be directed to answer and if he refused That the matter of the Charge be taken pro confesso And the King not owning their Authority was remanded Fol. 58. Westminster-Hall Tuesday the 23d Afternoon The King not owning their Authority was remanded and the Court Adjourned to the Painted-Chamber And there Resolved They would examine Witnesses Fol. 61. Painted-Chamber Wednesday the 24th was spent in examining their Witnesses Fol. 66. Painted-Chamber Thursday the 25th Afternoon They examined more Witnesses They Resolved to proceed to Sentence of Condemnation against the King And that this Condemnation be for being Tyrant Traytor and Murtherer and Publick Enemy to the Commonwealth And that the Condemnation extend to Death Fol. 68. And Ordered That a Sentence grounded upon these Votes be prepared by Scot Marten Harrison and others Painted-Chamber Friday the 26 th The draught of the Sentence Reported and agreed And Resolved That the King be brought the next day to Westminster-Hall to receive it Fol 96. Painted-Chamber Saturday the 27 th Fore-noon The Sentence being engrossed Resolved The same should be the Sentence which should be read and published in Westminster-Hall the same day That the President should not permit the King to speak after Sentence That after the Sentence read he should declare it to be the Sence and Judgment of the Court. That the Commissioners should thereupon signifie their Consent by standing up And the same day the Commons Ordered the Clerk to bring in the Records of that Judgment to the House Journal of the House Westminster-Hall the same Day After-noon The King being brought in and not owning their Authority the Sentence was read And upon the Declaration of the President That it was the Judgment of the Court they stood up and Owned it and Adjourned to the Painted-Chamber And there appointed Waller and others to consider of the Time and Place for Execution Painted-Chamber Monday the 29 th Upon the report of the Committee Ordered A Warrant be drawn for executing the King in the open Street before White-Hall the next day directed to Hacker and others which was done accordingly Fol. 116. 31. January 1648. Ordered by the Commons That the Lord Grey out of Haberdashers-Hall to difpose of 100 l. for the Service of the Common-wealth 2. February 1648. They Ordered in the first place to take into Consideration and Debate the House of Lords for settlement of the Government 6. February 1648. The House being seventy three And the Question put Whether that House should take the Advice of the House of Lords in the exercise of the Legislative Power The House was divided and it carried in the Negative by fifteen Voices And then Resolved That the House of Peers was useless and dangerous and ought to be abolished And Ordered an Act to be brought in for that purpose 7. February 1648. The Declared That the Office of a King in this Nation and to have Power thereof in a Single Person was unnecessary burthensom and dangerous to the Liberty Safety and publick interest of the People and therefore ought to be abolished 9. February 1648. They Ordered The Narrative of the Proceeding and Records for Tryal of the King to be forthwith brought into this House 16. February 1648. They Ordered That the Clerk of that High Court of Justice be desired to bring in those Proceedings to their House the next Day March 1648. Sir Arthur Hasilrig Reports from the Committee that Charls and James Stewart Sons of the late King should dye without Mercy wheresoever they should be found 12. December 1650. Mr. Say Reported the Proceedings of their High-Court against the King contained in a Book entituled A Journal c. which was read at large by their Clerk He likewise presented from that Court the Act for Tryal of the King and the Precept for holding the Court. The Charge was exhibited the twentieth And The Sentence Read the twenty seventh of January 1648. And thereupon they Declared That the Persons entrusted in that great Service had discharged their Trust with great Courage and Fidelity That the Parliament was well satisfied in that Accompt of the Particulars and Proceedings And Ordered That the same Records do remain among the Records of Parliament That those Proceedings be Engrossed in a Roll and Recorded among the Parliament-Rolls for transmitting the Memory thereof to Posterity And Resolved That their Commissioners for their Great Seal issue a Certiorari to their Clerk to transmit those Proceedings into the Chancery there to be on Record And that the same be sent by Mittimus from thence to other Courts at Westminster and Custos Rotulorum of the Counties to be Recorded In the County Middlesex The Proceedings at Hicks Hall Tuesday the 9th of October 1660. in order to the Tryal of the pretended Judges of his late Sacred Majesty THe Court being sate the Commission of Oyer and Terminer under the Great Seal of England was first read It was directed to the Lords and others hereafter named viz. Thomas Aleyn Knight and Baronet Lord Mayor of the City of London The Lord Chancellor of England The Earl of South-hampton Lord Treasurer of England The Duke of Somerset The Duke of Albemarle The Marquess of Ormond Steward of his Majesties Houshold The Earl of Lindsey Great Chamberlain of England The Earl of Manchester Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold The Earl of Dorset The Earl of Berkshire The Earl of Sandwich Viscount Say and Seal The Lord Roberts The Lord Finch Denzil Hollis Esquire Sir Frederick Cornwallis Knight and Baronet Treasurer of His Majesties Houshold Sir Charles Barkly Knight Comptrouler of His Majesties Houshold Mr. Secretary Nicholas Mr. Secretary Morris Sir Anthony Ashley-Cooper Arthur Annesley Esquire The Lord Chief Baron Mr. Justice Foster Mr. Justice Mallet Mr. Justice Hide Mr. Baron Atkins Mr. Justice Twisden Mr. Justice Tyrrel Mr. Baron Turner Sir Harbottle Grimston Knight and Baronet Sir William Wild Knight and Baronet Recorder of London Mr. Serjeant Brown Mr. Serjeant Hale John Howel Esquire Sir Geoffry Palmer His Majestie 's Attorny General Sir Heneage Finch His Majestie 's Solicitor General Sir Edward Turner Attorney to His Highness the Duke of York Wadham Windham Esquire Edward Shelton Esquire Clerk of the Crown The Grand Jury Sworn were Sir William Darcy Baronet Foreman Sir Robert Bolles Baronet Sir Edward Ford Knight Sir Thomas Prestwick Sir William Coney Knight Sir Charles Sidley Baronet Sir Lewis Kirk Knight Sir Henry Littleton Baronet Sir Ralph Bovey Baronet Edward Chard Esquire Robert Giggon Esquire John Fotherly Esquire Charles Gibbons Esquire Thomas Geree Esquire Richard Cox Esquire Robert Bladwell Esquire Henry Mustian Esquire John Markham Esquire Edward Buckley Gent. Francis Bourchier Gent. Edward Lole Hart Cryer After Proclamation for silence was made it pleased Sir Orlando-Bridgman Lord Chief Baron of His Majestie 's High Court of Exchequer to speak to the Jury as followeth The Lord Chief Baron's Speech Gentlemen YOu are the Grand Inquest for the Body of this County of Middlesex You may
October 11th 1660. The Court being Assembled the Keeper was commanded to set the Prisoners to the Bar. Thomas Harrison Adrian Scroop John Carew John Jones Gregory Clement Thomas Scot were brought to the Bar accordingly After which Silence was Commanded Court You that are Prisoners at the Bar if you or any of you desire Pen Ink and Paper you shall have it and if you or any of you will Challenge any of the Jury you may when they come to be Sworn and that before they are Sworn Sir Thomas Allen being called was desired to look on the Prisoner and lay his Hand on the Book his Oath was then read to him viz. You shall well and truly try and true deliverance make between Our Sovereign Lord the King and the Prisoners at the Bar whom you shall have in charge according to your Evidence So help you God Sir Joshua Ash being next called Mr. Scroop excepted against him Sir Jeremy Whichcot Baronet being next to be Sworn Mr. Harrison excepted against him James Halley Esquire being next to be Sworn Mr. Scot excepted against him Court If you will not agree speaking to the Prisoners in your Challenges we must be forced to Try you severally Henry Mildmay Esq being called next Mr. Scroop excepted against him Court We must needs Try them severally therefore set them all aside but Harrison Court Gentlemen you that are excepted must not depart the Court. Sir Joshua Ash being again called was excepted against by Mr. Harrison Sir Jeremy Whichot Baronet James Halley Esq Henry Mildmay Esq Christopher Abdy Esq Being called again were severally excepted against by the Prisoner Court Mr. Harrison You know the Law You must say I Challenge him Mr. Harrison I shall Sir Ralph Hartley being next called and being very sick humbly prayed to be excused by the Court which was granted Arthur Newman was called next Mr Harrison May I not ask of what Quality he is Court No Sir You are to Challenge him or not to Challenge him Mr. Harrison I Challenge him Thomas Blith was next called and also Challenged Here the People seemed to laugh Mr. Harrison My Lord I must make use of my Liberty in this Case Court God forbid Then Grover Robert Clark and Richard Whalley were called and by Mr. Harrison Challenged Court Mr. Harrison you know many to Challenge If you go beyond the Number at your own peril be it Mr. Harrison My Lord pray tell me what it is Court You say very well God forbid but you should know You may Challenge five and thirty Peremptorily If you go beyond you know the Danger Mr. Harrison My Lord I do not this to keep you off from the Business William Vincent and Henry Twiford were then called and Challenged John Lisle was next called Mr. Harrison I do not know him Mr. Lisle Nor I you Mr. Harrison He was Sworn Thomas Franklin Sworn Thomas Winter Challenged Richard Nichol Sworn Moyce being sick prayed Excuse which was granted accordingly Richard Cheyney Challenged Allen Parsons Challenged Henry Edlin called Mr. Harrison I Challenge him Mr. Harrison Let him be Sworn Court No No. Whereupon he was set aside Mr. Harrison If I have any Apprehension or knowledg of them that 's the thing that leads me to it as touching this man he may be Sworn Court When he is Challenged he cannot be recalled Mr. Harrison I am content Samuel Greenhill Sworn Thomas Bide Challenged John Page Challenged Richard Rider Challenged Mr. Harrison Lest I may run into an Hazard in making use of that Liberty which the Law gives me in this Case and having not taken Notice of any Perfons Challenged I mean as to the Number I desire your Officer that takes Notice may acquaint me with the Number Court You shall know it God forbid the contrary Edward Rolph was called next Mr. Harrison Mr. Rolph is his Name Let him be sworn Sworn Francis Beal Challenged John Kirk Challenged Charles Pitfield Challenged John Smith Challenged Bell Sworn Edward Franklin Challenged William Whitcomb Challenged Samuel Harris Sworn John Collins Challenged Thomas Snow Sworn William Blunt Challenged George Rigth Challenged John Nichol of Finchley Sworn Timothy Taylor Challenged Thomas Fruin Challenged Richard Abel Challenged Thomas Morris Sworn Ambrose Scudamore Challenged Ralph Halsel Challenged George Tirry Challenged Court You have Challenged Thirty three already Mr. Harrison I pray the Names may be read to me to see if it be so Court When you come to Thirty five you shall have the Names read John Galliard Challenged Thomas Swallow Challenged Court Now read their Names to him Which were read accordingly In all thirty five Challenged George Pickering was next called and Sworn Then they were called over who were admitted viz. Sir Thomas Allen John Lisle Thomas Francklin Richard Nichol Samuel Greenhil Edward Rolph Bell Samuel Harris Thomas Snow John Nichol Thomas Morris George Pickering and Sworn Proclamation was then made If any man can inform my Lords the King 's Justices the King ' s Serjeant or the King's Attorney before this Inquest be taken let them come forth and they shall be heard for now the Prisoner stands at the Bar upon his Deliverance And all those bound by Recognizance to appear let them come forth and give their Evidence or else to forfeit their Recognizance George Masterson James Nutley Robert Coytmore Holland Simson and William Jessop Witnesse were called Court Gentlemen that are not of the Jury Pray clear the Passage The Prisoner is here for Life and Death let him have Liberty to see the Jury Clerk Thomas Harrison Hold up thy Hand Clerk Look upon the Prisoner you that are Sworn You shall understand that the Prisoner at the Bar stands Indicted by the Name of Thomas Harrison late of Westminster in the Country of Middlesex Gentleman for that He together with John Lisle c. Here the Indictment was read upon which Indictment be hath been Arraigned and thereunto hath pleaded Not Guilty and for his Trial hath put himself upon God and the Countrey which Countrey you are Now your Charge is to enquire whether he be Guilty of the High Treason in Manner and Form as he stands Indicted or Not guilty If you find that he is guilty you shall enquire what Goods and Chattels he had at the time of committing the said Treason or at any time sithence If you find that he is Not guilty you shall enquire whether he did fly for it if you find that he fled for it you shall enquire of his Goods and Chattels as if you had found him Guilty if you find that he is Not guilty nor that he did fly you shall say so and no more And take heed to your Evidence Mr. Keeling Enforced the Charge at large After whom Sir Henneage Finch His Majesties Solicitour General in these words MAY it please Your Lordships we bring before your Lordships into Judgment this day the Murtherers of a King A man would think the Laws of God and Men had so fully secured
them who did either look Sadly or speak Affectionately And yet it will appear upon our Evidence too that so few of the very Common Souldiers could be brought to approve these Proceedings or to cry out Justice that their Officers were fain by Money or Blows or both to bring a great many to it My Lords The Actors in this Tragedy were many very many so many that sure their Name is Legion or rather many Legions And certainly my Lords when we shall consider the Thing that they have done we cannot but look upon it as a Villany which had in it all the Ingredients to make it detestable that it was possible for the Counsel of Men or Devils either to put together But yet if any thing can be of a deeper Dy then the Guilt of that Sacred Blood wherewith they stand Polluted me thinks their Impudence should make them more odious then their Treason It was the destruction of God's Anointed in the Name of the Lord. It was the Murther of a most blessed and beloved Prince in the Name of His People Him whom they had taken the transcendent Boldness to imprison as the Author of the War they put to Death because He would have been the Author of our Peace and that with so much Scorn and Indignity that some of them were not ashamed to spit in the Face of our Lord and Sovereign And when they had thus quenched the Light of Israel Darkness and Confusion did over-spread the face of the Land many poor Subjects at Home and some Protestants in Foreign Nations at the very News of it fell down Dead as if this excellent King had been in a Natural as well as a Religious sence the Breath of our Nostrils the Anointed of the Lord who was taken in their Pits The Judges Officers and other Immediate Actors in this pretended Court were in number about fourscore Of these some four or five and twenty are dead and gone to their own place The God of Recompences hath taken the matter so far into His Own Hands and who knows but that it might be one dreadful part of His Vengeance that they died in Peace Some six or seven of them who are thought to have sinned with less Malice have their Lives spared indeed but are like to be brought to a severe Repentance by future Penalties Some eighteen or nineteen have fled from Justice and wander to and fro about the World with the Mark of Cain upon them are Perpetual trembling lest every Eye that sees them and every Hand that meets them should fall upon them Twenty nine Persons do now expect your Justice Amongst them the first that is brought is the Prisoner at the Bar and he deserves to be the first for if any Person now left alive ought to be stiled the Conductour Leader and Captain of all this Work that 's the Man He my Lord brought the King up a Prisoner from Windsor but how and in what manner with how little Duty nay with how little Civility to a common Person you will hear in time He Sate upon Him Sentenced Him he Signed the Warrant first to call that Court together then the bloody Warrant to cut off His Sacred Head Against him as against all the rest our Evidence will be of two sorts Witnesses Viva voce that shall first prove to your Lordships that every Person now in Question did sit in that Court when their King stood as a Prisoner at the Bar. We shall prove that the Precept by which this pretended Court was summoned was not obeyed and executed till it had had the hands and seals of most of the pretended Judges among the rest the hand of the Prisoner at the Bar will be found there We shall prove his hand to the bloody Warrant for severing the Sacred Head of our Blessed Sovereign from the Body and then some Circumstances of his Malice and of his Demeanour And after we have done with our Witnesses Viva voce if we have occasion to use Records of Parliament we shall shew them too for we have the Originals or authentick Copies But now we shall proceed to our Evidence Proclamation was made for Silence Sir Edward Turner My Lords The service of this Day doth call to my Memory the Story of good King Amaziah We read in Holy Writ that his Father King Joash was murthered and murthered by His own Subjects but we read further that when Amaziah had regained the Crown was settled in the Government He slew those that slew His Father He did go downe into Edom the Valley of Salt and there He did slay ten thousand The work of this Day doth very much resemble that Action Our Good and Gratious King His Father of blessed Memory and our Father His natural and our politick Father to whom our natural Allegiance was due was murthered and by His own Subjects But My Lords this was not a National Crime and our Good and Gratious Sovereign hath done us that Honour and Right to vindicate us in Forreign Nations and now He is come Home in Power and Glory He does continue in the same Mind that 's the Reason we are not now slain by thousands but that those Miscreants are gathered up here and there that did commit the Offence and would have involved the Nation in a common Infamy Gentlemen of the Jury Your time to enquire of this Matter is precious more pretious then my Words else I would repeat to you the History of the Tragedy at least that Summary that was entred in the Black Book or the Journals of that they then called a Parliament It shall suffice to tell you and that most truly that it was but an handful of men in respect of the whole Nation that did contrive and design this damnable and traiterous Plot to subvert the Laws and change the Government of this well-governed Nation In prosecution of which they did cast abroad and spread forth Jesuitical Maxims Damnable and Diabolical Principles to intoxicate the People and when their Heads were troubled they were easily lead into Arms where after some time they grew drunk with Successes and when they had drunk too much of the Loyal Blood of the People then they thirsted for the Royal Blood also I do confess we read in Stories that Kings have before this time been murthered some in our Nation as King Richard the Second and Edward the Third and in other Nations But the Actors of those Murthers were modest to these They did it in Private these in the Face of the Sun and the People but it was those People Gentlemen they had corrupted with Shares in their Robberies and Villanies They pretended it was in a way of Justice but you must know no Justice can be executed upon the Person of the King Touch not mine Anointed saith God himself My Lords I do read in the Roman Story that both amongst them and other Nations there was no Law against Parricide It was not thought that any man was
with your Countrey that chose you for that Place You know that no Act of Parliament is binding but what is Acted by King Lords and Commons And now as you would make God the Author of your Offence so likewise you would make the People guilty of your Opinion But your Plea is over-ruled To which the Court assented Mr. Harrison I was mistaken a little Whereas it was said the Points were one I do humhly conceive they were not so I say what was done was done in Obedience to the Authority If it were but an Order of the House of Commons thus under a Force yet this Court is not Judge of that Force I say if it was done by one Estate of Parliament it is not to be questioned Court It was not done by one Estate They were but a Part nay but an eighth Part. Denz Hollis It was not an House of Commons They kept up a Company by the power of the Sword Do not abuse the People in saying It was done by the Supreme Power Councel My Lord if it were an House of Commons neither House of Commons nor House of Lords nor House of Lords and Commons together no Authority upon Earth can give Authority for Murthering the King This that he alledgeth is Treason my Lord this that is said is a clear Evidence of that which is charged there is only this more in it he hath done it and if he were to do it again he would do it Lord Chief Baron It is clear as the Noon-day that this was not the House of Commons Suppose it had been an House of Commons and full and suppose which far be it from me to suppose they should have agreed upon such a Murtherous Act for the House of Commons to do such an Act it was void in it self nay any Authority without the House of Lords and King is void You plead to the Jurisdiction of the Court whether we should Judge it or no. Yes I tell you and proper too We shall not speak what Power we have The Judges have Power after Laws are made to go upon the Interpretation of them We are not to judge of those things that the Parliament do But when the Parliament is purged as you call it for the Commons alone to Act for you to say that this is the Authority of Parliament it is that which every man will say Intrenches highly upon his Liberty and Priviledge And what you have said to your Justification what doth it tend to but as much as this I did it justifie it and would do it again which is a new Treason The greatest Right that ever the House of Commons did claim is but over the Commons Do they claim a particular Right over the Lords Nay over the King Make it out if you can but it cannot possibly be made out What you have said doth aggravate your Crimes It is such an approvement of your Treason that all Evidences come short of it King Lords and Commons is the Ground of the English-Law Without that no Act of Parliament binds Justice Mallet I have been a Parliament-Man as long as any man here present and I did never know or hear that the House of Commons and Jurisdiction over any saving their own Members which is as much as I will say concerning the Parliament I have heard a Story of a Mute that was born Mute whose Father was slain by a Stranger a man unknown After twenty years or thereabouts this Mute-man fortuned to see the Murtherer of his Father and these were his Words Oh! here is he that slew my Father Sir The King is the Father of the Country Pater Patria so saith Sir Edward Coke He is Caput Reipublicae the Head of the Common-wealth Sir What have you done Here you have cut off the Head of the whole Common-Wealth and taken away Him that was our Father the Governour of the whole Countrey This you shall find Printed and Published in a Book of the greatest Lawyer Sir Edward Coke I shall not need my Lord to say more of this Business I do hold the Prisoner's Plea vain and unreasonable and to be rejected Justice Hide I shall not trouble you with many Words I am sorry that any man should have the Face and Boldness to deliver such words as you have You and all must know That the King is above the Two Houses They must propose their Laws to him The Laws are made by Him and not by Them by their consenting but they are His Laws That which you speak as to the Jurisdiction you are here Indicted for High Treason for you to come to talk of Justification of this by Pretence of Authority your Plea is naught illegal and wicked and ought not to be allowed As to having of Councel the Court understand what you are upon Councel is not to be allowed in that Case and therefore your Plea must be over-ruled Mr. Justice Twisden I shall agree with that which many have already said onely this You have eased the Jury you have confessed the Fact I am of the same Opinion that you can have no Councel therefore I over-rule your Plea if it had been put in never so good Form and Manner Earl of Manchester I beseech you my Lords let us go some other way to work Sir William Wild. That which is before us is Whether it be a matter of Law or Fact For the matter of Law your Lordships have declared what it is his Justification is as high a Treason as the former For matter of Fact he hath confessed it I beseech you My Lord direct the Jury for their Verdict This Gentleman hath forgot their Barbarousness they would not hear their King Court No Councel can be allowed to Justifie a Treason that this is a Treason you are Indicted by an Act of the 25th of Edw. 3d. That which you speak of the House of Commons is but part of the House of Commons they never did nor had any power to make a Law but by King Lords and Commons and therefore your Plea is naught and all the Court here is of the same opinion if they were not they would say so therefore what you have said is over-ruled by the Court. Have you any thing else to offer Mr. Harrison Notwithstanding the Judgment of so many Learned ones that the Kings of England are no ways accountable to the Parliament The Lords and Commons in the beginning of this War having declared the King's beginning War upon them the God of Gods Court Do you render your self so desperate that you care not what Language you let fall It must not be suffered Mr. Harrison I would not willingly speak to offend any man but I know God is no Respecter of Persons His setting up his Standard against the People Court Truly Mr. Harrison this must not be suffered this doth not at all belong to you Mr. Harrison Vnder Favour this doth belong to me I would have abhorred to have brought him to Account
confesso was afflicted with the delays how angry he was when he was interrupted Is it not proved to you that he was at first against the thing and said it was a base business when he was engaged in it said that he was a Servant of the people of this Kingdome what doth he do at last when the thing had gone far he speaks that which is the only truth which I have yet heard from him He must dye and Monarchy then must perish with him from which Event good Lord deliver us Sir Edward Turner My Lord the substance of the defence that the Prisoner hath made at the Bar with much skill and cunning may be referred to two heads The first to the Statute of the 25 of Edward the 3. The second to the late Act of Oblivion for the first my Lord he saith that his fact is not comprized within that Statute saith he I did never conspire or imagine the death of the King nor did believe that would be a consequent of their actings It was expresly proved that himself did say that the King must die and Monarchy with him but Gentlemen though he had said true that it had not been proved or that he did not believe that would be a consequent yet my Lord I must tell you that every step of this Tragedy was Treason the summoning themselves that was Treason every proceeding upon that was Treason the summoning of their meetings in the Painted Chamber coming into Westminster-Hall every person as instrumental those that came to act the least part in that Tragedy were every one guilty of Treason what saith he I acted as a Councellour for my see It was that see that Judas had the 30. pieces of silver that made him hang himself He goes further and tells you there must be no semblable Treasons this is clear the conspiring and imagining the death of the King that 's the Treason that is mentioned in the Act Treason by the Common Law though this be not named the killing of the King yet all these proceedings are demonstrations to you there was a Secret Imagination to kill him Then to the Act of Oblivion his Argument is That because the Act saith that if they had Sentenced signed or been Instrumental in the death of the King that they should be excepted but it is not said or otherwise Instrumental that therefore this should refer to subsequent not precedent Acts that 's a strange Exposition take it Grammatically it hath the most large construction Instrumental more large than if they had said or otherwise for it doth comprehend every thing There having been so full an answer already I will be short I will not meddle with his civil debts but with his Political If a man kill another though he doth repent the Magistrate must do Justice in terrorem Though he doth repent I hope in God he doth so The Magistrates your Lordships must do Justice in terrorem I desire that Justice may be done upon that man He said it was no Treason to demand Justice against the King because he did but demand it I hope he will think it no unkindness in me to desire judgement against him because it is just Mr. Wadham Windham As I understand the Prisoner at the Bar the chief argument which he shelters himself under was his profession which gives a blast to all of us of the long robe I will not mince his arguments saith he here was a Court I was appointed Sollicitor and saith he for men to practise before those that have not a proper Judicature it is not Felony Murther or Treason I would not willingly mince his Argument and that I was appointed and the words dictated to me and a Councellor carrying himself within the compass of his profession is not answerable but if he will exceed his bounds his profession is so far from sheltring him that as it hath been opened it is very much an aggravation it is the duty of a Councellor to give Counsel if a man shall come to me and ask counsel and I shall counsel him to kill a man am not I accessary to that murder Words by his argument will not amount to Treason if the fact follows I am as guilty as if I did the fact in point of Treason it is all one as if I had done that very act If Mr. Cook did advise that Act or was instrumental he is as much a Traytor as the man in the Frock that did the Execution for his profession truly my Lord I do not think that a Counseller is always bound to know the patent of him that sits as Judge that will not be his Case here was no ordinary Warrant of Law to carry on Justice Grotius saith in case of necessity for carrying on Justice there may be many things allowed I pray where did Mr. Cook read of such a Court as a High Court of Justice there was never such a High Court of Justice read of in the Law then as this was a mock Court so under good favour it was a mock Jurisdiction Was there any Law under Heaven to put the King to death is it not out of the compass of all Courts whatsoever to do it and under good favour my Lord this is but to shelter a mans self under colour of Justice to do the most execrable Treason in the World I have no more to say to you Lo. Ch. Bar. I would repeat the Evidence and your answer to you if you have any thing new speak to it Cook This is new it was said by one that if there had been no charge there had been no sentence given in the Case I say that the Indictment or Charge is no part of the Tryal by the Statute of Magna Charta The Peers of the Land shall be tryed by Peers but are indicted by the Countrey I conceive by what they have said they do make me causal of the Kings death It is said in the Indictment there was a power I say this I did not assume any power it cannot be said if Council be come in to an unlawful power that he takes the power but stands with respect at the Bar. At Assises Judgement passes the Clerk of the Assises he is not instrumental in taking away life for that which Mr. Starkey should say that I should say The King must die and Monarchy with him I humbly beg that the Jury would take notice of what Mr. Nut. said that I told him there was no intention of taking away the Kingslife and besides it is but a single witness I hope there must be two witnesses in point of Law to convict a man of High Treason Lo. Ch. Baron Mr. Cook you said right but even now that if there was any thing in matter of Law which the Court knows of which may be of advantage to you they are of Council to you and so they ought to be Cook I think your Lordships L. Ch. Bar. I shall repeat the whole Evidence and
ask Col. Huncks whether I read this Warrant or no. L. ch B. This is all you have to say for your self Hacker Yea my Lord. L. ch B. Then Col. Hacker for that which you say for your self that you did it by coommand you must understand that no power on earth could Authorize such a thing No command in such a case can excuse you There is a twofold obedience a passive obedience to suffer rather than do things unlawful and an Active obedience to do that only which is lawful and therefore this will not excuse your obedience to those unlawful commands Gent. of the Jury you see the Prisoner at the Bar stands indicted for compassing and imagining the death of the late King and there are several open Acts set forth in the indictment which tend to prove that matter one is assembling and meeting together another is sitting upon the King another sentencing and at last concludes with the murther of the King as the consequence of all Any thing that tends to the proving of this compassing and imagining his death in any one of these particulars that is an evidence to you to prove the whole indictment This Gentleman was Commander of Halberteers Col. Tomlinson saith that though he kept the Guards that were about the Kings person this Gentleman with two other persons brought Halberteers that there might not be such frequent access as formerly to the King there is one Act. He commands these Halberteers at that time when the business was in agitation before that High Court as they called it You see after the sentence was given that he was one of the persons to whom the Warrant for Execution was directed you see afterwards there was a consulting together Cromwel Ireton Harrison and Axtel were in the Chamber when Col. Huncks refused to sign the prisoner signed the Warrant but knows not the person to whom it was directed you see besides Col. Tomlinson's testimony who saith further that when they were discharged Col. Hacker went in and the King was brought out presently after to that fatal place Col. Huncks swears that when that Warrant was offered to him he refused it that Hacker the Prisoner at the Bar signed a Warrant though he doth not remember the name of the person to whom it appears by two Witnesses honourable persons he confessed he signed it but he did not know the person to whom directed You see another Witness Benjamin Francis he saith he saw Hacker upon the Scaffold with the King He doth not deny the fact you need go no further it is very plain he had a hand in this business a principal agent in it he that brought the King to the Scaffold he that had the care in managing that business he that signed the Warrant to the Executioner either he is guilty of compassing the death of the King or no man can be said to be guilty The Jury went together and after some little consultation returned to their places Clerk of the Crown Gentlemen of the Jury are you agreed on your Verdict Jury Yes Clerk Who shall say for you Jury Our Foreman Clerk Francis Hacker hold up thy hand Gentlemen look upon the Prisoner at the Bar how say you is he guilty of high Treason whereof he stands indicted and hath been arraigned or not guilty Foreman Guilty Clerk Look to him Keeper Clerk What Goods and Chattels c. Jury None that we know of The Tryal of William Hulet 15. Octob. 1660. CLerk of the Crown Set William Hulet to the Bar who was brought accordingly William Hulet alias Houlet hold up thy hand Those persons that were last called of the Jury are to pass c. If you will challenge them or any of them you must challenge them when they come to the Book before they be sworn L. Ch. Bar. Understand you have power to challenge five and thirty men and not above You may challenge them without cause shewn If you have cause for any other you may challenge them also If you will have Pen Ink and Paper you may have them Hulet Truly my Lord I cannot Write but a very little I shall not need them I did not understand my Indictment well I desire to hear it again L. Ch. Bar. You will hear it read again Clerk Sir Thomas Allen Sir Henry Wroth Thomas Bide Robert Sheppard Thomas Morris Ralph Halsal John Gallyard John Nicoll Thomas Vfman Christopher Abdy William Dod in all twelve Jury called and sworn Cl. of the Cr. Will. Hulet alias Houlet hold up thy hand You Gentlemen that are sworn look upon the Prisoner Cl. You shall understand that he stands indicted of high Treason by the name of Will. Hulet alias Howlet late of Westminster in the County of Middlesex Gent. for that he as a false Traytor c. here the indictment was read Unto which indictment he hath pleaded not guilty and for his Tryal hath put himself upon God and the Country which Country you are Now your charge is to inquire c. Sir Edward Turner May it please your Lordships and you Gentlemen that are sworn of this Jury we are now entering upon the last Act in this sad tragedy of the Murther of the late King there have been before you some of the Judges the Councel the Chaplain and the Guard this Prisoner at the Bar in the last place was one of those which came with a frock on his body and a vizor on his face to do the work The course of our evidence will be this first we shall prove by witnesses that saw him and knew him that he was thus disguised he hath confest that he was upon the Scaffold that he hath had several preferments and I fear it will appear that it was he that gave that fatal blow for he hath confessed he had an hundred pounds given him for his service therein and we doubt not but to pluck off his vizor by and by The indictment is for compassing and imagining the death of his late Majesty of glorious memory if we prove to you any circumstantial overtact whereby you shall be convinced of this you are to find him guilty Richard Gittens sworn Councel Mr. Gittens tell my Lord and the Jury what you know touching the prisoner at the Bar. Gittens The thing is this my Lord this Gentleman at the Bar and my self were both in a Regiment in one company as Serjeants about twelve or thirteen years together About a day or two before the King came to the Scaffold Colonel Hewson did give notice to a Lieutenant that we should come to him about 38 of us and he put us all to our Oaths that we should say nothing of what they did he swore us to the book after he had sworn us he asked us if we would undertake to do such an Act if we would we should have an hundred pounds down and preferment in the Army as long as that stood and the Parliament Afterwards we refused every person we thought Captain
perceive by this Commission that hath been read that we are authorized by the King's Majesty to hear and determine all Treasons Felonies and other Offences within this County But because this Commission is upon a special occasion the Execrable Murther of the blessed King that is now a Saint in Heaven King Charls the first we shall not trouble you with the Heads of a long Charge The ground of this Commission was and is from the Act of Oblivion and Indempnity You shall find in that Act there is an Exception of several persons who for their Execrable Treasons in sentencing to Death and signing the Warrant for the taking away the Life of our said Sovereign are left to be proceeded against as Traytors according to the Laws of England and are out of that Act wholly excepted and fore-prized Gentlemen You see these Persons are to be proceeded with according to the Laws of the Land and I shall speak nothing to you but what are the words of the Laws By the Statute of the twenty fifth of Edward the third a Statute or Declaration of Treason it is made High-Treason to compass and imagine the Death of the King It was the ancient Laws of the Nation In no Case else Imagination or Compassing without an Actual Effect of it was punishable by our Law Nihil officit Conatus nisi sequatur Effectus that was the old Rule of Law But in the case of the King His Life was so pretious that the Intent was Treason by the Common Law and Declared Treason by this Statute The reason of it is this In the case of the Death of the King the Head of the Commonwealth that 's cut off and what a Trunk an inanimate Lump the Body is when the Head is gone you all know For the Life of a single man there 's the Life of the Offendor there 's some Recompence Life for Life But for the Death of the King what Recompence can be made This Compassing and Imagining the cutting off the Head of the King is known by some Overt-Act Treason it is in the wicked Imagination though not Treason Apparent but when this Poison swells out of the Heart and breaks forth into Action in that case it 's High-Treason Then what is an Imagination or Compassing of the King's Death Truly it is any thing which shews what the Imagination is Words in many cases are Evidences of this Imagination they are Evidences of the Heart Secondly As Words so if a man if two men do conspire to Levy War against the King and by the way what I say of the King is as well of the King dead as living for if a Treason be committed in the Life of one King it is a Treason and punishable in the Time of the Successor Then I say in case not only of Words but if they conspire to Levy War against the King there 's another Branch of this Statute the Levying of War is Treason But if men shall go and consult together and this is to kill the King to put Him to Death this Consultation is clearly an Overt-Act to prove this Imagination or Compassing of the King's Death But what will you say then if men do not only go about to conspire and consult but take upon them to Judge Condemn nay put to Death the King Certainly this is so much beyond the Imagination and Compassing as 't is not only laying the Cockatrice's Egg but brooding upon it till it hath brought forth a Serpent I must deliver to you for plain and true Law That no Authority no single person no community of persons not the people Collectively or Representatively have any coercive power over the King of England And I do not speak mine own Sence but the words of the Laws unto you It was the Treason of the Spencers in King Edward the Second's Time in Calvin's case second Report The Spencers had an opinion that all Homage and Allegiance was due to the King by reason of the Crown as they called it And thereupon say the Books and Records they drew out this execrable Inference among others That if the King did not demean himself according to Right because he could not be reformed by Law he might per aspertee that is by sharp Imprisonment but this was adjudged horrid Treason by two Acts of Parliament Gentlemen Let me tell you what our Law-books say for there 's the Ground out of which and the Statutes together we must draw all our Conclusions for matter of Government How do they Stile the King They call Him The Lieutenant of God and many other expressions in the Book of Primo Henrici Septimi Says that Book there The King is immediate from God and hath no Superior The Statutes say That the Crown of England is immediately subject to God and to no other Power The King says our Books He is not only Caput Populi the Head of the People but Caput Reipublicae the Head of the Commonwealth The three Estates And truly thus our Statutes speak very fully Common Experience tells you when we speak of the King and so the Statutes of Edward the Third we call the King Our Sovereign Lord the King Sovereign that is Supreme And when the Lords and Commons in Parliament apply themselves to the King they use this Expression Your Lords and Commons your faithful Subjects humbly beseech I do not speak any Words of my own but the Words of the Laws Look upon the Statute primo Jacobi there 's a Recognition that the Crown of England was lawfully descended on the King and His Progeny The Statute it self was read to which it is desired the Reader will be referred These are the Words of the Act. And this is not the first precedent for you shall find it primo Eli. cap. 3. They do acknowledge the Imperial Crown lawfully descended on the Queen the same Recognition with this Before that because we shall shew you we go upon Grounds of Law in what we say Stat. 24. Hen. 8. cap. 12. Whereas by sundry old authentick Histories and Chronicles it is manifestly declared and expressed that this Realm of England is an Empire and so hath been accepted in the world governed by one Supreme Head and King having the Dignity and Royal Estate of the Imperial Crown of the same c. 25 Hen. 8. c. 21. there it is the people speaking of themselves That they do recognize no Superiour under God but only the King's Grace Gentlemen You see if the King be immediate under God he derives his Authority from no body else if the King have an Imperial Power if the King be Head of the Commonwealth Head of the body Politick if the body Politick own him obedience truly I think it is an undenied consequence He must needs be Superiour over them Gentlemen This is no new thing to talk of an Emperour or an Imperial Crown Do not mistake me all this while It is one thing to have an Imperial Crown and another
thing to govern absolutely Gentlemen The Imperial Crown is a Word that is significative you shall find in all Statutes primo Eliz. and the first of King James nay even in the Act of Judicial proceedings of this Parliament it is called an Imperial Crown They that take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy they swear that they will to their power assist and defend all Jurisdictions Priviledges Preheminences and Authorities granted or belonging to the King His Heirs and Successors or annexed to the Imperial Crown of this Realm What is an Imperial Crown It is that which as to the Coercive part is subject to no man under God The King of Poland has a Crown But what is it At his Coronation it is conditioned with the people That if he shall not Govern them according to such Rules they shall be freed from their Homage and Allegiance But the Crown of England is and always was an Imperial Crown and so sworn Gentlemen As I told you even now the Imperial Crown is a Word significative that Crown which as to the Coercive part is not subject-to any Humane Tribunal or Judicature whatsoever And truly that this is such an Imperial Crown though I have cited Authorities ancient enough you may find them much more ancient I remember in the Story of William Rufus you shall find it in Matthew Paris and Eadmerus some Question was about Investiture of Bishops and the like the King writes His Letter That c. God forbid I should intend any absolute Government by this It is one thing to have an Absolute Monarchy another thing to have that Government Absolutely without Laws as to any coercive power over the Person of the King for as to Things and Actions they will fall under another consideration as I will tell you by and by Gentlemen Since this is so consider the Oath of Supremacy which most men have taken or should take All men that enter into the Parliament-House they are expresly enjoyned by Statute to take the Oath of Supremacy What says that Oath We swear that The King is the only Supreme Governour within this Realm and Dominions He is Supreme and the onely Supreme and truly if he be Supreme there is neither Major nor Superior I urge this the more lest any Person by any Misconstruction or inference which they might make from something that hath been Acted by the Higher Powers they might draw some dangerous Inferences or Consequences to colour or shadow over those Murtherous and Traiterous Acts which afterwards they committed They had no Authority But as I told you though I do set forth this and declare this to you to let you know that the King was immediately subject to God and so was not punishable by any Perfon yet let me tell you there is that excellent Temperament in our Laws that for all this the King cannot rule but by His Laws It preserves the King and his Person and the peoples Rights There are three things touching which the Law is conversant Personae Res Actiones Persons Things and Actions For the Person of the King He is the Supreme Head He is not punishable by any coercive Power the Laws provide for that The King can do no wrong it is a Rule of Law it is in our Law-books very frequent 22d of Edward the Fourth Lord Coke and many others If he can do no Wrong He cannot be punished for any wrong The King He hath the infirmities and weakness of a man but he cannot do any injury at least not considerable in Person He must do it by Ministers Agents Instruments Now the Law though it provide for the King yet if any of his Ministers do wrong though by his command they are punishable The King cannot arrest a man as he cannot be arrested Himself but if He arrest me by another Man I have remedy against this man though not against the King and so He cannot take away my Estate This as to the Person of the King He is not to be touched Touch not mine Anointed I come to Things If the King claim a Right the King must sue according to His Laws the King is subject to the Laws in that case His Possessions shall be tried by Juries If He will try a man for His Fathers Death you see he will try them by the Laws The Law is the Rule and Square of His actions and by which He Himself-is judged Then for Actions that is such Actions whereby Rights and Titles are prosecuted or recovered the King cannot judge in Person betwixt man and man He does it by his Judges and upon Oath and so in all cases whatsoever If the King will have his Right it must be brought before His Judges Though this is an Absolute Monarchy yet this is so far from infringing the Peoples Rights that the People as to their Properties Liberties and Lives have as great a priviledge as the King It is not the sharing of Government that is for the Libertie and Benefit of the People but it is how they may have their Lives and Liberties and Estates safely secured under Government And you know when the Fatness of the Olive was laid aside and we were Governed by Brambles these Brambles they did not only tear the Skin but tore the Flesh to the very Bone Gentlemen I have done in this Particular to let you see that the Supreme Power being in the King the King is immediately under God owing his Power to none but God It is true blessed be God we have as great Liberties as any People have in Christendom in the World but let us own them where they are due We have them by the Concessions of Our Princes Our Princes have granted them and the King now He in them hath granted them likewise Gentlmen I have been a little too long in this and yet I cannot say it is too long because it may clear misunderstanding so many Poisonous Opinions having gone abroad To come a little nearer If we consider suppose there were the Highest Authority but when we shall consider this horrid Murther truly I cannot almost speak of it but Vox faucibus haeret When we shall consider that a few Members of the House of Commons those that had taken the Oath of Supremacy and those that had taken the Oath of Allegiance that was to defend the King and His Heirs against all Conspiracies and Attempts whatsoever against His and their Persons Their Crowns and Dignities not onely against the Pope's Sentence as some would pretend but as otherwise against all Attempts and Conspiracies not onely against His Person Crown and Royal Dignity nor Pope's Sentence nor onely in order to the Profession of Religion but absolutely or otherwise that is whatsoever Attempts by any power Authority or Pretence whatsoever I say when a few Members of the House of Commons not an eighth part of them having taken these Oaths shall assume upon themselves an Authority an Authority what to do shall assume to
and art now arraigned or Not guilty Tichbourn My Lord I have been a very close Prisoner without any advice I am altogether unable in Law to speak Court You know the Course hath been delivered to you by others I will not trouble you with it It is neither long nor short the Law requires your answer Guilty or not guilty Tichbourn Spare me but one Word If upon the Trial there shall appear to be matter of Law shall I have the liberty of Councel for it if I shall be put in my own Case to plead matter of Law against those noble Persons who plead on the other part I shall but prejudice my self and therefore I crave Councel Court You must Plead Guilty or Not guilty Tichbourn I have no Reason nor Design to desplease you I am sure I am no waies able to plead with equalness in Point of Law with those Noble Gentlemen To the Matter of Fact this is my Plea in Manner and Form that I stand Indicted I am Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried Tichbourn By God and the Countrey Clerk God send thee a good Deliverance Clerk Owen Roe Hold up your hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and art now Arraigned or Not Guilty Owen Roe My Lord there hath been so much said already by others I think I need say no more In Manner and Form as I am now Indicted I Plead Not gulty Clerk How will you be Tried Owen Roe By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Robert Lilburn Hold up your Hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and art now Arraigned or Not guilty Robert Lilburn I desire in regard that being so close a Prisoner for twenty daies that no body ha's been suffered to advise with me Lord Chief Baron I must interrupt you You must not mispend the time Understand the Law You must Plead guilty or Not guilty Rob. Lilburn Will you give me leave to desire Councel before I Plead to advise me touching my Plea Clerk Are you Guilty or Not guilty Rob. Lilburn I desire Councel Court Take heed if that be your Answer You desire Councel and do not Plead and that be Recorded Judgment will pass against you There is nothing to Plead but Guilty or Not guilty If Not guilty what you have to say will be heard Rob. Lilburn If you over-rule me I must submit Court Do not let such Language fall from you it is improper The Law gives us a Rule The Prisoner must Plead Guilty or Not guilty Rob. Lilburn I say then in Manner and Form as I am Indicted I am Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried Rob. Lilburn By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Bring to the Bar Adrian Scroop John Carew John Jones Thomas Scot Gregory Clement and John Cook Who were brought accordingly and being commanded severally held up their hands at the Bar. The Indictment was read to the Persons at the Bar as before Clerk Adrian Scroop Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and art now Arraigned or Not guilty Adr. Scroop My Lord Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried Adr. Scroop By God and the Countrey Clerk God send thee a good Deliverance Clerk John Carew Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou art Indicted and art now arraigned or Not guilty John Carew There is some special matter in that Indictment that ought not to be before Court Are you guilty or Not guilty John Carew Saving to our Lord Jesus Christ his Right to the Government of these Kingdoms Clerk Are you Guilty or Not guilty John Carew I say I am Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried John Carew How would you have me Clerk Will you be Tried by God and the Countrey John Carew I if you will Clerk You must say the words How will you be Tried John Carew By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk John Jones Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty John Jones Not Guilty my Lord. Clerk How will you be Tried John Jones By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Thomas Scot Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty Th. Scot. Truly I cannot call it Treason and therefore I Plead Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried Th. Scot. By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Gregory Clement Hold up your hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty Greg. Clement My Lord I cannot excuse my self in many Particulars but as to my Indictment as there it is I Plead Not Guilty Clerk How will you be Tried Greg. Clement By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk John Cook Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty John Cook I humbly conceive that this is now time to move for Councel for matter of Law Court You know too well the manner of the Court. Are you Guilty or Not guilty John Cook Not guilty Clerk How will you be Tried John Cook By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Bring Edmund Harvey Heary Smith John Downs Vincent Potter and Augustine Garland to the Bar. Who were brought accordingly and being commanded severally held up their Hands The Indictment was read to them Clerk Edmund Harvey Hold up your hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou standest Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty Edmund Harvey Not guilty my Lord. Clerk How will you be Tried Edmund Harvey By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance Clerk Henry Smith Hold up thy hand How saiest thou Art thou Guilty of the Treason whereof thou art Indicted and for which thou art now Arraigned or Not guilty Henry Smith Not guilty my Lord. Clerk How will you be Tried Henry Smith By God and the Countrey Clerk God send you a good Deliverance John Downs Vincent Potter Augustine Garland upon the Question presently pleaded Not guilty and put themselves on God and the Countrey to be Tried Clerk Set to the Bar George Fleetwood Simon Meyn James Temple Peter Temple Thomas Wait Hugh Peters Francis Hacker and Daniel Axtel Who being at the Bar held up their Hands according to Order afterward the Clerk read the Indictment against the said Persons Which being ended he proceeded in this manner
the Hand-writing of the Prisoner at the Bar The Instrument being shewed him Mr. Farrington I did not see him write it my Lords but I believe it to be his for I have often seen his Hand-writing It is his hand so far as possibly a man can know any Person 's hand that did not see him write Mr. Harrison I desire to see the Instrument Which being shew'd to him he said I believe it is my own Hand Councel That 's the Warrant for summoning that Court that he owns his hand too Court Shew him the other Instrument That being for Execution of the Sentence Mr. Harrison it being shew'd him I do think this is my hand too Councel If you think it the Jury will not doubt it That 's the Bloody Warrant for Execution And we desire they may be both read Mr. Harrison My Lords do these Learned Gentlemen offer these as being any Records Councel No but as your own hand-writing Mr. Harrison If you do not read it as a Record I hope your Lordships will not admit of any thing of that kind against me Councel He knows that a Letter under his hand and Seal may be read in a Court We do not offer it as a Record but prove it by Witnesses that it is your hand-writing Court You have Confessed these to be your hands Whether they are Records or no whether Papers or Letters they may be read against you You signed the Warrant for Convening together those which you called The High Court of Justice and you signed the other Warrant for putting the King to Death You do Confess these two things We do not see what further Use may be made of them Court You might observe how the Indictment was for the Imagining Compassing and Contriving the King's Death To prove that there must be some Overt-Act and a Letter under the Partie's Hand is a sufficient Overt-Act to prove such Imagination to that end these are used Mr. Harrison I do not come to be denying any thing that in my own Judgment and Conscience I have done or Committed but rather to be bringing it forth to the Light Court Sir you must understand this by the way this you must take along with you That these are read not as any thing of Authority in themselves or as used to any other purpose but as an Evidence of the Fact against you Take that along with you The two Bloody Warrants for Trial and for Execution of His Majesty were here read the later of which is as followeth At the High Court of Justice for the Trying and Judging of Charles Stuart King of England Jan. 29. 1648. WHereas Charles Stuart King of England is and standeth Convicted Attainted and Condemned of High Treason and other High Crimes and Sentence upon Saturday last was pronounced against him by this Court to be put to Death by the severing his Head from his Body of which Sentence Execution yet remaineth to be done These are therefore to will and require you to see the said Sentence executed in the open street before White-hall upon the marrow being the 30th day of this instant Moneth of January between the hours of ten in the Morning and five in the Afternoon of the same day with full effect And for so doing this shall be your sufficient Warrant And these are to require all Officers and Souldiers and other the good People of this Nation of England to be assistant unto you in this service To Colonel Francis Hacker Colonel Hunks and Lieutenant-Colonel Phayre and every of them Given under our Hands and Seals Sealed and subscribed BY John Bradshaw Lord President Jo. Hewson Per. Pelham Thomas Grey Oliver Cromwel Edward Whalley John Okey Jo. Danvers Mich. Livesey Jo. Bourchier Hen. Ireton Thomas Maleverer Jo. Blakestone Jo. Hutchinson Will. Goff Thomas Pride Hen. Smith Peter Temple Tho. Harrison Isaac Ewer Val. Wanton Simon Meyn Tho. Horton Jo. Jones Jo. Moor. Hardress Waller Gilbert Millington Geo. Fleetwood Jo. Alured Rob. Lilburn Wil. Say Rich. Dean Rob. Tichbourn Hum. Edwards Dan. Blagrave Owen Roe Will. Puefroy Adrian Scroop James Temple Aug. Garland Edmond Ludlow Hen. Marten Vincent Potter Will. Constable Rich. Ingoldsby Will. Cawley Joh. Barkstead Anth. Stapeley Greg. Norton Tho. Challoner Tho. Wogan Jo. Ven. Greg. Clement Jo. Downs Tho. Wayt. Tho. Scot. Jo. Carew Miles Corbet Mr. Wyndham Gentlemen of the Jury We have done our Evidence and you must know Gentlemen that the principal Point of the Indictment is for Compassing Imagining and Contriving the Death of his late Majesty of Glorious Memory There lies the Treason So saies the Statute of the 25th Ed. 3d. It hath nothing of Killing the King there but of Imagining and Compassing the Death of the King The going about it that 's the Treason as hath been learnedly opened to you The rest are but Overt-Acts If there be such an Imagination or Compassing the Death of the King once declared though no fruit at all follow it is Treason Here certainly you have a very full Evidence given We shew you a Consultation this is one Overt-Act which would do the work if there were nothing else I must tell you and that with Submission to my Lords the Justices if they had advised and gone no further that had been Treason in the Letter of the Law They Convened and met together and suppose then they had absolved and acquitted him do you think they had absolved themselves from Treason With reverence be it spoken if they had acquitted him they had been guilty of Treason Assuming a Power to put the King to Death is an Overt-Act declaring such an Imagination You see this Prisoner was no ordinary Actour in it his Hand is in at all Games Taking of Him Imprisoning of Him bringing Him to London and setting Guards on Him You see also his Malice Let us Blacken Him for they knew His Innocency would Shine forth unless it was blackened by their Imputations He Sate many times as your hear and Sentenced Him and Assented to that Sentence by standing up and likewise by Concluding the Catastrophe of that sad beginning of Sufferings his making a Warrant for his Execution and accordingly you know what did follow I think a clearer Evidence of a Fact can never be given then is for these things Here the Spectatours Hummed Lord Chief Baron Gentlemen This Humming is not at all becoming the Gravity of this Court. Let there be free-speaking by the Prisoner and Counsel It is more fitting for a Stage-Play then for a Court of Justice Mr. Harrison It is now time my Lords to offer what I have to say Have these Learned Gentlemen offered what they will say Councel We have no more till he hath given us occasion not for Evidence of the Fact Mr. Harrison My Lords The matter that hath been offered to you as it was touched was not a thing done in a Corner I believe the sound of it hath been in most Nations I believe the Hearts of some have felt the
Hand to the Warrant for summoning of that Traiterous Assembly The High Court of Justice as they called it And also it appears by his Hand to the Warrant for Execution that Bloody Warrant He hath been so far from denying that he hath Justified these Actions The Evidence is so clear and pregnant as nothing more I think you need not go out The Jury went together at the Bar and presently unanimously agreed on their Verdict whereupon they were demanded by the Clerk Clerk Are you agreed upon your Verdict Jury Yes Clark Who shall say for you Jury Our Fore-man Which was Sir Thomas Allen. Clerk Thomas Harrison Hold up thy Hand Gentlemen of the Jury Look upon the Prisoner How say ye Is he guilty of the Treason whereof he stands Indicted and hath been Arraigned or Not guilty Fore-man Guilty Then the Keeper was charged to look to the Prisoner Clerk What Goods and Chattels had he at the time of committing this Treason or at any time sithence Fore-man None to our Knowledg Which Verdict being repeated to the Jury by Mr. Clerk of the Crown the Jury owned it unanimously Mr. Solicitor Gen. My Lords upon this Verdict that hath been given against the Prisoner at the Bar I humbly move that we may have Judgment given Your Sessions will be long and your work will be great his Demeanour hath been such that he doth not deserve a Reprieve for so many Days that you are like to spend in this Session Court Mr. Harrison they desire Judgment upon the Verdict What do you say for your self why Judgement should not pass against you Clerk Thomas Harrison hold up thy Hand What hast thou to say for thy self why Judgmnt should not pass against thee to dy according to Law Mr. Harrison I have nothing further to say because the Court have not seen meet to hear what was in my Heart to speak I submit to it The Cryer made Proclamation for Silence whilest Judgment was in giving Lord Chief Baron You that are the Prisoner at the Bar you are to pass the Sentence of Death which Sentence is this The Judgment of this Court is and the Court doth award that You be led back to the place from whence you came and from thence to be drawn upon an Hurdle to the place of Execution and there you shall be hanged by the Neck and being alive shall be cut down and your Privy-Members to be cut off your Entrails to be taken out of your Body and you living the same to be burnt before your Eyes and your Head to be cut off your Body to be divided into four Quarters and your Head and Quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the Kings Majesty and the Lord have Mercy upon your Soul And then Proclamation was made for Adjournment of the Court to this place till seven of the Clock to morrow morning And all Jury-men and Witnesses were commanded to be at the said Place and Time upon Forfeiture of an hundred Pounds apiece Octob. 1â— 1660. The Proclamation for Silence The Jury called Prisoners brought to the Bar viz. John Jones Adrian Scroop Thomas Scot Gregory Clement John Carew Cryer Sir Thomas Allen. Clerk Sir Tho. Aleyn lay your hand on the Book look upon the Prisoner at the Bar. Scroop I challenge him my Lord. L. C. Bar. That you may not mistake if you challenge in this manner and do not joyn in your challenges we must try you severally one after another I must tell you the course of the Law If one challenge one and another challenge another we must sever and go to Tryal one by one Call the next Cl. Sir Henry Wroth. Scroop I challenge him L. C. Bar. Then we must go on severally set all aside but Mr. Scroope Mr. Scroop you may challenge particularly whom you will till you come to 35. if you go beyond that number you will lose the benefit of the Law Scr. I desire my Lord that whosoever was challenged yesterday may not be called again Court No that cannot be that is nothing to you The Court thereupon proceeded and called Challenged John Lisle Nic. Raynton Thomas Wynter Thomas Frankelyn Randal Nichol Jo. Kirke Ambrose Scudamore George Tirrey who were all challenged Jury Thomas Willet Hen. Marsh Charles Pitfied Chr. Abdy Rich. Cheny Tho Bid. Jo. Smith Richard Abel Ralph Halsal Jo. Gallyard Tho. Swallow Sam. Starnel were admitted and sworn on the Jury Cl. Cryer make Proclamation If any man can inform my Lords the King's Justices the King's Serjeant or the King's Attorney before this Inquest be taken between our Soveraign Lord the King and the Prisoner at the Bar let them come forth and they shall be heard for now the Prisoner stands at the Bar upon his delivery and all others bound by recognizance to give evidence against the Prisoner at the Bar let them come forth and give their evidence or else they shall forfeit their recognizance Cl. Adrian Scroop hold up thy hand you Gentlemen that are sworn look upon the Prisoner and hearken to his charge you shall understand c. upon this Indictment he hath pleaded not guilty M. Sol. May it please your Lordships and you Gentlemen of the Jury this Prisoner at the Bar stands indicted sor compassing and imagining the death of the late King of blessed memory The Indictment sets out that to that end and purpose the Prisoner at the Bar did with others assemble and sit together at Westminster Hall consulting upon him and usurped an authority to proceed against the life of our said late Soveraign and in persuance of that our late Soveraign was brought to his death These things are alledged in the Indictment as several over Acts to shew the treason of his heart which was the compassing and imagining the death of the King Compassing and Imagining are the words of the Statute the rest of the Indictment is but as so many overt-acts evidences and manifestations of that corrupt and wicked heart of his by which he first thought such a thought against his Soveraign The manner of our evidence shall be this Before they could come to accomplish this damnable design it was necessary to meet in a trayterous assembly which they called the High-Court of Justice that under the pageantry and mockery of that they might pretend to murder him by a Sentence and before that assembly could come to sit there was a Precept set forth very formally to summon them to sit This Prisoner at the Bar is one of those persons who under his hand and seal did summon that Court to sit upon the life of our late Soveraign When the Court in obedience to that summons as they called it did meet they sate several times and he among them they did proceed with a wonderful impudence as they had begun to pronounce sentence of death upon our late Soveraign My Lords this Prisoner at the Bar was amongst them and was at that Court and gave the sentence When they had done that
writing The Warrant shewn him Mr. Nutley I do verily believe it is Coun. Have you been acquainted with the writing of his name Mr. N. I have seen him write his name and do verily believe it to be his hand Coun. Clerk read the Warrant He read it accordingly Coun. That which remains of our Evidence is to prove his boasting of this villany We shall desire you to hear Sir Theophilus Biddolph Sir Theo. Biddolph sworn Coun. Pray tell my Lords and the Jury what you have heard the Prisoner say touching this business of putting the King to death Sir Th. Bid. I did hear him confess that he did sit as one of the Judges of the late King and that he was so far from repenting of the Act that he did desire when he dyed That a Tomb-stone might be laid over him with this Inscription Here lyes Thomas Scot who adjudged to death the late King Coun. Where did he say this Sir T. B. In the Parliament House Coll. Copley Esq sworn Coun. Pray Mr. Copley tell my Lords what you know of this business Mr. Cop. My Lord I was one of the Secluded Members when we were called to sit in the House again the Prisoner at the Bar Mr. Thomas Scot I think it was the last day we sate there being some speaking of the horridness of the Fact he made a long Harangue about that horrid Act and he said He hoped he should never repent of it and desired that when he dyed it might be written upon his Tomb-stone Here lies Thomas Scot who adjudged to death the late King Coun. We have done with our Evidence Court Sir Theophilus Biddolph When was it you heard him speak those words Sir T. B. To my best remembrance it was in Richards Parliament it was about January or February was twelve months Coun. Were not you a Member for the City of London in that Parliament Sir T. B. Yes Coun. Mr. Copley When was it that heard it Mr. Cop. It was in April last Mr. Soll. Gen. It was a settled perswasion of his heart and he thought it fit to be gloried in The Lord Mayor Elect sworn Coun. Pray my Lord tell my Lords what you know concerning the Prisoner at the Bar. Lord M. Elect. My Lords I was one of those Secluded members that were returned again a little before the coming in of His Majesty Upon the last day of our sitting Mr. Scot seeing the House must break said Their heads must be laid to the Block if there were a new Parliament For said you looking on Mr. Scot I confess I had a hand in putting the King to death and I desire all the world may take notice of it and I desire when I dye it may be written on my Tomb I do not repent of any thing I have done if it were to do I could do it again Mr. Soll. Gen. Do it again He follows his blows home William Lenthall Esq sworn Coun. Mr. Lenthall pray be pleased to tell my Lords and the Jury what you do remember of any discourse of Mr. Tho. Scot the Prisoner at the Bar tending to the glorying in this Act or any thing in Justification of that Act. Mr. Lenth My Lords the last day it was the last instant of time We were resolving of breaking the House there was some opposition in it not very much The general consent of the House was to dissolve it I must confess at that time I did hear Mr. Scot much justifie that Act of the death of the King which truly I was much offended at I confess to you upon my Oath touching his Speech of the Inscription upon his Tomb I did not hear that Justifying the death of the King he made a long Harangue about and he â—â—e at the upper end of the Gallery but these words Of â—â—ving it written upon his Tomb and to have all the world take â—â—â—ice of it I do not remember Coun. My Lords my Lord Mayor Elect omitted something pray let him speak to it Lo. Ma. Elect. My Lords the Conclusion of his Speech ended thus Being it is your pleasure to have it so the House Dissolved I know not how to hinder it but when that is done I know not where to hide this hated HEAD of mine Coun. We desire to hear what the Prisoner will say for himself Scot. I have no certainty from the Witnesses that I was there but in a wandring way they know not where I sate nor my posture Mr. Baker sworn Coun. We do not call this Witness as material for we must insist upon it quite through that after 12. years time it is not possible a Witness should remember where every particular person sate Pray hear this Witness Mr. Baker I do perfectly remember That Mr. Scot sate two rows above Mr. Bradshaw on his left hand in that which they called the High Court of Justice Scot. As to the Warrant you speak of I know not what it signifies I desire to know what the nature of it is Coun. The Warrant hath been read it is not produced against him as a Record for then it needed not be proved but it is produced against him as an evidence in writing under his own hand that he was consenting to the death of the King Scot. They may very much mistake my hand You speak of words that I should utter in Parliament I do humbly insist upon it That I am not to answer nor they alledge any thing of that nature It is a high breach of Priviledge Coun. There is no priviledge of Parliament for treason First some of the words were spoken in Richards Parliament that you do not own to be a Parliam then another thing a known rule in Law there is no priviledge of Parliament for treason Scot. I have heard the Rule but do not so well understand it of that spoken in Richards Parliament it will be a nice thing for me to distinguish between that and another Parliament but this I think That Convention of the people onght to have the Priviledge of the Parliament as well as any other I humbly conceive it was testimony ought not to be given to you Whatever I say in Parliament the Priviledge extends to no more than this that I may be lawfully secured till the Parliament hath been acquainted with it but not finally concluded till the Parliament have heard it Lo. Ch. Bar. You are Indicted for Compassing and Imagining the death of the King I would have you understand That in case a man should commit an Act of Treason be it in what place soever there is no place of Sanctuary for Treason In case of Felony if a man be Indicted for Felony in the Parliament House during the time of Parliament this is not to be tryed in Parliament but according to the Rule of Common Law So in case of Treason the House of Commons in Parliament doth not try Treasons That distinction which you make is nothing Scot. I humbly conceive there is
Court being shewed Coun. Is that Mr. Jones's Hand the Prisoner at the Bar set to that Warrant Nut. I have been acquainted with his Hand I do believe it is The Warrant for Execution was also shewed Coun. Is that the same Hand-writing Nut. Yes I believe it is he hath written several Letters to me Mr. Hartlib Sworn Court Mr. Hartlib do you know Mr. Jones's Hand Har. I never did see him write but I have seen several Letters out of Ireland and other Papers which have been supposed to be his Hand-writing This seems to be like that which was reputed to be his Hand Coun. Mr. Clark do you know Mr. Jones's Hand-writing Cl. I have seen several Letters of Col. Jones and these are like his Hand-writing I do believe they are his Hand-writing Mr. Jones looks upon them both and confesses they are like his hand-writing Coun. We have given our Evidence What do you say for your self before Charge be given to the Jury Jones I have little to say your Lordships have already heard what is to be said in this Case I have nothing to say to the point I am not fit to plead any thing especially in matter of Law I must wholly put my self upon the Lord and this Honourable Court and Jury Lo. Ch. Bar. Gentlemen of the Jury here is this Prisoner John Jones stands Indicted for that he with others did Compass and Imagine the Kings death that is the substance of the Indictment The Indictment sets forth several Acts each proving the Compassing and Imagining the Kings death One of them is that he did consult and meet together and propound how the King should be put to death The second is they did assume a power to Judge the King The third is that they did actually sit upon him And the last of them is that they sentenced the King and afterwards the King was murthered The whole substance is whether he did Compass and Imagine the Kings death If any one of these particulars that are alledged for the overt acts be proved you are to find the Indictment He hath confessed very Ingenuously that he did sit upon the King that he did sit in that Court and so there is an overt act proved if nothing else you ought to find him guilty of this Treason There is further Evidence though not any Evidence of his sitting the last day of the Sentence you have had three comparing similitudes of hands to prove that he did sign that Sentence that horrid Instrument whereby the King was ordered to be put to death one of them having received Letters from Ireland and others acquainted with his hand say that it is like his hand he hath so confessed the likeness of his hand but he saith he doth not remember he signed it As to you of the Jury there is no more to be considered if any one of the acts do appear true to you that is sufficient to find him guilty though he were not guilty of all but that he did Compass and Imagine the Kings death is clear in sitting and signing the Warrant for the other whether you shall find that he did sentence the King that must be left to you Whatsoever it is still it is the same if any one be proved you ought to find him guilty of the Indictment which is the Compassing and Imagining the Kings death I think you need not stir from the Bar for he hath confessed it The Jury went together and after a little Consultation returned to their places Clerk Are you agreed of your Verdict Jury Yes Cl. Who shall say for you Jury Our Foreman Cl. John Jones hold up thy hand Look upon the Prisoner at the Bar. How say ye is he guilty c. Foreman Guilty Cl. Look to him Keeper Cl. You say the Prisoner at the Bar is guilty c. and so you say all Jury Yes Cl. Set all that have been tryed this day to the Bar. Lord Ch. Bar. Mr. Scot I must speak a word to you you made mention of the Kings Proclamation for pardon and you did desire the benefit of it As I told you before so now again That it was not proper for us upon that Proclamation to give any allowance by way of Plea because the Pardon ought to be under the Broad Seal but God forbid but just and due Consideration should be had of it with honour so far as you are comprehended within it Though Judgment shall pass no Warrant for Execution shall go out against you till consideration be had how far you are within the Compass of that Proclamation and the like to you Mr. Scroop Clerk Adrian Scroop Hold up thy hand Thou hast been Indicted of High Treason and hast thereof been found guilty What canst thou say for thy self why Judgement should not pass for thee to dye according to Law Scroop I do humbly submit to his Majesties mercy Cl. John Carew Hold up thy hand Thou art in the like Condition with the former what canst thou say c. Carew I commit my cause unto the Lord. Cl. Thomas Scot Hold up thy hand thou art in the like Condition with the former what canst thou say c. Scot. I shall only say I do only cast my self upon his Majesty and pray mercy Cl. John Jones Hold up thy hand thou art in the like Condition with the former what hast thou to say c. Jones I pray his Majesties Clemency Cl. Gregory Clement hold up thy hand Thou standest Indicted of High Treason and thereunto hast pleaded guilty What canst thou say c. Clem. I pray mercy from the King Lo. Ch. Bar. You that are Prisoners at the Bar Ye see the Sentence of death is now to pass against you and for ought you know or we know yet may be nearer than you are aware How soon it will be executed we know not when you have reflected upon your own consciences many of you could not chuse but look there and see as in a glass the foulness of this horrid Offence It is the Murther of our most gracious Soveraign King Charles the First of blessed memory a Prince whom we such of us as had the honour personally to attend him knew was of such parts and vertues if he had been a private man more could not have been desired truly what he did as a King his Clemency how it appeared at first in this Princes time If you look what Peace and Prosperity we enjoyned in his days we will not find it in other Kings times You had not a Noble-man put to death save one and that for an Offence which must not be named A Prince that had granted so much You may remember what was granted before the beginning of these Wars Grievances complained of Star-Chamber High Commission Court Ship money The Claim of Stannery c. All these were taken away What Concessions he made after in the Isle of Wight how much he wooed and courted the people for Peace I urge this unto
Whitehall there were some Cavaliers then in the Regiment it was my fortune I came into your Company I wish I never had you commanded more besides my self to be a Witness against the King and Justice Cook took my Examination you brought me in you commanded the Guards that time at Whitehall when the King was upon his Tryal Axtell What more Burden And you commanded Elisha Axtell with a file of Souldiers to take a Boat and go down to the common Hangman that liv'd beyond the Tower to execute the King he is now Shepards Serjeant in Ireland Axtell My Lord I desire to ask him a question he was pleased to say I desired him to be a Witness Bur. Yes Axtell Where was it Burden In the Court at Whitehall Axtell My Lord I have seen the printed List of Witnesses against the King and in that list you shall find no such Name Burden I have been a Prisoner in Dublin by your means Axtell My Lord I hope you will take notice of that Councel Burden do you remember any of his commands to Web to draw up in the Banqueting-house Bur. He commanded Web to draw up in the Banqueting-house during the time of Execution his own company I was one of his own company then Coun. In order to what Bur. For Execution Axtell My Lord is Web here Bur. He is in Dublin Axt. I wish he were here Edward Cook sworn Cook And it please your Honour my Lord the last day of the Tryal of his Majesty I came into Westminster-hall coming where the Court was I did see Col. Axtell the Prisoner at the Bar there with some Musquetiers Coun. What day was this Cook The last day of his Majesties Tryal L. ch Bar. Go on Sir Cook Standing there a little while his Majesty came guarded with some Halberteers when he came by the Souldiers that stood with Col. Axtell his Majesty bowed and afterwards put off his Hat and went up to the Court I could not know what Bradshaw said to him I stood below I heard him say he was brought by the consent of the Commons and people of England there stood a Lady above in a Gallery crying out it is a lye where are the people or their consents Cromwel is a Traytor whereupon Col. Axtell standing by saith he what Drab is that that disturbs the Court come down or I will fetch you down Mr. Nelson sworn Coun. Tell my Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury touching the Discourse between you and the Prisoner at the Bar in Dublin Nelson My Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury upon a Discourse with the prisoner at the Bar in Dublin 5 or 6 years since upon the platform in that Castle we discoursed of the late Kings having had several reports I desired to know of him who it was that Executed the King thinking he might inform me he was pleased to tell me this saith he the persons that were imployed in that service you know them as well as I do truly Sir not I said I I saw them in Vizards but not their Visage as I know of yes saith he you do know them it is true saith he my self and others were imployed in that affair in order to the Execution but there were several persons came and offered themselves out of a kind of Zeal to do the thing but we did not think it proper to imploy persons whom we did not know but we made choice of a couple of Stout persons pray let me hear their Names said I saith he it was Heulet and Walker I desired to know their reward Truly saith he I do not know whether 30 l. a piece or between them I said it was a small reward for a work of that Nature truly saith he that was all Axt. You named one man I did not hear the other named Nelson I named Heulet and Walker we was one that managed the Execution he told me so and it pleased you Sir Axtell He is pleased to say that in Ireland there was such conference was any body by Nelson No Sir Axt. Did I name any body to you Nel. You named those two persons Axt. Certainly I must invent them then for I had no more knowledg of them then any one here Nel. You told me you were one of them that had the managing of that Affair Councel My Lord we have done with our Evidence those particulars that were first opened to you have rendred the prisoner much a blacker person then we thought we leave him to his defence Axt. May it please your Lordships in the first place because I am ignorant in the Laws I desire to know upon what Statute this indictment is grounded L. ch B. It is grounded upon the statute of the 25th of Edward the Third Axt. My Lords I must acknowledg my ignorance of the Laws being a thing I never studied nor have the knowledg of but I have heard it is the duty of your Lordships and the Judges to be of Counsel for the Prisoner in things wherein he is ignorant in matters of law to make his just defence and therefore my Lord the Indictment it self being matter of law if your Lordships please not to grant me Counsel to speak to matrers of law I humbly pray that your Lordships will be pleased that for want of knowledg formalities punctilloes and niceties of the Law I might not undo my self I have heard by a learned Judg that though the Judg be of Counsel to the King yet by his Oath he is also to be Counsellor to the Prisoner and stands as a Mediator between the King and Prisoner and therefore my Lord I shall beg that humble favour that wherein I shall fall short to make the best improvement of my Plea in matter of law that your Lordships will help me and not take advantages against me as to the niceties formalities and punctilloes of the Law and my Lord this is a resemblance of that Great day where Christ will be Judg and will judg the secrets of all hearts and of all words and of all persons and by him all Actions are weighed knows all our hearts whether there be malice or how it stands in the frame of each heart before him in this place and therefore I hope there will be nothing by prejudging or any thing by precluding to be so black a person as it seemed to be said against me My Lords I must shorten the time and come to speak as to the Authority L. Ch. Bar. As to what Sir Axt. I speak as to the Authority by which or under which I acted I humbly conceive my Lord under favour that I am not within the compass of that Statute of the 25th of Edward the Third for that questionless must intend private persons Counselling Compassing or Imagining the death of the King But you know my Lords the War was first stated by the Lords and Commons the Parliament of England and by vertue of their Authority was forced to be raised and they pretended
by law that the right of the Militia was in them and your Lordships will remember in several Declarations and Acts that was mutually exchanged between his Majesty and Parliament and my Lord that was the Authority the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament raised a Force and made the Earl of Essex Ceneral and after him the Earl of Manchester of the Eastern Association and after that Sir Tho. Fairfax Lord General of the Forces by this Authority I acted and this Authority I humbly conceive to be legal because this Parliament was called by the Kings Writ chosen by the People and passed a Bill they should not be dissolved without their own consents that the Parliament was in being when the Tryal was and a question whether yet legally Dissolved In the fourth place they were not only owned and obeyed at home but abroad to be the chief Authority of the Nation and also owned by Foreign States and Kingdoms sent Ambassadors to that purpose under them did all the Judges of the Land Act who ought to be the Eye of the Land and the very light of the People to Guide them in their right Actions and I remember the Judges upon Tryal I have read it of High Treason Judg Thorp Nicholas and Jermin have declared it publickly That it was a lawful justifiable thing by the Law of the Land to obey the Parliament of England My Lord it further appears as to their Authority over the People of this Nation petitioning them as the supreme and lawful Authority and My Lords as I have heard it hath been objected that the Houses of Lords and Commons could make no Act. Truly my Lord if you will not allow them to be Acts though they intitle them so call them so and obeyed as so by the Judges Ministers and Officers of State and by all other persons in the Nation yet I hope they cannot be denied to be Orders of Parliament and were they no more but Orders yet were they sufficient as I humbly couceive to bear out such as acted thereby And my Lord the Parliament thus constituted and having made their Generals he by their Authority did constitute and appoint me to be an Inferior Officer in the Army serving them in the quarters of the Parliament and under and within their power and what I have done my Lord it hath been done only as a Souldier deriving my power from the General he had his power from the Fountain to wit the Lords and Commons and my Lord this being done as hath been said by several that I was there and had command at Westminster-Hall truly my Lord if the Parliament command the General and the General the inferiour Officers I am bound by my Commission according to the Laws and Customs of War to be where the Regiment is I came not thither voluntarily but by command of the General who had a Commission as I said before from the Parliament I was no Counsellor no Contriver I was no Parliament-man none of the Judges none that Sentenced Signed none that had any hand in the Execution onely that which is charged is that I was an Officer in the Army if that be so great a crime I conceive I am no more guilty than the Earl of Essex Fairfax or the Lord of Manchester Judg Mallet You are not charged as you were an Officer of the Army Axtell My Lords That is the main thing they do insist upon my Lord I am no more guilty than his Excellency the Lord General Monck who Acted by the same Authority and all the People in the three Nations and my Lord I do humbly suppose if the Authority had been only an Authority in Fact and not Right yet those that Acted under them ought not to be questioned but if the Authority commanded whatsoever offence they committed especially that that guided me was no less than the declared Judgment of the Lords and Commons sitting in Parliament they declared that was their right as to the Militia and having explained several Statutes of Henry the 7th wherein the King having enterchanged Declarations with the Parliament the Parliament comes to make an Explanation on that Statute and my Lord it is in Folio 280. wherein they do positively expound it and declare it as their allowed Judgment To clear up all scruples to all that should take up Arms for them saith the Parliament there as to the Statute of 11. of Henry the 7th Chapter the first which is printed at large comes there to explain it in general and comes here Folio 281. and gives this Judgment It is not say they agreeable to Reason or Conscience that any ones duty should be known if the Judgment of the High Court of Parliament be not a Rule or Guide to them In the next place this is the next Guidance Rule and Judgment of Parliament upon the Exposition of this Statute and as they have said in several places was it not too much to take up your Lordships time they are the proper Judges and Expounders of the Laws The High Court of Parliament have taken upon them to expound the Law and said that we Lawyers will give the meaning of the Text contrary to what they have expounded the meaning under their hands in the same Declaration his Majesty is pleased to quit that Statute upon which I stand Indicted the 25th of Edward the Third where they do my Lord expound that very Statute in the Declaration made in 1643. Folio 722. I come to the declared Judgment wherein they did positively say that the persons that do Act under their Authority ought not to be questioned as persons Guilty Folio 727. that is the Exposition that the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament doth make upon the statute Councel My Lord this is an Argumentation of Discourse in justification of his proceedings we desire to know what he will answer as to the Plea Axtell My Lords I have this further to say that if a House of Commons Assembled in Parliament may be Guilty of Treason for the truth is if I Acted Treason that Acted under the Authority of the Lords and Commons in Parliament and of the Commons in Parliament then doubtless they must begin the Treason if the House of Commons who are the collective body and Representation of the Nation all the people of England who chose them are guilty too and then where will there be a Jury to try this concerning the Commons alone I have been over ruled L. ch Bar. If you have any thing to say to the Lords and Commons answer to your charge your charge is nothing of the Lords and Commons but what you Acted when the house was broke and Forced Coun. You cannot but know that there is nothing charged against you for which you can so much as pretend an Authority of the Lords and Commons you know before you could do this Horrid Murther you were the persons that destroyed the Lords and Commons both indeed you Ravel in a
business and to make people gaze upon you without any Ground Axt. I am upon my life I hope you will hear me patiently L. ch Bar. God forbid but we should Axt. I do desire to assert my Authority if any thing was done upon the House of Lords and Commons I do not come here to justifie their Actions I was not concerned in it My next Plea is this that if a House of Commons can be charged Guilty of High Treason as a community the distributive Body must needs be Guilty Court If there should have been 20 or 40 men come out of the House of Commons and should Murther a man they must answer for that it is not the community that can do such an Act of Treason these persons that you call a House of Commons there was but 26 of them and these must be the people this is the state of the case and when you have thrust out thrice the number of those remaining only those can serve your turn L. Annesly Mr. Axtell I am very sorry to see you in that place and it troubles me as much to hear you vent that for an Authority which you know your self was no Authority you would now for your defence for life and it is reason you should make as full a defence for life as you can you would shelter your self under that Authority which I am sorry I must say were one of the greatest Violators of you cannot forget how near a close of this bloody war by the mercy of God this Nation was when the Army interposed whose Trade it was to live by War when they had felt so much of the sweet of War they would not suffer the people to enjoy peace though the Lords and Representatives in Parliament had agreed to it A Treaty was begun terms of peace propounded and agreed to this you cannot forget and will have no need of Notes or Books to help your Memory when the people Groaned under the miseries of War and thirsted after Peace then came up the Army who were servants to the Parliament till that time taking upon them the Authority you cannot forget that your self was one of the number that came to offer accusations against the majority of the Commons House calling them Rotten Members the House of Lords was not then suffered to sit they would not joyn in that Ordinance that was preparing for the Tryal of the King when the Lords had refused they were no longer fit to be Lords neither then comes in a new Authority which we never heard of before a remnant of the House of Commons joyning with the Army that had driven away the greatest part of the House of Commons for in all Assemblies and Courts the major part must determine or no determination after this course was taken then is an Act set on foot they take upon them by Votes of their own to be the Parliament of England that the supreme power of the Nation is in the Representatives of the people who were they those few only that remained almost all the Cities Counties and Burroughs of England had none left to represent them they were driven away by Force then was this Act of Parliament such an Act as was never heard of before set on foot and passed as an Act by a few of the House of Commons if you can plead this for your defence this is the Act that you must shelter under But you know the Lords and Commons had Unanimously resolved for peace and so agree with the King if this Act will be any defence you may plead it to the full and this is all you have to say therefore go upon no Forreign matter Axt. If it please your Lordship that worthy Lord that spoke last is pleased to say that I was one of the persons that did accuse some of those Members of Parliament truly my Lord I never did come to the Commons Bar but once presenting a petition and for my hand either in charging any of the Members or Secluding any of them I never had any hand in that matter this is all to that part Next I Humbly conceive here I must ground my bottome and if I perish I perish by a Judgement in a Parliament My Commission that did Authorize me to obey my General was given me when the Lords and Commons sate in Parliament I had no other Commission then this my Lord Fairfax commanded the Army after the Kings Death by the like Commission I did but my duty in going to my Regiment the General saith go to such a place stay there if I refuse by the law of War I Dye if I obey I am in danger likewise I say my Commission was given me by the Lords and Commons and therefore I hope my Lord that what I have said and offered in that particular is not Truthless but of Weight Court The Effect of your Commission is only to make you an Officer Axtell My Commission bears date the 27th of March 1648. Ten months before the Kings Death we had no other Commissions therefore I humbly conceive the question will be this in point of law and I humbly desire it may be Truly and Fairly stated by your Lordship and these Honourable Jugdes that whether a man being guided by the Judgment of the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament and having declared their Judgments and Exposition of that Statute of the 25th of Edward the Third and Acting only by that Judgment of Parliament and under their Authority can be questioned for Treason That my Lord is a question that I do humbly think is a point in law and that you will please fairly and truly to state it whether I am within the compass of that Statute whereupon I am indicted Councel My Lord We do not charge him with any thing that he did Act under the colour of his Commission or with any thing he did before that but that which we charge him with are rhe Acts that he did at the Tryal of the King shew us your Commission from the Lords and Commons Assembled in Parliament for Tryal and Execution of the King you say something we do not charge him for any thing done by Vertue of that Commission but with those violent Acts that he did in encouraging the Souldiers to cry Justice Justice Execution Execution and all those other Violent Actions of his own malicious heart against the King We humbly beseech you he may answer to that which is the charge against him and that is the Compassing and Imagining the Death of the late King and his declaring that by those overt-acts that we have proved My Lords we desire that the Prisoner at the Bar may remember that he is not Indicted for levying War against the King if so then that Sir which you offer might be given as a Plea and we should have spoken to it but you are Indicted for Compassing and Imagining the Death of the King and that which we have given in Evidence
the contrary I leave it upon the consciences of the Jury to weigh it carefully how I could be guilty of Compassing or Imagining the Death of the King when nothing is charged against me to be either of Counsel Sentencing or Signing or to be at the Execution only one man as I told you before he spoke something wrathly and that he had suffered much and therefore he is come over now and saith I should send for the Executioner which I never knew of or had any hand in sending for how much validity that hath I leave to the Jury if it were so it is not treason for words may make a Heretick not a Traytor I speak that by way of preface I do humbly conceive that these being only noted words Execution and Justice the King not so much as named nor any thing done to it by me I say I conceive it doth not amount to Treason by the Law and besides it is against the Law of the great Judg the Judg of Judges all of us that are now and are to come shall stand before him to receive our deserts I say it is against the Law of God to make me an Offender for a word for a word I have heard the Judges say that the Laws of England are grounded upon the Laws of God and the Laws of England are Laws of mercy not of rigour My Lord if a man shall be destroyed in his Life in his Posterity for a word admit the thing had been so I leave upon the consciences of my Jury before the presence of Jesus Christ and before whom they and I must come to be rejudged again at the Tribunal and besides it is only words and words uncertain and Sir Edward Cook saith he must declare plain truth in matter of Treason nothing must be taken for Evidence that may be a presumption or inference or strain of wit I hope upon this consideration that the word Justice fixed upon me by two Witnesses may be taken up at second or third hand from the People or Souldiers by chastising them for the Tumult Then my Lord in the next place these words were never put in writing and so not Treason then my Lord there was never an overt act done by me for that Act of Indemnity that his Majesty and both Houses of Parliament passed wherein they were pleased the very last to except me I wonder'd when I came to be excepted of that number I do come back to the place where I left and that is the overt act My Lord I would only bring it in in this place when I was excepted by the House of Commons one of the twenty I was excepted thus not extending to life I went up and down free at noon day I did not hide my self ingaging a person that was one of his Majesties Servants to do me a courtesie he promised me he would do it and contrary to his promise he was pleased to bring the Kings Warrant to carry me to the Tower and after that I came to be excepted with that black Catalogue of excepted persons and to be brought to the Tryal of the Law Now my Lord I return to that overt act as it was but words uncertain and they may be words repeated from the third or the fourth hand for they were not put in writing according to that Act of Indemnity which I understand the meaning of to be thus That for their Execrable Treasons in Sentencing Signing or otherwise Instrumental they are excepted out of this Act and to be Tryed according to the Laws of this Nation I understand that to be Instrumental to be Instrumentally the Executioner of the King I never had any hand in that Upon the whole this is the Fact that is proved by two Witnesses they heard me say Justice and Execution which must relate to the Execution of Justice which by the Law of God is not Treason especially when there was not the word King for a word to take away and destroy so many my Life Wife Children and many Fatherless that are under the Charge of the Prisoner at the Bar is very sad the words I do not grant but upon such probabilities as I have said I might repeat them I will Justice you I will Execution you and then the words were not written I say as Sir Edw. Cook said they may make a Heretick but not a Traytor the other part of the Evidence is this that I was there with Souldiers at Westminster-Hall I must say if that be Treason to be guided by Judgment of Lords and Commons in Parliament I must say if that be Treason to take up Arms for a Parliament upon such Grounds and Expositions of the statute which they have made and published by their own Authority if I am Guilty under the General then the Parliament would be guilty of Treason L. Ch. Bar. That you have spoke to I am loath to interrupt you Axt. I thank your Lordships for informing me but I was commanded to be there by my General if I had not gone I must have dyed I did only stand there for preservation of the peace in no other sense if the General order me to be at such a Rendezvous I must be there if I disobeyed he would have condemned me by the Law of War The next thing against me material are these two things that is that I should send one Elisha Axtell for the Executioner I must say it is most Admirable such things should be laid to my charge I hope your Lordships and the Jury do observe he told you he suffered much and a poor man under his extremities and losses and sufferings perhaps might start some unadvised words and being now sent over may ascertain it But doubtless this Elisha Axtell being in Ireland if by command it had been so would have been sent over truly I must say I had no hand in the business it was left wholly to them amongst themselves and what ever was done or whatever was said it was said and done by them I never was acquainted with any thing of that nature he said he heard I should send Elisha Axtell for an Executioner if hearsays may be Treason it will be a hard Lesson and my Lord Sir Edw. Cooke saith there must be two witnesses here is but one It comes from such a man my Lord as the providence of God but I will say no more as to that but pray the Jury will take notice of it L. Ch. Bar. You need not doubt of it it shall be taken notice of this of Burden Axt. Now my Lord I have but two or three words more the Statute of the 25th of Edward the Third it doth intend private persons my Lord here is my Commission L. Ch. Bar. It is owned you had it from your General Axt. My Lord his Majesty is pleased to say in his Gracious Letter We do by these presents declare That we do grant a free and General Pardon to all our Subjects of
Countrey-man I was glad to hear of your great penitence for that horrid crime and I would have been glad to have seen it now advise with your self whether you do your self any good in speaking to extenuate when you know there is no man against whom there are such circumstances of aggravation as against you consider whether a publick penitence would not be more proper Waller I beseech you report me both to his Majesty and Parliament and receive me into your grace as being penitent truly penitent To say so now were a small thing for the fear of the punishment may procure it but I have been more penitent when no eye hath seen me but God when I never imagined to be questioned for this sin then my heart hath yerned in the business but I shal not trouble your Lordships God holds forth Mercy his Majesty holds forth Mercy the Parliament holds forth Mercy My Lords let me say something to you though it be but a word of the violence and force of temptation you may have been under it or may come to it Christ himself was under it we find that faithful Abraham by the power of a Temptation delivered up his wife to commit Adultery which scarce a Heathen would we finde that valiant Peter denied his Master righteous Lot committed incest None abhors this fact more then I do I have done it so long beforehand I need not be afraid to speak it in the face of the Judge of all men that is all I shall say I rendred my self three times I had as much opportunity to make my escape as any person whatsoever Lord Chief Baron It is understood Sir Hardress Clerk Isaac Pennington hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition as the former what canst thou say for thy self why judgment c. Pennington My Lord I have said what I have to say and shall not trouble your Lordships any further Clerk Henry Marten hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Marten I claim the benefit of the Proclamation Clerk Gilbert Millington hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Millington I shall not trouble you with long discourses I will say no more but this I have made a publick resentment of my sorrow for this offence formerly and many times I shall now desire no more but humbly beg that I may have the benefit of the Proclamation and pray his Majesties most gracious Pardon Clerk Robert Tichborne hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c Tichborne My Lord I will not trouble you with any repititions I have made my humble request before I leave it with you Clerk Owen Roe hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Roe My Lord I have no more to say then I said before Clerk Robert Lilburn hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Lilburn I shall refer my self without further trouble to the Court my Lord I beg the benefit of the Proclamation Clerk Thomas Waite hold up thy hand Thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Waite I can declare no more than what already my heart is sorry for what I have done I beg the benefit of the Proclamation Clerk Edmond Harvey hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Harvey My Lords I have no more then what I have said before Clerk John Downes Hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Downes I shall not trouble you any further I shall desire the benefit of his Majesties Proclamation Clerk Vincent Potter hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Potter My Lord I do not know Law I understand it not I am not in a condition to speak what I would have willingly spoke I desire that God would have mercy and I look for mercy from God and wept Clerk Augustine Garland Hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Garland I humbly desire your Lordships charitable opinion of me notwithstanding what has been objected against me I humbly refer my self to the Parliament Clerk George Fleetwood hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Fleetwood My Lord I have already confessed the fact I wish I could express my sorrow and wept Clerk James Temple hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. I. Temple My Lord I can say no more I beg the benefit of the Proclamation Clerk Simon Mayn hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Mayne I have told you before my Lord I have no more Clerk Peter Temple hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Peter Temple My Lord I came in upon the Proclamation and I humbly beg the benefit of it Cl. Tho. Waite hold up thy hand thou art in 〈◊〉 same condition what canst thou say for thy self Waite My Lord I refer it to your Lordships Clerk Francis Hacker hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Hacker My Lord. I have nothing to say but what has been before your Lordships Clerk Daniel Axtel hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Axtell May it please your Lordships my case differs from the rest of the Gentlemen L. Ch. B. I would be loth to hinder you but I must tell you that what hath been over-ruled must not be spoke to if you have any thing against the Indictment matter of Law go on Axtell I have one thing more that I did not then mention L. Ch. B. If it tend not as an exception to the Indictment it is not to be heard Axtell My Lord then I shall apply my self to that point I humbly conceive my Lord that my overt acts were not sufficiently set down in the Indictment as might be sufficient in Law to attaint me of high Treason I do not remember that the Overt act that was applyed to me in evidence was charged in the Indictment I have onely that exception because of the insufficiency of that point In the next place my Lord there is not the right additions to my name there are many persons of the same name I am arraigned by
the name of Daniel Axtel of Westminster in the County of Middlesex Gentleman I think none knew me to live there and inhabit there Lord Chief Baron I would not interrupt you this is past you should have made your exception to that as Master Matten did before concerning his name that should have been first done you have appeared and pleaded to that name and it was late of Westminster Axtell My Lord I have this to speak in arrest of Judgment that the Indictment being grounded upon that statute of the twenty fifth of Edward the third it is either mistaken or not pursued my Lords I did yesterday give you the Judgment of the Lords and Commons concerning the statute in relation to my case I say the Statute was mistaken or not pursued Lord chief Baron That was offered before Sir as to the matter of it Axtell My Lord I think not I am mistaken if it were Lord Chief Baron Then open it Axtell My Lord I do not find in that statute that words are an overt act words only L. Ch. B. This was over-ruled The things that you objected were these That there is not any overt act that is laid that could be applicable to your case if it were not particularly applicable you are found guilty by the Jury it would be nothing But there is an overt act you were present at the Court beating the Souldiers sending for an Executioner but for words if one man should say here is the King go and kill him this is Treason but you were guilty in all according to Law You being there and doing this you were not guilty onely of the words but of all that was done there is none but Principals in Treason What we say and do to you we well know we must answer before God Almighty for it Axtell I have but one word more truly I do appeal to God before whom I shall have another tryall I do not find my self guilty either of consulting contriving or having a hand in the death of the King I am innocent and I pray God that my innocent blood Lord Chief Baron Pray Sir Axtell May not cry Lord Chief Baron You are now to speak in arrest of Judgment Axtell I have no more I pray your Lordships favour and mercy to me William Hulet alias Howlet hold up thy hand thou art in the same condition what canst thou say for thy self why Judgment c. Hulet Truly my Lord I have little further to say If you had been pleased to give me further time I should have cleared my self I call God above to witness upon this account that I am as clear as any man I submit to the mercy of the Court. L. Ch. B. For that I do but cannot positively say it that at your request notwithstanding the Judgment will pass against you there may be some time till his Majesties pleasure be known before any execution will be upon that Judgment against you in the mean time we must proceed according to Law and Justice Proclamation for silence whilst Judgment is giving The Lord Chief Barons speech before the Sentence pronounced against the aforenamed Prisoners found guilty YOu that are Prisoners at the Bar you stand here in several Capacities yet all of you persons convicted of the detestable and execrable murder of our Soveraign Lord King Charles the first of blessed memory Mistake me not I do not say that you are all of you guilty of executing the fact but in Law and in conscience pro tanto though not pro toto you are guilty of it in that you prepared the way and means to it in that you brought his head to the block though you did not cut it off You are here in three sorts and I must apply my words accordingly and truely I do it with as much sorrow of heart as you have many of you being persons of liberal education great parts I say you are of three sorts There are some of you that though the Judgment of death is to pass against you by his Majesties grace and favour and the mercy under him of the two houses of Parliament Execution is to be suspended untill another Act of Parliament shall pass to that purpose that is all of you but three for those three the one of them that was last called William Heveningham he is in another capacity too for I presume some time will be given to him to consider of something relating to him before any order will be given for his execution there are two others of you and that is Dan. Axtel and Francis Hacker and for you as it yet stands before us there is no mercy there is no room for it but though you be in these several Classes yet what I shall say will concern you all because I do not know how it may fall with you none of us know how soon we may come to our deaths some probably sooner then others all must come to it you are now before the Tribunal of man but that is for Judgment for your offence here but there is another Judgment hereafter and a Tribunal before which both you and we must stand every man here and we must receive according to our work those that have done ignorantly by a serious and unfeigned repentance God Almighty may shew mercy unto them He hath reserved mercy even for the greatest offenders Saint Paul himself when he presecuted Christ ignorantly upon his repentance he found mercy those of you that are not yet convicted in your consciences of the foulness of this horrid fact look into your Consciences a little more and see if it be not a great Judgment for your former offence that you should be given over to a reprobate sense let me tell you a seared Conscience a bold confidence not upon good grounds is so far from securing the Conscience it may stifle perhaps the mouth of Conscience but it will rise up more in Judgment against you Here you have made your defence and I do not blame you for it life is precious but remember the thoughts of your hearts are open whether you did it ignorantly covetously or to get the Government into your own hands that I am not able to search into God and you only know that give me leave to say something perhaps I have repeated it by parts before God is my witness what I speak I speak from mine own Conscience and that is this Gentlemen because I saw it stuck with some of you that is that whatsoever the case was that by the Laws of these Nations the fundamental Laws there could not be any coercive power over your King I speak it again because I would as near as I could speak the whole truth and would not mislead any man in such a case remember that no power no person no Community or body of men not the people either collectively or representatively have any coercive power over the person of the King by the fundamental Laws for that