Army in prejudice to theirs which caus'd Commissary Wilmot who with some others was a Member of the House to tell them upon a Paper the Scots had presented to get Mony design'd for our Army that if Papers could procure Money he doubted not but the English Officers would soon do the same Neither were their Resentments less upon the King 's than their own account that after so many complyances and too great condescention they should still press forward to the overturning of all whereupon they entred into a confederacy obliging themselves by an Oath of secrecy to Petition the King and Parliament upon these Four Heads For Money for the Army not to Disband before the Scots To preserve Bishops Votes and Functions To settle the King's Revenue Which being shown to and approv'd by the King he sign'd all which appears both from Mr. Percy 's letter to the Earl of Northumberland his Brother that they resolved to act nothing which should infringe the Subjects Liberty or be prejudicial to the Laws As likewise from the foremention'd Manuscript of the Earl of Manchester which gives the same account And could Ludlow or any of his Partisans imagin there should be no Men of Courage and Resolution left in the Nation or that having Swords by their Sides they should keep their Hands in their Pockets and see Votes and Ordinances do more mischief than all the Gunpowder of a seven Years Campain and since the Parliament were resolv'd upon a War 't is Pity these Gentlemen parted with their Forces Had they come up and cut Ten or Twenty the lowdest Throats in the House it might have sav'd the effusion of a great deal more and much better Blood and preserv'd both King and Kingdom from Ruin To shew farther that the Parliament was always in danger the King continually plotting against them they never against him our Author tells us how a great number of loose debauch'd Fellows repair'd to Whitehall where a constant Table was provided and many Gentlemen of the Inns of Court tamper'd with to assist him in his Design and how briskly he took up one for speaking against the Fellows at Westminster who upon this fright desir'd leave to provide themselves a Guard and that the Militia might be at their disposing p. 21. To turn a Story or frame a Lie so as to make it serve their own turns hath been all along observ'd the peculiar Talent of our Commonwealth Men and of the whole Party Ludlow had most right to the Whetstone That the Fellow should be so impudent to charge the King with raising Tumults or threatning Force when all the World knows it was the chief Engine the Parliament had to carry on all their mischievous Enterprises and when any thing stuck with him or the Lords a Rabble of 5 or 6000 were immediately summon'd out of the City to affright and threaten all that would not comply according to their Desire and in their passage by Whitehall did the same to the King till their Insolencies grew so intolerable as he was forc'd to leave that and Parliament at once for which they had the confidence to charge him and yet would take no care he might be secure with them and this occasion'd what Ludlow relates Several Gentlemen about Town more especially at the Inns of Court were asham'd to see Majesty so scandalously affronted proffer'd their service for the security of Whitehall his Majesty and Family which was kindly accepted and some little Entertainment made for them from whence this vile Fellow rais'd his great Story And since he hath given me this just provocation it will be here very proper to give some small account of those many violences from the insults and tumults of the Rabble how necessary the Faction found them and thereupon what Encouragement they had The Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford went on very slowly in the House of Lords and 't is probable but for the Menaces of the Mob had never pass'd whereof 5 or 6000 came up to Westminster fill'd the Palace-Yard posted themselves at all the Entrances to the Parliament House and stopped every Coach crying Iustice and Execution which upon a Sign given was repeated with such an hideous Noise as to create Amazement in the greatest Constancy Such Lords as they knew were averse to Humour them they threatned most severely and had the Impudence to add if they had not the Leiutenant's Life they would have the King 's whereof his Majesty complained by Message to the Lords they to the Commons and there it stuck For sometime after when they trudg'd away to cry no Bishops as Hudibras hath it and the Lords complained in a Conference with the Commons of their horrible Insolency Mr. Pim their chief Setter cry'd God forbid we should proceed to dishearten People from obtaining their just Rights and the rest of that cursed Cabal secretly whisper'd they must not discourage their Friends this being a time to make use of them which vile Abettings made them so Impudent as to threaten White-hall too and declare as they pass'd by there should be no Porters Lodg but they would come to speak to the King without Control and at their own discretion And when presently after there was another descent of the same Rout and some Opposition made upon their Attempt upon White-hall Gate till the Sheriffs of London and Middelsex with what Guard they could draw together seiz'd and committed some of them the Commons immediately posted up Mr. Hollis to the Lords complaining 't was a Violation of the Liberty of the Subject and an affront to the Parliament and so the Good Boys must be discharg'd 'T were too tedious to relate the several Insults of this kind both King and Lords were forc'd to put up the Commons underhand giving them all Encouragement imaginable and had their Setters in the City to be ready on the first Intimation whereof Dr. Cornelius Burges a Lecturing Beautifeu was chief seconded by a Lay Brother one Ven the Captain Tom of those Times the Dr. as he led up these Doughty Champions was wont to look back and cry These are my Ban-dogs I can set them on and I can take them off again by which means saith my Author four parts in five of the Lords and two parts in three of the Commons were frighted out of the House to leave the Faction absolute Masters thereof All these before unheard of Affronts to Majesty and Government our faithful Recorder of Memoirs takes no Notice of but a few honest Loyal Gentlemen asham'd to see such abominable Insults and therefore coming to defend if occasion serv'd their abused ay and threatned Prince must pass for a Plot upon the Parliament and they forsooth must have a Guard With like veracity he relates the Kingston Plot too where the Lord Digby with Colonel Lunsford in a Coach and Six and three or four Footmen attending pass'd for a Body of 500 Horse with many such like extravagant Rumors
attribute to a Belief and full Perswasion of the Iustice of the Undertaking whereas I cry Careat successibus opto Nevertheless it shall be acknowledged that this little Success turn'd infinitely to their advantage for having got possession of Newcastle where the King had a Magazine they extended their Quarters as far as Durham with a corner of Yorkshire after miserably harassing all places where they came those four Counties of Northumberland Cumberland Westmorland and Durham with the forementioned corner of Yorkshire far from the largest or richest in England were Sess'd at a Contribution of 850 l. per Diem which I fancy was more than Cromwell could make of their whole Kingdom when he by the Just Judgment of Heaven had brought them into the same circumstances nay which is more made an absolute Conquest And this I presume is the foundation of Ludlow's blunder which hath something of approach to truth but he abhors to come close up to it that upon the King 's calling his great Council at York they advis'd a Cessation of Arms and to Summon a Parliament which to the great trouble of the Clergy and other Incendiaries for they must be flung at he promis'd to do assuring the Scots of the payment of twenty thousand pounds a month to maintain their Army till the pleasure of the Parliament should be known p. 11. How careful is this Good man of the Parliaments pleasure and free of the Kings condescention whereas impartially speaking they had carv'd themselves the forementioned Contribution and moreover seiz'd the total of all Estates belonging to Papists Prelates Incendiaries c. in brief of all the Loyal honest Gentlemen throughout that District of their new Usurpation Afterwards indeed when the Treaty was at Rippon the English Commissioners requir'd their demands as to the Subsistence of their Army whereto they modestly return'd answer 40000 l. per. mensem should content them for the present and for their losses they would afterward give a particular estimate This so much alarm'd the Commissioners and other Lords when the demand was sent to the King at York that one noble Peer made a motion to Fortifie that City and imploy that 40000 l. to maintain his Majesty's Army rather than an Enemy's hereupon the Scotch came down to 30000 l. which they own'd to be less than the 850 l. per. diem considering they had the time past the benefit of Custome a Provision of Coals and Proportion of Forage In the end it was agreed That with a Provision of Coals and Forage they should be satisfy'd and take no more than the 850 l. per diem of the four forementioned Counties under which abominable slavery those poor people continued a whole twelvemonth for the King having by unwearied importunity been forc'd upon a Parliament and remitted the whole management of these their Dear Brethrens concerns to them they so dextrously improv'd the advantage as to keep them here at the Nations expence till they had got the same unreasonable concessions from him as the others had done made him Sacrifice his Friends debase his Prerogative and by Enacting an indissoluable Session gave them an opportunity of playing the like game without any thing more of their assistance Now then 't was thought high time to dismiss them but the greatest matter was to bring that about turpius ejicitur quam non admittitur c. they paid themselves at coming in but we must pay even for that again before they would set one step back and withall at so unreasonable arate according to their demands as all the Gold in England tho' never more plenty would not make a Bridge to carry them over Tweed To give a short Specimen there being several Demands agreed to by Treaty at Rippon wherein the Scotch were to have satisfaction the Sixth was That they desire from the Iustice and kindness of England Reparation concerning the losses which the Kingdom of Scotland hath sustain'd and the vast charges they have been put unto by reason of the late troubles According to which Article they were required now upon departure to bring in a full Account of their Charges which they enlarged to the full Sum of Five hundred and Fourteen thousand One hundred and Twenty Eight pound nine shillings c. abating the odd pence out of kindness whereto was added for what losses their Nation the Nobility and Gentry had sustain'd Two hundred and Twenty One thousand pounds and the neglect of their Fortunes Two hundred and twenty thousand pounds besides the 850 l. per. diem exhausted from the Northern Counties with other the most inexpressible Insolencies and Exactions ever any people groan'd under A surprising Sum but cunning Chapmen know that a high demand at first will oblige any Purchaser for shame to bid somewhat like a Gentleman and accordingly it happened here the whole matter being adjusted for that lusty Sum of 300000 l. part whereof was paid down and the rest secur'd by the Publick Faith of the two Houses and more punctually discharged than any here borrowed upon that Credit If any be farther Inquisitive as to the Total of the whole Expence I find a Report made in the House of Lords that amounted to one Million one hundred Thousand pounds the most chargeable remedy this Nation to that day was ever acquainted with and prov'd much worse than any Disease we then labour'd under besides that itch of Rebellion we from them contracted which hath cost a hundred times more than they carry'd off and for ought I see may be doubled before we attain a perfect cure Well now they are gone and the King followed them which Ludlow tells us the Parliament endeavour'd to disswade him from or at least to defer to a fitter opportunity he refused to hearken to them under pretence that the Affairs of that Kingdom necessarily required his presence but in truth his great business was to leave no means unattempted to take off that Nation from their Adherence to the parliament of England p. 17. 'T is probable he might hope so to be sure the Parliament feared it and had reason so to do if it had been possible to oblige such a Generation of men for he gratified them in every demand confirm'd all their Rebellious Innovations into Legal Constitutions advanc'd the leading Covenanters into the highest Places of Honour and Profit amongst whom their General Lesly was made an Earl whereupon with Hands lift up to Heaven he wished they might rot if ever he acted more against so gude a King Yet this very man within two years after led a Scotch Army to the Parliaments assistance and by the reputation of their name and number rather than any considerable Action gave such a diversion to that gude Kings Forces as nothing conduced more to his ruin And when no longer able to keep the Field he betook himself to those his Native Subjects for Protection How barbarously they use and how basely they sold him need not be here
rais'd on purpose that their Worships might be thought to stand in need of a Guard whereas if such a thing was wanting it must be to Guard the King and Government from them In that Divine Pourtraicture of his Majesty's Solitudes and Sufferings there are two Chapters one upon the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him The other upon the Insolencies of the Tumults in both which he doth so passionately set forth how abominably he and his Subjects were abus'd by their Lyes and Slanders as would Convince ay and Convert too any Reprobate whatsoever but a Republican As to the Tumults how just and reasonable is that Resentment of his I confess saith he when I found such a Deafness that no Declaration from the Bishops who were first foully insolenc'd and assaulted nor yet from Lords and Gentlemen of Honour nor yet from my self could take Place for the due Repression of these Tumults and securing not only our Freedom in Parliament but our very Persons in the Streets I thought my self not bound by my Presence to provoke them to higher Boldness and Contempts I hoped also by my withdrawing to give time both to the Ebbing of their tumultuous Fury and others regaining some degrees of modesty and sober Sense But his hopes were altogether frustrated they persever'd at the same Rebel rate till as he foretold the Just Avenger of all Disorders made those Men and that City see their Sin in the Glass of their Punishment which soon after happen'd in the same way they had offended But never was this Meteor Mob so high in Meridian Altitude as when the five Members were accus'd it was indeed the sole Support of that cursed Cause without which the King had curs'd them all to the Scaffold and so sent them to their proper Place where all Rebellions are first laid and in the end Punish'd Here then let us see how Ludlow palliates this Business which being clear Matter of Fact he had no way to flourish off but with his continu'd Impudence in reflecting upon the King whose violent Ways not succeeding he fell upon other Measures in appearance more moderate c. p. 20. and to colour his Proceedings with a Form of Law sent Sir Edward Herbert his Attorny General to accuse of High Treason in the name of his Majesty Mr. William Stroud c. and Lord Kimbolton accquainting them that he intended to proceed against them according to Law and then gives us the Articles which are foul enough yet not exact to the Original no where calling them Traytors as that justly doth But whatever he further saith as to the House of Commons is altogether a Chymera of his own there were no Foot-steps of it in all the Procedure His Words are these Upon this the House made answer to the Attorny General that they were the proper Judges of their own Members That upon his producing the Articles if they found Cause they would leave them to be Proceeded against according to Law but commanded him at his Peril not to proceed further against them or any other Member without their Consent After which they published a Declaration to the same purpose c. p. 24. upon which Relation of our Author give me leave to make these few Remarks as first This Charge of the General 's was given in to the House of Lords as a Court of Iudicature whereupon they fell to Debate 1 st Whether this Accusation of the Attorny General 's be a regular Proceeding 2dly Whether there were any such Proceedings ever before in this House 3dly Whether an Accusation of High Treason may be brought against a Peer of Parliament With some others and yet this blundering Fellow supposes all this to be done in the House of Commons and frames an Answer accordingly but any thing will pass with the Fanaticks from a confiding Brother who perhaps too will like it the better for being Preposterous and False 2 dly Supposing that to be their Answer as it was indeed the Sense of all their Votes Speeches and Declarations what Law made them Judges of their own Members From the beginning it was not so Nor 3 dly That a Member could not be proceeded against without their leave we have been told that formerly no Priviledges could secure any Member from Justice for Murder Felony and Treason but now having made Prerogative a Cypher they might add as many as they pleas'd to Multiply what they thought fit to call their Rights although in order thereunto methinks they should have repeal'd that scurvy Proverb of Asking ones Fellow whether he be a Thief 4 thly Had the Gentlemen accus'd been really Innocent they need not have made such a Noise and Pudder nothing could have been a greater Baffle to his Majesty than such an unjust Charge the contrary is therefore to me Demonstration 5 thly The Commons indeed when the King was gon fell upon the Attorny General and had him Interrogated at the Lord's Bar by a Committe of theirs whereto his Answer not being Satisfactory they made some angry Resolves but I cannot any where find he was sent to Prison for his Proceedings in that Matter as Ludlow saith Well the King finding the Lords afraid to burn their Fingers by questioning these Idols the Rabble so ador'd took another Course sent one Mr. Francis a Serjeant at Arms to the House of Commons to demand of them and Arrest of High Treason the five Members which was done as order'd and their Names declar'd whereupon four Members were order'd to attend his Majesty and acquaint him that the Message was a matter of great Consequence and the House would take it into Consideration with as much speed as the greatness of the Business will permit But notwithstanding their fair Words instead of complying herein Sir William Fleming and another Gentleman who by Warrant from the King had seal'd up the Studies and Trunks of the five Members were apprehended by Mr. Speaker's Warrant as Delinquents and Order'd to remain in the Serjeant's Custody till further Order so that it seems they could Commit though the King must not Neither of these Courses taking effect his Majesty resolv'd upon a Third which was to go to the House and demand them himself which he did with all the Tenderness and Regard imaginable for whatever Ludlow saith of 3 or 4 Hundred and amongst them several Desperados entertain'd at White-hall the whole number did not consist of above one the Gentlemen Pensioners in Course with other Lords and Gentlemen then in Attendance or about Court who were commanded to move no further than the Stairs nor offer any Violence though provok'd himself with the Elector Palatine only entring in where he found the Birds flown and the whole House as soon as he was withdrawn flew after them into the City with a grievous Complaint to their Protectors the Rabble that they could not speak and act Treason at Pleasure without being question'd by his Majesty
Distractions and Perplexities this Excellent Prince labour'd under it could not but be some Satisfaction to see such visible Retaliations since there was not a Member of the Covenant Class but might take up Adonibezek's Acknowledgment As we have done so the Lord hath requited us The manner of Ioyce's carrying off the King hath not one Syllable of Truth as to the Circumstances thereof in Ludlow's Relation He saith Ioyce had an Order in writing to take the King out of the Hands of the Commissioners of Parliament p. 191 whereas upon the King 's demanding a sight of his Instructions that saith the impudent Fellow you shall see presently and drawing up the best part of his Party into the inner Court as near as he could to the King say'd these Sir are my Instructions whereto his Majesty Smilingly reply'd Your Instructions are in fair Characters and Legible without Spelling Neither is it true that the King would have retracted his Promise to Ioyce upon the Commissioner's Perswasion it was by his Inducement the Guards were taken off their Lodgings and when Ioyce press'd the King to go along with him no Prejudice being intended but rather his Satisfaction upon the King's saying he would not stir unless the Commissioners went with him the other reply'd that for his Part he was indifferent Neither did the King take Horse but went in a Coach with the Earls Pembrook Denbeigh and Lord Mountague who as the rest of their Fellows were very Shagreen upon this Force his Majesty being observ'd the Merryest in the Company And when Colonel Brown and Mr. Crew return'd to the Parliament is not certain to be sure they did not go from Holmby but attended the King to Hinchingbrook tho an Express was sent from the first Notice of Ioyce's Approach The whole Passage of this Force with several others very considerable from hence forward to his Majesty's Murder is most faithfully related in the Athenae Oxon. as the Author had them from Sir Thomas Herbert a constant and sometimes sole Attendant upon the King in all those his Solitudes and Sufferings In all probability it was with no little regret to our Author before he saw whether it tended that the Army paid so great a Deference to the King suffer'd his Officers to continue and publickly own'd the Design Colonel Francis Russel and others attending the King became soon converted by the Splendor of his Majesty c. p. 193. And some Pages before 177. he inveighs bitterly against Colonel Brown the Wood-monger for that having been as great a Rebel as himself indeed much more Considerable and Mischievous he no sooner came into the King's Conversation but became a Convert which Ludlow would have the effect of a low and abject Original and Education whereas there cannot be a greater Instance of a generous Temper to acknowledge his Mistakes and beg his Majesty's Pardon when there was nothing but Obloquy and Persecution from the prevailing Power which he met withal sufficiently and was as forward to return when occasion serv'd being one of the Bloodyest Butchers of the Parliament's Friends p. 178. Indeed upon the Restauration he was very forward in apprehending and condemning the Regicides and it was by an unlucky Chance this Fellow escap'd his Hands The Devils knowing themselves under Sentence of Eternal Reprobation are never better pleas'd than to have engag'd a Man so far as to lay aside all Thoughts of Pardon of Reconciliation with God and really I never met with a Person more truly Proselyted to Hell upon that and indeed all other Concerns than our Author as having not only abandoned all Thoughts of Peace and Mercy in himself but an implacable Spite against such as were any ways inclin'd thereto on the contrary wherever his Majesty met any of such ingenuous Christian Dispositions he certainly Convinc'd them of their Mistakes and brought them over to his Party There are too many Instances of this Kind and too well known to be here set down That of Mr. Vines in Dr. Perenchief's Life is very Considerable because as rigid a Presbyterian as the rest who declar'd he had been deluded into unworthy Thoughts of the King but was now convinc'd to an exceeding Reverence of him and hoped so of others c. There was one Dell an Army Chaplain counterpart to Hugh Peters and tho less a Buffoon yet as much a Rogue they jointly giving out when their Villanies were ripe that the King was but as a dead Dog This unworthy Wretch said once in my hearing that whilst in the Army it was told him the King express'd a desire to see Dell but said the Fellow I would not come at him because we found he had a cunning way of getting into Men and making them think well of him and his Cause This indeed I find from several Particulars that the Prejudices of such Ulcerous Minds kept them off upon a false Surmise that the King could Pardon and Forgive no more than they upon which String I observe Ludlow often harping especially upon his Observation of the Army's respect in this Juncture whom he seems to laugh at for not considering how easy it would be for him to break through all his Promises and Engagements upon pretence of being under a Force p. 193. 'T is true they had violated the solemnest Oaths and Tyes imaginable in putting a Force upon him whereas he good Man was so Religious to his bare Promises as in the end it cost him his Life What he further relates of Transactions between the King and Army is as we are told from a Manuscript written by Sir Iohn Barkly and left in the Hands of a Merchant at Geneva That Sir Iohn since Lord Iohn Barkly was attending upon the King at this Time is certain and we will grant 't is his Manuscript to be sure none of our Authors being of a more polite Stile pen'd like a Man of Sense and Business so that wherever brought in it looks like a piece of New Cloth to make bold with the Parable put to an Old Garment and renders his thred-bare Stuff an abominably patch'd Business From these Papers he would have us believe that the Grandees of the Army Cromwel Ireton c. were once in so good a Mood as to design the Restauration of his Majesty whose ill Conduct in not following Sir Iohn's Directions and caressing them as expected spoil'd all And this ought to be taken into Consideration because I have met some honest Gentlemen too forward in giving Credit thereto and the Commonwealth's Men run away with it as infallible notwithstanding the quite contrary appears from Ludlow's own Relation who perhaps too hath perverted several of Sir Iohn's Expressions to the King's Prejudice for there is nothing so base and false he would not be guilty of upon that Account as when he is reported to break away from them and say Well I shall see them glad e're long to accept of more equal Terms p. 203 and that p. 205. you cannot
all his Perspiration turn'd into Flies and sometimes Bees or Flies as big and 't is very probable several of these Insects after many Rambles have fix'd in and Fly-blown this young Author's Head whence the whole Nation must be incessantly buss'd with his reviv'd Impertinences Some likewise are prone to suspect there may be a little Discontent in the Case and nothing sooner breeds Maggots in the Brain that having fail'd of his Advance in the Irish Chancery he designs the Revenge of promoting an English Commonwealth where Milton's Place must certainly be his Lot and doubtless with as many uncertain Revolutions and as much danger of an Halter in the End But whencesoever it proceeds this is certain that amongst the several kinds of Pestilent People our Nation from time to time hath been plagu'd with all there are none more Troublesome and Pernicious than our Government Menders who will have it continually upon the Anvil and be always Hammering without the least Prospect of finishing their Work or giving it over to more Skillful Hands whereby every Man of Temper and Prudence cannot but observe that this Itch of Alteration proceeds more from a hot Head than sober Judgment and if such Pragmatical Intermedlers should be gratify'd in every Whim their pregnant Brains abound with the whole Body-politick will by degrees become so Monstrous as to have an Hanc populus affix'd It would therefore argue much more Consideration to reflect that as there are not two Governments in all Europe nor any where else exactly the same but generally very different from each other so we may justly presume such long continu'd Customs as they have always liv'd under were originally adapted to the Temper of the People with other Circumstances of Situation Converse Traffick c. and whatever is superinduc'd de novo must have some affinity to those original Establishments or will sit very uneasy and give occasion both of continu'd Complaints and frequent Alterations All good Patriots amongst us who truly Study the Interest of the Nation and make an impartial Iudgment of things do heartily wish the Choice of our Representatives might be regulated as well in regard to the Many which make it as the Management of that Many in order thereto they think likewise that the Disproportion of Beggerly Burroughs in the several Parts of the Kingdom is not a little hard in the Disproportion of Taxes with not a few other Inconveniences which as wise Men they rather think of than attempt to alter lest it should prove Tinkers Work as the Proverb speaks Essaying to mend one cause more and worse Defects for though the Dutch very cunningly got rid of all Tumultuary Elections and perhaps thereto more especially on their easy Administration ever since yet I fancy our Grough English Tempers would not be so easily wheedled and which is worse scarce find enough that will be Faithful in so great a Trust To be sure when the Rump took upon them somewhat like that way of Managment what Rogues did they prove and how like Rogues did the People use them in the End Here therefore I would turn the Tables with this bold Assumer and be gladly satisfied how such vigorous Asserters of the People's Liberty as he and his Republican Fraternity are earnest to be thought come so highly to recommend the Dutch Model For that is a perfect Oligarchy where the People pay as many Taxes as either in France or Turky and have as little to do in raising them or Enacting any other Laws for their mutual Defence and Welfare And really I could wish this Rota Club were adjourn'd for some Months into those Provinces that we might see whether they would be so hardy as to Attack that Government with as much Boldness as they do this abuse the Liberty of the Press by telling the People they are Bubled in thinking themselves a Free Commonwealth whereas there is no such thing amongst them both their Lives and Fortunes are at the disposal of a few Men who Cabal together Elect one another and do what they please I say should any of them dare to Prate or Print at this rate as those in Power would soon hear thereof so instead of sending them a pair of Shooes to trot out of their Territories which Report saith is done in some Cases care would be forthwith taken to have them die in their own a modest Expression some use for a Man's being Hang'd and this would we take notice of what is Solid and Useful is the most Remarkable thing amongst them that they are exact Justiciaries will not permit their Laws to be violated and Magistracy arraign'd by every Pragmatical Pretender without such due Resentments as are absolutely requisite to support the Sovereign Power and preserve the Publick Peace But as amongst some other English Follies that of admiring Foreign Fashions in their Vanities rather than Virtues hath been too justly charg'd upon us so the Dutch Fashion for Government hath had the Vogue more than 60 Years with our many Republican Innovators when not one in 60 thousand of them understand any thing more of it than to take Patterns from thence for most Exorbitant Taxes which our Madness alone their Necessities when once engag'd made absolutely Requisite Yes the Licentiousness of the Press is another Branch of Dutch Liberty for Knaves and Fools to abuse all Honest Men at Pleasure I say in these two things alone we are become their sordid Imitators without any thing of that Caution and Terror their vigorous Execution of Laws enforce whereas the same just Severity would secure our Old Constitutions at a much cheaper Rate than any Foreign Freaks which the more we attempt the more we shall fail in for to me it seems impossible yet if we could be suppos'd to make so Extravagant an Experiment it would sit no better than a Boor's Suit on a Courtiers Back and be as disagreeing to the Temper the genius of the Nation as their Stockfish to our Stomachs But to prove by some other Authority than my own that these assuming Republicans are not the Men they would be thought have neither Bottom nor Ballast proportionable to the Sail they bear see no further into the Milstone than others perhaps as Superficially as any I shall produce a Person who knew them thoroughly had the most to do with them and confirm'd to Matter of Fact the Account already given Our Author Ludlow relates several Discourses between Cromwel and himself with some brisk Repartees which pass'd wherein as he tells his own Story the other seems constantly to have brought him by the Lee that is gain'd his Point What I shall at present relate to is in Pag. 241 where Cromwel whilst he was cajoling and betraying the King gave great Enjealousments to his Fellow Rebels that he would make his own Peace and leave them to their just Fate but having accomplish'd that Hellish Treachery got his Majesty into their Isle of Wight Toils then as Ludlow tells us he
would undertake the Fleet might be much better manag'd both as to Conduct and Charge and thereupon fell most rudely upon the Duke not sparing his Majesty in some By-reflections who perceiving their Heats to rise every Day higher than other and that no Supply was to be had unless he yielded to their unreasonable Cavils which no body could foresee how far they would extend or where end He sent a Commission to some of the House of Lords and dissolv'd them That he was not without great Regret forc'd upon this 't is easie to imagine considering the Posture of his Affairs and that Want of timely Supply detain'd his Fleet from going out till it should have been return'd into Harbor And indeed the Delays he met with where there was least Reason to expect them had they considered the Honor and Interest of the Kingdom not to say of the King tho they pretended much to both was the chief if not sole Cause of several Miscarriages which according to the Genius of that Age were otherwise very well design'd However giving some strict Orders about Recusants and whatever else there was any Shadow of an Exception against as likewise hoping on the other side those fiery Spirits might be somewhat cool'd and brought to a sober Consideration of their own and the Nation 's Reputation Another Parliament was call'd within the same Year which prov'd no Changlings beginning where they left off with Miscarriages Misgovernment Misimployment in short they would have all amiss whereas there was nothing so but themselves Neither could his Majesty's Letter to the Speaker have any Influence upon them tho' most passionately representing his pressing Occasions and how unfit it was to depend any longer upon Uncertainties whereby the whole Weight of the Affairs of Christendom was like to break in upon us on the suddain to the Dishonor and Shame of the Nation assuring them moreover that having satisfied his reasonable Demands he would continue them together at this Time as long as the Season will permit and call them shortly again to apply fit and seasonable Remedies to such just Grievances as they shall present unto him in a dutiful and mannerly way without throwing an ill Odor upon our present Government or upon the Government of our late blessed Father and if there be yet who desire to find fault we shall think him the wisest Reprehender of Errors past who without reflecting backward can give us Counsel how to settle the present Estate of things and provide for the future Safety and Honour of the Kingdom This was very much to the purpose but withal too home and true to meet with that Reception it ought to have had Neither had the Lords better Success in a Message they sent desiring them to take into Consideration the Safety of the Kingdom receiving this grough Answer That they desire to have a good Understanding with their Lordships and will be ever careful of the Safety and Defence of the Kingdom and maintain their own Privileges as is fitting And having sent this they immediately fell upon the Duke of Buckingham in order whereunto we find one Turner a Doctor of Phisick and Member of the House made the Factions Tool or rather Log to break the Ice by starting six Quaeres against the Duke grounded only upon common Fame and this produc'd another Quaere indeed a very requisite one Whether an Accusation upon common Fame be a Parliamentary Way And thereupon it was resolv'd That common Fame is a good way of proceeding for this House from whence alone that great Body of Articles was usher'd up to the Lords with as much Pomp and Rhetorick as give them their Due that House ever was or will be Masters of Yet no more than requisite to supply the Place of Argument for whoever considers impartially the Duke's Answer will find it so clear and apposite to every Particular alledg'd so consistent with the Reason of Things and Series of Affairs there mention'd as'tis more than probable their Impeachment was design'd only as a Ducquoy to get him into the Tower and then instead of proving their Articles would have proceeded by Bill of Attainder and voted it accumulative Treason as we know it was afterwards most barbarously done in the Earl of Strafford's Case In the mean while commend me to any Man or Body of Men who can have the Confidence to declaim against Arbitrary Power and yet proceed upon common Fame which was ever thought hard and therefore discontinued both in Civil and Canon Law where for some time it took place especially in an Age where Calumny and Slander were so scandalously rise as no honest Man could escape the devouring Words of their false Tongues Methinks such a Proceedure as this has some Affinity with that old Land Story of the Cook serving his Dog who said he would not hang him only give him an ill Name and thereupon threw him into the Street and cry'd a Mad Dog which made all the Rabble of two as well as four legg'd Curs fall upon and worry him to Death Yet how far this way of Prosecution might have been brought into Practice had these Gentlemen continued Rex no one can tell to be sure in the next Parliament when Neal Bishop of Winton and Laud of London were inveigh'd against by Sir Iohn Eliot and others an honest Gentleman stood up and said Now we have nam'd these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it whereunto Sir Edward Coke reply'd Have we not nam'd my Lord of Buckingham without shewing Cause and may we not be as bold with them Common Fame would do the Business thoroughly But to return to the Duke they thought it enough to shew their Teeth for surely if they could have bit they would not have postpon'd the making good their Articles against him when he press'd them so earnestly thereto which notwithstanding they did as well as the King's Supply and fell to hammering a new Remonstrance which his Majesty having notice of anticipated by their Dissolution We shall have Occasion hereafter to observe what pass'd between this and the next Parliament which was March 17 th 1627. when his Majesty at their first assembling plainly told them That if his present calling them together did not answer the Quality of his Occasions they did not their Duties and he must rest content in the Conscience of doing his and take other Courses for which God had impower'd him to save that which the Folly of particular Men might hazzard to lose Hereupon they fell into long and tedious Debates whether a Supply or Grievances should first take place At length the former had the Preference out of Complement though last consummated for that Vote was no sooner pass'd but the People's Liberty must immediately be consider'd which produc'd the so much celebrated Petition of Right wherein the King humour'd them to every Punctilio though nothing but a Spirit of Opposition could have excepted against his first
of Queen Elizabeth who though she indulg'd Liberty of Speech to her Members yet if any dar'd to open or so much as quetch against her Prerogative or fall upon any Debates which did not properly come within their Sphere she never spar'd to express the height of her Resentment whereof take this single Instance One Morris a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Dutchy offer'd a Bill ready drawn for Retrenching the Ecclesiastical Courts into much narrower Bounds with several such like Alterations wherewith his busy Head was pregnant Of this the Queen having present Notice sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons afterwards Lord Chief Iustice and a violent Beautifeu in these three Parliaments of King Charles by whom she order'd this Message to the House viz. That it was wholly in her Power to Call to Determine to Assent or Dissent to any thing done in Parliament that the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be the more Religiously observ'd by compelling with some sharpe Laws such as neglect that Service and that the Safety of her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for that it was not meant they should meddle with Matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical that she wondered any should attempt a thing so contrary to her Commandment and that she was highly offended at it And finally that it was her pleasure no Bill touching any Matters of State or for Reformation of Matters Ecclesiastical should be there Exhibited On the delivery of which Morris is said to have been seiz'd on in the House by a Sergeant at Arms however seiz'd upon he was and committed Prisoner kept for some Years in Tutbury Castle discharg'd from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practice in his Prosession as a Common Lawyer What would Ludlow have done had he been a Member in those happy Times Here at home either Tutbury or Tyburn would have been his Fate and if got abroad 't is a question whether Swisserland it self could have secur'd him from the long Arm of that great Virago CHAP. IV. Not any just Ground for Complaint of Grievances NEither had they better Authority for the several Grievances they made such a Noise about hunting after them with all the Earnestness imaginable receiving none so kindly as those who brought them Information of fresh Game though generally it proved a Brake-bush instead of a Hare That Disparity printed in Sir Henry Wotton's Remains between the Elizabeth's time and the Duke of Buckingham was sometime after discovered to be the first Essay of a Younger but much abler Pen the Person who writ it making as great a Figure during all the Troubles of Charles the I. and II. as any whatsoever and upon the Restauration was advanc'd according to his great Merits and Sufferings This Ingenious little Piece to make good the Disparity undertaken observes how great an Advantage the Earl had from the Temper of the Age and easy Good Natur'd disposition all People were then in 'T was saith he an ingenious uninquisitive Time when all the Passions and Affections of the People were lapp'd up in such an innocent and humble Obedience that there was never the least Contestations nor Capitulations with the Queen nor though she frequently consulted with her Subjects any further Reasons urg'd of her Actions than her own Will When there were any Grievances they but Reverendly convey'd them to her Notice and left the Time and Order of the rest to her Princely Discretion Once they were more importunate and formal in pursuing the Complaints of the Purveyors for Provision which without doubt was a crying and an heavy Oppression The Queen sent them Word they all thought themselves wise enough to reform the Misdemeanors of their own Families and whisht they had so good an Opinion of her as to trust her with her Servants too I do not find that the Secretary who delivered this Message received any Reproach or Check or that they proceeded any further in the Inquisition On the other side that of the Duke of Buckingham's Favour with King Iames and Charles the I. He tells us was a busy querulous froward Time so much degenerated from the Purity of the former that the People under pretences of Reformation with some Petulant Discourses of Liberty which their great Impostors scattered amongst them like false Glasses to multiply their Fears began Abditos Principis Sensus quid occultius parat exquirere extended their enquiries even to the Chamber and private Actions of the King himself forgetting that Truth of the Poet Nusquam libertas gratior extat quam sub Rege pio 'T was strange to see how Men afflicted themselves to find out Calamities and Mischiefs whilst they borrowed the Name of some great Persons to scandalize the State they lived in A general disorder throughout the whole Body of the Commonwealth nay the Vital Parts perishing the Laws violated by the Judges Religion prophan'd by the Prelates Heresies crept into the Church and countenanced All which they themselves must rectify without being beholden to the King or consulting the Clergy And give me leave to add proving there was any Truth in those Allegations they made such a Noise about Thus far that Great Man who hints likewise at the most probable Causes which might produce that Frenzy this World of ours was then got into As 1 st The heat of young Heads who are ever more forward to reform others than themselves 2 dly The Disappointments some of longer standings met with in reference to their own Advancement But more especially in the 3 d. place The Revolution of Time which had made them unconcern'd in the Loyal Fears that govern'd sixty Years since and the Nation too happy in that Spirit and Condition Unless more sensible of it and thankful for it From which stupid Humour it was that such as cry'd Fire most with the same Breath blew the Coals and would never give over till they had set all in a Flame One of these Grievous Cries was Tunnage and Poundage about which we have already mention'd his Majesty's just Resentments but withall his too great Condescention in hopes to give them Satisfaction So far beneath our self to use his own Words As we are confident never any of our Predecessors did the like nor was the like ever required or expected from them Notwithstanding which they continued their Proceedings and as the King goes on We endured long with much patience both these and sundry other strange and exorbitant Incroachments and Usurpations such as were never before attempted in that House Roger Coke is also very hot upon this Scent and gives a History thereof out of his Grandfather's Institutes so far as to serve his turn yet withall is forc'd to own that they had been continued to all the Kings and Queens since Edward the 4 th so that passing an Act was only Matter of Form for if Prescription long continued Custom be Common Law
Council were generally Members in one House or other and as well able to acquaint them with the true State and Interest of the whole Nation as any particular Member of that private Burrough he Represented and were credited accordingly which produc'd an exact Concord and Harmony between every Part of the Constitution On the contrary when the Members divide and jar one with another when all the King advise with must be suspected for Enemies to the Publick tho no such thing can be prov'd and he upbraided for consulting or imploying them and that by such as affect their Places or design to abridge his just Power what an Ocean of Mischiefs must this toss us in What but a Shipwrack can be expected at last As indeed it happen'd 'T is a pretty Remark and Simile of Sir W. T. who tells us he had observ'd All set Quarrels with the Age and pretences to Reform it by their own Models to end commonly like the pains of a Man in a little Boat who tuggs at a Rope that is fast to a Ship it looks as if he resolv'd to draw the Ship to him but the Truth and his meaning is to draw himself to the Ship where he gets in when he can and does like the rest of the Crew when he is there But this would not do in King Charle's Time there was not Room enough to hold all that pull'd to come in at leastwise Provision to support them when there For however Ludlow upbraids the poor King with the Profuseness of his Court the standing Revenue of the Crown was about 400000 l. per Annum too little by far to supply his great and urgent Occasions Would they have given him Mony plentifully some new Places might have been made or other Ways and Means found to gratify their Kindness but as they knew the King's Honor and Integrity would not Stoop to such indirect Courses so 't is probable 't was considered on the other side this would put them upon a worse extream instead of giving nothing they must give more than all Nevertheless some were taken in Sir Thomas Wentworth Mr. Noy and a while after Sir Dudly Diggs who had their several Posts assign'd them and behav'd themselves with great Honor and Resolution there which so incenc'd the rest as they became more implacable than ever plotted all Ways imaginable to seize upon the Vessel which at length having obtain'd they first threw the King and his whole Crew overboard and then sunk it All which the Good Man was advis'd of long before for in the heat of their Prosecution against the Duke there was a Letter put into his Hands ab Ignoto whereof Mr. Rushworth gives only a sneaking Abridgment like a partial Somewhat as he is for the whole deserv'd to have been Transmitted as well as any one thing in all his Volumes however 't is at large in the Cabala giving him an Account of their several Parties and dangerous Designs that King Iames had given too much way to their popular Speeches and Parliamentary Harangues which since the time of Henry the VI. were never suffer'd as being the certain Symptoms of subsequent Rebellions Civil Wars and Dethroning of our Kings Amongst others he tells him the Lawyers in general fomented these Heats for that as Sir Edward Coke could not but often express our Kings have upholden the Power of their Prerogatives and the Rights of the Clergy whereby their comings in have been abated And therefore the Lawyers are fit ever in Parliaments to second any Complaints against both Church and King and all his Servants with their Cases Antiquities Records Statutes Presidents and Stories But they cannot or will not call to Mind that never any Noble Man in Favour with his Sovereign was question'd in Parliament except by the King's leave in Case of Treason or unless it were in the Nonage and Tumultuous Times of Richard II. Henry VI. or Edward the VI. which happen'd both to the Destruction of King and Kingdom And that not to exceed our own and Fathers memories in King Henry VIII's Time Wolsie's exorbitant Power and Pride and Cromwell's Contempt of the Nobility and Laws were not yet permitted to be discus'd in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdom And that Leicester's undeserved Favour and Faults Hatton's Insufficiency and Rawleigh's Insolence far exceeded what yet hath been tho most falsly objected against the Duke Yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any else begin any Invectives against them in Parliament This is clear Matter of Fact an impartial Account both of the Distemper and its true Original Cause I wish he could as easily have prescribed the Cure but it was now too late to remove what was so deeply rooted and become habitual King Iames might easily have prevented its rising to so high a Crisis had he observ'd that one Maxim of the Precedent Reign kept up his Prerogative and those other Arcana Imperij which were his Peculiar with as much Majesty and Resolution as Queen Elizabeth did who found this Pragmatical Spirit at work in her Time But so observ'd and kept it down as had the same Course been continued no Danger could have accrew'd thereby To ascribe any thing of Divinity to Princes above other Mortals will I am sure at this time of Day be censured for a gross piece of Pedantry yet really there are several Inducements would go a great way to perswade that this happy Queen was so far inspir'd as to see further into the Thoughts and Designs of Men than any or all about her especially that these busy Reformers affected a Parity in the State as well as Church design'd not only the Mytre but the Crown to be under their Check and Control which made her on all Occasions exert so briskly in defence of her Prerogative and other just Rights Insomuch as Roger Coke owns there were three things she was impatient of having debated in Parliament The Succession of the Crown after her Death Her Marriage and attempting any Alterations in the Church from its Establishment in the first Year of her Reign For the last of these I have had occasion already to mention how Morris burnt his Fingers by meddling therewith and the Iournal gives the like Account about the former how one Wentworth and some others were sent to the Tower for concerning themselves with the Succession but whereas Roger Coke saith they were soon discharg'd is one of his own Maggots and a shameful perhaps willful Blunder since the Iournal would have inform'd him that the House becoming humble Sutors to her Majesty for the release of such Members as were under restraint It was answered by the Privy-Counsellors then Members of the House That her Majesty had committed them for Causes best known to her self and that to press her Highness with this Suit would but hinder those whose Good it sought That the House must not call the Queen to an Account for what she did of her
De Propaganda Fide would take care enough should be insisted upon but that any such thing was comply'd with or hearken'd to as there is nothing extant to make it appear which would have been highly acceptable and most pestilently advantageous to the Faction's Calumnies so matter of Fact speaks quite the contrary For as soon as they came to be capable of Instruction their Education was wholly at the King's Direction and perform'd with extraordinary Care Piety and Judgment And whatever Clamours or Conjectures may be made to the contrary I have been inform'd by very judicious Observers that the Queen was very Passive therein and carried her self with a great deal of Deference to what the King Ordered If any of them Warp'd afterwards it was upon our compelling them into Exile and for that as I said before our selves must bear the Blame to force Princes abroad can never turn to Account for this Nation That other Libel too King Charles no Saint c. makes a mighty Pudder about the Match and gives us the precise Sums allowed to the several Ecclesiasticks of her Train amounting so high in the Total as I fancy it is nigh as much as the King could allow for the Expence of her whole Court which indeed ought to be somewhat Splendid in respect to both her Qualities Daughter of France and Queen of England yet was it withall very Regular and confin'd to such a Proportion as the King 's great Exigencies and small Revenue would admit He owns likewise upon the insolent Deportment of her French Domesticks the King dismist them a sufficient Argument she had not that Ascendent over him these Foul-mouth'd Blockheads prate of But that they return'd again to their former Post is absolutely false her Retinue for the future were mostly English and of that Communion too Neither from that time forward for the French did some ill Offices of that kind was there ever known a more agreeable Understanding between King and Queen or indeed any other Man and Wife than them two all the Obligations of Conjugal Love Respect and Duty so inviolably observ'd on either side as they were an Example to many and a Reproach to others in the Court and ought to have been so to the whole Kingdom thorough The Exposing his intercepted Letters shall be hereafter consider'd as the Unworthiest Act the basest Men could be guilty of One thing farther I shall propound to these Negative Make-bates who so violently oppos'd his Matching either with Spain or France Where would they have had him Match'd 'T was high time as to his Age and more highly requisite in that he was the only Male of the Royal Line that he should be dispos'd of somewhere and to what purpose was it for People to cry a Protestant Princess had been better when they could find none such agreeable to his Quality nor that mutual intercourse which such Alliances generally produce For tho' 't is true Kingdoms never Marry and we find a War broke out soon after and partly hereupon yet it might be also the sooner Accommodated upon the same account To be sure if there be few private Families of any Degree but have some Consideration of this Nature when they dispose of their Children we must allow the same to Crown'd Heads both in respect to one another and their several Neighbour Potentates who are never without Caballing Interests and other Intriegues of State Neither could that liberty of the Romish Rites indulg'd her and those of that persuasion in her Family have been any ways prejudicial had they who made such a Noise so violently complain'd against it jointly concur'd in the Confinement thereof to its proper Bounds or Modestly Address'd his Majesty whenever exceeded but the Froppishness of that Crooked Generation was for perverting every thing that Good Man did to the utmost extremity as he complains in the Declaration when his third Parliament was Dissolv'd Seu bene seu male facta premunt with Mischievous Men once Ill-Affected whatsoever seem'd Amiss is ever Remembred but good Endeavours never Regarded So likewise for the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion if they had any favour more than usual it was not so much from the Queen's Sollicitation tho' that was commonly objected as for that they frankly proffer'd to Advance Money towards the King's Necessities and thereby exasperated the Parliament as well in crossing their Designs as upbraiding their Refractory Humour although 't was rather their Iealousy than any real Effects the Loyal Gentlemen found of Kindness 'T is true there was a Commission issued out and Commissioners appointed to Treat with them about Arrears of Forfeitures and an Advance upon the same account for some years to come but 't is false what Rushworth saith That in pursuance of this Commission the Recusants did make their Composition upon very easy Terms as was afterwards complain'd of in Parliament for this Project never took effect Sir Iohn Savile to whom the Management thereof was chiefly entrusted thought it more Advantageous and therefore Advisable to Collect the Arrears of Thirds due to the King by Law which they the more willingly paid in Consideration of the Exigencies he then lay under and being generally as well bred and Understanding Gentlemen as most in the Kingdom must not be blam'd if they had some prospect of Advantage as well as Duty Yet whatever respect the King shew'd their Persons we see it would not excuse their Purses nor procure any Countenance to their Perswasions for whenever the Management of any young Heirs in such Families came under his hands either as Wards or otherwise there was effectual care taken of their Education amongst which that every way most Eminent the late Duke of Ormond was one But Popery was the Main Spoak in that Wheel of Revolution these pretended Government Menders were so bent to bring about and therefore tho' they made many a Faint yet would never close effectually with the King in suppression thereof Thus when both Houses Petition'd the King against Recusants propounding a provisional Law that their Children might be brought up in our Religion his Majesty most readily comply'd therewith and earnestly recommended the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect which notwithstanding the Debate fell asleep and was never after reassum'd And after the first heat as little Notice was taken of that Letter found amongst the Clerkenwell Iesuits whereby nevertheless it appear'd they equally studied the King's Ruine with the Naetions Confusions as Secretary Cook inform'd them from him and withall how the French Ambassador told his Master at home what he had wrought here last Parliament namely Divisions between King and People and he was rewarded for it A full discovery whose Tools they were whose Game they play'd which nevertheless they continued on so that one would think there was a design to accept the Iesuits Challenge and venture all upon a Trial of Skill whether were the best Artists in Mischief the
only to lose all his Offices and Estate but his Life which last at the Queen's Intercession was spared though he Died soon after as thought of Grief and Sorrow Can any thing on this side Hell be more base and spiteful than such a procedure as this Who can give Credit to whatever he Relates or Collects Upon discovery of so vile a Studium Partium which seems brought in on purpose to Contradict or Detract from what had been immediately before Recorded in the Lincoln's high and just Elogium of K. Iames more especially those last Words to his Son in order to his future Marriage whom he advis'd To Marry like himself and Marry where he would But if he did Marry the Daughter of that King he should Marry her Person but not her Religion CHAP. VIII Of the Lent Ships Rochel and the French War THe Iealousies between the French King and Hugonots were so great on either side that all their Accords seem'd rather as a Cessation to take Breath till a convenient opportunity might serve for a fresh Breach than any real design of a lasting Peace King Iames frequently labour'd herein and did many good Offices for the Protestant Interest and King Charles whilst the Match was in Agitation by his Ministers there patch'd up a Treaty between them that thereby the French might be at more leisure to divert the Spaniard then our Enemy both in Italy and the Mediterranean In order whereunto they agreed with us for the Loan of Seven Ships on Man of War and six Merchants as they had with the Dutch for twenty which joyning their Fleet there might block up Genoa and all other ways annoy them as occasion should serve But whilst this Design was carried on and the Army march'd towards Italy Sobiez the most considerable Chief of the Hugonots next his Brother the Duke of Rohan alledging a certain Fortress was not demolish'd according to Agreement got together some small Ships Seiz'd upon the Isles Rhee and Oleron with what Vessels they found there and so set up for a Piratical War having Rochel and those Isles or their Retreat This made the French Court alter their Measures ordering their Land-Army back upon these New Revolters and Memorancy the French Admiral having got together what Ships they could of their own after a great deal of Wheadle and many Protestations had ours consign'd him the Dutch making no demur nay as some say had by a New Treaty agreed thereunto with all which he went directly against Sobiez and disabled him for ever appearing at Sea again recovering both Isles and Ships but a few which got under Rochel And in the same manner they prosecuted their Attacks at Land so vigorously as though it cost them longer time yet in the end they carried all for which the Rochellers and other Hugonots could justly blame none so much as themselves not only in that they broke the Treaty as soon as made but afterwards when our King appear'd in their Defence they refus'd to comply with such Resolutions as in the Judgment of Sobiez and their other best Officers were most proper thereunto However this Misemployment of our Ships was highly resented by his Majesty and many severe Expostulations arose thereupon that our Ships should be diverted from their intended expedition against Spain which was solely design'd and promis'd whereto the French King reply'd That he had no Enemies then but the Spaniard and his intent no other witness the like Contract with the Dutch Ships but his Rebellious Subjects the Rochellers starting this necessity upon him he was enforc'd to suppress the dangerous Consequence with the advantage of those Ships against Rebellion which he conceives and he hoped all Christian Princes conclude such Subjects the greatest Enemies to all Sovereignty With this and the return of our Ships fully satisfied for their Hire these Heats for the present were allay'd though with other Discontents and Provocations the next year they broke out into an open War Which Ludlow with his Common-wealth Charity tells us The King engag'd in not upon the account of those of the Reformed Religion as was pretended but grounded upon personal Discontents to gratify the Revenge and Lust of his Favourite Pag. 3. There is nothing more advantageous in any Relation whether true or false than in hanging things well together Malum ex qualibet particulari a Lye is quite spoil'd if taken triping in any one particular and 't is the most Judicious part of the best Historians to have a clear Consistency in whatever account they give with an easy Transition from one matter to another Let us then according to this Rule examine the Judgment Candour and Integrity of this great Dictator He tells us in the precedent Paragraph of several Steps he would have the King set in order to the Establishing an Arbitrary Power which we have already taken notice of more especially the Committing of several Members as he saith For complaining of the Grievances of the Nation as others for their Riotous Deportment in the House Locking up the Door holding the Speaker in the Chair till they had pass'd what Votes they thought fit with many such like Heats upon an intimation of their Dissolution Now what we are here to take notice of is his Transition from this Relation to the next The King having thus assum'd this extraordinary Power resolv'd to make a War with France whereas the French War was begun before that Parliament was call'd and in a fair prospect of being ended when those Gentlemen were so unhappily committed He had likewise intimated in the precedent Page that the French Match was in order to their Assistance as to an Arbitrary Power which his next Breath Blasts with a War and when there was so much done towards the Relief of Rochel and such Regret in the King that he could not be Assisted to do more with several other just Resentments for which the War was entred upon that he should assign it to the Revenge and Lust of a Favourite to say no more is like the Man his good Nature and Loyal Principles and agreeable to the Party for whose Satisfaction he writ it who will Swallow any thing that tends to Defame the Monarchy though it hangs together like a Rope of Sand. But to come to the War the King had too just Grounds to engage therein tho' too mean a Fund to go through therewith and the one in all probability had not been given but that they saw how unlikely it was he should ever be supply'd as to the other The not suffering Count Mansfield's Army to land in France and joyning with them according to promise was the Ruin thereof and highly prejudicial to the Protestant Interest in Germany And which was worse gave occasion to the Male-Contents here at home to complain of Mismanagement and the No-Fruits of their Subsidies given to recover the Palatinate when it all proceeded from the little Faith and less Honour of our Allies And there was
no more consistency in that mighty Huff of the French King and Court upon the dismission of our Queen's Domesticks since he had been guilty of the like practice upon the Spanish Retinue of his own Queen not long before and for ought appears upon far less Provocation The Politico's I know then and since have censur'd the Duke for some Personal grudges against Richlieu and that he did not act the part of a true Statesman in countenancing such of his Enemies here as he had made France too hot for whereas if they will allow him to look further he could not but discover that as Richlieu was a Minister of the Deepest reach that Crown ever had so was he likewise the greatest Enemy to ours and his Station being at that time very ticklish to assist in getting him down had been one of the best Offices he could have perform'd for this Kingdom since 't is now no further doubted but that he was the Grand Promoter Underhand of all our Northern Commotions and consequently of all our Confusions hitherto and without end to come Yet amongst many other Provocations that doubtless which chiefly influenc'd the Duke was the Relief of Rochel the effecting whereof might as much have reinstated him in Popular favour as his breaking off the Spanish Match and for as long a time in all probability not much longer To be sure had his Measures been taken there were all the Moral Assurances imaginable of an accomplishment but coming before the Town with a Fleet the French were not able to look on the Face and such Additional Land-Forces as joyn'd with their own and the 4000 Foot 200 Horse the Duke of Rohan had engag'd to send besides a constant supply from England as occasion should require they within might not only have been secur'd but such a New life given to the Protestant Interest as to have gone into the Heart and thorough all France and this their whole Court and Council were so sensible of as to make very advantageous Overtures to the Duke of Rohan and all his Party provided they would joyn with them against the English I say when with all this Provision and Supply the Duke came before Rochel so great was their Infatuation there quos vult perdere c. that though they knew they could not depend upon what the French proffer'd yet were they afraid to offend them by admitting the English To gain the greater Credit with the Party this whole Transaction shall be related out of their Friend Mr. Rushworth who tell us When the Duke with his Fleet appear'd before Rochel they who once much long'd for his coming now shut their Gates against him Hereupon the Duke of Sobiez went ashore with Sir William Beecher from the Duke of Buckingham Sir Will. Beecher being also accompanied with a Letter of Credence from his Majesty of Great Britain they were at last admitted into the Town and the Magistrates call'd an Assembly and there Sir William Beecher declar'd unto them That the Duke of Buckingham was come with a great Fleet and Army to their Assistance which his Master had sent out of fellow-feeling of their Sufferings and to require from the King of France a performance of the Articles of Peace made by the King of England's Mediation on behalf of the Protestants in France And further declar'd unto them that if they do now refuse to give their Assistance by joyning Forces with the English he said he would and did protest before God and Man in the Name of the King his Master That his said Master was fully acquit of his Engagement of Honour and Conscience for their Relief But notwithstanding this Declaration and Sobiez his Earnest Sollicitation and Endeavour the Magistrates and Wealthier sort of People in the Town being possest with the fear of the King of France his Army then upon a March against them and there being a Court-Party also prevalent in the Town could be drawn to give no other Answer at that time but this That they did render all humble and hearty Thanks to his Majesty of Great Britain for the care he had of them and to the Duke for his forwardness and readiness to do his best Service for their good But said They were bound by Oath of Union to do nothing but by Common and Unanimous Consent of all the rest of the Protestant Party in France And therefore pray'd the King of Great Britain to excuse them in that they did suspend the Conjunction of Forces till they had sent to the rest of the Protestant Towns who were of the Union with them And in the mean time their Prayers and Vows should be for the happy progress of such Actions as the Fleet and Army should undertake Thus far Mr. Rushworth whose Authority the strongest prejudice must submit to for had it been possible to represent things to the disadvantage where the King and Duke were concern'd he would have exerted his utmost Talent that way And whatever others may be assign'd this false Step of the Rochellers in not permitting the Duke to fix upon the Terra Firma of France was the Chief if not the Sole Cause of their Ruin and never after to be retriev'd for the Duke Squandring away his time and Men upon the Isle of Rhee and no Supplies coming as design'd was forc'd home for want of Provisions which opportunity the French failing not to take hold of Invested Rochel both by Seae and Land with so much Force and Art as 't was easie for them to Calculate the length of their Days Hereupon Sobiez with some other Deputies were sent to implore his Majesty's Commiseration and Assistance in the most Melting Language they could express which theirs is very capable of and were as graciously answered That he would take them into his especial Care and utmost Endeavours for their Relief and set about it with all Sincerity and Application imaginable altho' indeed it was something retarded by that unhappy suprize upon the Duke's life neither were his Coffers or Credit able to make the Expedition so quick as desired which occasion'd that Remonstrance of the Sieur Vincent the Defence so rudely descants upon though I fancy the Original had not so rough a Title Nevertheless a Gallant Fleet was at length set out under the Earl of Lindsey who with much Bravery and Resolution set upon their Booms and Barracadoes and brake thorough many of them but sometimes the Tyde failing and at others the Wind coming cross the Defendants likewise repairing whatever Breaches were made and rendring every fresh Assault more difficult than the former the Rochellers beheld with their own Eyes the Impossibility of any Relief and thereupon made that Unwilling Submission their Fate Folly or both had brought them unto The French tho' considerable Gainers by suppressing these unquiet Spirits at home yet had so much work upon their hands from the House of Austria at Land as they did not in the least care to have England upon
thly What he Levyed was so effectually imploy'd to the Reputation and Interest of the Kingdom as they that found fault therewith must needs whilst doing it blush at their own Perverseness Especially for that 6 thly These pretended Redressers brake thorough all the Laws of God and Man and for every Pound he Levyed and so honourably expended in the Nation 's Defence and Security as impudently as unjustly extorted Thousands from the People to promote a most cursed and unnatural Rebellion Nec dum sinitur we are since come to Millions and justly deserve no better who made such a Muttering and Stir when he did not raise above Six Pence in the Pound and to so good Purposes as the Dominion of the Sea was never so well secur'd and Traffick so considerably advanc'd above what was ever known in the Nation before Had they who pretended greater Right to raise Money taken a greater or equal Care in disposing thereof to the Kingdoms and Peoples Good all must have gon well but to act like the Dog in the Manger resolve to do nothing themselves yet keep away barkat and Quarrel all others to whom it more properly belong'd was the Extremity of Baseness Mischief for Mischiefs sake And which is still worse that mischievous Humour 't is to be fear'd we shall never get quit of there being several Curs nay whole Packs of that Old Breed which continue on the Cry and are so wholly bent upon their Common-wealth Confusions as to prefer them before any thing of a Monarchy not excepting the Kingdom of Heaven whereof having but small Hopes they may think to oblige the Devil by bringing Hell upon Earth CHAP. XII Of King James's Death I Have had some little Dispute with my self whether it was requisite to take Notice of Iames's Death especially as relating to this Excellent Prince his Son but finding the Calumny impudently improv'd as well from the former Age to this as by the several Libellers now every one striving to out-do the other in this Villanous Forgery till the last hath brought it to such an Impossibility as every Child may discover and see thorough I must trouble both the Reader and my self with the Examination of this Abominable Nothing King Iames had an ill Habit of Body very unwiel'dy and full of gross Humours which improv'd the more upon him for that he was so uneasy as to the Regiment of his Health either from his Own or Physicians Observation whereupon falling into a Tertian Fever at Theobalds 't was thought by most Men amongst the rest him himself that Crasy Constitution of his would not be able to withstand its frequent Assaults and it happen'd accordingly Soon after his Death it was whisper'd about Court that the Duke had recommended something of a Cure for his Ague without the Physicians advice which doing no good must be presum'd to do hurt this coming to the Duke's Ear he concern'd himself so far as to have the Matter examin'd by the Physicians where the Lady appear'd and disclos'd that great secret of an Ague-Cure few of that Quality amongst their Country Neighbours for she was a Country an Essex Lady being without something of that kind which was only a Plaster of Methrydate with a Posset Drink of Harts-Horn and Marygold Flowers This for that time put an end to the Rumour but about two Years after in the Second Parliament it was Reviv'd again and made an Article against the Duke which they that please may Consult with his Reply and perhaps be satisfied therewith if not I shall only add further Lord Keeper Williams perform'd the last Offices of a Divine to King Iames continued with him several Days and Nights before his Death so that had he observ'd or suspected any such foul Play there is no doubt but it would have made a sufficient Noise both in Parliament and elsewhere when the Duke caus'd the Seal to be taken from him and the Author of his Life who relates the one would not have been sparing to discover the other And now to show how Artificially the Master was brought in as concern'd with what the Servant never did when the Articles were Exhibited against the Duke Sir Dudly Diggs who as Foreman manag'd the Prologue and gave a Summary of the whole Charge was reported to have said these Words That he was commanded by the House concerning the Plaister apply'd to the King that he did forbear to speak farther in regard to the King's Honour or Words to that Effect whereupon the King ordered him to be Committed and Sir Dudly Carlton Remonstrated the same to the Commons but upon his own and the Two Houses Compurgation that no such nor such like Words were spoken he was again discharg'd yet whoever Consults that Eloquent Harangue as Recorded by Rushworth will find it very scurvily tending that Way and thus for 20 Years following it was wholly laid asleep no one harbouring so groundless a Thought But when God curs'd this Nation with a Successful Rebellion whereby the Army got the King into their Clutches and so purg'd the House as consisting only of their own Properties they pass'd that Preludium to his Murder their Votes of no more Addresses wherein amongst many other Villanous Forg'd Accusations indeed whatever the Devil or Devils of Men could assist them withal this of King Iame's Death was one and 't is very remarkable what a doughty Topick they have to make it out delivered down by our as doughty Authors He Dissolv'd the Second Parliament to prevent their Enquiry into his Father's Death says Ludlow p. 2. And Roger Coke to the same purpose King Charles rather than this Charge should come to an Issue dissolv'd the Parliament The Defence to out-lye all that went before him tells you Divers Parliaments were dissolv'd upon that Account whereas there was but one more and this Business never mention'd therein In Answer to all which false and groundless Presumptions I shall only Request them to Consult their Friend Rushworth where they will find that Parliaments Dissolution did not in the least proceed from this or any other Articles Exhibited against the Duke who had given in his Reply and press'd for a Rejoynder that they would come to the Proof of their Common-Fame Charge wherein there appear'd not much forwardness The King on the other hand was in great Expectation of those Subsidies they had Voted and indeed only Voted for though that was done the 27 th of March yet had not the Bill been once read the 9 th of Iune by which delays his Majesties Designs with his Allies abroad were Frustrated and Honour expos'd for want of supplying them according to Treaty whereof giving Notice in a Letter they had so little regard as to fall to preparing a Remonstrance in reference to Tonage and Poundage and other such like unseasonable and unreasonable Cavils which the King understanding and esteeming as he had Cause to be a denyal of the promised Supply and finding that no
to say King Iames was very angry with Laud upon that account whereas there was no one thing he was more desirous to see accomplish'd but the Parliament Palatinate and Spanish match with some other uneasinesses to his declining Age made the prosecution thereof to be laid aside the remaining part of his Reign 5. King Charles likewise had the same uneasiness upon him the first four years of his Reign which having weather'd as well as Circumstances would admit fell to prosecute his Fathers pious intentions of a Liturgy in Scotland and therefore 't is abominably false like himself and Party in Roger Coke to say Laud had not been two months Archbishop but he advised the King to make a Reformation in the Church of Scotland whereas the Prelates of that Kingdom had been at work upon it seral years before 't is probable ever since Iames's incouragement at the Assembly of Perth This is certain 1629 four years before Laud's advance to Canterbury he was visited by a Scotch Bishop and told him it was his Majest'ys Pleasure that he should receive Instructions from some Bishops in Scotland concering a Liturgy for that Church c. Laud reply'd if his Majesty would have a Liturgy it were best to have the English but the Scotch Prelates were of a contrary opinion that their Countrymen would be better satisfied with one drawn up by their own Clergy and that resolution after some debates pro and con prevailing His Majesty commanded Laud to give them his best assistance who thereupon set himself seriously to the work having the King's Warrant for all he did And herein appears his Majesty's great Judgment in the choice as well as the Prudence of the Bishop's in procuring his assistance who as he was a most profound Divine so without doubt the exactest Ritualist these or any other Protestant Church ever had And this likewise resolves friend Roger's doubly Detection of the King 's telling Marquiss Hamilton the Archbishop was the only Englishman he entrusted with the Ecclesiastical Affairs of Scotland I wish there had been no other Brotherly assistance between the two Nations than that of these good Prelates the Covenant was carryed on in another manner 6. 'T is likewise abominably false that the High Commission was erected by his procurement or in his time although to render things the more invidious it is generally reported so by all the spiteful Crew whereas would they have consulted a Brother Libeller he could have given them better information the Libel is term'd Altare Damascenum Printed 1623 who tells us Ad Anglicani Tribunalis exemplar formatum est aliud in Scotia Anno 1616 c. whether then Establish'd or only reviv'd by King Iames I will not dispute but that such a Court there was all their Histories agree so that 't is a gross mistake in Roger Coke and no man of common sense would be guilty of it to say in this year 1635 there was a great contrivance between Arch-Bishop Laud and the Bishops in Scotland how to erect an High Commission Court by the Kings Authority There are few men so bold and dareing as though they have no Regard for truth yet nevertheless will keep a Reserve upon Reputation who fears not to do ill yet fears the name c. and realy it will be hard to find so many impudent brazenfac'd Falsehoods and Forgeries pack'd together upon any one subject whatsoever as my several pretended Authors have against this excellent Prince and his Ministers had they kept themselves to the Politicks the duty of every Historian they might have found too much matter for spiteful Wits to Carp at want of Resolution in prosecuting what was prudently design'd too much kindness to such as did not deserve it and consequently too much confidence in trusting and imploying them although as to what we are now discoursing of the Liturgy there was no defect of this kind especially on the English side for Archbishop Laud writ to his Brother of St. Andrew's that whether the English or any other was resolv'd upon they should proceed circumspectly because his Majesty had no intendment to do any thing but what was according to Honour and Iustice and the Laws of that Kingdom all which doubtless there was great regrad to the only question is as to the unseasonableness of the enterprise whether such as were continually upon the Spot might not have better discovered the temper of the People what strong prejudices they were possest withal with the several Interests and Humor 's then on foot as likewise seen further into the double dealing of such Great ones who flatter'd his Majesty in his pious intentions yet at the same time under-hand fomented the Religious Rebellion and when time serv'd headed them I thought my self oblig'd to give this brief account of Church Affairs in Scotland together with the Rise and Progress of that Liturgy the Causa Patens of their Rebellion and a very laudable one doubtless that it might the more clearly appear how basely partial false and malicious Ludlow is as to whatever he relates on that Subject for after his constant introduction of what great design 's were in hand for advancing Prerogative and Popery he adds Before any further progress should be made therein here it was thought expedient that the pulse of Scotland should be felt and they perswaded or compell'd to the like conformity To this end a form of Publick Prayer was sent to Scotland more nearly approaching the Roman Office than that us'd in England p. 6 7. To Prerogative and Popery we have already spoken which is only brought in here by way of flourish and aggravation as the main end to which all the rest were to be subservient whereas that being false what a crazy Structure are these fellows like to raise That it must certainly fall is infallible the mischief of it is 't will fall about other mens ears besides their own The charge now on foot is that they design'd to perswade or compell Uniformity a dangerous design this if it were so at the first Establishment of our Church by Queen Elizabeth and her Parliament for there we find the Liturgy was reviv'd according to that of Ed. the VI. with Articles Constitutions and Canons ay and a High-Commission erected de Novo with an Act of Uniformity too to compel such as would not be perswaded and under these excellent Constitutions our Church and State continued for more than fourscore years the Glory and Envy of the Good and Bad all Christendom thorough But then our dear Neighbours the Scots giving a helping-hand to their weak Brethren here did not design to relieve but alter this compulsion instead of Liturgy and Canons would have the Covenant and Directory the little finger whereof is heavier not only than the Loins but whole Body of our Church However they could only succeed negatively pull down what had been Establish'd the Nation were grown too much Libertines to admit of any restraint
in mind of what Plutarch relates concerning the peoples Prejudice against Metiochus Metiochus is Captain Metiochus is Surveyor Metiochus bakes the Bread c. evil day to Metiochus So crys Ludlow the Clergy advise the King the Clergy raise the Forces the Clergy pay the Army c. evil day to the Clergy whereas the only Clergyman of our Nation whom the King consulted was Bishop Laud and they that write most in vindication of Hamilton give him a very honourable Character as to whatsoever he advised in those unhappy affairs although neither he nor any of his Majesty's Faithful Loyal Subjects of either Kingdom were satisfied with those unreasonable condescentions he was wheedled into for that it was most visibly apparent the more he yielded the more insolently they persisted in further demands being so far from setting one step forward as to stand back with the greater Obstinacy and consider what was further to be insisted upon in defiance of all Honour Right and Law for as Ludlow relates The King by Commission impowered the Marquess of Hamilton to treat them into a Submission consenting to the suppression of the Liturgy High-Commission Court and Articles of Perth but the Scots insisting upon the Abolition of Episcopacy and the King refusing his consent to it they did it themselves in an Assembly held at Glasco This is a general account and which is very much and rare True but there were several Circumstances in the management thereof very considerable As first they that understood and wish'd best to the King and Kingdoms interest thought Hamilton a very improper person to be employ'd in that affair for that several of his nighest Relations were chief of the Covenant party his Mother more especially so great a Heroine as to ride with Pistols at her saddle Bow and defie both God and the King in defence of so good a cause Secondly there were several other prejudices against him which whether true or false made many honest men move with the less vigor because they expected no good Event from whatsoever he engag'd in and this was most unhappily confirmed by the Concessions he cajol'd the King into as to the Liturgy High Commission c. For after a long and fruitless Treaty with the Covenanters at Edinburgh attended with three several journeys to the English Court instead of Treating them into a Submission as Ludlow words it they Treated the King obtaining all to that time their most insolent demands What is alledg'd in his defence That he knew the Kings condition how unable he was or hard it would be to bring an Army into the Field is no ways valid for he was then as able as afterwards and delays were rather to their advantage than his and since all men of observation concluded the Scots would never give off without blows the Punctilio of first Aggressor was nonsence they never stood upon it when it would serve their turn and that their so grosly abused Sovereign should not take the best opportunity of chastising them is against all Rules of Reason and Policy whatsosoever but to speak freely the King 's great tenderness and regard to those his natural and Native Subjects as he termed them was so unfortunately misplac'd upon the most ungrateful set of people that ever trod upon God's Earth to his and their own ruine as well as all others concerned with them But if Hamilton impos'd upon the King by cajoling him into the most groundless concessions ever any Prince yielded to so doubtless the Covenanters impos'd altogether as much upon him for whether there was any correspondence between them or not as to this particular which for ought I can find remains still in the dark he could not but rationally presume it would be an eternal obligation to procure in one single Declaration a full grant of whatever all their Supplications Remonstrances Protestations c. had hitherto demanded and so indeed the Lords of the Council took it subscribing a Letter of acknowledgment to his Majesty in one of the most Rhetorical Flights I have generally met with owning that such acts of Clemency could not proceed from any Prince saving him who is the lively image of the great God Author of all Goodness Which how the most and most considerable of them kept afterwards would be unhappy to observe The Covenanters on the other side resolved to act without a vizard which they had some time before thrown quite away and for fear the People should cool and forbear assisting in the designed Rebellion repair'd to the Cross at Edinburgh erected a Scaffold under it where a great number of Earls Lords Gentlemen and others mounted with Swords in their hands and Hats on their Heads having that worthy wight Archibald Johnson who never fail'd in any villainy tho as property to Oliver Cromwell and a member in the Committee of safety to read the most Impudent Ignorant Treasonable ay and Blasphemous Protestation that ever was penn'd to make good which last charge it is there expresly affirm'd that their Covenant was seal'd from Heaven and approv'd thence by rare and undeniable Evidences whereas it looks more like a Combination from Hell the undoubted forge of all Faction Sedition and Schism Nevertheless they did not think fit to break out into open Rebellion till they had got the Blessing of their Assembly to the meeting whereof the King had likewise condescended It hath somewhat of affinity with our Convocation only in imitation of Geneva was divided into several Classes and from a Provincial choice sent up to a General These at the beginning of the Reformation play'd Rex and Pope all in one would controul and Over-rule whatever Civil Determinations they dislik'd command the King to discharge such a Minister of State otherways they would proceed to Excommunication and when once upon a time he had engag'd the Magistrates of Edinburgh to entertain the French Embassadours with which Crown he design'd to enter into Ancient Amity the little Class of that City Preachers proclaimed a Fast to be kept the same day on which three of them severaly preach'd one after another without intermisson Thundering out Curses against the Magistrates and other Noble men who attended the Embassadors Neither stay'd ther Folly here saith my Author but pursuel the Magistrates with the censures of the Church and with much difficulty were kept from Excommunication These insolencies by degrees King Iames put a Check to and for 60 years last past such assemblies were regularly summon'd in Subordination to their Bishop but now they were resolv'd to have all thrown open again and to be the surer of a Party brought the lay Elders to Vote in the Choice of their Commissioners that the sober and honest part of the Clergy which were numerous might not over Balance them in short never was any Election carry'd on with so much partiallity and confusion which continu'd all the time of their Session till the Commissioners patience was so highly
irritated as to Dissolve them whereat they were so far from being concerned as to stand in defiance thereof and indeed it seem'd to put them into their proper Post now it was right down opposition Treason all over and having none to curb them could the more confidently proceed to condemn all the Assemblies had been for 40 years before as prelimited and not Free Episcopacy to be sure must be declar'd unlawful with the like fate to the Service-Book Canons High-Commission and Articles of Perth They appointed the Covenant to be taken by all under Excommunication and then proceeded to the Process of the Bishop's notwithstanding their Declinator wherein being both Iudges and Parties they could not fail to carry all according to their Arbitrary Factious Wills Thus with three or four peremptory Votes they totally Abolished so far as power without Right can go whatever the Wisdom Prudence and Piety of Two Kings with all the sensible good men of the Nation had been for Fifty or Threescore years Establishing From this motly Assembly Ludlow proceeds and tells us That being inform'd the King was preparing an Army to compell them to obedience they agreed upon the raising some Forces to defend themselves And could they expect otherwise after such an ungrateful aswell as undutifull procedure yet notwithstanding they were always afore-hand with the King conscious of what they deserv'd provided accordingly Levy'd Forces impos'd Taxes block'd up his Majesty's Castles rais'd Fortifications c. whilst with specious pretences and Protestations they kept him in suspence though at last he could not but see into and thorough such Villanous Hypocrisies and betake himself to the Ratio Ultima Regum for which however Ludlow would have it a Bellum Episcopale the Clergy's War he had the greatest provocation upon the Civil the Temporal account that ever any Prince met withall indeed they were both intermixed and both superlatively Base take some of them as followeth 1. He could not endure that the Usurpations of an Ecclesiastical Assembly should abolish Acts of Parliament which strikes at the Foundation of Monarchy and indeed all other Government 2. To secure the three Estates of Parliament that one of them might not be destroy'd without his and the Parliaments consent 3. To punish such as have impos'd Taxes raised Forts Levied men and Arms c. all which by the Laws of the Kingdom are Acts of High Treason and Rebellion 4. To repress the Insolent Protestations of his Subjects against himself his Council Iudges Laws the constant practise of the Covenanters 5. To punish the ringleaders of Rebellion who have abused his Subjects by imposing upon them a Covenant and mutual Bond of Defence against his Majesties Person and without his consent contrary to the Laws of the Kingdom 6. To punish such as under the name of Tables or a Committee of the General Assembly shall presume to sit without his consent to order Affairs of Church and State refusing when questioned the Authority of his Majesty Council or Iudges and appealing to a General Assembly Blasphemously calling it Christ's own immediate Council and claiming a Sovereign Independency from King Council Iudges and Parliament These are some of the Reasons his Majesty himself gives for that unwilling War these furious Zealots forc'd him upon That the Clergy of England were not wanting to promote the New-Levies as Ludlow saith is true but That they were the principal Authors and Fomentors of the Troubles is absolutely False as likewise That what the Nobility and Gentry did was rather out of complement than affection to the design there was a party indeed whom the Scotch had Bit and made as Mad as themselves but all men of sound Prinples and sober judgments foresaw that the neighbour Kingdom being on Fire if good care were not taken to quench it ours might shortly catch the Flame and both be consumed together contributed with all the alacrity and satisfaction imaginable neither had there ever appear'd upon those Borders a braver Army or more resolutely bent to beat the Scotch into better manners whatever Arts were us'd to affright and intimidate them for those of that Nation in his own Family did him more mischief than the whole Covenanters Army by betraying his Counsels misrepresenting their strength and more especially letting him know how averse his Majesty was to come to the extremity otherwise his Army wanted neither power nor will at one single blow to have decided that dispute which afterward cost so many and to very little purpose 't is said that when the old Arch-bishop of St. Andrews who knew his Country-men aswell perhaps better than most others came to take his leave of his King at his setting forward to the North desired leave to give his Majesty three Advertisments before his going First that he would suffer none of the Scotch Nation to remain in his Army assuring him that they would never fight against their Country-men but rather hazard the whole by their Tergiversation The Second was That he should make a Catalogue of all his Counsellors Officers of Household and Domestick Servants expunging every one of the Scotch Nation beginning with the Bishop himself by which means he could not be accused of Partiality when a person who had served him and his Father above Sixty Years so Faithfully appear'd in the Front A third was that be must not think to win upon them by condescentions the sweetness of his disposition or Acts of Grace but resolve to reduce them to their duty by such ways of Power as God had put into his hands Thus far that wise experienced Person and his Majesty not following such wholesome advice I take to be the Origin of all his following Troubles and Ruine for the Scotch taking him now to be in good earnest and knowing how ill provided they were to make opposition having not above 3000 compleat Arms amongst them whatever flourishes those false Lowns their Countrymen made both in Court and Camp thought it requisite to divert that approaching danger they had so justly drawn upon themselves and hereupon addressed themselves to the Earl of Essex whom the King had sent before from York to take possession of Berwick to him they complained of some of their own Countrymen who had provoked the King against them protesting still their own Innocency Loyalty to the King and Affection to the English requesting him to procure a Pacification by any means whatsoever which should be thought expedient on both sides the like Address they made to the Earl of Arundel General c. Earl of Holland Lieftenant General of the Horse in whom they had a more than ordinary confidence as knowing how well that whole Family was affected to their Covenant cause and therefore not only justified themselves in their former proceedings but requested his assistance to promote their desires in a Petition tendred to his Majesty's hands By these and such-like sly Addresses his Majesty's good nature was too easily wrought upon to comply and
agree to a Pacification which being once signed he fell immediately to the Execution of every Article on his side forthwith disbanding a brave Army Govern'd by Colonels and other Officers of approved Valour and Experience mingled with the choicest of the English Gentry who stood as much upon his Honour as upon their own and were not a little concerned that having with great charge engaged themselves in this Expedition they should be suddenly dismiss'd not only without the Honour they aim'd at but without any acknowledgement of their Love and Loyalty Whereas had he retired only to a farther distance he had done as much as the Capitulation required and in all reasonable probability secur'd himself from the further stratagems of that Perfidious People and crush'd those practices at home which afterwards undermin'd his Peace and distroyed his Glories On the other-side the Ink was scarce dry which had written and sign'd the Articles of Accommodation before the Scotch had broken them almost in every particular for the Covenanters not only entred a Protestation against the Declaration agreed to but kept most of their Forces on foot in several Bodies and all their Officers in pay The Fortification of Leith was not demolish'd Their meetings Treatings and Consultations upon matters of State Ecclesiastical and Civil were continued contrary to all Law and Acts of Parliament Subscriptions to their Assembly at Glasco were enforc'd upon all the King's Subjects contrary to his Proclamation whilst all such persons as took Arms for the King are branded with the aspersion of Incendiaries and Traytors to God and their Country So likewise when their Assembly came to sit at Edinburgh they acted with more heats and Arbitrary insults than at Glasco and the Parliament which followed them stroke at all the Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown were resolved to casheer one of the Three and that formerly the first Estate of the Kingdom together with that of the Lords of the Articles A constitution of above 300 years standing and many other such intolerable insolencies and indignities as were never before put upon Crown'd heads and none but Covenanters could have done it now more especially considering those unparalelled condescentions which the King with too great kindness and confidence in his own Countrymen so distructively yeilded to What Ludlow adds further besides the falseness of the relation is so impudent a piece of villany as one would think he desir'd to out do if possible those his Dear Brethren he is so forward to Excuse in order whereunto by a pretty turn of Commonwealth artifice he transferrs one of the basest of those many Tricks the Covenanters so perfidiously put upon his Majesty and lays it at his Door the Story as he makes it stands thus Upon his the Kings return to London under colour that many false Copies of the said Articles were publish'd and dispers'd by the Scotts to the great dishonour of the King the said Agreement was disown'd and ordered to be burnt by the hands of the Hangman p. 8. Now the design of this is to insinuate especially amongst those of the Factious who not only believe but put their trust in Lyes that they were the really true Articles burnt under colour of being False as likewise that the King intended thereby to disown the Agreement whereas the Articles of Pacification were not any ways concern'd herein as the Title which the Scotts gave that Pamphlet expresly declare viz. Some conditions of his Majesties Treaty with the Subjects of Scotland before the Nobility of England are here set down for a remembrance This paper consisted of Eight points pretended to be drawn out of Notes taken upon several Discourses with the King about the manner of his Declaration and was dispersed not only in Scotland but England to confirm their own Party and draw off more from their Loyalty and Allegiance One of these were put into the Earl of Pembrooke's hands who delivered it to the K. and upon a full Examination of the matter before the Council the English Lords who were privy to the whole transaction being present it was judged very highly scandalous to his Majesty's Person Honour and Government full of Gross mistakes perverting His Majesty's Declaration and of pernicious consequence to the Peace of the Kingdom for which the Proclamation was published All which several of the Lords Commissioners at the Treaty of Pacification particularly the Earl of Holland too much their friend then afterwards avowed at Berwick to the faces of those Scotch Lords who were believed the divulgers the Lords of the Council of Scotland being there likewise present upon the full consideration of which premises the whole Board unanimously petitioned his Majesty that this false and scandalous Paper might be publickly burnt by the Hangman And here I appeal to any Reader who hath not totally abdicated all integrity whether these two relations are not as irreconcileable as Light and Darkness as likewise whether any but one of that infernal brood could so vilainously transfer an express matter of fact which when detected the Covenanters themselves blushed at for when the King charged their Commissioners at London with so base a forgery Lowdon and the rest of them reply'd They had no Instructions to answer for that and those at home had better have said nothing than make so lame an excuse as that verbal grants made by the King might be supposed to contract the signed Articles Nay those grants too were of their own forging or perverting Ludlow having thus expressed his base endeavours to bring them off here 't is much he did not go forward and give his helping hand in justifying that Letter several of the Covenant Grandees did send to the King of France the Original whereof coming to his Majesty's own hands subscribed amongst others by Lowdon then Commissioner at London he was committed to the Tower which made the whole Covenanting pack open lowder than ever both as to a general justification of the thing considering they were threatned to be punished for their Rebellion and for Lowdon in particular he ought to have been return'd they said and uncloathed of his Commission ere his Majesty could question him as if the Law of Nations which indeed secures the Ministers of Foreign Princes and requires an appeal to their own Masters upon any affront or other misdemeanor should oblige a Sovereign Prince not to question and commit his own Subjects upon fresh discovery of more palpable Treasons though in Commission from his fellow Rebels yet nothing would satisfie them but setting him at perfect liberty and so sent home to be try'd in a legal way by the ordinary Iudicatures of the Land where the King might expect just such an Issue as of a Thief at the Old Baily from the Award of a Iury out of Newgate however in this also his Majesty humor'd their Insolencies and discharg'd Lowdon not without some private assurance of Secret Service which was perform'd vpse Covenanter But this was
the last Act of compliance his Majesty conceded to for now his eyes were thoroughly opened oh that they had been sooner and clearly discover'd how they were resolved not only upon the lessening of his Prerogative but to over-rule and absolutely destroy every branch of his Sovereign Power whereto things were not ripe at first till having by the cunning of their Protestations Treaties and Pacification imposed upon his Clemency and got time to strengthen themselves at home and improve their interest herein England they now resolv'd not to let slip so fair an opportunity but without farther hesitation fall directly to work and give his Majesty a full conviction that as the Satyrist afterward exprest it 't was neither Gold nor Grace but steel must tame the stubborn Scot and that this only remedy was not made use of when the King had so advantageous an opportunity I find passionately complain'd of by that great Clergy-man Ludlow is so inveterately piquant against His Majesty saith he would not beleeve though often told the Northern Commotions had their root in England and were carryed on by a powerful Faction in both Nations till after much intercourse and mediation cast away he was betray'd by his own Agents and when the second volume of his Troubles comes forth which hath been some years printed off we shall find something like a Detection of those unhappy times for I am told it contains a great intercourse of Letters about the Liturgy and other Scotch Affairs and then these our Scriblers these Retailers of Libels if possible will be more contemptible amongst all men of truth and goodness than they are at present although now it must be own'd how justly they all deserve that Character which Roger Cook fixeth upon the Scotch Covenanters in general of an insolent faithless railing sort of men And here Ludlow begins to triumph at the King's disappointments telling as how he hoped a Parliament would espouse his quarrel and furnish him with money for carrying on his disign but they fell upon Greivances c. and so were disolved p. 9. Truly the King had just reason to expect the Parliament should have joyned with him in a due resentment of those many insolencies that violent people put upon him particularly the Letter they were sending to the King of France and assisted him in reducing them to their due Allegiance and some were very prone to think had not the King been betray'd by his own Minister his Secretary things might have been carried with much more temper than before or to be sure in that which followed for it consisted of many worthy Gentlemen and doubtless must be somewhat the better that never a Ludlow was there nor Father nor Son and had there been none of the Vanes so related all things might have gone well but old Sir Henry demanding twelve Subsidies for the Kings present Exigencies stood so peremptorily thereupon without falling down to six as ordered a cursed piece of Treachery in that unworthy man as afterward appear'd from the rest of his and his Sons actions the House fell into so violent a heat as they could never after be brought to temper again but on the contrary were resolv'd the morning of their Dissolution to Vote against the War with Scotland which forc'd an unwilling precipitation thereof and this had been as well for Ludlow's turn as to say it was because they first fell upon Grievances whereas both Houses had superseded them to a Supply and the King in return promised to acquit his claim of Shipmoney but when men have habituated themselves to untruths it may be a curse upon them not to relate what is right though it would better serve the turn and salve their Reputation The Parliament thus standing out we are told how the Earl of Strafford and the rest of his Council advis'd the King to make use of other means for a supply as appear'd by the Minutes of the Secretary of State taken at the Cabal and produc'd at the Tryal of the said Earl the Sum of whose Advice as Ludlow relates shall be considered hereafter and justify'd in the mean while we may observe how just that Secretary Sir H. V. was to his Oath of Secrecy as a Privy Councellor and faithful to his Prince who advanc'd him altho' the discovery tended only to his own Shame and eternal Infamy of himself and Son All the imaginable ways us'd to raise Supplys as Ludlow most invidiously reckons them up were no more than what several Kings and Queens have done before upon like Exigencies yet his then Majesty found great difficulties therein by reason of those strange prejudices and prepossessions wherewith the Scotch Leven had sowred too many of all Qualities and Degrees And hence it was the Covenanters got the start of his Majesty's Army and were come to Newcastle before that was strong enough to oppose them For whatever Ludlow relates of a considerable Party of English and Scotch encountring and that the former contrary to their wonted custom retired in disorder not without Shame and some Loss And then makes his reflection Of such force and consequence is a belief and full perswasion of the Iustice of an undertaking tho' managed by an Enemy in other respects inconsiderable p. 10. How inconsiderable the Enemy were in this Rencounter will appear from this that there was the whole Scotch Army above 20000 against 3000 Foot and 1500 Horse for no more did that little Body of English there consist of who notwithstanding the Common Soldiers were new rais'd men kept their Posts till the Sconces were beaten down by the Canon and when thereupon the Foot retired in some disorder the Horse brought up the Rear with great Gallantry and Resolution against the whole Scottish force till opprest with number and environed round they submitted to the Destiny of the day some Officers being slain and others taken Prisoners and as there is no doubt but these worthy Gentlemen had a full perswasion of the Iustice of their Undertaking so had our Author had the least regard to the Iustice of an Historian he must have ascrib'd the last to the disproportion of force neither can he take it ill if I assume the same liberty and upon much juster grounds affirm That this first attempt was the last good success they ever met with in all their other Enterprises they were shamefully bafled as when they came to assist their Brother Rebels in 44 that Body of theirs quitted the Field the first of any for being placed in the Rear took that opportunity of getting away though not running fast enough were miserably trodden down by their own Parties And afterwards when Duke Hamilton came with a much more plausible pretence Their Rout in Cheshire was most notorious without the least shew either of Courage or Conduct and so likewise when the English were Aggressors from the first Action at Dunbar to the total Subjection of the whole Nation which then I believe Ludlow may
free exercise of their Religion and the abolition of such Laws as render the Catholicks uncapable of any Office Place Commodity or Profit to the extraordinary decay of their Estates Education and Learning From whence it is clear That tho' the design was laid before yet as to the Conduct and Management thereof they exactly copyed their Neighbours the Scots and the Devil could not furnish them with any other Precedent more proper for their Design The King likewise was proportionably abus'd in his Concessions and Favours for the leading men in this Rebellion having appear'd against the great Earl of Strafford and been countenanc'd by our violent Factions here in their Complaints of Grievance and Heavy Impositions the Lords Iustices who were then in the Supream Power must be order'd to caress the Gentlemen and comply in whatever insolent demands they should insist upon by which means some of the Popish Lawyers Members of that House of Commons the better to carry on that Rebellion they had in design were so impudent as to lay down these Maxims and vouch them for Law 1. That any one being killed in Rebellion tho' found by matter of Record would give the King no forfeiture of Estate 2. That tho' many thousands stood up in Arms working all manner of Destruction yet if they profess not to rise against the King that it was no Rebellion 3. That if a man were Outlaw'd for Treason and his Land rested in the Crown or given away by the King his Heir might come afterwards be admitted to reverse the Outlawry and recover his Ancestor's Estate These and many such like Rebel Tenents were publish'd that Session after the Murder of the Earl of Strafford an abundant confirmation how requisite his strict Hand was for such a loose People which to astonishment the Government did not see or would not take notice of till the Knife was at their Throats and many thousands of them cut although they must have all a-long observ'd how uneasie the Irish had been under their Conquest tho' better govern'd perhaps than had it been in their own hands how strangely influenc'd by their Priests and bigotted upon that account so that they might alledge the same pretence of Religion and Property with their Neighbours and have just the same reason to Rebell that is none at all But that which surpriseth me most is that these People should have liberty to sit in Parliament Comptrol and Vote against whatever Sanctions had been or were farther to be enacted in order to keep them the better in subjection the freedom of their Consciences might surely have been thought enough but the Freedom of Governing too must bring all to confusion as it here happen'd to a horrid degree But 't is not my Province to take notice of this or any of their other Rebellions farther than the Reputation and Memory of our Royal Sufferer is concern'd whose treatment as to these Irish Affairs was more barbarous and inhumane than all the rest as well from the Forgeries on their side to inveigle and abuse the People as the villainous spreading of them here where it requir'd some time to procure a right Information We must know therefore That when the Faction here had actually drawn their Sword against their Sovereign amongst many other Calumnies and Detractions laid to his charge in the several Declarations and Answers they sent abroad there were few without some secret Reflections as if the Rebellion in Ireland began by his Knowledge and Connivance from which intimations their impudent Agents and Emissaries the allow'd Scriblers and News Prints the Pest of that and all other Ages where permitted would have those many Massacres and Murders laid at his Door which the Good Man's Heart more unfeignedly lamented than all the Members of both Houses Nevertheless as His Majesty himself foretold concerning the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies his Reputation like the Sun after Owls and Batts have had their Freedom in the Night and darker times brake forth and recover'd it self to such a degree of Splendor as those Feral Birds griev'd to behold and were unable to bear for as no good man believ'd any of those Calumnies at first so the next return or two of Post or Ship they were blown away with the same Wind which brought them hither and the Faction forc'd to rack their Wits for a fresh reproach wherewith the Devil never fail'd to supply them But that after several years of happy Sunshine another Sett of those nasty Birds should appear again hooping and howling the same notorious falsehoods to a Generation which was not then born and too little considering the mischiefs then wrought looks very ominous and God grant it doth not bode a greater darkness than any we then lay under The first reproach which this false and feather Bird Ludlow howls forth against the King is That whilst in Scotland he had News of the Irish Rebellion how the Papists throughout the Kingdom were in Arms c. and then closeth the Relation with this Villainous hearsay The News of this Rebellion as I have heard from persons of undoubted Credit was not displeasing to the King though it was attended with the Massacre of many thousands of the Protestants there p. 17. Though we are not to take his word for the Credit of the persons who related this yet we may take our measures from his relation that they were equally to be credited with himself that is not all for all this is gratis dictum without the least Authority any thing of a reason or so much as probable conjecture for so hellish an Aspersion Whereas there is express matter of Fact even to demonstration that never any thing more sensibly affected him in that upon the first notice thereof he sent Sir Iames Stewart to the Lords of the Privy-Council at Dublin with Instructions what he thought most proper to be done and furnish'd them with all that Money his present stores could supply He mov'd also the Parliament in Scotland to a speedy help but they desir'd to be excus'd till the States of England were consulted who if they thought fit to use any of their men propositions should be made in order thereunto designing to make a Market to themselves of their Neighbour Nations miseries wherein notwithstanding many of their own Countrymen were concerned At the same time likewise he sent Post to the Parliament of England where several Resolves were taken and Votes made but little effectually done till the King's Return To speak truly had Ludlow's reflection been made upon them there had been much more Credit for it since they laid hold of all advantages thereby not only to slander and abuse his Majesty but to help themselves forward in that Rebellion they were just ripe for acting as will by and by be made appear With the same Owl-light Credit he proceeds and tells us About this time great numbers of English Protestants flying from the Bloody hands
of the Irish Rebels arrived in England filling all places with the sad complaints of their Cruelties whereupon the Parliament earnestly press'd the King to proclaim them Rebels but could not obtain it to be done till many weeks and then but forty of those Proclamations were Printed and not above half of them Published which was the more observ'd and resented by reason of the different treatment the Scotch had met with who no sooner appear'd in a much better cause but they were forthwith declared Rebels in every Parish Church within the Kingdom p. 19. A very plausible story but for want of one thing and that is Truth whereof it hath not the least Syllable For first the Parliament never press'd the King for a Proclamation Secondly the Fourty Proclamations printed were not for this Kingdom but Ireland So that Thirdly there could be no ground of resentment upon the Scotch account but by such pick-thank fellows as Ludlow and his Party In short the matter of Fact stands exactly thus The Parliament as they were very inquisitive to catch at every thing which might give them an advantage against the Court having underhand information that a Warrant was sent to the Printer for the foremention'd Proclamations to be forthwith provided open'd very loud upon it Why so few Why no sooner c. The Printer was summon'd the Warrant produc'd and a mighty bustle made as generally the cry is greatest where the least Wool In the midst of which heats the Secretary of State gave this account of the matter that the Proclamations were printed at the Request of the Lords Iustices and Privy-Council in Ireland who desir'd to have twenty sign'd by his Majesty's own hand and no more who nevertheless order'd forty and sent them accordingly I do not remember the cause was given to the Parliament why so sign'd But 't is probable to invalidate that forg'd Commission whereto they had fix'd the Kings Broad-Seal granted to a private person upon a Title of Land Otherwise there had been Proclamations several from the first day the Rebellion broke out in Ireland the only place where requisite But why not in England as well as against the Scotch as our Author insinuates whereto I reply First the Scotch had seiz'd upon at leastwise assum'd the Administration of the whole Civil Power so that no Proclamation could come out against them there Secondly they had too many abettors in England who encourag'd them to begin and were resolv'd to follow the first opportunity So that thirdly the Proclamation must come from hence or not at all and was equally requisite against both What he adds farther of the Scotch being the much better Cause is only the private opinion of a fellow Rebel they were both so bad as upon an impartial scanning it would puzzle their Infernal Patron to tell which was worst Having had the confidence to averr two such impudent falshoods as aforementioned 't is strange how he comes to mince the matter so much as to the third and tell us the Rebels in Ireland pretended a Commission from the K. for what they did and his Abstract the Defence gives indeed a Copy therefore but withal goes no farther than that it was said to be given by the King to his Catholick Subjects in Ireland p. 14. Whereas there was no one Slander more confidently thrown abroad than that and continued longer nay I have met with several Fanaticks within these few years who still take it for an undoubted truth and what they have so long entertain'd nothing but the final Iudgment can make them renounce Once for all therefore to silence this Infamous Calumny we must know the Commonalty of the Native Irish having liv'd a long time in Peace and Amity with the English were not without some Reverence to that Government and so could not in plain and direct terms be easily led into an avowed Rebellion against their King whereupon their leaders Phelim Oneil c. were forced to perswade them that they took up Arms for the King and the Defence of his Lawful Prerogative against the Puritanical Parliament in England who had invaded it in many parts and that what they did was by his Majesty's Approbation and Authority And to gain the greater Credit to that Fiction they produc'd a Commission whereto the Broad-Seal taken from a private grant was affix'd as aforesaid which made it no difficult matter to perswade rude and unexperienced people to believe it real all which in a short time was clearly detected as well by several Irish Rebels taken Prisoners as English Protestants who escap'd their fury particularly Dr. Maxwell a Reverend Scotch Divine against which Nation they were not so Savagely cruel as the English in his Examination and Deposition upon Oath at Dublin which was sent too into England declar'd That he whilst their Prisoner expostulated with them for abusing the King in so gross a manner To whom they reply'd That in all Wars Rumors and Lyes serv'd many times to as good purpose as Arms and that they wou'd not disclaim any advantage But to silence for ever that horrid Scandal of his Majesty's Commission we have an unexceptionable Evidence and Proof which will not only clear him but render our Author Ludlow were there nothing else against him a much worse Man than the bloody'st Wretch in the whole Irish Rebellion In the Year 52 our English Regicides having very nigh compleated their Conquest Erected what they termed an High-Court of Iustice in Ireland to hear and determine all Murthers and Massacres of any Protestant English or other Person or Persons whatsoever within that Nation where amongst many others the Iustice and Mercy of Heaven had reserv'd Sir Phelim Oneil to receive his deserved Doom at whose Arraignment Sentence and Execution another Reverend Divine one Dr. Ker since Dean of Ardagh by God's great good Providence was present and makes a full Deposition thereof As where the Court was kept what Iudges sat what Witnesses sworn the many Murthers and Robberies prov'd c. After which he comes to this material Evidence as to the present matter That one of the Iudges whose name he had forgot Examined Sir Phelim about a Commission he should have had from Charles Stewart as the Iudge thought fit to term late King for levying the said War he was charg'd with Sir Phelim made Answer he never had any such Commission whereupon it was prov'd in Court by the Testimony of one Ioseph Traverse and others that Sir Phelim had such a Commission and did in the beginning of the Rebellion shew the same unto the said Ioseph and several others then in Court. Upon which Sir Phelim confess'd that when he surpriz'd the Castle of Charlemont and the Lord Caulfield that he ordered one Mr. Harrison a Witness there and another Gentleman to cut off the Kings Broad-Seal from a Patent of the said Lords they then found in Charlemont and affixt it to a Commission Sir Phelim had ordered to
care taken of them as 't is beyond expression to relate how miserably they suffered for want of Victuals Stores Clothes Pay indeed whatever was requisite to their subsistence as Men or accommodation as Soldiers The Parliament being so wholly intent upon their English Rebellion could spare no time nor charge to prosecute that just War upon which scandalous neglect all Parties concerned more especially the Commanders and Soldiers earnestly begg'd leave of the King that they might be remov'd and engag'd against any Enemy whatsoever but Hunger And this amongst other inducements was the chief of that Cessation Ludlow inveighs so bitterly against p. 65. as likewise that the Earl of Leicester staid so long and did not go at last for he was always hastned by the K. and every thing restor'd more than he had occasion for or was really design'd thither But he meeting with many complaints from thence and observing how difficult it was to get a Supply by his Solicitation here and how much worse when gone thither upon that account did not stir What Ludlow further saith as to the Cessation that the King agreed to it contrary to his Engagement with both Houses not to treat with the Rebels unless they concurred p. 65. is of no validity that agreement was before the English were in actual Rebellion and his Majesty thought such compliance might prevent it but falling out otherwise 't is a pretty Supposition that when a Prince hath two Nations in Rebellion he must ask the one whether he shall treat with the other 'T is also absolutely false that this Cessation in Ireland induced the Parliament to treat with their Friends in Scotland to march to their assistance into England 't was the Prospect thereof induced the King to the Cessation which he was always advised of that notwithstanding the Condescentions he had yielded to and Protestations made by them they design'd only to take breath and would be ready at the first clinking of the English Money and if they had pretended no more there might have been something said as they were men of Fortune by way of Apology that having not repented their Rebellion the Lucre thereof might oblige their continuance but to continue the making Religion their property to Rebel against their King for imposing the English Liturgy or somewhat like it and now invade his Kingdom to impose their cursed Covenant is such a procedure as none but their own Country can give an instance of At Uxbridge Treaty the Irish concern was one main head wherein the Parliament as indeed in all other matters were so refractory and haughty as to exclude the King from being any ways concerned either in the management of War or Peace he must not so much as nominate his Deputy or one single Officer which therefore coming to an end without effect his Majesty had all the reason in the world to press that Cessation into a Peace wherein the Duke of Ormond and several of his Friends there were imploy'd as likewise Commissioners from them treating at Oxon but what with the Nuncio's Insolence and Bigottry of the Ecclesiasticks all came to nothing whereas would that Priest-ridden Nation have understood their own Interest and acted for their safety they might have expiated somewhat for their former bloodshed whereof many of their own Party were very much asham'd obtain'd a reasonable Liberty of Conscience with other immunities and prevented that utter desolation they were afterwards so justly brought into On the contrary they shuffled at such an idle rate play'd the Bogtrotters in Politicks too imposing upon every necessity they saw his Majesty really or likely to be under and so shuffled off and on till they lost him and in him themselves to a most deplorable condition as bloody Savages as they were And if there yet wants a farther confirmation of this our Martyr's Integrity and Detestation as to the premisses take this farther account Dr. Nalson in the Preface to his Collections mentions a Letter still to be seen in the Paper Office intercepted by a Party of the Parliament Army very much a propo it was from the Lord Digby by the Kings order to the Irish Catholicks as they must be termed or no treating with them wherein he lets them know how prejudicial their standing off had been to his Affairs and most prophetically foretells that Destruction the prosperous Rebels here wou'd bring home to their own doors Declaring withal that were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any concessions of so much wrong to his Honour and Conscience and yet his Affairs were now at a very low Ebb this being written soon after the Fatal blow at Naseby The Dr. relates farther that he found this Letter had been before the Committee which perus'd such as might most expose the King by being Printed and Indors'd with Rushworth's own hand that faithful Collector of whatever tends to Treason and Mischief Quere as to the Printing this Letter and a little after needless to be Printed 'T is much they did not order it to the Fire since 't is an irrefragable Testimony of the most unbyassed Sincerity any but the King of Kings could propound to walk by and this will stifle the last Effort of our Author 's rancorous spite in reference to the Irish Affairs who tells us the Earl of Glamorgan was impowred by private Instructions to promise the Liberty of the Romish Religion with diverse other advantages to the Irish Rebels c. P. 163. the Earl of Glamorgan was a zealous Romanist and had put himself very forward to be tampering in that Affair but still the Marquiss of Ormond was Supream in that Government and finding him to exceed his Commission confined him as Guilty of High-Treason and whatever he writ to his Lady had not all things gone to confusion would never have been able to justifie his proceedings nor Ludlow that vile suggestion that the Officers and Soldiers in Dublin obliged the Marquess of Ormond to treat with the Parliament Commissioners for putting that City into their hands P. 164. I know not what flam stories Sir Francis Willoughby might think to gratify Ludlow withall when he was Paramount in Ireland but cannot believe it was in his power to deliver that Castle without the Marquess's consent To be sure the whole matter was adjusted between the King and him some time before things came to the Extremity for we find in Doctor Burlace this intimation of his Majesty's pleasure That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he should rather put them into the hands of the English than the Irish which was accordingly done An Evidence even to Demonstration that though the King treated with the Irish and might
of his he declares How in all those Propositions little or nothing could be observ'd of any Laws dis-joynted which ought to be restor'd of any Right invaded of any Justice obstructed of any Compensations to be made of any impartial Reformation to be granted to all or any of which Reason Religion and true Policy or any other Humane Motives might induce him But the main Matters propounded in which is either great Novelty or Difficulty relate to what were formerly look'd upon as Factions in the State or Schisms in the Church and so punishable by the Laws though now they have the Confidence by vulgar Clamors and Assistance to demand not only Toleration of themselves in their Vanity Novelty and Confusion but also Abolition of the Laws against them and a total Extirpation of that Government whose Rights they have a mind to invade Thus solidly did his Majesty refel the little Rebel Flourishes of the Westminster Iunto and therefore no wonder they were deliver'd to the King without Success they knew before-hand he had more Honor and Conscience than to grant them otherwise would not have caus'd them to be presented and if he thought as Ludlow would perswade us he did as good terms as these might be obtain'd if reduc'd to the last Extremity he had great Reason so to do for doubtless no one breathing did then so much as dream of or imagin that execrable Act their continu'd draughts of Blood did in the end prompt them unto In which unnatural Broils of State Parricide and Domestick Fury as I shall concern my self no further than this base Fellow and his Comrades reflect upon the Memory of our Royal Martyr So I cannot but observe his Design hath been all along hitherto to manage his Lyes with so much Art and Cunning as to make the King according to the Procedure of their horrid High Court of Iustice the first Agressor and Promoter of the War The Parliament were as Innocent as an Assembly of so many Devils and desir'd only to do with him and his Kingdoms his Queeu Children and his Friends as they pleas'd which his Stubbornness refusing the Charge their Insolencies had assum'd to themselves resolv'd to force him as they really did which yet he Ludlow would have turn'd upon them What I shall first mention tho' there are several such like Hints before is p. 16. The King having laid his Designs in Ireland as will afterward appear was not without great Difficulty prevail'd upon by the Parliament to consent to the Disbanding those eight Thousand Irish Papist that had been rais'd there by the Earl of Strafford How far that Army was from being Irish Papists will appear from this that all the Irish Grandees of that Perswasion agreed with the Faction in our two Houses here to promote the Disbanding that Army which had it been kept on Foot the Rebellion could not have Succeeded there nor consequently here The next Instance I shall give is p. 22. The King 's violent Ways not succeeding he fell upon other Measures in appearance more moderate c. What violent Ways were these Why those few Inns of Court and other Gentlemen who proffer'd their Attendance to secure him from the Insolency of the Tumults which this bad Man for whom no bad Name is bad enough takes no Notice of though got up to that prodigious hight as the King could not think those and all his other Friends able to secure him at White-Hall In like manner upon his Majesty's demanding the Five Members p. 25. The Parliament-sensible of this Violation of their Priviledges and fearing they might be further intrenched upon c. a strong Violation that to demand Traytors to Iustice but 't was their Interest to oppose it otherwise they might have all follow'd For having related after their many other Usurpations how well the Parliament approv'd Sir Iohn Hotham's Conduct declaring he had done well in denying the King admittance into Hull 't is added next Paragraph p. 29. The Parliament began now to provide for the securing of all Places whereas there was not a Place of any Importance they had not secur'd before even to York it self in which by his Majesty 's too great Passiveness they had a Committee to observe and beard all his Undertakings And this brings me to the last Instance of this modest Man's Veracity p. 38. The King having set up his Standard at Nottingham the 24th of August 1642 for he tells us to a Day and 't is well he doth The Parliament thought themselves oblig'd to make some Preparations to defend themselves whereas in the Paragraph immediately precedent he declar'd how the Fire began to break out in the West what success the Earl of Bedford had there upon the Parliament Account and how the Governour of Portsmouth declaring for the King that was besieg'd and reduc'd by their Forces And for a fuller Testimony of this let us compute the time of raising these Forces Essex under pretence of a Guard to the Parliament had been levying Men all that Spring on the tenth of Iune the Order past both Houses for the Citizens to bring in their Plate to carry on the War which they did most zealously on the 9th of September Essex march'd out of London in a great deal of Pomp having all his Masters attending him 16000 strong very little more than a Fortnight after the King set up his Standard where there did not appear the fourth part of the foremention'd Number But the Parliament had got that common artifice of all bad Men to cry Whore first as the Proverb expresses it inflame the Peoples Minds with Dangers and Designs that the King intended to levy War against them whereas 't was design'd against the King who most solemnly declar'd from York how far his Desires and Thoughts were from it and had this attested by more than forty Lords then with him how they saw no t any colour of Preparations or Counsels that might reasonably beget the Belief of any such Design and were fully perswaded his Majesty had no such intention But when he understood what preparations they were making at London and indeed every where else that Hotham had deny'd him Hull and Essex was coming to take him from his Evil Counsellors then he thought himself oblig'd to make some preparations for himself that I may turn Ludlow's impudent Falshood into Truth But suppose the King had begun sooner as 't is great pity he did not exerted the just right of his Prerogative and sovereign Power against the many encroachments they daily made and unknown Priviledges they constantly assum'd all the Laws of God and Man would have born him out therein For most Men of Sense long before the Sword was drawn clearly discover'd nothing would satisfy them but a total Subversion of the whole Government An honest Gentleman expostulating with Mr. Hambden upon the King 's many Concessions what they could expect further he reply'd they expected he should commit himself and all that
was his to their care an exact Moral of what the Wolves propounded that if the Sheep would put away their Dogs they would be very careful of their Preservation and though the Proposal did not take yet the Design was carryed on and the Nation most abominably worryed the just Judgment of Heaven giving way to the cursed credulity of an infatuated People who could take none but Wolves for their Protectors As I have already declar'd to be no further concern'd in this dismal Scene of Blood and Slaughter than the Memory and Honour of our Royal Martyr is concern'd so I must further add that whatever Relations our Author makes as to any particular Battle or other considerable war-like Action is so Lame Partial and False as the Diurnals of those times which nevertheless ly'd most abominably on each side may pass for Authentick History in comparison with him But then for his own dear Self as to the Defence of Warder Castle and other little Atchievements in Willshire and elsewhere in which too generally his rashness brought him by the Lee the account he gives is so vain and fulsome trivial and tedious that 't is hard to resolve whether he makes the greater Discovery of his Pride or Folly to be sure they are both very transcendent The Vindicator of Ol. Cr. exposes him very briskly for those many impertinent Panigyricks upon himself and will have it a plain Demonstration of the Narrowness of his Soul and the Lowness of his Genius and I fancy he might have added the Insolency of his Temper To confirm what I said of a lame and partial Account of Things his Relation of that first Battle at Edge-Hill is a full Testimony where this Man of Iron owns himself at a loss from his Troop at the beginning and tells little but his own wanderings up and down to find them Yet by all means the Victory must be theirs and there was a great Defect somewhere the Fight was not renew'd next Day whereas such as were in it had enough the Day before and he intimates as much by saying that Prince Rupert taking advantage of the Disorder our own Horse had put the Foot into press'd upon them with such Fury that he put them to Flight And then adds If the time which he spent in pursuing them too far and plundering the Waggons had been employ'd in taking such Advantages as offer'd themselves in the Place where the Fight was it might have prov'd more serviceable to the carrying on the Enemies Designs p. 50. Which is very modestly express'd because to the King's prejudice otherwise he might have said had not the Prince been guilty of that gross oversight Neglect or Rashness for 't was all in one that Day had in great Probability put an end to the Dispute the Army had never return'd to their Masters at Westminster nor our Author any occasion to trouble the World with the impertinency of his Memoirs for to speak-freely yet nothing but Truth the Princes indescretions of that Kind his great Courage and little Conduct in whatsoever Battles he engag'd in conduc'd more to the discomfiture of the King 's just Cause than all the Rebel Forces or whatever other Arm of Flesh appear'd against him as may be further on observ'd However that their Advantage was not considerable appears from what he further adds that the Army return'd to London not like Men that had obtained a Victory but as if they had been beaten p. 52. which is a shrewd Circumstance that they were so and to that he joyns another every way as considerable upon the King 's advance with part of his Army to Maydenhead or there abouts for it was really Colebrook and those seven Miles were a considerable Addition to his approach the Parliament sent to him to assure him their earnest Desire to prevent the effusion of more Blood and to procure a right understanding between his Majesty and them A certain Omen they were not much transporteed with the Victory this being the first last time they began a Motion for Peace He goes on The King profess'd in his Answer to desire nothing more upon which they thought themselves secure whereas the next Day he took the Advantage of a Mist and March'd within half a Mile of Brandford before discover'd c. p. 53. and beat off what Forces were there though he tells us they made a brave Defence This coming by way of surprise he calls Treachery and all the Round-heads about Town made a loud Clamor upon the King's forfeiture of his Royal Word whereas upon enquiry all the Trick and Treachery was on their side for as they propounded no Cessation of Arms in their Petition so the King had News brought that Essex was drawing his Forces and Ordinance out of London towards him so that without seizing Brandford their Forces at Windsor Kingston and Acton might have hemm'd him in and his Army depriv'd both of Moveing or Subsisting So that after a tedious Paper Scuffle upon the Matter the Parliament were forc'd to own That they gave direction to the Earl of Essex to draw the Army out of London and that part of it was at Brandford whilst the Committee was with the King and conscious to themselves of a just exception cautiously add That they sent a Messenger to know whether his Majesty intended forbearance of Hostility but he found them in fight and could not pass Brandford So that having kept up the Ferment among their City Gulls by the foremention'd Slander which our impudent Author calls the treacherous Design of the late Expedition they again sent Propositions to Oxford being the same in effect with those delivered at York but they found no better Reception than the others had done p. 56. Neither did they expect otherwise or indeed desire considering the insolency of their Demands which the King tells them in his Answer Had he not given up all the Faculties of his Soul to an earnest endeavour of Peace and Reconciliation c. he could not but resent their heavy Charges and not suffer the Reproaches cast upon him The whole procedure of that Treaty may be seen in Whitlock's Memoirs who treats the King like a Gentleman and speaks Truth where himself was concern'd for neither of which this our Brute hath the least Regard nay seems wilfully to defy both I must not here omit what that scribling Fellow K. Ch. No Saint nor Martyr alledges That he took a most Bloody and Treacherous Advantage of the Parliament's Army near Colebrook whilst he was under Treaty at Uxbridge with them p. 4. whereas the Treaty at Uxbridge was more than Two Years after Would the present Age be content with such licentious Impudence to Characterise and expose them in the next In this Year 43 our Governor of Warder Castle before he falls upon his great Charge and weighty Atchievements there gives a cursory Relation of what pass'd in other Parts In the Spring he saith our Army was Master of the Field The
King making it his Business to be on the defensive till the Queen should arrive with an Army to his assistance p. 58. and when her Army was come with other Necssaries of War the King was in the hopefullest Condition of the whole Four Years for so long the contest was in dispute and had there not been Neglect Treachery or both amongst his Councils either of State or War he had unnestled the Rebels at London and put a final End to any further Blood-shed but what in due course of Law such Villanies deser'vd In relating how the Earl of Essex took Reading it must not be omitted that Sir Arthur Ashton a Papist was Governour therof to which I shall add that Sir Arthur had been brought up a Soldier in Foreign Wars a Person of good Experience who as soon as he found we were running into his Bloody Profession proffer'd his Service to the King more than once who as often reply'd that the Faction had brought such a Slander upon him in reference to those of his Perswasion it would much prejudice his Cause to imploy him at length he came to the King and shewed him a Letter wherein Essex profferd him a Command in the Parliament Army and told his Majesty plainly that he was a Soldier of Fortune and that if he could not be entertained on the one side he would betake himself to the other and by this Means he became Governour of Reading for the Parliament as they had several Papists in their Service so 't was nothing but a vile Interest made them reject the rest force them into the King's Quarters that they might have the benefit of their Estates and the King the Odium of their Company In the mean while I would gladly know whether a Loyal Papist be not a better Man ay and Christian too than a Rebel Protestant to be sure Ludlow and his Gang agreed with them in the most exploded and pernicious Doctrine was ever laid to their Charge and what but few of them and that very clandestinely have maintain'd viz. that of Deposing and Murdering Kings for which Reason I look upon him as a baser Man than Fryar Iacob or Ravillac and the whole set of Regicides the most abominable Assembly that ever met since the Scribes and Pharisees preferr'd Barabbas to be sure they brought upon the Reformation the greatest Reproach Hell its self could suggest and yet for ought I see not only the Reproach but the Practice is like to continue Though Essex was Master of the Field in Spring the King had the Command all Summer his Forces making so great a Progress in the West as to take Exeter Bristol and many other considerable places give a total defeat to Sir Will. Waller at Devizes and so clear'd all those Parts from any Enemy in a Body as indeed they had none at London hereupon it was debated in several Councils of War and private Cabals whether was best to march directly thither or to stay and take Glocester first the only place of any considerable Strength which remain'd to the Enemy in those Parts the general Vogue went for the March and very considerable Reasons urg'd for it both Essex's and Waller's Armies were crumbled away the City of London in Mutiny an Insurrection in Kent for the King the Lords voting a Treaty and the Commons in dismal Frights On the other side it was urg'd how ill it would look to leave such a place behind them that 't was ill situated and not well fortified or provided with Men so that a few Days would certainly make the King Master thereof long before the Enemy could get a Recruit much less March so far to relieve it Of this Perswasion was Prince Rupert and most of the Sword-men which made some suspect they fear'd the War would be done too soon and were the more confirm'd therein for that the Siege was carryed on at such a slow rate so that after a whole Month of precious time lost and Essex appearing unexpectedly with a considerable Army they were forc'd to raise the Siege I have been told a Passage much credited by honest Gentlemen in those times that a little before the King made that fatal halt a certain Peer finding Essex very pensive in the Lords Lobby ask'd him how Affairs went He reply'd very ill and they must be all ruin'd unless the King could be induc'd to lie down before Glocester which he hop'd by one Engine to bring about what or who that Engine was the World is yet to learn but that there were too many such about his Majesty appear'd in most undertakings he engag'd in Neither was the Battle upon their Retreat at Newberry so advantagiously manag'd as it might have been for the Royal Army having happily got Possession of the Town and consequently stood in their way to London should have been wholly upon the Defensive so plac'd their Artillery and lin'd the Hedges that the difficulty should have been on the Enemy's side to force their Passage which they must either have done or starv'd for to my certain information in the Village where they were oblig'd to stop two Miles West of the Town they had neither Bread nor Drink not somuch as Water it having been a dry Season the Ponds were little else than Puddle the Springs low and the few Wells so soon drain'd as several Officers did proffer a handful of Money for a Pint of clear Water so that it must be right down Grinning Honour as Hudibras terms it which put the Cavaliers upon attacquing them in their thick Hedges or otherwise coming within reach of their Cannon which let alone they must have try'd to Eat yet at this rate Things were carryed till having lost a great many Noble and Brave Gentlemen and their Ammunition almost Spent they withdrew into the Town and set the Enemy a free return more than they expected or to be sure deserv'd Our Author ends this Year with bringing in the Scots and relates how prettily Sir Henry Vane trick'd them In removing the last and greatest difficulty about some doubtful Words in the Covenant which was to be taken by both Nations concerning the Preservation of the King's Person and reducing the Doctrine and Discipline of both Churches to the Pattern of the best Reformed For which Sir H. found an expedient by adding to the first Clause In preservation of the Laws of the Land and Liberty of the Subject And to the second According to the Word of God p. 79 and by this Evasion look'd upon themselves as oblig'd by neither but left free to Murther their King and use the Covenant as it deserv'd He saith likewise that for their the Scots Encouragement the Lords and Commons sentenc'd and caus'd Execution upon William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury their Capital Enemy Which nevertheless was not till that time Twelve-month however done it was and perhaps thought a very Christian act by such as had nothing thereof And here to put his Murthers together we are
also told Sir Iohn Hotham and his Son were condemn'd to lose their Heads for they could make Treason in reference to themselves at pleasure though the King was not to be heard upon the justest Accusation yet this is certain had not they acted that Treason against the King there could have been no occasion for the Parliaments pretences Sir Alexander Carew was also beheaded for endeavouring to betray Plimouth whereupon I must relate this passage that Worthy Brave Gentleman Sir Bevill Greenvil was Knight of the Shire for Cornwal with this Sir Alexander and upon the Earl of Strafford's Business came to him with this request I pray Sir Alexander let it not be said the Representatives of our County had any thing to do in the Blood of this Great Man Whereto he reply'd with much earnestness I will vote for the Bill though sure my Head were to be Cut off on the same Block which accordingly fell out Could the Fanaticks meet with any thing like such Instances of Divine Vengeance on the other side what a Noise would they make what an Annus Mirabilis should we be plagu'd withal In this following Year 44. Ludlow scarce finds occasion to make one Invective against his Majesty the Misfortune or as he would have it Mismanagement of their own Affairs took up all the Gall he had to vent tho' very well stor'd therewith For now I perceive the Independent Common-wealth Party both in House and Army began to pique at Essex indeed all the Nobility in Command and most of the Presbyterians as Linsy-woolsy Brothers which did their Business by halfs His greatest Disgust is that Essex and Waller divided their Army yet owns that Waller had the more Forces when routed at Cropredy-Bridge and the King's Forces were very prevalent in the West so that the Design was lay'd well enough only the foremention'd Rout gave the King an Opportunity of following Essex to his total Defeat in Cornwal where his Majesty was put upon another most destructive Halt in lying down before Plymouth and not marching up to London by which Delay the two shatter'd Armies had time to recruit and the Foot which the King had seiz'd in Cornwal being discharg'd upon Condition never to take Armes against him more were absolv'd by Calamy and the other Presbyterian Iesuits and so took up Arms again which Ludlow commends for an Heroick Act and fought like perjur'd Villains who knew they ought to be hang'd if taken But the greatest Prejudice to his Majesty's Affairs this Year was Rupert's rash Conduct and consequent Defeat at Marston Moor which lost most of the North and gave part of the Rebel Army leisure to return and obstruct his Majesty's further Progress in the West The two Armies meeting a second time about Newberry where the King reliev'd Denington Castle and proffer'd Battel But the Rebel Generals disagreeing amongst themselves it was not accepted whereupon he March'd to Oxford and they dispersing their Army to London His Majesty upon both his Successes at Cropredy Bridge and in Cornwal sent Overtures of Peace to the Men at Westminster which were coldly receiv'd yet being further press'd by him from Oxford they could not but comply to have a Treaty at Uxbridge but to little Purpose for though the King's Commissioners consented to many Particulars and Alterations of great Importance the others would not abate one tittle but insisted peremtorily upon the Parliaments first Propositions which were an Absolute Dissolution of all Old Establishments indeed the whole Frame of Government both Ecclesiastical and Civil So that all Ludlow's Flourish upon this Occasion is false and mention'd only to express his continu'd Spite at the Church as if the Treaty came to nothing upon that sole Account that the Proposition concerning Episcopacy was rejected p. 150. whereas they were as positive in reference to the Militia Ireland and whatever else came under Debate It had likewise been a great Omission in such a foul-mouth'd Fellow as himself to have pass'd by what that Lecturing Beautifeu Love preach'd in the Town whilst the Treaty was on Foot although every Word he saith of the Matter is as false as what the other preach'd for first he was not Chaplain attending the Parliament's Commissioners for when the King's Commissioners complained of his Treasonable Insolence they answer'd he was not of their Train neither in the Second Place is it probable the Preachment was before the Commissioners for it was a Lecture on the Market-Day and they had something else to attend Nor Thirdly were the Words spoken as he relates that the King was a Man of Blood c. they were not come to that height of Impudence till the Independents were Trump and the King in their Hands and therefore as it was related when complain'd of the Words run thus That the Commissioners came with Hearts full of Blood and there was as great distance between this Treaty and Peace as Heaven and Hell I shall only add further that when Ludlow and his Complices had murther'd the King and assum'd the Power they cut off Love's Head though upon another Account yet not without the just Reflections of many as a retaliating Vengeance for his Seditions and Bloody Disposition with so much Untruth and Impudence vented here We are come now to that unhappy Year 45. wherein Ludlow according to his no Divinity would have Iudgment given against the King by that Power to which both Parties had made their solemn Appeal for though indeed it put an End to the Fighting Part between King and Parliament yet thereby the Nation did but Triumph over its self and perish as Rome of Old suis ipsa viribus the two foremention'd Factions being the more at leisure to foment their Feuds and multiply those Distractions which the People now saw and were sorry for but could not prevent The first Onset the Independents gave the other Iunto was the Self-denying Ordinance which our Author handles very Tenderly yet cannot forbear to let us know By this means the Earl of Essex Manchester and Sir William Waller were laid aside the latter rather to show their Impartiality than from any distrust of him he having never discover'd to that Time any Inclination to favour the King's Cause p. 146. The Truth of it is the two former were sensible with several of their Confederates to how deplorable a Condition they had brought Affairs sed revocare gradum but to set them right heal the Wounds repair the Breaches they had made 't was as much beyond their Power as to get to Heaven Neither is it without something of malicious Satisfaction that he mentions about the same time the Parliament made Sir Thomas Fairfax General the King made Prince Rupert so of his Forces notwithstanding his late ill Success at Marston Moor p. 148. whereto I find a much honester Man adding his apparent want of Age Experience and Conduct for so great a Trust. I say this was probably mention'd with no little Satisfaction because
that Prince's Rashness and Indiscretion contributed more than any one Thing to their cursed Success at the fatal Naseby which he gives an Account of with great Insult but what he adds that it was the more astonishing because obtain'd by Men of little Experience in Affairs of that Nature and upon that Account despis'd by their Enemies is false besides several Old Soldiers there were few or none but had had the Experience of three Years War and if that will not inform any Man of Sense I would advise him to follow some more innocent Imployment Neither were they despis'd by their Enemy but look'd upon as the best Body of Men the Parliament ever had together notwithstanding which had not Prince Rupert given Cromwel the same Advantage here as before at Marston-Moor it might have prov'd the Deciding Battel to the King But what Compleated the Triumph to their unworthy mean-spirited Souls was the taking his Majesty's Cabinet with several Letters in it most of them to the Queen which they Published to their eternal Reproach and this Fellow with like Baseness revives here again The Grecians in their Wars with Philip of Macedon a Foreign Prince and most unjust Usurper upon his Neighbours having intercepted a Pacquet of his Letters of the rest indeed they made what use they could but those to his Queen they never offer'd to open but sent them back with all Respect and Tenderest regard imaginable how much those Heathen Greeks out-did our Christian Barbarians is very unhappy to reflect Yet not at all strange that Ludlow should continue the same inhumane way of Procedure 't is as Natural to him as Poyson to a Toad although he is much put to it to find any thing there which may feed that base Humor what he urgeth of the Lord Digby's Letter that the Design of making War upon the Parliament was therein discover'd to be early is absolutely false p. 154. for it was after the Tumults had forc'd the King from White-Hall the Parliament had fix'd their Guards and were securing the Militia c. and then `twas time for his Majesty to consult his Friends and look to himself But I find our Author very forward to catch at every thing which may tend in the least to make the King first Aggressor wherein his many Fetches have as ill Success as that of the Commission with Sir Phelim Oneal He adds besides the many Printed others of no less Consequence were suppress'd as I have been inform'd by some of those that were intrusted with them who since the King's return have been rewarded for it p. 156. The little Truth herein stands thus A Person imploy'd by the Parliament to uncypher those Letters found several Figures he could not compass and so was forc'd to let them stand and to save his Bacon upon the Restaration alledg'd it a design'd Omission in regard to his Majesty's Honor and Reputaution which nevertheless few or none believ'd he being then as zealous and forward in the Faction as any though to so little Purpose as he hath since run into the contrary Extream of as great Indifferency neither do I believe he had any other reward than what the General Indemnity oblig'd him with which was too much to a great many unless they had made more grateful Returns But whatever was really writ or their venemous Rancor think fit to Comment thereupon all Men of Honour and Virtue must acknowledge what his Majesty writ to Secretary Nicholas and publish'd in a Declaration upon that Account that the Papers contain nothing an honest Man or good Protestant may blush at yet would fain know that Person who would be willing the Freedom of his private Letters should be publickly seen as mine have been however so that one Clause be rightly understood I care not so the rest take their Fortune it is concerning the Mongrel Parliament The Truth is the Earl of Sussex his Factiousness at that time put me somewhat out of Patience which made me freely vent my Displeasure against those of his Party to my Wife c. This Expression I find Ludlow and his Fellow Libellers more than once carping at which yet cannot be stretch'd further than that some cross-grain'd Dispositions might be among them who having some Ferment of the Westminster Leven halted between both Parties for whom no Epithet could be more proper than that of Mongrel and with too many such the King was plagu'd Upon the whole there was no one thing expos'd the Factions more to Obloquy and Scorn than this unworthy Act all their own Party who had any regard for Modesty and good Manners were asham'd of it and such as more narrowly look'd into things observ'd there such a Royal Mixture of Good Nature and Great Iudgment as considering him in those several Respects of Husband Father Master or King it would be hard to find his Parallel Afterwards when at too much leisure in his Confinement he pen'd that Excellent Meditation of his upon this their inhumane Usage which I fancy few of them ever dar'd to read for fear Remorse and Guilt should oblige themselves to supply the Place both of Iudge and Executioner Upon these two great Victories over his Majesty's Army and Honour as this worst natur'd Fellow of the whole Rebellion would have it thought he goes on to relate the great Successes their Forces dayly met with and having mention'd as many as he could call to Mind adds by way of Insult with divers others of less Importance and therefore unnecessary to be mention'd here The Truth of it is the King was never able to weather that dismal Storm which scatter'd him so at Naseby though he himself made several Noble Efforts for having the remains of his broken Horse recruited out of several Garrisons he march'd up and down to encourage such Loyal Souls as chang'd not their Faith with his Condition which alas were too few for the Parliament having made Propositions in order to a Composition for Delinquents Estates 't is incredible what a Number flock'd in and how deservedly they were Cheated every Days new Success producing new Qualifications whereby some were to forfeit a Third Part others a Moyity of their Estates and all upon this Condition that they should cordially submit and take the National Covenant appointed by Ordinance of Parliament and therefore it was observ'd that such as stood out and yeilded not but by force upon their Garrisons obtain'd much better Terms from the Commanders and Generals than others found from those Sneaking Fellows at Westminster who indeed would be sometimes angry at it especially the Oxford Articles but the Army beginning to grow Masterless they must begin to let them have their Humor Things standing thus and his Majesty failing in the Relief of Chester and hearing the Lord Digby was defeated in his March with a Body of Horse to the Noble Montross who did Wonders in Scotland Finding likewise great Disorders amongst his Officers at Newark where his two Nephews fail'd
and Conscience the two last were not kept for he was pressed to settle Religion as they desir'd wherewith his Conscience was not satisfy'd Next his Subjects had not free access to him but Proclamations were issued out forbidding them to come to him neither was the Ceremony due to him as King suffer'd to be paid him at his entry to New-Castle And lastly his Servants were not suffer'd to wait on him And his Majesty attested Montrevil if those Conditions were not made to him who confidently affirm'd it in all their Presence and that he had the Authentick Assurances in French The Commissioners retired to think of an Answer but when they return'd they desired his Majesty would put Montrevil to it to declare what those Assurances were and who gave them but this was not done Next they said they would not treat with the King in his Presence nor admit the Interposition of any Foreign Agent between them and their Native Prince And the Commissioners of the Army resolv'd that no suspected Person should be suffer'd to wait on the King with which his Majesty was highly displeas'd and for some Days would not eat in Publick but only in his Chamber This last Passage I have from an unexceptionable Authority whose Affection to his Native Country could give Place to nothing but Truth and therefore he seems to palliate the Matter a little on their behalf that Montrevil did not declare what the Assurances were nor who gave them which yet seems not to be his Fault for that they fully resolv'd against his Presence and Interposition for the future in any such like Affairs And upon the same account he declares further on it did not appear what Grounds Montrevil had for giving the King those Assurances and must be very slight and only from single Persons not any Iunto or Iudicatory Such a secret Transaction could not be done with all the Formalities of a Solemn Treaty yet doubtless Montrevil had his Assurances from Levens with most of the other General Officers and Scotch Commissioners then before Newark which was a considerable Iunto and I humbly conceive Iudicatories have little to do in concerns of that Nature But it had been all one though never so exactly drawn up and would have been as little observ'd as the first Pacification or last promise of never drawing Sword against him more But my particular Business is to trace Ludlow who tells us The Commissioners of Parliament joyning with those who were before with the King endeavour'd to perswade him to agree to the Propositions of the Parliament but he disliking several Things in them and most of all the abolition of Episcopacy to which Interest he continu'd obstinately stedfast refused his consent upon private Encouragement from some of the Scots and English to expect more easy Terms or to be received without any at all p. 183 The Encouragement he mentions is only a Flam of his own the Scots kept too strict a Guard upon him to have any but his Enemies to converse with nay which is worse they oblig'd him to discharge all his Friends then in Arms not only here in England but Montross in Scotland and Ormond in Ireland Neither was the Abolition of Episcopacy the main Obstacle although it was hard when he alone by himself had so shamefully bafled their great Champion Henderson upon that Subject to be so violently press'd from a Truth they could so little disprove But setting aside this Fellow's Spite who would needs make this the chief obstacle the King in his brisk Answer to the whole body of their Propositions from Newcastle August 1. 46. tells them They were such as did import the greatest Alterations in Government both in Church and Kingdom yet these were positively sent for his Majesty's Concurrence without allowing the Commissioners to give Reasons for their Demands or the hearing the King's Reasons against them which occasion'd his smart Reply upon their saying They had no Power to treat that saving the Honour of the Business an honest Trumpeter might have done as much To these Propositions Ludlow tells us the Scots Commissioners especially Lord Lowdon press'd the King very earnestly to comply telling him that though they were higher in some Particulars than they could wish yet if he continu'd to reject them he must not expect to be received in Scotland whither they must return and deliver him up to the Parliament in England But whatever they or the English said made no impression c. p. 184. The Truth of it is after all the Scotch Rodomantades Lowdon's in particular how much it was against the Laws of Nature Nations and Hospitality to Deliver and betray those that had fled to any for Succour their Brethren at Westminster knew how much there was of Iudas amongst them and having reduc'd their demand of a Million to 400000 l. agreed upon the Payment of one Moyety and the Publick Faith for the other to have the King Deliver'd to them who good Man laments that his Price should be so much above his Saviours And to clear himself from the base Reflections they made upon his Steady well grounded Resolves he declares what they call Obstinacy I know God accounts honest Constancy from which Reason and Religion as well as Honour forbid me to recede For you must know the Scots whilst in their Hands not only permitted but encourag'd the most Rigid of their Kirkmen to bait him at an impudent Rate as well from the Pulpit as otherwise as positively denouncing him damn'd for refusing the Covenant as 't is to be fear'd might fall to their lot for forcing it In the next Paragraph p. 186. Ludlow Commenceth a Quarrel with all the World both at Home and abroad for upon the French Embassador's coming over to endeavour a Reconciliation between King and Parliament he tells you how it was rejected they resolving to determin it themselves without the interposition of any an infallible sign of a just Cause where no body but themselves must Iudge having experienc'd that most of the Neighbouring States especially the Monarchical were at the bottom their Enemies That they were not their Friends was certain but that they should be so little their Enemies was a great Shame that so many Crown'd Heads should stand by and see a Brother Monarch Dethron'd and Murther'd at so barbarous a rate was a Sign that which is call'd Antient Honour was at a very low Ebb and the Sacro-Sancta Mrjestas left destitute of all Appeal but to the King of Kings who for ought we know may be still making Inquisition for that Blood this Son of Belial so much thirsted after and never at rest till poured forth and therefore henceforward 't is his sole Business to enveigh against all that would not go along with him and his Crew in that horrid Perpetration first he falls upon the Parliament for their frequent Overtures of Peace made to the King though he had not a Sword left wherewith to oppose them p. 187.
The Overtures were not frequent or if so always the same and totally destructive of all old Establishments without condescending to debate or alter any thing And for his not having a Sword left denotes our Author to be of the same Principle with that Atheist Virgil so judiciously exposes for his Dextra mihi Deus because they depended upon the Sword must it follow the King had no other Right To be sure they found it a very precarious Title for the same Sword which set them up more than once pull'd them down and after all Right took place of the several Usurping Powers and it will be never found so in the end But what makes him the more out of Humour is the Peoples expectation of the King's return to the Parliament being inform'd the Presbyterian Heads had promis'd the Scots that as soon as they had disbanded the Army they would bring him to London in Honor and Safety The People might expect and certainly did desire this but whoever observ'd the Presbyterians deportment both in Scotland and here how obstinately they adhered to their Covenant Rigours and how conscientiously positive the King was to the contrary could see little hopes of an Accord These Things he saith made the People ready to conclude that though his Designs had been wonderfully defeated his Armies beaten out of the Field and himself deliver'd into the Hands of the Parliament against whom he had made a long and Bloody War yet certainly he must be in the Right and that tho' he was guilty of the Blood of many Thousands yet was still unaccountable in a Condition to give Pardon and not in need to receive any which made them flock from all Parts to see him as he was brought from Newcastle to Holmby falling down before him bringing their Sick to be touch'd by him and courting him as only able to restore to them their Peace and Settlement This really was the Temper of the People at that time who now fully discover'd those Mists and Misrepresentations wherewith the Factions had so long amus'd them and were very earnest to have the King reestablish'd that they might be once more so in that abundance of all things they even wantonis'd in when under his sole Government 'T was likewise well known to them that a violent Party in Parliament forc'd the King to stand upon his own Defence and when to make an Invasion upon all his just Rights and Prerogatives they had open'd an Issue of Blood how incessantly did he endeavour to stop it by Messages and Overtures of Treaty and Peace which like so many deaf Adders he could never Charm them into and as at the time he is now upon there was not one in many Thousands had the impudence to charge the King with beginning the War and the Effusion of Blood thereupon so those few that did knew or believ'd the contrary amongst whom our Ludlow is chief but could not otherwise carry on that execrable Design the Devil had so thoroughly engag'd them in and this makes our Author so forward to inveigh against all the rest of his Partisans whom either Shame Guilt or Sense of their Countries Desolation had caus'd to desist or desire an Accommodation as Men of a neutral Spirit who would not Cataline like add to their former Evils the total Ruin of the Nation for that was it's then real Condition the King their Prisoner and the whole Kingdom their Slaves and that decisive Iudgment from Heaven by which alone they claim'd their Power was no other than what a Gang of High-Way Robbers may pretend to which in several Sets the just Vengeance of Heaven suffer'd to harress this proud and foolish People till in the end they were broke quite in Pieces some of them Hang'd though not enough by our Author at least unless his long and lingring Exile had brought him to something of Remorse and this I take to be the decisive Iudgment as to this Life and as to the next shall only say that if every one whose Conscience doth not accuse him were thereby justify'd final Imponitency would be an happy End Ludlow takes little Notice of the King whilst at Holmby being I presume well satisfy'd with the ill Treatment he receiv'd from the Commissioners there which could not in that Conjuncture have been more rude and insolent had he been one of them for they deny'd him his Chaplains Discharg'd all his Antient Servants and would not permit any one of acceptable Conversation to come into his Presence which Restraint was devoutly improv'd in more constant Addresses to Almighty God as we find from those Meditations and Vows in his Solitude at Holmby Neither were their Impositions less Vexatious those two Pulpit Beautifeus Marshal and Caryl having attended as Chaplains upon the English Commissioners at New-Castle return'd with them to Holmby and were recommended to Preach before the King and say Grace at Meals but were deny'd as to both the King always saying Grace himself with an audible Voice standing under the State Though 't is said that Marshal did on a Time put himself more forward than was meet to say Grace and while he was long in forming his Chaps as the Manner was among the Saints and making ugly Faces His Majesty said Grace himself and had eaten up some part of his Dinner before Marshal had ended his Cant. But this Scene lasted not long Cornet Ioyce gave these Commissioners and their Chaplains an unwilling Discharge carrying the King to the Army 't is unaccountable to what a height the Feuds between those two Factions Presbyterian and Independents were now grown how cursedly that Hell was divided within it's self what Plots and Counter-plots were continually carrying on each Party conceiving the King's Person and Presence of great Advantage to their Designs though both of them no less against him than each other For his Majesty's Thoughts hereof take from his own Excellent Words What Part God will have me now to Act or suffer in this new and strange Scene of Affairs I am not much Solicitous some little Practice will serve that Man who only seeks to represent a part of Honesty and Honor. In this my Surprise I tell the World That a King cannot be so low but he is considerable adding weight to that Party where he appears And so goes on most judiciously observing the Hand of Divine Iustice how they that by Tumults first occasion'd the raising of Armies are now chastned by their own Army for new Tumults The Members of both Houses who at first withdrew as my self was forced to do from the rudeness of the Tumults were counted Deserters and outed their Places in Parliament such as staid and enjoy'd the Benefit of the Tumults were asserted for the only Patriots Now on the contrary the Deserters are abetted by the Army and such as remain'd and kept their Stations are charg'd for Tumultuary Insolencies and betrayers of the Freedom and Honor of Parliaments and doubtless amidst those many
be without me you will fall to ruin if I do not sustain you which manner of Carriage he saith was observ'd with Amasement and so it might well for he was never observ'd to do so by any other Author or Person And when a little further on 't is said Dr. Hammond was the Governour 's own Kinsman it must certainly be Ludlow for Sir Iohn certainly knew him to be his Brother From these and several such like Instances it may be inferr'd that though such Papers were left by Sir Iohn yet might they be alter'd or added to by Ludlow to Blacken as their Term was his Majesty's Discretion and Policy though they could not his Virtue It may be further observ'd there was no good Understanding between Sir Iohn and Mr. Asburnham though both of them doubtless very Faithful and Loyal Sir Iohn really believ'd the Army was in good Earnest the other very much suspected and who of the two had most Reason therein the Event declar'd the King in the mean while might hesitate between both and rather incline to Mr. Asburnham's Opinion To pass by therefore those Difficulties and Distractions the several contending Parties lay under and how impossible it was for his Majesty to come to any thing of a fix'd Resolution amidst so many Confusions we will come to this one Enquiry whether Cromwel and Ireton ever really intended to establish the King upon his Throne For I look upon them two as the gand Intriguers driving on a distinct Design of their own which none of their Comrades then so much as dreamt of but were implicitly carried on to promote what at first they could not see nor at last prevent For that Cromwel was the exactest Piece of Dissimulation Hell ever inspir'd must be own'd on all Hands so that he and his Confederates sending Sir Allen Appesly to Sir John Barkly and desiring them both to assure the Queen and Prince of their good Intentions was but a Blind to fortify their Interest against the Presbyterians who as Ludlow or the Paper tells us though much weakned by the Absence of the Eleven Members pass'd a Vote that the King should be brought to Richmond whereto he inclin'd so that the Army were oblig'd to cause the Parliament to recall their Vote Neither were Cromwel's Protestations to Sir Iohn the least to be regarded Of that tenderest Sight his Eyes ever beheld the Interview between the King and his Children and that never Man was so abus'd as he in his sinister Opinion of the King who he thought was the most Upright and Conscientious of the Kingdom c. concluding with this Wish That God would be pleased to look upon him according to the Sincerity of his Heart towards the King pag. 199 Such Tricks as these were as natural to him as his Meat and Drink and no less requisite to support the Life of his cursed Designs Did he not at the same time assure the Parliament That the Army should at their first Command cast their Arms at their Feet and solemnly Swear that he had rather himself with his whole Family should be consumed than the Army break out into Sedition Yet at the same time did he by his Creatures administer new Fewel to those Flames and posting down to the Head Quarters set the whole Synagogue of Agitators on Work and directed them in carrying on the Conspiracy and therefore however Sir Iohn's Sanguin Temper and good-natur'd Disposition might be impos'd upon by Cromwel's Arts the King was not without considerable Cautions from others of the no Trust which was to be put in any thing he said that amongst his Confidents he did frequently boast of his fine Arts in imposing upon the King and that thereby he intended nothing less than his Destruction It must indeed be acknowledg'd that some of the General Officers were Sincere to his Majesty really his Converts one of which seeing Cromwel hold the King's Hand between his own during a solemn Protestation of unfeigned Assurances and even washing it with Tears when he came out ask'd the Officer who stood by whether he had not acted his Part very well Who replied Why were you not in good Earnest Not in the least replied he for which he ever after Abominated him and acquainted the King with what a Devil incarnate he had to deal withall And here I must observe no small Piece of Perfidy in our Author that he will not let us know what Part Sir Iohn what himself bears in relating these Affairs for what I question'd as to some harsh Expressions he would have the King use towards the Army seems much confirm'd from an absolute Falshood he relates as the effect thereof which runs thus pag. 205. The King having thus bid Defiance to the Army thought it necessary to bend all his Force against them and especially to strengthen their Enemies in the Parliament To this end a Petition was fram'd to press them to speedy Agreement with the King and presented in a Tumultuous manner by a great Number of Apprentices and Rabble back'd by many Dismiss'd and Disaffected Officers c. This indeed was the last Effort of the Presbyterian Iunto to preserve themselves from the Army's Lash but as it took no Effect so the King was not at all concern'd therein but continu'd with the Army and upon very good Terms for it was not time to throw off the Vizard till as Cromwel whisper'd Ludlow they had pull'd the Parliament out by the Ears page 189. In the mean while to show how Ludlow contradicts himself the King who just now was said to bid defiance to the Army upon showing his Answer to the Officers before it was sent they seemed much satisfyed with it and promised to use their endeavours for a Personal Treaty Cromwel and Ireton and many of their Party in the House pressing the King's desires with great earnestness wherein contrary to their expectation they found a vigorous opposition c. pag. 213. This Fellow Ludlow cannot be so ignorant of those Intrigues as he would seem That Cromwel and his Confidents ran with the Hare and hunted with the Hound set on their Properties in the House and Agitators in the Army to complain of that free Access all the Cavaliers had to the King at Hampton-Court Of Sir John Barkly 's and Mr. Ashburnham 's Intimacy with the Chief Officers of the Army that Cromwel 's and Ireton 's Doors were open to them when shut to those of the Army whereat saith our Author Cromwel was much offended telling Mr. Ashburnham and Sir John that if he were an honest Man he had said enough of the sincerity of his intentions and if he were not nothing was enough c. pag. 212. So likewise he tells us Cromwel wheadled with the King acquainting him with his danger and protesting it was not in his power to undertake for his security in the place where he was viz. Hampton-Court assuring him of his real service and desiring God to deal c. as
before all which was abominable Trick to affright the King into those Nets and Toyls he had so craftily set for him till a fit opportunity of proceeding to his Murder And that all the Caresses wherewith most of the Army more especially those two Nonparells of Treachery the Father and Son in Law courted the King tended thereto is clear from every Circumstance of their Proceedings as likewise from that Assurance Ireton gave Ludlow at first who tells us he went down to Mayden-head their Head-Quarters where Ireton suspecting these Things their caressing his Majesty might occasion Jealousies in me and others of their Friends in Parliament desired me to be assured of their stedfast Adherence to the publick Interest and that they intended only to dispense with such Things as were not material till they could put themselves into a Condition of serving the People effectually pag. 194 And when the Army drew up that bloody Remonstrance November 48. in order to taking away the King's Life the same Ireton sent him Word that now he hop'd he should please him which he owns they did by the way they were taking c. pag. 266. Now had Ludlow been a Man of any Thought any Reflection upon himself he must needs have consider'd what a contemptible Fellow they took him to be as not vouchsafing to trust him in a Design his wicked Soul most earnestly desir'd to have Accomplished As for Cromwel's ambitious Enthusiastical Spirit that he had some thoughts by removal of the King to ascend the height he at last attain'd unto there are several inducements to perswade Ludlow tells us of many Passages and Actions which when the Riddle was unfolded discover'd what he aim'd at Particularly about this Time when the King was in the Isle of Wight there were frequent Consults and Conferences amongst them about reconciling Parties and fixing a Government wherein Cromwel kept himself in the Clouds and would declare neither for Monarchical Aristocratical nor Democratical maintaining that any of them might be good in themselves or for us according as Providence should direct pag. 238 And when Providence suffer'd this glaring Meteor with all it 's Evil Influences to rest so long upon our Horizon and his vain Mind affected to add the Regal Title to that Power he had so unjustly assum'd one main Inducement of his attempting it was thought to be a Dream he had of being King whilst a young Rake in Sidny College Cambridge for so he really was which he frequently declar'd to his Companions and was not a little proud of and that it made a deeper Impression upon his Mind than any Learning he got there give me leave to add this odd Passage when he was Protector I knew an Old Man who in his younger Days had been Serving-Man to his Uncle Sir Thomas Stewart was the Fac totum in the Family and had more especially charge of the Cellar where he told me Cromwel and he toss'd the Pot many a Time and when his natural Enthusiasm was assisted by a good Dose of strong Liquor would thus vent himself Well Iames notwithstanding my Uncle's and Aunt 's Unkindnesses I may yet be a great Man before I die I had a lucky Dream at the College and I have a young Daughter a shrewd Girl she is who will be often telling me Father you will be a Great Man Father I cannot sleep soundly a Nights for Dreaming of your being a Great Man indeed Father you will be as Great as the King and then he would go on I don't know Iames nor can I see any thing of likelyhood yet but God often times brings strange things about and if he should call me to any thing extraordinary sure I should understand to prosecute my own advantage This the Old Man told me he would be often repeating over his Cups several years before the Wars broke out which as he laugh'd at then so he had thought upon it a thousand times with astonishment since he came to be Protector I hope this Story will not be thought altogether impertinent upon this consideration that it shows how much his Mind was puff'd up with hopes even when there was no ground for them but when he saw all sorts of Mischiefs and Rebellions begin to work with such Hellish success and himself got into the Second Command of the whole Army under such a Cypher of a General as he manag'd him no less than he did the Inferiour Officers most of whom he engag'd to oppose all Superiors as well their Masters the Parliament as their Sovereign This doubtless made him dream of a Crown every Night and think a Year an Age till possest of the sole Power For having Modell'd the Parliament according to his Will made them as tractable as Setting-Dogs to whatsoever he and his Mirmidons thought fit to put them upon and wheadled the King into a Prison under a Property of his own for whatever Ludlow or Sir Iohn relates of Hammond's Surprise and Consternation at the News pag. 218. the History of Independency assures us he had been with Cromwel who sent him down fully Instructed as to his Deportment in that Critical Affair And from hence forward we hear no more of his Caresses and Protestations May the Lord deal with him according to the Sincerity of his Heart towards the King c. But a tendency on all hands to the Destruction both of his Person and Government CHAP. V. Of the King's Murder WE are now come to the last Act so full of Horror and Amasement as nothing but the doing it could make the Attempt credible and seems to transverse that Old Conceit of the Lycanthropi Wolves and Tygers appearing not only in humane Shape but humane Societies for of some such Composition must those several Scenes of Regicides be which made up those Conferences our Author mentions p. 238. and forward in the first of which he tells us the Commonwealth's-men declared Monarchy was neither good in it's self nor for us That it was not desirable in it's self they urg'd from the 8 th Chapter of the first Book of Samuel the 8 th Verse where the rejecting of the Judges and the choice of a King was charg'd upon the Israelites by God himself as to rejecting him Scripture is so much out of these Peoples way as they never blunder more than when they think to support their Cause from thence as will appear from this short Account of the whole Story Where first it was not the Israelites rejecting the Iudges but the Theocracy which gave the Provocation for so Almighty God himself declares in the precedent Verse 7. upon Samuel's Complaint they have not rejected thee but me they have rejected that I should not reign over them Samuel was not only as a Viceroy to see those Laws observ'd which the Supreme Sovereign had already Enacted but as a Prophet and so the Mouth of God further to declare whatever Divine Will thought fit to Prescribe And if in the second Place if
Prosecutions this might have done something towards an Expiation and put away the Guilt of Innocent Blood amongst us by neglect whereof to return the Text upon Ludlow and his Party 't is to be feared the Land still continues defiled therewith And next to this of Blood-guiltiness give me leave to add my Suspition that we have another deep Arrear for their gross Abuse and Profanation of Scripture whereof our Author hath given an exact Specimen in the two foremention'd Texts although he is very sparing in comparison with his Fellow-Rebels especially the violent Pulpit-Drivers who studied nothing so much as to pervert it and that not only to their own but the whole Nations destruction Curse ye Meroz c. did more Mischief than all the Trumpets in the Army and made as loud a Noise and their numberless Fast-Sermons were but a wresting so many Texts to Sedition and Treason In the same manner likewise they manag'd Controversies All Church-Government must be fram'd according to the new-fangled Conceits of their Geneva Rabbies though the continued Sense and Practice of Antiquity speak the quite contrary And because the Doctrine of Obedience is so expresly laid down in 13th to the Romans and elsewhere they hammer'd out this Impudent Evasion that the Apostles deliver'd what the Circumstances they lay under forc'd them unto not having Strength to make Opposition otherwise might have been as very Rebels as themselves In the mean while the AEquivocal Sense of our English word Power was thought to give them so great a Latitude as they might submit to whatever came uppermost and if you urg'd them with the different Acceptations of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original 't was Heathen Greek to them the Language of the Beast and ought not to restrain the Liberty of their perverse Spirits neither are such Prejudices altogether laid aside but seem rather to be assum'd afresh too many of our present Divines being very backward to consider those two Words themselves or attend to the Information of others and yet a very nice Case depends thereupon But commend me to our Modern Commonwealth's Men who finding with how ill Success their Predecessors made use of Scripture have taken a much shorter Cut set up for Theists or Atheists and thereby supersede all Authority from thence What he relates as to the Treaty in the Isle of Wight is a barefac'd discovery of their Design that having got the King there with the Parliament and City under their Lash they were now resolv'd to kill and take Possession his Majesty therefore is no more caress'd by the Army Sir Barkly's cold Entertainment from the Officers at Windsor was a full discovery of what they all along had in purpose Yet since he takes no Notice of the King's Deportment in that grand Affair but represents their Jealousies of him according to the Guilt of their own just Deservings I shall take leave to observe that never any Prince strugled with so many different and violent Interests as this good Man at that Treaty nor deported himself with greater Honor Iudgment and Discretion The Presbyterian Iunto in the House tho sensible of that deplorable Condition they had brought both King and Kingdom into yet stood so stifly upon their first Propositions as their Commissioners were not allow'd to recede one Ace from them The Scotch likewise stood by rather to serve themselves than him and observe how they should next play their Game for now every Eye could discover whatever Protestations they made Mony and Covenant was the only Diana they contended for The Independent Party in the House tho out-Voted as to the Treaty yet were able to start so many Scruples Restrictions and Delays as might baffle much sincerer Intentions than appear'd in their Opponents Yet contrary to all their Expectations the King in his own Person manag'd the whole Debate with such incredible Prudence found out such Temperaments for their harshest Demands and made such Concessions with a reserve both of Honor and Conscience as astonish'd them all and wrought a full Conviction in such as had any Reserve even of Humanity left in their Breasts One Passage I must needs relate from our Author whereby we may guess at his and all his Complices Ingenuity he saith when some Commissioners who had been with the King pleaded in the House for a Concurrence with him c. p. 268. Sir Henry Vane oppos'd it and inveigh'd against the King in his Reasons against it concluding that if they should accept of these Terms without consent of the Army it would prove but a Feather in their Caps And yet this base Fellow Vane perswaded the King at the Isle of Wight not to be too prodigal of his Concessions that he had already yielded more than 't was fit for him to give or them to ask and undertook to make it evident to the whole World How could any Prince or indeed other Person of a steady Virtue and undesigning Integrity deal with such Proteus's as these Quo teneam nodo What Hold can be laid on them What escape from so damn'd a Perfidy All which his Majesty at that time fully discover'd that tho' some were of a sensible Complyance yet those of most Power were most obstinate intended nothing less than Peace nor could they more than his Destruction The breaking off that Treaty by the Army their Force upon his Majesty there bringing him from thence to London with the Hellish Pageantry of his Tryal was insult enough for our Author 's bloody Mind to relate Matter of Fact in Common with others and is too Melancholy a Subject for me to repeat Only what he saith as to Bishop Iuxton must be all his own and probably invented to be reveng'd on him and the King because his Majesty he saith and I believe truly refused such Ministers as their Court of Injustice had appointed to attend him amongst whom that unhallowed Buffoon Peters was one and the rest had been all most violent Fire-brands of Rebellion and therein of his Murder At last therefore tho' with some Reluctancy and I doubt not but with Ludlow's Negative it was granted that Bishop Iuxton should be permitted to attend his King and Master in this his Translation from a Temporal to an Eternal Crown and though doubtless it was with unexpressable Regret as to the manner of his Departure that he was put upon these holy Offices yet that he should declare himself altogether unprepar'd or complain for want of warning as having nothing ready is a true Piece of Fanatick Wit that is a snarling Reflection without any Truth at the Bottom or Ingenuity in the Expression as no Man approv'd himself more Eminent both for Parts and Integrity than this worthy Prelate in those several Publick Trusts Ecclesiastical and Civil committed to his Care so his Piety and exact Understanding in all Religious Rites qualified him for the most devout Performance of all holy Duties With like Rudeness and
Impertinency he continues But recollecting himself a little he put on his Scarf and other Furniture and went to the King where having read the Common-Prayer and one of his old Sermons he Administred the Sacrament to him c. pag. 282. Could any thing like a Christian or indeed a Man play the Buffoon at so silly a rate upon so solemn and sad an Occasion Whether the Sermon was old or not is more than he knows to be sure it was very much to the Purpose that is of the final Iudgment when God shall judge the Secrets of all Men by Iesus Christ whereat had Ludlow or any of his Confederates been there is no doubt but their guilty Souls would have Trembled as much as Felix did but withal too persever'd as little in their Recognitions With like impious Contempt he reflects upon the Holy Sacrament most ignorantly cavils at and as profanely Ridicules it a true Saint of the new Edition above Ordinances in their Lives and without them at their Deaths according to that great Author in the Book of Wisdom As for the Mysteries of God they knew them not neither hoped they for the Wages of Righteousness nor discerned a Reward for blameless Souls 'T is represented likewise according to his no Understanding of such Religious Preparations as if all these Holy Offices were hudled together on that fatal last Day whereas the Bishop was with the King on Saturday had the Sermon and Sacrament on Sunday where Mr. Herbert the only Person they permitted to attend his Majesty was another Communicant with them however the foolish Fellow flouts and considers not what Dispensations are allow'd upon such sad Necessities But since he is for relating Circumstances as to this worthy Prelate's holy Performances there is one which tho all good Men must be well acquainted with ought never to be omitted when upon this Subject viz. That the last Lesson his Majesty heard read in that Morning Office of his Suffering was the History of our Saviour's Passion in the 27 th of Matth. which he suppos'd the Bishop had made Choice of as most applicable to his present Condition till he otherwise inform'd him that it was the proper Lesson for the Day as appear'd by the Kalender wherewith saith Mr. Herbert then present his Majesty was much Affected and doubtless received great Consolation thereby Others have gon further and made several Parallels between their Sufferings which I shall only mention in general that as there was never a more barbarous Act since that Lord of Life was Crucified so neither a more Innocent Soul through his Merits and Satisfaction assum'd into the Regions of Bliss So that a certain Lord upon the Seaffold the Noble Capel I think it was had great Reason to say that if he were to wish his Soul in any ones stead it should be in his and Sit anima mea cum Carolo Heaven cannot be so if he be not there And therefore to take my leave of this worst of Men Ludlow it shall be in the Words of the foremention'd Author of the Book of Wisdom where declaring that the Souls of the Righteous are in the Hands of God however in the Sight of the unwise and wicked they seem'd to die he adds For though they be punished in the sight of Man yet is their hope full of Immortality And having been a little chastised they shall be greatly rewarded for God proved them and found them worthy for himself This strange and never before heard of Procedure against the Sacred Person of their Monarch being thus accomplish'd and in him the Ancient Monarchy of England totally Subverted our Author is too intent upon their new Project of Liberty-Keeping to persue his Calumnies any further and therefore relating how his Body was Interred at Windsor by some Good Men Noble and Worthy Persons who attended it thither he might have added the Lamentation made over it not only by them but the whole Kingdom thorough for doubtless never was there greater for any Prince in the World whether as I said from the many Designs his projecting Head was carrying on or to shew that Humanity had not totally Abdicated his Breast he lets it rest there without farther Disturbance But that pitiful Fellow Roger Coke was so Spiteful as to rake into those Sacred Ashes and not permit so much as the Grave to give them rest Can any thing be more base than to reflect that the Office of our Church was not suffer'd to be read at his Enterment A Man of Sense of Virtue and Loyalty might have been justly severe upon the Governor who refus'd so innocent a Request but his Majesty's very Memory must be thereby the more Eminent in that their Baseness persued him so far as not to permit his dead Corps the External Rites of Religion And as he was buried without an Office so his next Insult is that he lies without a Monument and thereupon relates how the Commons had Voted 50. he saith but 't was really 70000 l. for the Charge of taking up the King's Body with making a Solemn Funeral and Monument which yet came to nothing Whereto he Maliciously adds that 't was said his Son forbid it which indeed was likely to be said for Lying with Whiggism began about that Time to be much in Vogue and several Plots there were on Foot to serve the Son as they had done the Father but the People were not then mad enough to follow their Lure and it was the Old Loyal Party and Principle which preserv'd the King at that Time But for the 70000 l. in order to a Monument the true Account stands thus That Session in which it was Voted rose in some Heat without passing any Bills whereby this amongst the rest was Obstructed And at their next Meeting their continu'd Heats cool'd this worthy Design the rather for that a certain busy Female assum'd the Honor of having it first mov'd Although 't is likewise probable that the Old Faction which with their young Spawn began about this Time to be very busy in the House might not be wanting to put by so ungrateful a Memorial of their Villany And thus the Court was too justly repaid for the Care they took at the Restauration to Sweeten the Sowr-humor'd Fanatick and amongst other things that their Consciences should not be over-jogg'd by too many Remembrances of this Eternal Reproach which though an Indempnity pardon'd no Oblivion will ever be able to deface and this occasion'd a worthy Divine in this Critical Juncture most eminently deserving of the English Church preaching at White-Hall upon that cursed Day to tell them freely They had added to his Ignominy by Burying his Funeral To be sure had the least motion for a Monument been made in those early Days it would have pass'd without Control but in that Juncture we were mighty fearful of offending those who could never be oblig'd Dr. Donne in that odd Poem of his The Progress of the Soul when