the North it was thought fit they should be gratified with that blood which they so greedily thirsted after And thereupon the Archbishop being voted guilty of High Treason by the House of Commons was condemned to die in such a slender House of Lords that onely seven viz. the Earls of Kent Pembroke Salisbury and Bullingbrook the Lords North Gray and Brewes were present at the passing of the sentence of his condemnation Which being past he was brought unto the Scaffold on Tower-hill on the tenth of January where he ended his life with such a modest confidence and so much piety that his greatest enemies then present who came to behold the Execution with hearts full of joy returned back with eyes as full of tears Last of all comes another Treaty sollicited by the King consented to by the Houses with no small difficulty and that upon condition to have the Treaty held at Uxbâ—idge a Town about fifteen miles from London and more then twice as much from Oxford According unto which appointment the Commissioners met on the thirtieth of January accompanied with some Divines for debating the point of Church Government when it came in question But this Treaty proved as unsuccessefull as that at Oxford had done before the Commissioners for the Houses offering no expedient for an Accommodation nor hearkening unto such as were tendred to them in the name of the King So that there being no hope of bringing the Warre unto an end this way both parties were resolved to proceed in the other The King having wintered his Army at Oxford and the Towns adjoyning it was thought fit to send the Prince into the West to perfect the Association which had been begun in the end of the last summer and in those Countries to advance such further forces as might not onely serve for the defence of themselves but give some reasonable increase to His Mâ—jesties Army In the beginning of April he set forwards towards Bristol accompanied with the Lord Culpeper and Sir Edward Hide as his principall Counsellours and some of the chief Gentry of the West who were of most authority in their severall Countreys But before he had made himself Master of any considerable strength news câ—me of the unfortunate successe of the Baâ—tel of Nasby which much retarded his proceedings and hearing afterwards that Sir Thomas Fairfax with his victorious Army was marching towards him he quitted Somerset-shire and drew more Westward into the middle of Devonshire Bristol being taken and his Majesties affairs growing worse and worse both there and elsewhere he sent a Message unto Fairfax desiring a safe conduct for the Lord Hopton and the Lord Culpeper to go to the King and mediate with him for a Treaty with the Parliament To which after a fortnights deliberation he receives an answer the eight of November to this effect That if he would disband his Army and apply himself unto the Parliament the Generall himself in person would conduct him thither No hopes of doing good this way and lesse the other Exeter being besieged and Barnstable taken by the enemies forces he leaves his Army to the Lord Hopton and withdraws into the Dukedome of Cornwall But finding that Countrey unable to protect him long he passeth into the Isle of Scilly and from thence unto the Queen his Mother whom he found at Paris not doubting but to receive such entertainment in that Court as might be justly looked for by the eldest Son of a Daughter of France Which passages I have laid together in this place that I might follow his Majesties affairs elsewhere with the less interruption The Prince being gone for Bristoll as before is said his Majesty resolved on the approch of Summer to relieve such of his Northern Garrisons as had been left untaken the year before and from thence to bestow a visit on the associated Counties But being on his march and having stormed the Town of Leicester in his way he returned again so far as Daventry upon the news that Sir Thomas Fairfax newly made Generall in the place of Essex was sate down before Oxford Concerning which we are to know that not long after the beginning of this everlasting Parliament the Puritan Faction became subdivided into Presbyterians and Independents of which the Presbyterians at the first carryed all before them The Independents growing up by little and little and being better studied in the arts of dissimulation easily undermined the others and outed their Lord-Generall and all that commanded under him of their severall places under colour of an Ordinance for Self-denyall That done they conferred that command on Sir Thomas Fairfax a man of more Precipitation then Prudence not so fit for Counsell as Execution and better to charge on an Enemy then command an Army With him they joyned Collonel Oliver Cromwel whom they dispensed with in the point of self-denyall by the name of Lieutenant General but so that he disposed of all things as Commander in chief and left Fairfax to his old trade of Execution to which he had been accustomed The like alteration happened also in the Kings Army Collonel Sir Patrick Ruthen a man of approved valour and Fidelity being by his Majesty made Earl of Forth in Scotland was on the death of the Earl of Lindsey made the Lord Lieutenant of his Armies and the next year made Earl of Brentfort for the good service he had done in that place Having both fortunately and faithfully discharged that office for two years and more he was outed of his place by a Court-contrivement made in the favour of Prince Rupert who a little before Christmas last was declared Generallissimo of his Majesties Forces which he most ambitiously aspired unto and at last obtained notwithstanding his late defeat at Marston-Moor his squandring away so brave an army and his apparent want of Age Experience and Moderation for so great a trust By these new Generals the fortune of the War and the whole estate of the Kingdome which lay then at stake came to be decided For Fairfax hearing that the King was come back as far as Daventry which was the matter he desired made directly towards him with an intent to give him battel and at a place neer Naseby in Northamptonshire the two Armies met on Saturday the 14. of June The King had the better at the first but Prince Rupert having routed one wing of the enemies Horse followed the chace so unadvisedly that he left the foot open to the other wing who pressing hotly on them put them to an absolute rout and made themselves Masters of his Camp Carriage and Canon and amongst other things of his Majesties Cabinet in which they found many of his Letters most of them written to the Queen which were after publisht with little honour to them that did it For whereas the Athenians on the like successe had intercepted a packet of Letters from Philp King of Macedon their most bitter enemy unto severall friends all the rest of those Letters
in the Assembly at Aberdeen Anno 1616. for composing a Liturgy and extracting a new book of Canons out of the scattered Acts of their old Assemblies At the Assembly held at Perth Anno 1618. he obtained an Order for receiving the Communion kneeling for administring Baptisme and the Lords Supper in private Houses in cases of extreme necessity for Episcopall confirmation and finally for the celebrating the Anniversaries of our Saviours Birth his Passion Resurrection and Ascension and the coming down of the Holy Ghost All which he got to be confirmed in the following Parliament So far that wise King had advanced the work of Uniformity before his engaging in the Cause of the Palatinate His Breach with Spain and the War which did insue upon it took off his thoughts from prosecuting that design which his son being more intangled in Wars abroad and Distempers at home had no time to finish till he had setled his Affaires and attained to some measure both of Power and Glory But being it was a businesse which was to be acted leisurely and by degrees not all at once he first resolved upon passing of an Act of Ratification of all that had been done by his Father and then to go in hand with the introducing of a publick Liturgie In the effecting whereof at such a time as he went into Scotland to receive that unfortunate Crown he found a stronger opposition in the Parliament of that Kingdom also about the passing of that Act of Ratification then he had reason to expect But carried it at last by a far major part of that Assembly This gave him the fist taste of their disaffection to his Person and Government but he went forward notwithstanding in pursuit of those purposes which he brought thither with him For not long after his return into England he gave order to the Dean of his Chappell Royall in Edenburgh that Prayers be read therein according to the English Liturgie that a Communion be had every moneth and all Communicants to receive the Sacrament on their knees that he who officiated if he be a Bishop perform it in his Rochet and other Episcopall Robes and that he do it in his Surplice if a common Presbyter and finally that not onely the Lords of the Council but the Lords of the Session and as many of the principall Magistrates of that City also as could conveniently fail not of their attending the Divine Service there on Sundayes and Holy-dayes For by this means he gave himself no improbable hopes that the English Liturgy passing a probationership in the Chappel Royall might find a plausible entertainment in the Churches of Edenburgh and be received by degrees in all the rest of the Kingdom But the Presbyterian Scots not ignorant of the Kings intentions insinuated into the minds of the common People that this was a design onely to subject that pure Kirk to the superstitious Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England and therefore that it did behove them to stand together as one man to oppose their entrance The Lords and Gentry of that Realm who feared nothing so much as the Commission of Surrendries before mentioned laid hold on this occasion also And they being seconded by some male-contented spirits of that Nation who had not found the King to be as prodigal of his favours to them as his Father had been before endeavoured to possesse them with Fears and Jealousies that Scotland was to be reduced to the form of a Province and governed by a Deputy or Lord Lieutenant as Ireland was The like done also by some Lords of Secret Council who before had governed as they listed and thought their power diminished and their persons under some neglect by the placing of a Lord President over them to direct in chief So that the people generally being fooled into this opinion that both their Christian and Civil Liberty were in no small danger became capable of any impression which the Presbyterian Faction could imprint upon them Which visibly appeared by a virulent and seditious Libel published in the year 1634. wherein the King was not only charged with altering the Government of that Kingdom but traduced for very strong inclinations to the Religion of the Church of Rome The chief Abettor whereof for the Authour was not to be found was the Lord Balmerino for which he was legally convicted and condemned of treason but pardoned by the Kings great goodnesse and by that pardon kept alive for the mischiefs following The fire thus breaking out in Scotland it was no marvel if it had laid hold on England also the Puritans of both Nations working themselves about this time into a Body and from henceforth communicating their Counsels and designs unto one another The King not long after his return thought fit to renew his Fathers Declaration about lawfull sports on the Lords Day the principall motives whereunto were the increase of Popery in some parts of the Kingdome occasioned by interdicting all honest Recreations on that day and the rest of the Holy-dayes the tendency of the Sabbatarian Doctrine to down-right Judaisme some orders made by some publick Ministers of Justice for suppressing the Annual Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes and finally the bringing of Dancing Running shooting and other harmlesse Recreations within the compasse of the Statute made in the first Parliament of his Reign against all unlawfull exercises and pastimes in which no such thing was ever intended And though the Kings intention in it was onely to ease the people from that yoke of superstition which many of their Preachers had laid upon them yet by the practise of those Preachers it made more noise among the People and wakened more to appear in defence of that which they call Religion then all the Geese in the Capitoll Nor did His Majestie speed much better in another of his pious intentions concerning the Conformity of Parochiall Churches to their Mother Cathedrals The Dean and Chapter of S. Pauls as Ordinaries of the place had appointed the Communion-Table in St. Gregories Church to be placed Altar-wise at the end of the Chancel where it had stood and by her injunctions ought to stand in Q. Elizabeths time Against this some of the parishioners appealed to the Dean of the Arches the Dean Chapter to the King The cause being heard before His Majesty and the Lords of the Council on the third of November Anno 162â— it pleased his Majesty having first shewed his dislike of all Innovations to declare that he well approved and confirmed the Act of the said Ordinary and also gave commandement that if those few parishioners before mentioned do proceed in their said Appeal then the Dean of the Arches who was then attending at the hearing of the Cause shall confirm the said Order of the aforesaid Dean and Chapter On this encouragement the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Metropoliticall Visitation beginning in the year next following and the Suffragan Bishops in
their severall and respective Diocesses did appoint the like for the avoiding of those frequent inconveniences and prophanations which that sacred Table had formerly been exposed unto This made the Puritan Faction open wider then before they did as foolishly afraid of the breaking in of Superstition by this last Declaration as of Prophanenesse by the other And that they might keep peace with the Scots in all particulars they dispersed many scandalous and seditious Libels against the Governours of the Church and all that acted by and under their Authority not sparing the king himself if he came in their way most certain tokens and prognosticks of those great Combustions which soon after followed in both Kingdomes 1634. Nor were there any lesse Apprehensions infused into them by some zealous Patriots who most ambitiously affected the Title of {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Orators language the profest Champions of the Property and Liberty of the English Nation the occasion this The Soveraignty of the narrow Seas had not onely been invaded by the Hollanders during the late troubles both at home and abroad but that invasion had been justified in some publick writings And thereupon by the Advice of Mr. Noy his Attorny Generall he issued certain writs in the tenth year of his Reign Anno 1634. directed to all the Port Towns of the Kingdome to set out a certain number of ships furnisht with Mariners Ammunition Victuals and all other necessaries for defence of the Realm which Writs he afterwards extended also to the inland Counties following therein the examples of his Predecessors in which none was better able to instruct him then he that gave him that Advice By means whereof he did not only recover that Dominion which belonged to him on the Sea but very much improved and enricht the Land as before is said Which notwithstanding some of the discontented members of the former Parliament and others of the same party under colour of standing in defence of the Rights and Properties of the Subject did stubbornly oppose the payment of that imposition in which the Honour Wealth and Happinesse of this Kingdome was so much concerned And though the King had the opinion of all the Judges under their hands to justifie his proceedings in it yet chose he rather to proceed against them in a legall way then to make use of any arbitrary power or the opinion of the Judges which extra judicially had been given in the case And so well did he prosper in it that when it came to be argued in the Exchequer-Chamber of the twelve Judges ten absolutely declared themselves for the lawfulnesse of it the other two being Crook and Hutton dissenting openly from that opinion to which they had formerly subscribed So that here being a mixture also both of Christian and Civil Liberties which were given out to be in danger it is no marvel if the Faction in both Nations did conspire together to disturb the peace and happinesse of this flourishing Kingdom 1637. The ground thus laid it was thought fit the first part of the Tragedy should be plaid in Scotland The Bishops of that Church though they liked well enough of the English Liturgy desired a Liturgy of their own for fear of acknowledging some dependency of that Church on this which being composed amongst themselves and approved by some of the English Prelates to whom his Majesty referred the perusall of it was recommended to the Scots for the use of that Church and the twenty third day of July Anno 1637. appointed for the first exercise and reading of it on this occasion followed the sedition at Edenburgh encouraged under-hand by the Marquesse of Hamilton the Earls of Roxborow and Traquair and many other of the Kings false servants both in Court and Councel This sedition afterwards brake out into open Action the principall Sticklers against the Book of Common-Prayer and the Kings proceedings in the same engaging the whole Nation in a solemn Covenant for the Extirpation of Episcopacy and whatsoever they were pleased to comprehend under the generall Names of Heresie and Superstition in which not onely the five Articles of Perth but the whole Common-Prayer-Book was intended by them And that they might be sure to keep their party together they bound themselves in the said Covenant to stand to one another in pursuance and defence thereof against all manner of persons whatsoever the King himself not being excepted And though the King by the perswasion of Hamilton here and his untrusty servants there gave order for the suppressing of that Liturgy the High Commission the book of Canons and even the Articles of Perth though confirmed in Parliament yet nothing could content their pride and insolency but the utter abolishing of Episcopal government which since they found the King resolved not to yield unto they were resolved to do it without him in their Assembly held at Glasco abolishing the Episcopal Order and thundring their Anathema's and excommunications not onely against the Bishops themselves but all such as adhered unto them And that they might be before-hand with him they intercepted his Revenews surprised all his Forts and Castles and finally put themselves into open Armes 1639. This forced the King to set forth against them accompanied with an Army Royall and furnished with such a gallant Company of Lords and Gentlemen as might assure him of a cheap and easie victory But he conceiving that the terrour of his coming would reduce the Scots to obedience without blows or bloodshed resolved in himself not to out-go Muster and Ostentation and thereupon was very easily intreated to refer all differences between them to certain Commissioners of both Kingdoms By their negotiation a generall Accord was made at Barwick on the seventeenth of June Anno 1639. upon which the King presently disbanded his Forces and returned towards London having effected nothing by his chargeable expedition but his making the Scots more insolent then before they were and giving them a greater Reputation in the eye of the world then before they had of which he became assured and sensible when it was too late For no sooner had he disbanded his Army but the Pacification such as it was was openly protested against in the Scots Army and many false copies of it were scattered abroad to make it more dishonourable to the King and of more advantage to themselves The Officers of their Army were retained in pay the old form of holding Parliaments in that Kingdom was altered by them and the prerogatives of the Crown invaded their words and actions tending to a more generall Defection then before So that the King was fain call home his Sheat-Anchor the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whom not long after he created Earl of Strafford in the County of York By whose advice seconded by the Archbishop of Canterbury his Majesty about the beginning of December gave a publick intimation of a Parliament to begin on the thirteenth day of April then next
Natives of that Countrey sent thither purposely in a new and unprecedent way to lie as Spies upon his Counsels and as controllers to his actions Some Messages there were betwixt him and the Houses of Parliament concerning the attoning of these differences whilst he was at York But the XIX Propositions sent thither to him did declare sufficiently that there was no peace to be expected on his part unlesse he had made himself a cypher a thing of no signification in the Arithmetick of State And now the War begins to open The Parliament had their Guards already and the Affront which Hotham had put upon his Majesty at Hull prompted the Gentlemen of York-shire to tender themselves for a Guard to his Person This presently voted by both Houses to be a leavying of War against the Parliament for whose defence not onely the Train-bands of London must be in readinesse and the good people of the countrey required to put themselves into a posture of armes but Regiments of Horse and Foot are listed a Generall appointed great summes of Money raised and all this under pretence of taking the King out of the hands of his evil Counsellours The noise of these preparations hastens the King from Yorke to Notingham where he sets up his Standard inviting all his good Subjects to repair unto him for defence of their King the Lawes and Religion of their Countrey He increased his Forces as he marched which could not come unto the reputation of an Army till he came into Shropshire where great bodies of the loyall and stout-hearted Welch resorted to him Strengthened with these and furnisht sufficiently with Field Pieces Armes and Ammunition which the Queen had sent to him out of Holland he resolves upon his march towards London but on Sunday the twenty third of October was encountred in the way at a place called Edge-Hill by the Parliament Forces The Fight very terrible for the time no fewer then five thousand men slain upon the place the Prologue to a greater slaughter if the dark night had not put an end unto that dispute Each part pretended to the victory but it went clearly on the Kings side who though he lost his Generall yet he kept the Field and possessed himself of the dead bodies and not so onely but he made his way open unto London and â—n his way forced Banbury Castle in the very sight as it were of the Earl of Essex who with his flying Army made all the haste he could towards the City that â—e might be there before the King to â—ecure the Parliament More certain â—gns there could not be of an absolute â—ictory In the Battel of Taro between the Conâ—derates of Italy and Charles the eight â—f France it hapned so that the Confederates kept the Field possest themselves of the Camp Baggage and Artillery which the French in their breaking through had left behind them Hereupon a dispute was raised to whom the Honour of that day did of right belong which all knowing and impartiall men gave unto the French For though they lost the Field their Camp Artillery and Baggage yet they obtained what they fought for which was the opening of their way to France and which the Confederates did intend to deprive them of Which resolution in that case may be a ruling case to this the Kiâ—g having not only kept the Field posseâ—â— himself of the dead bodies pillaged the carâ—iages of the enemy but forciâ—â—y opâ—â—eâ— his way towards London which the enemy endeavoured to hinder and finally entred triumphantly into Oxford with no fewer then aâ— hundred and twenty Colours taken in the Figâ—â— Having assured himself of Oxford foâ— his Winter Quarters he resolved on hiâ— Advance towards London but had made so many halts in the way that Essex was got thither before him who had disposed of his Forces at Kingston Brentford Acton and some other places there abouts not onely to stop his march but to fall upon him in the Rear as occasion served Yet he goes forward notwithstanding as far as Brentford out of which he beats two of their best Regiments takes five hundred Prisoners sinks their Ordnance with an intent to march forwards on the morrow after being Sunday and the thirteenth of November But understanding that the Earl of Essex had drawn his Forces out of Kingston and joyning with the London Auxiliaries lay in the way before him at a place called Turnham-Green neer Cheswick it was thought safer to retreat towards Oxford while the way was open then to venture his Army to the fortune of a second Battel which if it were lost â—t would be utterly impossible for him â—o raise another At Oxford he receives Propositions of peace from the Houses of Parliament but such as rather did beseem a conquering then a losing side But being resolved to treat upon them howsoever he found the Commissioners so straitned in time and so tied to such particular instructions as the Houses had given them that nothing could be yielded to which might conduce to the composing of the present Distempers At the opening of the Spring the Queen came to him who had landed at a place in York-shire called Burlington-Bay in the end of February and now brought with her unto Oxford some supplies of men with a considerable stock of Powder Arms and Ammunition 1643. The next Summer makes him master of the North and West some few places onely being excepted The Earl of New-castle with his Northern Army had cleared all parts beyond Trent but the Town of Hull of the enemies Forces And with his own Army under the command of Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice two of the younger Sons of his Sister Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia he reduced the Cities of Bristol and Exeter the Port Town of Waymouth and all the Towns of any importance in the Western parts except Pool Lime and Plimouth So that he was in a manner the absolute Commander of the Counties of Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwall And though the Towns of Plimouth Lime and Pool still held out against him yet were they so bridled by his neighbouring Garrisons that they were not able to create him any great Disturbance The noise of these successes was so loud at London that most of the leading men in both Houses of Parliament prepared for quitting of the Kingdome and had undoubtedly so done if the King had followed his good fortunes and advanced towards London But unhappily diverting upon Glocester he lay so long there without doing any thing to the purpose that the Earl of Essex came time enough to raise the Siege and relieve the Town though he made not hast enough to recover London without blowes For besides some skirmishes on the by which fell out to his losse the King with the whole body of his Army overtook him at Newberry where after a sharp fight with the losse of the Earl of Carnarvon the Earl of Sunderland and the Lord Viscount Falkland on his Majesties side
he had the worst of the day and had much ado to save his Canon and march off orderly from the place followed so hotly the next morning that his own Horse which were in the Reere were fain to make their way over a great part of his Foot to preserve themselves Being returned to Oxford with Successe and Honour he Summons the Lords and Commons of Parliament to attend there on the twenty second day of January then next following and they came accordingly And for their better welcome he advances Prince Rupert to the Titles of Earl of Holdernes and Duke of Cumberland and creates James his second Son born the Thirteenth day of October Anno 1633 Duke of York by which name he had been appointed to be called at the time of his Birth that they might sit and vote amongst them But being come they neither would take upon themselves the name of a Parliament nor acted much in order to his Majesties designs but stood so much upon their terms and made so many unhandsome motions to him upon all occasions that he had more reason to call them a Morgrel Parliament in one of his Letters to the Queen then they were willing to allow of 1644. And now the Summer coming on and the time fit for Action he dismisses them to their severall dwellings and betakes himself unto the Field The frequent traverses whereof the interchangeable taking and losing of Towns by the chance of war are too many in number to be comprised in this short Abstract It must suffice if I take notice of those onely which are most considerable His Majesty prevaling in the North and West 'T was thought fit by the ruling party in the Houses of Parliament to crave aid of the Scots whom they drew in the second time by the temptations of entring into Covenant with them for conforming of this Church with that sharing amongst them all the Lands of the Bishops and sacrificing to their malice the Archbishop of Canterbury as formerly they had done the Earl of Strafford But besides these plausible allurements the Commissioners of that Kingdome were to have so great a stroke in the Government of this that the Houses could act nothing in order to the present war no not so much as to hold a Treaty with the King without their consent Upon these baits they entred England with a puissant Army consisting of one and twenty thousand men well armed and fitted for the service and having made themselves Masters of Barwick Alnwick and all other places of importance on the other side of the Tweed they laid Siege to York where they were seconded by the Army of the Earl of Manchester drawn out of the associated Counties and the remaining York-shire forces under the Command of the Lord Fairfax The news whereof being brought to Oxford Prince Rupert is dispatcht with as much of the Kings forces as could well be spared with a Commission to â—aise more out of the Counties of Cheâ—ter Salop Stafford Darby Leicester and Lancaster So that he came before York with an Army of twelve thousand Men relieved the Town with all things necessary and might have gone away unfought with but that such Counsell was too cold for so hot a stomach Resolved upon the onset he encountred with the enemy at a place called Marston-Moor where the left Wing of his Horâ—e gave such a fierce Charge on the right Wing of the enemy consisting of Sir Thomas Fairfax his Horse in the Van and the Scots Horse in the Reere that they fell foul on that part of their own Foot which was made up of the Lord Fairfax his Regiments and a reserve of the Scots which they brake wholly and trod most of them under their Horses feet But the Princes Horse following the execution too far and none advancing to make good the place which they had left the enemy had the opportunity to rally again and got the better of the day taking some Prisoners of good note and making themselves masters of his Canon So that not being able to do any thing in order to the regaining of the Field he marched off ingloriously squandred away the greatest part of his Army and retired to Bristol After this blow the Affairs of the North growing more desperate every day then other York yielded upon composition on the sixteenth of July being a just fortnight after the fight the Marquesse of Newcastle and some principall Gentlemen past over the Seas and the strong Town of Newcastle was taken by the Scots on the nineteenth of October following In the mean time the Queen being with child began to draw neer the time of her Delivery And it was generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim on Oxford as the Seat Royall of the King the Residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy In which respect it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter as a place more remote from danger and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served On the sixteenth of April she began her journey the King bearing her company as far as Abingdon where they took leave of one another neither of them having any the least presage that the parting Kisse which they then took was to be their last Convoi'd with a sufficient strength of Horse for her security on the way she was received there with as much magnificence as that City was able to expresse and on the sixteenth day of June was safely delivered of a Daughter whom she Christened by the name of Henrietta Assoon as she had well passed over the weaknesses and infirmities incident to Child-bed she committed the young Princesse to the Lady Dalkeith a Daughter of Sir Edward Villiers one of the half Brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and wife unto the Lord Dalkeith the eldest Son of the Earl of Morton Which having done according to some instructions which she had received from the King she took shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July and passed into France there to negotiate for some supplies of money Armes and Ammunition for the advance of his Majesties service and to continue howsoever in the Court of the King her Brother till she might return again in Honour and safety And to say truth her Removall from Oxford was not onely seasonable but exceeding necessary at that time the Earl of Essex and Sir William Wâ—ller with their severall Forces not long after her departure drawing neer to Oxford on whose approach his Majesty leaving the greatest part of his Army for defence of that place marched on directly towards Wales Upon the News whereof it was thought fit by the two Generalls to divide their Armies it being agreed upon that Sir William Waller should pursue the King and that the Earl of Essex should march toward the West for the regaining of those Countries And now
the mystery of iniquity appeared in its proper colours For whereas it was formerly given out by the Houses of Parliament that they had undertaken the war for no other reason but to remove the King from his evill Counsellours those evil Counsellours were left at Oxford unmolested and the Kings Person onely hunted But the King understanding of this division thought himself able enough to deal with Waller and giving him the go by returned towards Oxford drew thence the remainder of his Army and gave him a sharp meeting at a place called Cropredy bridge where he obtained a signal victory on the twenty eighth of June and entred triumphantly into Oxford This done he marched after the Earl of Essex who had made himself master of some places in the West of good importance During this march it happened that one of the Carriages brake in a long narrow lane which they were to passe and gave His Majesty a stop at a time of an intollerable shower of rain which fell upon him Some of his Courtiers and others which were neere about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire and marvelled at the patience which he shewed in that extremity His Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him Afflictions to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to bear his Afflictions A speech so heavenly and Divine that it is hardly to be paralell'd by any of the men of God in all the Scripture The carriage being mended he went forward again and trode so close upon the heels of the Earl of Essex that at last he drave him into Cornwell and there reduced him to that point that he put himself into a Cock-boat with Sir Philip Stapleton and some others and left his whole army to his Majesties mercy His Horse taking the advantage of a dark night made a shift to escape but the Commanders of the Foot came to this capitulation with his Majesty that they should depart without their Arms which with their Canon Baggage and Ammunition being of very great consideration were left wholly to his disposing Immediately after this successe his Majesty dispatch'd a message from Tavestock to the two houses of Parliament in which he laid before them the miserable condition of the Kingdome remembring them of those many messages which he had formerly sent unto them for an accommondation of the present Differences and now desiring them to be think themselves of some expedient by which this issue of blood might be dried up the distraction of the Kingdom setled and the whole Nation put into an hope of Peace and Happinesse To which Message as to many others before they either gave no answer or such an one as rather served to widen than close the breach falsely conceiving that all his Majesties Offers of Grace and Favour proceeded either from an inability to hold out the War or from the weaknesse and irresolution of his Counsels So that the Trage-Comedy of the two Harlots in the first of Kings may seem to have been acted over again on the Stage of England The King like the true Mother compassionately desired that the life of the poor infant might be preserved the Houses like the false Mother considering that they could not have the whole voted that it should be neither mine nor thine but divided betwixt them But if instead of this Message from Tavestock his Majesty had gone on his own errand and marched with his Army towards London it was conceived that in all probability he might have made an end of the War the Army of Essex being thus broken and that of Manchester not returned from the Northern service But sitting down before Plimouth and staying there to perfect an Association of the Western Counties he spent so much time that Essex was again in the head of his Army and being seconded by the Earl of Manchester and Sir William VValler made a stand at Newbery where after a very hot fight with variable success on both sides each party drew off by degrees so that neither of them could find cause to boast of the victory Winter comes on which though it be not ordinarily a time of Action will notwithstanding afford us some variety which will not be unworthy of our observation And first a Garrison is formed at Abington a Town within five miles of Oxford by order from the two Houses of Parliament under the command of Colonell Brown the King and Councill looking on and suffering the Intrenchments to be made the Works to be raised and the Ordnance to be planted on the same It cannot be denyed but that Sir Henry Gâ—ge Governour at that time of Oxford and many of the chief Commanders which were then in and about that City offered their service to the King and earnestly desired leave to prevent that mischief which by the Intrenchments of this Town must needs fall upon them But the Lord George Digby not long before made principall Secretary of Estate had perswaded the King unto the contrary upon assurance that he held intelligence with Brown and that as soon as the Town was fortified and furnished with Victuall Arms and Ammunition at the charges of the Houses of Parliament it would immediately be delivered into His Majesties hand In which design he was out-witted and consequently exposed unto some losse of reputation with all sorts of People For Brown having brought his project to the highest round of the ladder as himself expressed it thought it high time to turn it off and to declare himself for the two Houses against the King printing not long after all the Letters which passed between him and the Lord Digby upon this ocasion After this followed the taking of Shrewsbury a place of very great importance to the King as the Gate which opened into Wales situate on a rising ground and almost encompassed round about by the river Severn that part which is not invironed by water being wholly taken up and made good by a very strong Castle By the loss of which Town the Kings former entercourse with His loyall Subjects of North-Wales was not onely hindred but a present stop was given to an Association which was then upon the point of concluding between the Counties of Salop Flint Chester Worcester c. to the great prejudice of the Kings Affairs in those Parts of the Kingdome Then comes the lamentable death of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury kept for four years a prisoner in the Tower of London as before was said but reserved onely as a bait to bring in the Scots whensoever the Houses should have occasion for their second coming as formerly on the like temptation they had drawn them in with reference to the Earl of Strafford The Scots being come and doing good service in
noise of a Declaration which they had then upon the Anvil he dissolved the Parliament on the eighteenth day of June then following No sooner was he freed from this but the necessity of his Affairs involved him in another Embroylment The French Priests and Domesticks of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon him that he was forced to send them home in which he did no more then what the French King had done before him in sending back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her But the French King not looking on his own example and knowing on what ill termes the King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants ships which lay on the River of Burdeaux and then brake out into open war So that the King was fain to make use of those Forces against the French which were designed to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desires of the Rochelers who humbly sued for his protection and Defence But the Fleet not going out till after Michaelmas found greater opposition at the Sea then they feared from the Land being encountred with strong Tempests and thereby necessitated to return without doing any thing but onely shewing the Kings good-will and readinesse toward their assistance 1627. But the next yeare this design was followed with greater vigour by the Duke of Buckingham who hoped thereby to make himself of some consideration in the eyes of the people The gaining of the Isle of Re which lay before the Town of Rochel and imbarred their Trade was the matter aimed at and he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work if he had not followed it more like a Courtier then a Souldier suffering himself to be complemented out of the taking of their chief Fort when it was almost at his mercy and standing upon points of Honour in facing those Forces which were sent from the French King to raise the siege when he might have made a safe retreat unto his ships without losse or danger In the mean time his Majesty neither neglected his Affairs at home nor his Friends abroad At home he found the Puritan faction to be much increased by the remisnesse of the goverment of Archbishop Abbot whom therefore he suspended from all his Metropoliticall Jurisdiction and confined him to his House at Ford in Kent committing the exercise thereof to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford Bath and Wells by Letters Patents bearing date the 9. day of October Anno 1627. Abroad he found the Princes of Germany wormed out of their Estates one after another by the Emperours Forces the King of Denmark whom they had made the Head of their League being driven out of the Countrey by Count Tilly and hardly able to defend his own Dominions No Prince so fit for the prosecution of that cause as Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden whom therefore he elects into the Noble Order of the Garter and solemnly invests him with it in the midst of his Army then lying at the Siege of Darsaw a Town of Pomerella belonging to the Crown of Poland on Sunday the twenty third of October of the same year also At which time he laid the grounds of that Confederacy which being seconded by the French the States of the Vnited Provinces and the distressed Princes of the Empire brought that King into Germany where he gave the first great check to the Emperours fortunes and had restored the Prince Elector Palatine to his ancient Patrimony if he had not fallen unfortunately at the Battell of Lutzen 1628. Being thus ingaged and embroiled he gave a beginning to his third Parliament on the seventeenth of March and freely declares to them the necessities under which he lay in Answer whereunto the Commons voted five Subsidies but meant he should pay dearly for them before he had them Such grievances as they thought fit to insist upon were cast into the mold of a petition by them called a Petition of Right which if the King granted he must lose his prerogative if he denied it he must lose all hopes of their supply in his great extremities The consideration of which last induced him to yield to their desires and confirm that petition by Act of Parliament the Prerogative never so much descending from Perch to popular Lure as by that concession But though this Act of grace might have given satisfacton even to supererogation as one well observeth yet the Commons were not so contented but were preparing a Remonstance to take away his Right of Tonnage and Poundage as disclaimed by him in that Act which coming to the Kings knowledge on the twenty sixth of June he adjourns the Parliament till the twentieth day of October then next ensuing In the mean time the Duke prepares for the relief of Rochel both by Sea and Land and being ready to set sail was suddenly cut off at Ports-muth by the hand of one John Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army alledging no other reason for that bloody act but that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Common-wealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King in the former Session But such was the constancy of the Kings temper and the known evenness of his spirit that this sad Accident made little or no stop in the proceedings of the Fleet which at the last set forwards under the command of the Earl of Lindsey who found the Haven of Rochel so strongly barred that it was utterly impossible for his Ships to force their way though it was gallantly attempted and give relief to the besieged who thereupon set open their Gates and received their King into their Town without more delay To smooth his way to the next Session of Parliament adjourned again till the twentieth of January Arch-bishop Abbot is admitted to kisse his hand by whom he is commanded not to fail of his attendance at the Councel table Dr. Barnaby Potter a through-paced Calvinian is made Bishop of Carlisle and Mr. Mountagues book called Appello Caesarem for which he had been questioned and molested in the beginning of the Kings first Parliament must be supprest and called in by Proclamation But this little edified with the faction in the house of Commons who not onely took upon them the reforming of the Church and State but called the Customers in question for levying Tonnage and Poundage not then granted nor ever likely to be granted as it had been formerly by Act of Parliament and distraining such Merchants goods as refused to pay it And in this point they went so high that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular upon the second day of March they lockt the Doors of the Parliament-house kept the key thereof in one of their pockets and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had
the pleasure of the Houses are extorted by tumults And by the terrour of the like the Act for Knighthood is repealed and the imposition for ship-money condemned as an illegall Tax and abolished also The like Acts passed against the office of the Clerk of the Market the Court of Stanneries his propriety in the making of Gun-powder the authority of the Council-Table the Courts of Star-Chamber and High Commission the jurisdiction of the Ecclesiasticall Courts as also the Presidiall Courts held for a long time in York and the Marches of VVales And finally that he might lose both his strength in Parliament and his power with the People they extorted the passing of two Acts the one for taking away the Bishops Votes and place in the House of Peers the other for disclaiming of his power in pressing Souldiers enjoyed by all his Predecessors for defence of his Person and the Realm And that they might the better awe the King to their Concessions the Army of the Scots must be maintained with pay and plunder till there was almost nothing left for them to crave or the King to grant But being at the last sent home his Majesty followed not long after to settle his affairs in that broken kingdom where to oblige that Nation to him he confirmed not onely all his former concessions by Act of Parliament but all such things also as had been acted by them in their Assembly held at Glasco And more then so he parted with so much of his Eoyall Prerogative invaded usurped by them in the late Confusions that he had allmost nothing left remaining to him but the empty title the having of a Sword carried before him and some other outward pomps of Court which signifie just nothing when the power is gone This good successe of the Scots encouraged the Irish Papists to attempt the like and to attempt it in the same way as the Scots had gone that is to say by seizing his Towns Forts and Castles putting themselves into the body of an Army banishing or imprisoning all such as oppose their practises and then petitioning the King for a publick Exercise of their Religion The 23. of October Anno 1641. was the day designed for the seizing of the City and Castle of Dublin and many places of great importance in the Kingdom But failing in the main design which had been discovered the night before by one Ocanelle they break out into open arms dealing no better with the Protestants there then the Covenanters had done with the Royall party in Scotland Of this Rebellion for it must be called a Rebellion in the Irish though not in the Scots the King gives present notice to his Houses of Parliament requiring their counsel and assistance for the extinguishing of that flame before it had wasted and consumed that Kingdome But neither the necessity of the Protestants there nor the Kings importunity here could perswade them to levie one man towards the suppression of those Rebels till the King had disclaimed his power of pressing souldiers in an Act of Parliament and thereby laid himself open to such acts of violence as were then hammering against him Which having done they put an army of Scots their most assured Friends into the Northern parts of Ireland delivering up into their hands the strong Town and Port of Carickfergus one of the chief keys of that Kingdom and afterwards sent a small body of English to preserve the South which English forces having done notable service there against the Rebels were kept so short both in respect of pay and other necessaries by the Houses of Parliament who had made use of the mony raised for the relief of Ireland to maintain a War against their King that they were forced to come to a Cessation and cheerefully returned home again to assist the King in that just War which he had undertaken for his own defence The ground and occasion of which War we are next to shew At such time as he was in Scotland and expostulated with some of the chiefs among them touching their coming into England in an hostile manner he found that some who were now leading men in the Houses of Parliament had invited them to it And having furnished himself with some proofs for it he commanded his Attorney Generall to impeach some of them of high Treason that is to say the L. Kimbolton a Member of the House of Peers Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Hambden Mr. Pym and Mr. Strode of the House of Commons But sending his Serjeant at Arms to arrest their persons there came a countermand from the House of Commons by which the Serjeant was deterred from doing his office and the Members had the opportunity of putting themselves into the Sanctuary of the City The next day being the 4. of January his Majesty being no otherwise attended then with his ordinary Guard went to the House of Commons to demand the five Members of that House that he might proceed against them in a way of justice but his intention was discovered and the birds flown before his coming This was voted by the Commons for such an inexpiable breach of priviledge that neither the Kings qualifying of that Action nor his desisting from the prosecution of that impeachment nor any thing that he could either say or do would give satisfaction Nothing must satisfie their jealousies and secure their fears but the putting of the tower of London into their hands together with the command of the Royal Navie as also all the Forts Castles and the Train-bands of the Kingdome all comprehended under the name of the Militia which if his Majesty would fling after all the rest they would continue his most loyall subjects On this the King demurs a while but having shipt the Queen for Holland and got the Prince into his own power he becomes more resolute and stoutly holds on the denyal Finding the Members too strong for him and London by reason of the continuall Tumults to be a dangerous neighbour to him he withdraws to York that being in a place of safety he might the better find a way to compose those differences which now began to embroil the kingdome At Hull he had a Magazine of arms and ammunition provided for the late intended war against the Scots and laid up there when the occasion of that War was taken away Of this Town he intended to possesse himself and to make use of his own Arms and Ammunition for his own preservation but coming before the gates of the Towne he was denyed entrance by Sir John Hotham who by the appointment of the House of Commons had took charge of that place The Gentry of York-shire who had petitioned the King to secure that Magazin became hereby more firmly united to him The like had been done also by the Yeomandry and those of the inferiour sort if his proceedings had not been undermined by the Committee of four Gentlemen all Members of the House and all of them
himself was taken prisoner and with him all the Kings hopes lost of preserving Oxford till he could better his condition 1646. In this extremity he left that City in disguise on the 27 day of April Anno 1646. and on the fourth of May put himself into the hands of the Scots then lying at the siege of Newark After the taking of which Town they carried him to Newcastle and there kept him under a Restraint The news hereof being brought to Oxford and seconded by the coming of the whole Army of Sir Thomas Fairfax who laid siege unto it disposed the Lords of the Council and such of the principall Gentry who had the conduct of the Affair to come to a speedy Composition According whereunto that City was surrendered on Midsomer day James Duke of York the Kings second Son together with the Great Seal Privy Seal and Signet were delivered up into the hands of the enemy by whom the young Duke was sent to Westminster and kept in the House of S. James under a Gard with his Brother and Sisters the Seals being carried into the House of Peers and there broke in pieces But long these young Princes were not kept together under that restraint the Princess Henrietta being in a short time after conveyed into France by the Lady Dalkieth and the Duke of York attired in the habit of a young Lady transported into Holland by one Captain Bamfield The Scots in the meane time being desirous to make even with their Masters to receive the wages of their iniquity and to get home in safety with that spoil and plunder which they had gotten in their marching and remarching betwixt Tweed and Hereford had not the patience to attend the leisure of any more voluntary surrendries They therefore pressed the King to give order to the Marquesse of Ormond in Ireland and to all the Governours of his Garrisons in England to give up all the Towns and Castles which remained untaken to such as should be appointed to receive them for the Houses of Parliament assuring him that otherwise they neither could nor durst continue him in their protection To this necessity he submitted but found not such a generall obedience to his commands as the Scots expected For not the Marquesse of Ormand onely but many of the Governours of Towns and Castles in England considered him as being under a constraint and speaking rather the sense of others then his own upon which grounds they continued still upon their guard in hope of better times or of better conditions But nothing was more hotly pressed by the Scots then that the Marquesse of Montrosse should lay down his Commission who with small strength in the beginning and inconsiderable forces when they were at the best had acted things in Scotland even unto admiration For besides many victories of lesse consequence he had twice beaten the Marquesse of Argile out of the field followed him home and wasted his Countrey with Fire and Sword He vanquisht Baily one of the best Souldiers of the Faction commanding over a well-formed Army in a set battell fought between them followed his blow and made himself Master of the City and Castle of Edenburgh releasing divers of his Friends who had been seized and imprisoned there when he first took Arms Had the Lord Digby's Horse come to him he had not onely perfected but assured the conquest of that Kingdome But instead of those aids which he expected he was unexpectedly set upon and his whole Army broken by David Lesley sent from the Scots Army in England with six thousand Horse to oppose the progresse of his fortune whose coming being known to the Earl of Roxborow and Traquair in whom the King continued still his wonted confidence was purposely concealed from him to the end that he being once suppressed and in him the Kings power destroyed in Scotland they might be sure from being called to an account of their former Treasons however he began to make head again and was in a way of well-doing when he received the Kings command to disband his Forces to which he readily conformed took ship and put himself into a voluntary exile These Obstacles removed his Majesty conceived some thoughts of finding Sanctuary in Scotland the Scots having first assured him as he signified by Letter to the Marquesse of Ormond before he put himself into their hands that they would not onely take his person but so many of his party also as repaired unto him into their protection and stand to him with their lives and fortune According to which hopes on his part and those assurances on theirs he had a great mind to return to his Native Countrey his Ancient and Native Kingdome as he used to call it there to expect the bettering of his condition in the changes of time But the Scots hearing of his purpose and having long ago cast off the yoke of Subjection voted against his coming to them in a full Assembly so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of Christ our Saviour viz. He came unto his own and his own received him not The like resolution also was entertained by the Commissioners of that Nation and the chiefe Leaders of their Army who had contracted with the Houses of Parliament and for the summe of two hundred thousand pounds in ready money sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Enemies as certainly they would have done with the Lord Christ himself for halfe the money if he had bowed the Heavens and came down to visit them By the Commissioners sent from the Houses to receive him he was conducted to Holdenby a fair house of his own and one of the goodliest Piles in England scituate not far from Naseby to the intent that he might be continually grieved with the sight of the fatall place of his overthrow but kept so close that none of his Domestick servants no not so much as any of his own Chaplains were suffered to have Accesse unto him In the mean time a breach began betwixt the Presbyterian Party in both Houses and some chief Officers of the Army which growing every day wider and wider one Cornet Joice with a considerable party of Horse was sent to seize on his Majesties Person and bring him safe to their head Quarters There at the first he was received with all possible demonstrations of Love and Duty some of his Chaplains licensed to repair unto him and read the Book of Common-Prayer as in former times and the way open to all those of his party who desired to see him This made the Animosities between those of the two Houses and the Army to be far greater then before the City closing with that party of the Houses which desired the Kings coming to the Parliament and going down in a tumultuous manner required the present voting of a Personal Treaty This made the Speaker and such of both Houses as either held for the Army or had no mind to see the Kings Return
to London to quit the Parliament and to betake themselves to their Protection incouraged wherewith they resolved upon their march towards London to restore those members to their Houses and those Houses to the Power and Freedom of Parliaments Upon the noise of whose Approach the Citizens who before spake big and had begun to raise an Army under the Command of the Lord Willowby of Parham sent their Petitions for a peace and gladly opened all their works between Hide-Park Corner and the Thames to make an entrance for the Army who having placed their Speakers in their severall Chaires and supprest those of the opposite party made a triumphant passage through the chief Streets of the City with Trumpets sounding Drums beating and Colours flying The King removed from one place to another was brought in the course of those Removes to Casam Lodge an House of the Lord Cravens not far from Reading where he obtained the favour of giving a meeting to his Children at Maydenhith and there they dined together the Generall willingly consenting and the Houses then not daring to make any denyall From thence he was at last brought to his own Palace of Hampton Court where being terrified with the Apprehension of some Dangers which were given out to be designed against his person by the Agitators who for a time much governed the lower part of the Army he left that place accompanied onely with two or three of his servants and put himself unfortunately into the power of Collonel Hammond in the Isle of Wight where no relief could come unto him Being secured in Carisbrook Castle Propositions are sent to him from the Houses of Parliament as had been done before at Newcastle and Holdenby-House to which he returned the same Answer now as he did before their Demands being nothing bettered and his condition nothing worse then before it was Provoked wherewith the Houses past their Votes of Non-Addresses to his Majesty and take the Government upon themselves as in the times of Vacancy and Inter-regnum in the State of Rome wherein they were confirmed by a Declaration from the Army binding themselves to stand to them in defence of those Votes During the time of these restraints he betook himself to meditation and then composed that most excellent Book entituled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or the Pourtraiture of his sacred Majesty in his Solitudes and Sufferings The Honour of this work some mercenary Sticklers for the two Houses of Parliament have laboured to deprive him of and to transfer it to some other though they know not whom But it is well known to all that knew him that his Majesty had alwayes a fine stroke with his pen which he practised at all times of leasure and recesse from businesse from before his coming to the Crown to these last extremities By which means he became Master of a pure and elegant Stile as both his intercepted Letters and those to Mr. Henderson at New-Castle in the point of Episcopacy where he could have no other helps but what he found in himself do most clearly evidence 1648. And now the Subjects of both Kingdoms which before had joyned in Arms against him began to look upon his Estate with Commiseration and seeing they could obtain no favour or freedom for him in the way of Petition they resolved to try their fortunes in the way of Force And first a very considerable part of the Royall Navy encouraged by Captain Batten formerly Vice-Admirall to the Earl of Warwick was put into the power of the Prince of wales to be made use of for his Majesties service in that sad condition and next the Kentish who twice or thrice before had shewed their readinesse to appear in Arms on his behalf put themselves into a posture of War under the conduct of one Master Hales an Heir of great hope and expectation and after under the command of George Lord Goring Earl of Norwich The â—arl of Holland whom he had cherisht in his Bosome and who unworthily deserted him in the first beginning of his troubles repenting when it was too late of his great disloyalties began to raise some small Forces in the County of Surrey Langhern Poyer and Powel who before had served under the pay of the Houses seized on some strong Towns and Castles in South-VVales and declared against them the Castle of Pomfret was surprized by Stratagem and kept by them who had surprized it for his Majesties service And finally the Marquesse of Hamilton not long before created Duke Hamilton of Arran having raised a strong Army of Scots confederated himself with Sir Marmaduke Langdale and Sir Thomas Glenham and others of the Kings party in the North and having Garrisoned the Towns of Berwick and Carlisle past into England with his Forces under colour of restoring the King to his Crown and Liberty But these eruptions in both Kingdoms though they might give hiâ— Majesty some hopes of a better condition yet did they not take him off from looking seriously into himself and taking into Consideration those things which had formerly passed him and which might seem most to have provoked Gods displeasure against him And what they were which most particularly grated on his Conscience appeareth by the Prayer and Confession which he made for the times of his Affliction and is this that followeth viz. Almighty and most mercifull Father as it is only thy goodnesse that admits of our imperfect Prayers and the knowledge that thy mercies are infinite which can give us any hope of thy accepting or granting them so it is our bounden and necessary Duty to confesse our Sins freely unto thee and of all men living I have most need most reason so to do no man having been so much obliged by thee no man more grievously offending thee that Degree of knowledge which thou hast given me adding likewise to the guilt of my Transgressions For was it through ignorance that I suffered innocent blood to be shed by a false pretended way of Justice Or that I permitted a wrong way of thy worship to be set up in Scotland and injured the Bishops in England O no but with shame and grief I confesse that I therein followed the perswasions of worldly wisdome forsaking the Dictates of a right-informed Conscience Wherefore O Lord I have no excuse to make no hope left but the multitude of thy mercies for I know my repentance weak and my Prayers faulty Grant therefore mercifull Father so to strengthen my repentance and amend my Prayers that thou maist clear the way for Thine own mercies to which O let thy Justice at last give place putting a speedy end to my deserved Afflictions In the mean time give me Patience to endure Constancy against temptations and a Discerning Spirit to chuse what is best for thy Church and People which thou hast committed to my charge Grant this O most mercifull Father for thy Son Jesus Christs sake our onely Saviour Amen Now as the King thus
following And it was intimated so long before-hand for these two reasons First that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland might in the mean time hold a Parliament in that Kingdome which he did and managed so much to the Kings advantage that an Army of 8000 Horse and Foot was speedily raised and money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay and furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries Secondly that by the Reputation of a following Parliament he might be the better enabled to borrow money for the carrying on of the war in case the Parliament should fail him as it after did For being come together at the time appointed instead of Acting any thing in order to his Majesties service they were at the point of passing a Vote for blasting his war against the Scots To prevent which his Majesty was forced to dissolve them on the fifth of May the Convocation still continuing who granted him a Benevolence of foure shillings in the pound for all their Ecclesiasticall promotions to be paid six years together then next ensuing The Members of the dissolved Parliament inflamed the people in all parts of the Kingdome with such discontentments which actually brake out in Southwark into open sedition not pacified without much danger and the executing of the principal Leader In the middle of which Distempers his Majesty was blest with a third Son born on the eight of July Christned by the name of Henry and by his Majesties command called Duke of Glocester 1640. To welcome this young Prince into the world the Scots put themselves into Armes again and backt by a strong faction here thought that they could not do enough by standing on their defence at home unlesse they entred England also as they did accordingly But they took not his Majesty unprovided who had raised another gallant Army under the command of the Earl of Northumberland as chief Generall and the Earl of Strafford as the chief Commander under him himself with all speed posting towards the North as soon as the News of this invasion had been brought unto him But scarce was he well setled in the head of his Army but he was followed by a Petition from some Lords of England conformable in the main points of it to a Declaration of the Scots which they called the Intention of their Army So that the Cloud which gathered behind him in the South threatned more danger to him then the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Sailing thus between Scylla and Charybdis it concerned him to steer as even a course as he could and thereupon he summoned the great Councel of his Peers to attend him at York that doing nothing in this great businesse without their advice he might give himself the better hopes of their assistance as his occasions should require By their advice Commissioners are appointed to treat with the Scots to understand their Grievances the reasonablenesse or unreasonablenesse of their Demands and finally to make up the breach by such an Accommodation as might conduce to the peace and happinesse of both Kingdomes and his Majesties honour In the mean time he calls a Parliament to begin at Westminster the third day of November then next following which if it had been held at York as lying nearest to the danger and Scene of action might not have proved so fatall and destructive to him as it after did In the beginning of this Parliament he cast himself on the love and loyalty of his English Subjects in which he found himself deceived of his expectation For the first thing they did was to deprive him of the Counsels of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Archbishop of Canterbury and thereby to terrifie all others from adhering to him in the times of his greatest need These they impeacht of High Treason removed them from the House of Peers and committed them to the Tower of London where the Archbishop staid four years before any particular charge or any prosecution upon that charge was brought against him But with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland they made quicker work inviting the People of all the three Kingdomes to bring them in such matter as they had or could devise against him and having made all things ready for a publick Tryal they brought him to the Bar before the Peers sitting in VVestminster-Hall on the sixth of April then next following but he so rationally pleaded in his own behalf and so fully satisfyed all objections which were made against him that the Commons were fain to desist from the Course which they had begun and to proceed against him in a Bill of Attainder For the better passing whereof the Commons framed a Protestation on the third of May in many things not unlike the Scotish Covenant before mentioned by which they bound themselves among other things to maintain and defend the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject to endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by Force Practice Plots Counsels and Conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary amongst which they reckon the Earl of Strafford to be one and finally to stand unto one another and to every other person whatsoever in any thing he shall do in pursuance of the said Protestation Which Protestation being first taken by themselves was the next day taken also by the House of Peers and not long after obtruded on all the rest of the Kingdom But not finding this sufficient to effect their purpose they first forced the Lords by Tumults and afterwards the King by their importunities to passe that unhappy Bill of Attainder which having obtained they brought him to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill on the thirteenth of May where with as much Christian confidence and magnanimity as could be exprest by flesh and blood he delivered up his neck to the Executioner In order to this great work which they knew the Scots much laboured for and had declared so much in a Pamphlet called The intentions of their Army at their first coming into England the leading men in the house of Commons held a strict correspondency with the Scots Commissioners then residing in London and voted no lesse then three hundred thousand pounds by the name of a brotherly Assistance to be given to the Scots in generall under colour of repairing such damages as they had sustained in the time of this breach but in plain truth to bind them fast unto themselves And having made sure work with them they deprived the King by little and little of almost all the ancient and undoubted prerogatives which of right belonged unto his Crown The power of calling Parliaments in case of his neglect or refusall is put into the hands of Sheriffs and Constables his right to Tonnage and Poundage must be disclaimed by Act of Parliament the Bill of the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford and that for the continuance of this Parliament during