him If he would not grant it they would settle and dispose it without him And the morrow after Resolve upon the Question That the Kingdom be forthwith put in a posture of Defence in such a way as was already agreed upon by both Houses of Parliament and Order the Earl of Northumberland Lord High-Admiral to Rig and send to Sea His Majesties Navy and notwithstanding that the King 4 March 1641. by His Letter directed to the Lord Keeper Littleton had signified that He would wholly desist from any proceedings against the five Members and Kimbolton Sir John Hotham a Member of the House of Commons who before the King had accused the five Members and Kimbolton k had by Order of Parliament seized upon the Town of Hull the onely fortified place of strength in the Kingdom and made a Garison of it summoned and forced in many of the trained Soldiers of the County of York to help him to guard it Eighth of March 1641. Before the King could get to York it was Voted That whatsoever the two Houses of Parliament should Vote or Declare to be Law the People were bound to obey And when not long after the King offered to go in person to suppresse the Irish Rebellion That was Voted to be against the Law and an encouragement to the Rebels and they Declared that whosoever should assist him in his Voyage thither should be taken for an enemy to the Common-weale And 15 of March 1641. Resolved upon the Question That the several Commissions granted under the great Seal to the Lieutenants of the several Counties were illegal and void and that whosoever should execute any power over the Militia by colour of any such Commission without consent of both Houses of Parliament should be accounted a disturber of the peace of the Kingdom l April 1642. Sir John Hotham seizeth the Kings Magazine at Hull and when the King went but with a small attendance to demand an entrance into the Town denies him though he had then no Order to do it Notwithstanding all which the 28 of April 1642. they Vote That what he had done was in obedience to the commands of both Houses of Parliament and that the Kings proclaiming him to be a Traytor was a high breath of Priviledge of Parliament And Ordered All Sheriffs and Difficers to assist their Committees sent down with those their Votes to Sir John Hotham In the mean time the Pulpits flame with seditious invectives against the King and incitements to Rebellion and the People running headlong into it had all maner of countenance and encouragement unto it but those Ministers that preached Obedience and sought to prevent it were sure to be imprisoned and put out of their places for it Sir Henry Ludlow could be heard to say in the House of Commons m That the King was not worthy to Reign in England And Henry s Marten That the Kingly Office waâ— forfeitable and the happiness of the Kingdom did not depend upon him and his Progeny And though the King demanded justice of them were neither punished nor put out of the House nor so much as questioned or blamed for it The Militia the principal part of the Kings regality without which it was impossible either to be a King or to govern and the sword which God had given him and his Ancestors for more then a thousand years together had enjoyed and none in the Barons wars nor any Rebellion of the Kingdom since the very being or essence of it durst ever heretofore presume to ask for must now be wrestled for and taken away from him The Commissions of Array being the old legal way by which the Kings of England had a power to raise and levy men for the defence of themselves and the Kingdom Voted to be illegal The passage at Sea defended against him and his Navy kept from him by the Earl of Warwick whilest the King all this while contenting himself to be meerly passive and only busying himself in giving answers to some Parliament Messages Declarations to wooe and intreat them out of this distemper cannot be proved to have done any one action like a war or to have so much as an intention to do it unless they can make his demanding an entrance into Hull with about twenty of His followers unarmed in His company and undertaking to return and leave the Governor in possession of it to be otherwise then it ought to be 5. of May 1642. The King being informed n That Sir John Hotham sent out Warrants to Constables to raise the Trained bands of York-shire writes His Letter to the Sheriff of that Country to forbid the Trained bands and commands them to repair to their dwelling houses 12. of May 1642. Perceiving himself every where endangered and a most horrid Rebellion framing against Him and Sir John Hotham so near Him at Hull as within a dayes journey of Him moves the o Country of York for a Troop of horse consisting of the prime Gentry of that Country and a Regiment of the Trained bands of foot to be for a guard unto Him caused the oath of Allegiance to be administred unto them But the Parliament thereupon Vote p That it appeared the King seduced by wicked Councel intended to make a war against them and till then if their own Votes should be true must acquite Him from any thing more then an intention as they call it to do it And that whosoever should assist him are Lraytors by the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom The Earl of Essex Lord-Chamberlain of the Kings houshold and all other of the Kings houshold servants forbid to go to him and the Kings putting some of them out and others in their places Voted to be an injury to the Parliament Messengers were sent for the apprehending some Earls and Barons about Him and some of His Bed-Chamber as if they had been Felons The Lord Keepers going to Him with the Great-Seal when He sent for him Voted To be a breach of Priviledge and pursued with a Warrant directed to all Mayors and Bayliffs to apprehend him Caused the Kings Rents and Revenues to be brought in to them and forbid any to be paid Him Many of His Officers and Servants put out of their places for being Loyal unto Him and those that were ill affected to Him put in their rooms and many of His own Servants tempted and procured by rewards and maintenance to tarry with them and be false and active against Him The twenty sixth day of May 1642. A Declaration is sent to the King but printed and published before he could receive it That q Whatsoever they should Vote is not by Law to be questioned either by the King or Subjects No precedent can limit or bound their proceedings A Parliament may dispose of any thing wherein the King or People have any right The Soveraign power resides in both Houses of Parliament The King hath no Negative voice The levying of
might be delivered unto Him all Armies and Levies made by the Parliament laid down the pretended Ordinance for the Militia disavowed and the Parliament adjourned to a secure place He would lay down Armes and repair to them and desired all differences might be freely debated in a Parliamentary way whereby the Law might recover its due reverence the Subject his just Liberty Parliaments their full vigour and estimation and the whole Kingdom a blessed Peace and prosperity and requiring their answer by the 27. of that July promised till then not to make any attempt of force upon Hull they had Armed their General with power against Him given him a Commission to kill and slay all that should oppose him in the execution of it and chosen their General of the Horse 8. August 1642. Upon information That some of the Town of Portsmouth had revolted to Collonel Goring being but sent thither with a message from the King and Declared for His Majesty Order Forces to be sent thither speedily to beleaguer it by Land and the Earl of Warwick to send thither 5. Ships of the Navy to prevent any Forraign forces coming to their assistance and upon Intelligence that the Earl of Northampton appeared with great strength at Banbury to hinder the Lord Brooks carrying the pieces of Ordinance to Warwick Ordered 5000. Horse and Foot to be sent to assist Him 9. August 1642. Upon information That the Marquis of Hartford and divers others were in Somerset-shire demanding obedience to the Kings Commission of Array and to have the Magazine of the County to be delivered unto them Gave power to the Earl of Essex their Lord-General the Lord Brook and others to apprehend the Marquis of Hartford and Earl of Northampton and their complices and to kill and slay all that should oppose them And the day following gave the Earl of Stamford a Commission to raise forces for the suppressing of any that should attempt for the King in Leicester-shire or the adjacent Counties And on the eleventh of August 1642. Upon the Kings Proclamation two dayes before Declaring the Earl of Essex and all that should adhere unto him in the levying of Forces and not come in and yield to His Majesty within 6. dayes to be Traytors p vote the said Proclamation to be against the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom Declare their resolutions to maintain and assist the Earl of Essex and resolve to spend no more time in Declarations and Petitions but to endeavour by raising of Forces to suppress the Kings Party Though all that the Kings Loyal Subjects did at that time for Him was but to execute the Commission of Array in the old legal way of the Militia and within a day or two after Ordered the Earl of Essex their Lord General to set forth with his Army of Horse upon the Monday following but not so much as an answer would be afforded to the Kings message sent from Hull where whilest He with patience and hope forbore any action or attempt of force according to His promise Sir John Hotham sallied out in the night and murdered many of His fellow Subjects 12. August 1642. The King though he might well understand the great leavies of Men and Armes ready to march against Him by a Declaration published to all His Subjects assures them as in the presence of God That all the Acts passed by him in this Parliament should be as equally observed as those which most of all concerned His own interest and rights and that His quarrel was not against the Parliament but particular men and therefore desired That the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Hollis Sir Henry Ludlow Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Strode Mr. Martin Mr. Hampden Alderman Pennington and Capt. Venne might be delivered into the hands of Iustice to be tried by their Peeres according to the known Laws of the Land and against the Earles of Essex Warwick Stamford Lord Brook Sir John Hotham Major General Skippon and those who should exercise the Militia by vertue of the Ordinance He would cause Indictments to be drawn of High Treason upon the Statute of 25. Edw. 3. and if they submit to trial and plead the Ordinance would rest satisfied if they should be acquited But when this produced as little effect as all other endeavours He had used for peace He that saw the Hydra in the mud and slime of Sedition in its Embryo birth and growth and finds him now erected ready to devour him must now though very unwilling to cast off His beloved Robe of Peace forsake an abused patience and believe no more in the hopes of other remedies which had so often deceived Him but if He will give any account to the Watch-man of Israel of the People committed to his Charge or to the People of his protection of them or any maner of satisfaction to his own judgement and discretion betake himselfe to the sword which God had intrusted Him with and therefore makes the best use He could of those few friends were about Him and with the money which the Queen had not long before borrowed and the small supplies He had obtained of His servants and friends about Him who pawned and engaged their Plate Jewels and Lands for Him with those Lords and Gentlemen that willingly offered to bear him company in His troubles provides what men arms He could in his way towards Nottingham where He intended to set up His Standard But the Parliament about the 23. of August 1642. having received some information that He intended to set up His Standard at Nottingham Declare q That now it appears to all the world that there is good ground of their fears and jealousies which if ever there had been any as there was no cause at all of any more then that some of them meaning to murder or ruine Him they were often afraid He should take notice of it and seek to defend himself there was by their own confession till this time no manifest or certain ground appearing that He intended to defend himself against the Parliament and therefore Order That all that shall suffer in their Estates by any forces raised by the King without consent of Parliament shall have full reparation of their damages out of the Estates of the Actors and out of the Estates of all such Persons in any part of the Kingdom who should persist to serve the King in this War against the Parliament and That it should be Lawful for any number of persons to ioyn and defend themselves and that the Earl of Essex their General should grant out Commissions for levying and conducting forces into the Northern parts And Sir John Hotham the Governor of Hull assist them and Command also the Sheriffs of the County of York and the adjacent Counties with the power of the Counties and Trained bands to aide them and to seize upon all that shall execute the Commission of Array for His Majesty who thus sufficiently beset by those that intended what since
day before to murther him but before he went out of the field sent Sir William Le-neve Clarencieux King at Arms to Warwick whither the Earl of Essex was fled with a Proclamation of Pardon to all that would lay down arms which though they scornfully received and the Herald threatned to be hanged if he did not depart the sooner cannot perswade him from sending a Declaration or Message to the Parliament to offer them all that could be requested by Subjects but all the use they made of it was to make the City of London believe they were in greater danger then ever if they lent them not more moneys and recruited the Earl of Essex his broken Army and to cousen and put the people on the more to seek their own misery a day of thanksgiving was publiquely kept for the great Victory obtained against the King And Stephen Marshal a Factious bloody minister though he confessed he was so carried on in the crowd of those that fled from the battel as he knew not where he was till he came to a Market Town which was some miles from Edge-hill where the Battel was fought preaches to the people too little believing the Word of God and too much believing him That to his knowledge there was not above 200. men lost on the Parliaments side that he picked up bullets in his black Velvet cap and that a very small supply would now serve to reduce the King and bring Him to His Parliament And here ye may see Janus Temple wide open though the doors of it were not lift off the hinges or broken open at once but pickt open by those either knew not the misery of War or knowing it will prove to be the more guilty promoters of it That we may the better therefore find out though the matter of Fact already represented may be evidence enough of it self who it was that let out the fury and rage of War upon us we shall consider CHAP. III. Whether a Prince or other Magistrate labouring to suppress or punish a Rebellion of the People be tyed to those rules are necessary for the justifying of a War if it were made between equals WAr where it is made by any rules of justice between equals is to be for necessity where the determining of controversies cannot otherwise be obtained or when between two Princes of equal power it cannot be had because they have no superiour A Rebel therefore cannot properly be called an enemy for Hostis nomen notat aequalitatem and when any such arms are born against Rebels it is not to be called a War but an exercise of jurisdiction upon traiterous and dis-loyal persons y atque est ratio manifesta saith Albericus Gentilis qui enim jure judex est superior non jure cogitur ad subeundas partes partis aequalis non est bellum cum latronibus praedonibus aut piratis quanquam magnos habeant exercitus proinde nec ulla cum illis belli jura saith z Besoldus The Romans who were so exact and curious in their publique denouncing of War and sending Ambassadors before they made War against any other Nation did not do it in cases of rebellion and defection and therefore a Fidenatibus Campanis non denunciant Romani And Cicero that was of opinion that nullum bellum justum haberi videtur nisi nunciatum nisi indictum nisi repetitis rebus stood not upon those solemnities in the Cataline conspiracy for the rules of justifying a War against an enemy or equals as demanding restitution denunciation and the like are not requisite in that of punishing of Rebels b Pompey justifies the war maintained by the Senate against Caesar not then their Soveraign with neque enim vocari praelia justa decet c. Cicero did not think it convenient to send Ambassadors to Anthony nor intreat him by fair words but that it was meet to enforce him by Arms to raise his siege from Mutina for he said c They had not to do with Hannibal an enemy to the Common-wealth but with a Rebellious Citizen The resisting of the Kings Authority when the Sheriff of a County goes with the posse Comitatus to execute it was never yet so much as called a War but Rebellion insurrection or commotion were the best terms which were bestowed upon it For such attempts are not called wars but robberies of which the Law taketh no other care of but to punish them And the haste that all our Kings and Princes in England have made in suppressing Rebellions as that of the Barons Wars by Henry the 3. and his sending his son the Prince to besiege Warren Earl of Surrey in his Castle of Rygate for affronting the Kings Justices saying That he would hold his Lands by the Sword That which Ri. 2. made to suppresse Wat. Tiler H. 6. Jack Cade H. 8. Ket and the Norfolk Rebels and Queen Eliz. to suppress the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland may tell us that they understood it no otherwise then all the Kings and Magistrates of the World have ever practised it by the d Laws of England if Englishmen that are Traytors go into France and confederate with Aliens or Frenchmen and come afterwards and make a War in England and be taken prisoners the strangers may be ransomed but not the English for they were the Kings Subjects and are to be reckoned as Traytors not strangers And the Parliaments own advise to the King to suppress the Irish Rebels that ploughed but with their own Heyfer and pretended as they did to defend their Religion Laws and Liberties and the opinion also of Mr. President Bradshaw as Sir John Owen called him in his late sentence given against the Earls of Cambridge Holland and Norwich Lord Capel and Sir John Owen whom he mistakenly God and the Law knows would make to be the subjects of their worser fellow subjects may be enough toturn the question out of doors But lest all this should not be thought sufficient to satisfie those who can like nothing but what there is Scripture for we shall a little turn over the leaves of that Sacred Volume and see what is to be found therein concerning this matter Moses who was the meekest Magistrate in the World and better acquainted with Him that made the fifth Commandment then these that now pretend Revelations against it thought fit to suppress the Rebellion of Corah Dathan and Abiram as soon as he could and for no greater offence then a desire to be co-ordinate with him procured them to be buried alive with all that appertained unto them When Absalon had Rebelled against his father David and it was told him e That the hearts of the men of Israel were after him David a man after Gods own heart without any Message of Peace or Declaration sent unto his dear son Absalon or offering half or any part of his Kingdom to him sent three several armies
War against the Personal commands of the King though accompanied with His presence is not a levying of War against the King but a levying War against His Laws and Authority which they have power to declare is levying of War against the King Treason cannot be committed against His Person otherwise then as He was intrusted They have power to judge whether He discharge His trust or not that if they should follow the highest precedents of other Parliaments paterns there would be no cause to complain of want of modesty or duty in them and that it belonged onely to them to Judge of the Law r 27 of May The King by His Proclamation forbids all His Subjects and Trained bands of the Kingdom to Rise March or Muster But the Parliament on the same day Commanded all Sheriffs Justices of Peace Constables within one hundred and fifty miles of York to seize and make stay of all Arms and Ammunition going thither And Declaring the said Proclamation to be void in Law s command all men to Rise Muster and March and not to Muster or March by any other Authority or Commission and the Sheriffs of all Counties the morrow after commanded with the posse Comitatus to suppresse any of the Kings Subjects that should be drawn thither by His command secure and seize upon the Magazines of the Counties protected all that were Delinquents against Him make all to be Delinquents that attended him and put out of the House of Peers nine Lords at once for obeying the Kings summons and going to Him t 3. June 1642. The King summoning the Ministery Gentry and Free-holders of the County of York declared to them the reasons of providing himself a guard and u that he had no intention to make a War and the morrow after forbad the Lord Willough by of Parham to Muster and Trayn the County of Lincoln who under colour of an Ordinance of Parliament for the Militia had begun to do it x 10 June 1642. The Parliament by a Declaration signifying That the King intended to make a War against His Parliament invited the Citizens of London and all others well affected as they pleased to miscall them within 80 miles of the City to bring money or plate into the Guild Hall London and to subscribe for Men Horses and Arms to maintain the Protestant Religion the Kings Person and Authority free course of Justice Laws of the Land and priviledges of Parliament and the morrow after send 19. propositions to the King That the great affairs of the Kingdom and Militia may be managed by consent and approbation of Parliament all the great officers of Estate Privy Councel Ambassadors and Ministers of State and Judges be chosen by them that the Government Education and Marriage of the Kings Children be by their consent and approbation and all the Forts and Castles of the Kingdom put under the Command and Custody of such as they should approve of and that no Peers to be made hereafter should sit or vote in Parliament without the consent of Parliament y with several other demands which if the King should have granted would at once in effect not only have undone and put His Subjects out of His protection but have deposed both himself and his posterity and then they would proceed to regulate His Revenue and deliver up the Town of Hull into such hands as the King by consent and approbation of Parliament should appoint But the King having the same day before those goodly demands came to his hands being a greater breach of His Royal Priviledges then His demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton if it had not been Lawful for him so to do could be of theirs z granted a Commission of array for the County of Lecester to the Earl of Huntington and by a letter sent along with it directed it for the present onely to Muster and Array the Trained bands a And 13. June 1642. Declared to the Lords attending Him at York That He would not engage them in any War against the Parliament unless it were for His necessary defence whereupon the Lord keeper Littleton who a little before had either been affrighted or seduced by the Parliament to vote their new Militia The Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen now Earl of Kent and divers Earls and Barons engaged not to obey any Order or Ordinance concerning the Militia which had not the Royal assent to it 14 June 1642. Being informed b That the Parliament endeavoured to borrow great sums of money of the City of London and that there was great labour used to perswade His Subjects to furnish horse and money upon pretence of providing a guard for the Parliament By His Letter to the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London disavowing any purpose of making a War declared That He had not the least thought of raising or using of forces unless He should be compelled to do it for His own defence forbiddeth therefore the lending of money or raising of horses Within two days after the Lord Keeper Duke of Richmond Marquis Hartford Earl of Salisbury Lord Gray of Ruthen with 17 Earls and 14. Barons the Lord Chief-Justice Bancks and sundry others of eminent quality and reputation attest His Majesties Declaration and profession that He had no intention to make a War but abhorred it and c That they perceived no Councels or preparations tending to any such design and send it with His Majesties Declaration to the Parliament In the mean time the Committee of Parliament appointed to make the propositions to the City of London for the raising of horse viz. 15 June 1642. Made report to the House of Commons That the Citizens did very cheerfully accept the same there being for indeed there had been some design and resolution a year before concerning the melting of plate to raise monies already great store of plate and monies brought into Guild-Hall for that purpose and an Ordinance of Parliament was made for the Earl of Warwick to be Lord Admiral and keep the Navy though the King had commanded him upon pain of Treason to deliver up the Ships to Him And the Lord Brook sent down into Warwich-shire to settle the Militia 17 June 1642. A Committee of both Houses was appointed to go to the City of London to inquire what store of Horse Monies and Plate were already raised upon the Propositions 18 June 1642. The King by His Proclamation Disclaiming any intention to make War against His Parliament forbiddeth all levies of Forces without His Majesties expresse pleasure signified under His Great Seal And 20 June 1642. Informing all His Subjects by His Proclamation of the Lawfulness of His Commissions of Array d That besides many other Warrants and Authorities of the Law Judge Hutton and Judge Crooke in their arguments against the Ship-money agreed them to be Lawful and the Earl of Essex himself had in the
forget their due titles of Earls Lords or Knights because the King had made them so since the beginning of the War or else there must be neither Treaty nor Peace At Uxbridge the time of the Treaty limited for 20. days and at Newcastle for 10. and though the King and His Commissioners at Uxbridge almost petitioned for a cessation in the interim of that Treaty as they had done before in that which was at Oxford it could not be granted nor have a few days added to it and if the King could in Honor and Conscience have granted all the other parts of the Propositions must grant them an Act not onely to confiscate the Estates of His Friends and those that took Arms to save his Life and Estate but to take away their Lives also and not only that but to condemn them of high Treason and attaint their blood when they fought against them which were onely guilty of it a thing so unfitting unusually stood upon as it was never asked in any treaty or pacification among the civilized or more barbarous heathen and amounts to more then Adonibezeks causing the thumbs and great toes of his captive Kings to be cut off and making them to gather the crumbs from under his table or Benhadads demand of Ahabs silver and gold his wives and children and whatsoever else was pleasant in his eyes which the elders and people of Israel perswaded Ahab not to consent unto but was a thing purposely contrived and stood upon to hinder a Peace and was not to be asked or granted by any that could but entitle themselves to the least part of reason or humanity a demand Bajazet would not leave his Iron cage to yield unto a thing nature it self would abhor and the worst of villains and reprobates rather lose their lives then yield to would never be demanded by any but a Devil nor granted by any but his Equals And if their desiring of a War more then a peace and to keep the King out of his own had not been the only cause of such unnatural and barbarous propositions it may well be wondred why they that have made to themselves for we cannot believe they have found any law or warrant to ground it upon a power to take away the Kings life upon a colour or pretence of an unread as well as unheard of piece of Justice should need to strive so hard with the King to give them a power to do that which they are now so busie to do of themselves and as if they had been afraid all this would not be enough to keep the doores of Janus or the Devil open for fear lest the King should trouble them with any more offers or Messages for peace a vote must be made in February 1647. that it should be treason in any man to bring or receive any more Messages from him without consent of Parliament But suppose that which is not that the Parliament could have but found any thing but somewhat like a cause or justification of a war against their Soveraign for notwithstanding all their hypocritical pretences so it was at first intended and so it hath proved to be ever since to whom their Masters the people we mean as to the House of Commons had sent them to consult with not to make a War against him they might have remembred that saying of Cicero if they had found nothing in the book of God and their own consciences to perswade them to it That z duo sunt genera decertandi unum per disceptationem alterum per vim ad hoc confugiendum non est si uti superiori licebit There are other ways to come by pretended rights then by a War and we ought never to make use of a War which is the worst of all remedies if we may obtain it by a better Hen. 2. King of England was made a Judge betwixt the Kings of Castile and Navarre a The Rebellious Barons of England in the raign of King Hen. 3. referred their controversies to the decision of the King of France and his Parliament at Paris And the blood of this Kingdom which ran so plentifully in those unhappy differences was by that means only stopped Charles b the 4. Emperor was made a Judge of the differences betwixt the English and the French Kings For as Albericus Gentilis saith well c Intelligendum est eos qui diffugiunt genus hoc decertandi per disceptationem ad alterum quod est per vim currunt ilico eos a justitia ab humanitate a probis exemplis refugere ruere in arma volentes qui subire judicium nullius velint They that rush into a War without assaying all other just means of deciding the controversie for which it is made and will judge onely according to their own will and opinion do turn their backs to Justice Humanity and all good Examples And in that also the Parliament will be found faulty For the French King and the States of the United Provinces did by more then one Request and Embassy severally and earnestly mediate to make an accord betwixt the King and His Parliament and desired to have all things in difference left to their arbitrement but their Ambassadors returned home again with a report how much they found the King inclined to it how satisfactorily he had offered and how much the Parliament was averse to their interposition and altogether refused it But we have tarried long enough among the Parliament partie from thence therefore for it is time to leave the company of so much wickedness we shall remove to the Kings party and yet that may cause a Sequestration and examine for a fuller satisfaction of that which by the rule of contraries is clear enough already if he were not on the defensive and more justifiable part of the business The King as He was defensor protector subditorum suorum and sworn to see the Law executed had not the sword nor his authority committed to him in vain And if he had no maner of just cause of fear either in His own Person or authority or no cause given him in re laesae Majestatis the imprisoning of His Subjects and plundring and taking away their Estates from them long before He had either armed himself or had wherewithal to do it had been cause as sufficient as to cause a Hue and Cry to be made after a fellon or raise the posse Comitatus to bring Him to Justice and might by the same reason do it in the case of more and by the same reason he might do it by the help of one nothing can hinder but by the same reason he might do it by the help of more When Nathan came to David with a parable and told him of the rich man that had taken the poor mans onely Sheep he that understood well enough the duty of a King was exceeding wroth against the man and said As sure
beginning of this Parliament accepted of one for the County of York Gave his People to understand That He had awarded the like Commissions into all the Counties of England and Dominion of Wales to provide for and secure them in a legal way lest under a pretence of danger and want of Authority from His Majesty to put them into a Military posture they should be drawn and engaged in any opposition against Him or His just Authority But 21 June 1642. e The Lords and Commons in Parliament Declaring The design of their Propositions of raising horse and moneys was to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Kings Authority and Person and that the Forces already attending His Majesty and His preparations at first coloured under the pretence of a guard being not so great a guard as they themselves had constantly for 6. moneths before did evidently appear to be intended for some great and extraordinary disign so as at this time also they do not charge the King with any maner of action of War or any thing done in a way or course of War against them and gave just cause of fear and jealousie to the Parliament being never yet by any Law of God or man accounted to be a sufficient cause or ground for Subjects to make a War against their Soveraign did forbid all Mayors Sheriffs Bayliffs and other Officers to publish His Majesties said Letter to the City of London And declare that if He should use any force for the recovery of Hull or suppressing of their Ordinance for the Militia it should be held a levying War against the Parliament and all this done before His Majesty had granted any Commission for the levying or raising of a man and lest the King should have any maner or provision of War to defend himself when their Army or Sir John Hotham should come to assault Him Powder and Armes were every where seized on and Cutlers Gun-smiths Sadlers and all Warlike Trades ordered not to send any to York but to give a weekly account what was made or sold by them And an Order made the 24. day of June 1642. That the Horses which should be sent in for the Service of the Parliament when they came to the number of 60. should be trained and so still as the number increased 4. July 1642. The King by His Letter under His signe Manual commanded all the Judges of England in their circuits f to use all means to suppresse Popery Riots and unlawful assemblies and to give the People to understand His Resolution to maintain the Protestant Religion and the Laws of the Kingdom and not to govern by any Arbitrary way and that if any should give the King or them to understand of any thing wherein they held themselves grieved and desired a just reformation He would speedily give them such an answer as they should have cause to thank Him for His Justice and favour But the same day a Declaration was published by both Houses of Parliament commanding g That no Sheriff Mayor Bayliff Parson Vicar Curate or other Sir Richard Gurney the Lord Mayor of London not many dayes before having been imprisoned for proclaiming the Kings Proclamation against the bringing in of Plate c. should publish or Proclaim any Proclamation Declaration or other Paper in the Kings Name which should be contrary to any Order Ordinance or Declaration of both Houses of Parliament or the proceedings thereof and Order h That in case any forces should be brought out of one County into another to disturb the Peace thereof they should be suppressed by the Trained bands and Voluntiers of the adjacent Counties Shortly after Sir John Hotham fortifieth the Town of Hull whilest the King is at York i seizeth on a Ship coming to Him with provisions for His houshold takes Mr. Ashburnham one of the Kings Servants prisoner intercepts Letters sent from the Queen to the King and drowneth part of the Countrey round about the Town k which the Parliament allows of and promise satisfaction to the owners 5 July 1642. They Order a subscription of Plate and Horse to be made in every Countey and list the Horse under Commanders and the morrow after Order 2000. men should be sent to relieve Sir John Hotham in case the King should besiege him to which purpose Drums were beat up in London and the adjacent parts to Hull The Earl of Warwick Ordered to send Ships to Humber to his assistance instructions drawn up to be sent to the Deputy-Lieutenants of the several Counties to tender the Propositions for the raising of Horses Plate and Money Mr. Hastings and divers of the Kings Commissioners of Array impeached for supposed high Crimes and misdemeanours and a Committee of five Lords and ten of the House of Commons ordered to meet every morning for the laying out of ten thousand pounds of the Guild-hall moneys for the buying of 700. Horse and that 10000. Foot to be raised in London and the Countrey be imployed by direction of the Parliament and the Lord Brook is furnished with 6. pieces of Ordinance out of the Tower of London to fortifie the Castle of Warwick And 9. July 1642. Order That in case the Earl of Northampton should come into that County with a Commission of Array they should raise the Militia to suppresse him And that the Common Councel of London should consider of a way for the speedy raising of the 10000. Foot and that they should be listed and put in pay within four dayes after 11. July 1642. l The King sends to the Parliament to cause the Town of Hull to be delivered unto Him and desires to have their answer by the 15. of that moneth and as then had used no force against it But m the morrow after before that message could come unto them they resolve upon the Question That an Army shall be forthwith raised for the defence of the Kings Person and both Houses of Parliament and n those who have obeyed their Orders Commands in preserving the true Religion the Laws Liberties and the Peace of the Kingdom and that they would live and dye with the Earl of Essex whom they nominate General in that Cause 12. July 1642. Declare That they will protect all that shall be imployed in their assistance and Militia And 16. July 1642. Petition the King o to forbear any preparations or actions of War and to dismisse His extraordinary guards to come nearer to them and hearken to their advice but before that Petition could be answered wherein the King offered when the Town of Hull should be delivered to Him He would no longer have an Army before it and should be assured that the same pretence which took Hull from him may not put a Garrison into Newcastle into which after the Parliaments surprise of Hull He was inforced to place a Governour and a small Garrison He would also remove that Garrison and so as His Magizine and Navy
they have brought to pass against Him 25 August 1642. being some dayes after the Earl of Bedford had marched with great forces into the West that His Subjects might be informed of His danger and repair to His succour setteth up His Standard at Nottingham r being a thing of a meer legal necessity if He would have any at all to come to help Him and not forfeit and surprise those that by tenure of their Lands or by reason of offices fees or annuities enjoyed under Him were more immediately bound to assist Him And yet here He must weep over Jerusalem and once again intreat the Parliament and His Rebellious subjects to prevent their own miseries and therefore sends the Earls of Southampton and Dorset to the Parliament to desire a Treaty offering to do all on His own part which might advance the Protestant Religion oppose Popery and Superstition and secure the Laws and Liberties of his Subjects and just priviledges of Parliament Which after several scornes put upon those Noble Messengers as denying the Earl of Southampton to come and sit in the House of Peers a right by birth and inheritance due unto him and causing the Serjeant at Arms of the House of Commons to go before him with the Mace as they use to do before Delinquents They refuse to accept of unless the King would first take down His Standard and recal His Declarations and Proclamations against them To which the King the 5. Septemb. 1642. notwithstanding the Earl of Bedford had with great forces in the mean time besieged the Marquis of Hartford in the Castle of Sherborn in Dorset-shire replying That He never did Declare nor ever intended to Declare both His Houses of Parliament to be Traytors or set up His Standard against them much less to put them and the Kingdom out of His protection And utterly s protesting against it before God and the World offered to recal His Declarations and Proclamations with all cheerfulness the same day that they should revoke their Declarations against those that had assisted Him and desiring a Treaty and conjuring them to consider the bleeding condition of Ireland and the danger of England undertakes to be ready to grant any thing shall be really good for His Subjects which being brought by the Lord Falkland one of His Majesties Secretaries of State and a Member of the House of Commons and not long before in a very great esteem with them all the respect could be afforded him being to stand at the Bar of the House of Commons and deliver his Message unto them had onely an answer in a printed Declaration of the Lords and Commons returned unto him That it was Ordered and Declared by the Lords and Commons in Parliament That the Arms which they have been forced to take up or shall be forced to take up for the preservation of the Parliament Religion and the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom shall not be laid down until His Majesty shall withdraw His protection from such persons as have been voted by both Houses of Parliament to be Delinquents or that shall by t both Houses of Parliament be voted to be Delinquents which after their mad way of voting migâ—â— have been himself his Queen or His Heir apparent and leave them to the Iustice of Parliament according to their demerites to the end that those great Charges and damages wherewithal the Common wealth hath been burdened since His Majesty departed from the Parliament might be born by the Delinquents and other Malignant and dis-affected persons and that those who by Loans of money or otherwise at their charges have assisted the Common-wealth or shall in like maner hereafter assist the Common-wealth in times of extream danger and here they would also provide for future friends and quarrels may be re-paid all sums of money leâ—â— for those purposes and satisfied their charges susteined out of the Estates of the said Delinquents and of the Malignant and dis-affected party in this Kingdom And to make good their words 8. of September 1642. Before their answer could come unto the Kings hands Ordered certain numbers of horse and foot to be sent to Garrison and secure Oxford and the morrow after before the King could possibly reply unto it their Lord General the Earl of Essex marched out of London against him with an Army of 20000. men horse and foot gallantly Armed and a great train of Artillery to attend him Notwithstanding all which and those huge impossibilities which every day more and more appeared of obtaining a Peace with those who were so much afraid to be loosers by it as they never at all intended it The King must needs send one message more unto them to try if that might not give them some occasion to send Him gentler conditions and therefore 13. September 1642. Being the same day they had impeached the Lord Strange of High-Treason for executing the Kings Commission of Array and Ordered the propositions for furnishing of horse plate and money to be tendred from house to house in the Cities of London Westminster to be sent into all the Shires Counties of England to be tendred for the same purpose and the names of the refusers to be certified Mr. May one of the Pages to the King comes to the Lords House in Parliament with a message from Him bearing date but two dayes before u That although He had used all ways and means to prevent the present distractions and dangers of the Kingdom all His labours have been fruitless that not so much as a Treaty earnestly desired by Him can be obtained though He disclaimed all His Proclamations and Declarations and the erecting of His Standard as against His Parliament unless He should denude himself of all force to defend Him from a visible strength marching against Him That now He had nothing left in His power but to express the deep sense He had of the publique misery of the Kingdom and to apply himself to a necessary defence wherein He whoily relied upon the providence of God and the affection of His good people and was so far from putting them out of His protection as when the Parliament should desire a treaty He would piously remember whose blood is to be spilt in this quarrel and cheerfully embrace it But this must also leave them as it found them in their ungodly purposes for the morrow after being the 14. day of Septemb. 1642. Mr. Hampden one of the 5. Members by this time a Collonel of the Army brings letters to the House of Commons from the Parliaments General that he was at Northampton in a very good posture and that great numbers of the Countreys thereabouts came in dayly unto him and offered to march under him and that so soon as all his forces that are about London shall come unto him which he desires may be hastened he intended to advance towards His Majesty and it was the same day voted That all things sealed by
the Kings Seal since it was carried away by the Lord Keeper Littleton should be Null and of no force in the Law and that a new Seal should be provided The King therefore seeing what He must trust to 19. September 1642. being at Wellington in Shrop-shire in the head of such small forces and friends as He could get together for the Parliament that very day had received letters That the King but the week before having a muster at Nottingham there appeared but about 3000. foot and 2000. horse and 1500. dragoons and that a great part of His men were not provided with Arms made His protestation and promise as in the presence of x Almighty God and as He hoped for His blessing and protection to maintain to the utmost of His power the true Reformed Protestant Religion established in the Church of England and that He desired to govern by the known Laws of the Land and that the Liberty and property of the Subject should be preserved with the same care as His own just rights and to observe inviolably the Laws consented to by Him in this Parliament and promised as in the sight of Almighty God if He would please by His blessing upon that Army raised for His necessary defence to preserve Him from that Rebellion to maintain the just priviledges and freedom of Parliament and govern by the known Laws of the Land In the mean while if this time of War and the great necessity and straights He was driven to should be get any violation of them He hoped it would be imputed by God and man to the Authors of the War and not to Him who had so earnestly desired and laboured for the Peace of the Kingdom and preservation thereof and that when He should fail in any of those particulars He would expect no aid or relief from any man nor protection from Heaven And now that the stage of War seems to be made ready and the Parliament party being the better furnished had not seldom shewed themselves and made several traverses over it for indeed the King having so many necessities upon him and so out of power and provision for it might in that regard onely if He had not been so unwilling to have any hurt come to his people by his own defending of himself be backward and unwillingly drawn unto it we may do well to stand by and observe who cometh first to act upon it 22. of September 1642. The Earl of Essex writeth from Warwick that he was upon his march after the King and before the 6. of October following had written to the County of Warwick with all speed to raise their Trained bands and Voluntiers to resist his forces if they should come that way and to the three Counties of Northampton Leicester and Darby to gather head and resist him if he should retire into those parts and by all that can be judged of a matter of fact so truely and faithfully represented must needs be acknowledged to have great advantages of the King by the City and Tower of London Navy Shipping Armes Ammunition the Kings Magazines all the strong Towns of the Kingdom most of the Kingdoms plate and money the Parliaments credit and high esteem which at that time the people Idolized the fiery Zeal of a Seditious Clergy to preach the people into a Rebellion and the people head-long running into the witchcraft of it When the King on the other side had little more to help him then the Laws and Religion of the Land which at that time every man began to mis-construe and pull in pieces had neither ammunition ships places of strength nor money nor any of his party or followers after the Parliament had as it were proclaimed a War against Him could come single or in small numbers through any Town or Village but were either openly assaulted or secretly betrayed no man could adventure to serve or own him but must expose himself and his Estate to be ruined either by the Parliament or people or such as for malice or profit would inform against him All the gains and places of preferment were on the Parliaments part and nothing but losses and mis-fortunes on the Kings No man was afraid to go openly to the Parliaments side and no man durst openly so much as take acquaintance of his Soveraign but if he had done a quarter of that which Ziba did to David when he brought him the 200. loaves of bread or old Barzillai or Ittai the Gittise when he went along with him when his son Absalom rebelled against him They should never have escaped so well as they did but have been sure to be undone and sequestred for it So much of the affections of the people had the Parliament cousened and stoln from them so much profit and preferment had they to perswade it and so much power to enforce those that otherwise had not a minde to it to fight against him Who thus every way encompassed about with dangers and like a Partridge hunted upon the Mountains marcheth from Shrewsbury towards Banbury perswading and picking up what help and assistance His better sort of Subjects durst adventure to afford Him in the way to which On Sunday the 23. of October 1642. for they thought it better to rob God of his Sabbath then lose an opportunity of murdering their Soveraign The Earl of Essex and Parliament army powring in from all quarters of the kingdom upon him had at Edge-hill compassed Him in on all sides and before the King could put His men in battel Array many of whom being young country fellows had no better Arms then Clubs and Staves in their hands cut out of the hedges and put His two young Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York in the guard of a troop of horse at the further end of the field and had finished a short prayer a bullet of the Earl of Essex's Canon grazed at His heels as He was kneeling at His prayers on the side of a bank for Blague a villain in the Kings Army having a great Pension allowed Him for it had given notice in what part of the field the King stood that they might the better know how to shoot at him But God having a greater care of his Anointed then of their Rebellious pretences so ordered the hands of those that fought for the King as the Earl of Essex was so loaden with Victories as he left five of His men for one of the Kings dead behinde him lost his babbage and Artillery retired back to Warwick and left the King to bless God in the field where He supped with such Victuals as the more Loyal and better natured neighbours sent him when the worser sort refused to do it and lying there all night sent warrants out the next day to the neighbour Parishes to bury the dead drew off His Ordinance and marched to Banbury and yet he could not forget to pity those which were at such pains and hazard the
forefathers nor ever understood to be taken from them much less for their ayrie innovated pretences rather than priviledges which have since eaten up all the peoples Laws and Liberties as well as a good part of their lives and estates with it and are now become to be every thing which their representatives will and arbitrary power have a mind to make it who have so driven away their old legal priviledges by setting up illegal and fantastique Priviledges as they are pleased to call them in stead of them as there is nothing now left of the Parliament like a Parliament neither matter nor form nor any thing at all remaining of it For the upper and lower houses have driven away and fought against the King who was their Head the lower after that have driven away the upper and fourty-five of the House of Commons whereof eleven are great Officers and Commanders in the Army have after that imprisoned and driven away four hundred of their fellow Members And from a degenerate and distempered piece of a Parliament brought themselves to be but a representative or journey-men voters to a Councel of War of their own mercenary and mechanique Army and may sit another eight years before ever they shall be able to finde a reason to satisfie any man that is not a fool or a mad-man or a fellow Sharer in the spoiles of an abused and deluded Nation Why the Kings demanding of the five Members and Kimbolton by undeniable warrant of the Laws of the Land and the Records and precedents of their own houses upon a charge or accusation of Treason for endeavouring amongst other pieces of Treason to alter the Government and subvert the fundamental Laws of the Kingdom which the Parliament and they themselves which were accused have more then once declared to be Treason should be taken to be so great a breach of priviledge in the King their Soveraign when the forcing and over-awing the houses of Parliament by the Army their servants and hirelings demanding the eleven Members and imprisoning and banishing some of them upon imaginary and fantastical offences committed against themselves or they could not tell whom shall be reckoned to be no breach at all of priviledge and the forcing of the Houses by the same Army within a year afterwards by setting guards upon them violently pulling two of the Members of the House of Commons out of the House and imprisoning them and 39. of their fellow Members all night in an Alehouse and leading them afterwards to several prisons with guards set upon them as if they had been common malefactors can be called mercies and deliverances and a purging and taking away rotten Members out of the House of Commons But now that we can finde nothing to make a defensive or Lawful nor so much as a necessary war on the Parliaments part for causa belli o saith Besoldus correspondere debet damno periculo the Parliament fears and jealousies were not of weight enough to put the people into a misery far beyond the utmost of what their fears and jealousies suggested to them did amount unto we shall do well to examine by the rules and laws of war and Nations the ways and means they used in it p Injustum censetur bellum si non ejus penes quem est Majestas authoritate moveatur a War cannot be just if it be not made by a Lawful authority Armorum delatio prohibitio ad Principem spectat q It belongs to the Prince to raise or forbid Armes and the Records of the Parliament which we take to be a better sense of the House then their own purposes can inform them that the Prelates Earls Barons and Commonalty of the Realm did in the seventh year of the reign of King Edw. the first declare to the King r That it belongeth and his part is through his Royal Signory straightly to defend force of Armour and all other force against his Peace when it shall please him and to punish them which shall do the contrary according to the Laws and usages of the Realm and that thereunto they were bound to aid their Soveraign Lord the King at all seasons when need shall be How much ado then will they have to make a War against their Soveraign to be lawful or if by any warrant of Laws Divine or Humane they could but tell how to absolve themselves from their oathes of Supremacy Allegiance and their very many protestations and acknowledgements of subjection to the King finde a Supream Authority to be in the people at the same time they swore an Allegiance and obedience to the King and at the same time they not onely stiled themselves but all those they represented to be his subjects Or how will they be able to produce a warrant from the people their now pretended Soveraignes till they shall be able sufficiently to enslave them to authorize them to make a War to undo them when they elected them but to consent to such things as should be treated of by the King and his Lords for the defence of the King and his Kingdom Or how could a tenth part of the people give warrant to them to fight against the King and the other nine parts of the people Or can that be a good warrant when some of them were cheated and the other by plunderings and sequestrations forced to yield to it Or could the pretence of a war for defence of the Kings Person and to maintain the Religion Laws and Liberties of the people be a warrant to the Parliament which never sought any thing for the King and people but to take away the Soveraignty from the one and the Liberties of the other to do every thing was contrary unto it But if that could have legitimated their actions as it never did or will be able By the rules of Justice in the practise of War and Nations s si bellum geratur sine denunciatione in captivos tanquam latrones animad verti possit It is a thievery rather than a War not to denounce or give notice of it beforehand and in this also the Parliament was faulty for they took Hull and Portsmouth and the Kings Navy and Magazine from him when He hoped better things of them and sent out their Armies and the Earl of Essex against Him whilest He was in treaty with them and offered all that He could for to have a peace with them t Bellum item impium injustumque sit si modus debitus non observetur A War is unjust if there be not a due way of proceedings held in it which especially consisteth in not hurting the Innocent Church-men Husbandmen weak or impotent People as old men women and children and in this also they will fall short of an excuse For how full is every Town and Village of the truth as well as the complaints of the unchristian usage of old and sick people women and children beaten wounded or
as the Lord liveth this man shall surely dye And can any man think that the King when He saw so much Sedition and Treason among the People countenanced and cherished Tumults grow up into outrages outrages to parties and Warlike assemblies propositions made to bring in Horse and Money to maintain an Army against Him and many of His Subjects daily imprisoned sequestred undone or killed can be blamed if he had a great deal sooner gone about to defend both himself and His people For who d saith St. Jerom. did ever rest quietly sleeping near a viper lex una perpetua salutem omni ratione defendere haec ratio doctis necessitas Barbaris mos gentibus feris natura ipsa prescripsit haec non scripta sed nata lex saith e Tully that great master of morality Reason Necessity Custom and Nature it self have made self-preservation to be warrantable Nemo exponere se debet periculis obviam offensioni eundum non modo quae est in actu sed quae est in potentia ad actum justus metus justum facit bellum say the Civil Laws and where there was not nuda cogitatio or a bare intention onely to ruine the King but so much over and over again acted as might well occasion more then a fear and apprehension in him of what hath since been brought to pass against him no man certainly without much blindness or partiality can think it to be a fault in Him to seek to defend himself when the Parliament did not only long before He raised any forces to defend himself but at the same time when He was doing of it make the people believe His Person was in so much danger as they must needs take up Arms to defend Him And how much more warrantable then must it be in the Kings case when it was not onely an endeavour to defend himself but all those that have been since slain and undone and ruined for want of power enough to do it Defence is by the civil Lawyers said to be either necessary profitable or honest f Nec distingui vult Baldus sive se sua suosve defendat sive prope sive posita longe A man is said to defend himself when it is but his own Goods Estate or People whether near or further of Necessaria defensio ejus est factum ad necessariam defensionem contra quem veniat armatus inimicus ejus contra quem inimicus se paravit It must needs be a necessary defence against whom an armed enemy is either marching or preparing Utilis defensio quum nos movemus bellum verentes ne ipsi bello petamur When we make a War to prevent or be before hand when War or mischief is threatned or likely to come upon us For as Nicephorus the Historian saith He that will live out of danger must occurrere malis impendentibus autevertere nec est cunctandum aut expectandum c. meet and take away growing evils and turn them another way and not to delay and be slack in it Honesta defensio quae citra metum ullum periculi nostri nulla utilitate quaesita tantum in gratiam aliorum suscipitur g When for no fear of danger to our selves and for no consideration of profit to our selves but meerly in favour or help of others the War is undertaken Wherefore certainly when the King may be justly said to tarry too long before he made the second and third kinds of defences either to prevent the danger and fury of a War against himself or to help those that suffered and were undone in seeking to defend him and was so over much in love with Peace as he utterly lost it and could never again recover it and was so much mistaken in the Love and Religion of His Subjects and Parliament promises and the seeming impossibilities of such horrid proceedings against Him as all His three Kingdoms were in a flame of war and strong Combinations made by two of them and the Pulpits every where flaming Seditious exhortations against Him His Navy Magazines Ports Revenues Mint strongest Towns and Places seised on Armies marching against Him and He only and a few friends and followers pend up in a corner had an enemy and a strong Town at His back ready every day to surprize Him and several Armies marching and in action before and round about Him before He granted out any Commission for War or had or could make any preparation for it and had so many to help and defend besides himself It would be too much injury and too great a violence to all maner of reason and understanding to deny Him a Justification upon the first sort of defences if the second would not reach it for the first cannot by any interpretation go without it For h haec est necessitas saith Baldus quae bellum justificat quum in extremo loco ad bellum confugitur Or if with Grotius we look upon it another way and make the Justice of War to consist First in defensione Secondly in recuperatione rerum Thirdly in punitione The King before ever He went to demand Hull or before ever he desired a guard of the County of York had cause enough and enough to do it and it would be hard if a great deal less then that should not be able to deliver Him from the censure or blame of an offensive or unnecessary War When that which was made by David upon the Children of Ammon and that of the late glorious King of Sweden against the Emperor of Germany the former for misusing the latter for encroaching upon Him and not receiving His Ambassadors found warrant and necessity enough to do it But what could the King do more in His endeavours and waiting for a Peace or less in His preparations or making of a War when the least or one of the hundred provocations or causes we dare say plainly here set down in the matter of fact hath hitherto among the wisest Princes and Common-wealths in the World been reputed a just and warrantable cause of war Homicide by the Laws of England shall be excused with a se defendendo when the assaulted hath but simply defended himself or retired in his own defence so far till by some Water or Wall he be hindred from going any further Death and destruction marching towards the King Hull fortified and kept behind him and all maner of necessities compassing him in on every side could then do no less then rouse him up to make his own defence and he must be as much without his sences as care of his own preservation if he should not then think it to be high time to make ready to defend himself and necessity enough to excuse him for any thing should be done in order to it The Parliament and he as this case stood could not be both at one and the same time in the defensive part for they had all
take away his life if he should confess himself guilty of it by allowing of the preamble In this unparallel'd demand never before stood upon by Subjects to their Prince or Conquerors to their Captives Nero himself was so far short of as though he had cunning enough when he set Rome on fire to lay the fault upon the Christians he had not Villany enough to torture and seek to draw them to a confession that they had done it The King therefore after Protestation that He could not without a manifest injury to the Truth and a violation of His Honour and Conscience take upon Him a guilt which could no way be charged upon Him or those that appeared in His defence was yet for Peace sake and His peoples sake content to say It will be a great self-denial to take this supposition of a guilt upon my self and a Christian virtue to undergo any affliction that may be for the good of my People and I am confident those that have adventured so much for me will be content to share with me for so good a purpose in the suffering for it I shall therefore Conditionally consent to the Preamble so as there follow a conclusion upon the whole matter in Treaty and Propositions betwixt us otherwise it is but sub modo and conditional as it is always to be understood in this Treaty that nothing agreed in part betwixt us shall be binding unless there be a conclusion upon the whole And here let the Truth be judge if the King did not abundantly endeavor to save His people and if the Parliament had not need of a justification when they used all maner of force and shifts to have the King take the fault upon Him Wherefore they that shall consider that the King was a close prisoner robbed and bereaved of all that He had but His Honour and Conscience and a great measure of knowledge and understanding and the hearts of His Loyal Subjects was debarred of all friends and comforts penned up and used with all maner of hardship and extremities and every day like to be murdered that conditions adimpleri debent priusquam sequatur effectus and are but inserted or added in casum incertum qui potest tendere ad esse aut non esse and depend on subsequences or following effects which not happening or coming to be performed according to the intent of the conditions makes them to vanish and expire as if that no such matter at all had been acknowledged or expressed in them That Cook his accuser who when he comes to be hanged for it will never be able to prove that the people substistuted or gave him warrant for to accuse Him And Bradshaw who sat higher in the pageant of Justice and the rest of his fellow-murderers took the Kings conditional consenting to the Preamble to be so little for their purpose as they never so much as mentioned it must not only acquit him of any Confession or guilt to be inferred from his conditional yielding to that Ambuscado Preamble but dissolve into wonder and admiration that He who in His Royal Meditations and Conference with death upon the Parliaments Votes of non addresse and his closer imprisonment at Carisbrooke-Castle had clearness of Conscience enough to say for as for his judgement we hope it cannot be suspected when Mr. Caril the Independent and Mr. Vines a Presbyterian Minister could say He was a second Solomon and the Parliaments Commissioners at the Isle of Wight reported him to be the master of the greatest wisdom and understanding That He had q the feast of a good conscience and the brazen wall of a judicious integrity conscience doubted not but His Innocency would finde God to be His Protector rejoyced in the comfort of imitating Christs example in suffering for Righteousnesse sake and thanked God He could pray for them that God would not impute His Blood to them further then to convince them what need they had of Christs blood to wash their souls from the guilt of shedding His And was afterwards in the face and view of Death and His murderers when such a Prince and such a Christian cannot be thought to dissemble heard to say upon the Scaffold He never did begin a War with the two houses of Parliament and called God to His witness to whom He was shortly to make an account He never intended to incroach upon their Priviledges but they began upon Him It was the Militia they began upon though they confest it was His and that any that would look into the date of their Commissions and His might clearly see that they began these unhappy troubles and hoped God would clear Him of it Could be so much more then a man and so great a Protector of His people as not onely to be content to be robbed and despoiled of all that He had for their sakes but to save the lives liberties estates of His people when there was no other way to do it deliver up himself so as a Peace and Agreement might have followed upon the Treaty to the unjust Censure of Robbing and Spoiling those that had robbed and undone Him But now that we have hunted this Parliament Proteus through all his disguises of Parliament priviledges and pretences and are lamentably assured that a great accursed thing is committed in our Israel and that the anger of the Lord is kindled against us it may be labour well bestowed though here is sure enough already said and proved that the King was in the defensive and justifiable part of the War to send into Achans tent and search and see what is there to be found concerning this matter and there we finde that the Lord Brooke and his Complices had not long before the King had summoned them to that which is now called the Parliament settled and conveyed their Estates to prevent any dangers which might happen upon their intended enterprises Peard the pragmatique Parliament man was heard to say a little before this holy War began to break out That the Government of the Kingdom would within a year or two be altered A little before the second Scottish invasion r Hinderson the Scotch firebrand confesses that the Covenanters of both Kingdoms were unanimously agreed to bring the King to their lure before they laid down Arms the joynt Declaration of both Kingdoms in January 1643. professes they will never say down Arms till the pretended Reformation be accomplished many Declarations and Remonstrances of the Parliament if they may be so called and the Army mention the original power and Soveraignty to be in the people the common Rights and Freedom of the Nation and the opportunities God had put into their hands An Ordinance of Parliament 20. October 1645. concerning rules and directions for Tryers and Judges of the ability of Elders declares it was the wonderful providence of God in calling them which He never did by force of Arms Hypocrisie Treason Rebellion and usurping of
vvas ended and Shooting them to Death but for vvords or intentions And if this and many things more which might be said of it be not enough what means so many Sequestrations and the bleating and lowing of mens Sheep and Oxen taken away from them since the War was ended but for words spoken either for the King or against them husbands and fathers undone for what their wives or children did without their privity the Maior of London divers Aldermen Imprisoned but upon a suspicion of joyning with the Scots or acting in pursuance of the Covenant which they forced them to take or else would have undone them for refusing of it Garrisons and Armies with Free-quartering and Taxes kept up and the people like sheep devoured to maintain them so much complaining in our streets and the taking away from some all their lands from others what they pleased and enforced many thousands to compound for their lands estates for joyning with the Kings forces or for being forced to send provisions to them when they took up Arms some in pursuance of the Covenant and others of them to deliver the King out of prison causing the Souldiers not only to cut and kill divers of the County of Surrey in the very act of petitioning the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace with the King and Sequester many of them for putting their hands unto it with disabling the Citizens of London for bearing any Office in the Citty or Common-wealth for but putting their hands to the Petition for the Treaty though Cromwell himself had not long before set on some to petition for it and the ruine and undoing of two parts of three in the Kingdome very many of whom did nothing actually in the Wars but were only sacrified to their pretended reasons and jealousies of State do sufficiently proclaim and reâ—…ain the vvoful Registers to after generations of this lamentable assertion If the King could have gotten but so much leave of his mercy and tender-heartedness to his people as to have used but the five hundreth part of the Parliaments jealousies sharp and merciless authority in the managing of this war so much of his Kingdomes and people had not been undone and ruined nor the Parliament put to so much labour to coyne faults and scandals against him nor to wrest the Laws to Non-sense and the Scriptures to Blasphemy to justifie their most horrid act of Murdering him but for seeking to preserve the Laws and Liberties of his people who are now cleerly cheated out of them And here our miseries tels us we must leave them and in the next place shall remember for indeed it is so plain it needs no enquiry CHAP. VI Who most desired Peace and offered fairliest for it THe abundant satisfaction wch the King had offered them from his first summoning of the late Parliament to their dissolving of themselves by dissolving Him who gave them all their Life and Being that which he did and all which he would have done So many Declarations Answers and Messages penned by himself intending as much as his words could signifie and were believed and understood by all at that time that were not interessed or engaged against him and by many of the eagrest of them also that had no hand or lookt to have any profit in the murthering of him for a Tryal of a King without either Warrant or Colour of Scripture or the Laws of the Kingdome or the consent of the major part of the people if that could have authorized it cannot nay will not by all the world and after ages be otherwise interpreted unless we shall say Ravillae might have justified his killing of Henry the Fourth of France if he had but had the wit to have framed or fancied a Supreme Court of Justice and have Sentenced him before he had done it will be as Pillars and lasting Monuments of this Truth The King was the only desirer of Peace and laboured and tugged harder for it then ever Prince or King Heathen or Christian since Almighty God did his first dayes work did ever do with Superiors Equals or Subjects and it will be no wrong certainly to David whose sufferings are so much remembred in all Christian Churches complayning so bitterly That he sought peace with those that refused it and in the mean time prepared for War against him Yo say the King did suffer more and offer more and oftner for peace then ever he did for any thing is extant or appearing to us for surely so many messages of peace as one and twenty in two years space from the 5 of December 1645. to the 25. of December 1647. sent to the Parliament after so many affronts and discouragements must needs excuse him that offered all could be imagined to be for the good and safety of his people and condemn those that not only from time to time refused it but adhered so much to their first intentions as all the blood and ruine of the people could not perswade them to depart with the least punctillio of it though the King before the Isle of Wight Treaty offered so much for the Olive-Branch as to part with the Militia for the terme of his life and in a manner to un-King himself and was afterwards content to do all that his Coronation Oath Honour and Conscience could possibly permit him to do and to purchase a peace for his people would have perswaded his Innocence to have born the shame reproach of what his enemies were only guilty of in so much as the Lord Say himself and most of his ever craving never safe enough Disciples confessed that the King had offered so much as nothing more could be demanded of him They therefore that can but tell how to divide or put a difference betwixt white and black night and day and the plainest contraries must needs also acknowledg That the King offered all and the Parliment refused all the King was willing to part almost with every thing and the Parliament would never part with any thing the King was willing for the good of his people to give away almost every thing of his own but the Parliament would never yeild to part with any thing was not their own And thus may the account be quickly cast up between the King and that Parliament who would have saved and kept the people from misery and who was most unwilling to make an end of it But that we may not too hastily give the Sentence and try the business as they use to do at the Council of War or the new invented way of Justice sitting with their wil or the Sword only in one hand and no Ballance at all in the other We shall in the next place examine CHAP. VII Who laboured to Shorten the War and who to Lengthen it THe odds vvas so great betvvixt what the Parliament laboured to get and the King to keep as that vvhich swayes the balance in most mens actions vvill