Kingdome of Scotland which may be an assured foundation of their happiness and peace for the time to come and an effectual means to root out all the seeds of animosity divisions caused by these late troubles and also to unite the hearts and affections of our Subjects one to another and of them all to us their King and lawfull Soveraign to the end that by their Obedience to our Royal and just Authority we may be put in a condition to maintain them in peace and prosperity to protect them in their Religion Liberty as it appartains to us according to our charge office of a King And as we have alwayes resolved to contribute whatever is to be done by us to obtain these good effects for the just satisfaction of all our Subjects in this Kingdome We have now thought fit upon the Return of Mr. Windram to command desire you to send unto us Commissioners sufficiently authorized to treat agree with us both in relation to the Interest just satisfaction of our Subjects there as also concerning the aid assistance which in all reason we may expect from them to bring and reduce the murtherers of our late most dear Father of happy memory to condign punishment to recover our just rights in all our Kingdomes And we will that they attend us on the fifteenth of March at the Town of Breda where we intend to be in Order thereunto And in confidence of a Treaty as also to make known to you all the World that we sincerely desire to be agreed We have resolved to Addresse these unto you under the Name Title of a Committee of Estates of our Kingdome of Scotland and will and expect that you use this grace no otherwayes for any advantage to the prejudice of us or our Affairs beyond what we have given this Qualification and Title for namely for the Treaty and in order to it Although we have considerations sufficient and very important to disswade and oblige us to doe nothing in this kind antecedently at this time Also we hope the confidence which we declare to have in your clear and candid intentions towards us will furnish you with strong Arguments to form in your selves a mutual confidence in us which by the blessing of God Almighty by your just prudent moderation and by that great desire we have to oblige all our Subjects of that Kingdome and by the means of the Treaty which we attend hope for may be a good foundation of a full and happy peace and an assured security to this Nation for the time to come which we assure you is wished of us with passion and which we shall endeavour by all means in our power to effect This is the full of his Majesties Letter to the Cōmittee of Estates in Scotland much to this effect was there another writ by him to the Committee of the Kirk But this I the rather fully insert in regard of the many Calumnies cast upon it and by it upon his Majesty His enemies here by taking occasion to carp at him by pretending his inveterate desire of revenge which was so contrary to the last precepts given him by his dying father I think I need not answer his enemies objection they by those carps only condemning themselves of a self-guiltinesse but to the more sober sort of people I shall refer it and let them seriously consider whether the begining progresse and end of the Latter demonstrate him not a man more addicted to peace quietnesse then to revenge and destruction The principall Objection which his enemies have against him is that he desires the aid of his Scotch Subjects to bring the Murderers of his Father to condigne punishment does this shew him a lover of Revenge or of Justice I would fain know which of his enemies or of his Fathers Murderers would not should I have done the same to any of their so near Relations have endeavoured to have brought me under the utmost censure of the Law But to proceed these Letters are seriously debated both in the Committee of Estates and Kirk the first order its consideration to a select sub Committee of their own consisting of nine Lords and others who present their opinions upon it to the grand Committee and these provide ready a state of the Case to be presented to the Parliament of Scotland which was shortly after to assemble But mean while a select number of the Kirk and State made up a Committee who by common consent were to consider what was to be done about sending Commissioners and Propositions to his Majesty these had strong and serious debates for the arrogant Kirkmen would not have his Majesty admitted into Scotland but upon Conditions which should make him wholly subservient to their commands but the State would have such tart Conditions wholly waved and though their own were rough enough yet at length a mediation is concluded on between theirs and the Kirk And the Earl of Castles the Lord Louthian Burley Libberton Sir Iohn Smith and Mr. Jeoffreys for the Estates Mr. Broady Lawson and Wood are appointed Commissioners for the Kirk These having received their Commissions and Instructions took their journy for Holland and arrived at Breda some few dayes before his Majesty got thither On the 16. March 1649. he also arrived there and on the 19. the Lord Wentworth Master of the Ceremonies conducted them to Audience being come before his Majesty who in a large Chamber purposely provided expected them The Lord Castles in behalfe of the Estates and Mr. Lawson in behalf of the Kirk having made their Speeches declared the occasiō of their coming and shewing their Commissions they delivered the ensuing Propositions in the behalfe both of the Kirk State of Scotland 1. That all those who had been excommunicated by the Church and still continued so should be forbid accesse to the Court. 2. That all Acts of the Parliament of Scotland should be by him ratified and approved of That the solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterian Church-government The Directory Confession and Catechism should be enjoyned in Scotland and the same used and practised in his family and an Oath to be taken by him that he would never oppose it or endeavour to alter it 3. That he would by solemne Oath under his hand seal declare and acknowledge his allowance of the solemne League and Covenant the National Covenant of Scotland 4. That he would consent and agree that all civil matters might be determined by subsequent Parliaments in Scotland and all Ecclesiastical matters by the General Kirk assembly as was formerly granted by his Royal father To these Propositions his Majesty demanded Whether this were fully and wholly all that the Committee of Estates and Kirk in Scotland had to desire or propound whether these Commissioners had power to remit or recede from any of these particulars and further what they had to propound
THE HISTORY OF His SaCRed Majesty CHARLES the II. KING of England Scotland France Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Begun from the Murder of his Royall Father of Happy Memory continued to this present year 1660. By a Person of Quality Bona agere mala pati Regium est CORK Reprinted by William Smith Anno Dom 1660. To the Right Honourable HENRY Lord Marquess of DORCHESTER Earl of Kingston Viscount Newark Lord Pierrepoint and Manvers c. Right Honourable IT was not upon long Considerations but easie resolutions that I pitched upon your Lordship determined to presume upon your patronage of this small review of the actions of his SACRED MJESTY whose hard fortunes may now demand a Subjects protection since I could no where else find a person who bears so great a name of true Honour and Generosity nor one whose assured loyalty will make him lesse ashamed or afraid to owne his Prince And indeed my Lord when I looked upon these Nations once I may say almost peopled with Nobles and now in a great measure deprived both of her Nobility and Gentry 't was easie for me to find out the Prime of those remaining which a small search told me was your Lordship who though you have been no whit behind the foremost in Loyalty yet God hath been pleased to make others drinke deeper in the Cup of affliction then your selfe But all those miseries which either your Lordship or other loyal persons have suffered cannot come in competition with those undergon by his SACRED MAJESTY who hath drunk up the very dregs of the Cup and suffered more then can be well spoken yet all with so incomparable a patience as worthily deserves our wonder My Lord you are amongst the Prime of the Nobility which God hath yet been pleased to spare this miserable Nation as you are so I could not think any person fitter for the patronage of this small piece since both your loyalty may make you willing and your power able to protect it If I have soar'd too high either in the subject or dedication I shall humbly crave your Lordships pardon and answer to the first That I was willing to vindicate my Sovereign as far as in me lay from those many reproaches and calumnies cast upon him by his back-biting enemies by giving the best account that either my own knowledge or the surest intelligence I could get might enable me to of all his actions that he might appear the contrary of what he is represented dirt be cast in the faces of his Accusers To the second I wholly cast my selfe on your Lordship either to pardon or condemn But if my Love to his Majestie may in the judgements of some have strained my pen too much in his favour I desire it may be imputed not to my intent but passion for the unworthy sufferings of so worthy a Prince would irritate any loyall Subject My Lord whilst yotr Lordship shall be gratiously pleased to patronize this small worke that GOD would be pleased to restore his Majesty to be Patron of his Kingdoms and people and blesse your Lordship with all imaginary blessings shall be the daily prayers of Your Lordships most humble Servant I. D. To the Right Honourable Major General Richard Brown Colonel of the Regiment of horse of the City of London Alderman John Robinson Colonel of the Green Regiment of the Cities Trained Bands Ald. Anthony Bateman Col. of the Red. Ald. Will. Wale Col. of the White William Vincent Col. of the Blew Thomas Bludworth Col. of the Orange and Lawrance Bromfield Col. of the Yellow Right Honourable MAlice and error are the Epidemical diseases of our time and land so that whoever as a friend to his Country shall presume to discover any thing of a spirit of Love or truth is likely to exasperate not a few That I trust both the Author and my selfe the Stationer have endeavoured to do and therefore must expect to meet with the hard censures and Calumnies of many yea even of such of whom we have no worse thoughts then that they suffer themselves to be abused with popular mistakes and unnecessary jealousies concerning that most Christian and Illustrious though now clouded Prince the subject of the following Book Whose eares according to the Ephesians Hieroglyphick of Calumny have been opened too wide to the malevolent aspertions of ignorant and illinterested persons and are therefore prejudiced against every relation that may represent him to the World as lovely and desirable We know Themistocles had the unhappy sate to be rendred odious to the people by Aristides gallant persons both but the latter under a mistake These we pity rather then be angry at them and desire to cure them of their beloved distemper by presenting them with this succinct faithfull History But yet that I may not be altogether unprovided of a shelter if the storm of their zealous frenzie should chance to fall upon me besides a recourse to my own integrity which Ianus-like will make me Tanto frontosior quanto innocentior I humbly crave a room under the shadow of your wings where I question not but to lye safe Your honours have taken a charge upon you which obliges you to maintain the publick and common good interest of this Land and City where Res est publica Caesar Et de communi pars quoque nostra bono est Therefore to patronize the recommendation of his virtues for imitation and of his sufferings for commiseration cannot be unworthy your honours which is the humble desire of Your Humble and Obedient Servant JAMES DAVIES To all loyal Englishmen Gentlemen and fellow-Subjects I Here present you an History which though now you may confident I am you very lately could not in reason expect such was the perversnesse and crookedness of these times that no loyal subject might without danger attempt to write nay hardly to speak the truth of his Soveraign for a sort of men there were who having by violence usurped his Dominions though that they had no surer ground to maintain their unjust possession then by scandalizing his most SACRED MAIESTY and deceiving of his Subjects many of whom had not but by such deceites converted their loyalty into Treason Yet GOD I hope will now be pleased to return them to their Allegiance and give encourragement to those who have constantly continued loyal that they may at length once more enjoy hapinesse and every man sit under his own Vine and under his own fig-tree which the GOD of HEAVEN be praised we have now greater hopes of then ever If I have in this History offended any loyal person I am hartily grieved I have impartially endeavoured the truth and if I be found in the contrary reason will easily convince me and I shall be sory that neither my knowledge or intelligence extended to a more narrow search I think I have represented his Majesty no otherwise then any loyal person for this age requires
that distinction that hath either heard of or know him will confesse him to be but if they will not let them be convinced by that saying of a worthy Gentleman long time an attendant upon his Majesty who having given me a large account of his virtues at length concluded That Tully himselfe if now alive could not sufficiently expresse his praise Gentlemen it is to you in Generall that I present this History that you may see and be sensible to whom you have been loyal and then I believe that you will judge that your loyalty hath found it's just reward in being loyal to so just a Prince and if any of you have suffered for him read but his sufferings and you cannot value your own Yet I intend not this at all to his pretended Tavern friends which I believe whilst they are so are so onely there and indeed I cannot looke upon these as faithful Subjects for how can that man be loyal to his Prince who hath not the power to be true unto himselfe Drunken Subjects though never so loyal will prove the ruine both of themselves and their Soveraign Gentlemen let those that are truly loyal joyn their Prayers with mine for the happiness of his most SACRED MAIESTY since in his we must necessarily conclud our own and more then ours our COVNTRIES To the Readers in general Courteous Readers IF in this History I have displeased any person they cannot be so much displeased as I am sory I have endeavoured to please all nor have I more then Justice enforced me to favoured any I have laboured as J professed to write impartially where J have not done so J am confident there will not want Carpers Jf in some particulers affection hath swayed me though J confesse it a fault yet it brings it's excuse What loyal subject can relate his Soveraigns sufferings without a passion what Free born English man's heart begins not to rise within him when he does but think of those Tyrannies Oppressions his Native Countrey hath of late groaned under where J have been bitter it has been with reason where sweet with a great deal of Justice Yet one thing J shall desire the Reader to take notice of that when J speak of the presbyterians J mean not those moderate people who are as truly loyal as they are godly but some amongst them like wolves in sheeps cloathing such as Straughan and Kerry in Scotland who onely pretend themselves to be Presbyterians but are in their proof found Sectaries these are the Flea-bitten Cleargy the Sowers of strife and sedition and a scandal to those to whom they pretend to be Brethren To conclude that all the Subjects of this Land may with one heart and voice agree together for the Restauration of our afflicted Soveraign but of our more afflicted selves to just Rights and Priviledges is the earnest prayer of A Hearty well-wisher to his Countrey THE HISTORY OF CHARLES the II. Third MONARCK of Great Britain c. THe Histories of Englands late opressours have already cloyd and overladed the exuberant Press whole Volums daily coming forth either of the Actions of the late long Parliament or the life of their aspiring Generall Cromwell which though adorn'd with all those flatteries that could possibly proceed from the most beneficed pens yet cannot in the least justifie their actions to the more sober sort of people for though their memories may here smell sweet to some who have rather tasted of their favour then suffered under their opression yet do they but render them to the sufferers more infamous and to the Neuter ridiculous like the extolling of Don Quixot's Chivalry And though there have been some who have adventured to set them out to the life and paint them in their own colours yet have many of these as farr exceeded the bounds of Truth as the others came short of it rather exasperated by their own or to please their fellow sufferrers into so great extreams have either side been lead out of fear or flattery anger or passion Moderation and Impartiality are the chiefest virtues of an Historian and therefore he who writs an History should chuse such a subject to write on where neither fear nor gain can induce him to flatter anger or passion or to too much bitternesse Most of our modern Historians have proposed to themselves either profit advantage or employment by their Works which hath made them run into their so many grosse errours and flatteries whilst had they only endeavoured to represent things persons and actions impartially they had gained to themselves farr greater honour of true Writing I have chosen a subject to write of which I conceive may lead me to a mediocrity the Persons afflictions may induce me to pity him but they will in most mens judgments restrain me from flattery Nor need I out of fear I being now though unwillingly out of his reach mince the truth of his if any bad actions I confesse the Task I undertake is highly adventurous my pen may slip times may change however my heart shall guide me to an impartiality CHARLES the II. Heir apparent to the Crown of Great Britain and Jreland and crowned King of Scots whose History I intend to treat of was born on the 29. of May 1630 to the great joy of the King Queen and indeed the whole Nation for never yet had England a Prince born of so noble an extract and grand Alliance his father by lineal right desent King of Great Britain and Jreland his mother daughter to that thrice illustrious Prince Henry the Fourth King of France and worthily sirnamed the Great and Maria de Medicis By his Grandmothers side was he near allied to the Kings of Denmark by the marriage of his Aunt the noble Princesse Elizabeth to the Elector Palatine of Rhene King of Bohemia and afterwards by the marriage of his Royal Sister the Princesse Mary to the Prince of Orange Thus was he allied to most of the most potent Princes in Christendome And happy might this Nation have been under his Government if we may believe the vogue of that wisest of men Solomon who pronounces that Kingdome blessed whose Prince is the son of Nobles He was some years after his birth according to the ancient Customes of England for the Kings Eldest Son invested Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester and was in his minority brought up under the care of the Earle of Newcastle till in the year 1646. the Lord Hopton's Army in which he was being near inclosed by Sir Thomas Fairfax Generall of all the Parliaments Forces in the Devizes of Cornwall and the King his Fathers affairs being in a desperat condition all over England he was by the serious advice of his best friends perswaded to take shipping and depart for the Scillies from whence he was by the Parliament invited to return to London but he thought it safer for his Person to depart from thence to his Sister at
habit with an Highlander yet all could not prevail to his Escape for the whole Country was raised up in armes in search after him and a price set upon his head by the States but espetially the Presbyterian Ministers exhorted the people to endeavour his atachment as a thing necessary to their Salvation At length the whole Countrey being up in armes about him and no way left for this distressed Marquess to escape he thought it better to throw himselfe upon the Lord Aston formerly a friend of his and now out in the search with some of his Tennants then fall into the hands of his more inveterate and implacable enemies But this Lord notwithstanding he had formerly been Montross's follower either out of fear or covetousness durst not conceal him but sent him with a strong guard to David Lesly by whom he was directly sent to Edenbrough shortly after brought to his Tryall before the Parliamant of Scotland where all the while notwithstanding those many ignominious affronts and disgraces thrown upon him as his being intriumphant manner brought through Edenbrough bound in a Cart yet he carried himself with so much Magnanimity and Courrage That those of his Enemies who did not pity him yet were almost ashamed of their vilainies towards him The Parliament of Scotland upon the first newes of this Noble Marquess being made a Prisoner met and resolved to pass a sentence upon him before either he was come up or had at all answered for himself though when they allowed him to speak somwhat for himself which he pronounced with gravity void of passion yet he had as good have held his peace for the sentence being agreed upon it was past to this effect That he should be carried to the place from whence he came and from thence to morrow being the 21. day of May 1650. be carried to the high Cross in Edinbruogh and be hanged upon a Gibbe thirty foot high and there hang for the space of three hours in the sight and view of all people with his History and Declaration hanging about his Neck after which he should be taken down beheaded and quartered his head to be placed upon he Talbooth or prison house in Edenbrough and his legs arms over the gates of the Cities of Sterling Glascow S. Iohns town and Aberdeen And in case he repented by which means his sentence of Excomunication might be taken off by the Kirk the bulk of his body might be buried in Grayfriers if not to be buried in the Common burying place for thieves and robbers Thus far did their unparallel'd hatred and malice extend even to his dead Corps This Sentence being aggravated by the Chancellour in the utmost terms of horrour that his spleen could invent was yet mildly and unpassionately received by this Illustrious Marquess who answered nothing to it But That he took it for a greater honour to have his head stand on the prison gate for this quarrel then to have his picture in the Kings Bed-chambers and least his loyalty should be forgotten they had highly honoured him in designing lasting Monuments to four of the chiefest Cities to bear up his memorial to all posterity wishing he had flesh enough to have sent a piece to every City in Christendome to witness his loyalty to his King and Countrey The next day being the day appointed for his execution richly habited in a scarlet Cloak laced with gold but his soul adorned with constant Loyalty the far richer Ornament of the two he marched along the street with so composed a Courrage Gravity that most of his Enemies either pityed or admired him being come to the place of execution he was some time detained with many frivolous questions of the flea-bitten Clergy being ready to mount up the lader he said it was Jacob 's Lader by which he should mount to Heaven His Speech to the people was short and much to this effect That he was sory if his end should be scandalous to any good Christian but that it often happened to the Righteous according to the wayes of the wicked that they who knew him should not disesteem him for his ignominious death That he confessed it was the judgement of God upon him for his privat sins but as for his condemners they were but instruments That they had perverted judgement and justice and oppressed the poor yet he desired God to forgive them for he heartily forgave them That what he did in that Kingdome he did it in obedience to the just commands of his Sovereign to assist him against those which rose up against him That it was not his fault that he lay under the sensure of the Church since 't was only for doing his duty That for what was said of him that he should blame the King he said 't was most false for saies he the late King lived a Saint and died a Martyr That if ever he should wish his soul in any mans place it should be in his That for the King now living he was a Prince under whom any people might live most happily his commands were righteous his promises saithfull and his dealings just Finally that he commended his soul to God his service to his Prince his good will to his friends and his name charity to all good people This was the sum of his speech on the ladder which and some private prayers being finished he mounted up the top of that prodigious Gibbet where his History and Declaration being tied about his neck and his hands bound by the Executioner he turned about and gave him some gold asking If they had any more dishonour as they conceived it to put upon him he was ready to accept it and then with a great deal of magnanimity biding the Executioner turn him off when he should hold up his hands it was accordingly performed Thus nobly lived and thus ignominiously yet nobly died the truest of friends the loyallest of Subjects the faithfullest of Servants the best of Masters and the valiantest of Captains Iames Graham Marquess of Montross Earl of Rindardin Lord of Groaem and Baron of Montdieu whose death was not only lamented as a private but rather as publick loss most of the Princes in Europe deploring the unfortunate fall of so Noble and Heroick a person for he was endowed with such winning graces that whereever he came he was both honoured and esteemed and whereever he Commanded both feared and loved His enemies Mallicce though he was dead kept still alive for after they had beheaded him and cut off his quarters they would not permit that bulk of his body which remained to be buried in any other place then the Borough Moor. But this Noble Marquess suffered not alone for soon after Col. Hurrie notwithstanding he pleaded the benefit of Quarter young Spotswood of Daersie A most compleat Gentleman Sir Francis Hay Col. Sibbalds two most accomplished persons though they had all the favour to be beheaded There was likewise one Captain
Charters who being put in hopes of life by the perfidious Kirk upon his recantation made a long speech upon the Scaffold acknowledging his Apostacy from the Covenant and desiring to be reconciled to the Kirk but had notwithstanding his head struck off This was the fatall and Tragicall Event of his Majesties affairs in Scotland under Montrosse's Conduct let us now turn to see how the treaty at Breda went on in the mean time But before I proceed any further give me leave to speak a word or two concerning the Magnanimous Col. Will. Sibbalds who say some confessed himselfe guilty of the Murther of D. Dorislaus the English Agent at the Hague which I must ingeniously confesse I believe upon good ground to be only a Calumny and scandal raised from the so far extended Marice of his enemies for I can find nothing either in his speech at Death or in any Records of credit tending to such a confession though much against any likelyhood of it nor can I imagine that any man could with so much resolution as he dyed with part from this world and have so great a load and blot upon Conscience But to proceed Great debates there were in the mean time between his Majesty and the Scotch Commissioners concerning the Treaty and great demurs there were upon it for besides the striving of some Lords who had a kind of a serious Antipathy to the Scots perfidiousness and endeavoured to perswade his Majesty not to trust them who had betrayed his Father The King himselfe stuck highly as he had reason about the business of of taking the Covenant For 1. There was no reason why he should be enforced to relinquish the Religion of his Fathers and whilst he permitted to his Subjects Liberty of Conscience it would be very inconsistent with their so earnestly pretended desires of a peace and agreement to deny him the same priviledge which he gave them 2. That Covenant tendered and so earnestly prest upon him by them was an Obligatory Covenant to bind the Subjects to him and not for him to swear to and therefore he judged it sufficiently satisfactory to pass an act for the peoples taking it Whilst these demurs and delayes were in the Treaty the Scotch Commissioners give a visit to the Illustrious Prince of Orange whom they intreat to be a Mediator between them and their King His Majesty likewise withdrawes himselfe for some time from Breda to the Hague there to advise with his Aunt the Queen of Bohemia the Prince of Orange and other friends about what he were best to resolve on or determine But the Estates of Scotland though their proposed Conditions were already unreasonable yet resolve to add more weight to the scale the Earl of Carnworth and Mr. Murrey are sent over to the Commissioners at Breda with new instructions and propositions As 1. That his Maiesty should confirm all Acts done in some late Sessions of Parliament without any exception 2. That neither Montross nor any of his adherents be admitted to come into the Kingdome of Scotland But notwithstanding the harshness of the Conditions the King is earnestly pressed to come to a full conclusion with the Scots Though many Lords of the contrary faction pleaded for an utter rejection of their propositions alleadging to his Majesty That the Covenanters horid perfidousness to his Father might be a sufficient motive and inducement for him not to trust them That the more willing he was to condiscend to their Propositiōs the more impudent they were still in proposing things most unreasonable That should he accept of their Conditions they would so tye up his hands that he would be then but a King only in Title which he was without them On the other side the Earl of Lauderdale the Lord Wilmot Piercy and others of his Majesties Council who stood for an accomodation with the Scots urged That his Majesties affairs both in Ireland under the Marquess of Montross and in the Navy under Prince Pupert were in so weak and tottering a Condition that no helpe could be expected from them That all the Princes in Europe were so imbroyled in Wars of their own that it was in vain to crave any Forreign aid that therefore there was no way left for his Majesty to regain his lost Rights and Kingdoms but by complying with his Subjects of Scotland and though it were upon such Conditions as would at first seem harsh those Curbs might in time possession got be thrown off by degrees these reasons swayed with his Majesty the Treay went on with a clearer face then formerly But now there happens a strong demur or as most supposed a business that would wholly break off the Treaty for the newes of Montrosse's ignominious death being come to Breda extreamly incensed the whole Court and those who were against the Treaty bestirred themselves strongly still endeavouring to avert the King wholly from it by telling him That they had by thus murthering his Leiutennant Demonstrated to the World what they would do to him if they had him in their power That it was an act of rashnesse and desperation to trust them or to have any more to do with such a perfidious generation That they only cunningly and subtilly endeavoured to entrap him that they might destroy him But notwithstanding their heat his Majesty conceals his anger which doubtless could not but be great for the death and the so Ignominious death of so good and loyal a subject and Servant and that too in his quarrel and for obeying his just commands only he expresses his resentment of their so strange proceedings to the Committee of Estates by a Message sent by Mr. Murrey to this effect That it could not but grieve and perplex him to hear that whilst they pretended to conclude a peace they proceeded in the way of War and that whilst they treated of an accord with him they shed the bloud of his best Subjects and that in such a manner that if true as reported they could not imagine but it must extreamly incense him he therefore desired them to give him an account of their businesse To this they return Answer That their affections were still reall to him that it rejoyced their very soules to hear that he would be willing to concur with them in a peace and agreement That as for the Death of Montross they desired it might be no obstacle in the way for that they did nothing in it but with a reall intention to promote his interest Thus they endeavoured to excuse them selves but it was not their excuse nor their so many reiterated Protestations of fidelity but the necessity of the Kings affairs which drew him not long after to conclude the Treaty at Breda notwithstanding the violent opposers of it by condescending to most of their desires The conclusion of the Treaty was soon carried to Edenbrough where the Parliament being met it was yet by some of those who favoured the Secterian party in England
the Kirk Parliament or Committee of Estates These having gotten together a considerable party it was supposed by the Committee of Estates that his Majesty was gon to them whereupon to quiet alay them if possible an Act of Indempnity was passed by Parliament for what they had done but they sleighted it fell upon Sir Iohn Brown's Regiment and slew and took prisoners many of his men Whereupon Lieut. Generall David Lasley was sent against him but the whole business after the Kings return to St. Iohnston's ended in a Treaty The third greatest party were the Parliament Committee of Estates Kirk who were equally for King Kirk these were highly perplexed and discontented at the King 's going away from S. Iohnston's and the more because they feared he was gon to the Athol men many controversies consultations were had about it some were so ridged as to propose that since he had deserted them they should look no more after him but let him take his own wayes Others were more mild and would yet have him understand their resentment for his leaving them nor wanted there some sticklers for his Majesty at length it was concluded that Major Generall Montgomery should speedily march after him and earnestly intreat him to return to S. Iohnstons Montgomery according to his order went and having had secret information that his Majesty was at the Lord Dedup's house in the North confines of Fife he first surrounds the house and then sends in a Messenger to acquaint the King with the earnest desires of the Committee of Estates that he would gratiously be pleased to return with him to St. Johnston's but his Majesty at first absolutely refused as scorning to endure that slavery which they had subjected him to he was in the mean time earnestly solicited by Huntley and the Gordons to adhere solely to them which he so much seemed to incline to that he had almost made the breach implacable between that party and the Kirk but at length upon severall propositions granted him he returned with Montgomery to St. Johnston's The King being thus returned and Huntley's party come in by admitting those with him to bear publick Offices a general Meeting was resolved on to be held at St. Johnstons which should consist of King Lords Barons Burgesses and the assembly of Ministers whereupon the Committee of the Kirk are summoned to meet but stand off alledging that Sterling was the more convenient place to meet in To which the States answer'd that they esteemed S. Johnstons the fitter that if they would not meet they should consult for their own securities but at length they consent The grand Assembly meets all parties seem now agreed Severall Lords formerly in disfavour with the Kirk are received into Command in the Army or have liberty to sit in Parliament such as Hamilton Lauderdale Lieth Bucheim Dedup and Crawford Major Generall Massey of the English was admitted to a command in the Army Thus did their divisions begin to be cemented which else must necessarily have hastened their Ruine About this time the King received the sad newes of the death of the thrice illustrious Prince of Orange Brother-in-law to his Majesty who had demonstrated himselfe a true faithfull friend to him in his necessities his Lady the Royall Princess Mary was by him left great with Child and soon after his death was delivered of a Posthume son And now on the first of January the day appointed by the Grand Convention at S. Johnstan's the solemnity having been removed to Scone the usuall place for the Coronation of the Kings of Scotland First his Maiesty in a Princes Robe was conducted from his Bed-chamber by the Constable and Marshal to the Chamber of presence where he was by the Lord Angus Chamberlin placed in a Chair under a cloth of Estate Then the Nobles and Commissioners of Baronyes Burroughs entred the Room and having shown themselves to his Majesty the Chancellor spake to this effect Sir your good Subjects desire you may be crowned as righteous and lawfull Heir of the Crown of this Kingdom that you would maintain the present professed Religion the Nationall Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant That you would gratiously be pleased to receive them under your protection to govern them according to law to defend them in their rights and priviledges by your Royal power they offering themselves in humble manner to your Majesty with their vowes to bestow Land Life what else is in their power for the maintenance of Religion for the safety of your Majesties sacred person and maintenance of your Crown which they entreat your Majesty to accept and pray Almighty God that for many years you may enjoy the same The King to this made Answer I do esteem the affections of my good people more then the Crowns of many Kingdomes shall be ready by Gods assistance to bestow my life in their Defence wishing to live no longer then I may see Religion and the Kingdom flourish in all happiness This ceremony performed the Nobles and Commissioners of Baroneys and Burroughs accompanied his Majesty to the Church of Scone the Spurs being carried before him by the Earl of Eglinton the sword by the Earl Rothes the scepter by the Earls of Craford Lindsey the Crown by the Marquess of Argyle immediatly before the Kings Majesty who followed supported by the Constable Marshall his train born up by the Lords Montgomery Ereskin Newbottle and Machelene under a Canopy of crimson Velvet supported by the Lords Drummond Carnegie Ramsey Iohnson Brechin and Yster which six were supported by six Noble men's sons Thus they went to the Church which being fitted for the purpose the Honours were laid upon a table provided for them and his Majesty ascended on a stage 24. foot square seated himselfe in a Chair to heare the sermon upon this stage there was another smaller stage erected whereon the Throne stood His Majesty being seated on the Chair a Sermon was preached by Robert Douglas moderater of the Commission of the General assembly Sermon being ended the National Covenant of Scotland and the solemn League and Covenant were distinctly read which done the Oath was ministred in these Words I CHARLES King of Britain Frence and Ireland doe assure and declare by my Solemn Oath in the presence of Amighty God the Searcher of all hearts my allowance and approbation of the Nationall Covenant and of the solemn League and Covenant and faithfully Oblige my selfe to prosecute the ends thereof in my station and calling and that I for my selfe successurs shall consent agree to all acts of Parliaments enjoyning the Nationall Covenant and the solemn League and Covenant and fully establish Presbyterian Government the Directory of Worship Confession of Faith and Catechismes in the Kingdom of Scotland as they are approved by the General assemblies of this Kirk and Parliament of this Kingdome and that I shall give my Royall assent to acts
adjourned to give time for his Majesties nation being met again there were strong endeavors of the King that several Lords of the Royal party should be admitted to their seats in Parliament but the assemblies of the Kirk at Sterling Aberdeen as strongly oppose it and shew themselves discontented both at this proposal and likewise at the new levies in regard they were there admitted to commands in the Army as they now desired to have place in Parliament yet notwithstanding these murmurings they were upon their reconciliation to the Church and passing the stool of Repentance re-admitted to their places in Parliament such were Duke Hamilton the Marquess of Huntley the Earls of Calendare Crawford others But stil not only many of the Ministers notwithstanding there was a select Committee appointed to examine and punnish such persons who any way confronted and murmured against any designs or acts of State rail against these proceedings but some of the Nobles too are discontented insomuch that the Earl of Sutherland utterly refused to concur with them and if he could possibly would have opposed them by force And indeed very many or most of the Presbyterians were discontented For the Royal party by the Admission of those Lords and others was grown stronger then the Kirk's and now bore all the sway which made the proud Marquesse Argyle and other Covenantier Lords murmur at being afraid least in time they should wholly be laid aside they having already seen one of their party begun with for the Earl of Louden who customarily had the Lord Chancellorship of the Kingdome was removed from his place and the Lord Burleigh constituted Chancellor in his stead Yet on the Covenanters side there wanted not some Ministers such were Mr. RoBert Douglass and Mr. David Dicks who endeavoured to beget a right understanding in both parties that these sparks of discontent might not at last burst out into a flame as 't was very much feared they would but rather that in this time of danger they might lay a side all animosities and unite together against the Common Enemy who else would be the Ruine of them both And now his Maiesty to keep a corespondency abroad sends the Earl of Dumferlin Ambassador to the States of Holland he had likewise at the same time several other Ambassadors oragents abroad in the courts of several Princes to require aid but never found more then what fair and sugar'd promises produced And about this time Sir Henry Hide being sent ouer to England from Constantinople whither he had been sent as Ambassador from his Majesty to the Grand Seignior by Sir Thomas Bendysh his means who was then Ambassador for the republick in England but yet deem'd a person of more loyalty to his Prince then to have sent his Ambassador to be murder'd if he could have avoided it after somewhat a formall tryall he suffered death on a Scaffold before the Royal Exchange in London for having taken Commissions from his Soveraign And not long after him Captain Brown-Bushell who though he had formerly been an enemy to his Majesties father yet now suffer'd death upon the Tower-hill London for having done some signal services by sea for his present Majesty But to return to the Kings affairs in Scotland where the special businesses in hand were the compleating the Levies to 15000 foot and 6000 horse which went on a pace and the fortifying the town of Sterling which his Majesty intended for the place of his chief residence to the hastening of the which his Majesty went often in Progress to view the Works encourage the Pioneers And time it was to hasten those Works for the English drew every day nigher and nigher towards them having already taken the Fort of Blackness which lay btween Sterling and Edenbrough which was never theless not accounted so great a loss as the surprizsal of the Earl of Eglinton and one of his Sons by a party of English horse at Dumbarton for this Earl was a person of a great deal of power in that Nation and his taking very much obstructed the going forward of the Levies But Sterling being almost fortified sufficiently his Majesty removed his Court hither where whilst he was his birth day being the 29 of May was kept through Scotland with such tokens of joy as are usuall upon such occasions but the town of Dundee exceeded all the rest for besides their equal expressions of joy they presented his Majesty with a rich Tent six pieces of Field Ordinance and set out a Regiment of horse towards his assistance at their own charge At Sterling likewise were the head Quarters kept most of the Scotch Army Quartering about it whither Middleton's levies from the North being come and amounting to about 8000 men it came to be a dispute whether these should be a distinct Army by themselves or be joined with Lesley's Southern levies but at length it was thought most conveniēt to joyn them and his Majesty to prevent those animosities which might arise between Middleton and Lesley for the General-ship tooke upon himselfe the Command of the whole From hence his Majesty sent a messenger to the Parliamet still sitting at S. Johnston's with these demands 1. That the Act about the Classis of malignants should be revok'd disannull'd and that an Act pass for its repeal 2. That there may be no more any mention of the name of malignants among them 3. That Duke Hamilton the Earls of Seaforth and Callendare c. might have as full commād in the Army as any others The demands were strongly debated pro con in the Parliament the Marquess of Argyle and others of the Covenanted strain endeavouring by all means possible to oppose them yet at length though with much difficulty they were carried in the affirmative it being urged by the more moderate sort too that the granting of these would be the only way to take away all animosities between those parties which they intended to unite The Parliament having granted these things to his Majesty given large commissions instructions for the compleating of the Levies about the begining of Iune dissolved leaving all things in relation to civil and intestine distempers in a calm quiet all parties seeming to be pleased and their actions united towards the opposing of their common Enemy Cromwell Whilst these things were thus transacted in Scotland a great and terrible plot was discovered against the Juncto then ruling in England and their government in assistance of his Majesty to his just Rights This design was chiefly laid by those Presbyterians who had been such dire Opponents of his Majesty's blessed father of happy yet unhappy memory viz the greatest part Presbyterian Ministers who had most of them formerly belcht out such fire-brands from their Pulpits as had set both Church and State in a combustion but now whether out of a reall sence of their Errour which I have the charity to believe it was they had a desire to return to
occasion to try the stoutness of his Souldiers for there Harrison was resolved if possible to stop him and was endeavouring to that purpose to have broken down the Bridge but his Majesties forces by a swift march from Charley prevented his design and forced him to an engagement The dispute was somewhat hot and long but at length his Majesty got the better for he gained a free passage over the Bridge though with the loss of some men This Bridge gained his Majesty marched on towards the West without any opposition indeed with as little assistance or increase of numbers yet being all along as he came proclaimed King of Great Britain France and Ireland by an English-man whom he had created King at Armes Being come to Tong-Norton his Majesty sent a Trumpet with his Royall summons to Colonell Mackworth Governour of Shrewsbury which ran thus C. R. Col. MACKWORTH BEing Desirous to attempt all fair wayes for the recovery of our own before we proceed to force and extremity and where the controversie is with Subjects accounting that a double victory which is obtained without effusion of bloud and where the hearts that of right belong to us are gained as well as their strengths We do hereby summon you to surrender unto us our Town with the Castle of Shrewsbury as in duty and Allegiance by the Laws of God and the Land you are bound to doe thereby not onely preventing the mischief which you may otherwise draw upon your self and that place but also opening the foredoore to peace and quietness and the enjoyment of every one both King and people that which pertains to them under certain and known Laws the end for which we are come Given at our Campe of Tong-Norton this 20. August 1651. This summons was accompanyed with a Letter from his Majesty exhorting him as he was a Gentleman to return to his duty and Alleigance upon promises of pardon and reward To both which Col. Mackworth returned answer thus For the Commander in Chief of the Scottish Army SIR BY your Trumpeter I received two Papers the one containing a proposition and the other a direct Summons for the Rendition of the Town and Castle of Shrewsbury the Custody whereof I have recieved by Authority of Parliament and if you believe me a Gentleman as you say you do you may believe I will be faithfull to my trust to the violation whereof neither Allurements can perswade me nor threatnings offorce espetially when but paper ones compell me what principles I am judged to be of I know not but I hope they are such as shall ever declare me honest and no way differing herein as I know from those engaged in the same employment with me who should they desert that cause they are embarqued in I resolve to be found as I am unmoveable The faithfull Servant of the Commonwealth of England H. Mackworth Thus flat a denyall did his Majesties Royal summons receive here nor did his Commands to Sir Thomas Middleton Governour of Chirk Castle in Flintshire for the levying of men for his service find better success But from hence his Majesty directs his course for Worcester where he arrives on the twenty second of August and notwithstanding some resistance made by the Parliaments souldiers quickly enters by the help of the towns men who joyfully returned to their Aleigance Duty here 't was again solemnly debated whether they should remain here or march for London and was at length concluded that in regard of the long and tedious marches that the Souldiery had had it would be much better to tarry hear that after some refreshment they might be able with more vigor and courage to endure the brunt The Earl of Derby who had some few dayes before his Majesties Arrivall at Worcester brought him a supply of two hundred and fifty foot and sixty Horse which he had brought with him out of the Isle of Man and was returned back into Lancashire out of hopes that by his influence upon that County he might get a more numerous Force there having got together a considerable party was routed by Col. Lilburn who was there with a party to watch his motions and was first engaged by the Earl out of a design he had to hinder Lilburn's joyning with a Regiment of Cromwells which was sent for the same purpose towards Manchester but the engagers themselves were defeated most of the Earls chief Commanders and Gentlemen of note with him taken prisoners such were the Lord Witherington Sir Thomas Tilsly Sir William Throgmorton Col. Boynton and sundry others His Majesty being now at Worcester and solving there to stay and endure the utmost brunt all preparations possible are made for the fortifying the place and gaining all advantages possible to which purpose a Line and several Mounts were quickly raised by the Pioneers and all passes about the Town and towards it secured But Major General Lambert on the Rebulick's side sending suddenly a party of Horse to discover the difficulty of the passe at Upton where Major General Massey for his Majesty lay with a party about 300. Horse and Dragoons those desperate fellows being not above fifty in number adventured over upon one piece of Timber which had been carelesly left from arch to arch And though Massey's men took the allarm yet was Lambert so quick in sending over relief to his Souldiers whom the Royal party had beleagured in a Church that the pass was clearly gain'd Major General Massey forced to retreat though as honourably as ever man did for him self still brought up the Rear in which service though his Horse was slain under him and himselfe shot in the arm yet he got off with a very inconsiderable loss And now Cromwells Army began to joyn with all those parties which had conspired there to ruine his Majesty whom they accounted already like a bird in a Cage for this Royall Army consisting at the most of not above 10000 fighting men whereas the Army that then beleagur'd and encompassed them was one of the greatest that had during the whole time of the late War been raysed in England amounting according to common computation to some 50. or 60. thousand Horse and Foot so that as I have been well informed this Army though in a more sanctified strain brag'd and insulted more over his Majesty then the French Army at Agincourt did over the thrice Illustrious King Henry 5. Yet notwithstanding their assurance of making him their prize it pleased God though not to give him the success that Henry the 5. had yet to deliver him out of their bloud thirsty hands When I speak of the Armies insulting over his Majesties misery I hope the Reader wil understand me in the generality for though many and perhaps the major part were glad of these his straits yet many noble and candid loyal souls there were whom nothing but a tyrannicall impulsion could have forced to have born Armes against their lawfull Soveraign It being well
mony set upon his head for which many hundreds out of covetousnes made it their business to search for him they will confess ingeniously that God was never so merciful to any people as to us in delivering his sacred Majesty so wonderfully out of the hands of his Enemies who breathed out nothing but his death and destruction that we may yet have hopes to be a happy Nation But let us now returne to give a full account of this dismal loss at Worcester in which most of his Majesties foot were either made a prize or a sacrifice to their enemies swords of the horse there escaped 300. out of the field but were most afterwards either taken or kil'd by the country people in their flight three thousand were judged slain in the Field and about seaven thousand taken prisoners whereof the chief were the Earles Derby Lauderdale Cleveland Shrewsburge the Lord Wentworth and many other noble persons taken in the pursuit And the chief of those taken in the battel were the Earles of Carnworth and Kelly the Lord Synclare Sir John Packington the Major Generals montgomery and Piscotty and the Virgil of this Age that thrice worthy Mr. Richard Fanshaw Translator of the renowned Paster Fido and Secretary to his Majesty As for the thrice noble Duke Hamilton he was taken but not overcome overpowred but not vanquisht For after having made a most Heroick resistance he was reduced under his enemies power more for want of strength then valour but death entring in at those wounds which he so gallantly received in defence of his Soveraign soon after released him Major General Massey though he escaped the field yet his wounds being desperate he was forced to surrender himself to the Countess of Stamford was by her Son the Lord Grey of Grooby after the recovery of his wounds sent up prisoner to the Parliament and by them committed to the Tower from whence he not long after escaped and went to his Majesty beyond sea This strange and wonderfull Victory as the Juncto at Westminster gave it out to be though they had six to one in the field made that Sectarian party cock-a-hoop to make it the greater publick days of Thanksgiving are appointed to make God the patronizer of their villanies murders tyrannyes and treasons and now they boast in all their discourses how clearly it might appear that God owned their cause and disowned their adversaries I think a modern writer hath sufficiently confuted that commonly received tenent of Politicians * See Modern Policy That successe denotes actions to be either just or unjust I shall therefore leave the sober Reader here to satisfie himself refer it to him whether such do not justly deserve Ovid's wish Careat successibus opto Quisquis ab eventu facta notanda putat Let him for ever in successe be poor That thinks it justifies his cause the more But this Nation is so highly sensible of the injustice put upon them by those who pretend so much right in their Cause that there 's no loyal Subject but will thinke according to reason that it was not the justice of their cause but our own and the Nations sinnes which caused God to raise up these men as scourges both to Prince People to the prince only for the peoples sake Some I have heard which out of a spirit which I cannot well define have endeavoured to brand his Royal Majesty with Cowardize in this battel which from whence it could proceed unless from their own coward nature which would insimulate another in that of which themselves are guilty I cannot imagine since Cromwell the greatest of his Enemies because the most desirous of his Kingdomes yet had so much of truth in him as to give a high and noble Character of his valour But to proceed we have now said enough of this fatall battel the seeming ruine of the Royal Interest in England unless God of his mercy be pleased to restore it for the good peace and quiet of these Nations since without it we cannot hope to enjoy any His sacred Majesty being landed in France near Havre de Grace from thence with a Noble Lord in his Company posted directly for Roan where they stayed to alter their disguises and furnish them with habits answerable to their qualities his Majesty from thence having dispach't Letters to the French Court to acquaint his friends there of his safe Arrival which doubtless caused no little joy in those who were real to him and almost despaired ever again to have seen him The Duke of Orleans sends his own Coach to fetch him and several persons of quality go to meet him by whom he was attended to Paris and there received with all possible expressions of joy lodgings and attendants being forthwith provided for him in the Louure where at his first arrival he was visited by the Queen his Mother the Duke of Orleans who of all persons in the Kingdome exprest himselfe the most ready to do him service and the next day visits him again accompanied with his Daughter Madamoiselle he is likewise courted by the Dukes of Beaufort Langueville Guize the Marshall Thurine and many other Peers Nobles of France who all congratulate his safe deliverance And now his Majesty having lost all hopes of any furthermeans of attaining his Dominions by force leads here a retired life yet living in regard of his high alliance and extraction in great esteem with all the French Nobility Insomuch that notwithstanding his present low condition there was very great talk of a match to be made up between him the Madamoiselle de Orlians the richest princess in Christendome yet by some means or other it came to no effect though the Queen of England his Mother was an earnest promoter of it and also the Duke of York to Longuevelle's Daughter Whilst these things were transacting hapned that lately reconciled Fracture between the Prince of Conde and Cardinal Mazarine most of the Prince of the Bloud siding with the first the King of France who was newly declared of age to sway the Scpter himselfe with the last The cause of the quarrel was that extravagant power which Mazarine a stranger had usurped in the government of the Kingdome both depriving the Princes of the bloud of their Right and oppressing the people whose daily murmurings more encouraged the Princes against him this power he had got into his hands in the Regency of the Queen Mother whose grand Favourite he only was The Princes therefore though they could not dureing her Regency who so much loved him yet hoped they might effect somthing now the King himselfe is come to govern to which intent they charge him with several miscarriages of State which the Cardinal defends the King also enclines to his side by the instigation of the Queen his Mother yet nothing but the Cardinals banishment will satisfie the Princes who join the Duke of Lorain to them then in the service
scorne and derision of the world by selling them to those Plantations a punishment inflicted usually on none but thieves and vagabonds Yet I hope those Noble soules who were thus dealt withall account those miseries and hardships they have endured but little in respect of the cause for which they suffered them But to return to our Princes abroad The Duke of Glocester in his journy from Paris with the Marquess of Ormond touched at the Hague where he found his Sister newly returned from her journey with his Majesty and having staid with her some time there she accompanied him to visit their Brother the King again at Colen with whom she staid till after the fair at Frankford whither his Majesty accompanied with his Royal Sister the Duke of Glocester the Marquess of Ormond the Earle of Norwich the Lord Newburg and several Ladies and persons of Quality went in progress part of the way they went by Land and the other part by water being complemented in all Princes countries through which they passed by their chief Ministers of State and saluted with the great Guns from their Towns Castles but particularly being come into the Territories of the Elector of Mentz they were saluted by his grand Marshall who in the name of his Master the Elector invited his Majesty the Princess Royall the Duke of Glocester to his Court but in regard that the intent of their progress was to see that renowned Fair at Franckford which now drew nigh his Majesty sent the Lord Newburgh back with the grand Marshal returning thanks to the Elector for his civilities but desiring to be excused till their return when his Majesty with his Royal Sister Brother would not Faile to come and give him thanks in person and so his Majesty with his Noble company continued their journy Being arrived at Frankford advice was brought to his Majesty that the Queen of Swethland who had some time before Voluntarily surrendered her Kingdom into the hands of Carolus Gustavus her Kinsman was passing that way in her intended Journey for Italy whereupon his Majesty sent a Noble Lord to acquaint her Royall Highness the Queen Christina that he was ready to wait upon her at what place soever she should be pleased to appoint for an interview her Majesty received the message with a great deal of affection telling the Messenger That she was highly obliged to his Majesty of England for so great an honour and that if he pleased she would not fail to meet him at Conningstein a village not far from Frankford where his Majesty for the time resided And accordingly there these two Potentates both equally deprived of their Kingdomes only with this distinction the one Voluntary the other by force and Tyranny met the Queen of Sweden being there first attended his Majesty he being come was immediately admitted in a room there purposely provided and having had neer halfe an hours private discourse with her the Duke of Glocester was admitted and presently after the Lords that attended his Majesty there passing between their two Majesties many ceremonious complements so after a little longer discourse they took their leaves The Princesse Royal being a little indisposed went not to this interview His Majesty having tarried at Franckford as long as seem'd convenient to that Royall Company in his departure thence according to the promise he had before made by the Lord Newburgh passed through the Elector of Mentz his Country resolving to give him a visit but that Noble Prince had so much of honour in him that he met his Majesty a great part of the way and conducted him with his Royall Company to a Pallace of his where he sumptuously entertained them for three or four dayes and then himself in person accompanied them a good part of their way to Colen from whence shortly after his Majesties arrival there the Princess Royal departed for Holland In the mean time the Protector of England having made a peace with the Hollander fearing that the Nation should grow rebellious to him if they lay free from wars which would fill their purses resolves to keep them low at a diet to which effect he begins a war with Spain at first in his Western Territories but soon after that business not succeeding in his Europaean Quarters which made Mazarine with all hast possible endeavour the concluding the Leageu Offensive and Defensive with the Protector which being by him considered to be as beneficiall for his own interest as for the French was easily and willingly assented to but the chief Articles of this Peace was that his Majesty the Duke of York and Glocester with all their relations and friends should be expelled out of and no more admitted into the Kingdom of France Certainly had the French King had but the least touch or sense of honour he would have counted this the hardest condition in the world or indeed he would never at all have treated with the protector but that he should yeild to such a condition as to banish out of his Kingdome those who came to him for succour and relief in the utmost extreamity that ever Princes were put too and these too his nearest relations being Brothers Sisters children And this to make a league offensive with him who had murdered their Father expelled them out of their Dominions What was this but the owning of that murder and aggravating their oppressions instead of relieving them But neither honour nor relation can stand in competition with self-Interest His Maiesty had before fore-saw what the event of this treaty would be and had therefore wisely wihdrawn himselfe from France to prevent a complemental expulsion But the Duke of York who in regard of the great command which he had in the Army had staid there til the conclusion of the League was now warned to depart with al his retinnue consisting of a gallant number of young English gentlemen bred up under his valour conduct notwithstanding those many great services which he had performed for that Kingdom in requitall of which he had only a complemental Apology made him for the necessity of his departure and a small time respited for his stay during which he was visited by the Duke of Modena then in France and other French Grandees but more espetially by the Marshal of Turine who extreamly loved him and above all others expressed a sorrow for his dismisment but at length the day perfixed being come his grace having solemnly taken his leave of the King of France the Queen his Mother the rest of his Friends at the French Court he takes his journey towards Flanders accompanied by the Earl of Yarmouth severall other English Lords For upon the rupture of the Peace between Oliver Cromwell and the King of Spain Don John de Austria Governour Royall of the Low Countries for his Catholick Majesty commiserating our Kings unfortunate Condition now that his Interest might stand them in some stead had sent the
Lambert's Soulders deserting him and Generall Monck according to their orders marching up his Army quite through England Yet the Nation had so great hopes of the Noble General that in all his passage through England he is courted with Addresses from the Gentry of every County remonstrating the distractions they long had and were still like to lye under and intreating that he would be as they hoped hee 'd prove the Deliverer and saver of his Countrey that to settle them in some way of Government a Parliament might be called by the Free Votes of the people that they might no longer be Govern'd by such Wolves as only made a Prey of them nor their Governours be subjected to the awe force of an Exorbitant Army To all these desires he returned answers promising such things as might be for the good of the Nation But being come to London where he was received with a great deal of joy he put the people almost quite out of hopes of him nay rather into a fear that in stead of proving their deliverer he would be the means to enslave them for by the cōmandment of the Rump he enters the City with his whole Army imprisons many of their Common Council digs up their Posts and breakes down their Gates whilst the stupifi'd Citizens having now fear added to their slavery durst hardly murmur at it but with sighs nods bid adieu to their Liberty Yet notwithstanding this violence the Noble Generall revives their hopes retiring himself into the City refusing to be subject to the Juncto's command shortly after he admitts those Members of the House of Commons which were in 1648. forceably excluded by the Army for having given their Votes that the Kings Concessions at the Isle of Wight Treaty were sufficient grounds for a Peace and settlement who having taken their places in the House we had now got a step towards our ancient happiness one of the three Estates of the Kingdom viz. the House of Commons being permitted to sit freely a thing not known to us in twelve precedent yeares God of heaven of his mercy to these Nations grant that the other two may in his due time be admitted to the discharge of their power and trust that these Nations once so famous under that Government may no longer continue to be the scorne and derision of foraign Countries And great hopes there is now that these Kingdomes may again return to be happy since disloyalty the first cause of their miseries and distractions begins blessed be God every day to be depressed and loyalty to flourish many of those who formerly with a zealous fury broak their oath of Allegiance to their King wishing now that they had a King to shew allegiance to perceiving that al innovations of Government are not what some would have them seem to be viz. ways to liberty freedom but meer baits of ambitious self-minded men to hook in the people to slavery But to return to his Majesty in Flanders of whose jtenary life we have already given you a particular account it will not be impertinent to say somwhat of his sedentary retired Living that by his Aeconomy we may judge of his Monarchy and of the Government of those few subjects in his Family of that of his three Kingdoms His Majesty hath spent most of his time wherein he hath been out of his Dominions in Flanders under the protection of the Catholick King of Spain nor had he ever any where else so settled a Court and Habitation as here where his chief Attendants are the Lord Chancellour Hide the Marquess of Ormond the Earl of Norwich the Lord Wentworth the Lord Digby and many other Nobles and Gentlemen whose loyalty to his sacred Majesty his Royall Father hath made exiles to their Country a particular number of which he makes use of for his Councill doing nothing without serious mature advice and yet being of so sagatious a judgement that whatever he sayes is seldome contradicted by the most Judicious of his Councellours not out of fear or flattery but out of a reall assent to and concurrence with his judgement And indeed those great opportunities which he hath had by his so long being abroad of diving into the great Councels of Forraign Princes and States must necessarily make him a person of a very perspicuous understanding endow him with all those qualities which may deservedly attain the name of Great and render him as well an able Statist as a King he having during his expulsion travelled through lived in the Countries of three the most potent Princes in Christendome viz. the Emperour 's of Germany and the Kings of Spain and France and so to the Germain resolution added the Spaniards prudence and the Frenchmans expedition To these extraordinary helps which never a Prince in Christendome can boast of we may yet add those more then ordinary gifts wherewith nature hath been pleased to endow him which being so extreamly improved we can hardly now discern but that it may be known what they were take the character of an Honourable Lord upon his death Bed who speaking of him when about fiteen or sixteen Years of Age hath these words Truly I never saw greater hopes of vertue in any young Person then in him Great Judgement great understanding strong apprehension much of honour in his nature a very perfect Englishman in his inclinations So that both nature industry have seemed to use their utmost endeavours to make him a perfect Prince his very affliction turning in this to his benefit and making him in knowledge and sufferings the Refiner of knowledge unparalleld Some forreign Princes as well envying as pitying his expulsion This perfect knowledge of his he hath indeed had but small occasion to practise except a little in Scotland where I think he demonstrated himself a person so prudent and careful in his affairs that is beyond my Pen's expression His Subjects good was his only care nor did he ever act any thing but what might tend more to theirs then his own interest still consulting whether it might benefit them not himself His Letter to Col. Mackworth Governour of Shrewsbury sufficiently demonstrates his affection to his very Enemies he would win not Conquer the Hearts of those who though they have broke their Allegiance to him yet he would esteem still his subjects He would not conquer with bloud lest he should be thought a Tyrant He endeavours by fair means to attain the love of his Subjects that what ever his very enemies think of him he may approve himself to be a just Prince And did Fortune give him power yet would he rather attempt Curtesie then Force He knows that whilst he kills a Subject he weakens his Kingdom Rebels themselves may be found usefull and though justice cannot yet his Majesties Clemency will admit their pardon but if they resist to the utmost their bloud is on their own heads what man is not willing to