an Excellent Speech to the Two Houses That he could not apprehend him Guilty and that it was very probable that the Lords would also acquit him Being therefore incensed against him they resolved to destroy him Voting him by a Special Bill of Attainder Guilty of High-Treason for that he had endeavoured to infringe the Laws and had by accumulative Crimes rend'red himself more than sufficiently obnoxious thereby making themselves his Accusers and Judges And thus he was Condemned by a New Law made since his Transgressions For Crimes not yet perpetrated Not for the Ill he had already committed but that he had enabled himself to do what he pleased But they wisely cautioned that this should not be made a President whereby they might secure themselves against that Retribution of Injustice which they had used towards him By this they plainly acknowledged the Injuriousness of their Sentence for had it been otherwise He is Condemned what harm could there have been in the Example Whilst they were thus employed the Tumults without fomented by the Chief of the Conspiracy raged horribly especially against their Dissenting Colleagues whereof Fifty-nine had their Names posted up for Straffordians that is Publick Enemies that thereby they might be exposed to the Madness of the Rabble Though in truth they deserved to have their Names inserted in Gold for daring so generously to assert oppressed Innocence Of these the Lord Digby was one who had been as severe as any in the Prosecution of the Earl till convinced of his Error by the Lustre of the others Vertue he generously recanted whereby he lost himself in the Opinion of the Faction particularly by that
been kept thus long by the Parliament to awe the King and now sufficiently Burthensom to the Kingdom the Parliament having served their Turn of them were to be sent Home The Scots dismissed and are now dismissed having exacted by Contibutions Rapines Spoils Gratuities and Stipend above a Million of Money from the English and their Representatives Posterity will certainly blush when they shall consider the inglorious Actions of their Predecessors in receiving and treating the rebellious and invading Scots as Friends which makes it manifest that their Coming was an Invitation not Invasion Nor would our grave Senators have honoured them with the Title of Dear Brethren or procured an Order to declare them faithful and loyal Subjects having been proclaimed Rebels by the King and that in all the Churches and Chapels upon a Thanksgiving day nor have contributed so largely to their Subsistance but that they had conspired with them and propogated their Councils by the same manner of rebelling For it would have cost less in Money and Honour to have forced them as Enemies out of our Borders than to retain them in England by a sordid Compliance as Friends By allowing them Quarters they impose a Burthen upon the Country which they ease by a Taxation upon the Subject But their Design had always been to keep the. Treasury low and involve the King in Debts which should necessitate him to agree with the Parliament for the ruining of Strafford the Extirpation of Episcopacy and the perpetuating of their own Session About this Time the Armies in England and Ireland were Disbanded the Noise of War ceasing with their Dismission But lest the Irish who had been raised against the Scots to the Number of Eight Thousand should attempt any Commotions the King had given leave to the Spanish and French Ambassadors to transport them for their Masters Service But that was opposed by the Parliament upon the earnest pressing of the Irish Commissioners who having now removed Strafford resolved to add to that Rebellion they had Designed by the Accession of those Common Souldiers The King goes into Scotland The King followed his Countrymen into Scotland where he not only confirmed the Concessions they had extorted in England but graciously conferred upon them whatsoever they demanded of him not considering that degenerate and ungrateful Persons are not to be obliged with any Favours whatsoever Nor was it in England only Oct. 23. 1641. The Irish Rebellion that Discord had displayed her Arts of Faction and Tumult The Irish following the detestable Example of the Scots who had attained by Arms what their Ambition had designed outwent them only in this That they Rebelled more bloodily 'T is strange with what industry so universal and so nefarious a Conspiracy was concealed which was scarce discovered but with the inhumane Slaughter of an Hundred Thousand Persons And it is scarce conceivable that those who were at the Helm of Government should be so negligent or supine as to suffer a Plot of this horrid Nature to gather to a Head and break out to the Infection of the whole Body Politick without any the least Discovery or penetrating into it Especially seeing his Majesty whose Eye was still awake for the Preservation of his People Mar. 16. had Cautioned the Lords Chief-Justices Parsons and Burlace of some dangerous Designs in agitation in Ireland and that Six Months before this fatal Eruption which His Majesty also signified to them he had been acquainted with from his Ambassadors and Agents in Foreign Courts Nor was the Information of Sir William Cole who certified them Twelve Days before it broke out of unusual Resorts and Concourses of suspicious Persons amongst themselves so despicable but that it ought to have been inquired into and such Means and Preparations should in common Prudence have been used as might have checkt any sudden Attempts or Insurrections whatsoever And truly the great Supineness and Security of the English in general did not a little contribute to their Ruine For they could apprehend no Danger considering the perfect Intelligence betwixt them and the Irish cemented by inter-Marriages and all other imaginable Ties of Friendship which seemed the more secure seeing the Catholicks were permitted the private Enjoyment of their Religion and had obtained not onely a considerable Abatement in their Subsidies but many advantageous Redresses from the King's Favour in all their Concerns so that they were at this present in a more flourishing Condition than they had yet enjoyed since their first Subjection In this Security the Irish Army had been disbanded but the Soldiery not disposed of according to the King's Intention and Promises to foreign Embassadors who for want of other Employment proved very assisting to the designed Rebellion by engaging in it But the Irish who had so often and for so many Ages endeavoured to vindicate their Liberty and shake off the heavy Yoke of the English thinking now the Occasion by the Death of Strafford Their Reaesons and the disbanding of the Army he had raised very inviting they eagerly laid hold on it hoping to emancipate themselves from the Slavery they groaned under or at least in Imitation of the Scots acquire by Arms as they had done new Immunities and Privileges But the main thing insisted upon was their Religion which had been derived to them by an immemorial Series of Ancestors and which they always adhered to with inexpressible Bigottry so that observing it to be extreamly persecuted in England and fearing the like Measure at Home it served for the main Pretence of their Rebellion Nor is it absurd to believe but that the Conspirators in England contributed equally to these Tumults as they had done before to the Scottish Commotions since * Clotworthy Pryn Parsons Loftus some of their Party affirmed That the Conversion of the Irish was to be effected with the Sword in one hand and the Bible in the other Ireland could not do well without a Rebellion to the end the Remnant of the Natives might be destroyed They would not leave a Priest in Ireland but extirpate their Superstition and Nation So that it was thought by many that the Irish were forced by the English by these Provocations to take up Arms that they might upon so plausible a pretext be intirely ruined and rooted out as Rebels and Traytors What other Reasons they gave as Oppression Grievances Privileges c. common to all Rebellions may pass as such but that they should pretend to vindicate the King's Prerogative by destroying it is only proper to them and those nefarious Regicides who did so naturally copy them But whatever were the Pretences of the Revolters it is but rational to believe they had never broke out but for the Prospect they had of a Breach which they could not but know from their Committee at London most whereof were Catholicks and many as the Lord Germanston c. prime Actors in the Rebellion betwixt the King and Parliament For they
could have had no Aid from abroad France and Spain being engaged in a War and the Pope though he might wish well remote and not over liberal so that they must necessarily have been ruined by the Forces of England and Scotland The Conspiracy being brought to Maturity many of the Gentlemen first The Conspiracy is discovered and afterwards most of the Nobility as also the entire Multitude of the Romish Religion joined in it and with unheard-of Secrecy assaulted suppressed and took most of the Towns and Fortresses of the Kingdom and sparing none these barbarous Traytors massacred without Respect of Sex or Age them of the English Nation and Religion filling all Places where they came with Ruine Rapines Burnings and infinite Slaughters Dublin the chief Seat of the Government and Kingdom was not surprized being saved by the seasonable Infidelity of one O Conall an Irish-man who being convinced by the horridness of the Fact or greatness of the Reward he hoped for from its Discovery lays open the whole Conspiracy acquainting the Chief-Justices with the Design the Night before it was to have been put in Execution London-derry Colrane Tredagh with some other Towns and Fortresses standing upon their Defence escaped the Danger which with the Arrival of some few Forces from England occasioned a very long and very bloody War The Lords Justices having secured the Castle of Dublin where the King's Magazines were Dublin secured and the City as well as they could with armed Men they the next Morning apprehended Hugh Mac-Mahon Grand-child to the late rebellious Earl of Tyrone who by his unwary Confidence or rather divine Providence had occasioned the Discovery by entrusting O Conalli with the Secret Being brought before the Council he boldly avowed the Conspiracy affirming That as it was universal and to be put in execution that instant Morning so it was not humanely possible to be prevented Some of the Conspirators taken He acknowledged himself their Prisoner and being in their Power they might use him as they pleased he was sure to be suddenly revenged The Lord Macquier another of the principal Conspirators was also taken but few more of Quality the rest of the Undertakers as Roger More Plunket Birne and others having escaped The Citizens with such as could be confided in were immediately armed and Proclamation made and sent into all Quarters of the Discovery of this flagitious Rebellion and their Disappointment of their Attempt upon Dublin as also to exhort all good Subjects to betake themselves to their Defence Upon this Proclamation the Lords of the English Pale being of British Extraction and who in all former Rebellions had been true to the Crown pretending Ignorance of any Plot before this publick Notice repaired to the Council with Assurances of their Fidelity and offer of their Service And they were not only entrusted it being dangerous to suspect them in this Juncture but had also Arms delivered to them upon their Desires and Commissions to levy Men for their own Defence and that of their Provinces The standing Forces in Ireland consisting of scarce 1000 Horse and 2000 Foot were dispersed in the several Fortresses of the Kingdom but so remote that it was not possible the ways being intercepted by the Rebels to draw them to a Body besides many of them being Catholicks revolted and others were surprised or intercepted so that few of them could be brought to Dublin The City was in the mean time fortified with all imaginable Industry being also daily filled with Numbers of such who fled from the cruel and inhumane Barbarities of the Rebels Of these and the neighbouring English two Regiments were formed whereof Sir Henry Tichburne had one together with the Government of Tredagh and Sir Charles Coot the other with the Command of Dublin These two Places being the principal Fortresses of the Party The Justices and Council dispatched an Express to the King who was then in Scotland and to the Parliament at Westminster of the Discovery and Progress of the Conspiracy His Majesty highly perplexed as most concerned with this monstrous Rebellion offers all his Assistance for the suppressing of it acquaints the Parliament of Scotland with it and demands their Aid in it conjures the two Houses at Westminster and empowers them to use the utmost of Force and Counsel to prevent the Progress of the Rebellion and deliver his Protestant Subjects from the Calamities that threatned them Nay sometime after he offered to go in Person and raise 10000 Voluntiers for that Service if the Parliament would but pay them all which they refuse under pretence of not exposing his Sacred Person to so eminent Danger but in truth preferring their own Fears to the Solace of so many desolate Sufferers and lest when he had conquered those Rebels he might be sensible of the Injuries done him and being armed become formidable to the Parliament it self The Houses indeed voted a powerful Relief of Men Money and Provisions but they were but slow in Performance retarding the Supplies they had so eagerly ordered with their undutiful Disputes and Quarrels with the Court till the whole was well nigh lost Bleeding Ireland was the Subject of their Discourse not their Care being too much taken up with the Management of their own Designs at Home so that they went no farther besides exclaiming at the Obstacles they themselves created and that by a Calumny black as the Rebellion it self they cast the Odium of those Delays upon the unsulliedst Innocence in the World the King than whom no Prince could be more sensibly affected with the greatness of the Calamity nor desired the Wellfare of his Subjects with more Affection The King returns out of Scotland The King having appeased Scotland returned to London where he was received with the general Acclamations of the People and all the Pomp imaginable being met by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen and royally feasted together with the Queen and Prince at Whitehall But the Parliament being much disturbed with this solemn Entertainment had prepared another reception for his Majesty They had used all their Arts to hinder his going into Scotland lest peradventure he should tamper with his Army by the way of which they had already created to themselves several Jealousies it being as yet but in disbanding or that he should gain too much upon the Scots-Parliament by his Concessions and Favours But what they more openly acted was to press the King to substitute a Lieutenant in his absence who might personate him not obscurely designing the Earl of Essex for this honour by which grant they might have divested him of every thing but his Title before his return which he perceiving wisely refused them so ruinous a Concession And yet he commissioned him General on the South-side of Trent with Power to raise Forces in case of Necessity But the Faction impatient of every Repulse in revenge framed a Remonstrance in his absence wherein whatever was defective in the Government was as
Command of Essex pretending Danger from I know not what Ambushes and Conspiracies But the King though he shewed the Vanity of these imaginary Terrors and offered his own Person Bayl for their Security was not heard Nay he offered them Two Hundred of the City Militia under the Command of the Lord Chamberlain whose Province it was to take care of the Parliament which they rejected ordering Two Companies under Skippon a Slave to the Faction to attend them whilst an infinite Number of the enraged Rabble as it were assaulting Whitehall and Westminster crying No Bishop Down with Antichrist c. forced the King's Friends who would have entered the House to retire And these Fellows being for the most part such whose Domestick Affairs were either inconsiderable or desperate and consequently as usual most busie and most concerned for the Publick exclude and force away the Bishops knowing them to be immoveable in their Loyalty and Obedience to the King and Government Twelve Bishops committed to the Tower And when this Sacred Order had protested against this Violence the Houses enraged at it sent Twelve of them whom they had voted Guilty of High-Treason to the Tower whereby they secured themselves from their Votes destroying afterwards as much as in them lay their very Function Nor did these Miscreants forbear to vomit their Gall against the Sacred Person of the King himself by villainous and licentious Speeches some of them crying out That he was the Traytor others That the Young Prince would govern better and a prime Leader yell'd out That the King was not fit to live Insomuch that his Majesty perceiving their unbridled Rage which was cherished by those Sons of Violence in the Houses and having though in vain attempted all ways to appease their Fury he removed with his Queen and Children to Hampton-Court After some Stay there his Majesty and the Queen went to Dover with the Princess Mary married some Time since to the Prince of Orange from whence the Queen passed into Holland The Queen goes to Holland under Pretext of conveying her Daughter to her Husband but truly to secure her Person which was not meanly threatned upon Account of her Religion and Conjugal Affection At Canterbury being every where importuned by Messages from the Parliament he was perswaded though much against his Will to Sign a Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament But no Concession could satisfie Unreasonable Men insomuch that his Majesty being returned to Greenwich he went thence with the Prince and Duke of York to Theobalds and so Northwards This Conduct as it happened proved Fatal to the King And some prudent Men did then wonder that his Majesty would leave the City the Seat of his Kingdom which had been also that of his Predecessors filled with Multitudes of his Friends abounding in Riches and all Military Provisions and the only proper place both for Peace and War The King leaves Whitehall and withdraw himself into the Country where all these Advantages were wanting But the Terrors wherewith his Followers and particularly the Royal Family were agitated and the Apprehensions his Majesty had entertained upon their Account as also the Hopes that these Animosities and Heats in the Lower House might cool in Time seem to excuse his Retreat Nor was the King so abandoned by his People but that many honest and brave Men as well of their own Accord as very many more by Gurney the Lord Mayor's Procurement mingled themselves with the Rabble with design to defend the King 's Sacred Person from the Insults and Violence of the Crowd if they should presume to attempt any thing against him Nay the whole Society of Grays-Inn which shewed That the Law as well as Reason was for him coming to Whitehall in order offered themselves to guard his Majesty which seasonable profession of Duty drew from the King both his Acknowledgements and Thanks though he otherwise waved the offer supposing those popular Heats and Insurrections might be best allayed by removing and yielding and lest also he might be thought to meditate a War But the Parliament to add Credit at least Colour to the Terrors they had imbued the People with gave Power to the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace in the Counties to suppress all seditious and suspected Assemblies and seize upon all Arms and Instruments of War and secure the same Amongst other terrible Triflings it was affirmed That the Lord Digby and Colonel Lunsford had appeared in Arms at Kingstone with great Numbers though their Cavalry amounted but to a hired Coach with Six Horses which they ordered to be suppressed and the Colonel was taken and sent to the Tower After this they follow the King to Royston with an insolent Petition and goes Northward wherein they demanded the Tower the Fortresses and Militia of the Kingdom to be delivered to them But these being inseparable Flowers of the Crown were not to be parted with to any and his Majesty being again pressed to it continued immoveable telling them in short That their Fears and Doubts and Jealousies which he looked upon as wild and irregular were such as he would take time to satisfie the World of but that his own were not trivial occasioned by the many scandalous Pamphlets seditious Sermons sundry publick Tumults hitherto uninquired into and unpunished But the Faction seeing the Constancy of the King formed a Declaration wherein after a nauseous Enumeration of Grievances Fears and Jealousies they again peremptorily demand the disposal of the Militia and being again refused resolved to extort it from their King with all their Force Nor was it absurd in them for being conscious of their Crimes and Deserts they could not imagine how to secure themselves from the Punishment due to their Guilt but by asserting the Power of the Sword in their own Hands They therefore passed their Ordinance for the Militia though with solemn protesting That they had not the least Intention or Purpose of any War with the King but how falsly which made it swallowed the easier They then seized upon the Fleet The Parliament arm and the King is excluded at Hull appointing the Earl of Warwick their Admiral and possessed themselves of Hull lest the King should secure the Magazine there by whose Governour his Majesty when he would have entered the Town was shut out by an unheard-of Insolence and manifest Disobedience And this is that Hotham the unhappy Monument of improsperous Infidelity who falling from one Inconstancy to another suffered at length Punishment together with his Eldest Son who to aggravate his Misery was executed before him due to so flagitious a Crime being beheaded by those for whose Sake he had so desperately rebelled The Dye of War being thus cast at Hull the Parties flew out into open Action but lest they should not pretend Justice the Cause was defended on both Sides with Declarations Apologies and other publick Writings which because they are extant I will only add That
as the King had the better Cause so it was also asserted with a better Pen however otherwise unfortunate BOOK II. The King attempts Hull in vain Propositions sent to his Majesty to York Most of the Lords and many of the Commons repair to his Majesty He erects his Standard at Nottingham and raises an Army Essex the Rebels General at Worcester at Keynton The famous Battel of Edge-hill Fight at Branford The King fortifies Oxford Some Actions in other Provinces The Queen lands at Burlington Goes to Oxford The Battel of Lansdowne Of Rownday Downe The Siege and Relief of Glocester The great Battel of Newbury The Parliament invite the Scots to their Succour They enter England The Siege of York The fatal Battel of Marston-Moor The Fights at Brandon Heath and Copredy-bridge Essex defeated in the West The second Battel of Newbury Alexander Carew and the Two Hothams beheaded Mac-Mahon and Macquier executed The Archbishop of Canterbury martyr'd The Treaty at Uxbridge Essex discarded and Sir Thomas Fairfax made General in his Place Hotham proclaimed Traytor HIS Majesty upon Hotham's insolent Refusal caused him instantly to be proclaimed Traytor On the other side the Parliament declare they will defend him and complain highly of the Breach of their Privileges therein as if the King had violated his Subjects Immunities by pretending to the Possession of his own Town and the Magazine he had purchased with his own Money They further sent some of their Members to disturb the King's Preparations at York which they did so effectually that he lost the Opportunity of raising an Army in that County Perceiving then the Danger his Person was in by the Enemies forwardness he demanded a Guard of the Gentry and Free-holders of York-shire which was easily assented to Whereupon the Parliament declared That the King seduced by evil Counsellours did design to make War upon his Parliament forgetting that they had done the same being exagitated with their fictitious Terrors Eight Months before The King with his said Guard and the feeble Assistance of the Trained Bands attempted Hull but The King attempts Hull in vain finding it an Enterprise of much Difficulty would not spend that Time which was so precious in so hazardous an Undertaking But the Parliament confident now in their Numbers and Power for the City of London and the neighbouring Counties were at their Devotion sent a Remonstrance with Nineteen Propositions to the King by which they demand in Effect Nineteen Propositions sent to his Majesty that he should surrender all his Regal Power into their Hands tho they disguised as much as they could their Intentions with a Mixture of some Things really to be approved of by every honest man others specious and popular and some already granted by his Majesty All which as the King well observed in his Answer were cunningly twisted and mixed with other Things of their main Design of Ambition and private Interest But the Propositions the Parliament made to the People were of another Nature for they invited them by an Order to bring in Plate and Money to Guild-hall for the Restitution whereof they should have the publick Faith and all under pretence of rescuing the King out of the hands of Papists and Malignants for the preservation of the Protestant Religion and the Privileges of Parliament And never any Contributions were granted with more earnest and mistaken Zeal than those that were thrown into their Corban by the London and Neighbouring Puritans under the pretext of Godliness but to their own Ruine as it happened The Richer Citizens gave their Money and Plate with Joy and the Women offered their Jewels and Ear-Rings to this Calf of Presbytery Nay the Poorer both married and Maidens gave their Wedding Rings their Bodkins and their Thimbles to promote this Holy War They were all hurried into this mad Humour by the fantastick Ardour of their Levites These being the Boutefeus of Rebellion and Tumult who bellowing in their Assemblies that Religion would be overwhelmed with Popery and their Liberties supplanted by the Approaches of Tyranny declared that there was no Deliverance to be expected but from the Parliament With these Arts and Moneys from the City that Nursery of Rebellion The Parliament raise an Army under the Command of Essex a great Army was raised under the Command of the Earl of Essex and sent forth to destroy the Malignants for so they called such who by the Principles of Honour and Duty adher'd to their Prince and to rescue the King as they gloried out of the Hands of his wicked Counsellours The Title of King was as yet held in great Veneration by the People It pleased them therefore to entitle their War to the King and Parliament though nothing more contrary to both They had not as yet separated Kingship from the Person which shortly after happened for distinguishing betwixt the Politick and Private Capacity of the Chief Magistrate they dared impudently to affirm That the King was Virtually in the Parliament though Personally absent at York Nay they went further as there is still a plus ultra in villainous Rebellion contesting That the supreme Power is primarily in the People and in Kings but by a delegate and fiduciary Commission and therefore as being inferiour to the Whole though superiour to every particular to be reclaimed by Force if they should transgress against Religion and Liberty But to omit these seditious Impertinences sufficiently refuted in the repeating of them the King understanding the Progress and Preparations of the Adversaries and how they had seized his Navy Fortresses and Magazines being himself destitute of all Help except such as those Generous and Loyal Lords and Gentlemen who followed his Fortune Essex and his Adherents proclaimed Traytors The King sets up his Standard at Nottingham did contribute he declared Essex and his Adherents to be Traytors and Rebels and appointing the Marquiss of Hartford General of his Forces erected his Royal Standard at Nottingham inviting thereby all his loving Subjects to his Assistance It was observed that a Gust of Wind did at the same Time blow down the Colours which though looked upon as Inauspicious by some did not yet hinder but that several Thousands repaired to them And his Majesty having received Money and Arms from the Queen grew by these Supplies and the Accession of his Friends most of the Lords and very many of the Lower House repairing to him formidable Insomuch that this great Defection of the Members amongst whom was the Lord Keeper with the Great Seal as they added Life and Reputation to the King's Affairs being for the most part Persons of whole Estates and great Abilities so they did a little raise Apprehensions in them that remained which appeared by their Vote and Impeachment of the Fifteenth of June The Queen proclaimed Traytor The Queen in the beginning of the Troubles retired with her own and the Crown-Jewels some whereof she had pawned for these Supplies into
descending Edge-hill in Battalia and very Chearful had a Sight of the Enemy who were busie in ordering their Army in the Valley below The King viewing of them being asked what he intended to do answered briskly I never saw the Rebels before in a Body I am resolved to fight them God and all good Men assist my Righteous Cause Prince Rupert commanded the Right Wing Lieutenant General Willmot to whom the Earl of Forth was added the Left and the Earl of Lindsey General of the Field led the Main Battel on Foot with a Pike in his Hand and each Division had their Reserves Essex who had Quarter'd at Keynton drew his Army into Battalia in the Vale saluting or provoking the Adversaries with Three great Shot and as many Shouts of his whole Army This Summons was answered by Two great Guns and being advanced nearer the King observed the Rebels Army to be drawn up as followeth Two Regiments of Horse composed the Right Wing commanded by the Two Colonels Balfore and Stapelton and the Lord Fielding had his Regiment in their Rear for a Reserve Essex commanded the Battel at first also on Foot as the adverse General and the Left Wing consisting of Twenty Troops of Horse was led by Colonel Ramsey a Scot. And now the Cannon began to play on both Sides but without any considerable Execution Prince Rupert charged Ramsey with so much Courage that he not only forced him from his Station but off the Field also and the Brigade of Foot next to them frighted with the Flight of their Horse and surprized with the Defection of Sir Faithful Fortescue who mindful of his Duty went over with his Troops to his Majesty threw down their Arms Colonel Essex who commanded them retiring to the Main Body But our Horse following the Chace too far and their Reserves commanded by the Earl of Carnarven and hurried with the same Violence suffered the Victory to slip out of their Hands by their too much eagerness to overcome For if they had charged their Flank bared of their Horse they had probably much incommoded them Essex was more cautious who sending Fielding's Reserve with others under the Command of Hurrey did much disturb the King's Foot destitute by the Absence of their Horse The Left Wing had not the same Success for Balfore had forced Willmot to a disorderly Retreat and breaking Two Battalions of Foot left naked by the Flight of their Horse on that Side opened a passage to the King's Standard The Foot by this were all engaged and the Fight growing very hot the Standard it self was seized on Sir Edmund Varney that carried it being Slain but it was recovered again by Sir Jo. Smith for which generous Act he was by the King the best judge of Merit Knighted upon the Place and honoured with the bearing of that Standard he had so bravely recovered The Earl of Lindsey was slain there having performed all the Parts of a great Captain and his Eldest Son hastning to his Assistance was taken Prisoner The Battel being restored by the Accession of fresh Supplies on the King's Side and the Evening approaching they left combating as if by consent both Sides being weary and the Rebels also in want of Ammunition Both Sides therefore rallying their shatter'd Forces drew up into Battalia as at the Beginning By this the Prince was returned who if he had not amused himself in that vain pursuit and Plundering of the Enemies Carriages at Keynton the War had been ended at this first Blow Essex was strengthened in the Field with Colonel Hamden's Regiment and presently afterwards by Colonel Hollis his Foot and the Lord Willoughby's Regiment of Horse who meeting Prince Rupert's Wing in the Lanes pursuing of Ramsey forced him back into the Field Although Essex was more numerous by the Addition of these Three fresh Regiments he did attempt no farther upon the King considering also that the Prince's Horse of whose Bravery he had had Experience were fresh and entire Night being come the King withdrew to the Hill from which he had descended where he lay all Night in his Coach with the Prince of Wales the Hopes and future Glory of our Nation the Camp shining with Fires The next Morning the King sent off his Foot towards Ayno and having stood sometime in Battel-array with his Horse did also follow Essex lay in the Field where he had fought and however recruited with the Accession of Three entire fresh Regiments attempted no farther upon the Royallists but retreating to the Banks of Avon under the protection of Warwick-Castle Essex retires to Warwick suffered the King to march whither he pleased The slain on both Sides were at first believed to amount to near Five Thousand though the Country by a stricter Enquiry affirmed they had not buried above a Thousand which is the more probable seeing Slaughters of this Kind are ordinarily magnified On the King's Side the General bravely performing the Duty of his Place as also that of a private Souldier was slain together with the Lord Aubigny and Sir Edward Varney who died in this Field of Honour The Rebels lost Colonel Essex who signalized himself by his Bravery Lieutenant Colonel Ramsey and the Lord St. Johns who being taken died of his Wounds Both Parties attributed to themselves the Honour of the Victory The Essexians said That the Field and Dead were left to their Disposal The Royallists likewise gloried that they had done what they designed by removing the Obstacles that hindred their March towards London The King continues his March adding farther That the Rebels however strengthned with Three Regiments durst not oppose themselves to the King's Passage the next Day And truly though the King's Forces were much shattered they grew accidentally more formidable than before to whom it proved no small Victory considering his Discouragements not to have been vanquished For many Eminent Persons who stood at gaze before seeing the Party equal ranged themselves now without difficulty on the better Side where their Duty and Inclination invited them How fair this Enemy behaved themselves in other things may be guessed by Letters taken amongst their Baggage in the Battel discovering the Treasons of one Blake in the King's Army Blake's Treason Punishment who daily gave Intelligence of what passed to the Rebels and particularly in what part of the Army the King fought that they might direct their Bullets with more Certitude at so Illustrious a Mark. Perhaps thus designing as they had Religiously affirmed to defend the King's Person But the unhappy Contriver of this nefarious Treason expiated his Crime with his Life being hanged on the next Tree O. Cromwell 's first Adventure I cannot omit what is affirmed of Cromwell then a Captain of Horse in Essex his Regiment who absented himself from the Fight He had observed from the Top of a Steeple in the Neighbourhood the Disorder of the Right Wing of their Army wherewith being greatly terrified he slipp'd down
save that the Commissioners were forced to confess That the King for The King 's rare Wisdom they were commanded by their Masters to treat with no Body but his Majesty alone did excel in Sharpness of Wit in most accurate Vnderstanding of Things and in Quickness of Judgment That he also heard the contrary Objections and Arguments with unimitable Patience Unhappy only in this That he attributed more to the Advice of others than his own Opinion The Parliament had long since seized upon all the King's Castles Forts Arms Governments Ships Revenues Treasure and Ornament But to shew their Intentions for Peace they Denounce War with an Oath declaring They will not lay down Arms as long as the King had an Army under whose Protection Papists that is Royallists and such who were obnoxious to the Law might find Sanctuary Nay they came to that pitch of Boldness that they presumed by their own Authority to summon a National-Synod Where rejecting the ancient Forms of Councils they impower this composed of Presbyterian and Independant Clero-Layicks to establish Religion and the Forms for Government in the Church They also falsified the Great Seal by making another instead of that which was with the King and use it publickly Thus this Pacifick Tribe seeks for Peace and immolates to injured Majesty by rendering as much as in them lay the Differences irreconcileable But this Counterfeiting of the Great Seal was voted Treason by the Parliament at Oxford some time after The Earl of Newcastle in the North During these Traverses the Earl of New-Castle raised an Army in the North to whom the Earl of Cumberland joined himself On the other Side the Two Fairfaxes Father and Son were for the Parliament The first material Encounter they had was at Tadcaster where the Rebels were beaten the Royallists having forced them out of Town after which they also took Bradford But the Fairfaxes being afterwards recruited they took Leeds and Colonel Cholmley and Boynton routted and took Colonel Slingsby at Gisburg The Younger Fairfax gained also a notable Victory at Wakefield against part of Newcastle's Army but he did not enjoy the Sweets of it long for his Forces were afterwards quite broken by the Marquiss's who over-spreading the Country with his Power Victorious and having received great Stores of Arms Cannon and other Military Utensils with the Colonels Goring and King from Holland drove the Rebels quite out of the Field and shut up the Lord Fairfax Besiegeth Hull and his Remnants in Hull where he besieged him This was a fatal Oversight for if he had carried the War into the associated Eastern Counties humanely spoke he had not only added those Rich Provinces to his Victories but by intercepting the Contributions of Money and Men which those Rich Countries perpetually furnished the Rebels with put an End to the War it self and that without Blood The Queen Lands at Burlington Early in the Spring the Queen landed at Burlington with many Officers and Commanders of Note as also great Stores of Arms and Provisions for War In this Place and in her Quarters her Majesty underwent no less hazard than at Sea for an English Man of War coming then into the Bay fired into the Town with so much Fury that she was forced to abandon her Lodging and seek for shelter behind the Hedges But being received magnificently by Newcastle and with Honours due to so great a Princess she was attended by him to York Goes to York into which City she entered in Triumph her self being the most pompous part of the Show The Earl of Montross eminent for his Youth and Nobility and of high Esteem in his Country having deserted the Covenanters because he found them designing to Ruine the Church and Monarchy came accompanied with the Lord Ogelby and One hundred and Twenty Horse to wait upon the Queen at York where he informed her Majesty of the Covenanters Preparations in Scotland and that they would in a very little Time Invade England with a great Army Hamilton came thither also to salute the Queen and with his known Arts refuting Montross's Assertions prayed her to give no Credit to One so Young and Vain which she unhappily inclined to Sir Hugh Cholmley Governour of Scarborough with Three hundred Men came also in at the same Time returning to his Obedience to his Sovereign Which the Two Hothams seemed also to attempt though unfortunately so dangerous Rebellion is that it often Ruines those who would return to their Duty again The Marquiss of Hartford having Command of the Western Counties and assisted by the Lord Pawlet Sir Ralph Hopton Sir Bevil Greenville Sir John Stowell and others all eminent for Courage and Loyalty performed many great Actions On the other Side Major General Chudley and the Earl of Stamford were very Active But Hopton not to be named without an Epithet of Honour harassed these in several Encounters He routed Chudley at Lanceston beat him at Chafford and defeated both him and Stamford in a great Fight at Stratton Hopton defeats the Rebels at Stratton He took here One thousand and Seven hundred Prisoners besides many slain Thirteen Brass Cannon Seventy Barrels of Powder c. This Victory restored the Neighbouring Provinces to their Duty to the King and Hopton himself for his eminent Services was created Baron of Stratton where he had fought so bravely The Rebel-Chieftains fled to Exeter where they were besieged and forced afterwards to surrender to Prince Maurice Hopton after his Victory marched into Somersetshire encountring Sir William Waller a famed Champion of the Rebellion Fights Waller at Landsdowne at Landsdowne near Bath The Fight was brave contested with equal Valour and Obstinateness and continued till late in the Night The Enemy at length drew off into the Town leaving lighted Matches in the Hedges and Walls to amuse the Royallists behind them The Enemies greatest Loss was in their Foot and ours in that of the Noble Sir Bevil Greenville who with a Stand of Pikes had sustained the reiterated Charges of the Roundheads and repelled them He was a Person of no less Loyalty than Courage which made him equally lamented by the Brave as well as the Good The Rebels Loss was greater than ours as well in Officers as Souldiers though abundantly compensated by the Death of the said Greenville and the blowing up of our Powder fired as was believed by One of the Prisoners The General himself was much endangered being hurt by the Flame of it the which together with the Want it occasioned obliged him to shut himself up in the Devizes until he could be recruited with new Stores Waller intent upon Opportunities followed him close and block'd him up in the said Town where they were forced to use their Bed-cords for want of Match But the Siege lasted not long for the King admonish'd by the Danger these brave Men were in sent the Lord Willmott to whom was joined Prince Maurice the Earl of Carnarven
and the Lord Byron excellent Persons all with Fifteen hundred Horse to their Relief Being advanced near the Town Battel of Roundway-Downe July 13. 1643. the Horse were drawn up upon Roundway-Downe in One entire Line save that a Forlorn-Hope advancing before the Body encountred and beat another of theirs up to their Army which stood in Battalia upon the Hill A Valley divided the Two Armies which by reason the Enemy kept their Ground and the Advantages of the Height they stood upon we were obliged to pass which was done with Resolution notwithstanding the continual Discharges of the adverse Cannon and in very close Order and charging their Horse most of them being Curiassiers we bore them before us broke and entirely routed them We had only Two small Field-Pieces which were also Discharged but once from a high Hill upon our Left Hand being guarded by a few Dragoons to give Notice to the Town of the Approach of their Relief The Enemies Foot notwithstanding the Flight of their Horse stood firm nor would be broken until they perceived our Foot marching out of Town who advanced but slowly for fear of Ambushes and then they threw down their Arms and dispersed but to little purpose being well nigh all kill'd or taken There were Eight hundred slain Two thousand taken Four Brass Pieces of Ordnance with all their Ammunition and great Store of Provisions besides Eight and Twenty Foot Colours and Nine Cornets of Horse The Loss on the King's Side was very small except that about Thirty young Gentlemen most Voluntiers whereof the Relater being sorely wounded in the Head and Right Hand was one being too far engaged in the Pursuit were taken and carried Prisoners to Bristol from whence they in a little time were relieved for that City being ill defended was surrendred by Colonel Fines the Governour to the conquering Army for which Act as savouring of Pusillanimity he was tried by a Court-Marshal But he had approved himself Valorous against the Unfortunate having cruelly hanged and murthered Robert Yeamans Yeaman and Bouchier murthered at Bristol and George Bouchier Two prime Citizens and eminent for their Loyalty upon Pretence of their Designing to deliver the City to Prince Rupert notwithstanding the King 's and the King's General the Earl of Forth 's Letters Admonitions and Menacing to the contrary Waller and Hazlerigg fled to Bristol but apprehending a Siege went thence to London to recruit and the Citizens out of the high Opinion they had of Waller easily consented to supply him At the same time of the Bristol-plot there was another Conspiracy discovered at London Mr. Waller by his ingenious Confession and the rare Eloquence of Ten thousand Pounds Chaloner and Tomkins at London saved his Life Chaloner and Tompkins more loyal and deserving a better Fate were hanged before their own Doors The King's Forces were very successful also in other Places though the Victory gained at Hopton-Heath where Gell and Brereton Hopton-Heath Fight Two of the Rebels Champions lost their Cannon and the Day was very dear for it cost no less than the Life of the most Noble Earl of Northampton who being unhappily fallen from his Horse amongst Concy-Borrows was barbarously murthered After this Prince Rupert joining his Forces with these thus destituted having forced Burmigham a very Receptacle of Sedition though with the Loss of the old Earl of Denbigh took Leichfield-Close The Lord Brookes a fierce Zealot of the Party against Bishops in the attempting of it before upon his Advance to it had inauspiciously implored a Sign from Heaven of the Divine Approbation of his Design for whilst he was ordering his Battery though compleatly armed a Bullet glancing near him The Lord Brooke kill'd at Leichfield shot him into the Eye and Brain upon St. Chad's-Day the Patron of that Cathedral Some time after Essex having recruited his Army besieged Redding and having repelled the Cavaliers designed for its Relief at Causum-Bridge had it surrendred to him by Fielding the Lieutenant Governour Sir Arthur Aston who commanded in hief being sore hurt They were startled at Oxford at this Surrender and there wanted not them who blamed Essex for not moving that way with his Forces now victorious But others again excused him fancying that he designed to put an End to the War by a Peace not a Conquest Taunton and Bridgwater fell likewise into the Rebels Hands On the other side Prince Rupert beat the Round-heads at Chalgrave Field where many of them of Note were kill'd and taken Prisoners Colonel Hambden one of the Five Members who commanded was slain in that very Field where he first rendezvouz'd his Men against his Sovereign Very many other Fights and Skirmishes happened with various Success in thâ— several Counties of the Kingdom which to 〈◊〉 â—rolixness I have designedly omitted or but slightly mentioned contenting my self to be particular in those only which seemed decisive as to the Fate of the Kingdom The Queen having raised an Army in Yorkshire and the neighbouring-Counties leaving a considerable Force with Sir Charles Cavendish for the Defence of Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire marched with the rest consisting of about Four Thousand Men Six Field-pieces and Two Mortars towards the King The Queen meets the King at Edge-hill whom she met at Edge-hill not more famous for the Battel fought there than for this Royal Congress The Joy after so long an Absence was very great as may be justly presumed since the Passions of Affection and Esteem never appeared more eminent than in this Pair-Royal of Lovers And now with joined Forces and Desires they marched towards Oxford After the destroying of Sir William Waller's Army at the Devizes and the taking of Bristol the King was absolute Master of the Field The Marquiss of Newcastle having also ruined Fairfax at Bramham-Moor and subdued the whole North having shut up the Remains of the Enemy in a few Garrisons was likewise at Liberty to act what he pleased But the King contrary to his own Sentiments and Advice being overborn by his Council of War or rather betrayed by his Fate and the Perfidy of some pretended Friends omitting London the Head of the Rebellion miserably squandered that Time which was irrecoverable in the unfortunate Siege of Glocester whilst Newcastle amused himself about Hull Whereas if they had joined their Forces the Rebels having no Army then in the Field to oppose them he might not only have routed the pretended Parliament who were already upon the Point to dissodge but have given Law to that proud City the Source of the Rebellion and his Misfortunes But it seemed otherwise good to Providence and the Two Houses who were in a desponding Condition raised with this unhoped for Opportunity recruited their empty Regiments well nigh ruined with Sickness and Sedition with all imaginable Speed and alluring to their Assistance the City-Forces they not only relieved Glocester but raised their declining Cause to a Balance with the Kings But of these
so many Graces upon them upon his being in Scotland having refused them nothing they had demanded of him that their Parliament taken with so great Indulgence had decreed That if any whosoever should levy Men or take up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever except by the King 's Express Order he should be guilty of damnable Treason Nay they profess farther upon Oath That in Case the King's Person should at any Time be endangered they would defend his Majesty's Cause and Honour as they were in Duty bound with their Lives and Fortunes When the King was at Edinbrough he had advanced Two very Ingrateful Persons to great Honour Lesley he made an Earl and Hamilton a Duke The First exstasied with the Greatness of the Favour protested solemnly perjured Wretch That he would never bear Arms more against his Majesty And the other if we may believe publick Fame betrayed all his Master's Counsels to his Enemies but perfidiously concealed Theirs though a Privy Counsellor from his King It may not be unworthy Notice to declare what farther happened at the same Time There was a great Noise rumour'd A pretended Conspiracy against Hamilton and Argyle of a Conspiracy against the Lives of Hamilton and Argyle with some others contrived by the Earl of Crawford and his Party This Report however fictitious and imaginary gained such Credit that the King himself was not obscurely reflected upon Which his righteous Soul took in such Scorn that he could not forbear to tell Hamilton when as the Custom is he delivered him his Patent in Parliament whereby he was created Duke That he did not deserve to be suspected by him who could not choose but remember That at that very Time when he was accused to him of High-Treason he suffered him that very Night to lie in his Bed-Chamber After this the Wars growing Hot in England the King advertised his Privy-Council in That Kingdom of the State of his Affairs in This demanding their Advice and Aid who returned an Answer full of Duty and Loyalty but with a Resolution to perform nothing they had promised For the Business being known at London they of Westminster caressed their lately acknowledged Brethren so effectually that they did not scruple to declare That they would act nothing against the Parliament no not in Favour of the King himself which they also perfidiously faithful did perform Nay more these Ungrateful Wretches forgetful of their Honour and Allegiance invade England with a Great Army causing that Fatal Change in the Kings Affairs till then very Prosperous that cost him his Life and them their Liberty to those whose Encrease they had so obstinately pursued The King perceiving how furiously the prevailing Faction did drive on and that it daily received Strength from London resolved to remove the Parliament to Oxford which he did by publick Proclamation where most of the Lords and amongst them the Earls of Holland Bedford and Clare who were lately come in to the King tho' they left him again with the same Levity and near Two Hundred of the Commons met at a Day The rest in Scorn of their Duty continued at Westminster until they were outed thence by their own Servants The first Business that the Parliament at Oxford undertook was to admonish the Scots by Letters That they should not hostilely Invade England it being no less than High-Treason to attempt it But this as also the King's Dissuasory Message was to no purpose Nay they were so rudely impudent that they caused a Letter writ to them and Signed by all the Lords to be Burnt by the Hands of the Common-Hangman The Scots enter England March 1. They therefore Invade England the Year being far spent with Eighteen thousand Foot Two thousand Horse and One thousand Dragoons and passing the River Tine send their Declaration before them pretending That they designed nothing but the Reformation of Religion the King's Honour and the Peace of the Kingdom The King extreamly surprized with this Invasion having been still kept up with a Belief that the Scots would not enter England finding himself deluded committed Duke Hamilton and his Brother Lanerick who were newly posted out of Scotland as afrighted with the News they brought to Prison The former being accused of several other Treasons also Hamilton sent to Pendennis-Castle was afterwards sent to Pendennis-Castle His Brother escaped to London and so to Scotland which he lately abandoned as unsafe whereof he was Secretary though the Court-Signet had been taken from him But to march with the Scots into England where the Parliament had long since seized upon the King's Castles Forts Arms Ships Revenues Treasure Ornaments c. they now to Complement their new Allies urge their impious Covenant so far that the Subject must either forfeit his Faith or Estate But Religion was always pretended and all their Undertakings veiled with the Masque of Godliness They divest her of her Ornaments under pretence of dressing her and with Impious Hands prophane her Monuments transferred to us from our pious Ancestors who sealed the Faith we own with their Bloods Their zealous Fury extends to our Churches destroying whatever was in them either Reverend for Antiquity or to be Esteemed for its Artifice They turn Temples into Stables and the House of Prayer into a Den of sacrilegious Impurity Amongst other Acts and Triumphs of their Reformation they demolished Charing and Cheapside-Crosses eminent for their Beauty and the Artificiousness of their Structure converting the Superstitious Metals they were composed of to their own Use It may not be from the Purpose to relate a Story of ludicrous as well as impudent Boldness Harry Martin H. Martin Inspects the Regalia who had said in the House That the Felicity of the Nation did not consist in the Family of the Stuarts for which he then to palliate the Impudence had been confined was ordered to Survey the Regalia which he did for breaking the Iron Chest wherein they were kept he took out of it the Crown Sceptre and Vestments belonging to Edward the Confessor wherewith the Kings of England had since been always inaugurated saying though falsly with a scornful Laughter There will be no more Vse of these Trifles With the same unmannerly Impudence he caused George Withers a pitiful Poet then present to be dressed in those Royal Vestments who being also Crowned walked at first stately up and down but afterward putting himself into a Thousand Mimick Postures endeavoured to expose those Sacred Ornaments to the Contempt and Derision of the By-standers These afterwards as also the Robes and Plate belonging to the Church were sold Nor could they be perswaded to leave one Silver Cup to be used at the Communion affirming with barbarous Sacrilege That a wooden Dish would serve the Turn Nor is it any wonder That these Sacred Vtensils were thus abused when the Sacred Function of Ministers was so Inhumanely treated of whom a Hundred and Fifteen in the City and Suburbs were for their
but fell unlamented by Reason of their Inconstancy Of the Hothams I have made some mention already And of Carew I will add this not unworthy to be noted which happened at the Tryal of the Earl of Strafford Sir Bevil Greenville a Person never to be mentioned but with Honour at the passing the Bill of Attainder said to Sir Alexander sitting then next him and both serving for Cornwall Sir pray let it not be said That any Member of our County should have a Hand in this Ominous Affair and therefore pray vote against this Bill But the other instantly replied If I were sure to be the next Man that should suffer upon the same Scaffold and with the same Axe I would give my Consent to the passing of it And wee have seen how truly and how circumstantially exact he foretold his own Fate Archbishop Laud murthered January 10. William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury followed next more truly lamented of all good Men. They had abolished the Book of Common-Prayer and the Liturgy as Preludes to his Fate and Function But not daring to hazard his Tryal by a Common-Jury for no Law could condemn him nor by the Peers as equally dubious he then was voted Guilty in the Commons House the Lords by an inauspicious Compliance sitting with them The Scots had formerly declared him an Incendiary and a publick Enemy upon which Accompt he had been thus long kept in Prison And now they demand his Life as a grateful Retribution for their Assistance which was also sacrificed to their Ambition and Fears Thus the Covenant betwixt both Nations was to be cemented with Episcopal Blood This Great Pillar of our Church as he had been eminent in his Life for Vertue was no less remarkable at his Death for his Piety He preached his own Funeral Sermon upon the Scaffold and that with a Countenance no less serene than his Mind which he was going to offer up to his Creator and far from that seeming Weakness as he then Prophesied which appeared in him when the Illustrious Strafford going that same way called to him for his Benediction Generous Spirits being no less affected for their Friends Sufferings and sometimes more than their own And thus fell this Good Man and Good Bishop by the nefarious Ambition of Pretended-Reformed Christians We must acknowledge that the Bishops fell by the Envy of the Presbyterians who stirr'd up the People against them as too seemingly imperious Not that they would have their Power abrogated for That they pretended to themselves being resolved to assert that of Archbishops in their National and that of Bishops in their Provincial Synods whilst every Individual Presbyter should exercise more than Prelatick Jurisdiction in his own Classis The publick Severity requiring more Blood the Lord Macquire and Macmahon Two Irish Noblemen Chief Contrivers in the Bloody Conspiracy in Ireland deservedly suffered the Gallows though not proportionable to their abominable Contrivance And yet these especially Macquire had been tampered with to accuse the King as an Abettor in this nefarious Rebellion which he yet generously enough disowned upon his Death Fortune as yet or rather Providence had not decided the Quarrel The War was unhappily prolonged and there appeared some Hopes of composing our Troubles by Treaty and particularly in that of Vxbridge The Treaty of Uxbridge The King as is already mentioned after his routing of Waller at Copredy-bridge and defeating of Essex at Lestithiel had sent Messages to the Parliament with offers of Peace which he now again renews from Oxford no less graciously than affectionately inviting them to comply with him in restoring these harassed Kingdoms to their former Tranquillity But it proved fruitless and all the King's Concessions how indulgent soever could effect nothing For the Demands of the Faction were so high and their Propositions so unreasonable that the King could not assent to them without ruining his Conscience as a Christian and his Majesty as a Prince For these modest Men did require The Extirpation of Hierarchy by the Abolition of Episcopacy and the Liturgy and the Introduction of Presbyters and the Directory in their stead They would divest the King of all his Power both Military and Civil And did press That the Nobles and such as had been true to their Duty should be delivered over to their Justice that is to Death to Imprisonment and Exile Which appeared so Inhumane and Tyrannical that it is abhorring to Sense and Reason whilst these nefarious Conspirators do not think that the King hath done enough in pardoning his Enemies unless he also betray his Friends By this it appeared how inclinable they were to Peace As also by their sudden breaking of the Treaty contrary to the King and his Commissioners Desires they did demonstrate that they were resolved to permit the Decision of the Cause to the Sword and to perpetuate themselves thereby in their Usurped Tyranny Shrewsbury surprized About this Time Major General Mitton surprized Shrewsbury betrayed to him being of very great Detriment to the King Scarborough and Weymouth were also taken which happening presently after the Treaty the Houses ordered a Day of publick Thanksgiving for these great Victories as being Evidences from Heaven of their Sincerity Sir Thomas Middleton had formerly beaten Colonel Marrow from the Siege of Oswestry Nor was he less fortunate at Montgomery He had surprized the Castle by Intelligence which by reason of the Consequence of its Situation being an Entry into North-Wales was again Besieged by the Lord Byron General of those Countries But Middleton with the Assistance of Brereton Meldrum and Sir William Fairfax with their conjoined Forces relieved the Place and after a sharp Fight The Fight at Montgomery routed the Cavaliers Fortune seemed at first to favour the juster Side by forcing away the Enemies Horse but changing the Rebels carried the Day The slain of the Royallists were at least Three Hundred and no fewer wounded though the Enemy scarce lost a Hundred except Fairfax and Symons And now Essex a no less Victory to the Independents as also the Earls of Denbigh Manchester and Warwick and the rest of the Chief Officers lay down their Arms resting Inglorious and only not neglected especially Essex who denied to give Peace to the Kingdom Essex discarded though invited to it by the King himself when it was in his Power And now retiring from Business he languished away the Residue of his Days in Discontent and an irksome Retreat BOOK III. The Continuation of the Irish Rebellion The Lords of the. Pale side with the Rebels Their Model of Government The Cruelty of the English in Ireland Ormond makes first a Cessation then a Peace with the Irish Delivers Dublin to the English The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Irish Rebels Fairfax marches Westward recalled besieges Oxford The King relieves Chester Takes Leicester The Fatal Battel of Naesby described The King's Cabinet taken and published Fairfax relieves Taunton The
Fight at Langport He takes Bridgwater Sherburne and Bristol The King's Travels and Labours The Scots besiege Hereford They quit it The Fight at Rowton-Heath Digby and Langdale defeated in the North. Barclay-Castle the Devizes and Tiverton taken Cromwell takes Winchester and Basing-House by Assault The Fight at Torrington The Prince passes into France The Lord Hopton disbands his Army Distractions at Newark The King returns to Oxford The Lord Ashley defeated Continuation of the Rebellion in Ireland IT is now time to return to the Irish History we have hitherto discontinued with design not to interrupt the English And shall now take the same Liberty to represent this to the Rendition of Dublin to the English in one continued Relation The King had committed the Government of Ireland to the Earl of Leicester a Favourite of the Faction upon a Supposition that that Kingdom would be the better provided for But he observing the backwardness of the Parliament however pressed by frequent Addresses from the Council there and by reiterated Messages from his Majesty nearer had no mind tho' invited to it and entrusted with it to stir or engage himself in so hazardous an Enterprise He therefore lest he might seem wholly to neglect his Province commissioned the Earl of Ormond a Person made up of Honour and Loyalty to be his Lieutenant General in that Kingdom which was likewise approved of by his Sacred Majesty the best Judge of Men and Abilities and who afterwards Honoured his Merit with the Chief Government of the whole Which he performed with so much Courage Constancy and Prudence as will raise him a Trophy of Honour in the Annals of Time Upon his Arrival at Dublin with a Troop of a Hundred Horse well armed having been summoned thither by the Lords-Justices he revived by his Presence the desponding Courage of the City He also immediately proposed in Council the raising of a small Army which might in the Infancy of the Rebellion have suppress'd or else stopt its Progress but they being either not able or not willing and the Reader may believe both as will too visibly appear hereafter the Business was laid aside The Conspirators especially in Vlster where they were most predominant having with the Extremity of Rage and Cruelty drowned slain spoiled stripp'd and ejected infinite Numbers of the poor Protestants made Sir Phelim O Neal their General He was of the House of Tyrone but bred up in Lincoln's-Inn and a Protestant till of late though indeed of no famed Conduct or Courage However he took Dundalk which was surrendred to him and besieged Tredah by Sea and Land Tichburne the Governour doubtful of the Event had demanded and obtained the Grant of Succours from Dublin Six Hundred Foot were sent to him under the Command of Major Roper with a Convoy of Fifty Horse for their Security But they were surprized in a Mist by the Irish and defeated scarce one Hundred of the Foot escaping to Tredah with the Major though the Horse with Weems their Commander brake through and returned back to Dublin It is not conceivable what Courage this Success then great infused into the wavering Irish Those who were content to look on before became hereupon Actors in this Tragedy Nay The Lords of the Pale join with the Rebels the Lords of the Pale who had hitherto stood upon their Guard now upon the uncontrouled Progress of the Rebels and the no Appearance of any considerable Forces from England the Breach there betwixt the King and Parliament daily wid'ning to oppose them they also contrary to the sacred Vows of Duty and Allegiance forfeited both by joining with their Countrymen Nay all the Provinces in the Kingdom broke out into a detestable Rebellion being instigated thereunto by their Priests and Confessors with the Appearance nay Assurance of Liberty and Heaven Besides they had understood that their Country was to be enslaved and their Estates to be divided amongst the English Adventurers to each proportionable to the Money raised by them for the Use of the War Nay further that they not only designed to suppress the Rebellion but the very Religion of the Rebels They therefore now declare That they fight for their Altars for their Subsistance and for their Lives seeing their Countrymen were denied Quarter in England So that their taking up Arms was no Rebellion their extream Peril unavoidably obliging them to it These and the like Arguments obliged all to run to their Natural Defence so that there was no Corner exempt from this dismal Infection And yet it was not so universal but that some of the principal of the Nobility continued to their great Honour unshaken in their Fidelity to the King nor so bloody but that some Marks of Humanity appeared in the very Actors in this Tragedy who sheltered cloathed fed and delivered very many from the Barbarities of their Associates Which ought not to be silenced without Injustice and Ingratitude The Rebels settle a Form of Government And now the Rebels finding their Strength and Numbers considerable institute a Form of a Common-wealth and choosing amongst themselves a Council of the most eminent Persons of the Party gave it the Title of The Supreme Council of the Confederate Catholicks of Ireland and framing an Oath of Association by which all were bound to obey them assumed the Form of a Regular Government This Senate consisted of Five and Twenty Six out of each Province the Twenty Fifth being Castle-Haven newly escaped from Dublin where he had continued a Prisoner a great while They also made them a Great Seal coined and raised Money erected several Courts of Judicature appointed several Officers of State and amongst other Points of Regality constituted Four Generals of the Four Provinces Preston for Lemster Barry Munster Owen Roe O Neal Vlster Burk Their Four Generals Conaught They had cleared most of the Inland Countries of the English and did really bear all before them until those few English sent over joining with the Protestants at Dublin put a stop to their Carier In the mean Time they put out their Remonstrance where amongst other things they declare That they had taken up Arms for Defence of the Roman-Catholick-Religion their own Rights and Privileges and the King's Prerogative c. exactly copied afterwards by the Rebel-Parliament in England The Irish had hitherto lived in Amity with the Scots apprehending the Neighbourhood of Scotland and lest they should buckle with Two Enemies at once but finding their Power grow they also fell upon their Quarters using them with no less infamous Barbarities than they had done the English But the Siege of Tredah went but slowly on for tho' they practise all the Arts of Force and Intelligence in the assaulting of it They raise the Siege of Tredah yet upon the Arrival of Sir Simon Harcourt with a strong Regiment out of England despairing of carrying it they quitted it notwithout considerable Loss For the Governour falling in his Rear
with most of his Garrison did such Execution upon them that he pursued them to Dundalk which he also took by Assault forcing O Neal to pass the River for his Security For all this the Enemies by the general Defection of the Nation grew so numerous that they threatned Dublin and filling the Villages and Country round extreamly obstructed their Markets and Commerce by their Cavalcades There were no less than Twenty Thousand reckoned in this Province of Lemster but they wanted Skill and Military Conduct so that they waged War with Numbers not Understanding Whilst the English who were but few and had received no great Assistance out of England did not only oppose but dared to provoke them beating routing killing and destroying them in well-nigh all the Encounters they had with them for being well armed well led and well disciplin'd they easily vanquished so effeminate and so unknowing and Enemy The Cruelty of the English in Ireland But as the Brittish were more brave so they were no less cruel than the Irish revenging the Barbarousness of their Adversaries with equal Inhumanity For they destroyed many Thousands of them ruining with Fire and Sword and pillaging all they met with reducing a well planted most fertile Country into a Solitary Desart whereby they did not only destroy the Natives but created to themselves irreparable Mischief and Desolation by ruining that which they should have subsisted with Hence grew those Wants upon them which they had occasioned and were now forced to combat a stronger Enemy than they had yet encountred as Hunger want of Pay Clothes and all other Nutriments of War Which they had in vain expected from the Parliament its self now Rebellious and so far from assisting them Their Necessities that they themselves seized upon the Money designed for Ireland taking a Hundred Thousand Pounds of it at once and employing those Regiments raised for that Service under the Lord Wharton to fight their own King as they did at Edge-hill in that unnatural Rebellion Seeing this they earnestly petitioned his Majesty for their Discharge or to be transferred to any other Warfare where they might contend with any Enemy but Hunger Ormond makes a Cessation with the Irish The King being thus daily sollicited by the pressing Miseries of his Subjects and seeing no other way to relieve or deliver them commanded the Earl of Ormond to make a Cessation with the Irish for a Year which he did and to send Three Thousand of the Protestant Army into England leaving the Garrison well provided to assist him to oppose the Rebellious Scots who then invaded him This Cessation was variously censured according to the Interest or Inclination of Parties Such who disapproved it cried out against the Transportation of the Soldiery pretending It would expose the Protestants that remained and be of too much Advantage to the Rebels But others more discerning and equal were of Opinion That it is always better to save a Citizen than destroy an Enemy It was the prime Interest of a Prince to preserve himself Ireland was not so formidable but when England was quiet it might be reclaimed by fair Means or by foul There was more Danger from the Puritans who threatned Ruine to Religion and Monarchy The Parliamentarians and Scots-Irish refused to be included in this Truce being supported with Money and Supplies out of England which was denied the Royallists by reason of their unshaken Fidelity to their King which neither the Threats nor Allurements of the now English Rebels could blemish or overcome Ormond now Marquess and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland improved this Cessation with much Prudence and Industry by a continued Treaty into a Peace which being proclaimed at Dublin and Kilkenny Then a. Peace he followed thither with Fourteen Hundred Men where he was received by the Supreme Council with due Respect and State who also surrendred the Government which they had thus long managed into his Hands But this Calm did not last long most of the Chief Towns and Great Officers as Preston and Owen Roe O Neal with others dissenting The Archbishop of Firme the Popes Nuntio not only protested against this Peace but adding the Thunder of Excommunication renewed the War with more violence than ever Ormond ran no small Hazard of being intercepted in his Retreat to Dublin where he was given for lost and therefore received with very extraordinary Joy by the People year 1646 The War had been continued betwixt the Dissenting Brittains and the Irish ever since the Cessation with various Fortune But now thinking that a fair Opportunity did present it self by the Absence of the English Army for the Conquest of the whole Kingdom they join all their Forces together and raised with some late Successes for Owen Roe O Neal had defeated Monroe and his Scots in Vlster slain above Five Hundred of his Men taken Five Field-pieces all his Baggage and Five Thousand Arms they besiege Dublin by Land The Nuntio dissents and besieges Dublin which was also block'd up by the Parliament-Ships now equally Rebels which lay before the Haven The Lord Lieutenant unable to resist so many Enemies and destitute of all hopes of Relief Ormond unable to preserve it delivers it to the English acquainted his Majesty with the present State of Affairs who seeing it impossible to defend the Place commanded him to deliver it rather into the Hands of the Parliamentarians than the Irish An irrefragable Testimony against the black Calumnies of the English Rebels who did not cease to accuse his Majesty of Intelligence with the Irish But it will not seem very strange to Posterity that the Miscreants of the Faction should endeavour to assassinate the Fame of this glorious Sufferer when they had already usurped his Authority and that all the steps they made tended to the martyrizing of his Person 'T is true their Brethren of Ireland pretended That they were owned and authorised by his Majesty and to amuse and engage the silly Crowd shewed them a fictitious Commission with a Great Seal affixed to it belonging to a Patent of the Lord Caulefield which Sir Phelim O Neal took together with the said Lord in the Castle of Charlemont Which he afterwards confessed at his Tryal and being urged further by the Judges to declare Why he did so deceive the People He repsied That no Man could blame him to use all Means whatsoever to promote that Cause he had so far engaged in Although this Sir Phelim had been the principal and bloodiest of all the Rebels yet before Sentence he was offered his Liberty and his Estate if he would prove he had had such a Commission from the King But he generously answered He could not and That he would not further burthen his Conscience by unjust calumniating the King The King vindicated from any Correspondence with the Rebels Being upon the Gallows and ready to be turned off one Peake and another came posting to the Place and crying
desires to the rest But in vain for Scudmore the Governour rejecting these Invitations with Contempt told them He would deliver the City to none but to the King that had entrusted him with it or to his Majesty's Commands And thus the Scots but raise is after a sharp though no long Siege of Five Weeks seeing there was no good to be done raised their Camp and marched Northwards occasioned perhaps by their Apprehension of the King's Motion from Oxford or rather affrighted with the stupendious Victories of Montross in their own Country Rosseter being commanded thither with Six Thoufand Horse The King having again left Oxford for his private Affairs there no less than his publick abroad grew by the Distractions and Divisions in his own Court daily worse marched to Ludlow with design to relieve Chester long labouring under the Pressures of a close Siege The Parliament hearing of the Kings Motion ordered the Colonels Poynts and Rosseter to observe him with orders that in case he moved towards Hereford they should act by consent with Leven but if he should go towards Bristol they should then move by Communication of Counsels with General Fairfax their Forces being joined Four Thousand all Horse follow the King close And the unhappy City of London to promote this Design of King-Catching as they called it or rather The Common-Council of London order their Members to find each a Horse to persuethe King their own Slavery made a Decree in Common-Council that every Member of it should have a Horse with Accoutrements ready to join with the rest in pursuit of the King His Majesty in the mean time hastens towards Chester and being come to Routon-Heath within Two Miles of it Rosseter falls with great Resolution upon the Royallists who received them with no less Courage The Fight was very hot wherein the Rebels were not only disordered but had been quite defeated and an entire Victory obtained but that Colonel Jones coming in that instant with near a Thousand Men from the Siege of Chester turned the Day by confirming their own Party and restoring to them the Success they despaired of before The Fight at Rowton-heath The King being overpowered with the Accession of these new-Commers lest he should be surrounded by them charged through them and not without much Slaughter on both sides recovered Chester The untimely Death of the Lord Bernard no less eminent for Courage and Loyalty than Illustrious for the Nobleness of his Extraction aggravated the King's Loss he being the Third Brother of the Duke of Lenox slain in his Majesty's Quarrel in this unnatural War The King did not stay long in Chester the Enemy growing upon him after their Victory but retired into Wales still loyal to his Interest he being a Prince however unfortunate insuperable in Afflictions and Superior to all Calamities Nor did he at all despond however harassed trusting that the same God who from small beginnings had raised him once to an Equality with his Enemies in Power might yet of his Goodness restore him in his good time He then by his indefatigable Industry and the Accession of Prince Maurice his Troops with some other scattered Remains had got a considerable Body of Horse together which he divided and delivering Fifteen Hundred of them to Digby and Langdale Digby and Langdale defeated sent them with Commands to endeavour to conduct them to Montross which if these great Men had been able to have compassed might have changed the whole Face of Affairs He had already acted to a Prodigy as will be hereafter declared but they could not reach the Borders and Confines of both Kingdoms For though they had broke Colonel Wren's Regiment of Horse and taken Eight Hundred Foot at Sherburne and Mylford they were afterwards surprised by Copely and Lilburne who being fresh fell upon their wearied Troops and defeated them Carnaby and Hutton Two Knights with some others were slain and Four Colonels together with many Inferiour Officers and Four Hundred Horse fell into the Enemies Hands The Lord Digby's Coach was also made a Prize wherein amongst other Spoils several of the King's Letters too carelesly guarded were found And these as those formerly taken at Naesby were printed with the same Malice and Impudence Nor is it to be wondred that as they began the War with Tumults Scandals and all Kinds of Barbarity so they should end it with the same Arts and the same Brutality Digby was again routed by the Scots upon Carlile-Sands and scarce saved himself by with-drawing with very few Attendants into the Isle of Man and from thence into Ireland So that this whole Party together with its Design was destroyed and vanished But to return to Fairfax into the West where the main Stress of the War was for what happened in other Provinces were rather Velitations and Encounters of Parties than formed Designs of Battels after the taking of Bristol the Enemy consulted what to undertake next Many were of Opinion they should march to the Relief of Plymouth labouring under the Evils of a very long and irksom Siege But that Town having the Sea open and the Parliamentarians abounding in shipping having the Navy at their Disposal it was thought more expedient to dislodge the Royallists out of those Garrisons which impeded the Commerce betwixt London and the Western Counties and so open a Passage for Travellers to and fro at Pleasure In order to this Barclay-Castle as nearest was first attempted This Fortress lying betwixt Glocester and Bristol did not only disturb the Commerce of both those Cities but extreamly incommoded the Country on every side with Excursions Fairfax had formerly sent some Horse to hinder their Cavalcades and now Colonel Raynsborough is ordered with Three Regiments of Foot to besiege and reduce them Which he also did having forced their Out-Works Barclay-Castle taken by Raynsborough and particularly the Steeple and Church which overlooked the Castle For Sir Charles Lucas however brave being unequal to the Enemy in Power was forced to surrender which he did considering the State of Affairs upon no contemptible Conditions In the mean Time Cromwell took the Devizes The Devizes by Cromwell without any great Opposition as also Laicock with the same Facility the Souldiers being permitted to march away with their Arms. And now Fairfax commands him with Three Regiments of Horse and Four of Foot to reduce Winchester and Basing-House the Seat of the Marquis of Winchester whilst he himself marches with the Rest of his Army Westward His Souldiers were mustered and paid and new cloathed Being come to Chard he was advertised that the Royallists had a design to break through his Army and join with the King Which seemed neither incredible nor unreasonable for that being effected the Enemy would be obliged either to divide his Forces which might expose both Parties or follow with his whole Army and so leave the Two fertile Provinces of Devonshire and Cornmall entirely in the Prince's Hands He
therefore lay in the Field all Night and forced the advancing Royallists to retreat over the Isca Goring had fallen into the Enemies Quarters near Chard with Success having slain some and taken about Sixty But Tiverton by Fairfax Fairfax closely pursuing them took Tiverton as also the Castle and Church by storm occasioned by a casual Shot which broke the Chain of the Draw-bridge by which Accident the Passage was immediately seized Sir Gilbert Gerard the Governour and the whole Garrison being made Prisoners The Winter being far advanced and the Robels wearied with so many Toils thought it neither fit nor safe to attempt the Royallists further or besiege Exeter well fortified and strengthened with a Garrison of Five Thousand Men. They therefore resolve to block up the City at a Distance and raising some Redoubts and Skonses upon the River Clyssa within Command of each other though Three Miles from the City put Guards into them whereby they might with no great Force extreamly disturb the Communication betwixt the Town and Country They might have done the same on the other side of the Isca and so at once have shut up the Garrison from all Commerce with the adjacent Neighbourhood which they also afterward did Cromwell having possessed himself of the City of Winchester without Opposition Cromwell takes Winchester battered the Castle with Six Cannon and made a Breach in the Walls Which being observed by the Lord Ogle the Governour who thinking every Defence in this declining State of Affairs superfluous beat a Parley And being admitted to treat having compounded for the Security of his Garrison he surrender'd this Fortress however furnished with all kinds of Military Provisions for a long Siege But the Marquis fell by a nobler however more unhappy Destiny for Cromwell having battered his Works assaulted them with Four Battalions and passing the Moat and Ramparts brake down the Gates and so however bravely opposed forced his Passage into the House and became Master of it and Basing House The Marquis Sir Robert Peak with others of Quality with immense Spoils were the Reward of the victorious There were a hundred slain a Girle of a masculine Courage being found amongst the stript And thus this Fortress of Loyalty having baffled very many Attempts of the Rebels for its Reduction hitherto fell now by the uncontrouled Fortune of Cromwell And being first pillaged was afterwards burnt to the Ground out of spite rather than any advantage to the Conquerours Langford fearing the like Fate prevented it by a timely Surrender And now the Passages being cleared betwixt London and the more distant Provinces of the West Cromwell rejoins his Forces to Fairfax's Army The Prince sends to Fairfax about Peace During these Traverses the Prince of Wales had sent to Fairfax his Desires for a safe Conduct for the Lords Hopton and Culpeper to go to the King with design to endeavour to compose the Differences betwixt his Majesty and the Two Houses But Fairfax returned Answer That it not being of his Province to treat of Peace he had sent his Highness's Letters to the Parliament from whom an Answer was to be expected Goring having sent the Colonels Scroop and Philips had attempted the same before proposing That by the united Force of both Armies they should compel both King and Parliament to an Accomodation The like Conjunction of Forces had formerly been motioned to Essex which was then rejected by him as now by his Successor All hopes of Peace being vanished the Prince sollicitous for Exeter draws his Army consisting of about Seven Thousand to Okehampton His Highness had been informed that the Rebels Forces were very much diminished by Death and Diseases which gave him room to hope for some favourable Occasion to attempt upon them But being suddenly after assured that they were daily furnished with new Levies Fairfax surprizes Three of Wentworth's Regiments at Bovey and fresh Supplies which was true he changed his mind and with-drew his Forces to a greater Distance But the Enemy advancing surprized Three of Wentworth's Regiments at Bovey The Troopers except Fifty and a Major who were taken escaped by Favour of the Night but they left near Four Hundred Horses behind them Fairfax was careful to advertise Plymouth of his Advance and the Royallists Retreat which was also relieved by the drawing off of the Besiegers This Place had been very long blocked up by Land and having been often bravely attempted by Sir Richard Greenville did defend it self with no less Bravery For the Sea always open and the Rebels Masters of it they could not be forced Dartmouth was the next Trophy of the Conquerours Dartmouth taken which they took by Assault without the Loss of scarce one single Man though the Town was strengthened with a Hundred pieces of Ordnance Nor was the Slaughter greater on the Defendants side Sir Hugh Pollard the Governour the Earl of Newport Seymour Denham and about Eight Hundred being taken Prisoners .... Carey and his Officers upon the Delivery of a Fort which he guarded was permitted his Liberty and the Souldiers had also leave to retire every Man to his own Home The Cornish-men who they were many had each Two Shillings allowed for their Journey not absurdly bestowed to tempt the rest of their Countrymen who were now the only considerable part of the King's Forces The Rebels marched thence to Totnes and afterwards returned to the Siege of Exeter Sir Hardres Waller had commanded there and now it is resolved to attempt the forcing of the Place it having hitherto been but block'd up with Forts and Redoubts They therefore commanded Ladders to be brought out of the Country for an Assault until upon fresh intelligence of the Prince's Preparations and Design to relieve the Besieged they again leaving Waller with Three Regiments of Foot and one of Horse to continue the Blockade moved with the Rest of the Army to meet the Royallists The Lord Hopton commanded the King's Forces For the Lord Goring being gone for France and having entrusted his own Troops to the Lord Wentworth's Conduct the Government of the whole was devolved upon this excellent Personage Who now had with Three Thousand Horse and Four Thousand Foot possessed himself of Torrington with a Resolution to defend the Town and to hazard there the Extremity of War Fairfax being advertised of all this by his Spies quickens his March and to give the Royallists no time to fortifie themselves made all imaginable haste Hopton had lined the neighbouring Avenues with Musqueteers which he again quitted upon the Enemies Advance who also possessed the said Places Where they fix'd their Station by reason of the Darkness until a Noise in the Town creating an Opinion that the Royallists were dislodging obliged them to send a Party to see what was the matter These Discoverers being received with a Volley of Shot were seconded by a Reserve and they again by a Third and Fourth Party so that Supplies being successively sent
from both sides both Armies were at length engaged The Passage into the Town was barricado'd up The Fight at Torrington where the Fight was very sharp at push of Pike and Butt-Ends of Musquets but that being gained the Encounters in the Street were no less brave The Royallists had Twice repelled the Enemy and being as often beat back themselves were forced at length to quit their Ground to the more numerous Assailants Hopton in Person very conspicuous and well mounted brought up the Rear of his Horse but was not able to save his Foot whereof scarce Six Hundred escaped The Horse by Benefit of the Night and Knowledge of the Ways did well-nigh all save themselves by Flight Four Hundred as well Commons as Gentlemen were taken of which near Two Hundred were blown up with the Church Hopton had left Fourscore Barrels of Powder in it which being fired by Accident or by one Watts as it was said hired thereto for Thirty Pieces of Gold I will not determine But however it happened very many of the Rebels perished with it the Town was miserably shaken and Terror and Destruction were scattered every where by the Dreadfulness of the Noise and the Vibration of the Ruines of the Temple The Enemy following the Chace forced the Cavaliers over the River Tamar and advancing forwards beat Colonel Basset out of Launceston which they also possessed The Prince sails to the Isles of Scylly The Prince of Wales admonished by the frequent Misfortunes of his Party and seeing after this last Defeat no possibility of renewing the War took shipping at Truro And that he might with-draw himself from these barbarous and bloody Enemies to his Life and Fame and being attended on by the Lord Capel Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hyde since Lord Chancellor of England sailed to the Isles of Scylly and thence into France reserving himself by the Care of Providence for the signal Restitution of his enslaved Kingdoms to their former Glory Fairfax did not omit to improve this Opportunity of the Prince's Retreat by inviting Hopton by honourable Conditions to disband his Forces as being abandoned and left to himself The Greatness of the thing kept him in suspense for some Time It grieved him to the Soul to see his King and dearest Lord deprived of so many brave Men and such a gallant Body of Horse and that by his own Act. But to conserve them seemed morally impossible for there was no Help to be expected from Abroad and he himself shut up within the compass of Six Miles in the Streights of Cornwall surrounded by the Sea and a victorious hostile Army Nor did he know whither to go in case he had broke through the Ways being obstructed with Trees cut down and laid cross them on purpose the Passages every where kept with strong Guards and what was more dismal the King's Affairs were under such sad Circumstances and so desperate that we were deprived of the very Solace of Hope In this Extremity it was determined to lay by our now useless Arms and submit to the Necessity of our Fate A Treaty was therefore entered upon by Commissioners from both sides The Lord Hopton disbands bis Army who met at Tressilian-Bridge and after a great Contestation concluded a Dissolution of the Royal-Army The Officers each according to his Quality were permitted the Enjoyment of their Arms Horses and Equipage But the common Troopers were obliged to deliver theirs receiving every one Twenty Shillings in Lieu of them All had their Bag Baggage and Liberties secured to them and Permission to return to their Homes or to pass into Foreign Countries at pleasure The Army being disbanded and the Garrisons thereby excluded from all Hopes of Relief did likewise fall Exeter the Chief City of the West surrender'd upon honourable Terms Barnstable followed as also the remaining Garrisons upon Demand And now Fairfax having subdued the West marched with his victorious Army towards Oxford Whilst he is on his way it may not be from the Purpose to relate what happened in other Parts of the Kingdom Which I hitherto designingly omitted not willing to interupt the Progress of this Western Expedition Being content to deliver the greater Actions in their Order rather than to distract them with a regard to the Things themselves more than the Times they were acted in though that also will appear in the Margent After the Defeat of Digby and Langdale which we have mentioned the King had continued for some time at Newark until wearied with the Dissentions of his Party he was necessitated to depart The Lord Gerrard Sir Richard Willis Distractions amongst the Royallists at Newark and others had deserted his Majesty and the Princes Rupert and Maurice having capitulated with Poynts for Passes to go beyond Sea which was assented to by the pretended Parliament were upon the point of abandoning him The Dispute was about Digby who being accused by these Dissenters with more Fervor than Duty considering the Times found an Advocate of his Innocency in the King and Bellasis the Governour Hereupon his Majesty with Six Hundred Horse came to Oxford where being entertained with heavy Countenances and a lugubrious Accompt of Affairs he replied with undaunted Constancy That Three Years ago he had been in yet a lower Condition than at present The same God who from such despicable Beginnings had render'd him great and formidable did live and reign still to whose Goodness he also recommended the Care of his present abject Estate But however confident he seemed to be he was as is usual in great Calamities too much neglected by many And though he daily performed whatever could be expected from a brave and prudent Prince yet nothing succeeded by reason of the perpetual Distraction of his Nobles his Officers and Counsellours agitated by the Infelicities of the present Condition of Affairs or rather actuated by the secret Dispensations of Providence Nor was he long permitted to reside there Ashley beat at Stow. the Lord Ashley having been defeated and taken at Stow. He had drawn a Body of near Two Thousand out of several Garrisons evacuated for that Purpose which were the last Field-Forces that appeared for the King So that the Remains being forced to save themselves in their Fortifications were since there was no Success to be expected from Abroad easily divested of them also BOOK IV. The King leaves Oxford and goes to the Scots Army Hereford is surprized and Chester surrender'd Oxford besieged and taken The other Royal Garrisons follow Massey's Forces disbanded Contests with the Scots Their barbarous Vsage of the King They sell him He is imprisoned in Holmbey-House The History of the Scots Rebellion and valorous Actions of Montross Independency triumphant The Army mutinies and seize upon the King at Holmbey They court him but deal treacherously with him He flies to the Isle of Wight FAirfax had sent Ireton with a Body of Horse to hinder the Excursions of the Oxonians and to invest
Clothes in an instant seized the Guard killing some few and secured the Gate letting in a Hundred and Fifty more who were in Ambuscade near Hand The rest of the Party not far off following and intent upon the Occasion seized upon the Port and City and in it upon the Governour and a great many Persons of Quality with immense Riches and Plunder The Misfortune of Hereford Feb. 3. 1645 6. was followed by the Surrender of Chester a Place of no less Consequence This City had been long besieged for the Rebels under the Conduct of Jones and Louthian had surprized the Suburbs the preceding September And Sir William Brereton joining them with greater Forces Chester makes a brave defence attempted the Town by Assault having made a considerable Breach But they were beat off with much Loss Venables being slain in the Action This Success added so much Courage and Confidence to the besieged that they did not despair of being able to defend themselves and disturb the Enemy In the mean time the King sollicitous for the Relief of this important Place had attempted it but unsuccessfully for being defeated as is already mentioned at Rowton-Heath his Majesty not willing to be shut up in a besieged Place retreated into Wales The Lord Byron a Person of great Honour and Loyalty was Governour of this considerable Garrison who no whit dismayed after the late Misfortune however pressed by the Enemy omitted no Duty of a brave Commander Poynts after the King's Departure fierce with his Victory did not doubt to carry the City by Force not being able to gain it by Threats For beating the Walls with their Cannon from Three several Batteries at once they made Three considerable Breaches which however repaired by the laudable Bravery of our Women were valiantly assaulted by them especially that next the River though repelled with great Loss Sir William Byron the Governour 's Brother had got Four Hundred Horse with Provisions which he attempted to relieve the Place with but he was beaten and himself made a Prisoner near Holt. Neither was Sir William Vaughan more fortunate although followed by Two Thousand Horse for he was forced by Colonel Mitton with additional Troops from the Siege near Denbigh after several sharp Encounters to a Retreat The Enemy returning victorious lay a more close Siege to the City for they now also encamped on the Welsh Side which had hitherto been kept open So that the Place being shut up all round the besieged in time spent all their fresh Provisions and not long after their Patience Whereupon they especially the Citizens began to be very uneasie although their Mutterings did not surpass the Modesty of Words for as they had several times bravely sustained the Insults of the Enemy so they did not suffer themselves to be overcome with ordinary Necessities The Garrison consisted most of Welsh the Officers being of the same Nation resolved to suffer all Extremities for their King rather than the imperious Government of the Rebels Nor were the Citizens less signal in their Valour and Constancy until their whole stock of Provisions was spent Horse-flesh and other Viands less consistent with Nature were now accompted Delicacies but those likewise failing they were necessitated to desire a Remedy for so many Evils in a Surrender which seemed yet worse than the Disease it self at least to the brave They therefore besiege the Governour and humbly intreat him since there was no visible Hopes of Relief that he would be pleased to treat with the Enemy for their Preservation Brereton demanded the same at the same Time by a Trumpeter demonstrating the King's Forces to have been beaten out of the Field every where and their Remains shut up in Garrisons so that there was no kind of Relief to be expected He would notwithstanding and did offer very reasonable Conditions provided they did not refuse them whilst they might have them which he the more easily consented to because he much desired to preserve that Place he was himself upon its Rendition to Command And Byron did not seem altogether averse to the Supplications of the Citizens or the Invitation of this Civil Enemy yet he delayed the matter upon a Report that Colonel Vaughan having joined the Lord Ashley and some Recruits of Welsh and Irish designed again the Succour of the Place But being uncertain of these Preparations and shut up from all Commerce from Abroad he sent the Author of this Relation to see what was to be expected from that Conjunction of the Royallists resolving to attend his Return He having broke through the Enemies Quarters with Five and Twenty Horse found all these Reports to be false which having signified by Fires from the highest Tower of Flint-Castle as was agreed upon designed himself to return by Water into the City again which he might possibly have done by Favour of the quick Tides if he had not been hindred by great Sholes of Ice which filled the River so that with much ado he recovered Flint again He also notified this Misfortune by Fires to the besieged which being perceived considering every Delay now superfluous is surrendered upon honourable Conditions the City was delivered up upon honourable Terms The Garrison was led by the Governour into Wales where it was dismissed but he shut himself in Caernarven where being again besieged he was again forced to surrender upon Conditions and to retire from that War wherein he had behaved himself with no less Valour than Misfortune Fairfax being before this time advanced with his Army within sight of Oxford lay down before it and having observed the Situation of it made a large Quarter capable of receiving Three Thousand Men upon Hadington-Hill Which he also fortified very well and drawing a Line from thence round he strengthened it with other Forts appointing the Colonels Raynsborough Lambert and Herbert to command them Whereby the City was entirely shut up Oxford besieged by Fairfax The Enemy had seriously considered in a Council of War how they might best render themselves Masters of this important Place and at length agreed unanimously that it being well fortified it was safer to famish than force it They judged that the only way to carry it was to leave it to its own Necessities and Dissentions They knew the City was fortified after the modern Fashion the Bastion and Flanks mutually defending each other They saw that the Rivers Isis and Charwell did with their Inundations cover Three Parts of the Town and that the Fourth which pointed to the North was approachable but on that side though otherwise fortified with Two Lines and strongly defended by the Colleges appearing like so many Castles To all this the Garrison consisted of Five Thousand Veterane Souldiers and the Flower of the King's Infantry provided with all Kind of Stores for many Months and commanded by Sir Thomas Glenham Famous for his defending of York and Carlile the latter of which he had kept above Ten Months against
the main Forces of Scotland suffering well-nigh a Saguntine Famine in its Defence Nor did then quit it but upon equitable Terms for the Security of his Garrison At York also he had extorted good Conditions from their victorious Armies These things being considered Fairfax invites him also to treat with very large Offers which he seemed to hearken to requiring First permission to acquaint his Majesty and to know his Pleasure therein This being denied Commissioners were some time after appointed to treat on both sides But they could not agree for the Terms the Royallists demanded were so high that Fairfax transferred them to the Parliament by which they were rejected as incongruous and new Orders sent to the General to reduce the City with all his Power and Skill But the Treaty was after some time reassumed though no Cessation intervened neither did any Military Action happen worthy the recital and after some Disputes agreed upon being comprehended in Six and Twenty Articles Faringdon was likewise surrender'd upon the same Terms for Sir George Lisle the Governour of that Fortress being then in Oxford Oxford surrender'd Jan. 24th 1645 6. was comprehended in the Oxford-Pacification The chief of the Articles were That Oxford with the Castle Forts Works Arms Cannon and all Provisions of War should be delivered to Sir Thomas Fairfax 's Possession on the 24th of January The Duke of York received and treated according to his Dignity should be permitted to go to London with his Family and continue there with the King's Children until his Majesty should otherwise dispose of him The Princes Rupert and Maurice with their Train not exceeding Seventy Persons should in Six Months depart out of the Kingdom The Seals and Sword of State should be lock'd up in a Chest and secured in the publick Library The Governour Colonels and all other Officers and Souldiers should be permitted to march with their Horses Arms Standards flying Colours Musquets and Pistols loaden Match burning at both ends c. the usual Solace of the vanquished Fifteen Miles which way they pleased where the private Souldiers should lay down their Arms and then at their choice either return to their Homes or dispose of themselves into Foreign Service The Nobles Peers Gentlemen and all others of what Quality soever should not be obliged to compound for above Two Years Revenues of their Estates The Chancellour Masters Professors Students c. of the Vniversity should enjoy their Possessions Customs Institutions Privileges and Government without Disturbance The Citizens should also enjoy all their Immunities and Freedoms nor be burthened with a Garrison or enquartering of Souldiers but upon great Necessity The Kings Houshold-Servants shall together with all his Houshold-Stuff be conveyed to Hampton-Court where they shall continue until his Majesty shall otherwise dispose of them To conclude Immunity for what was pass'd was granted to every Individual and that no Man should be questioned for any thing done during the War or the present Siege And thus this Seat of Loyalty and Learning where the King had kept his Court during the Troubles fell with the Fate of the Kingdom whose Example and Fortune the remaining Royal Garrisons did readily follow the which to gratifie the Reader we will also mention though not without Reluctancy Wood stock Banbury Raynsborough had stormed Woodstock not without great Loss which Place notwithstanding was afterwards surrender'd to him Banbury stoop'd to the same Fate however bravely defended for a long time by Sir William Compton and signalized with several Slaughters of the Rebels Radcot was delivered by ..... Palmer and Bostol-House by another Compton But nothing was more sensible than the Loss of Newark which had been defended by the Lord Bellasis with Conduct and Valour against the united Forces of the English and Scots until delivered up to Poynts upon the King's Order now in the Scots Army Worcester and Wallingford Ragland c. Worcester held out till the Surrender of Oxford and then veil'd Wallingford submitted with the same Facility but better Conditions Ragland was kept during the whole War by the Marquess of Worcester a Man of great Parts and one who had greatly obliged the King who however Bed-rid had an active Soul which made him maintain the Place till there was not a Garrison left to go to upon the Rendition Nor did he yet part with it till Fairfax himself came to receive it The Lord Charles Somerset his second Son Commanded under him who had also signalized himself in many Rencounters during the War but all failing was forced to surrender the Marquess Sacrificing his own Liberty to the freedom of his Soldiers Pendennis involved in the same fate was forced to submit to the same necessity being delivered up by Colonel Arundel There remained yet some few Castles in North Wales which had the honour to hold out longest in this Scene of Blood Conway was taken by force by Colonel Mitton and the Archbishop of York who sacrificed the honour of his Robe and Loyalty to his Ambition and Revenge Ludlow was delivered as also Litchfield to Brereton upon Chester-Articles The Isles of Scylly ran the same fortune The Dutch had much desired the Possession of them for the convenience of Navigation and offered great Sums for them But Sir Jo. Greenville the worthy Governour now Earl of Bath prudently chose rather to deliver them to the English Rebels being not ignorant that if annexed to England they might one day return to their obedience and duty to their Natural Prince again Some time after Holt-Castle and those of Harlegh and Denbigh in which last place as also Denbigh and Harlegh the two last Scenes of this War were delivered up the Author of these Commentaries besides many other Gentlemen was besieged after long and tedious expectation of some good from the North tho' contrary to the Proverb closed the last Act of our unnatural Tragedy Omne malum ab Aquilone The Royallists being wholly subdued it pleased the Parliament the Independant Faction in the House being paramount to order Fairfax their General Massey's Forces disbanded to go and disband Massey's Forces being Five and Twenty Hundred all Horse The pretext was very plausible the easing of the publick charge of the Treasury and 't was therefore perhaps that they allowed them but six weeks Pay whereas they had many Months due to them This considerable Service being done Fairfax came to London where he was received by the Militia of the City in Arms by the Speakers of both Houses with Congratulatory Speeches and Thanks and by the Court of Aldermen and Common-Council with great Assentation and Flattery The King prosecuted by the Scots at Newcastle The King at Newcastle being no less prosecuted and afflicted by the Scots to whom he had betaken himself for Sanctuary than by the Parliament which he had escaped was yet constant to himself And to use his own words in his Divine Soliloquies Not to be compelled by any
The Enemy discovering their number and seeing them so few divided their Forces and followed after them very eagerly not only coming up with them in their Rear and Flank but endeavouring to obstruct their passage to the Mountains The Rebels forlorn of Horse pressed hard upon Montross's Rear but his Foot facing about fired upon them and having slain the three foremost rendred the rest more cautious and the pursuit less hot The darkness of the Night put an end to these Skirmishes By this they were come near Aberbroth where Montross considering that the Enemy might have intercepted the direct way to the Hills with his numerous Horse commanded his Men to turn to the South-westward and march with all imaginable speed by which artifice and incredible toil he deluded his Pursuers slipping by them in the night and wheeling suddenly Northwards he passed the Esk not far from the Castle of Careston And having after some light Skirmishes and a continued March of threescore Miles without Sleep without Meat or any other refreshment gained the foot of the Mountains the Enemy at length left them retiring from their fruitless pursuit Being thus beyond their hopes come into a place of security Montross sent the Lord Gourdon as well to recal those Troops his Brother had debauched as also to augment them by new Levies which he also performed with great industry joining the General in Marr with a Thousand Foot and Two Hundred Horse Being thus inforced the Royallists defeated Hurrey with Three Thousand Foot and Five Hundred Horse at Alderna The Fight at Alderna and Alford where the Lord Gourdon was slain he himself hardly escaping with the Horse Nor was Bayly the most knowing of the Enemies Captains more fortunate at Alford where having left his Foot he also fled with his Horse which the most untimely fall of the noble Lord Gourdon contributed to a loss irreparable to the King and his Party and which cast such a damp upon the Victory that the Soldiers overcome with Sorrow wore the countenance of a baffled not conquering Army But Montross after this strengthened with a numerous recruit of High-landers and by the accession of the Earl of Aboyne who succeeded his Brother Gourdon and Arley who were come up to him with Three Hundred Horse resolved to penetrate into the inmost parts of the Kingdom as well to disturb the Enemies Levies in Fife as to dissipate the Convention of the States at Perth Being come into Fife the richest and most popular Province of the Kingdom he resolved to pass the Forth Which he also did four Miles above Sterling and marching forward encamped at Kilsythe The Rebels fierce with their multitudes thought that Montross's late Marches and his hasty passing of the Forth were the effects of his Fear not Counsel So that they resolve to attack him in that place he had chosen their chief care being to cut off all Retreats especially to the Mountains Montross's Army consisted of Four Thousand Five Hundred Foot and Five Hundred Horse the Rebels of Six Thousand Foot and Eight Hundred Horse But their fortune the same for the Royallists animated by the rare Valour of the old Earl of Arley who being sixty years of age did with his single Troop defeat Three of the Enemy's and dis-engaged a Battalion of Montross's Foot The Battel of Kilsythe too rashly advanced which gave such universal Courage to the whole Army that raising a great Shout they all ran upon the Enemy beat down such as resisted and ruined all scarce One Hundred of the Foot escaping The Arms Baggage and Spoils of the Field were the present reward of the Victors who lost only six Men whereas near Six Thousand of the Enemy fell that day Upon this the Confederate Lords fled out of the Kingdom and such who favour'd the King did no more scruple to discover themselves This Victory having produced a new face of things over the whole Kingdom reconciled the Cities and Provinces thereof to their duty to the King Which he had also maintained if the Horse which His Majesty had sent with the Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale had as he hoped come up to him But these being dispersed as is said in England he found other Forces than those he expected thence For the Confederates upon the fame of his Atchievements had sent David Lesley with Six Thousand Horse who by their intelligence with the Earls of Trequair and Rosburg whom the King had unhappily trusted surprized and defeated him at Selkirk The Royallists surprized at Selkirk Montross leaves Scotland Yet did not so far oppress him but that he afterwards became formidable again But the King being in the Scots Army he was by his Majesty's Command forced to dismiss his Soldiers leaving his Country to the disposal of the Confederates It is now high time to return to Holmbey and take a view of His Majesty's Diversions in that wretched Solitude Amongst other things seeing he heard nothing from the Parliament he composed an Answer to the Propositions formerly sent to him Wherein besides many unexpected Concessions he promised To comply with the rest provided he were suffered to come to London But having no Secretary or Clerk to transcribe what he had writ he desired one from the Commissioners attending him otherwise he would himself scrible it over as well as he could This was rejected as soon as sent although he had assented to most and desired a Personal Treaty for the rest they being deaf to his demands and whilst he was thus earnest for Peace Vote him averse to it affirming moreover how falsely The King 's miserable restraint at Holmbey That he had never offer'd them any thing worthy their Acceptation or accepted of any thing they had presented to him In this extremity he turns to God and withdrawing himself writ those Divine Soliloquies which compose his Book spending that leisure time with Heaven which was not permitted him to employ with any he delighted in here below This Book as it surpasseth all other except the Bible in Piety Prudence and Eloquence of Style so it containeth a true and genuine discovery of the state of affairs and consequently fit to be read of all good Men and such who would be satisfied in the reality of our Transactions In the mean time the Pretended Parliament force away the miserable from the unfortunate For seeing the King's unhappiness and restraint had not so far divested Men of that Veneration they owed him but that many sick of that Disease called the Kings-Evil came to him to be healed the Novellists more out of envy than grounded in reason endeavoured tho' to no purpose by Declarations to divert the People from this pretended Superstition as they called it Although all the Kings of England have ever since the time of Edward the Confessor who received this Prerogative from Heaven made use of it with success The Rebels being now Masters of the King and Kingdom having supplanted the true Heir
requiring That the Treaty with the King might be renewed and the Army paid off and disbanded But their reception was very rude being beaten and plundered and slain by their Guards Insomuch that the Kentish-men having likewise framed a Petition for Peace upon the like usage by a Party of Horse and being threatned to have two harged out of each Parish that were Promoters of it and the rest sequestered they threw away their Paper and betook them to their Arms. The first appearance of an Insurrection broke out in the City of London being accidental not upon the King's Accompt The Parliament had piously voted down Holy-days abrogating all the Festivals of the Church having appointed one Day in every Month in lieu of them for Publik Recreations The Apprentices as usually had met in some Numbers in Moor-Fields on the 9th of April to play and divert themselves But this being Sunday moved the Zeal of some precize Schismatical Officers of the Trained-Bands who with their Guards would force them away but were themselves routed by the Boys with Stones and Clubs who also took their Colours from them and in a Childish Bravery marching into the Streets frighted Warner the then Mayor into his House and taking away a Drake from his Door Planted it at Lud-Gate nearest the Foe the Army then about White-Hall But Fairfax on the Morrow following ent'ring with some Regiments of Horse and Foot at Alders-Gate easily dispersed them though then numerous no Person of Quality undertaking their Conduct The Fame of this tumultuous Insurrection or rather Riot was quickly noised throughout the Kingdom which although strangled in its Infancy seemed to animate the oppressed populace to follow the Example whereby they might redeem themselves and Liberties from their impending slavery The Welch were the first that took up Arms under the Conduct of Major General Laughorn The Welch in Armes and the Collonels Poyer and Powell all Three formerly stiff Assertors of the Parliaments Jurisdiction But now being to be disbanded by Orders of the Council of War of the Army they refuse to obey And the better to secure themselves declare for the King acting by Commission and Powers from the then Prince of Wales Laughorn grew suddenly by the accession of Major General Stradling and others of the King's Party to a considerable Army esteemed Eight Thousand strong which rendered him Master of the Town and Castles of Pembroke and Tenby Sir Nicholas Kemish at the same time surprized Chepstow Castle and Sir John Owen another eminent Cavalier in North wales defeated and took the High-Sheriff of Caernarvan So that all Wales seemed at once to shake off that cruel Yoak they laboured under Nor were the preparatives for a War of the Kentish-men less considerable For As also the Kentishmen Rendezvouzing near Rochester they chose the Earl of Norwich then upon the place to be their General Very many Apprentices and reformed Officers and Souldiers flocked from London daily to them Insomuch that the Juncto terrified with the apprehension of what might happen restored to the City their Militia which they feared otherwise might be extorted from them hoping by this Confidence to render them more addicted to their interest Which also happened not upon sentiments of generosity but to manifest their aversness to oppressed Monarchy even then when it was in their Power to restore it Skippon being also readmitted to the Command of their Forces the Communication with Kent was interrupted by placing Guards upon the Passages of the River But the Clouds that threatned the fiercest storm gathered in the North where Sir Marmaduke Langdale Sir Charles Lucas and others having surprized the strong Town of Berwick Berwick and Carlile surprized and Sir Phillip Musgrave and Sir Thomas Glenham that of Carlile and raised considerable Forces to joyn with the Scots now ready to enter England seemed no less able than willing to effect what they pretended the King's Restitution Though it be true that the Scots-Declaration had so many untoward Restrictions in it that nothing but the Frank Loyalty of the Royallists could joyn with them Upon the first noise of the Scots arming many English repaired into Scotland which obliged them at Westminster by their Deputies to require the delivery of the chief of them as Incendiaries They named particularly Wogan who carried a Troop thither with Sir Thomas Glenham and others But the Scots refused it seeing it was not stipulated in the Treaties betwixt both Nations They not judging those to be Incendiaries between the Two Kingdoms but only between the King and England These Revolts and Preparations for a new War did strangely disquiet the pretended Parliament who thereupon reviving their Votes of 1642. declare That it appears that the King seduced by wicked Counsel though then a close Prisoner intends to make War against the Parliament Cromwell being dispatcht against the Welch with great Forces the Kentish Expedition was not thought unworthy Fairfax's Conduct He therefore marches with Six Thousand Foot and Two Thousand Horse against the Cavaliers who being fatally divided whilst they Fight singly by Parties they are all overcome Fifteen Hundred stout Men were sent to Maidstone Fairfax defeats the Kentish-men to oppose their Enemies Passage there who fought with so much Valour that after they had been beaten from the Avenues and Hedges they kept that Town firing from the Houses and Leads about the space of Six Hours with great slaughter of the Enemy So that it is believed if the Earl of Norwich had come up with the rest of the Army to their Assistance the Rebels might have been defeated that Day But he dividing his Forces sent half of them to Dover and himself marched with the rest to Black-heath and being denied a Passage through the City which had been promised him he Ferries and Swims his small Army over to the Isle of Doggs From thence he moved to Mild-end-Green But seeing none come out of London to his relief as he expected he himself with only Five Hundred the rest being upon the obstinacy of the Citizens slipt from him joyned with the Essexians at Bow under the Command of Sir Charles Lucas They all stay'd here some time to favour any Loyal Attempt that might be made at London until warned by the approach of Fairfax who having dispatcht Rich and Barkstead with their Regiments to reduce those Castles which the Kentish had taken towards the Downs had passed the Thames at Graves-End they were also forced to dislodge And marching further into the Country seized store of Arms and Ammunition in the Earl of Warwick's House at Lees and having surprized the Parliament-Committee at Chelmsford went thence to Colchester where the brave Lord Capell joyned them with some Horse And all of them received the Van of Fairfax's Army with such Gallantry at the Towns-end that they forced them to retire to their main Body with considerable Loss They had designed to march further if they had not been so
closely pursued by the Enemy with Hopes of strong Assistance from the Inhabitants of Norfolk and Suffolk But these failing and indeed joyning with the Rebels contrary to their solemn Promises the Royallists were besieged in this Town no way tenable but by the rare Fortitude of the Defendants Cromwell the Welch Nor was Cromwell less successful in Wales Laughorn having been beaten at St. Fagons by Col. Horton with scarce half his Number Fifteen Hundred of his Men being killed and near Three Thousand taken Prisoners Cromwell besieged the Fugitives in Pembroke having first taken Tenby Castle and forced that of Chepstow by Col. Eure who slew the Governour in cold Blood The Rumor of the Scots Invasion greatly encreasing animated Cromwell to employ all his skill and force for the Reduction of this important Post The Garrison within was strong and the Place well fortified which he resolved however to attempt by Storm And falling on with great Courage was as bravely received and at length beaten off with great slaughter of his Men. After this not thinking it adviseable to expose his dismayed Souldiers to new hazards he resolves to gain that by famine which he could not effect by force Which being perceived by the Garrison they chose rather to surrender upon Terms than lanquish in the Toyls of a long Siege tho they saw a Prospect of a General Rising in the Kingdom and the certainty of the Scots Invasion But Cromwell knowing how precious time was offering the Souldiery and Inferior Officers very good Conditions he had this strong Place with the Three chief Leaders Laughorn Poyer and Powell delivered into his hands by these faithless Miscreants Nor was Sir John Owen more fortunate in North Wales being defeated and taken Prisoner by Colonel Mitton So that the whole Country being reduced to the Parliaments Obedience again Cromwell was at liberty to march against the Scots with all his Power The Earl of Holland defeated The Earl of Holland the Duke of Buckingham with the L. Francis his Brother the Earl of Peterborough and some others of Quality appeared near Kingston with Five Hundred Horse and some Foot but were instantly suppressed tho not without some bloody Shirmishes in one of which the Young and Generous Lord Francis refusing Quarter was barbarously slain by an unknown Hand Holland was taken in his flight at St. Neots by Col. Scroop where Dalbier sometime a Favourite of Essex's and a great Parliamentarian was killed in his Quarters But the Scots seem now to demand our Attention being advanced with a very numerous and well accoutred Army far into the Kingdom And here may be observed the Vicissitudes of the Times as well as of Affairs For the Scots whom the Parliament had formerly with great Endeavours and Charges allured to their Assistance and whom the War being done they had likewise twice dismissed with vast Rewards as Friends These same Scots the Faction being changed become Enemies and invading England again joyn Forces with the Royallists their now reconciled Friends against their sometimes dear Brethren of the Parliament Duke Hamilton upon the surrender of Pendennis Castle where he had been detained Prisoner by the King's Command being set at liberty was now General of this great Army consisting of Fifteen Thousand fighting Men to whom Langdale and Musgrave brought Three Thousand English which forces if God had not determined otherwise might have effected what they designed As soon as the King was informed that Hamilton commanded the Scots Army he too prophetically foretold the Fatal Issue of the Expedition as fancying him unfortunate or inconstant But Cromwell being come out of Wales with a victorious and disciplined Army and joyning with Lambert who had hitherto attended the Enemies Motion fell upon the main Body of the Scots within Two Miles of Preston in Lancashire and routed them by Skirmishes Cromwell defeats the Scots at Preston and beating up of Quarters without the Formality of a Battle Langdale and his English fought bravely but being neglected and no ways succoured were oppressed by the adverse Multitudes The Scots presumed perhaps upon their own Power and thinking to conquer by themselves and consequently reap the whole Advantage of the Victory as also the entire Honour of restoring the King if they had any such design abandoned them that fought so well and by this foolish precaution or presumption contributed to their own ruin Besides the Scots Forces either by Ignorance or Malice or Discord for Hamilton and Calander who was Lieutenant-General of the Army did not agree well were so untowardly marshalled that they could not all be brought to fight or assist each other by reason of the over great distance of their Wings whereby they were all defeated Bayly after sharp encounters with those who pursued him having recovered Warrington-Bridge delivered up himself and Four Thousand Foot to the Conqueror upon Quarter Major-General Midleton was intercepted with Four Hundred Horse and Hamilton himself General of the Expedition with Three Thousand Horse was taken without a Blow at Vttoxeter by the Lord Gray and Colonel Waite Very few returning by the way they came met with Monroe who followed Hamilton with a Supply of Six Thousand more but hearing of the Defeat returned with the other Fugitives back into Scotland Cromwell following in the Rear of these came to Edinburgh where joyning Forces and Councils with Argile by whom he had been invited they not only obliged the contrary Faction to lay down Arms but having summoned another Parliament condemned the late Expedition as unjust Scotland being pacified Cromwell secure on that side having also concerted with Argile concerning the Ruin of the King and Extirpation of Monarchy it self they also advised and agreed on the Form and Method of the future Regicide And so after sumptuous Treats and many high Expressions of Gratitude and Acknowledgments for his meritorious Services Cromwell returned into England All this while Colchester held out with incredible Courage and Constancy upon hopes of Relief from the Scots and not only content to defend themselves did extreamly annoy the Enemy by their frequent Sallies and Camisadoes They had consumed their Horses Dogs Cats and what else was no less abhorring to Nature but their hopes with the defeat of Hamilton being likewise spent they were forced to surrender Which they did upon no other Terms than Quarter for life to the Souldiery and Mercy to the Officers But Colchester surrendred how cruel the Mercies of these Scelerates were instantly appears for they had no sooner possest the Town but Three most Noble Persons Men of Eminent Valour and Loyalty the Lord Capell Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to whom was added Sir Bernard Gascoyn but exempted upon the accompt of being a Stranger were sentenced to be shot to death by the Court-Marshal tho the War was done Sir George and Sir Charles were immediately murthered by Souldiers appointed for the Slaughter The Stone they fell upon being sprinkled with their Blood could
not be cleansed of it but continues still a Monument of this horrid Impiety with this Inscription engraved Hic jacent Car. Lucas Geor. Lisle a Fairfaxio mactati Capell was reserved for the Scaffold who afterwards suffered with no less Constancy and Greatness of Mind than his illustrious Colleagues now did as we shall see in the Sequel of this History Nor was it on Land only that the Sword did rage the Sea also had its Scenes of Blood and Horror for a great part of the Navy detesting the Tyranny of their Old Masters deserted them and revolted to the Prince of Wales The Revolt of the Fleet. Batten one of their prime Leaders having been dismissed by them returned to his Duty and joined his Highness with some more Ships The Sea-men had exposed Rainsborough their Admiral and a Turbulent Leveller by putting him on shore who was afterwards slain in his Quarters by a Party from Pomfret and now embracing the King's Party with universal Consent seemed resolved to expiate their former Rebellion by a Return of Duty and to merit their Pardon by the Eminency of their Services Prince Charles with the Duke of York his Brother who lately escaped from St. James's in Womans Cloaths Prince Rupert the Earl of Brandford the Lords Hopton Willmot Willoughby Culpeper and others of Name and Quality sailed from Holland with this brave Fleet consisting of Twenty Ships of War and came into Yarmouth-Road with design to attempt every thing that was possible for the Relief of Colchester But finding the distance from that City too great and the Shore and Passages possessed by the numerous Enemy his Highness sailed to the Mouth of the Thames carrying Terror and Force with him to awe the City of London But his stay there was not long the Castles of Deal Walmer and Sandwich requiring his Assistance which he attempted by landing Five Hundred Men who though they fought with extream Gallantry were yet forced back with great loss to their Ships again The Castles after this Defeat were immediately surrendered By this time the Earl of Warwick lately made Admiral again had equipt another Fleet in the River and having joyned that of Portsmouth resolved to fight the Prince which he yet delays for the present not only terrified with the Revolt of others but in some doubt of the Fidelity of his own Men. The Prince perceiving this courted the Earl with magnificent Offers to the Return of his Duty But he perfidiously constant persisted in his Rebellion and in recompense of his Services shall see himself disgracefully outed of all Trust and his only Brother the Earl of Holland beheaded for his late Return to his Obedience Some were of Opinion that the Royallists omitted an opportunity of fighting the Sea men being high in Heart and seemingly very Loyal and the Enemy supposed to waver tho the Event afterwards proved the contrary In the mean time the Prince seeing his Land-Forces every where defeated and the adverse Fleet growing daily stronger returned into Holland giving the Command of the Fleet to Prince Rupert But many of the Ships out of an innate levity of their Sailors leaving the Prince returned to their old slavery under Warwick whilst the rest continuing in their Duty stuck close to their New Admiral whose Actions and Adventures shall be hereafter related Some other Fortresses besides those already mentioned declared for the King as N. B. Tinmouth-Castle seized upon by Major Lilburn Scarborough by the Return of Sir Matthew Boynton the Governour to his Allegiance and Pomfret possessed upon the same score by Major Morrice Tinmouth indeed was retaken by Assault the Governour losing his Life with the Place Boynton got Terms not unworthy the Defence he had made and Morrice and being lost bravely exposed himself to save his Garrison Who tho he broke thro the Camp which was the Conditions he had articled for yet was afterwards taken and murthered under colour of Justice in cold Blood The Visitation of Oxford But before we proceed further in these Occurrences it may not be impertinent to take a Review of some Transactions in the entrance of this Black Year 1648. seeing they seem to tend to those monstrous Catastrophes it ended in The first thing our pious Reformers undertook was visiting the Vniversity of Oxford They had long since garbell'd Cambridge to their Interest and will now as much as in them lyes extinguish this other Luminary by removing its Candlesticks and ejecting all the Members thereof that were any ways notable for Learning Loyalty Piety or Obedience to the Church or State as established by Law The Earl of Pembrook being made Chancellor together with several Delegates of the Factious Clergy and some of the Laiety as good Divines as himself were appointed for this Service Which was performed with all the Rigor of an Inquisition none being spared from the Reverend Heads of Colleges to the hopeful Striplings of Sixteen And yet the entrance of this Year had thus much extraordinary in it in that it contributed to the Deliverance of the Duke of York out of the Hands of those worst of Rebels The Duke of York escapes into Holland being conveyed away in a Virgin-disguise and carried into Holland by Col. Bamfeild who afterwards aspersed the Honour of this Service by undutiful Intelligences But to return whence we digressed the Army with Cromwell being absent and in Scotland several Petitions from the Country the Captains Masters and Sailers as also from the City of London were presented to the Men at Westminister requiring with more than ordinary earnestness a personal Treaty with the King This did so far work upon the Presbyterian Faction in the House very jealous and apprehensive of the Power of the Independants that they resolved for their own preservation to make a Peace with the King And The Treaty in the Isle of Wight in order thereunto forthwith recalled their Votes of Non-Address and sent Commissioners with Propositions not much unlike the former with Power to make Peace allowing Forty Days for the time of treating They indeed permitted his Majesty the attendance of several Lords of his Council and Bed-Chamber many of his Servants some of his Chaplains some Lawyers and others But they refused the Assistance of any but himself in treating Nor was it truly necessary for it presently appeared that as he was a Prince of prodigious Parts so he seemed more than humanly inspired who could singly manage so weighty an Affair against Fifteen Commissioners Persons prejudiced and of great Subtilty and with that success that he made Converts of some of his bitterest Enemies and however unwilling forced their very Reason But they having no liberty to recede or any way to remit of the Rigor of their Propositions His Majesty out of his affection to Peace granted many things above their Desires being content to divest himself of most of his Regalities for his time and trust those insatiable Men with the exercise thereof
as appears by his Concessions And now the Hopes of Peace and a Happy Accommodation seemed at â—and which had also been effected if the Parliament had not wretchedly lost too much time in frivolous disputations of no weight Whereby it appeared as formerly at Vxbridge that they never designed that this Treaty should take any effect nor that they would be satisfied with Part who had already devoured the Whole in their thoughts The Army who seemed to acquiesce in the Pleasure of their Superiors whilst engaged in War did dare now the Royallists being every where supprest changing their Principles with their Success plainly to dissent And to declare openly to the whole World That nothing would satisfy but the Destruction of the King and the Subversion of Monarchy In order hereunto a fierce Petition was presented from the City against the Treaty which was also seconded from Oxfordshire New-Castle York c. and in particular Ireton's Regiment insisted upon the same demanding That the same fault may have the same punishment in the Person of King or Lord as in the Person of the meanest Commoner A Prelude to the designed Regicide They had formerly designed the Murther of the King by the Ministry of that Villain Rolfe as is already mentioned but now fierce with their Victories they will themselves destroy him To this purpose they emit a Remonstrance The Armies Remonstrance execrable as it's Authors Cromwell and Ireton which was presented to the Commons House by Col. Eure and Seven other Scelerates like himself In this they furiously declaim against the Restitution of the King or any Accomodation with him requiring That he as the Capital Enemy should be brought to judgment That the Prince and Duke of York should be summoned in by a day That the Parliament should constitute a Government for the future and fixing a Period to their own Session should take care for Annual or Biennial Parliaments and the like stuff which they offered in their own Names and as the Agreement of the People They were grown now to that insolence that their modest General writ to the Committee of the Army for Money or he should be forced to receive that is take it out of the Collectors and the Receivers hands where he could find it if speedy course be not taken to supply him Which however high it appeared or unbeseeming in the General was connived at And now again the Army declare That they can see in the Majority of those trusted with the Affairs of the Kingdom nothing less than a treacherous or corrupt Neglect of and Apostacy from the publick Trust reposed in them and therefore they appeal from them to God and the People In order to this the Army marches towards the City and in contempt of the Parliament's Order who commanded their stay advance sending a Declaration before them wherein They accuse the Members of Folly of Infidelity and Inconstancy threatning They would come to Westminster where they would further act as God should inspire them And thus the Parliament after successes above their desires are agitated and tormented with the Mutinies of their own Army They had indeed declared the seditious and mutinying Souldiers Enemies but now by a desponding Compliance they Vote them their Pay and the Officers their Arrears and also that the Declaration against the Army be rased out of the Journal of the House They further as also the Citizens of London and the Counties began to make all their â—pplications to the General especially Cromwell â—nd the Army The Parliament seemed now â—eglected whilst the Army triumph and all Men are affraid of doing any thing that may â—isplease them The King hurried to Hurst Castle During these traverses and the Treaty at Newport not yet finished the King by command from Fairfax was by Col. Eure hurried to Hurst-Castle a place Infamous for Cold and the Insalubrity of the Air. At parting from the Isle the Parliament-Commissioners coming to take their leave of him he gave them his Answer unsealed and having acquainted them with the Condition of the Times he told them He had parted with All how dear soever to him except wherein his Conscience was dissatisfied And finally added That he had reason to believe that this would be the last time of their enterview But that blessed be God he had made his Peace with him and should without fear undergo what he should be pleased to suffer Men to do unto him As for them they could not but know that in his fall and ruin they saw their own and that also near to them He prayed God to send them better friends than he had found He was fully informed of the whole Plot and Carriage against him and his But that nothing so much afflicted him as the sense and feeling he had of the Sufferings of his Subjects and the Miseries that hung over his Three Kingdoms drawn upon them by those who upon pretences of good violently pursue their own Interests and Ends. Fairfax by so much the more wicked in that he witlesly acted for others brought the Army equally Rebels to the Parliament now as they had been to the King before to London and in Contempt of the Treaty impudently took up his Quarters at White Hall And yet the pretended Parliament that had hitherto rejected as well the King's Concessions as his Demands in contemplation of the Armies Insolence The Parliament Vote his Concessions satisfactory voted His Majesty's Answer to the Propositions of both Houses to be Satisfactory But this was too late for theâ—e double Rebels were so furiously enraged thereat that they immediately demanded by writing from the Parliament That the late accused Members and such other who favoured the Scots the King or the Personal Treaty should be excluded the Houses Nor were they pleased to stay for an Answer but besetting the Senate they seize upon One and Forty of them whom they imprison and seclude a Hundred and Sixty more leaving none to sit but such who were mancipated to Cromwell and the Faction The Common-Council was purged with the same Ingredients from the Army the vacancies being supplied with Plebeian fanaticks whereof any Forty should be a Quorum and Superior to the Mayor These petitioning with the same fury against the King as the Agitators had done involved the City in the Guilt of the Regicide as well as the Rebellion The Government being thus changed from one Tyranny to another the Supream Power which the Presbyterians had so long hunted for was surprized by the Independants Who to shew their Authority dissannul whatever the Presbyterians had voted concerning the Treaty or their secluded Colleagues And some time after divers of the Lords how degenerate did so far compliment Fairfax upon his Proceedings that they let him know They would wave their Titles and Priviledges in case they should be judged burthen-some to the Common-wealth or the Peoples Liberties Things being thus disposed and the Obstacles that might hinder their
premeditated Parricide removed the King the designed Sacrifice to their hellish Ambition hurried from one Prison to another was brought to Windsor where the usual Ceremonies of the Knee and other Marks of Honour were laid aside Col. Harrison a Butcher's Son had the Impudence to sit with his Majesty in the Coach with his Hat on leading this most innocent and pious Prince like a Lamb to the Slaughter There were yet some amongst these Barbarians Who could not judge the King obnoxious to Law and seeing they had vanquished him by Arms they did not at all esteem him considerable or to be feared But the furious Novellists pronounce with much bitterness That they will have him forthwith removed Nor durst they who had other Sentiments mutter against them for fear of being expelled Yet these States had a mind to delegate this worst of Employments as being unheard of and beyond all Precedents to be perpetrated by these worst of Men the Souldiery This being perceived the Chief Officers however unnaturally desperate yet decline it thinking it might suffice if they remitted the performance of so villainous an Act to those who sate by their Favour and Permission The Commons therefore of the Lower House being scarce the eight Part of the whole whereof many also were Commanders in the Army so that nâ—thing remained of a Parliament but the Name arrogating the Supream Power to themselves that they might seem to avoid the Infamy of Perjury absolved themselves by an Ordinance from the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy The Commons assume the Supreme Power which they had so often taken to the King thinking perhaps to evade what they had done separately by this conjunct Abjuration This done they Vote That it is Treason by the Fundamental Laws of the Realm in the King of England to levy War against the Parliament And send up the same to the Peers by the Lord Gray of Grooby who rejected it with Indignation as inconsistent with Reason and the Laws of the Land This enraged the Commons who slighting the Assent and Power of the Lords unanimously decree That 1. The People under God are the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament Assembled have the Supream Power of the Nation 3. That whatever is enacted or declared for Law by the House of Commons in Parliament hath the force of Law Constitute a High Court of Justice This Foundation being laid they constitute a High Court of Justice without any consideration of the Lords or those Thousands who desired to preserve the King from the Destruction he was threatned with and the Nation from the Guilt of his most Innocent Blood The Scots by their Commissioners protested highly against this pretended Tryal The Dutch deprecated it as of most pernicious consequence to the Reformed Religion Some of the Chief Nobility as the Duke of Richmond the Marquess of Hartford and the Earls of Southampton and Linsey endeavoured his Conservation by Prayers and Proffers Offering themselves as being the Chief Ministers of his Will as Hostages for him and by a generous Example of magnanimity in case the Kings pretended Crimes could not be expiated without Blood presented their own to be shed in lieu of his Prince Charles piously endeavoured by all manner of ways to deliver his Father from the impending danger For besides the Dutch Embasladors which his Highness had procured to be sent over to mediate for him he and the Prince of Orange enquired after and sent for such Officers or others in that Country who were of Kindred or related to Cromwell Ireton or any other of the Conspirators and sent them into England with full Power to offer present promise and yield to every thing mingling Thrâ—ats with their Entreaties that might divert them from their designed Parricide or at least retard it The Queen was no less active on her side to save her Royal Consort Endeavors to preserve the King who also writ to Lenthall the Speaker in terms capable to mollify every thing except these Hyrconian Monsters which Letters were also delivered by the French Embassador but laid by without being opened Nor could there any thing in those days be expected from France labouring then with the same Frenzy of Rebellion Amongst others the Presbyterian Preachers who had betrayed the King into these Streights pierced with the Infamy of their Treasons and perhaps apprehending their own turns in case the Independants should persist very earnestly besought and conjured them by monitory Letters Petitions and Remonstrances as also admonished and exhorted them out of their Pulpits to desist from their designed enterpize Lest they should defile the English Nation with so horrid a Guilt as that of Regicide For that execrable fact could not be perpetrated without violating the Obligation of so many Oaths as they had taken without breaking the Publick Faith exhibited by so many Protestations and Declarations without transgressing the Law of Nature and Nations and finally without prostituting the Dictates of the Scripture and our Religion But all this was to no purpose as also the Princes sending of them White Paper to write their own Conditions For nothing seemed enough to them who had swallowed all the Hopes of Empire and were ready to ascend into the Throne They therefore name One Hundred and Fifty of the most Petulant of the Faction and the most adverse to Monarchy to judge the King Some of the Nobility whom they had pitcht upon as also the Judges however raised to that Dignity by them for daring to declare That it was not lawful to bring the King of England to Tryal were expunged out of that black Catalogue others being introduced in their places A suborned Prophetess produced to encourage their Villainy But to encourage the doubtings of the less Perswaded and entitle their Actions to Providence these divine Jugglers produced an Impostor a Virgin they called her out of Hertfordshire who told the Officers of the Army That she had a Message from Heaven to them and being admitted affirmed That God did approve of their Designs Which did exceedingly encourage the most wavering The Contemptibleness of the Judges did in some sort aggravate their Crimes many Petty-foggers Brewers Carr-men Goldsmiths Coblers and other Mechanicks being of the Number who thirsting after the King's Revenues as well as his Blood were forward to perpetrate any mischief how tremendous soever At this Tribunal the King was impleaded baited and condemned unheard unconvict as Guilty of those Crimes of Treason Tyranny and Murther which those incarnate Divels his Judges had committed I had purposed to omit the Particulars of this Black Tragedy as being exactly described already by better Pens But lest these Commentaries might prove imperfect it was thought requisite to present the Curious if this empty Narrative can render any such with an Abridgment of the same Quamquam animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit The pretended Court of High Justice having spent some days in settling
the Method and Formalities of their Proceedings rejected the Opinions of such who would have the King first deposed and then put to Death as dangerous by its delay and savouring of Popery But those who gaped after the Government the Democratick would have the King tryed as King that by the Effusion of his Blood as such they might extinguish Majesty and destroy Monarchy it self For several of them confessed That Charles his only Crime was his being King and that the Eminency of his Vertues together with his Right of Succession rendered him uncapable of being a Private Man They therefore having first by their Serjeant at Arms with sound of Trumpets cited such profligate Witnesses as they could get the stress of whose Depositions was That they had seen the King in Arms at several Battles and Encounters Having also the same Day voted the making of a New Great Seal because of the incongruity of using the King 's against himself those Sanguinary Judges met in Weminster-Hall at the End whereof they caused a Theater to be erected on which they acted the ensuing Tragedy of Horror and Blood John Bradshaw the Shame of the Long Robe and only known by this horrid Fact the impudent President of this execrable Court commanded the King to be brought before them where he was accused of all the Blood-shed in the late Wars The King is arraigned with the injurious Terms of Tyrant Traytor and Murtherer and required to give his Answer to the Charge The King with an inimitable presence of Mind and a Fortitude truly Royal slighting what he had heard instead of an Answer demands of these Novel Judges By what Authority he was brought thither Adding he knew very well that there were many unlawful Authorities as those of Thieves and Robbers He bid them remember he was their King and would know by what lawful Authority he was seated there and he would answer In the mean time he would not betray his Trust derived to him from God by old and lawful Descent The President replied That he was brought thither by Authority of the People of England by whom he was elected King His Majesty denied this affirming the Kingdom of England never to have been Elective but Hereditary for near a Thousand Years He stood more for the Liberties of his People than any there and therefore desired to know by what lawful Authority he was brought thither and he would answer otherwise not But the President often interrupting the King and chattering the same Tune of the Peoples Authority His Majesty said That no body did more esteem a House of Commons rightly constituted than himself He saw no House of Lords that might with the King constitute a Parliament Was 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 him see a Legal Anthority warranted by the Word of God the Scriptures or Constitutions of the Kingdom and he would instantly answer But the President urging that unless he would answer the Court would consider how to proceed His Majesty replied That unless they would satisfie God and the Country concerning the Premises he would not betray his Trust and the Peoples Liberty For he did avow That it was as great a Sin to withstand lawful Authority as it was to submit to a Tyrannical or any other ways unlawful Authority He was not afraid of their Bill And this was the Sum of the first Days Convention Two Days after the King the Best of Princes was again brought before these Worst of Rebels his Judges Where the President upon the Solicitor's Motion requires his Positive Answer again or else the Charge may be taken pro Confesso He added That this Court was fully satisfied with their Authority which he also ought to acquiesce in and therefore they yet again required his particular Answer by confessing or denying it If the later Witnesses were at hand in behalf of the Nation to make good the Charge against him To this the King said If it were his own particular Case he would have satisfied himself with the Protestation he had made against the Legality of the Court and by demonstrating that the King of England cannot be tryed by any Superiour Jurisdiction upon Earth But it not being his Case alone but the Freedom and Property of the People he must stand for their Liberties For if an illegitimate Power might make and break the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom at Pleasure no Man could be secure of his Life or Goods He did expect Reasons to know by what Law what Authority they did proceed against him but hearing none he would produce his with as much brevity as he could But he was interrupted here the President telling him They must suffer no arguing concerning the Authority of the Court nor hear any Reasoning against it The Votes of the Commons in Parliament were the Reason of the Kingdom not to be questioned by any to which also he and his Predecessors were always obnoxions and responsible This being denyed by the King he further denyed That the Commons of England were ever a Court of Judicature Which vext the President to that Degree that he told him That he was not to be permitted to go on in that Speech and those Discourses and if he would not Answer he should be recorded as contumacious Hereupon the King desired That his Reasons at least might be heard but was answered That his Reasons were not to be heard against the highest Jurisdiction Whereunto the King returned That they should shew that Jurisdiction that would not hear Reason To which the President replied That they shewed it him there and that the next time he should know more of their Pleasure perhaps their final Determination Commanding withal That they should take the Prisoner away Who bid them remember That the King was not suffered to give his Reasons for the Liberty and Freedom of the People The next Day the King being brought now the Third time before this nefarious Tribunal continued with the same Constancy as at first to deny the Authority of the same And being insulted upon by the President was required at length to submit and that with Threats That although he would not understand it he should find that he was before a Court of Justice which knew no respect of Persons But the King replied As for the Charge he did not value it a Rush it was the Liberty of the People he stood for and therefore he neither would nor could being a King acknowledge a new and unheard of Court against their Priviledges and the Fundamental Laws of the Land The Prefident hereupon subjoyned That the King had now denied the Authority of the Court Three times contemning the Dignity thereof Adding That his Actions Writ in bloody Characters throughout the Kingdom did sufficiently demonstrate how far he had preserved the Priviledges of the People The King had designed to deliver his Reasons
Gods immediate Finger which commands Obedience to the Magistrate and paying his Duty to his King the most pious most vertuous and most sufficient of Princes As for the present King having been his Councellor he affirmed That he never saw greater Hope of Vertue in any young Person than in him great Judgment great Vnderstanding great Apprehension much Honour in his Nature and a very perfect English-man in his Inclination By which just Character he raised and renewed the Desires of the People after so deserving a Prince As for himself in Imitation of our blessed Martyr's Ingenuity about the Death of the Illustrious Strafford he confessed That he had given his Vote to that Bill that took away hâ—s Life which he greatly bewailed And at length having earnestly prayed for the King the People and his Murtherers he was indisputably added to the Number of the Blessed Norwich and Owen reprieved The Earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen both signal for their Loyalty and eminent Endeavours in the late War were likewise condemned to the Block but both reprieved by the glutted Votes of the House tho they will make other Examples in other parts of the Kingdom Beaumont a Minister was hanged at Pomfret Others in other parts put to Death being Chaplain to that Garrison Major Monday was shot to Death at Lancaster Morris dyed with no less Bravery than he had lived Nine Months in the Defence of Pomfret Poyer one of the Three revolted Grandees in Wales was likewise shot to Death his Comrades Laughorne and Powell escaping by Lot which was indulged to all by reason of their former great Services the to Rebel-Parliament There were also some others slaughtered upon the same accompt Unhappy Monuments of unfortunate Loyalty and the Regicides Cruelty Tho several considerable Persons eluding the Sagacity of their Keepers escaped as Col. Massey Sir Lewis Dives Mr. Holden the Lord Capell tho unfortunately betrayed into their Hands again the Lord Loughberow and others Nor was it only against the persons of Men that these Tyrants raged they also seized the King and the Churches Patrimony Revenues Pallaces c. and force such of the Cavaliers as they did not confiscate to a ruinous Ransom of their Estates And now to render the Peoples Obedience to the Usurpation more easy they absolve them from all Oaths made to their Sovereign and his Posterity but will enchange them with a more rigid one obtruding an Instrument upon them whereby they engage themselves to be true to the Common-wealth of England Several Acts of State without King or House of Lords And now having declared themselves a Free State make it Treason in any who by Word or Writing should dare to oppose them as such or should contrive the death of the General the Lieutenant General or kill any Member of their Parliament They also put a Period to their Monthly Fast God having indulged them what they fasted for the Death of the King and Possession of his Inheritance They had already made a new Great Seal with this Inscription In the first year of Freedom by God's Blessing restored 1648. They also took down the King's Statue from the West End of St. Paul's and that other in the Old Exchange putting this Inscription under the Niche in Letters of Gold tho with no less Falseness than Impudence Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1648. But they could perswade but half of their Judges tho all made such by them to comply with their Change however they easily supplied the Vacancies And now they proceed to another Act of State which was coyning of Monies markt with the Arms of England and Ireland on one Side and on the Reverse with the House of Commons to demonstrate thereby their Sovereignty where-ever their Traffick might extend The Scots in the mean Time in whose power it had once been to restore the late King to his Royal Throne exagitated with the Guilt of having sold him found the Infamy of it aggravated by his calamitous Murther They therefore to vindicate themselves from so black a Crime as they had declared their Dissent against His Majesty's Tryal so they protested highly against his Death and acknowledging the Succession of his Son Charles II. proclaim him King with great Pomp and Solemnity The Scots proclaim K. Charles II. which being done they dispatcht Commissioners to acquaint his Majesty with it who was then at the Hague attended by a noble Train of Peers and Gentlemen who followed his Fortunc It will be now Time to return to the Army The Faction had quite supprest the Fast and Perversness of the Presbyterians And with the same ease oppressed the Levelling Sect of those The Story of the Levellers who pretended to a Community and Equality of all Things The Souldiery actuated with the Leven of the Agitators did not only dream but consult of dividing the Possessions of the Kingdom amongst the Godly that is themselves Cromwell had brought them to his Lure with these kind of Baits before the King's Murther with the Hopes whereof they were grown numerous in the Army But seeing no Effects of these fine Promises began to be troublesome and tumultuous in so much that Lockier one of their Ring-leaders was shot to Death though sumptuously butyed by the Rable of his Party This Execution rather madded than appeased them and being too feeble a Remedy for so growing an Evil it was thought fit to separate them which was attempted by voting Eleven Regiments of these Mutineers for Ireland But this enraged them to that Height that perceiving that instead of enjoying those Happinesses they had been deluded with they were exposed to new Hazards and the Dangers of a starving War they absolutely declare they will not go for Ireland till the Peoples Liberties for which the Army first engaged were secured These also require that the so often promised Representative might be chosen They inveigh against the High-Court of Justice and Council of State as tyrannous not without blaming the Injustice and Illegality of the Regicide They add That the People had only changed not shaken off their Yoak and that the Rump's little Finger was heavier than the King's Loyns c. And because Discourses were fruitless they flye to Arms. Scroope's Regiment of Horse quartering at Salisbury having cashier'd all their Officers march with their Colors to joyn with those of Harrison Ireton Skippon and others confederated by the briguing of the Agitators which they had also done if they had not been prevented by the extraordinary Diligence of Cromwell and Fairfax who posting Forty Miles in one Day overtook them at Abington But being doubtful of the Event they offer a Treaty wherein satisfaction might be mutually given and till that were effected that neither Party might come within Ten Miles of each other Things being upon these Terms the Levellers march to Burford where resting secure upon the Engagement of those Twins of Perfidy and Ambition They are supprest the
General and Lieutenant General they had their Quarters surprized and beaten up about Mid-night by Reynolds where Four Hundred of them were made Prisoners and Nine Hundred of their Horses taken The Democraticks or Levellers being thus defeated our brave Hero's march to Oxford where both of them Fairfax and Cromwell were made Doctors of Law who had themselves trampled upon all Laws both Divine and Human. After this having visited Portsmouth they return to London in Triumph where after a Thanks-giving for their late Successes they were together with their Servile Senate invited treated and regal'd by the more Servile City who again not to seem ungrateful or rather to intangle them in their Interest bestowed New-Park with all the Deer in it upon the Citizens The Regicides being now secure at home at least in Appearance began to look after Foreign Correspondence and Amities Amongst which the Friendship of the Vnited Netherlands seemed preferable by reason of their Neighbourhood of their Resemblance in Government and the Genius of the Nation Dorislawes and Ascham in their Embassies Doctor Dorislawes a Civilian as also a German by Birth was sent thither with Instructions not only to propose a strict Friendship but also a Coalition of both People But he was prevented in it being assassinated in his Lodging by one Whitford a Scot who with Ten or Twelve more having perpetrated the Fact withdrew without any Pursuit though they were afterwards colourably summon'd in by the States The reason of this Remissness was his presuming to appear as it were in the King's presence having contributed so eminently to the Ruine of his Father And thus God permitted one Injustice to be retaliated with another Nor had Ascham another of their Envoy's at Madrid better Fate being kill'd in his Inn upon his Arrival by one Sparks an English-man who though he took Sanctuary was pulled thence by the Spaniard apprehending the rising Greatness of the new Common-wealth for the Regicides had declared though they much esteemed the Amity of so great a King yet they ought and did require the punishment of so Nefarious a Parricide as they called it adding that unless Justice were immediately satisfied they did not see how the Friendship betwixt both Nations could be sincere and durable The King acknowledged at the Hague The King had continued hitherto at the Hague acknowledged and reverenced by all and though the States that they might not altogether seem to displease their Sister Common-wealth of whom they began to be jealous had dispensed with the Ceremony of Public Congratulation yet the Swede and Danish Embassadors had saluted His Majesty with the usual Testimonies of Condolence and Congratulation He was also King in Possession Scotland having proclaimed him and Ireland being upon the point of being reduced so that his Affairs calling him away he left the Hague and being attended by the Princess Royal his Sister and the Prince of Orange his Brother-in-law to whose generous Friendship he owed all Things through Rotterdam Dort and Breda Treated magnificently by the Arch-Duke being received at these Places with the noise of their Cannon and Bells and all other marks of Honour he came to Antwerpe the principal City of the Spanish Netherlands where he was magnificently entertained and presented with a rich Chariot and Eight brave Horses sent him by Arch-Duke Leopold Governour of the Low-Countries His Majesty was also Royally treated by him at Brussels from whence after some Stay being conveyed on his way to France by the Duke of Lorrain Goes into France and feasted and honoured every where with the same Grandeur as if the King of Spain had been there he came to Compeigne where the French King accompanied with a great Train of his Nobility received him with all the Testimonies of Affection and Honour and brought him thence in State to his Mother the Queen of Great Brittain then at St. Germians Whilst the King was in France the Duke of Gloucester his Brother and the Lady Elizabeth his Sister both Princes of divine Endowments and Hopes were removed from the Earl of Northumberland's Guardianship to Carisbrook Castle infamous for having been the Prison of their Martyred Father to the custody of that impure Villain Anthony Mildmay The Lady Elizabeth dyeth and the D. of Gloucester is banished where the Princess afflicted with the daily Sight of that odious Mansion and consumed with Grief and the Maladies it occasioned breathed her last being denied by those barbarous Parricides the Assistance of such Physicians as she had desired Her Brother the Duke was presently after banished out of England by the Regicides the only agreeable Thing they did in rescuing him out of their Bloody Hands by their own Act. The Kingdom being thus subdued and the Army reduced to Obedience the Mock-Parliament or Rump for Continuation of the History of Ireland it grew famous by that Title of Infamy thought Ireland now worthy their consideration They therefore Vote Eleven Regiments to be sent thither under the conduct of Cromwell with the Title of Lord Governour whereof he was very fond which he could not forbear testifying for all his Dissimulation The Fame of these Preparations immediately flew over which obliged the Irish Rebels however dissenting amongst themselves to think of uniting for their Public Safety and although the Nuntio opposed this Confederation with all his Power excommunicating the Authors of it whilst they declared him and his Party Traytors resolving to force him by Arms which they did The Popes Nuntio expelled driving him into Galloway for his security where they prest him so hard that notwithstanding the Thunder of his Excommunication he was necessitated for his personal safety to abandon his Principality and the Kingdom The Irish-Grandees thus at Liberty invite and obtain the Marquess of Ormond as is mentioned in our former Commentaries with an Assurance of an entire Obedience to his Majesty's Lieutenant He being arrived the Confederates grew formidable by the Accession of the Lord Inchequin President of Munster and the Scots in the Province of Vlster Both these had served the Parliament with much Vigor until the King and Monarchy had been destroyed in England but abhorring the sordid Tyranny of the Regicides they deserted that Party they had so unjustly followed and return to their Duty and Allegiance to their Sovereign Owen-Roe-Oneal refused to be included in the Confederacy upon pretence that sufficient Provisions had not been made for the Security of their Religion but in reality because the Confederate Delegates had foolishly denied the no extravagant Conditions which his Quality seemed to require and he had demanded The Difference was about the Command of Four Thousand Men which they were willing to grant and Six Thousand which he insisted upon which they afterwards tho too late after his conjunction with Monk and Coot and his relieving of London-derry were glad to assent to During these Traverses the Marquess of Ormond entered upon the Government The
and being unequel to those Veteranes after a sharp Fight he was defeated by them And however he escaped their present Fury by Flight he was afterwards taken in the Battel of Worcester and being brought to Chester was there notwithstanding the Quarter given him beheaded by the Regicides finishing his Course with no less Gallantry than he had lived with Glory The King upon his Entry into England was ploclaimed by a Herald at Arms King of ENGLAND SCOTLAND FRANCE and IRELAND which was also done in all the chief Towns as he passed along and was now repeated at Worcester with greater Pomp and Splendour He had by Letters and Messages in his March invited several of the Rebel-Commanders and Governours to the return of their Duty but in vain He had also desired the same of the Mayor and Common-Council of London but with the same success There were however several Noble Persons who came in to him as the Lord Talbot Packington Howard Broughton and others with about Two Thousand private Souldiers The rest kept back either surprized with the sudden Advance of the King and consequently unprovided or terrified with the Cruelty of the Rump and so durst not appear or averse to the Scots now unseasonably mindful of the former Injuries received from them and would not come The King had been advised and it was his own Opinion to march from Warrington directly to London which in probability ought to have been done if the Army had not been so much wearied with their former Toyles and Labours They therefore came to Worcester a Place convenient enough where having recovered and repaired their Strength they might either expect or promote the War Hither Cromwell came Six Days after with the conjoyned Forces of the Party amounting to near Sixty Thousand Souldiers and Trained-Bands and having beaten Massey from Vpton-Bridge approached the Town The Rebels having passed the Rivers Severne and Tame upon Bridges and Boats advance towards the Walls however very bravely opposed by the Scots out of the Hedges and Ditches in their way But the Royallists being out-numbered were forced to retreat towards the City The Rebels having repulsed and wounded Montgomery at Powick Cromwell advancing drew up near ..... Wood. The King with Forbes's Foot a small Body of Horse for Lesley with Two Thousand more stood a loof of and did not approach and some English Voluntiers charged the Van of the Enemy with so much intrepid Bravery that he not only repelled them but took their Cannon which yet he could not keep by reason of their numerous Reserves and Supplies incessantly relieving each other Insomuch that the King having performed all the Parts of a Great Commander by rallying his broken Troops and embodying his scattered Foot and encouraging them by his Example and Presence in their renewed Encounters being over-pow'red by the adverse Legions Duke Hamilton who kept close to him being also wounded of which Hurt he shortly died he was forced to retreat towards the City which he entered on Foot at Sudbury-Gate being then obstructed by a laden Waggon overthrown in the Passage Nor did he long stay there but mounting another Horse when he saw all was lost and that the Enemy entered on all sides he at length slipping away in the Croud escaped out of the City The Royal-Fort defended by Col. Drummund with Fifteen Hundred Men was taken by Assault where all were put to the Sword The slaughter in the City was not less barbarous the Citizens and Souldiers being promiscuously slain all being filled wiâ—h Rapine and Murther There fell as well without as within the Walls where the Slaughter was greatest Three Thousand Five Hundred and the Prisoners were above Six Thousand most of the English escaping by the Benefit of their Tongue Duke Hamilton having his Thigh broken died there and amongst the Prisoners of most Note were the Earls of Derby Cleveland Lauderdale Rothes Carnworth Kelley as also Packington Greves Fanshaw the King's Secretary and many other Noble Persons taken in their Flight It is a Wonder that the King escaped the Diligence of his Pursuers but the Means by which he escaped doubles the Miracle Five Poor Brethren by Name Pendrills with Francis Yates married to their Sister and Three Females their Companions who concealed conducted and nourisht him justly merited the Glory not only of saving a Citizen as they had done before in the Person of the Earl of Derby whom they had formerly secured but of preserving their Prince No Threats of Punishments or Death nor the offer of a Thousand Pounds to those who discovered him would prevail with these however needy Plebeians whose Loyalty surmounted both their Hopes and their Fears The King having spent several Days in this miserable Solitude passed through many Hands of both Sexes and Religions Men and Women of the Middle and Lowest Sort. And by many Accidents and Spottings of Fortune wandering as it were in a Cloud for the space of Two Months he at length going on Board a small Collier and not unknown to the Master at Bright-hemston in Sussex was conveyed together with the Lord Wilmott his Achates and Companion in Dangers into France reserved by Divine Providence for the Glories that attended his Restitution At Rohan he discovered himself to some English Merchants where he changed his Apparel and went the next Day to Paris where his Fame arriving before him he was met in the way by the Queen his Mother and the Duke of Orleance with a great Train of Nobility Thus convoyed he was brought to Court where he was received with the Applause of all Men and the particular Congratulations of the French King and all the Peers of that Kingdom BOOK II. Cromwell enters London Triumphantly Continuation of the Irish Affairs Ormond leaves Ireland and Clanrickard his Deputy there Ireton dyes of the Plague Monk takes Sterling Dundee and Subjugates Scotland The Isles of Scilly Barbadoes Garnsey Jersey and that of Man surrendered to the Regicides Their Greatness They are courted by the Neighbouring Kings and States They send a solemn Embassy into Holland Cromwell cabals Turns out the Mock-Parliament Chooses another Is chosen Protector The Wars with the United Provinces The various Sea-Fights betwixt the Two States Cromwell makes a Peace with them and a League with France The Expedition of San Domingo and Jamaica Blake's success at Tunis and Santa Cruz. Dunkirk taken The Death of Oliver Cromwell His Character THE Scotch Army being defeated at Worcester and Lesley Midleton and the other Chief Officers who fled with the Horse taken Cromwell having sent his Prisoners before him entered London the Westminster and City Senates and Grandees receiving him with all imaginable Honour and Flatteries And now the Common-wealth having overcome all their Enemies exceedingly gloried in their Acquisitions Ireland was also subdued the remaining Natives being transported into Connaught But of these Tumults it will be expedient to treat more particularly Ireton having been left by his Father-in-law to command in Ireland as
the Duke of Gloucester the King 's Youngest Brother as least obnoxious to the Wiles of the Enemy by reason of his tender Years but this also displeased and nothing was fixed upon In the mean time several Petitions out of the Counties were presented to Cromwell in which after an Enumeration of his Glorious Actions they earnestly desire That God having given him the Power of the Sword they might be eased of their Grievances by his and his Armies mediation Moved with these Supplications and his own Ambition he ceased not to press the Members singly and collectively to put an End to their odious Domination and permit the Election of a new Representative of Men singular for their Integrity and Holiness of Life to whom the Government might be transferred But these Conscript Fathers bewitcht with the Sweets of Empire turned every Stone to prevent their casheering and being vehemently urged to it promised that they would name a day for the ending of this Session But Cromwell raving with the Thoughts of Supremacy and looking upon every Delay as pernicious rushing into the House of Commons having taxed all with their Crimes pointing at several with his Finger accused some of Adultery some of Drunkenness others of Gluttony and not a few of Robbing the Common wealth And his Officers upon his stamping with his Foot which was the Signal crowding in to him he turned out this Hated Juncto putting a Period to that detestable Convention which had thus long abused the Sacred Name of Parliament And here we ought to adore the unsearchable Judgments of God seeing them who violated the Majesty of their own Lord become Slaves by as just Retribution to their own Servants 'T is scarce credible with what universal Applause this Dissolution was effected not that better Times unless the King were restored durst be hoped for but that People were willing to try every Change rather than longer to bear the Yoke of this odious Domination And thus this perfidious Servant subverted his equally perfidious Superiors and constituting a Council of State which should govern at his beck requires by Proclamation the Subjects Obedience and Submission under great Penalties to their Dictates Many eminent Men have acquired Dominion over their Fellows by Fortitude and Vertue and some by flagitious and detestable Crimes but very few by cheating and perhaps scarce another besides Cromwell who ever invaded and obtained the Supreme Power by Tears and Sighs and Lyes and Pretences of Religion And yet it was with these Arts that this Ambitious Trooper and False Prophet having deceived the Army he commanded being Fanaticks and gained the Independants by Benefits durst attempt what ever Power and Ambition could suggest The Mock-Parliament being turned out the Civil Employments in the Kingdom were by Proclamation confirmed in their Hands that enjoyed them whilst the Souldiery by Sea and Land as also the Armies in Scotland and Ireland did not only approve of this Change by their suffrages but by their congratulatory Addresses too protesting their Obedience to their Generalissimo and his Orders in all Things But Cromwell lest he might seem to arrogate the Supreme Power to himself and thereby offend the Dissenting Brethren and the better to delude the Democraticks with the jugglings of Appearances convened another Assembly by advice of his Officers to the number of one Hundred and Four and Twenty To these being Godly Men and chosen by himself out of the Provinces he devolved the Supreme Power who being Sectaries and Enthusiasticks met at Westminster and usurping the Name of a Parliament as most plausible began to manage the Affairs of the Kingdom But they performed nothing of consequence save that they endeavoured to take away Tythes and alienate the Revenues of the Church as Antichristian They attempted also to abrogate our Laws as Badges of the Norman Conquest imposed to enslave us to suppress our Vniversities and Publick Schools as savouring of Paganism and to annihilate Titles and Nobility as contrary to the Law of Nature and Christianity All which they had also effected if they had not been stopt in their Carreer by a suddain Dissolution Cromwell had many Privado's amongst this mad Rabble who seeing they could do no good with them by tempering their Obstinacy and considering that they acted by a precarious Authority and the Will of another the Speaker being likewise of their Cabal they took their time when many of the other were absent declaring that since no good was to be expected from the Common-wealth so constituted it seemed consonant to reason that the Parliament should be dissolved Which by the Speaker's leaving the Chair was done who marching in the Head of the rest of the Party to White-Hall they surrendered to Cromwell the Authority they had received from him opening thereby a Passage to that Supremacy he so eagerly thirsted after year 1653 Being then by a Decree of the Council of War and Consent of the Army Lambert contributing mainly to it for he also hoped to have his Turn in the Government after the Death of his General chosen Protector he was no less vigilant in conserving his Dignity than he had been industrious in acquiring it But first it was thought fit he should be installed in this New Dignity which was done in great state at Westminster-Hall Dec. 18. where he took an Oath according to the Tenor of an Instrument then presented to him To govern the Nations according to the Laws Statutes and Customs to seek their Peace and cause Justice and Law to be equally administred The Heads of the said Instrument were That the Protector should call a Parliament every Three Years which should sit Five Months That their Bills unless he consented to them in Twenty Days should pass without him That his Council should not exceed One and Twenty nor be under Thirteen who immediately upon his Death should choose another Protector but that no Protector after him should be General of the Army That he should have power to make Peace or War and with his Council make Laws in the intervals of Parliament that should be binding to the Subjects c. His Council for the present seemingly appointed by the Chief Officers but allowed by himself were Fourteen in Number Harrison and some others being disgusted with the Change being lest out tho they had hitherto strenuously but blindly contributed to it But the City not content to have testified their Joy by their Bells and Bonfires invited this New Dictator to a magnificent Feast at Grocers Hall where he Knighted Viner the Mayor but in his Return was saluted with a Brick-bat which light upon his Coach nothing else save a profound Silence accompanying this splendid Cavalcade But Cromwell not taken with Appearances in Order to his Settlement sends his Son Henry to Command in Ireland and General Monk into Scotland securing thereby the Three Kingdoms in his Power At home he discountenances Bradshaw the Regicide with Scot Vane and other Enemies to Monarchy and
declaring the Pacification null breaks out into Open War The City of London during these Traverses altho they had disapproved the Interruption of the Rump did openly refuse to joyn with the Army daring by Petitions and Tumults to manifest their Desires for a Free Parliament And truly such were the Sentiments of the whole Nation which enraged the Souldiery to that height that a great part of the Army was sent into the City to keep them in their Obedience denouncing Death and Ruine to the obstinate Nor did they thus attain the Ends of their Desires opposed by the contrary Strivings of the People who would be satisfied with nothing but the Restitution of This or the Convocation of a New Parliament Which they at length assented to but with most servile Restrictions There was nothing of moment happened this while upon the Borders Monk was resolved to delay and gain time which he also did by avoiding Battle and amusing his Adversaries with another Treaty at New-Castle But Fleetwood head of the Chymerical Republick unequal for so great a Weight as ignorant of his own Strength a Man neither constant to himself nor bravely perfidious thinks of laying down his Burthen Which he was the more inclined to as believing if Lambert returned with Victory his Reign would be but very short To this his Endeavours to reduce the Fleet had proved but vain and that the Souldiers sent against the Rebels at Portsmouth had revolted to them To all this he wanted Money for the Army he commanded the Souldiers being ready to Mutiny for want of Pay and would infallibly rage with all the Extravagancies of Sedition and Tumult Prest with so many Evils and dreading greater this miserable Holder-Forth wretchedly submits his Grandeur to the Rump which he had so lately routed and Dec. 26. with sordid Assentation permits his old Masters to return to their Assembly as before The Rump being thus restored their first Business was to remove Lambert by whom they had been disturbed from his Command Which was not difficult to effect for the Irish Brigades left him and Desborough's Regiment of Horse by the Example of Fleetwood's Souldiers had abandoned him which the rest of his Army likewise did upon receiving the Parliaments Pleasure and Orders for that purpose So that this General who so lately hoped for Triumphs by a strange Vicissitude of things was forced to search for a Retreat to hide himself not unworthy the Fate that attended him since he suffered himself to be deprived of so great an Army without the Circumstance of a Blow Moreover as most ample Conditions had been formerly presented to Oliver and his Son Richard upon returning to their Duty so no less Honours and Dignities with the same Arguments had been offered by the Lord Hatton in the King's Name to Lambert and not without Threats which proved Prophecies That if he refused this Opportunity the King's Restitution would be worught and that suddainly without him and against his Will He should therefore make use of the Occasion to render himself and Posterity great to after Ages But this Advice was in vain he as the rest being blinded with Ambition and the Frantick Desire of Rule Monk being glad that the Enemy was dispersed without a Blow enters England with his little Army of Five Thousand Men tho the Parliament had assigned him but Five Hundred sending the rest back with Morgan into Scotland All the several Parties and Factions had an eye upon his Motions The Rump presumed by his Means to tame the Contumacious City and the Citizens hoped that he would compel the Rump to admit of the Secluded Members again or fill the Vacancies with new Elections They had sent their Sword-Bearer to Complement him upon his coming into England and he was likewise congratulated by all the Provinces he past thro as also by Deputations from the most remote Counties The desires of all good Men were for a Free Parliament as the only remedy against the impending Evils and the true means to reduce the Common-wealth to its pristine Forms of Government and most holy Laws again Monk tho he was of the same Opinion did not as yet think it convenient to discover himself so far Lest therefore he might displease those for whose sake he had armed his Returns to those many Addresses to him were general and civil intimating that he would acquaint the House with their Petitions and recommend them but exhorts them for the present that they keep themselves quiet and within the Bounds of Modesty permitting the Disposal of Affairs to the Judgment and Prudence of the Parliament And thus he moves forwards with slow Marches forming the Garrisons and Forces in his Way to his own Humour The Rump troubled that he was come with more Forces than they had designed he pretending to secure them from all violence by them solicitous of the many Petitions and Addresses to the General and convinced of the Hate of all Men towards themselves not knowing where to fix send Two of their Members Scot and Robinson cunning Men to him under pretence of congratulating his Arrival in England but in effect to pry into his Actions and to see what was to be expected from him Monk received these Gentlemen with the greatest Observance imaginable very careful least he might betray himself by any Inadvertency to these crafty Discoverers Being come to St. Albans he was again saluted by a Splendid Embassy from the City which he received and dismissed with great Civility covering his Purposes with a profound Dissimulation On the Second of February he entered the City with his Army and took his Lodging at White-Hall against the Opinion of all Men. The Third Day being attended upon by Scot and Robinson into the House he refused the Chair appointed for him But leaning upon it after he had received the Speaker's Thanks and Complements for his great Service in restoring the Parliament by his Council and Arms he replyed in these Terms First having modestly declined so great praises since he had done nothing but what his Duty obliged him to He humbly offered to them That they would be pleased to satisfy the People's Expectations by a Vindication of their Laws and Liberties God having restored them not so much to study their own as the Publick Welfare He then desired them To remove the Jealousies some Men conceived of their Design of perpetuating themselves in the Government and that mindful of future Parliaments they would fix a Period to this Moreover he advised them Not to burthen the Subjects with New Oaths And finally That they should take heed to the Royallists and Fanaticks and commending Scotland and a Free State to their Care he finished There were they in the Assembly who fancied he spake more like a Dictator than an Orator and yet he left them loaden with Thanks and Congratulations to take his place appointed him in the Council of State Here he prudently declined the Oath of Abjuration presented to him
the General who by his Courage and Conduct had contributed so mainly to it They then Vote Declare and Decree That the Government of England is Monarchical consisting in a King and Two Houses of Parliament After this King Charles I. his Statues thrown down by the Sectaries were set up again and the New Arms of the Common wealth with extream Contumelies tâ—rn and defaced those of the King being put in their Places A â—â—w Days after the King himself the Members of Bâ—th Houses assisting and an Iâ—fâ—nity of People was with the usual Ceremonies but unusual Transports of Joy proclaimed at Westminster in London and afterwards in the whole Kingdom King of Great Britain and Ireland In these following Terms Although it can no ways be doubted but that his Majesty's Right and Title to these Crowns and Kingdoms is and was every way compleat by the Death of his most Royal Father of glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such Cases have been always used to the End that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testifie their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other Calamities of many Years last past have hitherto deprived us of any Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and Proclaim That immediately upon the Decease of our late Sovereign King Charles I. the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birth-right and lawful undoubted Succession descend and come to his most Excellent Majesty King Charles II. as being Lineally Justly and Lawfully next Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty God He is of England Scotland and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King and thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and Posterities for ever At the Ceremony of this Proclamation the Publick Joy expressed by Shoutings Acclamations of God bless the King Bells and Bonfires were no less extraordinary than infinite the People being at length redeemed out of so long and so wretched a Captivity by the miraculous Restauration of their Beloved Prince Our most August Monarch had hitherto as is already mentioned wandered in Foreign Courts and as usual in the Disgraces of Fortune too much neglected especially where Reason of State seemed more prevalent than all the Tyes of Blood or Hospitality He was at Brussels the Metropolis of the Spanish Netherlands when he first heard of this Change in England from whence he removed to Breda a more secure place under the Circumstances of the present Times And now he hastens Greenvill away again with Letters to the Two Houses of Parliament to the City to Monk and to Montague joynt General at Sea In these Writings He Pardons all Men and all Crimes committed against his Royal Father or himself except such as the Parliament should except against promising further The Souldiers their Arrears tho' they bore Arms against him and That he would from that time receive them into his own Trust and Service upon the same Terms they did now enjoy c. This Declaration being received and read in Parliament with inexpressible Satisfaction and Joy was voted infinitely Satisfactory and a splendid Embassy ordered to the forthwith sent to the King with their humble Thanks for his Gracious Declaration and Letters and to invite and press His Majesty's return to his Parliament and People Six Lords and Twelve Commoners with Twenty Principal Citizens with a noble Train of Attendants were sent upon this happy Occasion Who the Wind favouring them after a quick Passage found His Majesty at the Hague in Holland where he had been treated and defrayed by the States of that Province with all imaginable Demonstrations of Honour and Friendship The Embassadours being admitted to the King's Presence and graciously heard had their Desires crowned with a wisht-for Answer So that nothing now impeded His Majesty's Return to his Dominions but the Wind which in favour to the kind Dutch kept him some little time longer there In the interim the Duke of York visited the Fleet lying at Anchor before Scheveling under the Command of General Montague formerly as is mentioned reconciled to His Majesty After a magnificent Reception his Royal Highness taking the Oaths of Allegiance from the Sea-men and having changed the Names of several of the Prime Ships restored this first Pledge of Empire to our Monarch The King having taken his Leave of the States General and of the States of Holland in their Assemblies the Honour of which visit they acknowledged in a most Elegant Speech with all the Expressions of Gratitude and Satisfaction he imbarked in a Boat prepared for him by the States whose Flag had this memorable Inscription Quo Fas et Fata vocârunt The Ways the Downs the Sand Hills and Shores were crowded with an innumerable Multitude of all Sorts of People ecchoing his Departure with Vows for his good Success By the way upon the Approach of a Brigandine from the Fleet he entered into it And going aboard the Royal Charles formerly the Naesby with his Two Royal Brothers the Dukes of York and Gloucester he was receieved there by Montague with all submissive Veneration who again treated him with a Gracious Testimonial of his Affection The Season was very clear and the Sea so calm that his Majesty mounting upon the Poop did daiâ—n to turn his Eyes to the Shore which he had so lately left and seeing the infinite Crowds of Spectators there he was pleased to say That he thought his own Subjects could scarce have more Tenderness for him than those People on whose Affections he saw he reigned no less than he was going to reign on the Wills of the English After this having kiss'd his Nephew * Prince of Orange and the Queen his Aunt * Queen of Bohemia and bid them farewel he had much aâ—o to be separated from his Sister * Princess Royal. This matchless Princess who had born and slighted so many Vicissitudes of Evil and who had frequently solaced the Calamities of her Brothers by her charming Discourses can scarce now without shaking her Constancy endure the Absence of a few Days being what she had desired with so much Impatience and what was so glorious to both of them The Anchors being at length weighed he left this friendly Shore with the thundering of the Cannon on both sides and sailed towards England now truely his own On the 25th of May he came into Dover Road where upon his landing he was received by Monk with Joy and Observance This best of
Servants had thrown himself upon his Knees to adore this best of Masters But the King not forgetful of what he owed him took him up embraced him and kist him Other Noble Men and Persons of Quality there present were likewise admitted to the Honour of his Majesty's Hand Which done the King with his Two Royal Brothers the General and the Duke of Buckingham took Coach amongst the charming Congratulations and Shouts of a pleased People and went that Night to Canterbury The next Day Monk was install'd Knight of the Garter the Ensigns of that Honour being put upon him by the Two Royal Brothers He went hence towards London accompanied with the whole Nobility of the Nation and a numberless Multitude of the Commons flocking together to see their Restorer He viewed the Ships at Chatham by the Way and the Army drawn up upon Black-Heath On the 29th of May it being his Majesty's Birth-Day he entered London in Triumph he himself the greatest and goodliest part of it Where he was received by the Universality of the People sensible of the End of their Miseries and the smothering of a most cursed Rebellion with joy not to be expressed scarcely conceived PART III. BOOK I. The REBELLION breaks into new Flames Some Millenaries secur'd Venner's Insurrection and End The Presbyterians stickle for new Elections Several Seditious Tumults detected and punished The Plague consumes the People The Conflagration of the City Tumults in Scotland Oates's Plot. The Parliament insist upon removing the Duke from the King's Presence and Councils It is dissolved Another Parliament call'd The Duke retires from Court A new Council chosen The Parliament refuse the King Money and insist upon the Bill of Exclusion It is also dissolved another being Summon'd A new Rebellion in Scotland The Arch-bishop of St. Andrew's inhumanly butchered The Rebels are defeated at Bothwel-Bridge The King sick He recovers The Duke returns to Court Monmouth Cabals and is outed of his Employments The Lord Strafford beheaded The Parliament dissolv'd and succeeded by another at Oxford which is likewise dismiss'd College is hang'd and Shaftsbury try'd The strange Encrease of the Eanaticks Their Insolence and Power in the City They form a Conspiracy The Council of Six The Plot to Murther the King and Duke The Providential Fire at New-Market Keeling discovers the Conspiracy Russel and Sidney are executed Monmouth absconds but upon his Submission is pardoned He again transgresses and is banished The King dyes of an Apoplexy The Duke succeeds KING Charles II. being restored to the Greatness and Glories due to his Birth and Vertues was not yet Crowned when the Faction hardened in Wickedness did dare to disturb his and the Publick Quiet of the Nation The Acts of Grace and Oblivion Decreed in Favour of these worst of Rebels could not hinder them to conspire against the King by whose immense Bounty they enjoyed not only Impunity for their Crimes but Rewards in the undisturb'd Possession of their Rapines and unjust Acquisitions But no Indulgence of the Prince could acquire him the Good Will of this perverse Generation Some therefore whose Clandestine Councils were penetrated into were secured as Overton sometimes a Major-General in the Rebles Army Day Courtney and others Millenaries or Fifth Monarchy Men. Nor did the Detention of these hinder the Rest of the Party to attempt their designed Insurrection which they did with such impetuous Madness that it exceeds all Belief and may justly lay an Imputation upon the Credit of History in the Relation of it For how is it possible to imagine that a handful of Men not exceeding Fifty in Number should undertake and that in Cold Blood and by Day-light to assault so great a City as London with Confidence of Success By this unheard of Enterprise it is visible how far the outragious Liberty of the Enthusiasticks may oblige them to dare On the Sixth of January 1660. having armed themselves in their Conventicle with Weapons they had conveyed thither for the King had indulged to all Opinions a Liberty of serving God their own Way they came about Twy-light to St. Paul's Church-yard Where drawing up their small Army they placed Sentinels in all the Avenues that led to it One of these kill'd a Man that passed by for that being asked Who he was for he had answered for God and King Charles This Noise raising the Neighbouring Train'd Bands they were repell'd by the Rebels who marched thence thro Bishops-Gate and wheeling about entred again by Cripple Gate And finally forcing their Passage by affrighting the Guard at Aldersgate they declared They took up Arms for King Jesus Continuing their March thence they shot a Constable dead in Beech-Lane who would have opposed them and retreated thence into Cane-Wood Where they absconded for some time with Design to raise greater Tumults in the City which they might probably have done if they had not been prevented by a Party of Horse and Foot sent to disperse them Nor were they thus appeased For having publisht an abominable Libel against the Royal Family they returned to London with more wild Confidence than before The King was then at Portsmouth whither he had accompanied the Queen his Mother and the Princess Henrietta his Sister in their Way to France These Wretches would not omit so fair an Opportunity as seem'd to present it self by his Absence but take Arms again under the Conduct of one Venner a Wine-Cooper This Fellow by his Preaching had strangely incensed the furious Zeal of these Mad-men pronouncing to them with Confidence That no Weapon framed against them should prosper nor a Hair of their Heads perish They should look upon the Example of Gideon It was the same thing to God whether he saved by a few or a great Multitude These Discourses together with the Impunity of their first Attempt precipitated these desperate Enthusiasticks to the Disturbance of the Publick Peace and their own Destruction Their first Appearance was in Thread-Needle-street behind the Exchange where they beat back a Party sent from the Guard there But upon the Advance of more Forces they retreated to Bishops Gate street where after a smart Encounter Two of each side being slain slipping here and there away they disappear'd A while after like the Flashing of Clouds they were seen again at College-Hill from whence crossing Cheap-side they pass'd into Wood-street Here after a Cruel Fight wherein they shew'd Skill as well as Valour having ruffled some Train'd-Bands and repell'd the Horse Guards that came to assist them they were not overcome until Venner being knockt down and sorely wounded and Tuffney and Cragg Two of their fiercest as well Preachers as Combatants were slain These being killed the rest fled and being for the most part taken Eleven of them were drawn hanged and quartered some others tho convicted being repriev'd by the King's Clemency There sell of the Royallists Two and Twenty and as many of the Rebels Those who were executed expired with Execrations in their Mouths
following Nor were their Councils now less violent punishing some of their own Members by expelling them the House and persecuting several of the Judges and others faithful to the King Nor did this suffice For they not only voted but past a Bill which they called An Act to aisable the Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and all the Territories thereunto belonging But it went no further for being carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel after a second reading it was thrown out of the House After this Dec. 17. the Lord Viscount Stafford was brought to his Tryal being prosecuted by the Commons upon the Testimonies of Oates Turberville and Dugdale and condemned by the Suffrages of the Peers was beheaded Not were the Commoners thus satisfied They press the Bill of Exclusion a-new and demand Permission for the Protestants to associate themselves for security of the Protestant Religion They declare all other Remedies in sufficient and obnoxious to Dangers And that therefore they could give the King no Supply without Danger to his Person Hazard to the Protestant Religion and Vnfaithfulness to those by whom they were trusted Nay they required That the Lords Hallifax Worcester Clarendon Rochester and Feversham should be removed from all Offices of Honour and Profit and from his Councils and Presence for ever And with the same Breath with unheard of as well Fury as Arrogance Vote That whosoever shall lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the. Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Custom Excise or Hearth-Money should be adjudged to hinder the sitting of Parliaments and should be responsible for the same And when they perceived that the King wearied with such monstrous Insolence designed to Prorogue their Session they had 〈◊〉 vote and denounce That whosoever advised the King to prorogue that Parliament to any other purpose than in order to the passing the Bill of Exclusion should be lookt upon as a Betrayer of the King the Protestant Religion and the Kingdom of England a Promoter of the French Interest and a Pensioner of France But Mar. 24. the Parliament being however Prorogued and then Dissolved by Proclamation the King intimated his pleasure to call another which should convene in March following at Oxford as a place less Subject to Faction and Tumults Which so stung the Common Council of London and such Peers as were emancipated to the Party that they endeavoured by Petitions to divert his Majesty from thoughts of so remote a Design upon imaginary reason of Danger and Unfitness praying it might therefore sit at Westminster But to no purpose So that the Parliament met at Oxford composed for the most part of the same Delegates The major Part of the Deputies as also the Fanatick Lords depending upon their numerous Attendants and Friends which they were accompanyed with drove on futiously and neglecting the King's Admonitions who had declared That as he had resolved never to use Arbitrary Government himself so he was resolved never to suffer it in others rage with more Fierceness against the Duke and press the Bill of Exclusion with so much Violence that the King putting a stop to their career immediately dissolved them And it was time seeing they designed not only to retrench his Prerogative but also to seize his Person Upon that Accompt Rouse Hains White College and the Earl of Shaftsbury were committed to Prison Of those College and Shaftsbury were brought to their Tryals But in vain being acquitted by their Juries against the Testimonies and Evidences of irreproachable Witnesses Which was no Wonder the very Coâ—rts of Justice being enslaved to the Faction and acted by their Prescripts So that the King who himself was religious in the equal Distribution of Justice to all Men could not obtain Justice for himself But College being brought before another Tribunal less subjected to the Authority of the Faction received such Punishment as his Treason deserved He had no less offended at Oxford than at London and was try'd and executed there The Fellow was of the Lees of the Rabble a Joyner by Trade vain restless inquisitive and perpetually busie in Affairs that least concerned him But Shaftsbury's Fortune was better who eluding the Publick Justice by a Jury addicted to himself and the Faction and retorting the Danger upon his Accusers triumphed whilst they hardly escaped the Fury of the Rabble And 't was no wonder for this destructive Faction was so prevalent in the City that it had infatuated the People and the Companies of Tradesmen with a reverent Opinion of their Sanctity And spreading wider the Contagion had diffused it self into most of the Provinces of the Kingdom And now all such whose Crimes had rendered them Guilty or Indigence bold such whose Zeal made furious or Ambition lofty joyned themselves to them The same Pretences of Liberty Property and Religion and the same Methods wherewith the Reign of Charles the Martyr had been involved in Blood and Confusion were now again made use of mostly by the same Men cunning restless and implacable to seduce weak and irresolute Persons as also to disturb that Peace which we hitherto enjoyed to the Envy of all Europe By such Instruments the mildest of Governments was branded with the Name of Tyranny The Church of England is traduced and the faithfullest Ministers and Servants to the King and Crown calumniated with Male Administration In the mean Time Schism and Sedition are every where promoted Jealousies and vain Terrors are suggested proditorious Discourses and infamous Libels are scattered about and things abhorring from Christianity are dayly exercised under the genuine Veil of Protestantism Finally the old Opinions and Doctrines of the Democraticks so ruinous to Monarchy are now again countenanced and asserted with the same Fierceness and Confidence as they had been in the late Rebellion With these pickeerings of Rebellion they gradually proceeded to Action Parties are distinguished Names and Signs of Separation are distributed Unlawful Conventicles in despite of the Laws are patronised Tumultuous Banquets and factious Clubs are every where set up Clandestine and seditious Assemblies are frequented Unusual Quantities of Arms are bought up by private Men. Insolent Progresses are made through the Country to the End they might shew how numerous they were spread their Terror about as they moved discover their Party and demonstrate their readiness upon all Occasions Nor were these Caballings unknown to the King who when he saw his Clemency so highly abused by those whom he had pardoned yet greater Offences resolved to chastise them and oppose the severity of Law to their Extravagancies In the Two preceding Years Two Favourers of the Faction being Lord Mayors by Turn had promoted turbulent Fellows to the Magistracy and chief Employments in the City Of these the Two Sheriffs were chief who directed the choice of Jury's at pleasure which gave the licentious Liberty to offend For what durst they not attempt who were
Barrels of Powder with Back Head and Breast-pieces for near Five Thousand Men and Lime it self was secured by a Garrison sent thither from the Duke of Albemarle of Three Companies The Rebels changing their Quarters often and in perpetual Motion seemed desirous to pass into Gloucestershire but were repelled at Canisham-Bridge between Bristol and Bath with the Loss of Two Troops of their Horse They hereupon returned back by Bath where the King's Forces were and marched towards Philips-Norton being followed in their Rear by the Royallists For that purpose a Detachment of Five Hundred Foot with some Dragoons and Horse-Granadiers commanded by the Duke of Grafton whilst the Rest of the Forces followed with the Cannon were sent in Pursuit of them Being advanced near the Town he fell into an Ambush the Lane being lined on both sides with Foot and Horse behind the Hedges who made very great Fire upon our Men. Grafton went as far as the Gate of the Town with as much Courage and Resolution as can be expressed but the Enemy continuing their fire he retired and passing thro the Rebels Horse with no less Bravery than good Fortune got safely off Eight of his Men were killed in the Adventure and about Thirty wounded The Rest of the Army being come up the Earl of Feversham drew it up in good Order upon a little Hill within Distance answering the Rebels Cannon with the Noise of his own tho with no great Effect on either side He had designed to have fought the Enemy there but was impeded by the Excessive Rains which fell at that time So that towards the Evening the Royallists marched to Bradford and the Enemy to Frome But the Rebels doubling and changing Quarters often to avoid their Pursuers came to Wells where they prophaned the Cathedral with unusual Barbarity plundered ravished and robbed the Citizens upon pretence of wanting Pay From hence they marched to Bridgewater and the Earl of Feversham from Somerton to Weston where he encamped Three Miles distant from the Rebels The Horse and Dragoons lay in the Town and the Foot in the Field covered towards the Campaign with a Parapet and Trench formerly made by the Country-men against Inundations and their Rear was secured by the said Village behind them Towards Evening it was told my Lord Feversham that the Rebels were stirring in Order to march Whereupon he sent frequent Scouts out to learn News of them But Monmouth eluding the said Scouts enters unobserved and with great Silence into the Plain before the Royallists Trench Where drawing up his Army which consisted of Six Thousand Foot and having entrusted the Lord G. with the Horse which amounted to Twelve Hundred he marched in Battle-Array against the Adversary The alarm being taken the Royallists consisting only of the Guards and part of Dunbarton's Regiment were quickly ready to receive them The Fight began with great shouts and brisk firing The aforesaid Dike being in the Nature of a Parapet was of great use to the Royallists which occasioned the Enemies shot as being aimed higher to five for the most part over their Heads whilst they as being more exposed in the open Field were more directly armed at and woundded The L. G. hastening with his Horse to the Assistance of the Foot loosing his way in the Night fell unexpectedly upon a Party of the Royallists Which he endeavoured to avoid by wheeling from them But turned upon his own Men who thinking he ran away did effectually do so themselves and filling all with Fear and Confusion the whole Horse were broke and routed and that without a Blow every one shifting for himself and searching his Safety in his Flight instead of fighting The Foot stood bravely to it until attacked by our Horse at length come up in Flank and Rear as also our great Guns beginning to play upon them they seeing themselves abandoned by their Cavalry were also broke routed and slaughtered The slain on the Rebels side amounted to near Two Thousand besides many taken Collonel Holmes Major Perrot Crookhorn and other unknown Names were made Prisoners There were also taken Three Field-Pieces and Six and Twenty Colors Of the King's side Three Hundred were slain and many wounded And undoubtedly the loss would have been greater but for the fore-mentioned Breast-work the Rebels so far out-numbering them Immediately after this Victory Feversham marched with Five Hundred Men to Bridgewater the Rebels next Station Which he possest himself of without Resistance they dispersing and flying upon his Advance And here he left Collonel Kirk to compose the Disorders of the Town Monmouth and Gray seeing all lost escaped out of the Battle and changing their Vestments sought where best to conceal themselves But the Lord G. was taken in the disguise of a Shepherd one other only being in company with him and being brought to the L. Lumley he was discovered at first sight being also known by a Servant of the said Lord's who had formerly been his Groom So that putting off his Disguise he professed That since his landing in England he had never had one good Nights Rest or eat one Meal in quiet Nor is it a wonder being perpetually agitated with the perturbations and cares which accompany unfortunate Ambition Two Days after Monmouth himself fell into the Hands of his Pursuers The Immensness of the Rewards raised the Country in the search so that the Ways and Woods were filled with their Numbers Some went out by break of Day and taking a Dog with them as Men usually do in Hunting Beasts of Prey the Dog made the first Discovery of one hid in a Ditch who proving to be a Foreigner which appeared by his broken Language and threatningly required to tell where Monmouth was pointed at his Covert whither they immediately went and there seized this unhappiest of Men in great Distraction pale trembling and full of Disorder He was brought thence to the Lord Lumley's and from Ringwood sent a Letter to the King Protesting the Remorse in him for the Wrong he had done His Majesty in several things and now in taking up Arms against him He complained of his Misfortune in meeting some Horrid People that led him away to believe That it was a shame and a sin before God not to do it But he would not trouble his Majesty at present with many things he could say for himself that he was sure would move his Compassion The chief end of this Letter being only to beg That he might have the Happiness to speak to his Majesty having that to say to him that he hoped might give him a long and Happy Reign He concluded That he really thought himself the most in the Wrong that ever any Man was and had from the Bottom of his Heart an Abhorrence for those that put him upon it and for the Action it self Hoping that God Almighty would strike his Majesty's Heart with Mercy and Compassion for him as he had done his with the Abhorrence of what he had done
Colonel Delbier and Colonel Tompson who were wounded Nor did Waller insult long for his Forces being joined to Essex's both were designed to besiege Oxford The King having Notice of the Enemies Intentions sent the Queen toward the West and himself having left a strong Garrison in the City with Three thousand Horse and Four thousand Foot marched towards Worcester The Two Generals follow the King with Two distinct Camps but meeting again at Burford Essex joining Massey to Waller sent them a King-catching as they termed it whilst he himself moves with his Army into the West to subdue those Counties By this means they were both defeated for the King slipping by Waller returned with quick Marches to Burford where he met his Cannon and Ammunition from Oxford and afterwards encountring Waller at Copredy-Bridge Eleven thousand strong overcame him Copredy-Bridge Fight June 20. The Enemy had possessed themselves of a Hill from whence watching the Royallists Motion they bravely attempted them in their Passage of the Bridge but being as bravely recieved by the Earls of Northampton and Cleveland who commanded the Rear they were beaten and routed The Rebels lost their Cannon near a Thousand wounded and slain besides several of their Officers Waller being ruined the King hastens after Essex and came with his Army to Liskard Eight Miles from Lestithiel where the Rebels lay Encamped Essex had taken Taunton and Weymouth in his Way and being advanced near Exeter the Queen who was brought to Bed in that City of the Princess Henrietta sent a Trumpet to him to desire him to forbear from Hostility for some little time till she was recovered but she was denied A while after she sending again to him for a Pass to go to the Bath was brutishly refused with this Answer That Essex his Rudeness to the Queen if she would go to London where she might be furnished with every Thing necessary for her Health he would send her a Convoy adding he knew no other way Whilst Essex was upon his March it was sharply contested at a Council of War Whether he should proceed in his Journey Westward or return and fight the King who was not far off lest if he continued his March he might when he came into the Straits of Cornwall be inclosed betwixt him and Prince Maurice then in those Parts And this was the Opinion of the wisest part of the Council but did not prevail for the Lord Roberts was earnest to advance and relieve Plymouth which had been a long Time besieged which done he sheweth them Cornwall where they might quickly be recruited by means of his Dependants and Friends and obtain an easie Victory of Prince Maurice who would be in no competent Condition to oppose them And this Opinion the worst by the Sequel carried it The Royallists fierce with their late Victory demanded to be brought to the Enemy But the King though not without commending their Ardor thinking to gain a bloodless Victory commanded all the Passages and Avenues to the Camp to be shut up The King himself who joined Prince Maurice near Exeter lay at Boconnock sending Sir Richard Greenville to Bodmin and Sir Jacob Ashly to Hule Goring with Horse and Sir William Basset with Fifteen Hundred Foot were sent Westward with strict Orders to stop and cut off all manner of Provisions from the Besieged so that the Enemy reduced to great Wants and Distress were willing to treat which was no less willingly assented to by his Majesty to whom no Victory was more grateful than when he overcame his Enemies by their own Consent The Horse commanded by Balfore He leaves his Camp to the King's Mercy and flies Essex defeated Sept. 1. under pretence of Skirmishing and drawing out to Fight broke through the Intervals of our Quarters and came safely to Saltash and thence to Plymouth leaving their Foot and Cannon to Mercy The General himself with Roberts and some others secured themselves likewise taking Boat at Foy for Plymouth But yet he could not escape the Obloquy of some who wond'red that so great a General should leave so brave an Army in such certain Danger though others excused him he having thereby conserved himself and his Chief Officers and Souldiers for the Service of the Commonwealth But all Men blamed Waller Manchester and especially Middleton because they seemed to loyter when they should have made all imaginable Haste to his Assistance The Foot being thus abandoned sent Commissioners to the King to treat about the Surrender of the Camp which was easily assented to Quarter being granted to all and their Swords and Pistols to all above the Degree of Corporals There were found in the Camp Forty Brass Pieces of Ordnance Two hundred Barrels of Powder and Arms for Nine thousand Men. Several Hundreds of the Foot took Arms with the Victorious and the rest had Liberty to go where they pleased upon Condition they should serve no more against the King But these as well as they of Brandford broke their Words violating their Promises with the same perfidious Levity for being come to Basing they were again armed And it was observed that none fought so eagerly against the King as those very Fellows An usual Testimony of their Gratitude The King raised with no Success but in order to Peace did now again from Tavestock as he had formerly done from Evesham court the Two Houses by a Message to them earnestly desiring they would appoint some Commissioners to treat but all to no purpose His Majesty had likewise invited Essex when besieged at Lestithiel very graciously to join Forces with him that so they might jointly procure what they both so earnestly contended for the Peace and Happiness of the Kingdom Wherein also he should lay an Eternal Obligation upon his King and if any should oppose their Pious Endeavours they would render them happy whether they would or not But he wretchedly neglected this amicable Summons affirming That his Orders were to fight not to treat Essex being strengthened by the Accession of his old Foot by several City-Regiments by Manchester's Army as also other Forces under the Commands of Waller Browne and other Chiefs of the Party grew suddenly so numerous that he again attempted the King at Newbury He had designed before any more Action to repair to the Parliament and give them an Account of the Misfortune of his Expedition as also to excuse it But they perceiving his Design writ to him that they were satisfied that nothing happened by any Omission of his and therefore being assured of his Fidelity and Courage they desire him not to despond but chearfully to prosecute the War adding further that he should endeavour with all his Power to hinder the King's Return to Oxford and rather hazard a Battel than suffer him to pass thither which he also did and it was fought on both Sides with equal Conduct and Bravery until the Night parted them The second Battel of Newbury The King had possest himself
certain of Impunity But the King resolved at length to stem this growing Evil. Which he did by restoring the Free Election of the Sheriffs according to the antient Custom and taking the Forfeiture of the City-Charter adjudged so by Law into his own Hands These means however proper for the Common-wealth had like to have destroyed both For when so many Criminals and Wicked-doers saw the Magistrates especially the Sheriffs changed and honest Men put into their Places and considering that there was no Evasion from the Law under pretence of it they resolve upon a high Attempt and worthy their Hellish Conspiracy which was to subvert the King and Kingdom and involve them in the same Ruin Shaftsbury being conscious of his Guilt and not ignorant of the Injustice of the Sentence by which he escaped terrified with the unexpected Change and seeing himself obnoxious to that Justice which he had frustrated and eluded moved with the greater Precipitation he terrifies his Associates with the Greatness of the Danger encourages some to rise others to Parricide resolving to hazard all rather than tamely betray himself into the Hands of his Enemies He therefore exhorts his Companions To vindicate their Liberty Property Religion the old Cant still against Popery Tyranny Superstition Idolatry Oppression Murther and the other growing Evils of Servitude With these kind of Orations they incense the furious So that what they could not effect by Fraud and pretended Sanctity they resolve to compass by the way of Arms. To this End they advise about raising of Forces But Shaftsbury thinking they moved not swiftly enough in it impatient of every Delay and fearing for every Noise alarm'd him of being intercepted as he had already withdrawn himself from his own Dwelling exagitated with his own Guilt he fled the Kingdom and retreated into Holland Where this most torbulent of Men being neglected found that Repose in Death which the impetuous Desire of Ruling had deprived him of here The Conspirators however troubled at the loss of so eminent a Patron and not ignorant that they were advanced beyond a Retreat constitute a Supream Council of Six to manage their Affairs Besides this they had another more Inferiour Court who consulted how to remove the King and the Duke by Assassination or otherwise and to solicite the Revolt of the Commonalty in Order to a War which they resolve to carry on against the King and the Common-wealth The Scots under the Conduct of Arguile were invited to joyn and act in this nefarious Rebellion Who had also their Commissioners at London who together with the English Conspirators should move by consent And it was concerted amongst them that they should break out into open Hostility in both Kingdoms at the same Time They resolve to secure London the Head of their Design by the same Methods it had been circumvented in the former Rebellion They further divide the City into Twenty Parts which they distributed under the Conduct of so many Commanders Some were to seize the Tower and the principal Posts in the City others White-hall and particularly the Guards which were to be surprized and cut off They had a Hundred of Cromwell's Officers at hand ready to head the People upon their Insurrection being abundantly provided with Money and Arms by voluntary Contributions from the Chiefs of their Party The Country was no less addicted to them especially those Parts which Monmouth who was returned from his Banishment without Permission had visited in his Progresses Whilst they thus prepare for War the Design to Murther the King and Duke kept pace with them Hone another Godly Joyner proposed to have them shot from Bow steeple as they passed with Cross-Bows Rumbald the Maltster would have the Play-House blown up with Gun-powder when they were present declaring further That he he had laid a Design Ten Years ago to have slain them as they returned from New-Market if they had not by accident taken another way whereby they escaped the Danger Some designed to attempt them as they walked in St. James's Park which they frequently did with no great Train Some fancied it easie to sink them in the River when they took the Air by Water in their Barge by shocking them with a greater Vessel There were again others who would have them pistol'd in the Play-House whilst intent upon the Comedy or kill'd as they came thence along Bedford-wall Other places betwixt Windsor and Hampton-Court about Winchester and Red-Lyon Fields if they should come there were judged proper enough for this black Parricide But these all as subject to too much Hazard and Danger were laid aside upon mature Deliberation of the more convenient Situation of the Rye a House belonging to the aforesaid Rumbald seated in the Way to New-Market Eighteen Miles from London in the County of Hartford This Place being Moated about and the Passage near it narrow and strongly fenced and wall'd was judged the most proper of any for the Purpose Rumbald himself the Designer of this Wickedness offering in Person to undertake it with Forty more Associates and at once to destroy both the Royal Brothers Which he had probably effected if God the Protector of Kings had not wrought a Miracle in their Favour The Conspirators full of Hopes and Assurance seemed in nowise to question the Success of their so well laid Enterprize when the Divine Providence disappointed in a moment all their Contrivances and Plots by a Fire undoubtedly sent from Heaven which burnt a great part of New-Market The Conflagration was so terrible that the Flames of it approaching the King's Pallace forced him thence to another part of the Town further off Where by reason of the Commodiousness of his Lodgings he proposed to pass some days more in Hunting and the other usual Diversions of the Place But he had no sooner resolved it but the Wind conducted by some Invisible Agent suddenly changing fills his new Lodgings in a moment with Smoke and Cynders Which obliged the King seeing no other convenience for his Reception to declare That he would immediately return to White hall which he also did before he was expected or that the Conspirators Preparations were in a Readiness The Noise of so unexpected an Accident was diversly received by the Parricides Some believed That so unusual Burnings could not happen without the Direction of Providence Walcot profess'd that he thence conjectured That God did not approve of their Design Whilst Ferguson without any the least Horror of so hellish an Undertaking did dare to affirm That he plainly saw that God had reserved the King for his own Judgment And yet one of these Conspirators Keeling by Name a Schismatic greatly addicted to the Faction and number'd amongst the Forty Murtherers perceiving the Averseness of Heaven and agitated with the Terrors and Storms of a Guilty Conscience after many Combats in his Soul resolved at length to disburthen himself by discovering this Tartareous Secret to the King At first the Monstrousness of so